Salmon nanban 鮭の南蛮漬け

For my New Year's salmon dishes, I bought the entire side of a salmon which was rather large.  (It was very reasonably priced.) I made all the following dishes from just that one side: Russian marinated salmon, 鮭のロシア漬け, salmon fry 鮭のフライ, salmon panfried which I finished in the oven (2 servings) 鮭の塩焼き, belly portion marinated and grilled 鮭のハラスの柚庵焼き (2 good servings as an appetizer) and then I made this fried salmon marinated in sweet vinegar or salmon nanban 鮭の南蛮漬け to finish all the salmon--it went a long way. This is a variation on the theme of other nanaban 南蛮 dishes in which I used sardines, shishamo, and chicken.

Below on the left is the salmon nanban and on the right is the Russian marinated salmon garnished with salmon roe.

Here is a close up with one piece of salmon covered with marinated carrot, onion and celery.

This was another day, you can see the celery and salmon better.

Ingredients:

Salmon: skin and bone removed cut into eight 1/2 inch thick large bite sized pieces.

Flour: for dredging

Salt and peper:

Carrot: Two small, peeled and cut into julienne.

Sweet onion: One medium, cut into small strips

Celery: 2 ribs, cut into julienne.

For marinade:

Dashi broth: 1/2 cup (made from dashi pack with kelp and bonito).

Rice Vinegar:1/2 cup

Sugar: 1/4 cup (or 4 tbs)

Salt: 1/2 tsp

Light colored soy sauce 2 tbs

Japanese whole dried red pepper: 1

Yuzu juice: a dash if you have it.

Directions:

I made the marinade first. In a small sauce pan, I added all the ingredients except for the yuzu juice and gently warmed it up to dissolve the sugar and then simmered it for a few more minutes. I let it cool down to room temperature. I fished out the dried red pepper and cut it into small rings and returned it to the marinade. I added a splash of yuzu juice but it is optional. (I used one from the bottle since I do not have fresh yuzu fruit or juice). I added the julienned vegetables and let it sit for several hours.

I seasoned the salmon pieces with salt and pepper. Dredged them in flour and deep fried in 350F oil for 1-2 minutes turning once. I drained the excess oil and immediately submerge the salmon pieces in the marinade and covered them with the marinating vegetables.

We could have eaten it immediately but I let it to marinate until the next day in the refrigerator.

This is a just variation of nanban dishes and I like the one with small fish best but salmon is not bad at all. Because of the vegetable marinated with the salmon, it is almost like a salad. We enjoyed this dish for the next 5 days with the other new year osechi dishes 御節料理.

Unboxing Sushi Taro Osechi Box すし太郎の御節重箱

Again this year,  we got an osechi box 御節重箱 from Sushi Taro すし太郎. In addition to the box, we also got hand-cut "Juwari-soba" 手打ち十割そば for "Toshikoshi soba" or "End-of-the-year soba" 年越し蕎麦 and even a desert. The desert was a Japanese style black bean steamed bread with "maccha" green tea 抹茶 and white sweet bean paste (I may be wrong just a guess, see the last picture).  This was how unwrapping and unboxing went on new year's eve.

The menu is in both Japanese and English. The soba and steamed bread are not listed on the menu.

The upper box looked like this (picture below). All the "good luck" new year foods and more. Miso marinated kazunoko 数の子の味噌漬け, and baby mackerel nanban 豆鯵南蛮漬け were among some of the new items this year. I have never tasted miso-marinated kazunoko. It had a nice sweet nutty flavor. This one also had a really nice crunchy texture.

This was the lower box (picture below). Among the simmered dishes simmered conch/whelk バイ貝の柔らか煮 was new and very good. This year's daikon namasu 大根なます included sweet dried persimmon. This combination is also a first for me and the sweetness and soft texture of the persimmon created a good contrast. (I made a more traditional daikon namasu, myself, this year).

The plate below shows the first serving of the new year's eve feast. Everything was good as we sipped cold sake. The monk fish liver terrine あん肝豆腐 (front row second from the left) was our favorite as before. But everything on the plate was a treat. 

And we went back for seconds. The version of matsukaze-yaki 松風焼き (square chicken loaf) was sherry flavored. Indeed, we could taste the sherry and it was a pleasing variation. This year, we ourselves tried a variation on matsukaze-yaki including one with dried fig and Gorgonzola cheese (subject for future post). The daikon namasu  with dried persimmon 干し柿 is shown on the right in the back), we really liked it 

Although I was thinking about serving the soba as an ending dish or "shime" 〆 we had to pass on it because we were quite full. (We never seem to be able to eat soba on new year's eve for the same reason every year--too full). 

On the second day of the new year, we had the soba. We knew Chef Kitayama 北山料理長 was into making hand-cut "Juwari" soba from 100% buckwheat flour without any binders or "tsunagi" つなぎ such as wheat flour or mountain yam. "Juwari soba" is indeed the pinnacle of soba making prowess that only a real soba master can accomplish. His soba was just such an accomplishment. It was slightly thicker than usual soba, but had a more delicate texture with subtle soba flavor. I made warm soba with cooked vegetables or shippoku soba しっぽくそば but in the haste of enjoying it before the soba got soggy, I completely forgot to take a picture. The soba was fantastic. But I did take a picture of his steamed bread or "mushi pan" 蒸しパン which we had as a dessert with our short-drawn espresso (green beans are from Sweet Marias, Espresso Workshop#37 blend, home roasted to full city roast).

This was a perfect combination. Although I am sure green tea instead of espresso could also have been an excellent accompaniment, the contrast of the coffee really accentuated the flavor of green tea in the bread. This was indeed an elegant desert.

Sardines escabeche イワシの南蛮漬け

This is the second dish I made from some fresh sardines we got. For this dish, I used two sardines. This is a classic preparation of "Nanban" 南蛮 or Japanese-style escabeche. Essentially, the fish was first fried and then soaked in sweet vinegar with other vegetables.

Preparation of sardines: For this dish, I decided to use filets rather than the bone-in whole fish. After scaling the fish, I filleted them into three layers; two fillets of fish flesh and one layer of back bone. In Japanese culinary parlance, this is called "san-mai oroshi" 三枚下ろし. I use my own quick way to do this which is more like the Western style of filleting fish than the more traditional Japanese way.  Using  a narrow-bladed boning or fillet knife (instead of more traditional "deba" knife), I cut across just under the gills until the blade hit the back bone (do not cut through). Then, I turned the blade, 90 degree towards the tail and sliced off the fillet along the back bone. I do not even bother to gut the fish beforehand. I turned the fish over and repeated. I ended up with two fillets and the head with back bone attached (hence "san-mai" or three "sheets").  Using a fish bone tweezers, I remove all visible small bones especially inside the belly portion of the fish (this is very tedious). I also cut off some of the edges. After that, I washed and patted the fillets dry. I seasoned them with salt and white pepper and sprinkled sake over everything and kept them in the refrigerator covered until I was ready to cook (#1 in the image below).

Sweet vinegar: Again there are many variations but, this time,  I used my short-cut method. I just mixed rice vinegar (3 tbs), soy sauce (3 tbs) mirin (2 tbs)  and sugar (1/2 tsp). I also added two dried hot peppers cut into small rings (removing the seeds).

Vegetables: I julienned carrot (one small) and celery (two stalks) in a slightly larger than match stick size. I also sliced Vidalia onion (1/2, medium). I like my vegetables to be "cured" so I added and soaked the vegetables several hours at room temperature in sweet vinegar in a sealed container.

Frying: I removed the excess sake on the fish filetts using a paper towel and dredged them in potato starch or "katakuriko" 片栗粉. I deep fried the fish in 170F or 340C vegetable oil for several minutes on both sides. I drained the excess oil by resting the fish on a wire rack (I use a small frying pan with just half inch of oil. I will not reuse this oil since the sardines make it taste "fishy").

Meanwhile, I removed the vegetables from the sweet vinegar and arranged them on two plates (#4 above). While hot, I soaked the fillets in the sweet vinegar and turned them over several times to coat nicely (#3 above). I placed the fillets over the vegetables and garnished them with finely julienned ginger and perilla leaves (#4).

It turned out that the red pepper I used (bought it in a Japanese grocery store) was atomically hot. Especially the vegetables got really spicy. The fish was nicely crunchy with a sweet vinegar taste. No need to worry about bones because of the preparation I did. For me, the spiciness was the higher boundary of "OK" but, for my wife, it was too much especially for the vegetables but she finished the fish with gusto. the only drink we can think of is cold sake for this dish.

Fried shishamo in sweet vinegar 揚げシシャモの甘酢漬け

This is a variation of "nanban" 南蛮, which is deep fried fish or meat marinated in sweet vinegar with red (hot) pepper and vegetable such as onion. Small fish such as "aji" 鯵 or Japanese jack mackerel is most commonly used but I posted one with chicken breast previously. Since I can not easily get aji, I used frozen "shishamo" シシャモ instead. This is a perfect small Izakaya dish which goes perfectly with sake.

Shishamo: I used the usual frozen kind (Capelin or "karafuto" shishamo). All had nice roe inside. Without defrosting, I dredged in potato flour and fried it in 370F peanut oil (I used the shallow frying technique) turning once for 5-7 minutes. After draining off the excess oil, I immediately soaked it in sweet vinegar marinade (see below).

Sweet vinegar: Sweet vinegar or "amazu" 甘酢 can be made ahead. It keeps a long time in the refrigerator. I put rice vinegar in a non-reactive (such as stainless steel or Pyrex) pan on low flame and added sugar (half the amount of vinegar, either by volume or weight, for example, one cup of vinegar and 1/2 of sugar) and a small amount (I used 1/3 tsp but could be more) salt. Stir and make sure the sugar is completely dissolved and let it come to a boil (called "nikiru" 煮きる), this makes the vinegar mellow. Let it cool down and put it in a plastic or glass container and keep it in the refrigerator. This can be used for many other recipes.

Marinade: I mixed sweet vinegar (2/3 cup), dashi (1/4 cup), mirin and soy sauce (1 tbs each). I added thinly sliced red onion and julienne carrot the night before. You can do this part a few days ahead. I like the veggies to marinated at least several hours or longer. To make it truly "nanban" you add red pepper flakes but I did not this time.

While the fried shishamo is still hot, I put it in the marinade with the vegetables already in. I cover the fish with marinated vegetables and let it marinate for at least 10 minutes or longer. I served it with the vinegared onion and carrot on the top.

We had this with cold sake (our house sake Yaegaki "mu"). I think sake or beer will go with this dish well but the acidity of the dish does not agree with wine. Of course every part of the fish  including head, bone and tail is eaten in this dish. "Waste not want not" never tasted so good.

Duck "Nanban" Soba 鴨南蛮

When I made the Japanese-style chicken escabeche, which is called "Nanban" 南蛮 or Southern Barbarian, I mentioned another totally unrelated soba noodle and duck dish called "Kamo Nanban" 鴨南蛮. Since I had leftover roasted duck breast after I served duck breast with orange marmalade sauce one weekend, I decided to make an abbreviated version of "Kamo nanban" on a following weekday evening.

As I mentioned before, Japanese think "duck" and "negi scallion" are the ultimate culinary paring and this dish is usually made of grilled and charred, Japanese or Tokyo scallion or "naga negi" 長葱 in addition to duck meat. 

Negi Scallion: Since I did not have a Japanese "Negi" scallion, I used a wedge of onion. I cooked it slowly in a frying pan with a bit of light olive oil, turning over once or twice for 10 minutes or until nice char marks developed on both sides and the onion is cooked.

Broth: I used one "dashi pack (The one I used had kelp and dried bonito, but no dried fish)" in water (about 1.5 cups) and simmered for 5 minutes to make dashi. Any dashi, including instant granulated ones, will do. I added mirin (1tbs) and soy sauce (2 tbs to taste, I could have added more in retrospect). I kept it just barely simmering or hot.

Duck breast: The leftover duck breast had nicely browned skin and was cooked to medium rare. I cut thinly (1/4 inch) and then dusted the pieces with potato starch, katakuriko 片栗粉. I placed each piece in the simmering broth (above) for 20-30 seconds so that the starch cooks into a slightly slippery coating on the surface of the meat.  It also very slightly thickens the broth. if I was cooking the duck from scratch, I would cook the skin side only in a frying pan rendering as much fat as possible while making the skin brown following the first step of my usual way of cooking the duck breast. Instead of finishing the duck in the oven, I would slice the meat and cook it in the broth as descried above for a slightly longer time. You can omit the potato starch, if you do not like the slippery texture.

Soba noodle: I just used dried soba and cooked as per the package instruction, washed in running water, drained and placed in the center of an individual serving bowl.

Assembly: In the bowl with soba noodle on the bottom, I added the broth, and arranged the onion and duck meat as seen above. I garnished it with chopped green onion. Just before eating, I sprinkled 7 flavored Japanese red pepper powder 七味唐辛子.

Up until this point, we were enjoying Orin-Swift "The Prisoner" 2009 (Zin and Cab mix). It was certainly a good wine but it is not as good as the prior vintages and we prefer "Papillon" 2007 (Bordeaux blend with predominant Cab) from the same winery.  But this dish cries out for sake and we obliged. I should have added a bit more soy sauce to the broth but otherwise it was a very nice dish and indeed went very well with cold sake.

We also enjoyed stewed "Kabocha" squash. As before this one was sold as "Butter cup" squash but I believe this is identical to a Japanese "Kabocha".

Chicken breast "nanban", Escabeche Japanese style 鶏胸肉の南蛮

The type of Japanese dish in which fish or meat is first fried and then dressed in a sweet and slightly spicy vinegary sauce is called "nanban" 南蛮. The word "nanban" literally means "southern barbarians". (No offense to the people who used to be classified as "southern barbarians" 南蛮人 by Japanese). Hot red peppers are sometimes called "nanban" indicating they may have come through the southern trade to Japan, in addition, at least two totally different types of Japanese dishes carry the name "nanban". One dish is very similar to escabeche (which is the dish posted here) and it may be that the Portuguese brought this dish to Japan along with Tempura while trading in Nagasaki 長崎, located in Kyushu 九州, the southernmost (main) island of Japan, during the Edo 江戸 period. Another is the noodle and duck dish, "kamo nanban" 鴨南蛮.  One theory why this dish is called "nanban" is that this dish also features Japanese scallions or "negi" 葱 and the place near Oosaka 大阪 called "nanba" 難波 used to be famous for its production of "negi". Thus, this dish was originally called "Kamo Nanba" 鴨難波, which somehow became "kamo nanban" but I have no idea if this is correct.

In any case, this Japanese style escabeche or nanban, is best when you use small bony fish. Deep frying and marinating in vinegar makes all the bones edible. The reason I made this dish is two fold; I found a tall bottle of a good quality (made of 100% rice) rice vinegar more than half used on the uppermost shelf of our pantry (since it did not fit to the shelf where I keep the rest of the Japanese items, I totally forgot about it--"out of sight out of mind") and I also discovered that I had chicken breasts which I bought last weekend and they had to be cooked quickly.

Sweet vinegar: "Amazu" 甘酢 can be made ahead. It keeps a long time in the refrigerator. I put the aforementioned rice vinegar (it was about 1 and a half cups) in a non-reactive (such as stainless steel or Pyrex) pan on low flame and added sugar (half the amount of vinegar, either by volume or weight) and a small amount (I used 1/2 tsp but could be more) salt. Stir and make sure the sugar is completely dissolved and let it come to boil (called "nikiru" 煮きる), this makes the vinegar mellow. Let it cool down and put it in a plastic or glass container and keep it in the refrigerator. This can be used for many other recipes.

Marinade: I use 2/3 cup of sweet vinegar for one chicken breast. I add dashi (1/4 cup), mirin and soy sauce (1 tbs each). Put it in a sealable flat container to be ready for receiving the chicken.

Chicken: I make thin bite size pieces from one skinless, boneless breast by cutting across the grain of the meat on a slant. I season it with soy sauce and grated ginger (just enough to coat the meat pieces but no extra liquid should remain) and coat each piece of meat by mixing by hand and let it sit for 10-15 minutes at room temperature.

Dredging: I use potato starch or katakurko 片栗粉. This creates a nice even crust which does not come off easily and also produces a nice slippery surface after the cooked chicken is soaked in the vinegar marinade.

Frying: I again used shallow frying at 170C (340F). Since the meat is thin, it takes 1-2 minutes on each side and comes out very crispy but meat becomes kind of dry but that is OK. It is good to eat as is (which we did). It is quite different from the chicken thigh tatsutaage 竜田揚げ and it is very good in its own right.

Marinating: While the chicken pieces are still hot, add them to the sweet vinegar marinade. I also add thinly sliced red onion, julienned carrot, and red pepper flakes. You should add as much vegetables as you like or the marinade can accommodate. They are very good after pickling. I marinade them at least overnight or longer in the refrigerator.

The end result is quite nice. It is a very interesting melding of flavors. The frying cuts the acid of the sweet vinegar and the vinegar cuts the oiliness of the frying. The result is a refreshing dish with real depth. In addition, over time the chicken picks up the flavor of the vegetables with which it is sharing the marinade. The texture of the chicken is nice because the crust from the frying is still intact but develops a nice slippery or smooth surface (but not slimy, for those who have slime-o-phobia). The pickled vegetables are a nice accompaniment. Beer or sake may be a safer pairing but we had this with a Cali cab, Louis.M.Martini Cab Sauv, Alexander valley, Reserve 2007*. This wine has a nice earthy overtone with good firm tannin and went surprisingly well with this dish. The acid in this dish appears not to compete with this wine.

*P.S. Even after it was bought out by Gallo, Louise.M.Martini keeps making reasonably priced good quality wines, we liked their Napa cab and this reserve from Alexander valley (regular cab from Sonoma is so-so). Ghost pine, which is one of the Gallo's numerous brands but made by L.Martini, is also good.