Cucumber salad PA Dutch style PA ダッチ風胡瓜サラダ

Many years ago when we discovered the American mini-cucumber, we were delighted since it is the closest thing to a Japanese cucumber we can get here. Before this, the only options were the standard American cucumber or the English cucumber. We really didn't like the standard American cucumber. It's much larger than the Japanese cucumber. It has a tough skin. It has more and larger seeds. It has somewhat mushy, watery flesh, and for us doesn't have much taste. So, as far as we were concerned, the available alternative was the English cucumber which I used until we discovered the mini-cuke. While it has more flavor than the standard American cucumber, the English cucumber still has, to a lesser extent, some of the characteristics we didn't like about the standard cucumber. It was better than the standard cucumber but not as good, to us, as the mini-cuke. The thing we like most about the mini-cuke besides its smaller size, thin skin, small seeds is its intense fresh cucumber taste.  Even now it is extremely difficult to get a Japanese style cucumber. Occasionally, if we are lucky, it is available at the Japanese grocery store. So for the most part I am using American mini-cukes to make "asazuke" 浅漬け and "sunomono" 酢の物 with good results. One day we realized we had an excess of cucumbers in the fridge so, out of the blue, my wife blurted, "Its summer. We have a lot of cucumbers.  Let's make Pennsylvania Dutch style cucumber salad like I used to eat summers growing up in rural Pennsylvania." So I was set to slicing Vidalia onion and American mini-cukes. After consulting her "historic"  PA Dutch cookbooks my wife made the dressing. This was quite good. 

Ingredients:
5 mini-cukes
1 medium sized Vidalia onion
3 Tbs. dill weed

For the dressing: (shown in picture below)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
2 Tbs. sushi vinegar (Yes. I know the Pa. Dutch did not have sushi vinegar…but we did.)
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Thinly slice the cucumber and onions. For the onion cover with several pinches of salt, knead it, let stand for several minutes to draw out moisture. Squeeze out additional moisture. Rinse under water to wash off the salt and squeeze it again. For the cucumber; cover with several pinches of salt, using less than for the onion. Repeat the steps used for the onion, but because I used less salt I did not need to rinse it. Add all the ingredients together for the dressing. Add the dressing to the onion, cucumber mixture. Add the dill and mix. (See picture below).

This was a very nostalgic taste of summer for my wife. You can't go wrong with a cream based dressing on fresh veggies. The overall taste of this salad is very refreshing and perfect for a hot humid summer day. The day we made this salad my wife had also made a chicken curry. They were both done at about the same time so we decided to taste the products of our (her) labor. We had a small bowl of each and were very surprised to find that the cucumber salad went perfectly with the curry. Then it dawned on us; this was the Pa. Dutch equivalent of Indian cucumber yogurt salad i.e. raita a customary side dish for curry. No wonder they went so well together. 

Daikon marinated in beer #2 大根のビール漬け 二回目

As I promised in the prior post on Daikon marinated in beer, I played with the kind of beer I used and types of vegetables. The last time I used Sam Adams Summer Ale which is a more pilsener-like light-colored beer (ale). This time I used Sam Adams Brown Ale which is a bit more robust and darker ale. The proportion of other ingredients is about the same but I used a whole bottle of beer (350ml or 12 oz) and almost proportionally increased the remaining ingredients. Beer (12 oz), rice vinegar (50ml), sugar (100 grams), salt (50 grams), Japanese hot mustard powder (20 grams). Like before, I peeled and cut a daikon into 4-5 inch long pieces and quartered. I used a half of a large daikon. I also added small carrots (2) and mini-cucumber (3).

After 7 days, the daikon and carrot are good but may be a bit too mustardy (especially the daikon). The cucumber was a bit shriveled up. I added a new mini-cucumber and tasted it after one day. The above pictures are one day old cucumber and 8 day old carrot and daikon. All are good but by far, daikon is the best. I will reduce the mustard powder next time and leave cucumber probably for 2 days. This cucumber was not shriveled up but did not have enough flavor penetrated. I am not sure of the difference between the brown and summer ales but the brown ale appears to add more depth to the flavor. Among the vegetables, there is no question that daikon is the best as everybody has indicated.

Cucumber with moromi miso もろきゅう

This is a teiban 定番 or regular dish in Izakaya. It is very simple dish and this is not a recipe per se; essentially serving cucumber and a special type of miso called moromi miso もろみ味噌 together. It is called "moromi miso kyuri" もろみ味噌きゅうり but it is, almost always, shortened as "morokyu" もろきゅう. The quality of the cucumber is most important. Fresh and firm Japanese cucumber is the best but it is not always easy to get that kind of cucumber in the U.S. It is also interesting to see how Izakayas in different regions serve this dish. For example, last time we were in Japan, we had this in three different Izakayas; one in Kanazawa and two in Kyoto. In Kanazawa, they just served it cut in a long sticks but it was nicely chilled and very crispy. In Kyoto both Izakayas added decorative cuts like I did here as though they feel that an extra touch is need to charge whatever they charge for this dish. I would like to mention another encounter we had in Torihachi とり八 in Kyoto. After we ordered and ate morokyu, a couple (obviously just coworkers or acquaintances) sitting next to us at the counter decided to order one. After receiving the morokyu, the man pontificated on how the decorative cuts could be done (which is far from how this is actually done) and appeared not really interested in eating the dish. We had a chuckle overhearing this. 

Especially since I used American mini-cucumbers (my excuse), I did not do a great job of this decorative cut which supposedly mimicking a pine tree. This decorative cut was shown for the first time to us by one of the sushi chefs at Mikado in Tenleytown area of DC, a Japanese restaurant we used to frequent, which has been closed for over 10 years after their losing the lease and the owner decided to retire.

To prepare this dish, I just soak cucumbers (use Japanese or mini-cucumber, American and English cucumber are not suitable for this) in ice water (with ice cubes) for 5-10 minutes to chill and crisp it. After drying the surface, you can cut in long st
icks by quartering lengthwise or, like I did here, cut in half in both length- and width-wise with the decorative cut. You could use different types of decorative cuts as well. If you are interested in how this and other decorative cuts using cucumbers are done, please watch this video.

Moromi miso もろみ味噌 is a special kind of miso with fermented rice , wheat or barley, and sometimes with other added vegetables. It tastes salty, sweet and a bit nutty. It is meant to be eaten as a condiment or for dipping but not for seasoning dishes or soup. You could buy it in any Japaneses grocery store and it usually comes in a small plastic pouch (see above) or in a jar. The one I got this time is called "Kinzanji-moromi" 金山寺もろみ which is best known in Wakayam 和歌山 prefecture but this one appears to have come from shinshu 信州 which is Nagano 長野 prefecture.

To eat, just pick up the cucumber and using chopsticks, place and spread a small dab of moromi miso and eat. It is nice refreshing dish in-between other dishes. I have to say, though, nothing matches freshly harvested Japanese cucumber, with a much darker green skin and still having small prickly surface, but this has to do as a good second best. You could also serve sticks of celery, carrots, or other fresh vegetables with moromi miso.

Cucumber in soy sauce 胡瓜の醤油漬け

I would like to have fresh cucumbers (if available Japanese cucumber but American mini-cucumber is a great substitute). Usually American min-cucumbers come in a pack of 6. If not used within 2-3 days, they go bad (white specks, either bacteria or fungus, develop on the surface).  I make several kinds of cucumber salads and pickles in an attempt to use up the cucumbers.  Currently our favorite pickled cucumber is using leftover pickling liquid after making the daikon pickles. In addition, I also try to preserve fresh cucumbers by placing them in a Ziploc bag and pouring enough Vodka to coat all the surface plus a bit more and then I squeeze out as much air from the bag as I can. With this treatment, the fresh cucumber last about one week or a bit more. I am always looking for other recipes to use cucumbers. I saw this recipe in one of the Ko Kentetsu You Tube episodes. It is easy enough and looks interesting. This is marinated about 3 days. It is still crunchy. Soy sauce and vinegar make the foundation but the addition of ginger and a small slash of dark sesame oil really make it.

Ingredients:
3 American mini-cucumbers or 2 Japanese cucumbers. 
Fine julienne of ginger root

Marinade:
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs rice vinegar
Small splash of dark sesame oil

Directions:
Cut the cucumbers length wise in half
Remove the seeds using a small spoon
Cut the cucumber on a bias in bite sized pieces

Add the cucumber, ginger and the marinade to a sealable container. Close the container and refrigerate. 

You can enjoy this immediately or in few days.

We like this. It is very easy to make and slight sweetness combided with the sesame oil and ginger really make this a good side dish or “Hashi-yasume” 箸休め meaning “chopsticks rest” so that the chopsticks take a brief rest after heavy lifting of main dishes.

Seasoned rice and sake lees marinated cucumber 炊き込みご飯，胡瓜の粕漬け

One evening, I made a short Japanese course dinner for a visiting friend. Among the dishes we served, I made a type of seasoned rice which I served with grilled salmon. I posted a similar dish previously (scattered sushi cooked in Donabe). In this version, the ingredients that went into the rice was not pre-cooked. The next day, we had the rice that was left over from the dinner for lunch. I served it with my sake lees cured cucumber and garlic chives, tofu and egg clear soup.

For this seasoned rice or "Takikomi gohan" 炊き込みご飯, I used burdock root ごぼう, carrot 人参,  shiitake mushroom 椎茸and hijiki seaweed ひじき. I could have added more items such as abura-age 油揚げ and proteins such as chicken but I restrained myself.

When I made sake lees marinade, I mostly marinated fish but I also tried cucumber called cucumber kasu-zuke 胡瓜の粕漬け . This is my truncated version.

Since we have new tender garlic chives coming up in our herb garden, I made this classic clear soup with garlic chives, silken tofu and egg.

1. Seasoned rice (Takikomi-gohan) 4-6 servings:

Ingredients:

Rice, 2 cups (by the small 180ml cup came with the rice cooker), washed, and drained.

Shiitake mushroom, dry, 4, hydrated by soaking in warm water for 2-3 hours,  moisture squeezed out and sliced into small strips. I reserved the soaking liquid.

Burdock root, 1/3, skin scraped off with the back of the knife, thinly sliced on the bias, cut into fine strips, immediately soaked in acidulated water (I used a splash of rice vinegar) for 10-15 minutes, washed and drained.

Carrot: 1 medium, peeled, sliced on the bias and then cut into thin strips.

Hijiki: I soaked dry hijiki in plenty of water. Washed them and changed the water a few time until they were hydrated (20-30 minutes). I drained and washed and set aside.

I placed washed and drained rice in the rice cooker and added the shiitake soaking liquid (through a fine meshed strainer). I added mirin (1tbs), sake (1tbs) and light colored soy sauce (1 tbs). I could have added salt but I did not since I could always add more salt after it was cooked. I added water to make the specified amount required (in this case, the water level mark "2"). I then added the vegetables into the rice. I turned on the rice cooker.

After the rice was cooked, I let it steep for 10-15 minutes. Using a rice paddle, I mixed the cooked rice and served. 

2. Cucumber kasu-zuke:

The formal way of making this dish, requires making salted cucumber or "shiozuke". I took a short cut. I coated the surface of the cucumber with Kosher salt and placed them in a Ziploc bag and let it sit in the refrigerator for several days.

Ingredients:

Cucumbers, I used American mini-cucumber but Japanese cucumber would be the best, washed, I used the short cut method described above and let it stand in the refrigerator for several days.  The cucumbers look shriveled and the bag had a quite a good amount of exuded water. 

Kasu-doko,   This is the same one I used when I made "cod kasuzuke". I just placed the salted cucumbers into the kazu-doko. I dug it out after 3 weeks (below).

I removed the sake lees and washed.

The rice was quite good but my wife added a pat of butter. She thought the butter made it it much better. The cucumber was not like real kasuzuke but it had rather strong sake lees flavor and was qualified success.

Poke made from Tuna from Lobsters New England マグロのポケ

Here is another appetizer threesome I made from whatever we had in the fridge one evening. At least, one is sort of new warranting this post. From left to right, tuna poke まぐろのポケ, grilled trout and cucumber mizore-ae　焼き鱒とキュウリのみぞれ和え, and mozuku in sweet vinegar with onsen tamago モズクの甘酢温泉卵乗せ.



The below is my version of a famous Hawaiian "ceviche" called "poke".  I made this because when we ordered live lobsters from Lobsters New England for Valentine's day dinner, I saw tuna (big eye tuna from the East Coast, according to the web site) which was supposedly "Sushi"grade. When we received it, the cut was very similar to what we get from Catalina Offshore products (skin and a portion of dark red meat called "chiai" 血合 attached). It was, however, more the worse for wear due to it’s trip in the box with the live lobsters. Instead of being wrapped with layers of absorbent paper to prevent it from sitting in whatever oozed out, it was in a plastic bag soaked in a blood tinged liquid. When I opened the package it had a slight fishy smell (not a good sign for “sushi grade”). I decided to do a "Yubiki*" 湯引き process immediately.

*"Yubiki": The "Yubiki" cooks the surface of the block where bacterial growth would be most prominent killing any growth that may have occurred.  I removed the skin, chiai and made two rectangular blocks. I plunged the blocks into boiling water with a splash of sake for 10 seconds and when the surface was all white, I plunged the tuna blocks into ice water ( a mixture of ice cubes and water) to quickly cool it down. After the yubiki, I did not detect any fishy smell indicating the process was probably successful. To determine if the tuna was indeed fresh enough to be eaten in a poke preparation, I shaved off the yubiki surface in thin layers with the underlying raw tuna. I tasted a small portion and decided I could use it to make this poke.



For the tuna poke, I cut the tuna into small cubes, mixed with finely chopped scallion, finely diced cucumber (American mini cucumber), finely chopped garlic, Japanese red pepper powder or ichimi tougarashi 一味唐辛子, soy sauce and a splash of dark roasted sesame oil. I tasted it and the seasoning tasted OK. I added more Japanese red pepper powder on the top before serving. The garlic and sesame oil added a rather assertive flavor but it was good.



The second dish was leftover from the previous weekend when we grilled (hot smoked) rainbow trout on the Weber grill. I removed any small bones and skin and made small chunks. Since I had only a small amount of daikon left, I skinned and grated it to make "daikon oroshi" 大根おろし. I drained off the excess liquid. I also thinly sliced American mini-cucumber, salted it and let it stand for few minutes and squeezed out the excess moisture. I mixed the fish meat, cucumber slices and grated (drained) daikon and dressed with "yuzu shouyu"  柚子醤油 (from the bottle). This dish had a good yuzu flavor and the grated daikon added some heat and tanginess.



This is our favorite way to have an onsen egg. I just thawed some store bought mozuki in sweet vinegar, put it in the bottom of the container and dropped the onsen egg on top.  I made these eggs previously (using a home sous vide machine) and kept them in the refrigerator until I was ready to use them. I garnished with chopped scallion. The custard like consistency of the egg yolk is what is great about this dish.

All of these dishes were perfect with either cold or warm sake.

From this batch of tuna, I also made "Zuke"  漬け. The marinade was a quick one; a mixture of 2:1:1 of soy sauce, mirin, and sake with grated ginger, heated up (to remove the alcohol and meld the flavors), strained and then quickly cooled in an ice bath (after I did the "yubiki" process). The Yubiki tuna was sliced and marinated in a sealable container in the refrigerator for several hours before serving (longer marinating produces a slightly soft sticky consistency or "nettori" ねっとりconsistency, some like that but we do not). I served this with daikon namasu 大根なます(which I made some days ago even though it was past New Year). I placed it on very flavorful baby arugula. With this zuke treatment, the tuna was quite good and we enjoyed it.

Could Lobsters New England be another source of sashimi tuna for us? My answer is "maybe". It appears that the tuna may have been very fresh to start with but perhaps due to subsequent handling this batch needed "Yubiki" before  using it as sashimi. The lobsters, however, were wonderful.

Otoshi three kinds including octopus sashimi タコ刺身、酢味噌和えとおとうし三種

This was the starting lineup for dinner one weekend evening. I had just come back from our Japanese grocery store burdened with all kinds of "goodies"; "ikura" いくら salmon roe, boiled octopus leg, fish cake, steamed squid salad Chinese style, and other items. So this was a quick and easy starter to prepare.  I used a store-bought "sashimi" soy sauce  刺身醤油 (small bottle shown below). Regular soy sauce is made with a mixture of soybeans, Koji rice, salt and water. It is somewhat watery and clear in appearance. In contrast this "sashimi" soy sauce is made differently. It uses either Tamari たまり, which is made from 100% soybeans (instead of a mixture of soybeans and koji-rice)  or it uses "double prepared" soy sauce or "Saishikomi-shoyu" 再仕込み醤油.  This is double prepared because soy sauce is substituted for the water used in regular soy sauce and is brewed again to make the "double prepared" soy sauce. As a result of this double brewing, it is thicker and more viscous than regular soy sauce. Depending on the brands, it may also contain "dashi" or "mirin" or other additions. For us, the difference is subtle but we occasionally have this special soy sauce for sashimi.

I served octopus two ways; one was sliced thinly with a wave pattern, which is called "sazanami-giri" 漣切り meaning "ripple cut".  My version is more like "big wave cut". This is done so that when dipping in wasabi and the afore-mentioned sashimi soy sauce, the surface will hold the sauce. The other is a tip portion cut into small chunks and dressed in "karashi sumiso" 芥子酢味噌.

The dressing is a mixture of miso, sugar and  and rice vinegar in 2:1:1 ratio and added prepared Japanese hot mustard to taste. Recently, I have reduced the vinegar (as per my wife's request) and added a small amount of hot water (from our "instant" hot water dispenser using RO filtered water). This makes the dressing milder and also dissolves the sugar better. I also added small chunks ("rangiri" 乱切り) of American mini cucumber.

Shown below is store-bought fish cake which we like. I grilled it in the toaster oven and dressed with ginger soy sauce (mixture of grated ginger and soy sauce). Since I had chives, I also added chopped chives.

This is another store bought drinking snack made of steamed squid with a "Chinese" style dressing called  "Ika-chuka-sansai" イカ中華山菜. Depending on the brand, the taste and ingredients vary  a little but this is not bad at all (except some of  the large chunks of squid was too chewy for my wife and she graciously transferred them to me).

This is the only one I really made. Cucumber suno-mono with small dried shirasu (whitebait/dried sardine hatchlings) garnished with ikura  しらす入りきゅうりの酢の物. Thinly sliced cucumber (American mini-cucumber), salted with moisture wrung out, mixed with "shirasu" (frozen in a package), dressed in sweet vinegar and garnished with ikura.

For a change, we started the evening with  tokubetsu junmai "Suigei" 特別純米酒　酔鯨 sake from Kochi in Shikoku 高知、四国. This is a  dry sake with acidity but not yeasty at all and went well with these snacks.

Cucumber salad with smoked scallop and poached chicken breast with black vinegar sauce きゅうり、貝柱、鶏肉のサラダの黒酢ソース和え

This is another small dish you make from whatever you have at hand. Since at our Home Izakaya, I usually make one dish, eat that dish with some sake and then make another, sometimes, making a small dish quickly from nothing is very necessary. In any case, this night, I found leftover poached chicken breast in black vinegar sauce, fresh American mini-cucumber and the New Year care package we just received from my mother which included semi-dried lightly smoked Hokkaido scallops 貝柱の薫油漬. Of course, you could omit the scallops or substitute with finely chopped smoked ham or salami.

For two small servings, thinly slice one mini-cucumber and salt lightly, mixing well or "knead" lightly and let it stand for 5 minutes on the cutting board. Then, squeeze out excess moisture. I also skinned and cut 2 Campari tomatoes into quarters. I crumbled one semi-dry scallop into small pieces and mixed the pieces into the cucumber and tomatoes then dressed with sushi vinegar. I sliced the chicken breast paper thin, placed the slices on top of the cucumbers and drizzled the black vinegar sauce over everything.

It is interesting that the black vinegar sauce congealed to a thicker gelatinous consistency since it contains protein/collagen from the chicken skin. When I was growing up in Sapporo, even inside our old house, it got very cold in winter especially at night without any source of heat. When my mother made a simmered fish dish in soy sauce flavored broth or "nizakana" 煮魚 and the leftover was kept in a kitchen cabinet, the sauce congealed in the bottom of the plate into jello next morning. This is called "nikogori" 煮凝り. It is a natural equivalent of making a fashionable "gelée" sauce by adding gelatin into a sauce. In any case, as a child, I really liked this "nikogori" on hot rice (it melted quickly). The reduced black vinegar sauce indeed attained a similar consistency (in the refrigerator not in the room, though). This dish is definitely best with sake, since it has a vinegary taste.

Marinated "Kyu-chan" cucumber きゅうりのキューちゃん

When it comes to cucumbers we much prefer Japanese cucumbers. While not large, they have a rich cucumber flavor and nice crunchy texture. They are quite different from American cucumbers which are large with a thick skin, generally tasteless, and watery. While we really like Japanese cucumbers, they are hard to come by. Sometimes, they are available at the Japanese grocery store but we never see them in the regular grocery stores. In desperation, we even tried growing our own only to discover the existence a nasty insect that snacks on the growing plant and infects it with a bacteria that eventually ends up killing the entire plant. It was heartbreaking to watch perfectly healthy growing plants wither and die just before the ripening cucumbers could be harvested.



For a while, we used English cucumbers, which were much better than the American variety. Several years ago, however, we switched to "mini-cucumbers" when they started appearing in our grocery stores. Although, not as good as Japanese cucumbers, they are the closest thing we can have to the taste and texture of a Japanese cucumber. They come 5 to 6 in a package and it is not easy to use them up before they go bad. So making cucumber salad or pickles is a good means of inventory control. As a result, I am always looking for new pickle recipes. I saw this recipe and decided to try it.

This is called "Kyuri-no Kyu-chan" きゅうりのキューちゃん and appears to reproduce a popular commercial product of the same name. I have not tasted or seen the commercial product. It is described on the company's website as first being salt pickled, then washed and soaked to remove excess salt, finally, marinated in a secret marinade (of a special soy sauce mix) with ginger. According to the website, all the processes are temperature controlled (i.e. chilled). Interestingly, all homemade recipes I found use hot (temperature) marinade. In any case, this is the result.

This is after 2 days of marination. The cucumber pieces have gotten darker in color.

The below is the first day after it was made.

Ingredients:
Cucumbers, 6 American mini-cucumbers (see picture below), washed, cut into half inch thick rounds.
Kosher salt

For marinade
Soy sauce 80 ml
Concentrated noodle sauce 20ml
Sugar 1 tbs
Rice vinegar 2-3 tbs
Mirin 2tbs
Ginger, thin julienne, 1tsp
Japanese togarashi red pepper 唐辛子, whole, cut into thin rings, seed removed

Directions:
1. Salt the rounds of cucumber and let them sit for 30 minutes. Wash and pat dry.
2. Place the marinade ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil. Cut the flame and add the cucumber (see below).
3. Let it sit until cooled to room temperature.
4. Remove the cucumber and set aside. Turn on the fire and let the marinade come to a boil.
5. Repeat 2, and 3 three times.
6. Add the ginger and red pepper in the last marinading step.
7. Let it cool to room temperature then place it in a sealable container.

Initially, the marinade appeared too small for the amount of cucumber but the liquid coming out of the cucumber made the marinade more than enough. According to the recipe, the tastes gets better amalgamated after 2 days in the refrigerator.

Although we have never tasted the commercial variety, we really liked this pickled cucumber. It still had a nice crunchiness. The taste was sweet, sour and salty with hints of heat and ginger making this a pickle with a complexity of flavor. We had this as is for a drinking snack but I am sure this will go well with rice.

Pickles Japanese style 日本風ピクルス

To preserve vegetables, Japanese usually salt them (with or without fermentation) called "Tsukemono" 漬け物. Although Japanese use vinegar and rice vinegar is the best kind of vinegar I can think of, "true" pickling appears not to be traditionally done. More recently, however, quick pickles appear to have gained popularity. Since I had leftover Japanese cucumber and daikon, I decide to make a quick pickle. Also since my wife mentioned that she liked "pickled" boiled eggs,  I also threw in some boiled quail eggs (from a can). (Pickled eggs are a Pennsylvania Dutch delicacy that my wife ate frequently as a child. They are hen eggs pickled and usually dyed red with the addition of beet juice to the pickling medium),



For color, I also added thin slices of carrot.



Recipe is rather simple. For the pickling liquid I used a Japanese sweet vinegar.

Sweet vinegar 甘酢:
Rice vinegar 300ml
Sugar 50g - 70g
Salt 1/2 tsp - 2 tsp

I placed the above ingredients in a small sauce pan, stirred to make sure the sugar and salt dissolved and let it come to gentle simmer for a few minutes. I let it cool down and kept it in the refrigerator. It lasts a long time (forever???). Depending on your taste, sugar and salt may need to be adjusted. In general, in hot summer, less sugar more salt and cold winter more sugar and less salt.

I added a few spices--thinly sliced dried Japanese whole red pepper (one, after hydrating to keep it from shattering when sliced), whole black pepper corns (4-6) and bay leaves (2)  to make a pickling liquid. I did not add any water because liquid exudes from the vegetables and eventually dilutes the sweet vinegar anyway. I cut the Japanese cucumber into small bite sized chunks ("rangiri" 乱切; cut obliquely as you rotate the cucumber in about 1 inch length), daikon in half inch cubes, and carrot thinly sliced and, boiled quail eggs from a can.

After a few hours in the refrigerator, it was ready. It was nicely refreshing and crunchy. Perfect for hot summer. We ate this as a starter with sake. My wife particularly raved about the quail eggs. They were nice little bites with creamy yolks lightly vinegar in flavor.

P.S. Later I made this using American mini-cucumber. Although, the Japanese cucumber stayed crunchy even after several days in the vinegar, the American cucumber became a bit mushy. I may have to try this with an American pickling cucumber if I can find one.

Squid, cucumber and sea weed salad イカ、胡瓜と海藻の酢みそ和え

This is a rather classic Japanese small salad belonging to a large category of "Sunomono" 酢の物. When sea food is added to the salad, it is most common to use "sumino" 酢みそ as a dressing. I have posted dishes using sumiso before.

I used boiled squid, seaweed, and cucumber in this dish.

Seaweed: I soak dried "seaweed salad" (comes in a pouch with several kinds of edible seaweeds but you could use just "wakame" 若布) in water and let it rehydrate for 15 or more minutes. Squeeze out excess water and dress it with sushi vinegar and, again, squeeze out excess liquid before assembly.

Squid: I use several bodies and tentacles of very small (body is about 2-3 inch long) cleaned squid. I cook it in boiling water with salt and sake for 30 seconds to 1 minutes (Do not over cook). After removing from the water and tasting, I sprinkle on a bit of salt and sushi vinegar while it is hot and let it cool. If you salted the water enough, you may not need to salt here.

Cucumber: This is an usual treatment of cucumber; I use one mini-cucumber, sliced thinly. I  lightly salt the cucumber, mix, and let it stand for several minutes. I ring out the excess water and dress it with sushi vinegar. I, again, squeeze out excess sushi vinegar before assembly.

Dressing ("Karashi sumiso" 芥子酢みそ): I use 2 tsp of sweet miso ("saikyou miso" 西京味噌), 1/3 tsp of prepared Japanse hot mustard (in a tube), 1/3 tsp of sugar, 2 tsp of rice vinegar. After checking the taste and consistency, I add either broth "dashi" or mirin to make adjustment (this time, I added very small amount of mirin).

Assembly: Squeeze out excess shushi vinegar and liquid from the cucumber and seaweed. I arragne the ingredients in three small mounds as you can see in the picture and garnish it with small wedges of skinned Campari tomato and drizzle on the dressing. I used the dressing sparingly since all the ingreidients are already seasoned. The nutty flavor of miso, sweetness and tang of hot mustard punctuated with vinegary taste are perfect in this dish. You definitely need sake for this dish, although some sparkling wines such as Proseco would also go well.

Cucumber and Vidalia onion salad キュウリとタマネギのサラダ

We made this for the 4th of July barbecue among other salads. This is a perfect dish for Swedish Smörgåsbord judging from its white color especially next to marinated herring in sour cream. (Japanese call this type of all-you-can-eat buffet "Viking" which is a catchier name and easier to pronounce, especially for Japanese, while suggesting its origin). My wife said, however, that this is not a Swedish but a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe. She grew up eating this salad in the summer and it was one of her favorites. In any case, this is a very cool refreshing salad for hot muggy summer days. In the original recipe sour creme is used. We substituted yogurt for the sour cream, making it is very healthy to boot. The major flavoring is dill.

I helped by slicing and chopping and did other prep works. My wife essentially was in charge of dressing and seasoning this. The amount and proportion of onion and cucumber is arbitrary.

I washed the cucumbers (American mini-cucues) then rubbed the cucumber skin with salt, rinsed and dried with a paper towel. Since we had 6 cucumbers, I used a Japanese mandoline and sliced it thinly. I added a small amount of salt (1/2 tsp), kneaded it and let it stand for 10-15 minutes. I wrung out the excess moisture but I did not wash away the salt (below left). My wife seasoned it with rice vinegar (about 2 tbs or to taste).

I used Vidalia onion (1 medium) thinly sliced. I added a relatively large amount of salt (3 tsp), kneaded and let it stand for 10 minutes or more (above right). I washed and drained several times in running cold water. I then wrung out the excess moisture and soaked in ice cold water (with ice cubes) for 30 minutes (skip this process if you really like strong onion flavor).

Dressing: My wife added Greek yogurt and finely chopped fresh dill (as much as you like).

The salad becomes better after one day in the refrigerator. Especially since we used yogurt, excess whey may develop, just pour it out before serving. Since we used Vidalia onion and salting and soaking all contributed to very mild almost sweet flavor of the onion. Using American mini-cucumber which is closest we can come to a Japanese cucumber also makes this salad much better than using ordinary American cucumbers. 

Pairing with drinks is not easy. Sake and beer will go with this salad but not any wines.

"Wu-zaku" eel and cucumber 鰻ざく

Because of Covid-19, and the uncertainty of some food supplies particularly due to the closure of multiple meat processing plants, we were gradually increasing our frozen cache of meat and fish as well as stews and curries made using the stockpiled proteins. One day, I noticed a strange smell when I opened the refrigerator or freezer.  I asked our resident "sniffer" who has an uncanny sense of smell and also happens to be my wife to sniff out what was going bad. She said the smell is not coming from food but was an electric-related smell. Not good news! Red alert; the refrigerator/freezer could well be on its way out. We immediately went on line to order a back up small stand alone freezer to save all the food we had just stock-piled. Apparently, with everyone else stocking up on food in case of a shortage small stand alone freezers were in high demand and absolutely none were to be had.  Some sites specified how to order; pick out the model you want, pay for it in full and your name would be then be put on a waiting list. No expected delivery time indicated. We finally ended up placing an order for a small stand up freezer which would not arrive for at least 6 weeks.  (We always seem to be on the trailing edge of these things). (And wouldn't you know that if the fridge is going to fail it would be at a time like this-- just after you have fully stocked it.)

The refrigerator limped along for a day or two with the smell seeming to disappear only to return. One morning, I came into the kitchen and there was a puddle of water on the floor coming from the freezer side of the fridge.  I realized it had happened; the fridge was kaput.  I checked the frozen food. Many of the meats and fish luckily, were still frozen. Since the back-up freezer had not yet arrived, I quickly recommissioned a small stand-up freezer in which my wife keeps speciality flours for baking, from a baking freezer to a meat freezer. I removed all the flour and replaced it with the meat and fish. It all fit.

Unfortunately many of the Japanese items were on the top shelf of the freezer and had already almost completely thawed by the time I got to them. Among the Japanese fish packages was "eel" kabayaki うなぎの蒲焼. So, that evening we had unexpected "Eel" feast. I started with "Wu-zaku" 鰻ざく. This is warm grilled eel with eel sauce topped with cool slices of cucumber in vinegary dressing. I suppose the contrast of warm, oily, soft, sweet and salty eel with cold crunchy cucumber with vinegar dressing is the main attraction of this dish.

I first made cucumber topping.

Ingredients (2 small servings)
One American mini-cucumber, sliced, salted, left for a short while then squeezed to remove the excess moisture
1/2 inch ginger root, skin removed and finely julienned

For dressing
2 tbs Japanese dashi broth
1tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp light colored soy sauce

Chill the cucumber topping in the fridge until just before serving.

Frozen package of eel kabayaki, thawed (whether accidentally like this time or intentionally). I used half for this dish, cut into pieces shown below).

Assembly:
I heated up the eel pieces in a toaster oven (I used toasting function at the highest).

Put the eel pieces on a small plate.

Top it with the cucumber.

Of course, cold sake was called for. Although we still like "Mu" which has been our house sake for a long time, we switched to "Tengumai" as seen below. This daiginjou has a bit more complexity than "Mu" and, at Tippsy sake, Tengumai is less expensive than "Mu".

This was followed by a few more items and we had eel donburi or "unadon" うな丼 as a "shime" ending dish with golden thread eggs 金糸卵. My wife is often leary of the multiple small bones in eel. From experience she found that big pieces of eel such as the kind used in donburi often have numerous hidden small bones but usually the pieces used in sushi do not. She even went so far as to call eel donburi "toothbrush buri". And after several bad experiences in Japan actually stopped ordering eel dunburi.  This time she was quite happy to discover that although the piece was quite large, it was sushi quality and didn't have any small bones. It was one of the best eel dunburies ever.

“Raw” scattered sushi 生ちらし

I am not going to go into an anthropological discussion of Sushi 寿司 or 鮨. It has many different forms but the one common ingredient is "vinegared" rice or "su-meshi" 酢飯 or "sushi-meshi" 寿司飯.  An old form of sushi was salted fish and rice fermented for preservation without refrigeration. Lactic fermentation adds "acid" to the food, among other things, including an awful smell. A good example is "Funazushi" フナ寿司. We tasted this in the past but only as a very tamed version in a small quantity. The most common and popular form of sushi involves pieces of fresh raw or cooked fish without fermentation on a small ball of vinegared rice. This style originated in the Edo era (16-19 century) and was called  "Edo-mae-zushi" 江戸前寿司 or "Nigiri-zushi" 握り寿司.  Another popular style is rolled sushi or maki-zushi 巻き寿司 including hand-roll or "Temaki-zushi" 手巻き寿司. By far the most home-cook friendly type of sushi, however, is scattered sushi or "Chirashi-zuahi"  ちらし寿司. I have previously posted variations of chirashi-zushi. Here I made "nama-chirashi" 生ちらし(meaning "raw" scattered sushi) or "Kaisen-chirashi" 海鮮ちらし( meaning fresh seafood scattered sushi) for lunch one day. It consists of pieces of sashimi 刺身 topping a layer of venegared rice.



The slices of cucumber are genuine Japanese cucumber (not American mini-cucumber) and tasted better. I served this with miso soup (tofu, nameko mushroom).



Sushi rice: This was made from imported Koshihikari コシヒカリrice from Niigata, Japan (subject for another post). I seasoned it with sushi vinegar from the bottle.

Topping: All the pieces came from a toro block I purchased from Catalina. This toro block did not have any chiai 血合い. #1(in the picture below) is the pure fat just underneath the skin. This time I left a layer a few millimeters thick on the skin and then removed it as a single layer. I cut it into rectangles. #2 is the more traditional fatty portion or Ootro. I salted it and then torched it with my handy kitchen flame-thrower (no kitchen should be without it) to make "aburi" 炙り. #3 is medium fatty tuna or Chu-toro 中トロ. #4 is wild caught hamachi which was fairly lean rather than oily. #5 is uni and the slices of cucumber are Japanese cucumber I got from our Japanese grocery store.

I made a rather thin layer of sushi rice, covered it with thin strips of dried nori and put the sashimi and cucumber on top.  I happened to have Sashimi-jouyu* 刺身醤油 I made several days ago and painted it on each piece of sashimi with a brush. I served wasabi and additional sashimi-jouyu on the side.

* Sashimi-jouyu: You can buy this special type of soy sauce in a bottle or make it yourself. There are many variations. The most famous is "Tosa-jouyu" 土佐醤油. I used soy sauce, mirin, and sake (2:1:1) ratio and added about equal amounts of broth made from shaved dried bonito flakes or katsuo-dashi カツオ出し. I then simmered the mixture for 10-15 minutes until the amount reduced to 2/3. I placed this in a sealable jar in the refrigerator. The amount of each ingredient can be adjusted to your liking. Instead of bonito broth, you could use water (to make it "pure" soy sauce flavor). You could also use much less mirin and sake or even add sugar.

The pure fat layer was particularly good. Usually, this layer is very firm. I cut it into small cubes and dressed it in " sumiso" sauce but this time the layer was not too firm and melted in your mouth. This was a rather decadent lunch and we even had a bit of cold sake.

Squid stir fry with celery, tomato, and cucumber イカ、胡瓜、セロリの炒め物

When I made fried squid tentacles one evening, and I had the bodies of squid left (or may be the other-way-around) from a pound of squid I bought. From this, I made this dish. This is a sort of variation of sautéed squid and celery. But the taste and texture are different.

Squid: I started out with one pound of squid including the bodies and tentacles. After cleaning and using the tentacles for kara-age dish, I cut the remaining squid bodies into rings (about 1/2 inch wide).

Vegetables: I cut celery obliquely into half inch wide and 2-3 inch long pieces (2 stalks) and American mini-cucumber in similar manner after removing the seeds and soft part around the seeds (1 mini-cucu). I made a wide julienne of tomato after I skinned and removed the seeds (1 medium).

I added olive oil (1/2 tbs) and butter (1 tsp) to a frying pan on medium low heat and sautéed slices of garlic (1 fat clove) and red pepper flakes (1/5 tsp or to your taste). When the garlic was fragrant, I added the celery first and sautéed for 1-2 minutes and then added the cucumber followed by the tomato. After 1 minute or so, I increased the heat to medium and added the squid rings (patted dry with a paper towel to remove any moisture) and quickly sautéed for 30 seconds or until the squid became just opaque and done. I seasoned it with salt and black pepper.

This is a very nice dish albeit it was a bit too spicy for my wife. I may have overdone the red pepper flakes and black pepper but it created a nice gentle buzzing in my mouth. The freshness and quality of the squid were quite good. Butter and garlic flavors combined with the still crunchy refreshing celery and cucumber all go well together. Squid has not been overcooked has a nice texture and taste and the tomato almost melted adding richness to the sauce and some acidity. We kept enjoying cold sake with which we started this evening. 

Bonito tataki carpaccio style 鰹のタタキ、カルパッチョ風

This is a just a variation of "Katsuo-no-tataki"カツオのタタキ or bonito filet with the surface cooked/smoked with a fire fueled by straw. Since we had this frozen bonito in our freezer for sometime, we decided to finally eat it one weekend.  Instead of the usual way of serving, I decide to serve it carpaccio-style. This was inspired by and adapted from a recipe I saw on line. The dressing is garlic infused light olive oil with anchovies. Served with cucumber, tomato, sweet onion, fried garlic chips, lemon zest and lemon juice. The picture below is just one slice with all the garnish.

The picture below shows the serving dish of bonito I arranged to share one evening. This is a bit more than half of the bonito tataki package we opened.

 Here is the package of bonito tataki which was thawed in the refrigerator for over one day. To remove some taste of fishiness, I dried the surface with paper towel and then covered it with a rice vinegar soaked paper towel for 5 minutes.  I sliced it into pieces that were a bit less than half an inch thick.

I assembled the garnish from ingredients I had on hand. I sliced half a sweet onion (Vidalia) and some American mini cucumber.  I kneaded the cucumber with a pinch of salt and let it stand for 5 minutes. Then I wrung out the excess moisture. I added a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the bottom of the serving plate and placed the onion and cucumber on top.

I happened have some skinned and prepared Campari tomatoes. So I sliced them and layered the tomato and bonito slices in concentric circle as shown below. I scattered some lemon zest over the top using a micro-grater.

For the sauce, Initially I though about a mixture of balsamic vinegar and soy sauce (which is a similar combination used in the sauce that traditionally accompanies bonito tataki. I also considered a Ponzu sauce, which is a mixture of Japanese Yuzu citrus juice and soy sauce). But taking a cue from the aforementioned recipe on line, I made a mixture of garlic infused oil (the oil left over after the garlic chips were fried and set aside) and anchovy paste (I added to taste).

I drizzled the dressing on top of the bonito and tomatoes then squeezed on some lemon juice, and added the fried garlic chips. We ate the slices of bonito with tomato, cucumber and onion. I had my serving with the garlic chips but my wife avoided them. The bottom onion slices absorbed the balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The sauce was very good too. Surprisingly, unless someone mentioned the sauce contained anchovies, I never would have guessed. The anchovies did give it an added dimension of complexity even though they did not announce their presence.  The combination was quite good and different from our usual way of serving bonito.