Myouga, chicken and duck tenderloin tempura 茗荷、鶏と鴨の笹身の天ぷら

We do not particulary like to make tempura of myouga because the myouga seems to lose its flavor when cooked, but this one came out ok. Again, the myouga was used as a part of the tempura assortment rather than the main item.

The chicken tenderloin was stuffed with minced pickled plum or "umeboshi" 梅干し which is called "bainiku" 梅肉, then wrapped in perilla leaves. This is exactly the way I usually make this dish (Left in the back in the above picture). Since I separated the tenderloin from the duck breast when I made a duck breast dish, I wrapped it with a small rectangular sheet of nori 海苔. Whenever nori or aonori is used in this fashion or mixed into the tempura batter, it is called "Isobe age" 磯辺揚げ meaning "Rocky seashore fries" (Right in the back ). The tempura batter is my usual; a mixture of ice cold water and cake flour (I did not add potato starch this time because I was a bit lazy). I also fried this using the shallow frying method rather than deep frying.

I fried the myouga last, briefly and at a higher temperature than other items, which helped retain the flavor. When you cook myouga (such as in a miso or clear soup) the unique flavor of myouga diminishes quickly. I served this with an wedge of lemon and green tea salt.

Small salted plums カリカリ小梅

We planted a ume fruit 梅 bearing plum tree (prunus mume) about 30 years ago. While ornamental plum trees are quite common, we had to spend some time and effort to find one that bore the plum known in Japanese as ume. (We subsequently found out it is actually an apricot tree and the Japanese green ume is basically an unripe apricot from which plum wine or "umeshu"梅 is made. Standard "Umeboshi" pickled plum 梅干し is made from yellow ripe "ume".) It arrived in the spring in an envelop as a mere twig mailed from a nursery in Oregon. It spent the summer in a flower pot on the deck but in the fall we didn't know what to do with it so in the absence of any other plan we toed it into our vegetable garden never expecting it to survive the winter. To our surprise it not only survived but thrived producing bumper crops and providing us with the basic ingredient to make some mighty fine plum wine. The last bumper crop was in 2008.  Around that time, a fungal disease (black knot galls) started spreading among plum trees in our neighborhood. Many of the beautiful ornamental plum trees lining the street leading to our house became diseased and many subsequently succumbed. Unfortunately, our plum tree did not escape this fungal disease. The branches became deformed, coated in black cankers. It stopped producing fruit. Many of the branches died. In 2012 we had a Japanese master landscaper redo our backyard. As a result, the tree was moved to a different location and the diseased branches were severely pruned back.  It struggled for several years and I had to further prune out the affected branches several times. Frankly, there was not much of it left. We thought this tree was basically lost and even discussed whether we should have it removed. Surprisingly, although it still shows residual signs of the disease, it seems to have overcome the worst of it. It miraculously survived and even started putting out new growth. This year, for the first time since getting sick and since being transplanted, it bore a large number of fruit. One of the branches had so much fruit on it that it broke during a thunderstorm and fell to the ground. The branch is pictured below. 

Although the fruit was still rather small and unripe, we decided to harvest it since the branch was already off the tree. In total, the fruit was over 1kg (Below picture on the left). I knew immediately how I could use the fruit because we happened to watch (for the second time) one of the episodes of "Midnight diner" 深夜食堂 on Netflix. This episode was about "Karikari-koume" カリカリ小梅 which is crunchy small salted plums.

Ingredients:
1kg small green plums (left in the picture below).
100g salt (10% of the plum)
2tbs white liquor (I used vodka instead).

Directions
Cull plums with any blemishes, wash, and soak it in cold water for a few hours (right in the picture below).

Remove the remnant of flower (#1) using a bamboo skewers and dry the plum. 

Put the plums in a Ziploc bag,  add the salt and vodka. 

Remove as much of the air as you can and close the bag. Distribute the salt so that all the plums are coated and make a single layer of the plums (#2 in he picture below) 

I sandwiched the plums in the Ziploc bag between two sheet pans then placed weight (about 1kg, water filled jars) (#3, in the picture below) 

Leave it for 3 days. The color of the plum will change from green to light brown and water will come out (#4 in the picture below).

I moved it to the refrigerator and  after several days, placed the liquid and plums in the glass jar with air-tight lid (I used a small amount of Vodka to "sterilized" the jar before adding the plums)  (left in the picture below). The liquid (called "Umesu" 梅酢) came 2/3 of the jar (right in the picture below).

The recipe I am following said keep it in the refrigerator 3-4 weeks before eating. I had a taste when I moved the plum to the jar. It was salty and "karikari" meaning crunchy in texture but had a slight bitter aftertaste. Hope this will disappear in a few weeks. We will let you how it goes.

Plum wine 梅酒

I promised to post "Umeshu" 梅酒 previously. After all, I named my blog "on wine and food" so it is appropriate to talk about plum wines, although it is actually a fruit liquor and not really a wine. Many years ago (probably 25 years or so), while we were visiting Sapporo, we went to a get-together dinner at my late brother's in-laws' place. At the end of wonderful feast, they served us a plum wine which grandma mother-in-law had made many years ago. It was nicely aged and tasted like fine port or sherry--so good. There was no comparison to anything made commercially. Later, when we mentioned this to my mother, she immediately dove into the cabinet under the sink and produced an old bottle of umeshu that she had made and served it to us. Again, it was excellent. These episodes prompted us to make our own umeshu in the U.S. At that time, we were living in California and it was relatively easy to get green unripe Japanese plums or "Aoume" 青梅 at a Japanese market. We started making umeshu at home. The traditional recipe uses rock sugar and shouchu 焼酎 (usually 50 or 40 proof) or Japanese distilled potato liquor. After we moved to DC, it is still possible to get Japanse plums but it was hit or miss. Some years, we got some green plums from our Japanese grocery store. The owner was kind enough to set aside some for us whenever she got them but, some years, we did not get any plums. Thus, our quest to find a Japanese plum tree which will produce good fruit began.

Japanse plum 梅 or prunus mume is more closely related to apricot rather than plum or some cultivars are believed to be a hybrid such as cultivar "Bungo" 豊後梅. Their fruit reportedly is the best for umeshu and umeboshi 梅干し, a Japanese salted plum. We looked high and low but most of Japanese plum trees in the U.S. are stricktly ornamental and all of the tree catalogues we looked at only described how pretty the flower was but did not mention the fruit. After sending many emails to many tree nurseries, one from Washington state responded saying that this one (I do not remember exactly what was the name or cultivar) would produce decent fruit. So we ordered it. It came in the mail in a small brown envelope and the bare root tree was about 5 inches tall. It came in late summer so we put the small "twig" in a little pot on the deck. But winter was fast approaching and we wondered what to do with the little guy. It was not looking particularly happy and we did not think it would survive the winter sitting inside the house next to the window--for that matter we didn't think it would survive the winter no matter what we did. As a desperate measure, we plunked it down into the small raised vegetable patch we have in the backyard (we used to grow tomatoes until it got too shady for that). This was meant to be the plum tree I.C.U. and lo-and-behold, it revived itself and started growing. Now it is about 20 foot tall (see picture above) in the same vegitable patch since we lost a chance to transplant it elsewhere. It started producing fruit in the past 4-5 years. It was a first bumper crop in 2008. Vintage 2008 is our second vintage of umeshu made with estate (?) grown plums.

Recipe: Our recipes for umeshu have evolved a little but are based on the traditional Japanese recipes. We use regular sugar instead of rock sugar (since we did not see a big difference in quality of the resulting umeshu and it is rather difficult to get rock sugar) and use either 80 proof vodka and brandy (not VSOP or XO, just cheap Christian brothers). Our regular recipe uses 1lb of plums, 1/2 lb of sugar and 1.75 liters of brandy or vodka. We use to prick the fruit as suggested in a Japanse recipe (supposedly to encourage the flow of juices from the fruit) but this produces a murky wine with lots of precipitate. So, we do not prick the plums but, instead, coat the fruit with sugar and let it stand for one day in a jar so that the moisture is being extrated from the fruit before adding the alcohol. For Vintage 2008, I used 2 lbs of fruit since we had so much. The above picture was the Vodka version. Not intentionally but I left this batch with the fruit for one and half years (I usually bottle it after one year). The brandy version became darker and the fruit is all shriveled up (see picture below, right) as compared to the vodka version in which the fruit looks plump (picture below, left). I am not sure what made this difference. Since the sugar amount is the same, it must be something to do with the brandy (This difference was not apparent when I made brandy and vodka plum wines in previous years).

Tasting notes: The taste test was done while bottling. As a reference, we also tasted the old vintage brandy plum wine (I think it is 2000 or 1999 vintage but the label has fallen off). The picture below, from the left to right, are 1) Old vintage brandy plum wine, 2) 2008 Brandy plum wine and 3) 2008 Vodka plum wine. You can clearly see the diference in color. Nose is best in the old vintage with nice strong plum nose with a nutty sherry character. Palate is also the best in 1) with nice mellow plummy taste without any harsh edges despite a high alcohol content. 2) is not bad for young plum wine but 3) definitely has a raw, harsh edges.

We have accumulated quite a few bottles in the past 20 some years. One of these days, we may be able to do the vertical tasting but it is a bit like Scotch tasting, your have to be very careful, otherwise you will be totally soused after a few tasting.

P.S. Please see here for additional information on Umeshu.

Scallop sashimi three ways ホタテ貝の刺身

We can not easily get "sashimi" grade scallops. I make a scallop sashimi-like dish from regular frozen and thawed scallops from a nearby gourmet market by poaching the scallops in a dashi broth and sake mixture gently for 5 minutes until the scallops just become opaque throughout. I chill the scallops and serve with a pickled plum "bainiku" 梅肉 sauce like sashimi. This is not bad but does not have the texture and sweetness of the real thing. Fortunately, we got sashimi-grade sea scallops from Catalina Offshore Products along with other goodies. The only problem was that we had to eat them fairly quickly. Since we had guests who appreciate scallop sashimi, I made three different scallop sashimis.

I washed the scallops and patted them dry. I removed the small hard muscle attached to the side of the scallops. I sliced one large scallop into 4-5 thin rounds. I salted them very lightly and squeezed lemon over them. The verions shown in the picture are: 1. Straight forward sashimi (upper right) with real grated wasabi (see below) and soy sauce, 2. scallops with salsa sauce (upper left), and 3. Scallops with pickled plum sauce ("bainiku" 梅肉) (below). Garnishes are lemon sclices, chopped chives and perilla leaves.

For the salsa sauce: Chop tomatoes, shallots, Jalapeno peper (seeded and de-veined) finely and add olive oil, lemon or lime juice, salt and pepper. Pour over the scallop. Sometimes I also use balsamic vinegar and soy sauce (no lemon juice in that case).

For the bainiku sauce: Remove the meat from "umeboshi: chop it finely and mix in a small amount of mirin and rice vinegar. Pour over the scallop.

Regrading "wasabi" 山葵; I mentioned a bit about this in the previous post. There are two companies which sell "real" wasabi"; one is called "Real Wasabi" another is called "Pacific Farm". You could buy; 1. wasabi daikon 山葵大根 or rhizomes, 2. frozen grated real wasabi in a tube, or 3. wasabi powders made from real wasabi not from western horseradish. Last time we tried rhizomes from Real Wasabi. This time I tried "the grated frozen real wasabi in a tube from Pacific Farm" (left image). I think this is very good and probably more cost effective than buying a wasabi rhizome, although it has some additives like artificial coloring. The other problem is packaging. Initially, the water and wasabi appeared to seperate and then it becomes difficult to squeeze out from the tube but the flavor and heat are very similar to the freshly grated wasabi. It is probably best to smear a small dab on the sashimi itself before dipping in soy sauce but this may be bit too strong for some. In that case, dissolve wasabi in soy sauce. It will keep a long time frozen and, reportedly, for 30 days after opening the tube. In my experience, however, at 3 weeks after opening, the remaining wasabi (about 1/8 of the tube) became almost impossible to squeeze out.  By cutting open the tube, I found that the wasabi became bit dry and chalky in texture. The flavor was still there, though. Some of sushi bars in Washington, DC started offering "real" wasabi with an extra charge but I think it is worth it.

Yakitori, two kinds 焼き鳥２種類、レバたれ、笹身のシソ梅肉

I started this blog with “Yakitori” posts 3 years ago. I also posted about our surrogate “Izakaya” “Tako Grill”.  Last year, to our surprise, Chef Kudo went back to Japan for good and opened up his restaurant “タコグリルTako Grill” in the small town he originally came from called “Kuroishi” 黒石 in Aomori prefecture 青森県. Now Mr. Terry Segawa 瀬川哲紀 who mostly took care of the business side of Tako Grill is more involved in the kitchen. He added quite nice Izakaya type snacks to the menu (actually, he now has a special Izakaya menu). When Terry is behind counter, he often offers something “off the menu”. These dishes are different and quite nice; one evening it was Yakitori (chicken liver and hearts). My wife really likes chicken liver Yakitori, which I have not made for some time. This prompted me to make these small yakitori skewers on weekend.
When I barbecue whole chickens, I usually discard the neck, gizzards and liver which are packaged in paper and tucked inside the cavity. (These are usually meant for making the American classic gravy-with-giblets). This time, I used the liver to make this small Yakitori while we are waiting for the whole chickens to finish cooking.

Since the Webber grill was otherwise occupied with the whole chickens and the mosquitos were still around making me reluctant to stand around outside tending the grill, I cooked these Yakitori in the toaster oven in “Hi-broil”.

Chicken liver: I removed attached fat, vessels etc and soaked them in sake for 20-30 minutes. I used a flat metal skewer. From two whole chickens, there was enough liver to make two small skewers (picture below).

Sauce: I made quick “tare” たれ or dipping sauce. It is a mixture of sake (1 tbs) mirin (1 tbs), sugar (2 tsp) and soy sauce (1 tbs). I first heated the sake and mirin mixture to boil, then dissolved sugar and added soy sauce. I then made a potato starch slurry (katakuriko 片栗粉 or potato starch plus sake). I streamed it in until the sauce was slightly thickened.

Chicken tenderloins: This is a variation of shiso and salted plum roll 梅しそ巻き which I previously posted. Instead of making it into a roll, I butterflied the chcken tenderloins, lined it with 1 or 2 leaves of perilla and smeared bainiku 梅肉 (I removed the meat of umeboshi 梅干 plum and minced it into paste with a small amount of mirin to make it a paste consistency). After closing the butterflied portions, I used a sawing motion to thread the skewer (see below).

I cooked the skewers on Hi-broil in the toaster oven (with the upper heating elements about 1 inch from the skewers) turning once or twice for 10-15 minutes. For the liver,  I coated the surface of the cooked liver with the dipping sauce and broiled it for one more minute turning once. I put on one more coat of “tare” sauce and sprinkled “sansho” 山椒 or powdered Szechwan pepper corn on the liver.

This was a perfect appetizer to eat while we waited for the chicken to cook. Sometimes the liver included in the packet found in the cavity of a whole chicken is not fresh and is all broken up, but I should check it before discarding. This was perfectly good chicken liver.

Zousui 雑炊

Rice porridge with chicken and shiitake mushroom 鶏肉と椎茸の雑炊

This is a variation of rice porridge or "okayu" お粥.  "Okayu" is usually made from uncooked rice and it takes a long time to cook and usually there are no other items in it. On the other hand, "zosui" 雑炊 means to "cook various items together". The most typical way of having "zosui" is to add cooked rice to the remaining broth at the end of a "nabe" dish, especially "Muzutaki" or "Yosebabe" . This broth contains all the goodness of the vegetables and other ingredients cooked in the nabe. Adding the rice to make a savory porridge or "zousui" is one way to end your nabe feast. I often make this dish even when we did not have a "nabe" dish and it is a perfect way to end your Izakaya feast. Here I used left over "frozen" cooked rice we keep handy in the freezer (we portion the rice and put it in a Ziploc bag and freeze.)  The broth is a simple "dashi" or, in a pinch, you could use Japanese instant granulated dashi powder. Add a pinch of salt to the liquid. The proportion of broth to rice depends on how soupy you like the porridge to be but I usually use equal amounts of rice and liquid. I happened to have individual earthenware pots with a lid which is actually a rice bowl designed for making individual porridge servings. You could also use any small deep pan. You can add any vegetables. Here, I added thin (1/4 inch) daikon slices quartered, thin round slices of carrot, broccoli, and sliced Shiitake mushroom. If you have raw chicken (breast meat is good), you cut it into thin bite size pieces and add it toward the end of the cooking. I simmer for 20 minutes or until the rice becomes a nice porridge consistency.  I happened to have cooked chicken (grilled chicken breast) when I made this. I added the chicken and broccoli and eggs 5 minutes before the cooking is completed. The egg yolk has to be runny. You could add anything (any vegetables, shrimp, chicken, tofu etc) to this dish but an egg is a must.

I served this with a trio of condiments. They are 1) store-bought "takuan" pickled diakon radish was sliced and julienned and mixed with some soy sauce (it was too sweet as commercial "takuan" often is.) (top), 2) "Kelp tsukudani" that I made from left-over kelp when I made simmered daikon dish (middle), 3) "Bainiku" from umeboshi or salted plum (bottom). Mix any of these condiments, break the runny egg yolk and enjoy.

Japanese style coleslaw with hot-smoked pork tenderloin 日本風コールスローと豚ヒレ肉の薫製焼き

Since my wife does not particularly like raw shredded cabbage, I usually end up making variations of coleslaw when I'm in the mood to eat some cabbage. I am not sure where I got the idea of adding raisins to coleslaw but I must have eaten coleslaw made that way in Japan. In any case, this is another quick snack made from whatever was available to go with a drink. The previous weekend, we barbecued (hot smoked) pork tenderloin (seasoned with chopped rosemary, black pepper and salt) which I have been using for sandwiches etc. This is the last of this pork. It has a spicy taste from both the smoke and black pepper.

Coleslaw: As a side, I quickly made this Japanese (I am not sure it is a Japanese or whatever) style coleslaw. I julienned cabbage after removing the thick veins. I then salted, mixed, and let it stand for 10 minutes and squeezed out the excess moisture. Meanwhile I plumped some raisins in a mixture of white vermouth and hot water (about a one to one ratio) for 5-10 minutes. I added mayonnaise and Dijon mustard to the cabbage. I tasted and added freshly cracked black pepper but no more salt (it was salty enough). I removed the excess liquid from the raisins and mixed them into the cabbage.

Pork: After I thinly sliced it, I dressed it with semi-thick "tonkatsu" sauce and Japanese hot mustard mixture.

As usual, I also added a drunken tomato. This is again nothing dish but rather spicy taste of pork went well with this coleslaw. The raisins added a nice sweet taste.

This was followed by marinated tuna "sashimi". Instead of the usual side of daikon garnish, I made an instant "diakon" namasu, dressed in a mixture of mirin and sushi vinegar, and served it with the fine chopped meat of umeboshi or "bainiku" 梅肉 on the top.

Again, we had cold sake. This time we tasted "junmai" sake from Kyoto, Kizakura 黄桜 Touzai Living Jewel. This is from a large sake brewery but made from Yamada nishiki. It is a light but nicely fruity and rather easy-to-drink sake, perfect for hot summer days, best chilled ice cold.

Tai-meshi 鯛めし

When I bought Hokkaido rice “Yumepirika” 北海道米ゆめぴりか from the  New York Rice factory, I found that they offer other items which add to the enjoyment of  rice such as “frikake” ふりかけor “umeboshi” 梅干し. One such item was a kit for making “red snapper rice” or “tai-meshi” 鯛めし. I bought the kit since this reminded me of a trip we took to Matsuyama, Shikoku 四国松山 in 2017. On that trip, we ate  “Tai-meshi” (Japanese seasoned rice cooked with pieces of red snapper). The fish is caught in the “Setonaikai” in-land sea 瀬戸内海 area and “Tai-meshi” is famous for the area.

Digression alert: Below is a picture of the restaurant called “Tai-ya” 鯛や in Matsuyama where we ate the tai-meshi. It was a converted old Japanese residential house. They only serve “tai-meshi” and only for lunch. You need to make a reservation ahead of time. I do not remember but there may have been two time slots you could choose from. For most customers, the lunch is served on a low individual Japanese table in a tatami room. We just could not sit properly on tatami to eat lunch; it was far too uncomfortable.  They were kind enough to provide us with an upstairs room with chairs and Western style table. 

Here is “Tai-meshi” that we ate. It was served in a wooden rice container called “Ohitsu” お櫃. I am sure this was cooked in a traditional Japanese rice cooking iron pot called “hagama” 羽釜. It included the bottom charred part called “Okoge” おこげ. 

The first time we bought rice from the rice factory, “Yumepirika”  was not available. As compared to “Nanatsuboshi”, this one is much softer. We like “Yumepirika” better as a straight rice but for sushi, we like “Nanatsuboshi”. We also got “Mochi-rice” 餅米 called “Hokkaido Hakuchomochi” 北海道白鳥餅. This is a type of rice from which “mochi” cake is made. I like to mix this type of rice with the regular type in seasoned rice since it gives a better chewy texture.

There appear to be a few variations of  the tai-meshi dish. It turns out that the kit I bought from New York Rice Factory was a variation close to what we had at the tai-meshi restaurant in Japan. It was very similar to what we remembered from the restaurant and was pretty good. I garnished it with “Kizami-nori” 刻みのり but I should have used “mitsubishi” ミツバ. 

This kit came in a fairly large paper bag (#1 below). It contained a good amount of cooked and marinated skin-on vacuum packed red snapper chunks, seasoning sauce, a piece of kelp, bonito flakes, and a mylar pouch containing what appeared to be freeze dried deep fried tofu and shredded carrot. Following the instructions to use 2 cups of rice  (I used one cup each of “Yumepirika” and “Hakucho-mochi” rice), I rinsed the rice and added water to the level indicated in the rice cooker for two cups. I then mixed in the tai fish with its marinade, and freeze dried items and placed the kelp on the top (#2). 

Once the rice finished cooking the freeze dried items coated the surface of the rice (#3). After removing the kelp. I mixed the items coating the surface into the rice (#4).  We were quite impressed with the results. The large chunks of marinated fish were very good, the seasoning was authentically close to the dish we had in Japan. The inclusion of separate kelp and bonito flakes really added to the complexity of the flavor. The New York Rice Factory also has a kit for “Tako-meshi” タコ飯 or “octopus rice”, again famous in the In-land sea area. We may try that next when we have a chance. In any case, making and tasting “Tai-meshi” bought us back to this memory. We will have to be satisfied with such memories until we can get past this covid thing and travel again.

Nine appetizers served in nine divided plate version 2

This is the second version of nine small appetizers served on the nine space divided plate. Although it was not intentional it turned out that I did not have even one repeat of the items I presented in the previously posted nine appetizers. But this time I did include two store-bought items that I got from our Japanese grocery store; Chinese-style octopus salad and fish cakes. But I made the remaining 7.

The top row left is blanched edible chrysanthemum or “shun-giku” 春菊 shown in detail below, dressed with x4 Japanese noodle sauce and mixed with generous amount of dried bonito flakes or “kezuri-bushi”  削り節. It has very distinct flavors which we really like.

The 1st row, middle is my ususal “dashi-maki” だし巻き Japanese omelet. This time I added dried green nori or “aonori” 青のり. I garnished it with julienne of green perila or “aoziso” 青紫蘇.

The next dish is a Chinese-style octopus salad or 中華風タコサラダ. It is pretty good and we like it.

The center row, left is hijiki seaweed, deep fried tofu and carrot stir fry or ひじきと油揚の炒め物.

The 2nd row center is one I just made this morning. Fried egg plant and mushroom simmered in broth or ナスと椎茸の揚げ浸し. The mushrooms include fresh shiitake and brown shimeji. This is served cold with garnish of blanched green beans.

The 2nd row left is my usual burdock root stir fry ゴボウのきんぴら.

The 3rd row left is a cold skinned Campari tomato. I cross cut the top halfway-through and poured on some Irizake  煎り酒 and special sushi vinegar (both from the Rice Factory). Irizake is boiled down sake seasoned with “umeboshi” picked plum 梅干し, kelp and bonito flakes. The sushi vinegar is a special kind from “Echizen 越前” or present day Fukui 福井.  It tastes milder and better than our usual (Mizkan brand). I topped this with fine julienne of  “Gari” がりsweet vinegar marinated thinly sliced ginger root (usually use to accompany sushi) and perilla. I got this idea from one of the food blogs I follow but I did not follow the recipe exactly.

The 3rd row center is store-bought fish cake which I heated up in the toaster oven and dressed in x4 Japanese noodle sauce and yuzukosho.

The 3rd row right is my usual “asazuke” 浅漬け picked (salted) vegetable which includes cucumber, carrot, nappa cabbage and daikon radish. I also added “shio konbu” 塩昆布, and ginger. The asazuke is about two weeks old but still tasted fresh (I attribute this to the fact I added a bit more salt - more than the usual 3% - and added a small amount of Vodka when I made it. While it didn’t alter the overall taste, I think this makes the asazuke last longer without becoming sour).

After enjoying these 9 small dishes both of us were quite full and did not eat anything else. All the wonderful different flavors and textures made a really enjoyable dinner.

Otokomae tofu 男前豆腐

The kind of Japanese dishes I can make in the U.S. is really driven by what ingredients are available.  I may have lamented the fact that the tofu we could get here was not really good especially the kind found in the supermarket. One of the Kyoto tofu makers called "Kyozen-an" 京禅庵 built a factory in New Jersey some years ago and their tofu was pretty good but after the incidence of salmonella contamination in their bean sprout products and failing FDA inspection, their tofu is no longer available in our near-by Japanese grocery store. Last weekend, when I was there, however, I found another Kyoto tofu called "Otokomae tofu" 男前豆腐. Sometime ago, I read about this tofu maker in Kyoto foodie.　

So, without hesitation, I bought one. It came in a very un-traditional shaped container (shaped like a surf board) and the printing on the front said something like "Blowing in the wind tofu maker, Johnny". "Johnny" is supposedly the nick name of the president of the company, Shingo Ito. I also noticed that the bar code on the lower right is shaped like a wave (tune 90 degree anti-clock wise) with a surfer on it (You will find a close up image at Kyoto foodie). It also states that it contains Hokkaido daizu 大豆 soy bean and natural coagulant (nigari にがり) from Okinawan sea water.

In any case, I figured that this could not be bad. I also thought that  this type of tofu was best eaten as is. I scooped up the tofu into glass bowls. Instead of my usual condiments for cold tofu, I decided to go with the simplest way to really enjoy the flavor of tofu.

As you can see below image, I served this tofu with green tea salt-obviously, the green one on the right and "Yukari" ゆかり salt - red one on the left - which is dried red perilla and salt, by-products of making picked plum or "umeboshi" 梅干し.

Most Westerners think tofu does not have any taste. Actually many supermarket varieties even have some unpleasent smell and taste. This tofu has a real nice flavor of soy beans and unctious creamy texture. We just sprinkled either green or red salt and really enjoyed this tofu. Hope I can get this next time I go to this Japanese grocery store (the only such store left in the neighbourhood).

porridge with nagaimo 長芋お粥

My family never had a tradition of eating "Nanakusa-gayu" 七草がゆ or "seven herb porridge" which is usually eaten on January 7th. I am not sure of its history or reasons for it but in Japan, a package of 7 herbs for this dish appears in the market when the date nears. I made this porridge after we ran out of osechi and other dishes I made for the New Year. This is a rather interesting recipe which came from Buddhist monk Nishikawa 西川和尚. This porridge contains both grated and cubes of nagaimo 長芋. I made a slight modification and added baby water cress and topped with aomori powder and the meat of pickled plum. I served it with Mackerel simmered in miso sauce サバの味噌煮, red wine simmered chicken liver 鶏レーバーの赤ワイン煮 and simmered Japanese "kabocha" squash カボチャの煮物 for one weekend lunch.

This is a rather simple recipe. Instead of using a totally vegetarian broth (i.e. kelp broth), I used a combination of kelp and bonito flakes for the broth.

Ingredients (for two small servings):
3/4 cup of cooked rice (we microwaved frozen cooked rice to thaw it )
Nagaimo, 5 inch pieces, peeled, 1/3 grated and 2/3 cut into small cubes
1 cup of Japanese broth
Baby water cress, stems removed, an arbitrary amount
Dried aomori and umeboshi pickled plum meat finely chopped for garnish

Directions:
Add the cooked rice to a pan and add the broth, mix and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the grated nagaimo, mix and simmer another 2-3 minutes.
Add the cubed nagaimo, add the water cress, season with the salt and cook 1-2 more minutes (do not over cook the nagaimo cubes).
Serve hot with the garnish of the Aonori, pickled plum and fresh water cress leaves.

The simmered Japanese "kabocha" pumpkin was prepared as before.

So were the mackerel and chicken liver.

The graded nagaimo added to the volume and, of course, added a unique texture to the porridge. The combination of grated texture with the nice crunch of the cubes of nagaimo was unique. This is very gentle soothing dish for your stomach.

Tasting of plum wine made in 1997 and 1998 梅酒飲み比べ.

In the past we used to regularly make plum wine 梅酒 with the plums we harvested from the Japanese plum tree we planted in our back yard. It has been some time however, since we made any plum wine There are several reasons for this: 1: Initially the plum tree was very productive and over the years we accumulated quite a stash of plum wine, 2: Then, about 10 years ago our plum tree, as well as most of the ornamental plum trees in the neighborhood got some kind of fungal disease. Many of the trees died of the disease, but we transplanted ours to a different location in the yard and severely trimmed back the diseased portion. We were not sure if it would survive and certainly during this period it did not produce any fruit. So we did not make any plum wine. Miraculously it not only survived but in the past few years, it started producing fruit again. It is a much smaller tree than it was at its peak and the plum yield is much less. We have been judiciously harvesting the plums to make a type umeboshi or slated plum. 

In any case, I recently stumbled across two bottles of plum wine labeled as started in 1998 (bottled in 1999) and 1997 (bottled in 1998). Both bottles had some cloudiness or precipitate, probably something to do with plum pulp. Both are made of 40% proof Vodka so I was not worried that the “plum wine” may have gone bad. In any case, using a filter paper for filtering cooking oil, I filtered out the sediment and re-bottled the wine in smaller bottles (picture below). The 1997 vintage (one on the right) is much darker probably indicating more oxidation.

So, it was very natural to do vertical tasting.

Both are quite mellowed out and quite good. They almost tasted like aged port. Interestingly, both had their own distinctive flavor and character. The 1997 vintage had a slightly more complex taste. Besides tasting the plum wine straight, we also diluted it with carbonated water which served us as a substitute for Champagne to celebrate New Year’s eve. It did not taste like Champagne but looked exactly like it and provided a refreshing alternative libation.

Nagaimo pork roll 長芋の豚肉巻き

Vegetables wrapped in thin slices of meat either pork or beef are a common and favorite theme in Japanese cooking. The most popular version of this theme in the U.S. is probably “Negimaki” 葱巻き which is scallion wrapped in thin slices of beef and then braised in a sweet soy sauce-based sauce. Since I had leftover nagaimo 長芋 and perilla leaves 大葉, I made this dish. Although using thinly sliced pork belly or "sanmai-niku" 三枚肉 would have been the best, I used some pork loin which I happened to have, thinly sliced and then pounded very thin.

 

To make it more interesting I also added "bainuki 梅肉" sauce which is umeboshi 梅干し meat (sans stone), finely chopped and then made into a paste using a Japanese mortar or "suribachi" すり鉢 with a small amount of mirin.



I made 6 sticks of the meat covered nagaimo and served them as an appetizer for two as shown above. I did this by first cutting batons of nagaimo after peeling the skin (approximately half inch thick and 2 inches long) and soaked them in water with a splash of rice vinegar. Meanwhile I cut thin slices of pork loin and pounded them thin using a meat pounder. I then coated the pork with flour using a fine mesh strainer to distribute the flour in a thin coat over the surface of the pork. I then placed a leaf of perilla on the pork, and a baton of nagaimo (after patting it dry using a paper towel) on the perilla, followed by a small amount of the bainiku and then rolled them together (#1 below).

In a non-stick frying pan on medium flame, I added a small amount of vegetable oil and cooked the meat roll first with the seams down turning to brown all sides(#2). I deglazed the brown bits (fond) from the bottom of the pan with sake (1 tbs) and mirin (1 tbs). When browned bits were incorporated, I added soy sauce (about 1-2 tsp) (#3) and shook the pan to roll the meat rolls until the sauce thickened and coated the surface of the meat (#4).


I cut each roll in half and served it with blanched edible chrysanthemum or "shungiku" 春菊 dressed with soy sauce, sugar and  Japanese hot mustard mixture and garnished with toasted walnut bits.

The nagainmo was almost raw and still a bit slimy but had a nice crunch. The sliminess did not brother my wife (a good sign). Since the pork was not pork belly, I thought it was a bit dry but it had a nice flavor from the sauce and browning. The perilla and bainiku sauce added to the flavors. So, this was a rather successful starter dish for sake.

New York Izakaya-style restaurants ニューヨークの居酒屋風レストラン

We recently went to New York with the primary purpose of exploring Izakaya-style restaurants there since they are quite numerous. We did a 3 nights 4 day excursion. We chose the restaurants based on information I gleaned from the Internet. I chose three different style restaurants representing 1. robatayaki/Izakaya style, 2. Sake bar, 3. Yakitori-ya. If we had more time, we could have ventured out to smaller restaurants but we didn’t do that this time because very small places don’t take reservations. (We’ll explore them next time). One of the first places I tried to get a reservation was "Sakagura 酒蔵" which was featured in one of the Anthony Bourdain's episodes on the television show "No Reservations". According to the Sakagura website, they strongly recommended "reservations". (So did "No Reservations" have a "reservation"?) I called several times but no answer and the messages I left were never returned so we had “no reservation” and didn't go there.

This is by no means a restaurant review but more a record for ourselves of the great time we had. Although I took a camera, I did not take any pictures. Somehow, as the meal unfolds and I immerse myself in the enjoyment of the food and drink the idea of taking a picture of the experience becomes distracting and falls by the wayside (even though that doesn’t seem to be the case with the other people snapping pics to the right and left of us). I am sure most of those pictures are destined for Facebook and Instagram to "share" the experience with friends). So all the pictures shown here are either from Google street views (all the outside pics) and from the corresponding websites of the restaurants.

1. Aburiya kinosuke 炙り屋錦乃助
The picture below shows the outside of Aburiya. It is the left entrance of the building with the vertical stripes of green, blue, yellow and red. Despite the bright colors visible in this picture there is not much signage indicating the location of the restaurant except a demure blue "Noren" at the entrance. It was a 20 minute walk from our hotel to the restaurant. I was navigating using Google maps on my iPhone and I knew exactly where we were and where the restaurant was supposed to be located. But we couldn’t find it. We walked back and forth on the block several times but we could not see anything that looked like an Izakaya or Japanese restaurant. We saw the Wyndham Hotel (below left). Was the restaurant located in the hotel? I ended up calling the restaurant. The manager first tried to explain that the entrance was to the right of the Wyndam. There was in fact a restaurant on the right side of the Wyndham but it was definitely not an izakaya. Finally the manager said "just wait there". He came out to the sidewalk found us literally standing in front of the restaurant and ushered us in.  How embarrassing.

Inside is surprisingly large (deep). The front of the restaurant had tables and, in the back, (going down few steps) there was a L-shaped counter which can seat about 10 or more people. Inside the counter, there was a grill and 3 young chefs in Aburiya T-shirts busy at work. On the left side along the wall were a few shelves on which 10 or so individual "Kamameshi" 釜飯 vessels were placed. (see below, this pic is from http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/kappabashi/m10-230.html).

We noticed that occasionally flames appeared under some of the "kama" vessels. This must be how they cook the individual "Kamameshi".  We were advised that if we wanted Kamameshi it would take about 40 minutes so get the order in early. We were seated at the counter in front of the "sashimi" station or #1 and 2. (I specifically asked for counter seating). The chef was busy cleaning and removing the fillets from whole fish which was a good sign. I tried to engage him in conversation but he was too busy. Another chef was in charge of grilling and yet another serving up other dishes.

We started with two cold sake "Uragasumi" 浦霞 (junmai) and "Kokuryu" 黒龍 (Ginjou). They　brought us a wooden box with ice in the bottom and two empty sake carafes (Probably Bizenware 備前焼 or imitation thereof—very nice). Then, they brought up the sake bottles, showed us the labels and then poured into the carafes. A very nice touch assuring us we were actually getting the sake we ordered.

We started with the sashimi three kinds (which were salmon, kampachi and flounder). The sashimi was good (although the salmon was the best sashimi which tells me that tuna and other good sashimi fish must be difficult to get or too expensive). One thing that struck us as different was the use of an artificial-appearing transparent thready thing made of agar-like material* (hope this is not plastic since I ate some of it) instead of the usual daikon "tsuma" 大根のつま garnish. We’d rather not to have any garnish than this stuff.

P.S. Later I came across this item on the Web. It is called "Kaisou-men" 海藻麺 or "Kaisou vidro" 海藻ビードロ (Vidro means "glass" in Portuguese) and made from sea weed.


Although the details of what we ate escapes me a bit, we had "smoked daikon pickles or "Iburi gakko" いぶりがっこ, homemade tofu with three different flavored salts (above picture on the right), firefly squid "okizuke" ホタルイカの沖漬け (excellent!), Tuna "nakaochi" yukke (鮪の中落ちユッケ,  tuna tartar Korean style) with a porched egg or "onsen" tamago 温泉卵. This was in good quantity and tasted good. We had few more items such as pork belly "kakuni" 角煮 (we could not pass up this item, good size and melt-in-your-mouth excellent with honey-flavor). We had more sake (Dassai 獺祭50) and some more food. We were too full for any rice dish to end the evening.

This is not an authentic robatakayaki or Izakaya but it is a very nice drinking place to visit and reminds me of some high-end chain Izakayas in Japan. The counter area, at times, got sort of smoky adding to the atmosphere. There was plenty of hustle and bustle that again added nicely to the atmosphere. It was a great place to “people watch”.

Information on Aburiya Kinosuke
213 E 45th St, New York, NY 10017
212-867-5454
Aburyakinosuke.com

2. Saka mai 酒舞
Since I could not get a reservation at Sakagura, I chose this place. The name "SakaMai" usually means rice specifically grown for making sake or 酒米 but they attached the ideograms 酒舞 meaning "sake" and "dance". It is on the lower east side in an area that apparently used to be a residential with old town houses lining the side streets. The restaurant was a renovated old town house (there was apparently another restaurant at this location previously as you can see in the Google street view below). The best way to direct a taxi cab to the restaurant is to say "Please take us to Katz's delicatessen at E Houston and Ludlow. The cab dropped us off in front of the delicatessen and we worked our way through the crowd of tourists standing out front taking pictures. It was a short one and half block walk from Katz's to SakaMai. The restaurant has been in business for about 6 months according to the Japanese bartender (or mixologist as he preferred to be called) who spoke with a Japanese-British accents (spent 7 years in London) . By the way, the lot next to the SakaMai was still empty as shown in the picture below.

Once inside the restaurant, it is a totally different world from what you may have expected from the streets and exterior. Again it is a large place since it is very deep. The front part had tables and the back had a bar counter as you see below. Nice warm light wood decor. We sat at the counter.

Although we did not come for the cocktails, we decided to take advantage of the expertise of the resident mixologist. The sake based drinks were unique and delicious. My wife had "Haizakura" 灰桜 and I "Sakoudo" 酒人. "Haizakura" is composed of sake, plum wine, salted plum (umeboshi) vinegar and peach liquor. It was interesting and quite good but a bit too sweet for us. "Sakoudo" is a type of "saketini" made with sake, Hendrick's gin, mirin, orange bitters. It has a faint but unmistakable citrus note. I initially thought it had a  "yuzu" flavor. I am not sure it is from the Hendrick's gin or orange bitters but must be the latter.

We then had flights (three small glasses each) of "genshu" 原酒 and "daiginjou" 大吟醸. I do not quite remember all the sake we tasted (taking pictures may have helped). One of the "Genshu" was "Kikusui" 菊水一番しぼり which was poured from an aluminum cup (one of the "cup sake") (see picture below). I do not remember the name of other two now.

The daiginjou flight included "Dassai 50" 獺祭, and Hakkaisan 八海山. We like the third diaginjou which I do not recall the name (despite my wife's telling me to remember the name). We had a cup each of daiginjou and genshu. These sake were not bad but none was extraordinary. We wished more information about the sake we tasted was provided to us especially since this is a sake bar.

For food, we started with "Kampachi" crudo. It is a small serving but nicely done. Good quality kampachi sashimi garnished with finely chopped perilla, myouga and wasabi with shoyu graze. Uni crostini was again small and grilling made the delicate flavor of uni to diminish a little. We also had egg-on-egg-on-egg (picture below). This is a very nice creative dish. Instead of a real sea urchin shell seen in the picture below, it was served in a porcelain bowl made to look like a sea urchin shell. The bottom was nice creamy scrambled egg topped with caviar and uni. You cannot go wrong with this combination but it was excellently prepared.The "chawan mushi" 茶碗蒸し was forgettable. The croquette was ordinary and we could not find any lobster meat albeit it was called lobster croquette. We also had grilled dried skate wings and renkon chips. Interestingly, the renkon chips were the only sizable appetizer we had all evening but they were crisp and addictive.

For the ending dish, we each had a pork bun which was very elegantly done. The pork filling was great--a large tender chunk of pork belly. They have a larger dish of steak and mushroom rice to be shared with 2 or three but we were stuffed so it was out of the question for us.

Information on SakaMai
157 Ludlow Street
New York, NY 10002
(646) 590-0684
sakamai.com


3. Torishin 鳥心
The last day, we went for Yakitori. We took a taxi cab. Having learned that traffic is generally bad at any time we took precautions and started early to get to our reservation on time. But, of course, this was one of those rare instances in New York when our taxi sped through the streets without slowing down (even for the stop lights) and we arrive there 30 minutes earlier that the designated time.

The outside was rather un-assuming. Since I did not take any pictures, this is from the Google maps street view (below). Once inside, the interior was quite nice with lots of light colored wood (second pics below which is from their website).

The restaurant was mostly counter seating with a few small tables. Even though it was fairly early the place was basically packed when we arrived (good thing we had a reservation). We sat at the corner of the counter next to the chef tending the grill.  The menu is very close to Japanese counter parts especially those of more modern/tame chain yakitori places which have proliferated in Japan (I do not indicate a negative here, it is clean and nice).

They had a special cold sake they recommended.  This is supposedly a seasonal special, un-pasteurized or "nama genshu" 生原酒 sake , I think, it was Ichino-kura namagenshu 一の蔵生原酒. There may have been "arabashiri*" 荒走り on the bottle label as well. This was quite good with nice crisp taste and clean fruity notes. Towards the end, we run out of sake and ordered a glass of "Nanbubijin daiginjou" 南部美人. They served us in a glass with a generous spillover into the "masu" ます saucer. Actually, this was the best sake for the evening.

*Arabashiri (meaning "wild runs") is the first portion of sake comes out without any pressure when it was filtered/pressed in the traditional way (not using a modern mechanized press). Supposedly it shows more wild and flavorful sake.


In front of the counter was  a cold display case similar to the kinds seen in any sushi bar. Many prepared skewers were displayed inside. There were two grills (or "Yakidai" 焼き台) one near the right corner where we were seated and the other at the opposite corner.They are boasting the use of Japanese lump charcoal called "binchoutan 備長炭 which is known to burn hot.  Despite the ventilation system just above the grill some smoke escaped every-now-and-then and added to the ambience but never became too smoky as can sometimes happen in small Yakitori places in Japan.

The vegetable skewers were displayed on the top of the cold case in the bamboo basket (see below, again the pic is from the Torishin website). Interestingly there was small sign in the middle of the basket saying "Display only (in English)". We thought these were fake skewers for display only (like realistic models of dishes seen in many restaurants in Japan) and admired how they looked so real. Then, we noticed the woman chef was taking theses skewers from the basket and giving them to the griller. Apparently these are real vegetable skewers. We have no idea, in that case, the meaning of the sign "Display only".

The yakitori menu is rather standard but rare parts are reserved for the "omakase " course and cannot be ordered as a-la-carte which included  two kinds  (from kiel and back bone) of "cartilage" 軟骨, neck meat せせり, kidney 背肝 etc. We just went with a-la-carte. the chicken liver 肝 was underdone (I am sure this was what the grill chef intended) which made us a bit uncomfortable since we had to assume they were from US chickens with the possibility of salmonella. (They said they were using "organic" chickens, whatever that means). Skin 雛皮, tail ぽんじり (ponpochi or ponjiri), heart ハツ, and tsukune つくね were good. Fatty pork belly "tontoto" 豚トロ was also good. Chicken thighs 腿 with different sauces, grilled quail eggs ウズラの卵 and ginko nuts 銀杏 were just OK. Chicken wings 手羽 were small but with a nice crispy skin and were great. As a special vegetable, they had a small radish or "ko-kabu" 小蕪 (which was simmered in dashi broth first, then grilled, and served in a small bowl with sweet miso and vinegar sauce. We were not sure if the grilling added anything.  The sauce was excellent and my wife detected honey in the sauce. For vegetables (we need the nutritional balance), we ordered assorted "tsukemono" 漬物 which was a bit disappointing especially the cucumber was over pickled and too thinly sliced. I do not remember how many more skewers we ordered but the size of the skewers were quite small compared to those in many Yakitori places in Japan. As a result, we ended up eating quite a few skewers. They also have rice dishes (Donburi 丼 or rice bowl affair) but we were quite full and well-watered at this point.  Instead, we went back to our hotel and enjoyed a nice glass of cava at the bar and interesting conversation with the bartender.

Information on Torishin

1193 1st Avenue

New York, NY 10065

(212) 988-8408

torishinny.com‎