Succotash soup with chicken salad サカタッシュ コーンスープ

This is my wife's corn soup made from corncobs. Since we had extra fresh corn and frozen edamame soybean leftover from when we made shrimp balls, we added them to her "corncob" soup and called it "succotash" soup. We had this cold as a weekend lunch (it was a hot day) and served with curry flavored chicken salad with cantaloupe.

This curry flavored chicken salad was served on a bed of baby arugula

 and topping of roasted walnuts. We also had my baguette.

There was a little bit of soup left so the next day, we made some modifications and finished it. We added corn pudding (again leftover) and cream.

This was also served it cold with garnish of soy beans and paprika for color.

Both of these dishes were quite a corn "festival". It's amazing what an intense corn flavor can come from just boiling some corncobs (with the corn removed) in water with onion. Adding the corn kernels back into the corn broth along with the edamame also added to the flavor and made it a very filling dish. The nice corn flavor of  the soup also went well with the sweet corn taste of the corn pudding.

Bulgur wheat salad バルガーウィートのサラダ

This is one of my wife's grain salads. She made some modification and added edamame. This is a nice salad which can be served as a snack. Bulgur wheat is the hulled kernel of wheat which has been parboiled and then dried. It cooks rather quickly and has a nice texture.



One of her secrets is to roast the bulgur wheat in the toaster oven. It adds a nice roasted flavor.



The dressing is simple. Finely chopped fresh mint really adds a fresh taste.



Ingredients:
1 cup Bulgur wheat
1/1/2 cup chicken broth
Celery
Walnuts (toasted with the brown skin rubbed off  using a dish towel
Sweet onion (red or Vidalia)
edamame
Fresh mint

Dressing:
Rice vinegar/lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Toast the bulgar wheat in the toaster oven until it turns dark brown and exudes to sweet almost honey like aroma. Remove from the toaster oven and rinse in cold water. (At this point the wheat may be smoking a bit and steam will rise as it is rinsed). Put the chicken broth into a pan and bring to a boil. Add the rinsed bulgar wheat, put on the lid and remove from heat . Let it sit for about 20 minutes. Use a fork to fluff up the grains. If there is some liquid left drain the wheat and let it cool down.
Once the wheat has cooled add the other ingredients basically to taste. For example, add as much mint as tastes good.

This is a very nutty flavorful salad. The toasting adds a bit of sweetness.

Sous Vide Chicken Breast with Red Pepper Sauce 低温調理鶏胸肉のロースト赤パプリカソース添え

In my book, the best way to cook chicken breast is using the sous vide method. As I posted before, skin-on and bone-in split chicken breast appears to work best. Sometimes this type of chicken breast is hard to come by since most people seem to prefer skin-less and bone-less chicken breast. So when skin-on bone-in chicken breast is available, we like to stock-up. This time we got a “family” pack which contained 4 large chicken breasts. I sous vide all of them and froze three. I prepared one of the sous vide breasts into three dishes. I hand shredded the tenderloin and dressed it with sesame/mayo sauce. I made half of the main breast meat into curry-flavored chicken salad and I served the rest sliced with roasted red pepper sauce.  I served this dish at lunch with two salad sides; celery mushroom feta salad (right upper) and corn, red pepper, edamame and bacon salad (right lower).

When we made corn, red pepper, edamame and bacon salad, we had an excess of roasted red peppers since we got a bag of 6 red peppers. So, I made a roasted red pepper sauce. The sauce went well with sous vide chicken shown here with mayo and blanched broccoli added to the plate.

I am sure there are many ways to make roasted red pepper sauce, but the one shown below is my improvised sauce.

Ingredients:
Two roasted red peppers, stem end and skin removed, seeds and ribs removed, cut into small size (for pureeing)
1/2 sweet (Vidalia) onion, finely chopped
1 tbs caper
1 tbs lemon juice
3-4 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Add all the ingredients except the salt and pepper in a cylindrical container for an emersion blender.
Puree on high-speed until smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper

This sauce went very well with the sous vide chicken breast. The chicken cooked this way is very moist and tender but can taste a bit bland. The sauce really added a nice slightly tangy flavor. We still have a lot of sauce left so there will be more to come.

Tako Grill Take-out タコグリルからテイクアウト

Our Izakaya substitute "Tako Grill" has been close for dining-in for some time. Mr. Terry Segawa indicated that they would operate in a take-out rather than sit-in format. He also added a Japanese grocery section. Although we will miss being able to  interact with the sushi chefs and Mr and Mrs Segawa, we have been enjoying Omakase sushi and take-out all during covid. One of the pluses of take-out is that we do not have to worry about driving home afterwards. To make the experience more enjoyable, I usually re-plate the food. An example of which is shown in the next picture. Using the garnish they provided, I rearranged the sashimi into two servings; one for me and one for my wife instead of sharing the plate (which is what we used to do at Tako Grill at the sushi counter).

Today, we got nicely marbled “toro tuna” almost looking like Wagyu beef, in the center is “hamachi” and on the right is “aji” horse mackerel. Since aji sashimi is best eaten with grated ginger and soy sauce, I used sauce bowl which had two wells and served both wasabi (using Tako Grill provided one) and added grated ginger (from tube) soysauce

 

I rearranged “uni” sea urchin and squid sashimi into a small bowl and added a garnish of nori strips and wasabi dissolved in soy sauce.

Whenever, we get “Aji” sashimi, Sushi Chef  Santos always serves us deep fried aji skeleton. Even for the take-out, this is included. We heated it up in the toaster oven on toasting  mode. It comes out hot and crispy almost like just out of hot oil. Since there is only one, we share it. We essentially eat everything including the head.

Like we are dining in, we finish with some sushi. Today, we got Japanese “tai” red snapper, toro and eel sushi and our usual California roll made of real lump crab meat and addition of  tobiko roe.

Although someday, we may be able to dine-in again, we are quite happy with this arrangement. We also get some Japanese groceries which is definitively a big plus. We are regularly getting frozen edamame (they have the best quality edamame), Japanese crackers (especially my wife likes them), Tonkotsu ramen, and green tea ice cream daifuku among others.  We hope this new format will work for Tako Grill as a business. We are certainly very happy with this format.

Japanese-style succotash 枝豆ととうもろこしのバター醤油ソテー

This was second dish I made from the leftover soy beans or edamame (hulled and frozen in a microwavable pouch). I saw the original recipe on line but this is very similar to the American summer favorite succotash except for the use of soy bean instead of Lima beans and soy sauce for seasoning. The combination of butter and soy sauce is almost fail-safe and add the flavor of sweet corn, it is extremely good.



Corn: I got four ears of fresh corn. As per my wife's method, after removing the husks and silk, I placed them on a plate covered loosely with paper towels and microwaved them for 4 minutes, turned them over and microwaved for additional 2 minutes. (Of course you could boil the corn or use frozen.) My wife removed the kernels of the cooked corns for me.

Edamame: I used frozen, hulled soy beans in a microwavable pouch but fresh or frozen soy beans in pods can be also used (even better, I am sure) after cooking and removing the soy beans from the pods. The amount is arbitrary but I could have used more for the amount of corn I had.

I can think of adding other items such as finely diced tomatoes, shallot, Jalapeño pepper, red pepper etc but I made this with just corn and soy beans. I just sautéed the soy bean and corn mixture in large frying pan with butter (1 tbs) until all the vegetables are coated and warm. I then added soy sauce from the edge of the pan (so that soy sauce will be heated up quickly and become fragrant before mixing into the vegetables.) I added soy sauce in several increments as I tasted.

As we were preparing this, both my wife and I were snacking on them and without further seasoning these were good. The corn was very sweet. The addition of butter and soy sauce made it even better. This could be a drinking snack or a side dish. I served this with corn-meal crusted chicken tender loins on the top (which I did not take pictures).

Sushi Taro, Dupont Circle, Washington DC 寿司太郎

The Dupont Circle area has undergone significant change over the years and is now a very vibrant neighborhood with numerous good restaurants. It also was my wife's old stomping grounds. This Japanese restaurant, Sushi Taro, used to be your usual run-of-the mill sushi bar/ tempura place. It occupies the second floor of an unassuming brown square building at the corner of 17th and P, with a CVS Drug store on the ground level. Last year it went though a major renovation, when the old owner's son, Nobu Yamazaki (pictured below), took over. He transformed the place into a high-end Kaiseki and Omakase Japanese restaurant. We went to the old Sushi Taro a few times and were not particularly impressed. It was a very ordinary sushi bar. After this drastic transformation, however, we have been back three times; twice for sushi omakase and once for regular Kaiseki omakase.

Sushi omakase takes place in a room, separated from the main dining area, with a light-colored wood counter which only seats 6, Nobu himself and Chef de cuisin Masa Kitayama are behind the counter, where the cooking area is rather large with a charcoal burning Konro grill (exactly the same as the one we have) in the back counter in front of a picture window overlooking a stand of bamboo. The setting is very similar to a high-end sushi bar in Japan as described by Jon. The atmosphere is very intimate and quiet. With capacity for only six customers, the customers have the complete attention of the chefs. The night we were there only 4 customers, including ourselves, were in attendance. This time we feasted for over 3 hours with 12 courses--and this is not counting each individual piece of sashimi and sushi. This feast was much more than sushi and sashimi omakase as you will see.  

(From Washington post)

This time we started off with home-made umeshu 梅酒 aperitif with green plum simmered  in syrup or "kanroni" 青梅の甘露煮, a very nice refreshing start, which was followed by their signature appetizer Gomadofu 胡麻豆腐 topped with Maine sea urchin, real wasabi (every time wasabi was served, our chef grated a wasabi daikon root with a traditional sharkskin grater--the difference between this wasabi and the usual fake one from the tube was remarkable). Since it was in season, the next was Junsai ジュンサイ in sweet vinegar and yuzu 柚子. Junsai was very fresh with thick gelatinous layers. It matched perfectly with gentle sweet vinegar sauce highlighted with a bright yuzu flavor. (Masa showed us the fresh yuzu they had just received--the very small green kind). We then moved to a simmered dish; Hiryouzu 飛龍頭 and shrimp shinjou 海老しんじょう in yuba 湯葉 sauce. This was a nice comforting dish and well-prepared, if not spectacular. Next came a huge and fresh Pacific oyster (cut into three pieces) from Washington State, Japanese call it Iwagaki oyster 岩牡蛎, on the half shell with a lemon wedge and okinawan salt. This was so good (you may have noticed we are partial to raw oysters). It went so well with the sake we were drinking; a nice fresh ocean taste and, without any special sauce or seasoning, it  lingered pleasantly in the mouth for a while. Again seasonality is important here. "Ayu" 鮎 is in season. Japanese, especially Kyotoites, are very fond of this small fresh water river fish and we had this fish quite a few times in Kyoto. The Ayu which had been marinated very delicately in soy sauce and sake 祐庵地 was served butterflied and grilled 鮎の開き祐庵焼き. I like this rendition much better than the customary "shioyaki"塩焼き or salt grilled, which is usually served on a bed of salt and pine needles. Somewhere between these dishes, we had assorted "Hassun" appetizers 八寸 with 8 small tasty morsels; kinome-miso dengaku 木の芽味噌田楽, "aburana" with yuzu-miso アブラナの柚子味噌和え, lightly marinated firefly squid 蛍イカの沖漬け, "tamago-dofu" 卵豆腐, a small savory egg custard square with edamame paste, salt-cured shirako 白子 with vinegard daikon strips, garlic sprouts 芽ニンニク with miso-marinated Manila clams. All were fantastic. The only slight disappointment being the dengaku due to the quality of the tofu which could have been better. The salt cured "Shirako" or cod sperm sac (which does not sound appetizing) was delicate and tasty.

At this point, we were presented with two choices; one was "Lobster" shabushabu and the other was a Japanese style snapping turtle soup スッポンのお吸い物. Without hesitation, we took the snapping turtle. This was quite a soup; mine had one of the legs and my wife's had nice meaty parts. The broth was very savory. Yet the shimmering liquid in the bowl did not completely cover up the underlying primordial reptilian taste suggestive of mysteriously lurking depths of the pond. This does not taste like a chicken for sure. Since I got the leg, I had to spit out the "nails" as I chowed down. 

Since I made the reservation directly with Chef Masa and mentioned that the last time we were there we liked his home-made "Karasumi" からすみ, he gave us a small slice of that dreaded "Funazushi" フナ寿司 which was marinated with sake lee. Marinating in sake lee or "Sake kasu" 酒粕 made it very palatable (actually good). It had a similar texture and taste to "Karasumi". What a personal service! 

Then, we were presented with several square lacquer boxes of today's sashimi items. One box was all "hikarimonoayu" offered as sashimi. We started with a series of sashimi, very small but carefully prepared pieces; tuna around this time of year was less fatty and firm but very tasty. Again, freshly grated wasabi was just so nice. We can not remember every pieces we had but other stand-outs are "sayori" or needle fish, "Ayu" served two ways (one as is-just salt cured, and the other mixed with salted and preserved ayu innards called "Uruka" うるか. Ayu innards are cherished for their slightly bitter taste. Uruka definitely added a salty and slight bitter taste but it was a nice combination of tastes. I can not forget the wild white salmon from Alaska. Very tasty. Oh, one more item worth mentioning is, again in season, bonito "katsuo" 鰹 which was lightly grilled on a charcoal fire (Tataki) and served in a separate bowl with grated garlic and ginger; nice meaty slices and very flavourful. I have eaten a great deal of sashimi in my day but somehow this was especially good. Between the sashimi and sushi course we were offered a small delicately done "Sayori tempura" with perilla leaves さよりの天ぷら. At this point we were so full it was an effort to finish the sushi. Masa responded by making the rice ball very small for us and we had 4-5 pieces of yummy sushi. 

Finally, we were presented with the desert menu. We picked a Japanese "purin" custard, "kurosatou" or dark sugar (from Okinawa) ice cream. Both were very good but we particularly liked the very delicate Japanese custard.

I just want to mention sakes we tasted at Sushi Taro on three occasions. The sake list is not extremely long but quite decent covering from the high-end to moderate. Among the ones we tasted; Muromachi Jidai 室町時代 (Junmai Supreme-Daigijo or Kiwami-daiginjo), Hakkaisan 八海山 (Ginjou), Kubota Hekiju 久保田　蒼寿 (Junmai Daiginjou), Dassai23 獺祭 (Junmai Daiginjo) and Hakuryu 白龍 (Daiginjo). By far, "Muromachi Jidai" is our favorite. Complex yet clean tasting and it is just cut above. Next will be Dassai23. Not as complex but very pleasant and clean. Hakkaisan is a bit too yeasty to our taste. Kubota has some muddy note and Hakuryu is rather simplistic.

In summary, we really like this place. This is one of the best restaurants we have eaten at both here and in Japan. They serve very traditional carefully created food with a keen sense of seasonality ("Shun" 旬) and the sake selection is quite decent. The only problem for us (if you can even call it a problem for most people) is that we get so full by the end of the feast in both Sushi omakase and regular Kaiseki. It is a bit expensive but a similar class restaurant in Japan will certainly cost much more.

Cornish Game hen tarragon flavor タラゴン風味コーニッシュゲームヘン

This is another padding post. We had the Cornish game hen one evening on Sunday. It appears Cornish game hens are not popular in Japan. I have posted more-than-you-ever wanted-to-know about cornish game hens. The vast majority available here were previously frozen (Tyson being the predominant brand) but rarely you can find some that are non-Tyson and non-frozen. This time, I got one that had not been frozen (Purdue).

We made quite a few varieties of salads on the weekend and I served these salads (bulgur wheat edamame, wheat berry with olives, and potato salad). The Cornish game hen was seasoned with fresh French tarragon (from our herb garden). For greens I also served broccolini, which was blanched and then sautéed  in butter.



One  of the original aims of developing Cornish game hens was to create a bird that was the perfect size for one serving but I served a half a bird per person but even this was, of course, too much for us.



At least, portions of the skin were crispy and somehow it tasted better than its larger brethren. Even the thigh meat was like white meat but juicer.



Preparing Cornish game hen:
Thaw (if frozen) and wash thoroughly inside and out. Using kitchen shears, cut along both sides of the back bone and butter-fly the bird by flattening it on a cutting board pressing on the breast bone using your palm. Using a chef’s knife or any heavy knife, cut through the middle of the breasts (through the sternum or keel bone) to make two halves. Season it with pepper, salt and finely chopped french tarragon.

Cooking:
Preheat the oven to 400F
In a large sauté pan which can hold two halves snugly, I added a small amount of olive oil and placed the chicken halves with the skin side down on medium high heat (placing weight such as a cast iron skillet make skin brown better). I browned the skin 5-6 minutes. I turned the chicken halves over and poured dry sherry (1 tbs) into the pan and put the lid on to steam. After 1 minute  (or less) when the liquid was all gone, I removed the lid and transferred the pan to the preheated oven. When the internal temperature (near the hip joint not touching the bone) reached 165F (about 15 to 20 minutes), I removed the pan from the oven. I let the meat rest for 5-10 minutes.

We like Cornish game hens. They don’t taste gamey in any way. The meat is similar to any other chicken but more succulent and flavorful. It went very well with grain salads.

Hanami is over; one more dish, Burdock salad 花見は終わりです。牛蒡のサラダ

The cherry blossom this year lasted just one week. With rain and cool seasonal weather and some wind, by Saturday, our deck and backyard were carpeted with cherry blossom petals.

My wife took these pictures.

Here is one more dish which may be good for hanami. I wonder why Japanese are into Burdock or gobou 牛蒡, which is not one of the best looking or best tasting root vegetables. I have to admit, though, it has a nice uniquely nutty flavor and pleasing texture. I am guilty of posting few burdock dishes. 

This one is a non-traditional preparation of gobou salad dressed with mayonnaise and yogurt. There are quite a few variations of gobou salad recipe. Mine is an amalgamation of several recipes. Beside gobou, you can add other veggies such as carrot, diakon sprout, scallion, edamame, etc. Although optional, you can also add some type of protein such as ham, canned tuna, Spam (God forbid!), omelet (julienned to match the shape and size of the burdock). I used julienned roasted pork tenderloin, carrot and cucumber.

Gobou: I used half of the gobou root. The way I prepare gobou (for this dish and Kinpira) is shown below. Gobou is very slender and long (3-3.5 feet) and a bit unwieldy. So, I cut gobou in 10 inch segments (#1). Under running water, I scraped off the dark skin using the back of my "nakiri" knife 菜切り包丁 or vegetable cleaver. Then I sliced it rather thinly on a slant and lined them up overlapping (#2). Depending on if you are right or left handed, the direction of layering had to be changed.

While I was holding (with pressure) the burdock slices at the 1 inch or so on the left side of the blade (since the slices are properly layered, the portion the knife was cutting would stay put. When the knife blade came very close to my fingers holding the slices of burdock, I stopped and moved my fingers to one inch further to the left and continues (#3, I did not have a photographer - my wife- available, so I could not take a picture in action). The julienned burdock was promptly soaked in acidulated water (#4). I soaked it or 5-10 minutes and washed it in cold running water and drained.

Carrot: I sliced and julienned carrot similar to the way I prepared burdock (1 small).

First dressing: I cooked burdock and carrot in salted boiling water with a dash of rice vinegar for 3-4 minutes. I then drained and mixed in the first dressing while it was hot (to add "shita-aji" 下味 or base flavor) consisting of rice vinegar (1 tbs), olive oil (1.5 tbs) seasoned with salt and pepper. I let it cool in the dressing to room temperature.

Meanwhile I prepared the pork and cucumber.

Pork: This was leftover roasted prok tenderloin, about 2 inch long (the dry rub consisting of black pepper, smoked paprika, cumin, cinnamon, clove, and salt) and rosted at 350F for 30 minutes, sliced and then julienned.

Cucumber: My usual American minicucu (1 ), sliced and then julienned. I salted and squeezed out the excess moistre.

Final dressing: I drained any excess liquid/the first dressing from the burdock mixture and dressed. The final dressing is a mixture of store bought mayonnaise (1.5 tbs) and plain yogurt (1 tbs) (this makes the mayo a bit less deadly).  After tasting, I added more black pepper but no salt.

I set asided a small portion of  the julienne of the pork and cucumber for garnish.

This is a dish which goes well with wine. The cookbook I have, called "Japanese Dishes for Wine Lovers" has their version of gobou salad and the recommeded wines are Beaujolais or Chion. Since I am not a big fan of "light" reds, I will go with more heavy reds like syrah or cab but even assertive white like oaky California Chardonnay will also work. 

Actually, we were having this with an excellent and very unusual red from Douro, Portugal called Quinta Do Crasto 2009. The grapes used in this wine are supposedly from 70 year old low yielding vines of many different grape varietals. WA gave 94 and WE 93. It is difficult to describe this wine but it is the likes of Orin Swift approach of everything but kitchen sink. I don't know how they can manage "field" selection of "20-30 different grapes" to come up with this well balanced red.

Like Xmas, cherry blossom occurs only once a year. And as my wife's grandmother used to say, "There is nothing more over than Christmas", so with hanami. So, until next spring, we have to wait.

Big eye tuna sashimi 4 ways めばち鮪刺身 四通り

When we got firefly squid from Regalis food, we also got 3 lbs. of fresh bigeye tuna sashimi メバチマグロ (akami 赤身). Since this was too much tuna sashimi for us to finish in one sitting, I divided it into 4 portions. We finished one portion fresh. The remaining three portions were vacuum packed and frozen.  Over time we have been enjoying the frozen portions and finally we came to the last one. Although this tuna tasted fairly good, certain portions, including this last one, were very “sinewy”.  So I had to tailor the dishes I made to make the sinew less noticeable. The dishes I made are shown in the next picture. The upper row from left to right are “yamakake” やまかけ, “sashimi” 赤身刺身, tuna with avocado cubes マグロとアボカドの角切りand the lower row is imitation “negitoro” 擬制ネギトロ. I did a similar combination of dishes using frozen yellowtail tuna but these made with big eye tuna were much better.

 

For the yamakake, I marinated  cubes of tuna for several hours in concentrated (x4) Japanese noodle sauce and also added soy sauce with dissolved wasabi to the grated nagaimo. I topped it with thin strips of nori. This is a classic and also sort of filling because of the grated nagaimo.

I chose the portion with the least sinew and made a small serving of straight sashimi. It was quite good.

This is another dish I make often. The dressing contains chopped garlic, soy sauce, sake, and dark sesame oil. The similarity of textures of tuna sashimi cubes and avocado works well. Since I did not have fresh chives, I used the green part of scallion for garnish.

Finally, imitaion negitoro. The combination of mayonise and tuna cannot go wrong. As usual, I left a half portion of tuna in small cubes and mixed it with the more finely chopped tuna with mayo, Japanese noodle sauce and chopped scallion. I served this with slices of cucumber (American minicucues) and small rectangular  sheets of Korean nori 韓国海苔. We made small nori rolls with the cucumber and negitoro. This is really great and also filling.

After finishing these 4 tuna sashimi dishes, we enjoyed  “edamame” 枝豆 and assortment of Japanese rice crackers and few more cups of cold sake and we were quite full.

Japanese Restaurant in Sapporo "Munakata"：むな形 円山鳥居前

When we were in Sapporo 札幌 (my home town), Japan, recently, I asked my mother if there was any restaurants she would like to try. She mentioned a new Japanese restaurant that opened a year ago that was on her route to the supermarket. When it opened up, she happened to walk by and got a flyer (she did not have it any longer).  After a quick Internet search, we identified this restaurant as "Munakata" 円山鳥居前 むな形.  The chef owner was reportedly from Hokkaido (a.k.a. Dosanko 道産子*) and opened up this new restaurant after having worked in another Japanese restaurant in Sapporo called "Otowa" 日本料理 をとわ.  According to my mother, the location previously had been occupied by a Belgian chocolate store and the store front was rather small. She was wondering how a Japanese restaurant could fit into the space. I made a reservation and we had a course dinner one evening.

* Dosanko refers to a small but very sturdy horse used in Hokkaido and literally means "child of Hokkaido". The proper way of reading the three ideograms should be "Dousanko" but the "U" sound is typically omitted. Dosanko also could refer to a person who was born and raise in Hokkaido (without any negative connotation). I myself certainly classify as "Dosanko".

The restaurant had nice light colored wood interior with a counter which accommodates 4-5 people (see below, I borrowed this from http://tabelog.com/imgview/original?id=r1437126198545). My mother's question was answered by the owner/chef who said the space was narrow but very deep and the previous chocolate store was using only the front as a retail store space.



There are a few tables as well. We were ushered into a private room (I am not sure but they may have 2-3 private rooms). Our private room was very nicely equipped with a table and chairs which accommodates 4 very comfortably and even had a small closet to hang our coats. We chose sake (I am sure I chose sake from Hokkaido but I cannot recall which one) to start.

And so the courses began. The appetizer was very nice with delicate (I think this may have been yuba 湯葉 but I’m not sure) flavors (upper two in the composite below). It was served in a modern-looking coffee cup. The second dish (lower two in the composite below) was a dumpling made of potato and either fava beans or edamame which appeared to be deep fried to add a thin delicate crust in a very rich sauce. My wife thought it was corn-based but when we asked the chef, he said “no” and said baby corn was used as garnish but did not divulge any additional information.



So far, we were impressed and it was a good start. Then came “Otsukuri” お造りor small sashimi dish which was very nicely presented. Shako シャコ  or Mantis shrimp (cooked) was the best. Squid (probably Mongou-ika 紋甲いか or cuttle fish) was scored and slightly charred but the meat was thick and the chewy texture was not my favorite.  Others included bonito and white meat fish (I assumed "hirame" 平目 or flat fish). While it was good the sashimi dish could have been better. We proceeded to tempura (see below composite upper right). One of the tempura was very unusual (see below). I think it was not too salty umeboshi 梅干し. It was nicely executed and we liked it.

Now came the least impressive dish. This appeared to be "Hassun" 八寸 (middle left in the composite below). The main one was an ocean caught salmonトキシラズ鮭. Which was grilled with cheese and slices of Japanese pepper or 万願寺唐辛子. I personally would rather have had this without the cheese or pepper. Other items were a bit disjointed in terms of the combination of tastes and textures. The meat ball made of squid (one with tooth pick) did not have much taste and had a watery consistency as if it was previously frozen and just thawed. The smoked pickled daikon or iburigakko いぶりがっこ was nice by itself but did not necessarily go with the rest of the items on the plate. One more small dish (middle right) and we were getting really filled up. But the next dish, which was beef nicely grilled with a miso-based sauce was excellent.  Despite being fully satiated, all of us finished everything. Then came the rice and soup or "Oshokuji" お食事.  The rice was "Fukagawa meshi-like" 深川飯風 with seasoned small clams. I was too full to enjoy it but my mother really liked it. The miso soup was classic akadashi 赤出しwith nameko mushroom ナメコ and was good (bottom picture) . As dessert, the citrus gele was light and refreshing (lower left in the composite below).



Rice and soup.



In general we really liked this restaurant. Despite a few stumbles with some of the dishes, the majority were very creative and inspiringly delicious.The service was impeccable. I am glad this level of Japanese restaurant is located very close to my mother's house.

Snap peas in dashi broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし

This is a very healthy and refreshing small dish which goes well with sake or any drink. Recently, Dave Perry recommended two Izakaya cookbooks to me called "Otsumami Yokocho" おつまみ横町. There are two volumes. Both are called "drinking snack alley". The second is distinguished from the first by the additional phrase in the title of  "Mou ikken"  もう一軒 meaning "one more place". This is an appropriate name for the second volume because this phrase is a classic nagging request made by drinking enthusiasts (read; drunkards) who have finished their first rounds but don't want the bar hopping to end..."just one more place". In any case, I got these books from Amazon Japan (The shipping was more than the cost of the books). These two volumes each contain recipes for 185 small dishes which go well with drinks. Many of the dishes are rather simple (or easy to make) and some are not really new or original but the two volumes still contain a good number of dishes that I would like to try (and post) - thank you Dave, I can continue my blog a bit longer. This is the first such dish (page 12 of the second volume). 

Disclaimer: As usual, I often read these recipes but then I end up doing whatever feels right for me, so the end result may be different from what is described in the books.

Snap peas, Japanese name is "sunappu endou" スナップ豌豆, is the hybrid developed in the U.S. but very popular in Japan as well. We like it more than snow peas. This is a rather simple but elegant and healthy dish especially for an Izakaya snack and also taste good.

I removed both ends of the snap peas and blanched them in salted boiling water for several minutes, until cooked but still crunchy. I drained and put in ice water to stop cooking. I drained again and patted dry with a paper towel.

I made a broth from a dashi pack (kelp and bonito in a tea bag) and added salt to taste. I let the broth cool to room temperature and then refrigerated. I added the above blanched snap peas to the broth and let it marinate in the refreigerator overnight.

It has nice crunch. It has a sweet taste (enhanced by mild saltiness in the broth) with subtle dashi flavor. You feel good eating this, a totally guilt free drinking snack. You can have this instead of edamame 枝豆.

Rescued green bean soup グリーンビーンズスープ

We like green beans but only when they are good i.e. crunchy but not fibrous with an almost sweet fresh flavor. Good green beans either steamed or boiled a short period of time can be crunchy but not fibrous and they are wonderful. But some green beans no matter how long you cook them remain so fibrous no amount of chewing will get through them. There is no way of knowing ahead of time (before you buy them) which category the green beans belong to. We mostly gave up getting green beans and sugar snap beans from our regular grocery store for this reason. We have had a much better chance of getting good ones from our gourmet grocery stores. But even that fails sometimes. This was such an occasion. The green beans were still unpleasantly fibrous after they were cooked. Since we had our Vita-mix out for another reason, we decided to give the beans a whir in the Vita-mix to see what would happen. It turned out the resulting paste/puree no longer classified as fibrous and it had a very nice green bean flavor. We kept the puree in a plastic container in the fridge but did not quite know how to use it. My wife suggested making a soup/potage. I obliged. We ate it for lunch one day. It turned out it was quite a decent soup. We will call it “green bean rescued soup”

My wife had just baked some muffins as an “apricot muffins rescue”; the fresh apricots were too mushy to eat. As part of what is turning out to be standard food rescue protocal she introduced the offending apricots to the Vita-mix and viola, she had apricot puree which she added to the muffin batter. So we had a lunch of the apricot muffin, green bean soup, sous vide chicken salad with mango, sugar snap in salt broth, corn, roasted pepper, edamame and bacon salad.

There is no recipe for green bean soup but just for the record.

Ingredients:
1 bag (32oz) fresh green beans, boiled for few minutes  in salted  water
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs butter
1 cup whey (since we had it after my wife made cheese curd) (or chicken broth)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Puree the green beans in the Vita-mix or other high-power blender adding a small mount of liquid and puree until smooth
Sauté the onion in the oil and butter on medium flame until cooked but not browned
Add the green bean puree and the whey and cook for 20-30 minutes.
Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth and no onion bits remain.
Season with salt and pepper

I served this hot initially but for the left overs, I diluted it with milk and served cold which was also quite nice. This is a great way to salvage green beans that otherwise because they are too fibrous would have been thrown out.