Octopus carpaccio variation タコのカルパッチョ

I stopped by our Japanese grocery store this weekend, especially since we were running out of sushi vinegar 寿司酢 (an important item for any household especially ours). I bought a few other items which included boiled octopus legs ゆでだこの足. I served them with my usual "karashi sumiso" 芥子酢味噌 that evening with cold sake. The next evening I wanted to serve what was left but in a different way. The variation I came up with is the subject of the current post. Besides, my wife wanted to start the evening with a glass of red wine rather than sake. So, I came up with this rendition of octopus carpaccio. Although I posted a similar dish before, there are enough differences to warrant another post (I am a bit desperate for new posts at this point). Since I also bought cod roe or "tarako" たらこ and "salmon roe" いくら as well, I incorporated these into the dish as well. In the picture below, the green is cucumber slices, the red and white slivers are red radish, thinly sliced and then cut into thin julienne.

My wife asked why I always slice octopus in a wavy fashion (check out how a pro will do it with the visual aid here). This wavy cut is called "sazanami-giri" さざなみ切り("sazanami" is Japanese for the small ripply waves on the surface of otherwise calm waters).  I told my wife this is the traditional way of slicing octopus and abalone or "awabi" アワビ because the flesh of these creatures is firm. If the surface was cut smoothly the soy sauce would just run off. The ripples help hold the sauce on much like the grooves in pasta help hold on the tomato sauce. 

As usual, I started with olive oil (I used this excellent Spanish olive oil for this) and syrupy aged balsamic vinegar, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper on the bottom.

I made the base layer with very thinly sliced Vidalia onion (I used a Japanese "Benriner" mandoline). I then added cucumber slices around the perimeter and covered the center with thinly sliced octopus. I removed the tarako roe from its membrane sac (I used about 1/3). I scattered the tarako and ikura on the octopus and garnished it with thin julienne of red radish. I finished with drizzles of the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  

We had this with Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2012, this is a very reliable California Cab and got 90 from Wine Advocate. This winery was bought out by the Gallo some years ago but appears to be maintaining their quality. It may not be a spectacular wine but it has all the good qualities of  a Napa cab. One should be careful when buying this brand, however, since they make three different versions with near-identical labels but different prices; they are from Napa, Alexander and Sonoma valleys. We tried all three in different vintages but we liked the Napa version best.  This wine went rather well with the carpaccio, although the addition of fish roe resulted in a somewhat less than perfect match for red wine. The roe were in small enough amounts so as not to be objectionable and they did add a nice saltiness. The balsamic vinegar was more sweet than vinegary and did not compete with this red. The olive oil was again great, adding nice fruity, grassy tastes with a peppery finish. The octopus itself had a very neutral flavor (an euphemism for not much taste) but added great texture. We had the octopus slices with layers of the onion, cucumber which made it very nice. I made one more dish which we had with this red wine before changing to cold sake with tuna tartar (both dishes are subjects of future posts). 

Octopus Carpaccio 蛸のカルパッチョ

This is another variation of octopus carpaccio. In this iteration, instead of using balsamic vinegar I used  balsamic glaze which makes it less acidic and slightly sweet which went well with red wine. Since I had roasted red pepper sauce and “ikura” salmon roe I also added them as a garnish. We bought the octopus, which was from Japan, from Weee. The most common Japanese way of serving octopus is dressing it in miso-vinegar sauce or “sumiso 酢味噌” which goes well with sake but not with red wine. This version went very well with the red wine we were having..

Ingredients: (2 servings)
One octopus leg thinly sliced (The one we got was boiled and frozen).
1/4 sweet onion, very thinly sliced, 
1/4 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and deveined, thinly sliced 
thinly sliced  parmigiano reggiano, amount arbitrary
dabs of roaster red pepper sauce (or pesto)
Ikura salmon roe, not too much

Extra- virgin olive oil, balsamic glaze
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the bottom of the plate, drizzle on some thin lines of the balsamic glaze and olive oil. Spread the onion and Jalapeño pepper slices over the drizzle. Spread on the octopus slices. Add thin lines of the glaze and olive oil on top. Sprinkle on the ikura and dabs of the red pepper sauce. Top everything with thin slices of Parmesan cheese

This is a really good appetizer. I also tried it with pesto instead of red pepper sauce and we like the red pepper sauce better. Although we like to have octopus in Japanese style with either wasabi and soy sauce or with sumiso sauce, this type of carpaccio really works with wine but do not over do the ikura.

Octopus 2 ways たこのお通し２種類

Again these two appetizers using boiled octopus leg are not new. But these were what we had one evening.

The first one is sort of octopus carpaccio (Carpaccio de pulpo). I posted a similar item in the past. I first made zigzag lines of good fruity olive oil on the plate and then criss-crossed with lines of syrupy aged balsamic vinegar. I scattered Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Since I had a leftover fennel bulb which was used for making chicken paillard, I first thinly sliced fennel using a Japanese mandolin Benriner and placed them as a base. I thinly sliced  boiled octopus leg and placed in one layer on the  top. I added a few slices of fennel, thin slices of cucumber and scattered oil cured back olives (after removing the stone). I finished with lines of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, Kosher salt and black pepper. Fennel added anis-like  flavor and oil cured olive gave a burst of saltiness. This combination was quite good.



Using the tips of the octopus leg, I also made a small Japanese style salad with karashi-su-miso 芥子酢味噌 dressing. I just cut the tips into small bite size chunks. I sliced cucumber, salted it and squeezed out the moisture. I then took salt preserved (not dry) Wakame sea weed, washed it to remove the salt and soaked in water for a few minutes then cut into small pieces. The dressing is a mixture of white (sweet "Saikyo" 西京味噌) miso, rice vinegar, Japanese mustard and sugar.



Because of the acidity in the dishes, sake was the best choice although the first Carpaccio dish could go with wine. These were good starters with cold sake.

Carpaccio of octopus タコのカルパチオ

Having bought a 2 lb whole boiled and frozen octopus (which is a small octopus) from Fish-For-Sushi in preparation for the New Year,  I had to make some effort to finish it before it went bad. We had dinner guests a few days before new year. Although they were not known to enjoy an octopus, I decided to take a chance and serve Carpaccio of octopus.




When I made salmon gravlax,  I bought navel oranges which turned out to be very sweet and juicy—the best oranges we have had for some time. So I decided to use the orange fruit as well as a bit of it's juice.

Ingredients (for 4 servings):
Sweet onion: one medium, thinly sliced in rings using a Japanese Mandoline (Benriner)
Boiled octopus legs: 2 thinly sliced on bias.
Navel orange: one large, fruit separated from membrane and cut into small chunks
Watercress: remove thick stalks

Olive oil: Good fruity extra-virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar: Aged sweet syrupy one
Salt and pepper (I used smoked sea salt).

In a small serving dish, I freshly cracked some smoked sea salt. Then, I drizzled on lines of olive oil. I repeated the process this time with balsamic vinegar which I drizzled in lines perpendicular to the ones I made with the olive oil to form an olive oil, balsamic vinegar grid on the plate. I then scattered thinly sliced onion. I placed the slices of the octopus to cover the entire center portion of the plate. I added the orange chunks, more slices of onion, and then the watercress. I drizzled lines of olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the top, and sprinkled on the juice of the orange, salt and pepper.

This was a great hit. Our guests had never had octopus before. They guessed that the octopus was a “protein” but did not know what it was. We had this with champagne.

Beef tongue carppaccio 牛タンのカルパッチョ

 My wife loves beef tongue but not the way it’s usually prepared in Japan (thinly sliced and grilled). As a result I usually prepare the tongue by boiling it in water with some aromatics which is how the beef tongue she ate as a child was prepared. (She refers to it as the Pennsylvania Dutch rather than Japanese method of preparation. The Pa Dutch method results in a meat that is extremely tender and melts in the mouth. The Japanese method in contrast results is a fairly tough and chewy meat. As my wife would say, “Which is the best method of preparation? What was the question?”) After removing the skin, I thinly slice it and make sandwiches using pumpernickel bread with mayo and mustard. (Again made to the exacting specifications of the tongue sandwiches my wife used to eat as a child.) Portions are further cooked as a Japanese-Western style beef tongue stew. (Which by-the-way was not something my wife used to eat as a child but likes non-the-less.) 

We have not able to get beef tongue for a while. Although we know one of the grocery stores usually carries it, we have not been there recently since we are getting grocery home delivery. But an unexpected event led us to be at this particular grocery store and since we were there we snagged a rather large beef tongue. We enjoyed the tongue over several days as sandwiches and stew with spaetzle. I finally used the last portion of the tongue to make carpaccio (left in the picture below) and a small salad in Japanese-style (made using the PA. Dutch style prepared tongue, of course) with ponzu, yuzu-kosho, onion, cucumber topped with sesame seeds (right)

I made this carpaccio the same way I usually make it using leftover steaks or octopus. I first make zig-zag lines of olive oil (I used our favorite Spanish olive oil) and balsamic vinegar (this is a quite good one we got as a gift) perpendicular to each other on a plate. Then I scattered Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper over the oil mixture. I then I put on a layer of Videlia onion cut paper thin using a Japanese mandoline  slicer. I then add a layer of thinly sliced beef tongue. I garnish with cucumber (thinly sliced, salted, with the moisture squeezed out and then dressed with sweet vinegar), more onion and concasse of tomato with basil strips. I finished with more olive oil, balsamic vinegar. This was really great with read wine.

For the other salad, I just used the cucumber and onion left over from the previous salad. I arranged it with the onion on the bottom, the tongue (thinly sliced) next and topped with the cucumber. I dressed it with ponzu ポン酢 mixed with Yuzu-kosho 柚子胡椒 and topped with sesame. (The dressing is what made it Japanese style.) We liked the carpaccio better.

Our garden now has azaleas and iris in full bloom. My wife brought some of the more elegant looking    iris inside for us to enjoy. Isn’t spring wonderful!

Tuna, asparagus and poached egg 鮪漬けの炙りとアスパラガスの温玉添え

The type of tuna sashimi blocks 鮪の刺身の冊 I can get at our Japanese grocery store is limited to frozen ahi or yellowfin tuna キハダマグロ, which was treated with carbon monoxide to give it a bright red color (carbon monoxide sounds bad but it is no health hazard when used on food like this). I always keep a tuna block in our freezer "just-in-case". I have to rotate the stock every several months since unlike wine, the tuna does not improve with time.  Since I bought a new tuna block when I stopped by our Japanese grocery store this weekend, I took the old one out of the freezer to thaw. I have posted  many times how to make this low-quality tuna sashimi palatable. One of the ways is to make "Zuke" 漬けor marinated tuna.  So, I sliced half of the tuna sashimi block and marinated it in a "Goma-dare" ゴマだれ (see below) the night before. This time, I did not do "Yubiki" 湯引き or cooking the surface by dunking it in boiling water and then ice water to halt the cooking.  I was not sure how I would serve this "zuke maguro" (marinated tuna) until I learned we were starting the evening with red wine. Then the "path" became pretty clear;

I had to come up with something that went well with red wine.  This dish was the result. I was inspired by  this picture in one of the food blogs I follow. This dish is grilled asparagus, poached egg with grated Pecorino Romano and botargo.  Since I did not have botargo or karasumi からすみ, I omitted it and used grated Parmigiano-Reggiano instead of Pecorino Romano. Seared zuke tuna is my addition. I poached the eggs as I posted before. 

Since I prepared green asparagus that morning, this was an easy dish to put together once I decided what I would make. 

Tuna preparation:

1. I thawed the frozen block of tuna overnight in the refrigerator. I sliced half of the block into half inch thick slices.
2. This time I made "Goma-dare" for marinade.  I first dry roasted white sesame seeds in a dry frying pan (1 tsp) until slightly darkened and fragrant (the sesame was already roasted but re-roasting it add much more flavor). I ground the seeds in a Japanese Suribachi すり鉢 mortar. I then added mirin, sake and soy sauce in a ratio of 1:1:2.
3. I placed the tuna and the marinade in a Ziploc bag to make sure all the surface of the tuna was covered with marinade and removed as much air from the bag as I could. I sealed the bag and kept it in the refrigerator overnight.
4. The next evening, I took out the tuna slices, blotted the excess marinade from the surface (picture below) and cut one slice into two.

I thought searing one of the surfaces would add texture and a beef-like flavor which would go better with red wine. I seared the pieces two ways; one by using a kitchen blow torch (those are the ones with the black specs in the picture below) and the other seared in a frying pan with melted butter (the shiny ones on the tops row and right of bottom row).  

Asparagus prepration:

I got thick spears of green asparagus from our grocery store. I removed the bottom by simply bending and breaking it. Using a vegetable peeler, I peeled the bottom half of the skin and blanched the stalk in salted water. Just before assembling this dish, I quickly sautéed it in melted butter and seasoned with salt and black pepper.

Assembly:

I cut the asparagus on the bias into 3-4 pieces. I arranged the pieces to look like a whole uncut asparagus spear, resting diagonally on a square plate. I arranged the two kinds of seared tuna squares on one side of the asparagus and placed a poached egg on the other side. I grated Parmisiano-Reggiano on top.

This dish followed my octopus carpaccio and we enjoyed it with a glass of Louse M. Martini Napa Cab as before. The tuna was seasoned well from the marinade and became firmer than non-marinated tuna. Searing added beef like flavor but we could not tell the differences between torched vs. pan seared. The combination of runny warm yolk and asparagus cannot go wrong. This dish really went well with the California Cab we were having.

Morimoto, Philadelphia, April 23, 2010. レストラン森本、フィラデルフィア

(from http://www.top-hotels-restaurants.com/files/morimoto-restaurant/5.jpg)

We finally made an excursion over the weekend to dine "omakase おまかせ menu" at Morimoto in Philadelphia. From the hotel, we walked to Morimoto down Chestnut street. The walk was an interesting mix of inner city decay amid the former splendor of old Philadelphia and the inspiration of new businesses taking root. The block on which "Moriomoto" is located may need more time to fully recover its former glory. Opening the semi-transparent door, the inner decor is certainly not Japanese in any way. The space is deep and narrow with a tall undulating ceiling. In the back, there is a large square counter and the open kitchen and further back the closed main kitchen. Both sides of the main floor are slightly elevated and it is one step up to the tables for two. The center booths are divided by semitransparent Plexiglas low partitions back lit by blue and red neon in the bottom of the partition.  The color of the neon changes every-now-and-then but mostly stays blue giving an impression of the bottom of the sea. We were seated at a table for two on the elevated portion. For us, "midgets", the chairs were too tall--for the first time since childhood, our feet did not touch the ground, and it was not really comfortable. We weren't entirely sure about this interior decor but it does indicate things to come in term of the cuisine. 

The sake selection was very limited (disappointing). We chose a bottle of Akita Komachi Diaginjo 秋田小町大吟醸 from "Yuki no bosha" 雪の茅舎 brewery in Akita 秋田 prefecture of northern mainland Japan. As I tasted it, however, I regretted that I did not order "Wakatake Onigoroshi" 若竹鬼ころし Junmai Daiginjo from Shizuoka 静岡 prefecture which was also in the short list. Akita Komachi was nice enough with a smooth mouth feel with subtle pear and melon notes but it was a bit too sweet for our taste. It reminded me of Kanbara 蒲原 Bride Of The Fox from Niigata 新潟. It appears that both are specifically bottled for export, I wonder the importers must think that most American like this type of sake. We rather prefer a dry, fruity and crisp sake. Their own "Morimoto" branded sake and beer are also available but we did not try.

(Sake bottle image from http://www.jotosake.com/?p=226)

After conferring with our server, we decided to order the $120 "Omakase" menu. The dishes came at a good pace--not too fast and not too slow. 

(from https://images.anidori.com/xl/895_3605.jpg)

The first course was a rather mundane "Toro tartar" with crisp fried shallot, chive topped with caviar and a small amount of broth in the bottom made of dashi, mirin, and soy sauce. The wasabi that accompanied it appears to be from a real wasabi daikon 山葵大根. The toro was too finely mashed and we would have preferred finely diced instead. The crispy fried shallot was very nice. The sauce was too sweet. The caviar must have been North American (may have been even Paddle fish caviar) and did not add much. They gave us a small stainless steal spoon but we would have preferred non metal spoon for this dish.

Next came three "Kumamoto oysters on the half shell", with three different toppings; momiji oroshi 紅葉おろし, which is daikon and hot red pepper grated together, ceviche sauce with cilantro, Yuzu soy sauce with a thin slice of Jalapeno pepper. Kumamoto is one of our favorite oysters (eaten raw). It was excellent and we liked it very much. 

This must be meant as a "salad". Several nice slices of "Kanpachi" (young Hamachi) sashimi with micro greens" dressed in yuzu vinaigrette.  The Kanpachi slices were placed on a wasabi cream sauce. It was nice but I was not sure about the wasabi-cream sauce. 

We must be moving toward cooked items on the menu and as a liaison between "raw" to "cooked", we got "Tile fish carpaccio topped with uni, chives and tarragon and heated sesame oil yuzu dressing". (When it was served, the dish was cold.) Tile fish or "amadai" 甘鯛 is rather delicate and the hot sesame oil cooked the fish just a little. We found the sauce to be too overwhelming for this delicate fish.

At some point (unfortunately, neither of us can remember exactly when) but most like between the raw and cooked courses we were served a "palate cleanser". It was a small tall glass of carbonated beverage with a sweet mildly rose flavor. 

We were now deeply into the "cooked" course which consisted of half a small "Baked or sautéed Lobster with spicy rub and vegetables. Instead of butter for dipping, it was served with a creme fraiche and Yuzu mixture. One of the characteristic ways Japanese serve lobster, Japanese "Iseebi" prawn, or crab is so that you do not have to struggle trying to remove the meat from the shell. In the presentation at Morimoto, although the claws were cracked, we had to use our fingers and chopsticks to dig the meat out. In the end fingers and chopsticks were not the most appropriate utensils for the task and we were forced to leave some of the meat behind. Although the server warned us that the lobster may be very spicy, it was not. While the Yuzu-flavoured creme fraishe was nicely inventive, it clearly had been put into the ramekin the night before. Taste-wise it did not do much to me. I rather prefer simple melted butter and lemon. At the completion of the course we were presented with a "hot towel" to clean our hands. It was in the style of a Japanese "oshibori" おしぼり but was much larger and bulkier--essentially an American washcloth.  It had a rancid moldy smell that certainly did not add to the dining experience. 

The turf part of Moromoto "Surf and Turf" entree consisted of "Wagyu" Fillet mignon.  It was totally unmemorable and a bit over cooked to my taste.

Now comes "shime" 締め or ending dish which is 5 pieces of "nigiri sushi". Our sushi rice connoisseur (my wife) immediately said "not enough vinegar in the rice". Chu-toro was good but not exceptional. Raw octopus was nice since it is difficult to have in the U.S. but not the best we had.

Desert (strawberry mousse with chocolate cake) is more mundane American; not bad especially since it was not overly sweet but hardly creative.

We are glad we finally dined at Morimoto. We had been looking forward to it for quite some time. The food can best be described as a very good fusion with a heavy Japanese influence--we definitely would not describe it as a "Japanese" restaurant. At this price point, we were not particularly impressed but that could be because we were expecting something else. We had the same feeling after eating at "Nobu" in New York where Morimoto used to be an executive chef. We are not into Japanese fusion dishes that much, I guess. 

The sake tasted better with the food since the sweetness was dampened by the sweet taste of the sauces. After checking out the price at which I could have bought this sake at home (which I will not do), however, I found that, at $160, the mark up was over 150%--that is somewhat steep.