salmon tataki 鮭のたたき

This is the last of the salmon sashimi we defrosted for hanami. I served it with small baby arugula, tomato, and red onion salad.

Just for variation, I made one portion as "Tataki".

I seasoned the small block of salmon with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper and using a kitchen torch, I seared one side and sliced. This treatment works well with oily fish in general and added nice flavor and texture. This was quite good and finally we finished the frozen salmon sashimi.

Scattered sushi ちらし寿司

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Year "Osechi" dishes お節料理レセピ

Every year before New Year comes, I have to look through my recipes for the New Year's Osechi dishes that I usually make. For my own convenience, I decided to place my New Year's recipes in one place for easy reference. This is also posted in "Norio's New Year Dishes" tab in the heading.

Herring roe in two ways 数の子 #1 (dashi and soy sauce marinated)
I usually get salted herring roe and prepare it. Store-bought prepared herring tends to be too sweet for me.

Removing excess salt "Shionumi" 塩抜き
First, I have to remove the excess salt from the kazunoko (called “shionuki” 塩抜き) by soaking it in water or weak salted water (I taste the salted water; just a nice salty taste you can drink if you wanted to). Although you could start with water and then finish “shionuki” with salted water. I prefer to use salted water from the beginning and change it several times in 3-4 hour periods. The reason is that if you remove the salt completely, the  kazunoko will taste “bitter” (all the sodium chloride gets leached out leaving magnesium chloride behind which is bitter). So, I try to leave some saltiness behind. Using salted water prevents the complete removal of the salt even if I forget and soak it too long. While soaking, I removed the thin white membrane which covers the roe by rubbing the surface with my finger tips under water. After “shionuki” and removing the membrane, the herring roe is ready. I tasted a small piece from the edge to make sure it is not too salty. I sometimes thinly slice this and serve it like sashimi with wasabi and soy sauce but I usually marinate it.

Marinade つけ汁
For the marinade, I make dashi broth from a kelp and bonito flakes. I season with light colored soy sauce (to preserve the golden color), sake and mirin. The amount of sake (or mirin if you like it sweet) and soy sauce are up to your taste but I tend to make a strong dashi packed with “umami” and go light on soy sauce. I gently boiled the mixture for few minutes to make sure the alcohol has all evaporated and tastes amalgamated. I let it cool to the room temperature and then refrigerate. I marinated the prepared herring roe for, at least several hours or over night in the refrigerator (The right lower image shows the roe after marinading). This should be eat eaten in a few days.

Serving
I sliced it into small bite sized pieces and then mixed them with dried bonito flakes or kezuribushi 削り節 and served. It has a very interesting crunch and is an excellent drinking companion for cold sake. After eating it, my wife asked, “Why does it suddenly feel like New Year?”

Herring roe in two ways 数の子 #2 (miso and sake lee marinated)
One of the problems with more traditionally prepared herring roe (above) is that it does not last too long (may be 10 days in the refrigerator). Sometimes, we have to push ourselves to finish all the herring roe that I prepared. So, for 2017 New Year, I decided to make miso marinated herring roe as well.  I looked up the recipes and decided on the recipe using a mixture of miso and sake lee. I was particularly interested in this recipe since it said the herring roe would be best consumed between 10 days and 1 month.

Ingredients:
Sake lee, 300 grams, cut into small cubes
Miso, 300 grams
Sake 180 ml
Salt-preserved herring roe, 10 (salt removed, see above, #1 in the picture below).

Direction:
In the food processor, I mixed the first three ingredients (warming the sake may help softten the sake lee, #2 in the picture below)
In a sealable container, I put 1/3 of the marinade and placed a layer of cheese cloth (#3)
I then arrange the herring roe in one layer (#4).
I covered the herring roe with another cheese cloth and spread 1/3 of the marinade on top.
I made another identical layer and finished with the last 1/3 of the marinade.

Salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き
One New Year several years ago, we received commercial salmon kelp roll from Hokkaido as a gift from one of our Japanese friends. My wife, sort of, challenged me whether I could make it and I accepted the challenge.

Ingredients:
Kelp: A good dried kelp–one that gets soft when cooked and is therefore good for eating. “Hidaka” 日高 kelp is especially desirable, since it gets softer more quickly than other types of kelp such as Rausu 羅臼 or Rishiri 利尻 kelp. I soaked a 5-6 inch long piece of dried “Hidaka” kelp in water until it returned to its “natural state” and became pliable (30 minutes to 1 hour). I used 4 strips to make 8 good sized rolls. I trimmed the ragged ends to make a nice rectangular piece. I reserved the soaking liquid.

This is mostly to tie up the rolls so they don’t unravel but it does have some texture and taste. I washed and then massaged several pieces of kanpyo with salt and washed again. I soaked it in water for 30 minutes to one hour but did not cook it.

Salmon: I used fresh salmon. I cut the fillet into 1/2 inch wide strips with the skin left on. I trimmed the end to make it fit the width of the kelp.

Directions:
I rolled the kelp around the salmon strip in the center and tied it off in two places using the kanpyou as shown below (this pictures is after cooking).
To prevent it from sticking, I could have put dried bamboo leaves on the bottom of the pan (but darn I was fresh out). I just used additional hydrated kelp to line the bottom (it will stick to the bottom but the rolls do not).
I placed all 4 rolls in a shallow pan in which they fit snugly (I used a square Pyrex baking pan with a glass lid). I then poured in the kelp soaking liquid. Since I also had a soaking liquid left over from rehydrating dried shiitake mushrooms (used in another dish), and the mushrooms had imparted some good flavor to the liquid I also added that. I added sake (2-3 tbs) as well. The kelp rolls should be just covered with water.
I simmered it with the lid on for 1 hour or until the kelp is soft.

The seasoning is essentially sweet and salty (soy sauce) which is a typical Japanese seasoning. As a rule, the “sweet” of the seasoning is added first. So I added sugar (1 tsp) over the rolls and let it simmer for 5 minutes with an otoshibuta 落 とし蓋.
I then added more sugar (1 tsp) and soy sauce (1 tbs) and simmered it for 10-15 minutes.
At the end of  cooking, the liquid was reduced in half. At the very end, I added mirin (2 tsp) and soy sauce (2 tsp) for a fresh taste.
Again, the seasoning is up to your liking; you could add more sugar, mirin and soy sauce. I did not want to season it too strongly. I let it cool in the cooking liquid. The picture above (norio there is no picture above) shows it after it cooled and was ready to be cut.

Datemaki 伊達巻
I originally got this recipe from my mother. Using hanpen はんぺん fish cake instead of ground white fish flesh or "surimi" すり身 makes this recipe very easy.

Ingredients :

Hanpen fish cake, one (about 100grams) (I use previously frozen, see #1 below).

Mirin  1tbs
(Originally I used a food processor but I modified to use my immersion blender which make it easier - no need to beat eggs ahead of time and cleaning is also much easier)

Directions:

1. Cut thawed hanpen into small 1/4 inch cubes add to the mixing container and add the eggs and seasoning (#2 in the picture below).

2. Using an immersion blender process until smooth (#3).

3. In a Japanese Omelet pan (12cm x15cm) on low flame, add a small mount of vegetable oil to cover the bottom and add the egg mixture (#4).

4. Fold a piece of greased aluminum foil over the top of the pan. Then cover over the the aluminum cover pan (I also place a small baking pan, #5).

5. After 10-15 minutes, it is mostly cooked only leaving a center portion to be still somewhat underdone (#5).

6. Flip it over using a spatula and cook the other side for 2-3 minutes (#7).
7. Tip the omelet onto a bamboo sushi mat* as seen below (I am not sure which side should be down but I like the darker side up (which becomes the inside of the roll). I score the surface (#8).
8. Slowly roll and tie the mat with a kitchen twine or rubber bands (#9).
9. Let it cool down for 30-40 minutes and unroll the sushi mat (#10).
10. Cut off both the ragged ends (this is a snack for the chef) (#11).
11. I like the darker inner lines (#12) but sometime I did the light side in (the bottom picture)

*If you have it, for Datemaki one should use a special kind of rolling mat called "Oni-sudare" 鬼すだれ which will make deeper indentation on the surface of the roll.

Russian marinated Salmon 鮭のロシアずけ
I also served marinated salmon which is my mother’s recipe. This salmon dish is called “Russian marinated salmon” ロシア漬け and my mother does not know how the dish got the name or where she got the recipe*. Of course, I made my contribution (read modification) to the recipe since I think the pith of the lemon imparts a bitter taste to the dish.

Essentially, I slice fresh salmon (the original recipe uses salt preserved salmon “aramaki shake” 新巻鮭) fillet paper thin, layered with sliced onion, lemon zest (grated by a micrograter), lemon slices (without the rind and pith). As I lay on the new salmon layer I salt it. The marinade it in a mixture of sake, vegetable oil and rice vinegar (1:1:3) but I reduced the amount of oil. I tightly pack the salmon in a seal-able container and let it marinade for a few days. The picture below is this dish served stand alone on the next day.

*I googled (google.co.jp) “鮭のロシア漬け” the marinated salmon recipe and found this blog (in Japanese). The recipe is a very similar to my mother’s.  According to this blogger, her mother got the recipe from a Japanese magazine “Kurashi no techo” 暮らしの手帖. The recipe is reportedly published in the section called “Apron memo” quite a number of years ago, although the exact year is unclear. Even though the blogger mentioned the recipe was published some time ago, I was eating this as a kid and it is possible my mother’s recipe predates even that publication.

Daikon Namsu 大根なます
Ingredients:
Daikon, peeled, sliced across or on bias then julienned
Carrot, Peeled, sliced on bias and then julienned

Dressing:
Rice vinegar 1 part
Sugar 1/2 part
Salt a pinch
Japanese red pepper, hydrated then cut into thin rings (optional)
Yuzu juice (optional)
Mirin, Light colored soy sauce (small splash, optional)

Direction:
Place all the ingredients except for Yuzu juice in a pan on medium-low flame and mix and disolve the sugar completely. Let it cool to the room temperature.

Salt and kneed the daikon and carrot, separately, let it sit for 10-15 minutes and squeeze out excess moisture (it was said that if you mix the daikon and carrot before adding the dressing, vitamin C was destroyed, which I did not confirm).

Add the daikon and carrot in the vinegar mixture in a seal-able container and keep it in a refrigerator for at least one day before eating.

Chicken patty with pine nuts and miso or "Matsukaze" chicken patty 松風焼き
I do not know when I adapted this dish for our New Year cuisine, I have been making this this for some years. It is miso flavored chicken patty with pine nuts in it. The name "Matsu-kaze" 松風 means "wind over the pine tree" must be referring to the use of pine nuts. In the picture below, I cut this into the shape of "Hagoita"羽子板 (badminton-like game which was traditionally played by girls during the New Year celebration but the the racket or Hagoita is now totally decorative) and garnished it with dried "aonori" 青のり. Here I served this with salmon kelp roll and "Matsu-mae zuke" 松前漬け.

Ingredients:
Ground Chicken 250 grams
One egg beaten
Miso 2 tbs
Light colored soy sauce 1 tbs
Sugar 2 tsp
Bread crumbs (panko) 4 tbs
Flour 2 tbs
Mirin 1tbp
Pine nuts, roasted, 3tbs
White sesame seeds, aonori, and poppy seeds (optional).

Direction:
1. Mix all the ingredients except for pine nuts in a food processor (or mixing bowl) and mix well. Add and mix pine nuts.
2. In a small baking sheet, oil the bottom and place the parchment paper cut into size so that it will adherent to the bottom.
3. Using a spatula, spread out the chicken mixture in to 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) thick to fill the bottom of the baking sheet.
4. Cook for 20 minutes in a pre-heated toaster oven at 350F.
5. After its cooled, cut the patty into rectangles or in to a shape of "hagoita".
If so desired, brush the surface with mirin and press either the sesame, aonori or poppy seeds on the surface.

Chicken patty with dried fig and Gorgonzola いちじくとブルーチーズの松風焼き
I found this recipe on line which is a variation of "Matsukaze-yaki".

Ingredients:
Ground chicken: About 400grams.
Dried figs: We used dried mini mission figs. The amount is arbitrary but as far as I can tell, the more the better.
Gorgonzola cheese: we tried American made from goat cheese (mild) and one from whole cow’s milk (stronger). Both worked fine but we liked the stronger one, crumbled the amount arbitrary.
Eggs: two large
Olive oil: 2 tsp.

Directions:
Using a silicon spatula, I mixed the ground chicken, gorgonzola cheese, dried figs, and eggs and olive oil. I oiled the bottom of a small rectangular baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I spread the mixture to make about half an inch thick layer (see below).

I baked it in a toaster oven (in convection oven mode) preheated at 350F for 20 minutes or until done.*

Because of the parchment paper lining, it came out easily in one sheet. I cut it into  rectangles.  This is a totally new flavor for this dish. Sweet nutty dried figs and salty and a bit sharp Gorgonzola is indeed nice flavor combination and made this dish more Western than Japanese. It goes well with wine or Champagne.

*This was the second try. I made this in a rectangular frying pan covered with aluminum foil as the original recipe suggested. It became sort of steam/baked and produced a large amount of liquid and when I opened the lid, it was floating in the liquid. All the cheese appeared to have leached out and it was dry and did not taste good. My toaster over baking method worked much better. If I am going with a frying pan method, I will not cover it while it is cooking.

Scattered sushi ちらし寿司

Smoked salmon and salmon roe scattered sushi いくらとスモークサーモンちらし寿司

This is our variation on scattered sushi ちらし寿司. "Sushi" means "vinegared rice". So any dish which uses vinegared rice will fall into the category of "sushi". Scattered sushi is the easiest sushi to make and is a classic home style dish; made by adding any combination of toppings to a bed of sushi rice. Traditional styles use mostly simmered and seasoned vegetables. These could include, among other things, shiitake mushrooms, carrot, lotus root or "renkon", "kanpyo", thinly cut slightly sweet thin omlet ("kinshiran" 金糸卵, meaning golden thread egg), strips of "nori" sea weed, and pickled ginger root. You could add any kind of cooked or raw fish (sashimi), shrimp, uni (sea urchin), ikura (salmon roe) (if you add all kinds of raw fish, it is called "kaisen chirashi" 海鮮ちらし or "nama chirashi なまちらし).

In Hokkaido, the combination of sea urchin and salmon roe is very popular and called  "uni ikura donburi" うにいくらドンブリ.  To make this regional specialty, an obscenely large amount of uni and ikura are placed on a bed of sushi rice. My mother introduced my wife to this dish some years ago and it now happens to be my wife's favorite. She enjoyed a wonderful example of this dish in the port city of Otaru near Sapporo on our last visit to Japan. At home, we occasionally make our version of this dish but fresh uni is hard to come by most of the time. Salmon roe is easier to get since it freezes very well. So we make our variation using a combination of good quality cold-smoked salmon and salmon roe. Again, this dish would serve as the last rice dish of the meal in our home Izakaya.

1. Cooking sushi rice: Start with a good short grain Japanese rice. We use "Tamaki" rice from California which is "okabo" or non-paddy rice but it is not bad. You could get real "paddy" rice from California as well. Instead of using just plain water, the rice could be cooked with a small piece of kelp and small amount of sake added to the water. Make the rice with slightly less water than would be used to make regular rice. This is so that the rice will be slightly dryer than usual and will absorb enough sushi vinegar. We mostly use an electric rice cooker (my wife is actually in charge of cooking rice--having been coached in what constitutes good rice by my mother in the early days of our marriage). I acquired a special "Donabe" rice cooker recently and the "donabe" rice cooker does make slightly better rice.  Wash the rice and let it soak in the water for 30 minutes or more before cooking it. Then, let it stand for 15 minutes after it is finished cooking.

2. Preparing sushi rice: As you can see in this picture, I use a wooden tub (寿司桶) and paddle (へら) but, of course, a shallow bowl and spoon will also work. You could make your own sushi vinegar or use a commercial bottled one. You could get a more precise recipe for sushi vinegar and how to make sushi rice elsewhere. The amount of sugar and salt in sushi vinegar is a personal preference, some old traditional edomae 江戸前 (Tokyo style) sushi restaurants even omit the sugar. Most of the time, I am too lazy to make my own sushi vinegar so I use a commercial bottled variety. I microwave the sushi vinegar to make it warm before adding it to the rice. Sometimes, however, I even skip this step. The amount of sushi vinegar to rice is another question. I usually put as much as I can without making the rice too wet (warm sushi vinegar appears to be absorbed more). We like a rather strong vinegar taste in our sushi rice. Traditionally, while you are mixing the sushi rice, you fan the rice. My wife helps me by fanning the sushi rice using a Japanese "uchiwa" 団扇. The exact reasons for this process is not really clear but maybe it makes the additional moisture evaporate. The end result is that the rice grains are shinier than they would be otherwise. I cover the tub with wet tea towel and let it stand for few minutes before putting the dish together. My wife is more of a rice connoisseur than I am and she often complains about the poor quality of sushi rice at near-by sushi bars, which is unfortunately often the case.

3. To make the thin egg omelet ("Kinshiran" 金糸卵): For one large egg, I put 1-2 tsp of sugar and pinch of salt and mix. I often add a small amount (1 tbs) of "dashi" broth but this is optional. Use a Japanese style rectangular frying pan or use a 8 inch regular non-stick frying pan with a small amount of butter or oil. You need to make this omelet very thin. The secret is to pour the egg mixture after the pan is hot  (on medium flame) and once the bottom is set, to reduce flame very low and put the lid on. You do not want to brown it.  It may take more than 5-7 minutes before the egg is cooked. Take it out of the pan onto a cutting board. Cut into 4 elongated pieces, stack them and julienne thinly.

4. Put the sushi rice in the bottom of the bowl or plate and top it with bite sized pieces of smoked salmon, salmon roe, thinly sliced salted and vinegared cucumber (excess moisture squeezed out), "kinshiran" or golden egg threads, shredded "nori" seaweed, finely chopped perilla and/or scallion. You can make any variation as you like depending on the ingredients available.

Salmon salad sushi 鮭のサラダ寿司

After my wife had sushi made with tuna salad ツナサラダ (canned tuna dressed in mayo) in Japan, she was convinced that mayo and sushi rice are a good combination. We tried hand rolls of sashimi tuna dressed in mayonnaise which was quite good. I also made "imitation" negi-toro 擬制ネギトロ　from low quality frozen yellow tail tuna using mayonnaise. I then made a "donburi" with it  ネギトロ丼　which was also very good. One evening, my wife, all of the sudden, asked me to make sushi out of my salmon salad as an ending dish. I often make salmon salad from leftover salmon after we have a salmon dinner. The version of salmon salad we had was made from  flaked cooked salmon, chopped sweet onion, celery, and fresh dill dressed with mayo, Dijon mustard and the Greek yogurt my wife makes. We usually eat this as a sandwich or a canapé.  I complied with her request and made salmon salad sushi.

I garnished it with thin slices of cucumber.

I made it in "Gunkan" 軍艦 or battle ship style. I just used our frozen rice which I microwaved and then dressed with sushi vinegar. This is not the best sushi I have ever had but it was certainly quick and more than just edible.

Having this dish, further confirmed my wife's belief that sushi rice and mayo are an excellent match, and I have to agree. This was an impromptu "shime" 〆 ending dish and it was quite good. Now, she is lobbying me to make "egg salad" sushi, we will have to see.

Marinated Salmon and salmon roe “Oyako” rice bowl 鮭のマリネといくらの親子丼

I still had some leftover Russian marinated salmon from the New Year. One evening I made this small "donburi" 丼 as an ending dish. In Japanese culinary parlance, "Oyako" 親子, meaning parents and offspring, denotes dishes in which both offspring (eggs) and parent (meat) are used in the same dish.  The most common is a combination of egg and chicken in a donburi called "Oyako donburi" 親子丼. Another rendition is the combination of salmon (grilled, cold smoked, or sashimi) and salmon roe "Sake Oyako donduri". Since I had marinated salmon and I prepared Ikura in sake and soy sauce a few days ago, I came up with this dish.



I just made vinegared rice, added nori strips and julienned perilla leaves, I then placed Russian marinated salmon and onion and topped it with Ikura in soy sauce and sake.

The combination of saltiness with vinegar flavor both from the rice and the marinated salmon works well.

Nama-chirashi 生ちらし

My wife is very particular about vinegared rice or "sushi-meshi" 寿司飯  --it has to have enough vinegar. Not that she is a connoisseur of sushi rice but sushi rice sold in the US at Japanese restaurants or the grocery store is not always good even for a non-connoisseur.  My wife sometimes observes that some sushi must be prepared with the assumption that the American clientele won't notice the vinegar is missing.  Even the sushi rice we make at home is often better than most (which should give you some indication of how bad some sushi rice can be). Since our favorite "izakaya" has been temporarily closed for sometime, one Friday, my wife declared that it was time to administer some vinegared rice so we stopped at Kanpai sushi and took out the assorted sashimi and I made nama-chirashi 生ちらし, which is sashimi on vinegared rice. I also quickly made dashi-maki Japanese omelet with garlic chives or "nira".



I covered the sushi rice with finely cut nori stripes and placed the assorted sashimi,  cucumber slices, vinegared ginger root or "gari" ガリ and mixed sea weed salad on top. The sashimi items included, tuna, hamachi, rock fish, octopus, salmon and imitation crab.



Since we cooked the rice after we came home, we did not do anything special (like adding a sheet of kelp and sake). My wife just prepared rice using our "fuzzy logic" rice cooker (with slightly less water for sushi). I could have made sushi vinegar myself (by adding sugar and salt to rice vinegar), but I used a bottle of Mizukan Sushi vinegar ミツカン寿司酢. To allow the maximum absorption, I heated the sushi vinegar in the microwave (just warm). I used my small cedar sushi-oke 寿司桶 we brought from Kiso 木曽, Japan, some years ago (wood absorbs excess moisture from sushi rice).  I added the cooked rice to the sushi-oke,  poured the sushi vinegar on the rice (about 10% by weight but I usually add as much as the rice can absorb without getting wet). I let it stand for 5 minutes covered with a moist tea towel.  I then mixed the rice with a bamboo rice paddle ("hera" へら) using a cutting motion while my wife fanned it with a Japanese paper fan we keep in the cupboard just for this purpose. The fanning cools the rice more quickly and helps evaporate the excess moisture. I then gathered the rice to one side to make a mound and cover it with the moist tea towel again to let it sit for several more minutes allowing the vinegar to absorb further. I put the sushi rice in a bowl, put on enough nori strips to cover the surface of the rice and then put on the toppings. For this dish, I placed real wasabi on the top. Just before serving I sprinkled sushi shouyu (special soy sauce for sashimi from the bottle).

The original combination sashimi looked like this.



This is after taking off the lid.



We got two orders but I decided that dividing one order was enough for both of us for nama-chirashi. The next day, I served the remaining order into two small appetizer sashimis as seen below.

The nama-chirashi was very satisfactory. Although I thought we made too much sushi rice, I served it all and it all disappeared to the last grain. The sushi rice was seasoned enough and the sashimi was good.  The combination of sushi rice, nori, and sashimi is a mainstay that cannot go wrong.

Tuna "Maguro" 鮪 Part 2

Tuna Sashimi 鮪刺身、中トロ

This is "chutoro" 中トロ we got from a local Japanese grocery store (not from Catalina Offshore Products which I mentioned previously). It looks OK in the picture but the freshness was just marginal (it is usually better than this). Our grocery store may have gotten a fresh shipment from New York on Thursday (we bought this on Sunday). In Japan, we could get much higher quality sashimi from the gourmet food floors (usually basement floors) of department stores. In any case, even at home, we often start with a bit of sashimi, before proceeding to other Izakaya food. Although, my knife skills are not even close to the level of a professional chef, I try to do "katsura-muki" かつらむき to make daikon garnish "tsuma" 刺身のつま and to do some decorative cuts on a cucumber (again, American mini-cucues). Please click and see this Youtube episode. You will be amazed at the true skill of a professional chef. The cucumber "cup" is filled with salmon roe or "ikura" いくら. Although, for sashimi, the quality of tuna is by far the most important, other condiments also play significant roles such as wasabi and soy sauce.

A few words about "wasabi" 山葵. Real wasabi comes from the root of the wasabi plant (Wasabi Rhizomes). If you have not ever tasted the real stuff, it may be worth it to try at least once. It tastes quite different from fake wasabis made mostly from horseradish, starch, and green dye. You can buy an American grown real wasabi root from the company called "Real Wasabi". It is expensive, does not last that long and needs a special grater (the traditional one is made of shark skin). I tried it once from this company. It was really good but, unless you are having a big sushi and sashimi party, it may be difficult to justify the purchase. Some of wasabi pastes in a tube can be quite good using a certain amount of real wasabi but you can also buy a real wasabi powder from this company.

Soy sauce 醤油 is also important. Many of my American colleagues have told me they think soy sauce will last for a long time (basically forever) but it will get oxidized fairly quickly once it is opened. Oxidized soy sauce tastes quite unpleasant (to me, at least). You could make a special soy sauce for sashimi (dried bonito flakes and mirin are needed) but you could also buy special soy sauce for sashimi in a bottle.

Tuna in grated mountain yam "Yamakake" 鮪のやまかけ

This is the dish I mentioned in the previous posting about low-quality tuna. You could make this with good quality tuna and of course, it would taste better. You can use cubes of tuna as is or, especially if the tuna is not good quality, you can marinate it. My marinade consists of equal parts mirin and soy sauce. I leave the tuna in the marinade for as short as 10 minutes or as long as overnight (overnight marination will produce a soft and slightly slimy texture which some like and some don't).

The name of this dish is-- "yama-kake", "yama" comes from the word "yama-imo" which means mountain potato and "kake" which means to pour over. So the literal translation is "poured over mountain potato".  I grate the "mountain" yam or "yama-imo" 山芋 after peeling the skin. In the United States, I can only get a domesticated version of yama-imo called "naga-imo" or long potato 長芋.  A Japanese style grater (one with multiple holes allowing the grated yam to drop into the lower container) or a Japanese mortar "suribachi" works best. I also dissolve wasabi paste in soy sauce and mix it into the grated potato.  The more traditional way of doing this would be to put a dab of wasabi on the side of the dish letting the diners mix it in with the soy sauce. I like my method better because with the traditional way, the wasabi paste often does not get evenly distributed and the person eating it can get a real jolt of concentrated wasabi.

Add the tuna cubes to the grated mixture and garnish with a large amount of "nori" seaweed. The slimy consistency of the grated yam may not agree with many Westerners but this is certainly my wife's favorites.

Six "otoshi" appetizers お通し6種類

Although I secretly aspire to come up with 6 appetizers to start a meal like we enjoyed at two special izakayas, "Suiko" 酔香 or "Shuhai" 酒杯  in Japan, my appetizer count usually falls short. But one evening I found I could fairly easily come up with a set of 5 appetizers.  After giving it some thought I realized I could make one more for a total of six. Yay! The extra dish, however, did not make the group pic. Its portrait is, nonetheless, shown below.

The upper row from left to right are Chinese-style squid salad (store-bought) with my sugar snap in salt broth, grilled fish cake (store bought) with blanched broccolini dressed in mustard soy sauce, Russian marinated salmon (leftover from the previous evening). (It had been marinading for 2 days by then). The lower row from left to right are octopus leg, cucumber slices and Campari tomato dressed in sumiso sauce and "mizuna" oshitashi 水菜のお浸しtopped with bonito flakes.

Although it missed the group picture, the sixth appetizer was; salmon sashimi and avocado cubes dressed in soy sauce, sesame oil, chiffonade of perilla and finely chopped garlic. The salmon was leftover from the prior evening. I made a slight modification by salting one side and searing it with a kitchen torch before cutting it into cubes. This added an additional grilled flavor and slight crusty texture.

The dish shown below is Chinese-style squid salad 中華風イカサラダ  bought at our Japanese grocery store. The variation of this appears to be available at Catalina offshore products as well.

Below is a small deep fried fish cake which is almost always available at our Japanese grocery store. This appears to be locally made and is pretty good. We heat it up in the toaster oven. I dressed blanched broccolini florets with mustard soy sauce (I now make several Japanese sauces in small squeeze bottles and store them in the refrigerator for instant use).

This was leftover Russian marinaded salmon I made the night before. This marinaded a total of 2 days and was almost completely "chemically" cooked but the onion was better now (marinating just overnight,  the sweet onion was a bit too raw). I topped this with salmon roe and garnished it with perilla.

The dish below came about due to a mistake I made. I thought I got a bunch of edible chrysanthemum 春菊 but instead it was Japanese mizuna 水菜. I blanched it very quickly for 20 seconds, drained and cooled it down by fanning and squeezed out the moisture (I did this in the morning and kept it in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.) I made this to "ohitashi" お浸し("hitasu" in Japanese is to "soak", I made the sauce with equal parts Japanese dashi and concentrated noodle sauce and  "soaked" the mizuna) and topped it with bonito flakes. My wife preferred edible chrysanthemum but this was different and nice in its own right.

We still had the tip portion of the octopus leg left over. I just cut it up into small chunks and mixed the pieces with vinegared cucumber slices and quartered Campari tomato and dressed in sumiso (from the squeeze bottle I prepared earlier).

So with the help of store-bought and leftover items from the previous evening, I finally made a set of 6 appetizer to start the evening--mission accomplished!

Bluefin tuna chunks 黒鮪チャンク

Recently while browsing online purveyors of sashimi-grade tuna I noticed advertisements for bluefin sashimi tuna "imperfect cuts" or " chunks". I surmise this may be something to do with increased popularity of "poke" which, unlike Japanese sashimi, does not require uniform sized blocks of fish. Since I myself make dishes such as "imitation negitoro" 擬制ネギトロ, and "namerou", which do not require perfect cuts, I decided to try it. This one came from our old, tried and true Catalina Offshore products. As you can see in the picture below, there are several chunks of frozen bluefin tuna. The majority is “akami” red  meat and some are “chu-toro” medium fatty. I divided the shipment into three portions. I thawed one in the refrigerator and vacuum packed the other two and put them in the freezer. Since they are chunks, it is very easy to apportion whatever amount I would like to thaw and prepare.

I decided to taste the tuna as sashimi first. I sliced one chunk which looked like chu-toro 中トロ and another which looked like akami 赤身. Since the shipment also included Ikura salmon roe いくら and my wife made blini a few days ago, we served a blini topped with cream cheese (home made), smoked salmon, ikura and chopped chives.

Both the toro and akami were very good. For us, this is just perfect, just a little bit of tastes.

This blini with ikura is one of our favorite appetizers. We tried caviar but we like ikura better. This ikura (came frozen) also from Catalina tasted very good and fresh.

  

This combination of appetizers can go well with both red wine or sake but on this occasion, we had cold sake. After this, we had imitation negitro made from akami chunks with cucumber slices and nori. I also served our usual “yamakake” after marinading the akami cubes for 30 minutes. The yamakake was quite filling. 

So our assessment of the bluefin sashimi-grade tuna chunks is very positive. They are very reasonably priced and tasted good. They can be served as sashimi. Even though the slices are not perfect, they tasted perfect.

One of the cherry trees in our backyard bloomed almost overnight. This particular cherry tree has really grown since we removed the enormous ash tree that over shadowed it. We had to remove the ash because it succumbed to the "emerald borer". This cherry tree always blooms first (we have three cherry trees including the replacement for our old tree which was destroyed during the Nor'Easter storm in 2018). As the "first bloomer", it is in step with the cherry trees at the tidal basin; blooming at about the same time. The remaining trees in our yard are more leisurely in their approach; blooming about 1 week later. These blossoms are really a treat. Finally Spring has sprung.

Hanami 2018 花見 2018

Because of a recent Nor'easter, the 30 year old cherry tree  which was the main focus of hanami celebrations in our backyard because it formed a wide canopy of blossoms over the deck, was totally destroyed just when the buds were getting ready to bloom. Although some of the cuttings we brought inside did bloom the tree itself was a "goner". We had to replace it but the replacement was a young "Yoshino" 染井吉野 cherry tree only 6 feet tall. Luckily further back in the yard we have a cherry tree that we estimate must be over 50 years old. Even though it suffered some minor injuries from the nor'easter it rescued Hanami with its full bloom on a Saturday in April. It was very warm, even hot in mid-day on our deck particularly because we lost the shading canopy of the destroyed cherry tree. Nonetheless thanks to the old tree we still enjoyed "Hanami" 花見.

We decide to defrost a package of salmon for sashimi which we bought for the New Year but did not eat. It was a rather large piece of salmon. Since this was Hanami, I served salmon sashimi in a colorful way with ripe avocado garnished with thin slices of radish and cucumber.

The salmon was quit good and went well with the slices of avocado. Both had a nice melt-in-your-mouth texture. We had this with regular wasabi and soysauce.

This was followed with Japanese "dashimaki" 出汁巻 omelet with dried "aonori" 青のりseaweed (upper left), blanched baby "Bok Choi" "ohitashi" お浸しwith dried bonito flakes (upper right) and cold simmered daikon round with ginger miso with Yuzu zest.

We have been making variations of dashimaki using cooked and chopped baby kale and chicken broth but this time, I went traditional with a Japanese broth and dried "aonori" seaweed.

Since it was rather hot, I served the simmered daikon  cold.  It was first boiled with grains of rice and then simmered in kelp broth) with a ginger Yuzu miso sauce (finely chopped ginger, mirin, sake and sesame oil and Yuzu zest). I should have done a better job cutting the chives I used for garnish.

You cannot see well but blanched baby bok choi with dried bonito "Katsuo bush" flakes and soy sauce.

We were glad we could still do hanami in our back yard. The Grand Daddy old tree, while not as spectacular as the one we lost, went a long way to filling the void. Unfortunately, the next day was rainy, windy and cold so it was an only one day hanami this year except for the mini-hanami or the unexpected early hanami we had when the cuttings of now-demised cherry tree bloomed.