Scallops With Shallot Citrus Sauce 帆立のシトラスシャロットソース

This is a continuation of our story about frozen food inventory control. This time it was scallops from Great-Alaska-Seafood. These are really good scallops and we wanted to enjoy them while they were still good. Our most common and favorite way to prepare scallops is “Hotate-no Isobe-yaki” 帆立の磯辺焼き in which the scallops are seared, seasoned with soy sauce, then wrapped in a sheet of nori. This time we tried something different. We saw an article in the Washington Post featuring 6 scallop recipes. One of them was “scallops with shallot citrus sauce”. This was perfect since we happened to have some grape fruit and oranges we’d gotten from Harry and David. So one evening we decide to make this.

To prepare the fruit is a bit of work but the this dish was really great. Nice fresh citrus flavors went well with the seared scallops.

Ingredients (2 small servings)
4 large sea scallops (we used 4 scallops for 2 servings but the standard size may be 4 diver scallops for each serving).
1 medium red grapefruit.
1 large orange
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large shallot, finely diced (about 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup dry white wine, (we used sauvignon blanc)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon or basil, for serving (I used chopped fresh parsley)

Directions:
Using a sharp paring knife, trim the top and bottom off the grapefruit and the orange. Working over a bowl so the citrus segments fall into the bowl and you catch the juice, use a paring knife to remove each segment of the fruit from its membrane. Squeeze the remaining membrane over the bowl to extract more juice. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the citrus segments to a separate bowl; reserve the juice.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil until shimmering. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, until they soften slightly, about 2 minutes. Add the wine, increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Cook until the wine is reduced by about half, about 2 minutes. Add the reserved citrus juice and cook until the liquid in the pan has reduced slightly, 1 to 2 minutes more. Stir in the butter and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, then remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.

Pat the scallops all over with paper towels to ensure they are as dry as possible, then sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Heat the remaining oil in a large skillet over high heat, until shimmering. Add the scallops and cook, without moving them, until caramelized and brown on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes. Gently flip, and cook on the other side until the scallops are only slightly translucent in the center, 2 to 3 minutes more.

While the scallops are cooking, add the citrus segments to the sauce, stirring gently so they don’t break up much; return the sauce to low heat until warmed through.
 Evenly divide up the scallops per serving and place on the plates. Pour about 1/3 cup of sauce on top, and sprinkle with the herbs. Serve warm.

We had this with freshly cooked rice mainly because we were running short of frozen rice (which is very convenient to have on hand).  The citrus sauce went remarkably well with the rice. We ended up pouring all the available sauce on the rice and even supplementing the dish with more fresh rice. We do not always have grapefruit and oranges on hand but when we do this is a great way to serve scallops.

Lily Bulb 百合根

I keep finding Japanese groceries at Weee  which previously were just not available or difficult to get. This time, it was “edible lily bulb”*. The package states “this is a product of China”. So, initially, I was not sure this item would be the same as Japanese “Yuri-ne” 百合根 but decided to try it anyway. Growing up in Hokkaido 北海道, Japan, which is the major producer of edible lily bulbs in Japan, my family enjoyed “yuri-ne” often. Most commonly, my mother made chawan-mushi 茶碗蒸し or Japanese steamed savory egg custard with yuri-ne lily bulb. I remember the nice texture and sweet flavor of yuri-ne. So it is a very nostalgic flavor for me that I have not tasted in a very long time. It arrived fresh in a vacuum packed container. It looked exactly like Japanese “yuri-ne and (better yet) tasted the same.

Although the package indicated “slices”, the lily bulbs are made of petal-like multiple layers which can come apart especially after blanching (see below). I would have preferred a whole intact bulb since that would have given me more choices in how to prepare it but this will do for sure.

*Digression alert: There is a myth that all lily bulbs are toxic which apparently may be based on the fact that any part of lily is highly toxic to cats (inducing renal failure). Also, the name “lily” is attached to many plants/flowers which are not “true” lily.  Some of these certainly would be toxic to humans. In any case, Japanese and Chinese (reportedly also native American Indians) enjoy eating lily bulbs.

I made three dishes; “chawan-mushi” 百合根入り茶碗蒸し(center bottom), bainiku-ae 百合根の梅肉和え (dressed in pickled plum sauce, upper left) and goma-ae 百合根の胡麻和え (dressed in sesame sauce, upper right). I also served lotus root kimpira “renkon-no-kimpira 蓮根のきんぴら(left bottom) and “ohitashi” edible chrysanthemum or “shungiku-no-ohitashi” 春菊のお浸し (right bottom). The fresh lotus root and edible chrysanthemum both came from Weee.

The picture below shows the chawan-mushi made with yuri-ne, topped with ikura salmon roe and blanched sugar snap. You cannot see the yuri-ne well but two are peaking out on either side of the ikura.

The next picture shows the chawan-mushi before the toppings were put on. I put the yuri-ne on the bottom as well as on the top. Other items included fresh shiitake mushroom, and shrimp as usual. The egg and dashi mixture was my usual 1 to 3 ratio. There is no difference in how to make it from standard other chawan-mushi.

For next two dishes, I quickly blanched the yuri-ne, drained it and let it cool before proceeding.

One pickled “umeboshi” plum, meat removed and then chopped fine with  a knife, then placed in a Japanese “suri-bachi” mortal, 1/2 tsp mirin added, 1/2 soy sauce and ground to make a smooth paste. I added “kezuri bushi” bonito flakes (the amount arbitrary). I added more bonito flakes on the top.

The below picture shows yuri-ne with sesame dressing.

For sesame dressing:
1tsp white roasted sesame, dry roasted in a dry frying pan and then ground in a suri-bachi
2 tsp white sesame paste or “shiro neri-goma” 白ねりごま
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar

I garnished it with blanched sugar snap

These small dishes were nice and Weee made it possible for me to make these. These were quite filling but we also had a small serving of blue-fine tuna sashimi (frozen Australian from Great Alaska Seafood). The chawan-mushi was particularly special since it brought back good memories of the chawan-mushi my mother used to make.

Seared Scallops on Cauliflower Puree 焦がし帆立とカリフラワーピュレー

We like cauliflower puree. Now I changed how I make it and the process is easier but the results are the same (I added the directions below).  We used the puree for quite a few dishes. Recently, we revisited one of our favorite fish dishes; Chilean sea bass (Patagonian tooth fish). We really like this fish over a bed of Cauliflower puree. Recently we tried a similar combination using seared diver scallops which we got from Great-Alaska-Seafood. I made an impromptu pan sauce which went well.

For seared scallops
Ingredients (for two small servings)
4 diver scallops, thawed if frozen, patted dry and seasoned with salt and pepper
1tsp peanut or other vegetable oil
Pan sauce:
2tbs Japanese sake for deglazing
1tbs lemon juice
1 tsp x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce
1 tbs of cold butter

Directions:
Add the vegetable oil with high smoking point to a stainless steel or iron frying pan on medium high flame. Heat the pan until the oil just starts smoking
Add the scallops and brown one side for 1-2 minutes and flip-over . Brown the other side for another 1 minute or until the scallops are just cooked in the center (expect some smoke).
After removing the scallops, add the sake and deglaze the pan. Reduce the liquid to half. Add the noodle sauce and the lemon juice. Reduce briefly and finish with pats of butter.
Place the scallops on the bed of warm cauliflower puree and pour the pan sauce over the scallops.

For cauliflower puree
Ingredients (makes at least 4 to 6 servings):
One head of Cauliflower, washed and florets separated
1 to 3/4 cup 4% milk, warm (I microwave but be careful of over boiling)
Several thin pats (2-3 tbs) of cold butter
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Directions:
Steam the florets for 7-10 minutes or until very soft.
Meanwhile warm the milk (I microwave but be careful of over-boiling)
In a cylindrical container for a immersion blender, add the cauliflower and half of  the warm milk.
Press down the immersion blender at a medium speed, up and down several time.
Depending on the consistency add more milk and blend in high-speed until silky smooth (may take some time to attain the smooth puree).
Add the butter and salt and further blend
Taste and adjust the salt

We really like this combination. The pan sauce also worked well. If this is a main dish, I would use 4 scallops per serving and add side vegetables.

Tuna, avocado and nagaimo cubes まぐろ、アボカドと長芋の角切り

One evening, we defrosted Chutoto bluefin tuna まぐろの中トロ from Great-Alaska-Seafood. I divided it into 4 parts thinking that I will make 4 different dishes. I served one part of it as straight sashimi, and second part as imitation negitoro 擬制ネギトロ. I made the third part as “zuke” marinated slices of tuna 漬けマグロ.  I planned to make the 4th part to our usual Yamakake 山かけ but we had freshly cooked rice, so instead, we went for a small tuna donburi using the marinated tuna sashimi or “Zuke”  漬け鮪丼. This was quite filling and we decided to keep the tuna prepared for Yamakake for the next day. This was cubes of tuna marinated in x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce (short-cut version of “Zuke”).  Next day, instead of making Yamakake, I came up with this hybrid of Yamakake and tuna avocado cubes マグロとアボカドの角切. This turned out to be quite good with similar soft consistency of tuna and ripe avocado and crunchy refreshing cubes of nagaimo 長芋.

Ingredients:
Tuna Sashimi, 1/4 block, cut into small cubes and marinated in x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce (few hours but in this case 24 hours).
Half ripe avocado, cut into similar sized small cubes and dressed with lemon juice to prevent discoloration.
I inch nagaimo, peeled and cut into small cubes
One clove of garlic finely chopped
two scallion, finely chopped

Dressing:
1/2 tsp dark sesame oil
1 tbs soy sauce with dissolved wasabi
I topped with dried nori strips.

This was a quite good appetizer with cold sake.

Octopus leg dressed in salted plum sauce タコの梅肉あえ

I have posted many dishes using octopus which we got from different sources. We like octopus legs (boiled and frozen) from D’artagnan and Great Alaska Seafood. Interestingly, both are “Spanish octopus legs”.  The offer we recently purchased from Great Alaska Seafood included quite a large amount of octopus legs so I have the luxury of using it fairly regularly. The last time I used it, after thawing, I reserved about 2 inches of the octopus leg to eat as “sashimi*” 刺身 and I made the remainder into tender simmered octopus タコの柔らか煮 using an Instant pot. We usually eat octopus sashimi with wasabi and soy sauce or sumiso but this time, I tried a different dressing using salted plum or “Umeboshi” 梅干し (I used some umeboshi we received quite a few years ago from my mother the last time she made it. We kept it in a sealed container in the refrigerator. It looked and tasted good). I also served two small appetizer dishes.

*Most common “sashimi” of octopus is previously boiled legs because raw octopus is extremely perishable. Real “raw” octopus can be had in Japan. The first time we had “raw” octopus sashimi was in Kobe 神戸 many years ago. Because of the location of Kobe, very fresh octopus from the Japanese inland sea 瀬戸内海 was available. Now, because of the advancement in the logistics of transporting fresh seafood in Japan, it is more readily available throughout Japan. As a matter of fact, we had raw octopus sashimi at Tako Grill in Kuroishi 黒石, Aomori prefecture 青森県 in Japan.

The upper left picture above shows the Octopus slices with salted plum sauce: タコの刺身梅肉和え.

Ingredients and directions: (two small serving)

2 inches of boiled octopus leg, sliced thinly into 8 -10 slices

For Umeboshi 梅干し “bainiku” sauce 梅肉ソース

1 “umeboshi” salted plum, meat removed and finely chopped until creamy.

1 tsp mirin, mixed in

For garnish

1 perilla leaf, finely julienned 

1 nyouga, thinly slices

Cucumber slices

I also served tender simmered octopus leg タコの柔らか煮.

Since we had a small portion of filet mignon left over from the day before, I thinly sliced it and dressed it in ponzu sauce ポン酢醤油 with grated ginger. The green is blanched sugar snaps in dashi broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

 

These small appetizers were great to start the evening.

How to defrost a frozen tuna block 冷凍鮪柵の解凍方法

 This is a continuation of the frozen bluefin tuna block from Great-Alaska-Seafood saga. This is mostly to document for myself how best to thaw a frozen sashimi tuna block (since we have a number to which this process will need to be applied). In any case, we tried “Chu-toro” 中トロ this time. This was a relatively small  block and was perfect for the two of us. I served two slices as is (left) and made one slice into “Aburi” 炙り (right) (which was possible due to the recent acquisition of a new small kitchen torch. More about that later). This is better than the “akami” we tasted before (due to the thawing method or the fact this is chu-toro is unclear but probably both).

I made the remaining tuna into our usual “pseudo” negitoro  擬制ネギトロ. served with slices of cucumber and small sheets of nori (this is “Korean nori” 韓国のり. Since there was a bit too much tuna to  make all into “Negitoro”,  I also served one slice of tuna as well.

 

Now onto the main topic. I knew there were special instruction on how best to thaw a frozen tuna block which I may have seen on several YouTube videos. Most of the time, however, I am too lazy and just take it out from the vacuum pack, wash it in cold running water, blot it with paper towel, place it on the folded paper towel, wrap it with a plastic wrapping and thaw it in the refrigerator. This time, I looked at several instructions and decided to record the best method as far as I could tell.

How to thaw a frozen tuna block:
1. Remove the tuna block from the vacuum pack.
2. Quickly wash the surface using cold running water to remove any “saw dust”.
3. Soak it in 40C, 4% salted warm water for 3-5 minutes or until the surface becomes soft.
4. Quickly wash and blot the surface with a paper towel.
5 Wrap it completely with a sheet of paper towel.
6 Place it in the ziploc bag and remove the air, seal or Using a “Food saver” type vacuum bag and device, vacuum pack (see below).

7. Submerge the vacuum packed tuna in ice water for 1 hour or until thawed (below).

Digression alert: Every set of instructions I came across also provided some “scientific” explanation of each step. I am not sure of the validity of those explanations but the following is my understanding of the science behind each step. The warm salt water process may activate myoglobin oxidation which, especially in “akami”, makes a better red color without extracting or infusing liquid (over exposure to oxygen may make the tuna darker or “black”). Because of the much better heat conduction of water (20 times greater than air), the tuna will quickly thaw without increasing the temperature in the ice water than in the refrigerator. This process allows the tuna block to go through a -5 to -1C temperature zone which is conducive to the formation of ice crystals in the meat more quickly than if it is left to “thaw” in the refridgerator. A shorter time spent in that temperature zone supposedly improves the quality of the tuna meat because the formation of ice crystals can break the cells or form holes making the meat mushy.

As a side note, I got a new small kitchen torch since the old one failed to ignite last time. Instead of a larger torch which would use a standard size butane canister, I chose one that requires charging the butene gas like a cigarette lighter like the one I had before. Also, I had some leftover butane canisters from the previous torch I had. My reasoning was that we had a difficult time to use up and discard the standard butene canisters that we used with our old table-top gas cooker, basically because we seldom used the cooker. In any case, this one is compatible with Zippo butene canister which comes in a much smaller size.

This torch works well. It ignites easily and the flame size can be easily adjusted. I made “aburi” 炙り quite quickly with a nice char. I salted the surface before torching.

Watari bune Daiginjo 渡船純米大吟醸

This sake “Watari bune, junmai daiginjo” 渡船純米大吟醸 was a gift from a friend for a recent occasion. This is a really great sake with a slightly effervescent feel and fruity, crisp but very complex flavors. This should definitely be drunk cold. This sake is brewed by “Fuchu-homare” 府中誉 which is located in Ibaragi prefecture 茨城県. The sake rice or “sakamai”  酒米 used for this sake is also called “Watari bune” which is supposedly a very rare near-extinct sake rice which relatively recently has been revived. The famous and most popular sake rice “Yamada nishiki” 山田錦 is reportedly a descendant of this rice. Also the name “Watari bune”  渡船, which means a  “ferry” or “ferryboat”, is very fitting for sake from Ibaragi which is known for Tone river 利根川 and its estuaries criss crossing the flat delta before pouring into the Pacific ocean.This area also contains large lakes. (Such areas rich in water ways and lakes are called “Suigou”  水郷). Such topography would require use of ferries i.e. “Watari bune” to navigate the water ways.

In any case, a great sake calls for great “Tsumami” ツマミ or small sake snacks. We were lucky to get fresh unprocessed fresh “uni” sea urchin in salted water from Maruhide 丸秀 called “Ensui uni” 塩水ウニ. We also recently got frozen blocks of Bluefin tuna from Great-Alaska-Seafood. We served these items on recently acquired Japanese plates. The soy sauce in the small round plate is also a special “sashimi” soy sauce.   

I made the tuna three ways (two shown directly below. One came later). The first was straight sashimi (upper left in picture). The second was “Negi-toro” ネギトロ with slices of cucumber (lower left in picture). We enjoyed this negi-toro as a kind-of hand roll on a small sheet of nori (not shown) with the cucumber slices (shown).

This uni from Maruhide (shown upper right in the picture) is not processed with the usual “alum” and only soaked in salt water with salinity consistent with seawater. As far as I can tell, Maruhide is only source in the U.S. where we can get this. As an aside: my wife can sometimes taste the alum on uni. She immediately passes her portion to me when this happens. Not exactly a hardship for me, since I can’t taste alum. (She can also detect the alum used in some brands of baking powder).  The consistency of the uni in salt water is slightly softer than alum processed ones but it is absolute pure fresh uni. With just a little bit of wasabi and soy sauce and a sip of the sake, you cannot get anything better.

We needed a few more “Tsumami” to go with this sake. We had more tuna, this time “zuke” tuna 漬けマグロ, in which tuna slices are marinated in x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce for few hours so.  I served it with wakame and cucumber dressed in sumiso sauce 胡瓜とわかめの酢味噌あえ (left). Since my wife made blini a few days ago and we had Keta salmon ikura roe thawed, we made our usual “blini topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon and ikura” (right).

All these items are again perfect accompaniment for this wonderful sake.

Frozen bluefin tuna block from Great Alaska Seafood 冷凍オーストラリア産の黒鮪

 We have purchased quite a few items from Great-Alaska-Seafood. We tried frozen sashimi-grade yellowfin tuna or "kihada-maguro" 黄肌マグロ blocks which were on a par with the ones we can get at our Japanese grocery store. Recently we received an email from Great-Alaska Seafood about a special offer for Australian aqua-cultured sashimi-grade blackfin tuna, "Hon-maguro or Kuro-maguro" クロマグロ. In general I am a fan of any tuna but I tend to like blackfin a bit more than yellowfin. Great-Alaska’s advertising was pinpointed targeting. They clearly “had-my-number/Knew-where-I lived”/had-me-dialed-in”. I instantly succumbed to the offer and ordered the tuna. If I recall correctly I had to call a special number (rather than order on the internet) and the offer was good for only one day. The offer consisted of a total of 8 lbs made up of 8,1 lb packages,  half-and-half chu-toro 中トロ and akami 赤身.  As you can see below, the blocks were irregular in size and inconsistent in shape. I surmise that because they were not cut like Japanese “saku” blocks which are neatly of equal size and shape they probably could not be used in a Japanese sushi bar for example. 

Each packages are marked either  “akami” (left) or “chu-toro” (right) .

We first tried the smallest package which was marked as “akami”. I served two small dishes.

The picture below shows a dish of straight forward sashimi with cucumber sunomono きゅうりの酢の物 with tomato garnished with “ikura” salmon roe. The akami was certainly better than the frozen yellowfin tuna and good enough but not great.

I also made it into cubes of tuna and avocado 鮪とアボカドの角切りon a bed of arugula dressed with soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil.

So bottom line is that this is not bad. It is certainly better than yellowfin tuna but it was not truly great. Nonetheless we are satisfied that we have this choice and will have absolutely no trouble “choking” it down .

Scattered sushi ちらし寿司

When we have salmon, I make salmon salad from the leftover cooked salmon. My wife thinks the combination of sushi rice and mayo-based items go well together (which I totally agree). We have made a roll sushi and “Gunkan” sushi from the salmon salad. One weekend, we realized our store of frozen cooked rice was getting low (it is always so convenient to have frozen rice), so we decided to make fresh rice for lunch to increase the frozen rice reserve*. Then my wife asked, “How ‘bout using the fresh rice to make scattered sushi or “chirashi-zushi” ちらし寿司 using the salmon salad (which I had just made in the morning) ?” As I posted before, scattered sushi is just a bed of sushi rice and the topping can be almost anything from totally vegan to all kind of sashimi fish. So, this is what I came up with which does not involve any raw or sashimi fish but, in addition to the salmon salad,  I added cooked shrimp and scallops.

* Frozen rice reserve: Making fresh rice this time did not help increase our frozen rice reserve. In addition to eating several portions as sushi for lunch, we then decided to have Yakitori 焼き鳥 in the evening since the weather was so nice and we had 4 chicken thighs we needed to cook. My wife greatly appreciates having grilled rice balls or “Yaki onigiri” 焼きおにぎりwhen we do Yakitori.  So, I also made four small rice balls in preparation. As a result there was not much of the freshly made rice to freeze as a reserve.

I may have gone slightly overboard especially since this was a  lunch.  The garnish included golden thread eggs or “Kinshi-ran” 金糸卵, pickled ginger or”gari” 生姜の甘酢漬け or ガリ, cucumber seasoned with sweet vinegar きゅうりの酢の物 and nori threads or “Kizami-nori” 刻みのり.

We made fresh rice, using rice we got from the New York Rice factory and is grown in Hokkaido “Yumepirika” 夢ぴりか. I used sushi vinegar from the bottle (Mizkan brand). I used as much sushi vinegar as the rice could absorb (about 10% of the weight of rice). I made the sushi rice in a Japanese “hinoki” cedar  tub or “han-giri” 半切 that we bought in Japan many years ago and amazingly still has a beautiful hinoki smell. I covered the seasoned rice with a wet dish towel and let it sit for 5-10 minutes so the rice could absorb the seasoned vinegar.

I added the sushi rice to the bottom of the bowl (square bowl we got in Sapporo just after we got married so many years ago).

For the scallops and shrimp (both were frozen and came from Great Alaska Seafood),  I thawed and gently poached them in salted water with a dash of sake. I made the scallops into several thin slices. After removing the shells, I halved the shrimp length wise.

I placed the salmon salad on the center of the rice and spread seasoned sliced shiitake mushroom (brown circle around the salmon salad). Then I distributed the scallops and shrimp around the shrimp salad and mushrooms. 

Then, I added the garnish as seen in the previous pictures.

This was a really luxurious lunch. This dish once again confirmed my wife’s notion that sushi rice and mayo-based toppings go well together. 

Shrimp in spicy mayo sauce エビマヨ

 My wife found 4 frozen good-sized shell-on shrimp from Great Alaska Seafood, lonely and tucked hidden under a number of other items in the freezer door shelf. She asked me if I could make something with them. I am familiar with popular Japanese shrimp dishes called “Ebi-chiri*” エビチリ and  “Ebi-mayo*” エビマヨ. (Japanese are very fond of two condiments; ketchup and mayonnaise).  I got an inspiration from these dishes and made this (slightly) spicy mayo sauce for the shrimp. I also added blanched sugar snaps since I had them.

*Digression Alert:  Ebi-chiri was supposedly invented by Chin Kenmin 陳建民 (the father of Iron Chinese Chef Chin Ken-ichi 陳健一) based on a Sichuan dish called 乾焼蝦仁 modified to suit Japanese taste. The origin of “Ebi-mayo” appears less certain but it was based on an American Chinese dish of shrimp with Aurora sauce (mixture of ketchup and mayo) which was improved upon by a Chinese Chef in Yokohama. There are many variations of these two recipes.

This dish was impromptu but it came out rather well for a small appetizer. Despite the fact the frozen shrimp had been abandoned for some time in the freezer door shelf they tasted very nice; no iodine flavor and good firm texture.

Ingredients: (two small servings)
4 shrimp (I used 4 shell-on frozen shrimp), thawed under running water, shell removed, brined in cold salted water for 5 minutes, washed in cold running water and patted dry
Olive oil for frying

Sauce (mix the ingredients in a small bowl)
2 tsp mayonnaise
2 tsp Greek (strained) yogurt
1/2 tsp Sriracha or any other hot sauce such as gochujang

Directions:
Lightly salt the shrimp and cook in a pan with olive oil, turning few time for total of 1 minute.
Set aside the shrimp
Add the sauce warm it up and then put back the shrimp, add the sugar snaps
Serve immediately.

Brining in salt water brought back the shrimp's briny taste and texture (“puri-puri” プリプリ in Japanese). This is perfect with either wine or sake. I should make this dish more often.

Octopus leg from D'artagnan ダルタニアンからのスペイン産タコの足

I am fond of octopus and I’m always on the look out for a good and  reliable source. Our Japanese grocery store usually has it but I’m not going there as often as before. Our “tried and true” source is Catalina offshore products has frozen package of octopus for octopus leg from Japan. When I checked this time, however, only whole octopus was available.  We tried several other sources but they are were not always reliable. We recently tried Great-Alaska seafood which sold "Boiled Spanish Octopus". This was not bad and came two legs in a package frozen so it is just the right amount; however, it is a bit too soft/mushy. I made "Yawaraka-ni" やわらか煮 or tender simmered octopus which worked really well. This time, while we were reordering duck breast and lamb loin from D'artagnan we found that they also sell frozen Spanish octopus legs and decide to give it a try. One evening, I thawed one leg and tried it with sumiso dressing (on the right in the picture below) along with some cold chawan-mushi 茶碗蒸し topped with ikura (shrimp, chicken and nameko mushroom are in the chawan-mushi).

Since this was just a try, I only served three slices with cucumber in sweet vinegar.

Interestingly, the texture of this Spanish octopus is just right and to our liking-slightly chewy, not mushy or as toughly chewy as Japanese style octopus can be. It also tasted fresh. If D'artagnan keeps an inventory of octopus, this is another source. (We really liked the lamb loin we got from them which is a subject of another post.)

Octopus and cucumber in sumiso dressing 蛸のぶつ切りと胡瓜の酢味噌あえ

This is nothing new; just a continuation of frozen and boiled Spanish octopus from Great Alaska Seafood. This is a good example of how an octopus leg cut can make a big difference in texture.  Boiled octopus can be sliced thinly with a wave cut or cut into chunks called "Butsu-giri" ぶつ切り. The cut that is used depends on the firmness of the cooked octopus meat. Firm texture octopus it is quite chewy. A thick slice would be too difficult to eat. The thin wave cut provides a manageably chewy piece and the wave pattern catches any sauce that is used. Alternatively if  the octopus meat is soft, the thinly slice wave cut doesn’t have any texture and basically dissolves when eaten so cutting it into chunks is the better choice. Since this octopus was a bit on the soft side, I opted for the chunky cut and made this classic "octopus and cucumber  sumiso-ae" 蛸のぶつ切りと胡瓜の酢味噌あえ. I served this with store bought squid shio-kara (right)

Since this octopus leg was more tender than ones from Japan, this "Butsu-giri" cut really worked. It is not too chewy but has nice texture.

Tender simmered octopus たこの柔らか煮

I have to admit that I really like octopus (tako) and am on a constant prowl to find places to get decent tako. I have gotten octopus from a few different places with varying success and I’ve cooked it several different ways over the years. Among the seafood vendors, recently, we have been getting fairly good frozen  seafood from  Great Alaska Seafood . This time, they were selling frozen Spanish octopus legs and we tried them. (At another time, they were also selling Alaskan octopus -uncooked and frozen- but we did not try it.) The legs were from Spanish octopus, boiled and frozen (see the picture 2nd from the last below). It came as 4 pounds of octopus in 8 half pound vacuumed sealed packages. After thawing a package in the refrigerator, I thinly sliced it and tasted it. It was fresh tasting but compared to Japanese products, it was much softer. So I decided the first dish I would make would be simmered octopus  or “Tako-no-yawaraka-ni” 蛸の柔らか煮 literally meaning “tender simmered octopus”.  I tried this before with tako from other sources and despite long simmering, the octopus never got really tender. This time I have two elements which would make this dish successful; 1. This particular octopus had been pre-cooked before we received it and it was much more tender than the boiled and frozen octopus I tried before and 2. I now have a Instant pot which allows me to make this dish using pressure cooking. The combination of these factors resulted in a dish that was quite a success. The octopus was very tender and flavorful. 

I served this with fried shrimp heads (they were from Tako Grill takeout). Whenever we have shrimp (“bonanebi“ 牡丹海老) sashimi, we get fried heads which we heat up in the toaster oven and serve with wedges of lemon and salt broth soaked sugar snaps. On the right in the picture below is squid shiokara イカの塩辛 (frozen which comes in a plastic pouch). This is certainly a good line-up for starting the evening.

Here is the close up of the octopus.

The picture below shows how the octopus legs came. Two good sized legs in one package.

Since this was a trial, I used only one leg for this dish.

Ingredients:
Boiled octopus leg, thawed
200ml Japanese dashi (I made this from dashi pack).
1tbs soy sauce
2tbs mirin
2tbs sake
several think ginger slices

Directions:
I used an Instant pot with a small metal container insert with a silicon lid (you could use the inner pot of the instant pot).
I added the octopus and the seasoning liquid into the insert and put on the lid.
I added 1/2 cup water to the pot and using the metal holder that came with the insert, lowered it into the instant pot.
I cooked it on high pressure for 30 minutes with natural depressurization.
The picture below is after cooking.
One of the problems with the Instant Pot cooking is that the simmering liquid does not reduce at all.
So I decided to put the leg and the simmering liquid in a frying pan and cook it on medium flame for 15-20 minutes until the liquid reduced by half.

I cut the leg into bite sized pieces and served it at  room temperature. This is a most tender and flavorful octopus leg. Next time I will make a larger amount since the entire leg was just enough for two small servings.

Happy New Year 2022 明けましておめでとう 2022.

Happy New Year 2022! The pandemic still persists with the Omicron variant making it debut and spreading so quickly just when we thought things were starting to come under control and using a quote from the movie Jaws "it was safe to go back in the water again".  In any case, both my wife and I took all the precautions; being vaccinated and boosted. We sincerely hope we can get past this soon.

This is the year of tiger according to Chinese/Japanese zodiac signs. We thought we had a larger tiger figurine but these are what we had. The two shown below look somewhat like cats rather than tigers.

The one shown here really looks like a tabby cat. It is made of carved wood and is one of a full set of the 12 zodiac figures we got in Kyoto on one of our trips to Japan. This year, I decided not to get "Kagami-mochi" 鏡餅 new years decoration since we generally do not finish the round mochi inside. 

When it comes to traditional Japanese New Year food, we look forward to and revel in the routine (or some may call it a rut) that we've developed over the years. First off is the expectation of the wonderful goodies contained in the Sushi Taro Osechi 寿司太郎お節 on 12/31/21 or "oomisoka" 大晦日 in Japanese.  Picking it up on New Year eve is an excursion we generally look forward to, although it is a bit of an arduous drive going into town and back. It was especially so this year when we discovered various parts of the route were closed to cars that day and only open to bike traffic. But it was worth it. We will be hitting the Osechi box this evening. We established the tradition of having our usual breakfast with cappuccino and the choice of various holiday breads such as stollen or panettone for the first day of the new year or "Gantan" 元旦. Then, for lunch, we have the more traditional Japanese New Year soup or "Ozouni" お雑煮 as well as some of the auspicious foods served for the New Year as shown in the next picture.

The next picture is a close-up assortment of "good luck" foods I served.

Some came from the Osechi box such as the fish cake 紅白蒲鉾 (#3) (since I did not get any red and white fish cakes this year), small fish じゃこの有馬煮 (#1), shrimp 小海老甘露煮 (#2) and black beans 黒豆 (#5). This year I was lucky to be able to get salted herring roe or Kazuniko 数の子 from the grocery section at Tako Grill. The amount was not too much and just right. I prepared kazunoko marinated in sake lee and miso かずのこの粕味噌漬け(#4). I also served salmon kelp rolls 鮭の昆布巻き and the datemaki 伊達巻 New Year's omelet roll (#7) I like to make based on my Mother's recipe. I also served salmon "Russian" marinade 鮭のロシア漬け which again was something special my mother used to make. I made it some days ago, so it had cured enough to eat. I also served simmered root vegetables including the symbolic "renkon" lotus root, "kobo" burdock root, bamboo shoot and carrot (#9).

Now the "ozouni" New Year soup. New Year is the rare occasion when I use this genuine Japanese lacquerware bowl that my mother gave us many many years ago.

Although you can not see it, the "mochi" 餅 rice cake is placed in a deep fried tofu or "abura-age" 油揚げpouch. I usually seal the pouch with a kanpyo 干瓢 (or gourd peel) tie. But in recent years I have not been able to find kanpyo and I used up what I had for the salmon kelp rolls. So this year, I had to improvise by blanching a whole scallion and using that to tie the tofu pouch. Other items in the soup included shrimp (from Great Alaska seafood), chicken tenderloin from some sous vide chicken breast I made, and vegetables including shiitake mushroom, daikon, gobo, and carrot. For the green, I used rapini flower buds. The shrimp was particularly good. I poached them gently in the broth with the shells on for a few minutes, took them out and shelled them before placing them on the top of the soup.

As usual, I served "daikon namasu" 大根なます with "ikra"  salmon roe いくら and a slice of boiled octopus leg 茹蛸.

Another salmon dish is sautéed salmon in sweet vinegar or 鮭の南蛮漬け.

Although this was lunch, no New Year feast is complete without the symbolic libation of sake (Koshi-no-homare hiyaoroshi 越の誉　冷やおろし). We toasted 2022 with one glass each to commemorate the New Year. This was a good New Year lunch covering many good luck foods. Let's hope it portends similar fortune for the rest of the year.