"Negitoro" from frozen yellowfin tuna ネギトロ

This is another installment of my ongoing effort to make low-quality frozen block of yellowfin tuna more palatable. I have made "namerou" なめろう of tuna before and this one is similar but better. I saw this recipe for "negitoro*" ネギトロ on the web and I had to try it.

*Digression alert!
This was supposedly started at a sushi bar in Asakusa 浅草 called "Kintarouzushi honten";金太楼鮨本店 as a staff meal or "makanai" 賄い. It was made from the scrap meat of tuna including the fatty meat or "toro" which was scraped off of the skin and bone (called "nakaochi" 中落ち) and chopped into a paste like concoction. This was later served to the "regulars" as either "gunkan" 軍艦 sushi, small "hosomaki" 細巻き rolls or as a topping for a "donburi" 丼 rice bowl. Initially, only large sushi bars which could buy whole or big portions of tuna had access to "nakaochi". Later as it gained popularity,"negitro" was commercially produced on an industrial scale from the red meat of low grade tuna with added oil, flavoring, and other additives (Pre-packed ones are widely available in regular markets or by mail order in Japan for consumption at home).The availability of inexpensive and widely distributed commercial "negitoro" products made it very popular in sushi bars like those with "belt conveyer" or "kaitenzushi" 回転寿し. It was named with  a word "negi" but it does not mean "scallion" but it is reportedly related to another famous restaurant in Asakusa called "Mugitoro**" 麦とろ which the sushi chef and his family frequented. He named this dish "negitoro" on a whim just because it rhymes with "mugitoro".

**Another digression alert!! This Japanese restaurant is famous for serving mugi-toro. "Mugi" literally means "wheat" in Japanese but, in this context, it is barley. Thus, "Mugi-toro" is cooked barley or "mugi meshi" 麦飯 topped with "tororo" とろろ which is grated "slimy" mountain yam "Yamaimo" 山芋. The combination is abbreviated as "Mugi-toro".  Some years ago my wife and I were wined and dined at this restaurant and we were served "negitro" as a last "shime" dish. Slimy potato on cooked barley was not our favorite despite its touted health benefits

I made this dish very close to the recipe, I topped it with chopped scallion, nori, and thinly sliced myoga.



I served it with wasabi and soy sauce (this time a special "Sashimi soy sauce" 刺身醤油 from the bottle). My wife decided, it was not efficient to dip a small amount of negitoro into the soy sauce so she took a short cut and poured the soy sauce with wasabi over the negitoro. This preparation really improved the taste and texture of this less than prime tuna. Remarkably it really had a taste reminiscent of toro.



It started with frozen block of yellowfin tuna, thawed (I used half of the block, this was rather large block).



I divided this half of the block into two. I first thinly sliced the tuna, added chopped scallion and perilla leaves (optional) and mayonnaise with a bit of soy sauce (this is a deviation from the recipe).  and chopped and mixed (this process is called "tataku")



Because of the added mayo, the color became lighter visually resembling fatty tuna or toro. Following the recipe, I cut the remaining tuna block into fine dice (but not into paste) to give it some texture.



I mixed it which is the final product. We really like it. Addition of mayo makes this low quality red meat of tuna more unctuous and fatty like real toro. This is better than "namero" made from the same tuna.  For the negitoro, we opened a bottle of Dassai 50 獺祭.

Vinegard sanma sashimi 〆さんま

When I pontificated about sanma  さんまor pacific saury, I mentioned that "sashimi" of sanma is not unusual now.  (This is because of the improvements in distribution that get these perishable "blue" fish quickly to the market.  One aspect of this improvement is that this formerly lowely  fish has been “up-graded” in status and has become much more expensive in many sushi bars). I was surprised to see frozen and vinegared sanma or shime-sanma 〆さんま in the freezer case of our Japanese grocery store. Although vinegared mackerel or シメサバ is very common, I have never seen sanma sold this way and promptly bought it.

I served it with two kinds of cucumber salad (one with thinly sliced myoga and one with thinly sliced red onion, both salted, washed and then excess moisture wrung out and dressed in vinegar dressing). I also put both grated ginger and wasabi.



As you can see below, this is very well vinegared and the meat is all opaque (i.e. chemically cooked) which is the same in packaged frozen vinegared Mackerel.



The below was how it came. One package had three filets of sanma.



After thawing, I blotted excess moisture and sliced it slightly obliquely.



The shime sanma tasted very similar to shime saba or mackerel. The vinegar was a bit sweeter than I would like but my wife thought it was fine. As I mentioned, the meat was throughly vinegared and opaque. If the center was a bit closer to raw would have been better but I am asking too much.

The only drink  that goes with this is sake. This sake called "Tozai Living Jewel" is widely available in US and appears to be an export only brand from Kizakura brewery 黄桜酒造 in Kyoto, Japan. We have tasted turbid sake from them before called “snow maiden” “Tozai Yuki musume” 東西雪娘.

The current one is "junmai shu" 純米酒  and it is not too yeasty, Although it does not have depth or complex flavors or fruity note (which is more from ginjo and daiginjo flavors) and the taste disappears quickly in the palate (i.e. short finish),  it is quite a drinkable sake. This one went particularly well with a strong oily fish with vinegar and sweet taste of vinegared sanma we were having.

So, we enjoyed this dish and sake.

Myouga Harvest 茗荷の収穫

This may look like small bamboo but these are myouga (myoga) plants. Some years ago, Chef Kudo of Tako Grill gave a cutting (root) to us after he served us his home-grown myouga and learned that we both love myouga. We planted it in several spots in our backyard but it chose to grow in this one under the Japanese plum tree. It is good that this is confined to the raised bed, this plant keeps sending underground shoots and could overtake the entire yard under the right conditions.


This is a very strange plant (and I guess it could be said that those who grow, harvest and eat it may be also be considered somewhat eccentric--including us). In any case, the portion of the plant which we eat grows underground. Around this time of the year, the plants send out subterranean buds. These will produce a delicate white flower that eventually makes its appearance above ground. The flower looks like a white butterfly floating just above the soil in the dark shade under the foliage. While this flower is beautiful and indicates that the bud is just below the surface once it has made its appearance it is too late--the bud which is the part that we eat is "past its prime". Once the buds flower they become mushy and lose their flavor.

Because the edible buds of the plant are literally buried, they are extremely difficult to find. You have to literally dig down into the soil, scrabbling with your fingers to search for the hidden delicacy which frequently can only be found by feel.  If you use a tool, it is highly likely you will damage the buds. Add to this difficulty the fact that the myouga grows in the part of our back yard heavily under the domain of "dark friends" (mosquitoes). These small Asian mosquitoes are quite vicious to anyone entering the part of the yard they claim as their own. But never fear when it comes to purloining a Japanese delicacy for her husband, my intrepid wife fearlessly sallies forth. She dons a black "Ninja suit" consisting of a long sleeved hoodie (with hood pulled up and tied) balloon pants with cuffs tucked into black socks as protection against the mosquitoes--black because mosquitoes seem less attracted to dark colors. With head deeply buried in the foliage she scrabbles bare-handed in the hard dirt in search of the tasty little buds sometimes buried inches under the soil. (Harvesting myouga wrecks havoc on a manicure). As I said those who grow, harvest and eat myouga may be considered somewhat eccentric--including us


After some searching, my wife found one. (the picture shows the bud after it has been partially dug out). The buds are still very small and it will probably take another week for them to grow to a good size. But if you let it go too long, everything will bloom when you least expect it and its "game over" until next year. Oh, well, my wife will just have to go back out again.

Here are what we harvested today but maybe, next week we may have a better luck. Dishes using myouga will definitely be forthcoming.

Grilled bluefish and matsutake lunch

We used to get a whole fresh Spanish mackerel at Whole foods, but it has not been available for a long time. Since we started buying groceries from the Korean grocery store HMart through Instacart, we have found they have more variety of whole fresh fish available. We got whole Spanish mackerel from them a few times. This time, however, mackerel was not available but bluefish was. We have used bluefish* in place of Spanish mackerel in the past and decided to go with it. I am not sure how I ordered it (by weight or by the numbers) but I ended up with two rather large bluefish not cleaned at all. So, I had to scale, gut, remove head and make filets. It was a bit of work but the fish was really fresh. As before, I made bluefish simmered in miso sauce ブルーフィシュの味噌煮 from the filets and  "tsumire" fish balls soup つみれ汁 from the fish meat scraped off the bones. I set the fish ball soup and miso simmered fish aside for another meal. The remaining filets, I salted and grilled. We happened to have matsutake 松茸 from Oregon mushroom and matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 rice leftover from dinner the previous night. So I made matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, warmed up the  rice and served with the bluefish for our lunch on Sunday.

* I am not sure of its Japanese name but it appears to be "Oki-suzuki" オキスズキ. I have not seen or eaten it while I lived in Japan.

I first salted the fillet and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. I cooked the bluefish filet with a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan on low flame with skin side  down until the skin got brown (6-7 minutes, I also applied decorative cuts on the skin to prevent the skin breaking during the cooking). I cooked 80% on the skin side, flipped it and completed the cooking. I served this with pickled myoga 冥加の甘酢漬け, salt picked cucumber and nappa cabbage きゅうりと白菜の浅漬け and thinly sliced cucumber dressed in sushi vinegar 胡瓜の酢の物. Since the fish was well-salted, we did not need additional sauce such as soy sauce for this.

For the matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, I made bonito "dashi" カツオの出汁 from a dash pack seasoned with mirin and light colored soy sauce and salt, added thinly sliced matsutake, silken tofu, "kyoubu" 京麩  decorative gluten cake (dried, hydrate before adding to the soup), freeze dried "mitsuba" 三つ葉 and yuzu zest ゆず (frozen).

The bluefish prepared this way was very good. The flesh was pleasingly oily, soft and had a nice flavor. The skin did not get crispy but stayed soft. It may have been a bit strong tasting fish to accompany the delicate matsutake but we really enjoyed this lunch.

Braised shishito with bonito flakes シシトウのおかかまぶし

 Japanese green pepper, (Shishi-tougarashi or shishitou 獅子唐辛子) is getting popular here. Nonetheless to my surprise, I found a bag of fresh shishitou at our regular grocery store the other day and got it. Eating Shishitou in U.S. is somewhat like a form of Russian roulette  since you can occasionally come across one that is atomically hot and you can never tell in advance which one it might be. Your first clue is when your mouth “catches on fire” as you bite into the pepper. (It seems this happens more often with U.S. raised shishitou than those raise in Japan. Legend says it has something to do with the soil.) In any case, I decided to make a shishitou dish I have not made before and added two small dishes as starters for the evening.

I thought if I de-vein and de-seed the shishitou, chances of hitting a hot one should be much less. So I de-veined and de-seeded and cut shishitou in long quarter strips. I served this with dashimaki だし巻きJapanese omelet with “aonori” 青のり dried seaweed.

Ingredients: (for two small appetizer servings)
4 shishitou, de-deined and de-seeded, cut into quarter strips lengthwise.
1 tsp x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce (or half and half of mirin and soy sauce)
1 tsp vegetable oil
3 tsp or more dried bonito flakes.

Directions:
Saute the shishitou in vegetable oil on medium heat for a few minutes.
Turn dow the flame to low and add the noodle sauce and quickly braise.
Cut the flame and mix in the bonito flakes.

I also served two small appetizer dishes. The below is chicken tenderloin (from chicken roasted in the Weber grill) dressed in sesame dressing 鳥のささみの胡麻和え.

“Hya-yakko” 冷奴 cold cube of silken tofu topped with myoga  茗荷 and perilla 大葉 (both from our garden) and grated ginger with the concentrated Japanese noodle sauce.

These three appetizers were a perfect start of the evening. By the way, we did not get any atomically hot shishito in this batch. (Maybe this was due to the luck of the draw or maybe it is indeed worthwhile to removed the vein and seeds.)

Tako Grill タコグリル

I am running out of new dishes to post. One weekend, I made "Ganmodoki" がんもどき thinking that although I had made it before I did not post it. When my wife saw what I was making she said she was experiencing “deja vu all over again” and suggested that I had already posted it. I checked my blog and, in 2012, I posted this dish.  I have been making dishes which go well with sake, but none of them are particularly post worthy or new. Meanwhile we have been visiting Tako grill, our “Izakaya” substitute regularly. While their dishes are always good, like any sushi bar, the range and variety are dependent on what fish are available. Recently we had several visits in a row where we hit the jackpot and enjoyed some great sashimi. Sushi Chef Jose Calderon did justice to the selection by preparing some spectacular sashimi presentations.

The picture below shows one such arrangement. The toro is arranged into the shape of a large rose flower, on the left hiding under the scallion and myoga 茗荷 are fresh sanma or Pacific saury. In the back, "Aoyagi" clam あおやぎ is arranged. In the boat made of cucumber is "sumiso" 酢味噌 dressing. He also added "hagikami" ginger はじかみ生姜 or young pickled ginger.



Everything was great but when they have it "aoyagi" clalm is a "must-have".

This picture shows how toro is frequently presented. It is “melt-in-your mouth” good.



Mr. Segawa, has been making  “Izakaya” dishes for some time. I think we tried all of them at least once. Please note the menu continues on the back side.



The dish below was one from the Izakaya menu. I do not remember what fish this was but it was dredged in potato flour and then served with a sweet and sour-type sauce. This could not possibly be bad.



Back in “the day” (when I was in Japan), sanma was almost never served as sashimi or sushi (because it was considered a cheap fish and was mostly grilled) but improvements in transportation and refrigeration as well as upgrading the status of sanma made it possible to have very fresh sanma, and therefore, sashimi when it is in season even in the United States. This had a lovely oiliness, firm texture and just the right amount of seasoning.



This time, Jose put together toro, wonderful uni (from California), Kanpachi カンパチ and aoyagi clam. When uni is good, nothing compares.



We are so lucky to be able to indulge in these delicacies.

Yakitori 焼き鳥 Part 5

Grilled Rice Ball 焼きおにぎり
Salted vegetables 浅漬け 


This is also our favorite to complete a yakitori meal. Mark's book has a more elaborate version of this old favorite,

Grilled Rice Balls with Vegetable Miso (p148).

You can make this using a frying pan and/or in a toaster oven but you never get the crunchy surface you could get when it is grilled over a direct charcoal fire. I usually use  simple miso paste (white or red miso or a mixture of the two), mirin, add sugar, sesame oil or tahini if you so desire, and heat and mix well to reduce to the original consistency of miso). Of course, you could follow the recipe in the book to make Vegetable Miso. This time, I was too lazy to make the miso mixture and used a mixture of soy sauce and mirin (in equal parts) instead. Just brush it on the rice ball toward end of the cooking process. It will penetrate the surface and further caramelize (because of the sugar in the mirin). It makes a nice crunchy crust and adds flavors. My wife likes it extra crunchy and squeezes lemon over it as she eats it. One of the reasons I like this so much is that this reminds me of "okoge" おこげ  or burned rice in the bottom of a rice cooker when rice is made in the old fashioned way rather than with an electric rice cooker. As a kid, I liked to munch on "okoge" with a bit of miso. My wife likes it because "what is not to like about crunchy on the outside soft and piping hot on the inside".

The small vegetable dish on the side goes well with grilled rice balls or any rice dishes, for that matter. We made a simple  "asazuke".  We cut up cucumber, carrot, Nappa cabbage ("hakusai" 白菜) or regular cabbage, diakon, myoga, radish or whatever vegetables are available.  They can be whatever size you like but not too small or too thin so as to give some texture. I add thinly sliced Jalapeno pepper (seeded and deveined), lime slices, finely minced ginger, red pepper flakes, and/or hydrated thinly sliced kelp ("konbu" 昆布). I add enough salt to sparsely coat the veggies ( I never measure) and mixed well by hand. Place it in a Japanse pickling pot. This can be bought at Amazon or simply use a bowl with a plate which can fit inside and weigh it down with whatever is heavy enough (such as a large unopened jar of pickles). In, at least, 4-5 hours or overnight, a surprising amount of water comes out over the vegetables. Move the vegetables in a plastic container and into a refrigerator. This will last at least several days. Use of Jalapeno pepper and lime is our modification of the basic recipe but works well.

Tuna and egg plant with mizore dressing 鮪とナスのみぞれ和え

This is another installment in my continuing quest to find a way to enjoy low-quality frozen blocks of yellowfin tuna.  This is based on a recipe I saw on the web. But for a few reasons, this dish turned out to be not as good as it could have been. It is combination of cubes of tuna sashimi, steamed (microwaved) egg plant dressed in grated daikon.



Since we had just harvested fresh myoga, I use it for garnish.



Since I could not get a Japanese eggplant, I used a small Italian eggplant. As per the recipe, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and placed it in a silicon microwave container and microwaved it for a few minutes then let it cool with the wrap still on. After it reached room temperature, I cooled it further in the refrigerator. I cut both the eggplant and tuna into similar sized block pieces. I gave it my usual "yubiki" treatment and then coated with sashimi soy sauce (below).



I grated the daikon and drained out the liquid using a fine mesh strainer. I added a small amount of rice vinegar and soy sauce and mixed the tuna and eggplant with the grated daikon.

We had two problems with this particular dish and they both had to do with the quality of the ingredients we used (not the tuna this time). One was that the grated daikon was ridiculously and atomically hot! This is a bit unusual but daikon is from the horseradish family and some, like this one, exhibit their heritage to greater or lesser degrees. We actually had to remove the daikon in order to be able to eat the rest of the dish. Another problem was the quality of the egg plant. It had good amount of seeds, which I mostly removed, but it did not have the wonderful texture and taste of a Japanese eggplant. I would like to try this dish again using a milder daikon and better quality egg plant.

Salted and grilled mackerel 鯖の塩焼き

 Come to think of it, I never cooked mackerel this basic way. When I got two whole Spanish mackerels from HMart via Instacart, there was too much to make it all into the miso-simmered dish 鯖の味噌煮 I usually make. So, I took two filets I prepared from the smaller of the two fish and made this salted and grilled mackerel. I filleted the fish and removed the small pin bones. Then I cut one filet into two and salted both sides. I let it stand for 10 minutes and blotted the surfaces using a paper towel. I made shallow cuts on the skin and re-salted it. Since I do not have a Japanese style fish grill and I did not want to cook fish in the toaster oven, I sautéed the fillets in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil.

This is a basic simple way of cooking mackerel but it was good. On the side, I added sliced mini-cucumber (salted and moisture squeezed out) dressed in sushi vinegar. Since we had just harvested and pickled myoga, I added it too. This could have gone very well with rice. We had it as a drinking snack with cold sake.