Veal Chops with Shiitake Dashi 子牛のチョップのシイタケソース添え

I am digging out old food pictures here. I volunteered for recipe testing over a year ago when Chef Tadashi Ono and Japanese food report fame Harris Salat were preparing the Japanese grill cookbook. I tested a few meat dishes and side dishes. 

I thought this was a rather nice dish. The sauce is nicely earthy with a Japanese touch. Veal chop are not usual cuts of meat I use. I was told that I could blog this after the publication of the cookbook. The book was published sometime ago and I bought a copy myself. Since I am running short of something to post I decide to post this dish.

This is the instruction I received. I did not compare the final recipe with this one.

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Serves 4

For the shiitake dashi:
12 whole dried shiitake mushrooms, about 1/2 ounce
1 cup water
1/2 cup sake
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon water
4 veal chops, about 4 pounds
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

To make the shiitake dashi: Add the shiitake and water to a saucepan and let it soak for 4 hours at room temperature. Transfer the shiitake to a cutting board, without discarding the water in the saucepan, and thinly slice the mushrooms. Return the mushrooms to the liquid in the saucepan. Add the sake, soy sauce and mirin to the saucepan, and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat so the liquid simmers, and cook for about 15 minutes, until the liquid reduces by 1/3. Skim off any scum that appears on the surface. While the dashi simmers, mix together the corn starch and water in a small bowl, and set aside. When the dashi has reduced, remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the corn starch mixture, and stir until the dashi thickens. Let the dashi come to room temperature.

Use a meat pounder or mallet, or the side of a heavy knife or cleaver, to pound the veal chop 6 times, to flatten and condense the meat. (Be careful not to strike the bone.) Season with salt and black pepper on all sides of the chops. Slap the sides of the veal with your palm, so the pepper sticks to the meat.

Preheat a grill to medium-hot heat. Grill the chops for about 5 minutes on each side for medium rare. When the chops are done, the bone will stick out, as the meat along it shrinks, and the veal will become richly caramel colored. Test for doneness using the nick and peek method. Let the chops rest for about 3 minutes. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of shiitake dashi over the veal chops, and serve.

Other uses for shiitake dashi: Drizzle over steaks and burgers. The dashi can keep in the refrigerator for 3 weeks, and also freezes well.

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The picture below is just showing the dried mushroom on the left upper image. The quality of dried mushroom could be quite different from brand to brand. I rehydrated the dried mushroom by placing the small plate so that the mushrooms are completely submerged. The right lower image is the final Shiitake dashi sauce. I did not take the picture of pork chops with this sauce on it.

I am trying to remember what this tasted like. When I tasted the sauce by itself, I thought it was too salty and strong. But once it was poured over the cooked veal chops, it was just right amount of saltiness. The sauce added a very nice "umami"-laden mushroom flavor. When I did this, I invited 2 couples (non-Japanese) and asked them to taste and give us feedback. I think this was very well received.

Braised “Tsukuda-ni” Mushrooms きのこの佃煮

We like mushrooms especially shiitake mushrooms 椎茸. Since Weee offers a wide variety of mushrooms we tend to go “over board” and order too many when we get groceries from them. This time we ordered shiitake, wood ear 木耳, and brown shimeji mushrooms しめじ. Among these mushrooms, shimeji last the longest (about 2 weeks) in the original package in the refrigerator without doing anything. For  shiitake, I removed the stems. (I tear them lengthwise, then chop them finely and sauté with finely chopped onion. I use this mixture in meat balls or other dishes. It adds a lovely umami flavor). I place the caps in a ziploc bag with a small sheet paper towel which absorbs moisture and keeps the mushrooms dry. The wood ear, I wash and blanch, wash it again and dry spreading them out over a dish towel for a few hours. I then pack them in a Ziploc bag like I do for shiitake. Even with these preparations, we need to use up the mushrooms within 1-2 weeks. So at the end, I need to cook them in some way. For the shiitake, I slice the caps thinly and sauté them with finely chopped shallots. We can used this for making “shiitake risotto” or other dishes. This time we had left-over shiitake, shimeji and wood ear. So I made this simmered dish which is similar to “Tsukuda-ni” 佃煮.

Ingredients:
Any mushrooms (Here I used shiitake, shimeji and wood ear), amounts arbitrary, cut into bite size pieces,
small amount of  water
Mirin and soy sauce (I used x4 concentrated Japanese “Mentsuyu” noodle sauce),

Directions:
Add the mushrooms to a small pan with a lid. Place the pan on low heat and add a small amount of water (more water will come out from the mushrooms, so just a small amount is needed so that the bottom will not scorch) and place on a tight lid.
After 10-15 minutes, the volume of the mushrooms reduces.
Add mirin and soy sauce in about equal amount (You could add more later if needed, so start with a small amount)
Without a lid, simmer and stir occasionally until the liquid almost all evaporated (see picture below)
Taste and if not seasoned enough add more seasonings and repeat the process*

* the name “Tsukuda-ni” 佃煮 derived from a small island called “Tsukuda-jima” 佃島 in  Sumida river 隅田川 in tokyo. In edo-era 江戸時代, it was famous for simmered and seasoned (sweet and salty or “ama-kara” 甘辛) seafood mostly small fish and “nori” seaweed or other items such as meat.)  This was good for “preserving” fish and meat and mainly consumed as condiments for rice.

I made this dish as a drinking snack but it was bit too weakly seasoned. So I added more seasoning and re-cooked it a few days later. If this is to be used as a condiment for rice or over a block of tofu, I would have seasoned it a bit more. This is a good dish to use up left-over mushrooms and works well as a snack with either red wine or sake.

Warm tofu with shiitake sauce 豆腐の椎茸あんかけ

 For some reason, it is getting more and more difficult to get fresh whole shiitake mushrooms. Our regular grocery store used to carry them but now only pre-sliced shiitake are available.  Whole foods used to have them regularly but it is now hit or miss. This time, we tried Hmart, Korean grocery store, through Instacart. Despite  the specific instruction that we wanted only whole fresh shiitake, we got pre-sliced. I decided to cook them so that they would keep longer and if needed I could also freeze them. So I just sautéed the mushrooms with olive oil, finely chopped red onion (I happened have extra finely chopped red onion left over from another dish). Several days later, I made this warm tofu dish from silken tofu (right, in the first picture). I also served fried salmon in sweet vinegar 鮭の南蛮漬け topped with ikura (left in the first picture)

I garnished it with chiffonade of perilla.

This is our stand-by dish but the ikura was soaked in a mixture of Japanese bonito broth and concentrated noodle sauce which makes the individual ikura swell up and give a nice snap with more flavor. 

Ingredients:(two small servings)
1/4 silken tofu, cut into two cubes
1 inch long dried kelp (for making broth)
Water

For "ankake" 餡掛け sauce
1/2 cup (arbitrary) sliced fresh shiitake mushroom (in my case mixture of finely chopped onion and pre-sliced shiitake sautéed in olive oil)
1/2 cup dashi broth (I used bonito broth using dashi pack)
1 tsp potato starch ("katakuri-ko")
1 tbs sake
1-2 tsp of concentrated noodle sauce (from bottle) to taste.
1/4 tsp grated ginger
chiffonade of perilla (optional)

Directions:
Wipe the kelp with a wet towel. Put in a pan and add water. When it comes to boil turndown the flame to simmer and add the tofu cubes to warm (5-10 minutes)

In a small sauce pan, add the bonito broth and the shiitake. Let it come to boil then turn down the flame to simmer. Cook for a few minutes. Add the concentrated noodle sauce to taste. Thicken the sauce by mixing in the potato starch slurry (with sake) and cook for few more minutes. Add the grated ginger and cut the heat.

In a bowl, carefully scope up the warm tofu cubes with a slotted spoon draining water. Pour over the "ankake" sauce and garnish with chiffonade of perilla (if using).

This is a nice, very gentle dish with soft and warm silken tofu with mild flavors of soy sauce, broth and shiitake. Although the day was not cold, we enjoyed this with cold sake.

Shiitake risotto with lamb chops 椎茸リソトとラムチョップ

My wife likes lamb. I got a rack of lamb from New Zealand. I asked how she would like it cooked. She suggested I separate the rack into individual lamb chops rather than cooking it as a rack. That way each chop would be individually cooked to the same doneness. For a side, since we had just gotten some shiitake mushrooms (which are getting increasingly difficult to find) we decided to make "shiitake risotto". So we just made "shiitake risotto" or what is actually a cross between shiitake "Okayu" おかゆ porridge and risotto.

I cleaned up some of the excess fat and separated the rack into lamb chops. I simply seasoned with salt and pepper.  We also served skinned Campari tomato (seasoned with Kosher salt and Spanish olive oil) and blanched green beans sautéed in butter.

The lamb chops were first seared in the frying pan and fished in a 350F oven for 3-4 minutes for medium.

We came up with this risotto recipe on the fly.

Ingredients:
1 cup of cooked rice (we used rice we cooked and then frozen in small portions. We thawed it by microwaving for about 30 seconds)(My mom introduced us to this method of left over rice control. It keeps well, cooked rice is always available and it comes out perfectly when lightly microwaved).

3-4 Fresh shiitake mushroom (caps sliced into strips, the stems with bottom removed, torn length-wise in thin strips and then cross cut into small pieces)

2-3 tbs sake
3 cup Japanese dashi (#2) (I made this using a dashi pack with bonito and kelp)
2 tbs butter (unsalted)
1 tsp light colored soy sauce
salt, additional pats of butter
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Directions:
Sautee shiitake mushroom (Chopped up stem first and then caps) in melted butter (#1)
Meanwhile prepare the dashi and keep it warm (#2)
Add thawed rice and sautee (#3)
Add the sake and stir until most of the liquid is absorbed.
Add warm dashi in increments and stir until desired consistency is attained.
Season with light colored soy sauce and salt (#4)
Add a few pats of butter to finish (#5)
Meanwhile sear the both sides of the lamb chops (#6) and finish in a 350F oven for 3 minutes.
We decided to add grated Parmigiano cheese to the risotto.

The risotto was very good. Nice strong shiitake flavor was the major flavor with a background of Japanese dashi and soy sauce. The butter and cheese went amazingly well. The lamb chops were a bit gamy (lamb-ey) but my wife liked the flavor. (She claims that is what lamb is all about). It was done medium with some pink left. This was satisfying ending dish for the evening.

For this, we opened really good Virginia red called RdV Rendezvous 2013 (by the best Virginia red wines we ever tasted). Rendezvous is sort of right bank equivalent and another red called "Lost mountain" is the left bank equivalent. These reds are in the same league as top Napa and Bordeaux red wines. We heard about this in Washington Post article. We visited the Vineyard and we are impressed. I think this requires a separate post.

Chestnut Soup 栗ときのこのスープ

We used to get fresh chestnuts from California every fall. The preparation, especially removing the inner brown membrane is time consuming and difficult. So we decided to try commercially prepared chestnuts sold either in a jar or a plastic pouch. As a test to see if the prepared chestnut tasted any different from the fresh, I made chestnut rice 栗ごはん with it. The final dish came out similar to using fresh chestnuts with the added advantage of much less effort of preparation required. (Since we posted  making chestnut rice with fresh chestnuts and this preparation tasted exactly the same we did not post it again.) But this exercise proved to us that fresh and commercially prepared chestnuts are interchangeable.  After making the rice we were left with one and half bags of prepared/roasted chestnuts (about 7-8 oz or about 200 grams.) My wife came up with this chestnut soup recipe which she found on-line. Again I had to modify the recipe because of the ingredients we had. The original calls for dried porcini and fresh button mushrooms but I only had fresh shiitake mushrooms.

Ingredients
5-6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced.
2 tbs. unsalted butter and 2 tbs. olive oil
1 large leek, white and tender green parts only, finely chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced
2 celery stalks finely chopped
1 teaspoon minced rosemary (from our herb garden)
7 oz. (200 grams) peeled roasted vacuum-packed chestnuts (see picture below)
3 cups chicken stock
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

For garnish
1 tbs each of olive oil and unsalted butter
5-6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stem removed and caps thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh rosemary, finely chopped up

Directions
In a saucepan on medium heat, add the olive oil and butter. Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms, leeks, carrot, celery and rosemary and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are cooked; about 15 minutes. Add the chestnuts and stock, season with salt and pepper. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth.

For garnish
In a frying pan, heat the oil and butter. Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms, cook over moderately high heat until lightly browned (6 minutes). Season with salt and pepper. I served the soup warm and garnished with the sautéed shiitake and the chopped rosemary.

This is an excellent soup/potage. The chestnuts and leeks imparted a nice sweetness and distinctive chestnut flavor. Although the original recipe calls for heavy cream, I served this warm without any cream. It really didn’t need it. We had this as a lunch with slices of my home baked baguette. I am sure certain chestnut dishes cannot be made using these kinds of prepared chestnuts but I will try to use them in more of our favorite chestnut dishes

Scallop braised on touban grill 帆立の陶板焼き

Touban 陶板 means a ceramic plate, which I used previously to cook matsutake. It has a shallow ceramic plate base and you can use it to grill, or since it comes with a ceramic dome with steam hole in it you can grill/steam.



Compared to a cast iron or metal pan, ceramic plate somehow conveys heat more gently and evenly. Touban can be used on the table top for cook-as-you-eat dinners. I decided to cook shiitake mushroom and fresh diver scallops using touban.



While I could have cooked and served this at the table I cooked it on the stove and then served on plates as shown above.

Scallops: These were large diver scallops. For two appetizer-size servings, I used 4 scallops cut into two discs (total of 8 discs). Reducing the thickness allowed it to cook more quickly and evenly.

Shiitake mushrooms: I used two rather large meaty fresh shiitake mushrooms. I removed the stems and made decorative star-shaped cuts but this is optional.

I first heated up the touban on medium-low flame for 3-4 minutes until it got hot and melted a small pat of sweet butter (1 tsp). When it melted and was slightly browning I started cooking the shiitake. When I turned over the shiitake after 1 minute of cooking, I placed the scallops on the grill (left on the picture below).  I grilled one side for 30-40 seconds and then turned them over and grilled another 30-40 seconds. I then added sake (1 tsp) and let it steam for 10-15 seconds with the lid on. I removed the lid and added a dash of soy sauce (less than 1 tsp) and let it cook for another 30 seconds (left on the picture below). I turned the scallops so that the sauce coated both side. I just added cooked green beans in the last 10-15 seconds to warm them up.



The combination of brown butter, sake, and soy sauce is always an easy winner. The scallops exuded more juice than I expected. I served this on the small plate (2nd picture) and poured some of the sauce over it. I knew my wife likes this type of sauce, so I served the extra in a small dipping bowl.

The shiitake mushroom was great, almost meaty in taste. The scallops were perfectly cooked (We hate over cooked rubbery scallops; something we occasionally encounter at restaurants). My wife served small squares of toasted bread to soak up any sauce/juice from this dish. Cold sake was what we had with this.

Artichoke hearts stuffed with shiitake mushroom duxelle アティチョークのシイタケデュクセルづめ

When I posted artichokes, I said that the hearts are the best part and the petals are essentially a dip delivery system. It is fun to eat the outside petals working your way to the heart but sometimes, you just want to get to the best part quickly. This is a perfect small dish which goes wonderfully with wines. The taste of artichokes gets enhanced if you drink a small amount of water after tasting for some reason. The shiitake duxelle has nice almost meat-like flavor but this dish is totally vegetarian (if you care).

I baked this is a toaster oven and the temperature was too high and the heat was uneven making the bread crumb crust unevenly darkened but it still tasted ok. Here is the cut surface (left) and I served the artichoke with the chicken strudel (right) as a first dish of the evening. We had a Napa cab, which is rather austere and Bordeaux-like but without a funky nose, Round Pond Cab 2006 (WE 92). We are not sure we would give a score of 92 to this wine; a bit too austere for our taste. Nevertheless, this starter dish was a good match for this wine.

Cleaning the artichokes: It requires some work but once you are used to it, it is rather quick. As seen in the image below, using a sharp long knife, I cut around the outer petals by moving the knife blade up-and-down while rotating the artichoke. It is similar, but more exaggerated motions, to "katsura muki" かつらむき for daikon. You end up with something like in #2. Cut the inner young petals off and remove the outer skin of the stalk and the bottom green part of the heart (#3). You may want to have a lemon half handy so that you can rub the cut surface with lemon to prevent discoloration. I plunge these cleaned artichoke hearts into acidulated and salted water containing lemons (1, cut in half with juice squeezed into the water), bay leaves (2-3) and onion (1 medium roughly cut up) (#4). You could also add black peppercorns.

Cooking artichoke herts: Gently boil the hearts for 20- 30 minutes until a skewer goes through the bottom of the hearts easily. After they have cooled, I remove the remaining inner petals to expose the chokes (left in the image below).

Removing the chokes: Using a spoon, remove all the chokes, even a little bit of chokes left will be very unpleasant. The image below on the right is after the chokes have been removed.

Although you could just eat the artichoke hearts as is with melted butter or mayonnaise, I decided to make it a bit more fancy; artichoke hearts stuffed with shiitake duxelle. 

Duxelle: This is for four (4) artichoke hearts. The classic recipe uses button mushrooms but we like fresh shiitake. I finely chop a shallot (1 medium), and fresh shiitake mushrooms (one 3.5 oz package or about 100 grams). I also include the stems. After removing the stem from the cap, I cut off the discolored end and then tear it along the direction of the fibers into thin strands and then chop finely. I removed the stalk of the artichoke hearts so that the hearts will sit on the plate properly. I chop finely the artichoke stalks.

I saute the shallot first with light olive oil (1-2 tbs) for a few minutes and add the shiitake and the artichoke stalks. I season it with salt and pepper and keep sautéing for several more minutes. The pan should be rather dry without any liquid because the mushrooms will exude some liquid. I add Marsala (2 tbs, or port if you prefer) and saute until all the liquid has evaporated. I remove from the heat, taste and adjust the seasonings and let it cool down to room temperature. When it is cool, I mix in chopped parsley (1 tbs).

Using my hand, I coat the surface of the artichokes hearts with olive oil and then stuff the artichokes with the duxelle (left) and top it with panko bread crumbs mixed with olive oil (right). I bake this in a 350F oven for 20 minutes. (This time I used a toaster oven and it burned the surface, I should have used a regular oven).

This looks like a lot of work but I did it in stages over two days so it was not too bad. If you like the taste of artichokes, you will like this dish.

Easter breakfast; whole wheat cross bun and scrambled egg イスーターの朝ごはん

Although this is obviously not Izakaya item, the creamy scrambled egg with shiitake mushroom and asparagus is a perfect dish as a drinking snack. My wife is into making all kinds of bread (taking over most of what I used to bake and going further) especially whole wheat breads. She baked hot cross buns for Easter breakfast this time. Instead of the usual sweet sugar-laden icing, she made it from cream cheese and milk with much reduced sugar.

I have to ask my wife to provide recipes for the whole wheat hot cross buns and icing. 

The recipe comes from Laurel Robertson's cookbook "The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book". Of course the recipe I used varied somewhat from the one in the book. For the bread: Raisins and chopped dates (2 cups total), 1 cup walnuts toasted and then rubbed in a towel to remove the bitter tasting brown skin. 2 Tsp dry yeast, 1/2 cup warm water (to proof the yeast), 6 cups whole wheat flour, 2 tsp salt, 2 large eggs, 3 tbs honey, 1 cup hot water, 1 cup cold buttermilk. I added the salt, the honey and hot water to dissolved the honey and salt. I let it cool down. I proofed the yeast. Using a mixer (Kitchen Aid - Professional 5 - with a dough hook), I then I added the yeast, honey and salt mixture and cold buttermilk to 4 cups of the wheat flour. I then added more wheat flour 1/2 cup at a time until the mixture started to form a dough. Then I added the eggs. I continued to add more flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough formed on the dough hook and pulled away from the sides. I then added 1/4 cup butter cut into small slices. I continued kneading after the butter was fully incorporated for another 7 to 10 minutes. For the last few minutes of kneading I added the dried fruits and nuts. I removed the dough from the bowel did a few rounds of hand kneading and then put into a bowel coated with about 1/2 teaspoon of oil to keep the surface moist during the first proofing. I deflated the dough and let it rise again. After it doubled in size I deflated it again and formed it into small round balls. I put the balls in a heavily greased glass Pyrex baking dish slightly separated but close enough so that the buns would touch after rising (I'm not wild about a lot of crust on these types of buns). After they doubled in size I put them into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  

Icing: I used one block of 1/3 less fat Philadelphia cream cheese, 1 tsp butter, 3 tsp honey 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 2 tsp of milk. Using a mixer, I softened the cream cheese and butter. When it was creamy I added the honey and cinnamon and kept mixing. I added just enough milk to make the mixture a spreadable consistency.  

She asked me to make something goes with the hot cross buns for breakfast. I made creamy scrambled egg with shiitake mushrooms garnished with asparagus tips. If I had, I would have made this with black truffle but no such luck this time. I made the scrambled eggs very soft and creamy by using a double boiler or "bain marie". Since I will not totally cook and harden the eggs, I used pasturized eggs with the addition of cream.

For two servings;

 I sautéed fresh shiitake mushroom (4, medium sized stem removed and finely chopped) and shallot (1, medium, finely chopped) in butter (2 tsp) until soft (several minutes) seasoned with salt and freshly cracked white pepper and set aside to cool.

I beat the eggs well and strained them to remove any clumps of egg white and chalaza (3, pasteurized eggs) which will make an unpleasant congealed hard spot in an otherwise creamy scrambled eggs; situation similar to making "chawanmushi" 茶碗蒸し.

On a bain marie (gently simmering hot water), I melted butter (1 thin pat, less than1 tsp) and when the butter melted, I added the beaten eggs and the sautéed shallot and shiitake mushroom. I gently mixed it with a silicon spatula while scraping the bottom and the sides. After few minutes, eggs started to congeal. I added salt and freshly cracked white pepper and mixed more vigorously until it was cooked but nicely creamy. I took the pan from the bain marie just before it reached the desired doneness and kept stirring.

I used egg-shaped small glass containers as you see on the left of the above image. On the right of the image above, the lid was open revealing the contents. I garnished it with slices of shiitake mushroom (sautéed) and asparagus tips (microwaved and cut in half lengthwise).

The creamy scrambled eggs were infused with the shiitake flavor. The slow cooking over the bain marie and the addition of cream and butter made the scrambled eggs like soft custard. The hot cross buns were also excellent. They had the nice nutty flavor of whole wheat that combined well with the roasted walnuts, dates and raisins. The icing was not too sweet but had rich flavor that complemented the buns--a great combination. 

Deep fried stuffed Shiitake mushroom 椎茸の肉詰め揚げ

This is a variation from "Deep fried stuffed peppers" (Mark's book p20). This is also a fairly common dish. Actually, one of the reasons I made this dish is (like Pork meat ball nabe dish) to use up the meat stuffing I made for gyoza. Somehow we did not feel like having gyoza repeated for a few days. In any case, the recipe is rather simple.

For the meat stuffing, you could use any kind of ground meat such as pork, chicken or even beef or a mixture of beef and pork. Here, since I used gyoza stuffing, it is made of pork, minced cabbage, scallion, ginger, garlic and seasoned with soy sauce, mirin and black pepper. You could use just meat but I prefer to lightly season it, at least with salt and pepper. Since this is a type of tempura, you could eat this with a tempura dipping sauce with grated daikon or graded daikon with red pepper "momijo-oroshi" 紅葉おろし as suggested in the recipe in the Mark's book or with a lemon and salt or just with a lemon juice as we did here because the meat stuffing was seasoned.

I used small fresh mushroom (about 2 inch in diameter). Although it is optional, I made a traditional decorative star-shaped cut on the surface of the shiitake mushroom as seen above. Take the meat stuffing and put it against the gill side of the mushroom and make a small mound. The amount of the stuffing depends on the size of the mushroom, I used 1-2 heaping tsp for each mushroom. I used a rather thin tempura batter. I made about 1/3 cup of the batter with 2tsp each of cake flour and potato starch and added cold water (from the refrigerator dispenser) to make the rather loose batter.

I heated peanut oil or vegetable oil in a pan to 375F (or you could use the more imprecise but easy method of judging the oil temperature as I described before). I used green beans as an accompaniment. I snipped both ends of green beans and coated them with batter. I fried the beans for 1 minute. Then, I coated the stuffed shiitake mushrooms with the batter and fried them meat stuffing side down first and after 2-3 minutes flipped them over and fried another 2 minutes on the mushroom side. I drained the stuffed mushrooms on a pepper towel or on a metal grate.

Small Japanese green peppers called "pea-man" ピーマン required in the recipe in Mark;'s book are difficult to get here in the U.S. and certainly, western green peppers are too thick and too strong in flavor for this dish. Especially since my wife does not like green peppers, shiitake mushroom is better choice for us. Shiitake mushroom has a nice meaty texture and we really like this combination.

Baked shiitake mushroom stuffed with pork 椎茸の豚肉詰めオーブン焼き

This is a dish I made from the leftover gyoza stuffing from making teba gyoza 手羽餃子. I happened to have fresh large shiitake mushrooms (about 3 inch diameter) and decided to stuff them with the gyoza stuffing and bake them. This is a variation of the dish I posted before. Becase the mushrooms were very large and meaty, this dish came out very well. I again, served this with a side of Sriracha hot sauce.

Pork stuffing: I used up a bit over half of the gyoza stuffing left over from making the teba gyoza.

Shiitake mushroom: I found these large fresh mushrooms in our near-by gourmet grocery store a few days ago and bought them thinking I would make some kind of stuffed and baked dish. I washed and removed the stem and squeezed out the extra moisture. I put a small amount of olive oil in the cap (which was promptly absorbed) and simply stuffed the caps with the gyoza mixture (left upper in the image blow).

I baked them in a 400F toaster oven for 30 minutes (right upper and left lower in the image above). Some juice, which was nicely seasoned, came out. I cut the stuffed mushrooms in half showing the bottom shiitake and top gyoza stuffing (right lower in the above image).

I served this with some of the juice accumulated in the bottom of the baking dish and a side of Sriracha hot sauce. The shiitake mushrooms gave a nice meaty texture which soaked up the meat juice. This is a very satisfying dish. 

(A few days later we made a meal by combining several of these left over stuffed mushrooms with the barbecued gyoza chicken wings--it was a mighty fine combination).

Although this will go with any drinks, we were having this with an interesting Sonoma red blend called "The Barrister 2010". They equate this to Orin-Swift "The prisoner", which we rather liked (I am not sure the "Barrister" was so named because they were comparing this wine to the "Prisoner" and indicating "barrister" is better than "prisoner"???). This is a red made of many varietals but the kitchen sink. Although I could not find what kinds of grapes were in it, we definitely tasted and smelled black pepper indicating a good amount of syrah component. This is a good food wine and great with the this dish.

Enoki and shiitake mushrooms in miso butter sauce えのきと椎茸の味噌バーター

This is a variation of what I posted some years ago. For some reason, our regular grocery store stopped carrying shiitake mushrooms.  So, when we were at Whole Foods, I got enoki and shiitake mushrooms. I made this small dish to go with wine.

Some sweetness from mirin and nutty miso mixed with butter is a good combination.

This dish goes well with wine or sake.

I made this in an aluminum foil pouch in our toaster oven. So, the clean up was easy.

Ingredients:
1 package of enoki mushroom, root portion cut off and separated.
2-3 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stem removed and caps cut into thin strips.
2 scallions, finely chopped.
1 tbs of mirin
1 tbs of miso
1 tsp of butter

Directions:
In the center of a sheet of aluminum foil place the butter, scallion, mushrooms and fold to make a pouch. Before sealing, add the mirin and miso. Pinch the opening to close.
Place it in 350F toaster oven  for 30 minutes.
Open the pouch and mix the miso and liquid to make sauce and serve.

This is a quick comforting dish with nice texture and the flavors of enoki (with a texture almost like noodles) and shiitake (meaty and earthy) mixed with butter and miso tastes. 

Grilled black sea bass with grilled asparagus and shiitake mushroom ブラックシーバスの塩焼き

After hanami, the weather turned more seasonal (cooler) but it was still nice enough to grill outside. One weekend, we bought a whole black sea bass and decided to just simply grill it on the charcoal fire. At the market, there were few fresh whole fish available, Arctic char and black sea bass looked good to me and I chose black sea bass since we eat salmon frequently and char is somewhat similar to salmon. This black sea bass was a good sized fish.

What is the Japanese equivalent of black sea bass? I am not sure but I could not find similar Japanese fish. Thus, the Japanese phonetic expression of "black sea bass" ブラックシーバス appears appropriate. It is a white meat fish but has nice firm sweet meat. It can be grilled, fried, simmered and is available as a sashimi item in sushibars. I did not think, however, that this was fresh enough for that.

Black sea bass: This was about 13 inches long. I had it gutted, scaled and the dorsal fin removed (very spiky) by the fish monger. I decided to simply salt it and grill it without further embellishment. I made shallow cross cuts on both sides of the fish to prevent the skin from rupturing during grilling. I salted inside and out a few hours before grilling, covered and put it in the refrigerator. Just before grilling, I patted the skin dry with a paper towel and smeared light olive oil on the skin (mostly to prevent the skin from sticking to the grill).

Vegetables: I grilled fresh shiitake mushrooms and aspragus at the same time. For the shiitake mushrooms, I removed the stem. For the asparagus, I removed the woody root ends.  I coated them with olive oil and seasoned both with salt and pepper. 

Grill preparation: I used slightly less lump charcoal than I usually use--(about 80% of what I would use to roast a whole chicken). I ignited the charcoal using a chimney charcoal starter. After the charcoal was ready, I just dumped in on the bottom grate of the Weber grill in an oval-shaped mound corresponding with the shape of the fish with the center portion having few layers and the periphery less charcoal so that the fish get hottest fire and the vegetables less so. I cleaned and sprayed the grill grate with a non-flammable non-stick oil spray. 

I placed the fish on the grill, put on the lid but left both bottom and top air vents fully open.  I let it cook for 5 minutes and then placed the mushrooms and asparagus on either side of the fish. After another 5 minutes, I turned over the shiitake mushrooms and moved them further away from the hot charcoal to prevent charring (my wife does not like "blackened" mushrooms  i.e. mushrooms with burned sections). I also turned the asparagus but left them in the rather hot area of the grill next to the fish. I flipped over the fish trying not to damage the skin. I cooked another 5 minutes with the lid on. I thought the fish was just done but my wife who peeked into the flesh said it was still transparent near the bone.  I had to put the fish back for another 5 minutes to complete the cooking.

 My wife deboned the fish and separated the meat as you see above. We shared this plate. We had this with a bowl of white rice. I also served "Ikura" salmon roe, "Tobiko" flying fish roe, and seasoned nori or "Ajitsuke nori". This was very enjoyable and we finished up the entire fish. The meat was a bit overcooked but still quite nice. The shiitake mushroom was succulent and almost tasted like meat with a nice smoky flavor (and I did not burn them this time).

Duck breast salad with grilled shiitake 鴨胸肉と焼きシイタケのポン酢酢の物

This is another quick dish I made from the leftovers we had as a starter dish of the evening. There is no recipe for this, I just concocted it on a whim. I had roasted duck breast leftover and I thought the combination of onion and ponzu with duck will be good.

The amounts are for two small servings as seen above. I fist thinly sliced red onion (1/3 medium). I salted, kneaded, and soaked it in water for 5 minutes and wrung out the moisture with a paper towel. Cucumber was sliced obliquely very thin. I salted and squeezeed out the excess moisture (one small American mini-cuke). I thinly sliced the duck breast (cooked to medium rare with nice uniform rosy color) and then cut it into wide strips (4 thin slices per serving). I also found fresh shiitake mushroom (4, small) left in our refrigerator and decided to include it in this dish. I washed and broiled them in a toaster oven (it is sort of steam broiled). After a few minutes before it gets dried up, I removed the shiitake and cut into thin strips and dressed with a small mount of soy sauce.

I mixed all the ingredients except for the shiitake in a bowl and dressed them with ponzu shoyu ポン酢醤油 (from the bottle) and a splash of a good olive oil. I topped it with the grilled shiitake and sprinkled roasted white sesame seeds on top.

For an impromptu dish, this was a great success. The onion is strong enough but not too assertive because of the salting and soaking in water. The addition of the olive oil contributes depth of the dish. We had this with "G sake" from SakeOne. The very first US brewed sake we really like. This is a wonderful pairing. I should have made more since we had more duck breast.

"Futomaki" roll sushi 太巻き

For the New Year's soup, I usually make mochi kinchaku 餅巾着 or square mochi encased in deep fried tofu pouch or abura-age 油揚げ and tie it off with kanpyou かんぴょう. Since I had extra kanpyou, I decided to make a rolled sushi or "futomaki" 太巻き. Futomaki is a fat roll as compared to "hosomaki" 細巻き which is a thin roll. Futomaki uses a whole sheet of nori instead of a half sheet used for hosomaki.

The regular futomaki roll uses only one whole sheet of nori which is rolled with the rice side in. The version I did here was shown to me by a sushi chef, Hajime はじめ, who worked at a long defunct Japanese restaurant "Mikado" in Tenley town which we frequented in the early years after we moved to DC. Hajime told me that when he makes futomaki in a sushi bar, he first makes an in-side-out roll or uramaki 裏巻き and then wraps it with an additional nori sheet. He said this makes the roll more substantial and sets it apart from homemade rolls. So, I am following his suggestion here.

What should be included in the center of futomaki rolls is debatable but the must-have items include an omelet, seasoned kanpyou and shiitake mushroom. Vinegared ginger is also a usual item and traditionally red ginger or beni-shouga 紅ショウガ is used but I used "gari" or the kind which is usually served at a sushi bar. Other items may include some kind of protein such as seasoned chikuwa 竹輪 fish cake strips or grilled anago 穴子. Many more modern variations exist including using cooked meat (either pork, beef, chicken, or even Spam - not junk email but Hormel's mystery meat which is called a "luncheon meat", obviously an euphemism, in Japan for some reason). There is pink (artificially dyed) and sweet (almost pure sugar) fish meat product called "sakura denbu"  さくらでんぶ, which may be also used (not by me for sure). For greens, I often used pickled cucumber (kasu zuke) but this time I used cooked baby spinach.

Kanpyou: Kanpyou comes dried (sometimes, dried and frozen). I washed it in running cold water. I then rubbed it with Kosher salt in my hands. After washing away the salt, I soaked it in cold water over night in the refrigerator (or several hours at room temperature). If I am going to use it to tie off something, which will be later be further cooked, I do not cook the kanpyou. For a sushi roll however, I simmered it in just enough water to cover with a lid on for 10-20 minutes and seasoned it with mirin and soy sauce. I simmered it until the liquid had almost completely evaporated (another 20 minutes) and let it cool down. I then wrung out the excess liquid.

Shiitake mushroom: You must use dried mushroom, which has more "umami" 旨味 than fresh ones. For sushi roll or scattered sushi or chirashi-zushi ちらし寿司, you need to use dried shiitake. Dried whole mushrooms need to be redydrated in cold water over night or warm water with a pinch of sugar for several hours. After removing the stem, I sliced it thinly. I cooked the sliced re-hydrated mushroom in the soaking liquid for 10-20 minutes and again seasoned it with mirin and soy sauce, simmered it to reduce the liquid to almost nothing, and let it cool. You could also get pre-sliced dried shiitake mushroom, which is a bit more convenient.

Japanese omelet: This is made exactly like a dashimaki だし巻き and then I cut into long strips appropriate for a sushi roll.

Ginger: I just used vinegared ginger root like you'll see ar a sushi bar. I just squeezed out the excess liquid and cut it into strips.

Spinach: I put baby spinach in a dry wok on medium heat with a lid. I turned the partially cooked spinach over a few times until it was completely wilted and seaseon it with salt. I let it cool and squeezed out the excess moisture.

After all these preps were done, I just arranged everythig on a plate (image below #1). I also arranged everything I needed to make a sushi roll, including the sushi vinegar (I could make it from rice vinegar but I ususally use bottled sushi vinegar), "hangiri" or wooden bowl to make sushi rice (#2 right upper corner), nori sheets and sushi mat (#2).

My wife made fresh rice perfectly (slightly dry) and I could use a good amount of sushi vinegar.  She also fanned the rice while I mixed in the vinegar. I let it stand for 5-10 minutes. I placed the nori sheet with a long axis vertically and spread it with sushi rice (3#). I moistened my hands with slightly vinegared water to prevent the rice from sticking to my hand.

I ususally use a moistened tea towel to make uramaki but, somehow, we could not find it this time. So I used a plastic wrap to cover the rice side (#4). After flipping it over, I placed all the ingredients on the edge closest to me (#5) and started rolling (#6) with the help of a sushi mat and plastic wrap.

As the rice surface was about to meet the nori sheet, I grabbed the edge of the plastic wrap and lifted it as I was rolling so that the wrap will not be rolled into the sushi roll (Below image #1). Now I have an inside-out roll wrapped in plastic wrap (below image #2). I removed the plastic wrap (below image #3) and place the roll on another nori sheet and rolled it to cover (image below #4).

Here is the end product with both ends already cut off (#5, the ends were a nice snack for my wife and I). With a sharp thin blade, moistened with vinegared water, I sliced the roll (above image #6).

I recruited my wife as a photographer but she complained that I did not pause at the crucial moments for her to take good pictures. In any case, this was a shime dish on a weekend evening. This combination of sushi rice, nori, shiitake, kanpyou and omelet is somehow very comforting and satisfying. I also made a lunch box from the left over for the next day.

Scattered sushi cooked in Donabe 炊き込み寿司

This is a variation of scattered sushi "chirashizushi or chirashi sushi" ちらし寿司. Scattered sushi can have many different toppings including raw fish (in that case, it is called nama-chirashi 生ちらし or kaisen-chirashi 海鮮ちらし) but the most original form is made with mostly vegetables such as shiitake 椎茸, kanpyou 干瓢, renkon 蓮根, and gobou 牛蒡. The common way to make chirashizushi is to make white rice first, dress it in sushi vinegar and mix in or top with the seasoned cooked vegetables, other items, and garnish. 

In this version, I cooked rice and seasoned vegetables together as though I was making flavored rice. After the rice was cooked, I dressed the rice with sushi vinegar and garnished. There is not much difference between this and usual method but this tastes more like flavored rice than classic chirashizushi. I decided to make this after I made "ganmo" since there was excess dried shiitake mushroom and a last bit of gobou remained.

The following amount is for 2 Japanese cups of rice (360ml). The first thing I did was  "mis en place" as you can see on the left of the image below. The black thing is "me-hijiki" 芽ひじき about 1/3 cup after hydration, hydrated and sliced shiitake mushrooms (3-4 medium in size), shredded carrot (1/3 medium), gobou (1/4), and abura-age or deep fried tofu pouch (one regular size, cut in small strips).

I first put dark roasted sesame oil (1 tsp) in a frying pan and sautéed all the ingredients for one minute and added the soaking liquid from the shiitake mushrooms (about 1/2 cup), mirin (2-3 tbs), sake (2-3 tbs) and soy sauce (2 tbs) and simmered it for 20 minutes. I then separated the solids from the liquid (right in the image above). Whatever liquid I collected in the bowl below, I added water (or dashi broth) to make it 400ml.

Meanwhile, I washed the rice (2 Japanese cups, 1 cup=180ml) until the water was no longer turbid and strained it with a strainer.

In Kamado-san donabe rice cooker (or you could use an electric rice cooker), I put the washed rice, the seasoned vegetable mixture and seasoning liquid plus water (400ml) and mixed. As per the instructions that came with the donabe rice cooker, I set the inner and outer lids properly and cooked for 14 minutes on medium flame, turned off the flame and let it stand from 20 minutes without opening. 

While I was waiting for the rice to steep, I put about 1/2 cup of sushi vinegar (from the bottle) in a Pyrex measuring cup and heated up by microwaving. After 20 minutes of steeping, I mixed the rice, remove it to a mixing bowl, and dressed it with the sushi vinegar (use as much as the rice could absorb without getting too wet). I let it absorb for 5-10 minutes and served. I made thinly sliced cucumber (American mini-cucu, salted, kneaded and extra moisture squeezed out) and scrambled egg (for two small servings you see here, one large egg seasoned with salt). I also used thin strips of nori as a garnish. On the side, I served asazuke  浅漬け of cucumber, daikon, and carrot.

This was a nice ending dish for the evening.  The rice was still warm and has many more flavors in the rice than the regular scattered sushi. I used the leftover rice for lunch boxes the next. Even so, we have a lot left. (Just a head-up that you may be seeing more of this rice in the near future.)

Eggplant gyoza 茄子餃子

Last weekend I made gyoza 餃子. As usual, I used the trimmings from pork tenderloin. I made up a batch using wonton skins but I had more gyoza stuffing leftover. Then, I saw a Japanese recipe using thin slices of eggplant instead of Wonton or Gyoza skin. Since I happened to have a Japanese eggplant (one we can get here is a small diameter elongated eggplant. I only rarely see the other varieties of eggplant available in Japan such as "Kamo-nasu" 賀茂茄子 or "Mizu-nasu" 水茄子).  So, I made gyoza with this eggplant. A small amount of gyoza stuffing still remained after I made this dish so I stuffed a fresh shiitake mushroom to finish it up. I served this with some veggies as a starter one evening.

Since only enough leftover stuffing for one shiitake mushroom, I served three eggplant gyoza and half each of the shiitake gyoza. The veggies are sliced cucumber dressed in sushi vinegar 胡瓜の酢の物, skinned Campari tomato with sesame dressing トマトの胡麻和え, braised crunchy cauliflower モンパルナスのカリフラワー and sugar snap in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

Ingredients:

Gyoza stuffing is my usual. Hand chopped pork tenderloins trimmings, boiled and chopped cabbage, chopped scallions, garlic, ginger, seasoned with sesame oil, salt, and soy sauce. As I mentioned this was the leftovers after making regular gyoza.
One Japanese eggplant (one with small diameter and very long),
Potato starch (Katakuri-ko 片栗粉).
Peanut oils and sesame oil for frying

Directions:
Skin the eggplant using a peeler on both sides lengthwise, cut crosswise into 2 inch long pieces and then slice lengthwise into 3mm thick pieces and soak in about 5% salted water (#1) until the eggplant pieces get soft/limp (It took more that 30 minutes).
Drain in a colander and press using the back of a ladle to press out excess moisture and line them up on paper towels (#2) and press with another sheet of paper towel to blot.
Sprinkle potato starch or Katakuri-ko (#3)
Wrap the gyoza stuffing by folding the eggplant in half (#4).
Since I still had some gyoza stuffing left, I stuffed one fresh shiitake mushroom (#5)
Add 1tbs peanut oil and splashes of dark sesame oil in a frying pan on medium flame and place in the eggplant gyoza (#6).
After a few minutes when the eggplant is browned, turn it over and put on the lid for several minutes and finish with the lid off for 1 more minute (#8).

This time, the stuffing was well-seasoned and did not need any dipping sauce. This is not bad but both my wife and I prefer regular gyoza. We both missed the lovely crunch of the crispy wonton skin.

Country pate version 2 田舎風パテ第二弾

This is my second attempt at making "Country pate". One weekend, I got ground pork and chicken liver to make the pate but the chicken liver looked really good so I made "Yakitori" and liver simmered in red wine instead. Since I had the ground pork, I decided to make country pate using bacon instead of the chicken liver. I read a few recipes and came up with my own rendition. It came out quite nice. The texture was better than my first attempt. I served this with Dijon mustard, thinly sliced cornichon and skinned Campari tomato.

Besides pork and bacon, I added shelled pistachio nuts, shiitake mushroom and onion.  Seasoning included thyme, black pepper and reduced brandy.

Ingredients (made 3 small loaves):
1.25 lb ground pork
2 strips of thickly cut bacon, uncooked, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
4 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stem removed, bottom cut off, torn length wise into thin strips, caps and stems, finely chopped
2 tbs light olive oil for sauteing
1 large egg
2 tbs cream
1 cup brandy (I used Christian brother VS which I use for cooking) reduced to 1/3 cup (#2)
1/4 tsp thyme (I used dry)
1/4 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp Kosher salt
1 cup shelled pistachio nuts
3 bay leaves

Directions:
1. Cook the onion and garlic in olive oil. When cooked, add the shiitake mushrooms and continue cooking for several more minutes. Then season with salt and pepper and place the mixture in a metal bowl and let it cool to room temperature (#1)
2. Meanwhile reduce 1 cup of brandy to 1/3 cup (#2), be careful not to ignite the alcohol while reducing.
3. Mix together the bacon, ground pork and #1 and #2, pistachio nuts, egg, cream, thyme, black pepper, salt, and mix well (#3).
4. Grease the bottom of a small loaf pan and place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom and one bay leaf (#4).
5.  Place the meat mixture in the pan, tapping a few times to remove any trapped air (#5) and tightly cover the opening with aluminum foil.
6. In a 350 F oven, cook the pate in a  bain marie (fill a large baking dish with boiling water which comes to half way up the depth of the loaf pan) for 1 and half hours (or until the center of the pate registers 166 F).
7. Let it cool down to room temperature and refrigerate overnight.
8. To remove the pate from the pan soak the bottom of the loaf pan in warm water; the pate comes out easily (#6).
9. Wipe off the excess fat and gelatin from the surface and wrap the pate in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one more day before serving.

We like this version much better than the first version I made. It has a better texture. Although we did not taste the shiitake mushroom, it must have contributed to the texture. We are not sure that the reduced brandy did anything either. In any case. this pate is perfect accompaniment for red wine.