Izakaya in Tokyo; Ichi-no-kura 一ノ蔵八重洲店 東京

This evening, we struck out for the first Izakaya we wanted try and we ended up retreating to our second choice/plan B/backup called "Ichi no kura" 一ノ倉 which was just minutes from the hotel. This is one of seven middle-of-the-road chain Izakaya run by Kuramochi shouji 倉持商事.


It is located on the basement floor. This was fairly large and a bit (comfortably) down at the heel. We were able to sit side by side enjoying the view of the rest of the restaurant. The clientele that night were of an older generation (not including us this time). Although this was on the basement floor, there was a sort of mezzanine level to the dining room. From our vantage point we could just see the bottom of the tables and a forest of legs. In front of our table, was a bank of large glass front refrigerated cases.  They contained quite a collection of sake lined up in large "isshoubin" 一升瓶, magnum bottles containing 1.8 liter or close to 2 quarts. All sake was served in a tall small bottle/carafe which holds 2 go or 360ml. The staff appeared every few minutes to pour the sake from the "mother ship" isshoubin into carafes, for customers, using a funnel kept in the refrigerated case. They filled the carafes in one swift practiced movement (not a drop was spilled). We started with Uragasumi sake from Miyagi 浦霞　純米吟醸.

Once we settled on sake, we looked at the menu. We were presented with two menus, one was a printed "regular menu" which had all the "usual suspects" presented at any Izakaya such as Yakitori. The second menu presented "today's specials". It was a copy of a hand written menu (see below). As usual, we started with sashimi; we chose big eye tuna,  kawahagi かわはぎ (with its liver) and kuro-soi Rockfish 黒そい.




They were served rather nicely as seen below. Clearly this was prepared by somebody with the skills of a chef and done on site (not by a part time guy filling in or shipped from a central-off site location as appears to be the case with some chain izakaya). The tuna was not as good as Hayase’s the night before but, for Big-eye tuna, it was more than OK. I love kawahagi with its liver dissolved in soy sauce as a sauce and this dish reminded me of why I like it so much.



Some portion of the tuna was made it to a small rolls wrapped in nori.



We had grilled semi-dried firefly squid which was very unusual and good. My wife, who is a devotee of firefly squid particularly liked it.  We also ordered deep fried "Chiai" of tuna. This is dark red meat of tuna which has a gamey flavor. It was nicely done and this was quite a good dish (behind the combination sashimi in the picture above and a picture below).



We ordered more food such as grilled Kuro-soi kama (grilled Rockfish collar) and some yakitori but  I did not take any more pictures.

After finishing our first sake,  I found ginjou sake brewed in Nagano 長野 by a winery called  Sogga pere et fils ソガペールエフィス in the sake list on the wall. We tasted one of the variations 2 year’s ago at another Izakaya called Honoka 穂のか in Musashi-Koyama  武蔵小山. The sake was brewed as a hobby by the wine maker. The one we chose this time was not great; too simple and not much taste or complexity (since this was the most expensive sake we tried, this was not a good choice). Then, for the final round, we settled on “Yamato shizuku” やまとしずく from Akita 秋田 (which we had 2 years ago at the Akita Izakaya called "Shu-hai" 酒盃.) Turns out this place was pretty good and the bill came in at a very reasonable $86 (10,390yen).　

Scattered sushi ちらし寿司

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tako Grill assorted sashimi plates タコグリルの刺身の盛り合わせ

Our Izakaya substitute Tako Grill moved to its new location some time ago. The new restaurant is somewhat smaller, without sake bar, than the old one but it is a nice brand-new space nicely decorated. The new location has its own parking lot. While parking is a bit more expensive, even after validation from Tako Grill, than parking on the street at the old place, it is so convenient. It is worth it not to have to jump up in the middle of the meal to go feed the 1 hour street parking meter so as not to get a ticket. 

Mr. Segawa 瀬川さん has now started serving authentic yakitori 焼き鳥 cooked on a real charcoal grill (I keep forgetting to take pictures). Among the yakitori items, chicken liver or "reba" レバ and chicken meat ball or tsukune つくね are two standouts. We always have a great meal at Tako grill but the sashimi dishes we have had recently have been particularly outstanding. They have included a good variety of impeccably fresh fish prepared to highlight their best qualities. Here are some pictures of the assorted sashimi plates Chef Jose Calderon prepared for us.

Beside the usual toro トロ and ma-saba 真鯖 or chub mackerel, this evening geoduck or mirugaiミルガイ, sea urchin うに and octopus タコ (which was prepared at the restaurant) were excellent. The geoduck had a crisp crunch and fresh ocean taste; one of the best we've eaten.

This was another occasion featuring a similar line up in a different arrangement.

This evening, the scallops ホタテ were wonderful as well as the octopus and pacific saury さんま. And don't ignore the uni.

This was what we had on our most recent evening. The sumi-ika スミイカ or cuttle fish was by far the standout.  As an example of how the fish is prepared to accent its best characteristics Chef Jose, did a slight shimofuri* 霜降りtreatment for the squid. As a result the squid had a nice firm texture but was not chewy and had a pleasant sweet flavor. The Japanese halfbeak or sayori サヨリ was also excellent. On the several occasions, we have had sayori fish at Tako, it has always been good. We particularly like the way they take the head and skeleton, which was used as decoration, and then deep fry it. With this preparation, we could eat everything including the head; it was like a crunchy potato chip with great flavor. After moving to the new location, the chance of getting a variety of excellent sashimi has improved and the restaurant is always seems to be crowded while we are there. We even witnessed a line forming at the entrance one evening.

*Shimofuri: Means "frosted" since the surface turns white and opaque like frost. This is done by dunking raw fish or meat into boiling water very briefly and then immediately cooling it down by soaking in ice water. This slightly cooks the surface the fish.

Disclaimer: The above sashimi assortments are not on the menu. It is a sort of "omakase" sashimi assortment and may not be always available.

Information:
Tako Grill
4915 Hampden Ln, Bethesda, MD 20824
301-652-7030

Grilled marinated squid 炙りイカ

I had a large frozen squid in my freezer and it had been living there for some time。My wife complained it was taking up too much space and it was time to evict it. I decided it wasn’t getting any better with age so I used it one weekend. This squid was identical to the one I used to make “squid rice”. I cleaned the innards and cartilage and removed the dark thin membrane of the skin. I removed the fin (“enpera” えんぺら), separated each tentacles, and cut the body into rings. When I prepared it, I thought I would make fried squid rings (breading with panko bread crumbs and deep fried) but the day turned out to be a nice sunny but cool fall day. We figured the cool weather would keep the mosquitoes relatively inactive. Conditions were perfect for cooking the squid on our small Japanese Yakitori grill. Because the squid was going to be grilled, I marinated it for several hours in an equal mixture of soy sauce and mirin and added grated ginger root.

The picture below shows the squid when it came off the grill. The legs were particularly good, not too chewy.and perfectly cooked.

This was also the first time, I used the Looftlighter to start the charcoals for the Yakitori grill (below). I just made a mound of charcoals in the middle and started the fire. Since I did not have to transfer the lit charcoal from the chimney starter, it was much less dangerous and much easier.

The below are marinated squid parts.

The squid cook rather quickly.

I turned them over after 1 minute or so and the squid rings firmed up and showing nice char marks. Another minute should be enough.

The squid was very good especially with cold sake.It was seasoned enough and not needing any sauce. Probably this was better than the fried squid rings I originally planned. With the help of the infrared heater, we stayed outside after the dark and enjoyed our grill (more items were grilled of course).

Chicken tender with wasabi 鶏のささみのとりわさ

"Tori-wasa"とりわさ or "chicken and wasabi" is a popular dish in Japan especially  in a certain type of Izakayas specialized in chicken cuisines (different from Yakitori places), a good example of this type of Izakaya is "Torihachi" とり八 near Kyoto station which we went last time we were in Japan. Usually, the chicken tenders or breast meat are cooked very briefly in boiling water and then dipped into ice cold water to stop the cooking. Sometimes, this process is called "shimofuri" 霜降り meaning "frosted", since only surface of the meat turns white as though it is covered with frost or "yubiki" 湯引き meaning "dragging it through hot water". The chicken is then sliced on the bias and eaten with wasabi and soy sauce like "sashimi" or "tataki".

When chicken tenders are prepared as Yakitori, the are often grilled only on the surface with the center still raw. As long as you eat this type of dish in a reputable establishment in Japan, salmonella appears not to be a problem.  Unfortunately, it is too dangerous to do this using store bought chicken in the U.S. Instead of using the traditional technique described above, I have to poach the chicken tenders gently in salted water with a dash of sake (to remove any smell it may have) for 5-6 minutes or until the chicken meat is completely opaque. I then let it cool down, slice it on the bias and eat it with wasabi and soy sauce. It does not taste or look as good as real "tori-wasa" but it has to do.

Here is an image borrowed from the web for "tri-wasa". f.hatena.ne.jp/paraiso/20090615192014

Mmmmmm..this one looks good.

P.S. (2-27-10) I came across an article (in Japanese) which indicates a higher incidence of food poisoning among people who eat raw or under cooked chicken and other meat. Campylobacter and E. coli (O-157) are two major causes. They mention that among the population that eat raw chicken, there is 77 times more risk of food poisoning. So, even in Japan, eating raw chicken like this dish may not be wise.

Yakitori 焼き鳥 Part 5

Grilled Rice Ball 焼きおにぎり
Salted vegetables 浅漬け 


This is also our favorite to complete a yakitori meal. Mark's book has a more elaborate version of this old favorite,

Grilled Rice Balls with Vegetable Miso (p148).

You can make this using a frying pan and/or in a toaster oven but you never get the crunchy surface you could get when it is grilled over a direct charcoal fire. I usually use  simple miso paste (white or red miso or a mixture of the two), mirin, add sugar, sesame oil or tahini if you so desire, and heat and mix well to reduce to the original consistency of miso). Of course, you could follow the recipe in the book to make Vegetable Miso. This time, I was too lazy to make the miso mixture and used a mixture of soy sauce and mirin (in equal parts) instead. Just brush it on the rice ball toward end of the cooking process. It will penetrate the surface and further caramelize (because of the sugar in the mirin). It makes a nice crunchy crust and adds flavors. My wife likes it extra crunchy and squeezes lemon over it as she eats it. One of the reasons I like this so much is that this reminds me of "okoge" おこげ  or burned rice in the bottom of a rice cooker when rice is made in the old fashioned way rather than with an electric rice cooker. As a kid, I liked to munch on "okoge" with a bit of miso. My wife likes it because "what is not to like about crunchy on the outside soft and piping hot on the inside".

The small vegetable dish on the side goes well with grilled rice balls or any rice dishes, for that matter. We made a simple  "asazuke".  We cut up cucumber, carrot, Nappa cabbage ("hakusai" 白菜) or regular cabbage, diakon, myoga, radish or whatever vegetables are available.  They can be whatever size you like but not too small or too thin so as to give some texture. I add thinly sliced Jalapeno pepper (seeded and deveined), lime slices, finely minced ginger, red pepper flakes, and/or hydrated thinly sliced kelp ("konbu" 昆布). I add enough salt to sparsely coat the veggies ( I never measure) and mixed well by hand. Place it in a Japanse pickling pot. This can be bought at Amazon or simply use a bowl with a plate which can fit inside and weigh it down with whatever is heavy enough (such as a large unopened jar of pickles). In, at least, 4-5 hours or overnight, a surprising amount of water comes out over the vegetables. Move the vegetables in a plastic container and into a refrigerator. This will last at least several days. Use of Jalapeno pepper and lime is our modification of the basic recipe but works well.

Chicken livers simmered in red wine 鶏レバーの赤ワイン煮

Although chicken livers may not be a very healthy food, both my wife and I like them. So sometimes we buy a small plastic tub full of chicken livers when it is available at the local grocery store. I was thinking of making a re-match of country pate with pork and chicken liver but when I examined the livers, they were pretty good quality without any broken pieces. I changed my mind and decided to make "Yakitori" style with my tare sauce 鶏レバーの焼き鳥. I made this dish from the livers that remained after I made the yakitori. It looks very dark almost black and reminded us of whole truffles, but the inside was still the color of liver. I added freshly ground black pepper just before serving.

The white specks on the surface is ground pepper.

Ingredients:
230 grams (0.5 lb) fresh chicken livers, cleaned, soaked in cold water, cut into bite size.
130 ml red wine (I used Tempranillo since I happened have an already open bottle)
1 tbs Mirin
1 tbs Soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ginger, finely julienned

Directions:
In a sauce pan, add all simmering liquid ingredients and let it come to a simmer.
In a large amount of boiling water, add the livers and wait until the water comes to a boil again. Remove the livers and place them in the simmering liquid (see below).

Cook/reduce the liquid to a small amount 30 minutes or more (see below).

I did not add freshly ground black pepper while cooking but added it just before serving. I served this dish cold next day with a glass of red wine. This liver had very pleasing dense texture; almost pate-like with some sweetness and nice red wine/tannin flavors. It went perfectly well with a good sturdy red wine. We both really liked this dish.

Yakitori 焼き鳥 Part 2

Ume-Shiso Rolled Chiken 梅しそ巻き

This is from the recipe in Mark's Izakaya Cookbook, page 130. "Shiso" or more precisely "Aoziso" or green shiso (Perilla) can be grown very easily in most of US or can be bought in a Japanese grocery store. It has a very distinctive flavor; not quite mint but somewhat similar. The sauce is "Umeboshi" paste ("Bainiku' 梅肉). Umeboshi is salted plum (actually Japanese apricot). They are salted togerther with "Akaziso" or red perilla. The red perilla imparts a red to pink color to the end products. This salty and slightly sour condiment is a very basic Japanese taste. The simplest form of lunch box or  "Bento" consists of a bed of white rice with red umeboshi in the center. Since this looks a bit like the Japanese flag it is called "Hinomaru bento" (Japanese flag lunch box). In any case, I made this paste from my mother's homemade umeboshi by cutting fruit from the stone and putting it into a Japanese mortar and pestle ("Suribachi") with a little bit of sweet cooking wine "mirin" to make a paste. You can buy commercial umebosh paste in a tube as well. This combination is very classic and excellent. Another recipe I often use is chicken tenders tempura with umeboshi paste. I cut a small slit in the meat, put umeboshi paste in the slit and then wrap everything in perilla. I then coat the packet in tempura batter and deep fry. The result is as good as this yakitori.

Yakitori 焼き鳥 Part 4

Minced Chicken Patties つくね

This is from the recipe in Mark's book (p130). Although "tsukune" is a regular item in any yakitori place, this one is a bit unique and we really liked it. There are many variations to these recipes but the constant is ground or minced chicken. Usually, this is cooked with a "tare" sauce. Many yakotori places mix in chopped up cartilage but we do not like it. The texture of the cartilage reminds us of store-bought ground beef patties with bone fragments in it--which my wife hates. I used the thigh meat here and did not remove the fat as meticulously as I would otherwise do before mincing it by hand (a la Iron Chef Morimoto style) into the desired consistency. Of course, I could have bought ground chicken or used a food processor. Since I did not have "yuzu" (and even limes for some reason), I used lemon zest (using micro-grater) with finely minced onion and some salt following the recipe. For different texture, you could mix in chopped "renkon" or lotus root which gives much gentler crunch than adding cartilage. I think the secret to forming patties without any binders is, as stated in Mark's book, to knead it by hand until it becomes sticky enough. Then, take  a ball of the mixture, and "throw" it on to a cutting board surface forcefully like a pro baseball pitcher (use your discretion, though) several times and shape it to a flat rectangular shape (this removes entrapped air). Put two skewers through as seen here (In this upper picture, I probably browned the surface too much but it tasted just fine) and refrigerate several hours. This step makes the patties firmer (Mark's book mentions this. Do not skip this step. This is very important especially if you do not use any binders and want to use skewers. I refrigerated the skewered patties rather than the meat mixture.) After refrigeration, the patties will not come apart too easily. The lemon flavor is very nice but if we could use a real "yuzu", it probably would have been better. (Sometimes we see yuzu in our Japanese grocery store several days before New Year's day. Unfortunately, they usually look dried up and shriveled--not really good and awfully expensive). Here is the image of "tsukune" and "skin" being grilled side-by-side. Next time, I may mix in "yuzu kosho" (the recipe is included in Mark's book p145 but this can be purchased in small bottle or tube in a Japanese grocery store) to see how it works.

Crispy fried chicken wing with sesame 鶏手羽の唐揚げ

Crispy fried chicken wing with sesame 鶏手羽の唐揚げ
Broccoli with sesame dressing ブロッコリのごま和え

This is a Japanese version of an America classic "Buffalo wings" (sort of), although this is not hot at all. This is also a classic Izakaya or bar food. This recipe is originally from one of the Japanese cook books I have (すぐ作れる酒の肴とおつまみ p40、講談社). This one requires some preparation (which appears to happen often in Japanese cooking). Cut off wing tips and discard. Separate wing from drumett and cut slits in both pieces to ensure even cooking. The next is an interesting and important step (this step is the same as for the chicken skin yakitori preparation). Prepare boiling water with some sake and cook the wings for 10-15 minutes in low medium heat. Skim any scum that floats to the surface. Take the wings out and place on paper towels and let cool until you can handle them by hand. Meanwhile, prepare the batter. Mix equal amounts of potato starch 片栗粉 and bread flour 強力粉 (we are aiming for crunch but you can just use AP flour). Add sake and/or water and soy sauce (to taste) to make a batter with the consistency of a pancake batter (it needs to be a bit thick to cling to the wings. The day I made this batch, my batter was too thin). Coat and marinate the above chicken wings in the batter for 5-10 minutes. Coat each pieces with white or black sesame seeds (here I used white sesame for the wings and black sesame for the drumetts). Deep fry to crisp the skin. The chicken is already cooked so use a bit higher temperature and fry until the skin gets crispy. You need not to worry about cooking it through. Although I have not done so, I suppose you can do the boiling step ahead of time and fry them just before serving. Since it is already seasoned, no need for a dipping sauce. The result, crunchy outside and juicy inside.

Broccoli with sesame dressing ブロッコリのごま和え

To accompany this dish, I made a very simple broccoli dish in the category of "goma-a-e" ごま和え using sesame paste as a main ingredient of the dressing. Blanch broccoli floweretts in salted water and shock them in ice cold water to stop cooking at your desired doneness (we like it bit crunchy) and pat dry using paper towels. In a small bowl or, in my case, a small "suribachi", add Japanese creamed sesame paste 練りごま (if this is not available use tahini), sugar, soy sauce and a small amount of rice vinegar (this will lighten the color of dressing as well as add some subtle sourness) until the dressing reaches desired consistency (if vegetables are watery make it bit thick). Dress the broccoli and place additional dressing and sesame seeds on the top. "Goma-a-e" is classically done with green beans. Mark's book has a more sophisticated version of this with green beans and fava beans (Mark's book p36). I made the recipe in his book. It does add more dimension especially by soaking green beans in "happo-dashi" 八方だし. Next time I make the recipe I will remember to take a picture.

New small containers with three appetizers

When we visit Kyoto, we always go to Nishiki market 錦市場. Among the stores we visit is a small china store called "Kawazen touki" 河善陶器.  This time we found the store basically unchanged from previous visits except the proprietor (and us as well) were somewhat older. This place has a collection of small bowls and containers. We have not yet seen such things anywhere else (even in Kappabashi 河童橋). They come in essentially two sizes--very small and small. On one visit we heard one Chinese woman ask her companion, in English, what the dishes were used for and the woman answered, "for dolls" i.e. toys. We chortled about that statement for some time. On this visit we picked out two sets of the small sized dishes and a few extras.

On this trip we also got more small sake cups from Kita-ichi glass in Otaru 北市グラス、小樽, Hokkaido. One of them is shown here; a rather tall one with a frosted inside. We bought a set of 4 but when we used it for the first time, I broke one of them. Oh, well...glass and I do not always get along. In any case, I was looking for an occasion when I could use these new containers. Since we did not have anything special to eat and I did not have time to go to the Japanese grocery store, I decided to make something from what we already had in the refrigerator or freezer.

So, here are three small appetizers presented in the new containers. From the left, grated daikon and jako garnished with tobiko and edamame, center is peanuts in sweet miso with walnuts, the right is chicken (barbecued) and green beans dressed in sesame mayonnaise.

The one below was inspired by an otoshi dish we had in a Yakitori place called "Kushiwakamaru" in Naka-meguro (Dave, Tobias and their wives went there with us and we had a grand time). It is grated daikon with jako (dried small bait fish) dressed in sweet vinegar. At Kushiwaka-maru, the amount they gave us was so large that we (my wife and I) could not finish it. But this time, I made only a small amount that we could handle. Since I happened to have tobiko (previously frozen) and edamame (left over from a salad my wife made that day). I used these as garnish for additional color in the dish.

The center dish was inspired by the breakfast we had in Wakamatsu Honten 若松本店, a Japanese Ryokan in Narita where we always stay on our last night in Japan. Being a ryokan, they give us a grand spread of food for dinner and breakfast. I should have taken pictures. One of the dishes among so many served for our breakfast was peanuts in sweet miso, a Chiba 千葉 prefecture speciality (where Narita is located). While my rendition was not bad I will have to work on improving it. Initially my intention was to use walnuts as the basic ingredient. (I thought I could take a shortcut by stealing some of the walnuts my wife had roasted for her grain salads. While I had no problem snarfing the edamame because it was left over, I was not so fortunate with the walnuts. She caught me before I could amass a sufficient amount and I had to revert back to using peanuts) which were the main ingredient for this dish served at the roykan.  This is how I made it. I put miso in a small sauce pan and added mirin and sugar. I mixed well and gently heated up the mixture until the consistency came back almost to the original miso. I then added ground walnuts (ground in a Japanese suribachi mortar) and further mixed. I then added peanuts (dry roasted lightly salted). It tasted very similar to what we had but was a bit too salty. I may use peanut butter in the next try.

The last one is shredded chicken (which we barbecued few days ago) and small pieces of cooked green beans and dressed then in sesame mayonnaise (mayo, sesame paste and soy sauce).

For three quick appetizers to inaugurate our new containers, these were quite ok. The peanuts in sweet miso was a bit too salty by itself but would have been perfect with rice. This dish definitely requires more improvement. Sake in a new glass also somehow tasted better. 

Grilled trout and fava beans 鱒の塩焼きと焼きそら豆

This is a continuation of the grill-out-side-while-mosquitos-are-not-out moment. I have posted grilled trout before. I have an excuse for posting this again because this was boned and butter flied trout and we used the “Yakitori” rather than the Weber grill. I prefer bone-in trout but only butter flied trout was available. I just salted it and grilled it in its simplest way.
One of the problems with trout prepared this way is that fishmongers usually do not scale them. Since we like to eat the skin, I scaled the skin. But once it was butter flied and deboned, it is more difficult to scale. In any case, I scaled it and put two long metal skewers through. The reason for this is seen below. I put the tip (where the fish head is) of the skewers into the grate so that most of the fish was floating over the grate. I did this to prevent the skin from sticking to the grate. Once the skin is cooked, it can be placed directly on the grate without worrying about sticking (above).
It is not photographed but I also grilled eggplant. Since this is the season for fresh fava beans, I also grilled fava beans (soramame 空豆) in pods (see below) and served with a small mound of Kosher salt We removed the beans from the outer skins and peeled off the inner skins before dipping into the salt. .
I served the trout with grated daikon and soy sauce. I took few pictures but they do not look very neat and am not showing them. It has been a long time since we had either the trout or fava beans. Nothing beats trout cooked over a charcoal fire. The fava bean were tender and sweet. The mosquitoes don’t know what they are missing.

Chicken skin crackling 雛皮のクッラクリング

Cracklings must be one of the most popular bar snacks in the U.S., especially in the South. Cracklings may not be any worse than eating a bag of potato chips or a serving of French fries but it certainly is not a "healthy" snack. It is, after all, pork rinds (skin) deep fried (in lard) and heavily salted. It appears cracklings are catching on in Japan as well. "クラックリング".  There is a corresponding Japanese word phonetically translated from English. When I made yakitori recently, I removed the skin from 6 thighs. I did not think there was enough space in the toaster oven to grill the skin. I decided to make chicken "crackling" instead. It was quite crunchy and probably not as bad as genuine deep fried pork cracklings but very good.

I first boiled the skin in water with a dash of sake. I skimmed off any oil or scum that came to the surface as it boiled. I cooked it for 10 minutes trying to render as much of the fat as possible. I then washed the skins in cold running water and patted dry between paper towels. I then put the skin in a dry non-stick frying pan on medium-low flame (shown below).

Only a small amount of fat came out but I blotted it with a paper towel and cooked both sides until they were brown and crispy (10 minutes total). I salted it and served it with a wedge of lemon. We really like this preparation. We ate it with our fingers breaking it into small bite sized pieces and really enjoyed it. Hopefully the pre-boiling significantly reduced the amount of fat.

In addition to the chicken cracklings we had squid "okizuke" 沖漬け which was store bought, came frozen in a small plastic pouch. This is not as salty or "gamy" as fermented squid and guts or "shiokara" 塩辛 or 酒盗.

With this type of small snacks, the only libation we could have was cold sake.

Squid stuffed with rice いか飯

A few weeks ago, I found frozen squid at our Japanese grocery store. I am not sure what the actual name is of this creature but I would say this must be "Surume-ika"スルメイカ or "Yari-ika" ヤリイカ. I have no idea what the English name would be. The only thing I do know is that this is a relatively large squid. While this type of squid is widely available in Japan we never see them at the regular grocery store in the U.S. Since many squid dishes can be made from the more commonly available small squid, I decided to make something different which requires the use of a large squid such as this one. I decided to make rice stuffed squid or "Ikameshi" イカ飯. Actually, in Hokkaido, this is the “star” of the most famous station-box-lunch or ekiben 駅弁 at Mori-machi 森町 station near Hakodate 函館 where squid is one of the famous local catches from the sea.



I served this as a small drinking snack with the side of blanched broccolini. We quickly switched to sake for this dish.



After serving 4 slices for both of us, this is what remained.

The frozen squid was about 10 inches long (just for the body or head portion). I let it thaw out at room temperature for a few hours since I did not have much time (upper left in the picture below). Since this was not cleaned, I had to clean it. I just separated the innards from the body using my fingers then gently pulled the legs until all the innards came out in one piece. I then removed the "cartilage" (transparent long and narrow structure) by just pulling on the end. I cut and separated legs and innards just above the eyes and discarded the innards. There was a hard "beak" in the center of the base of the legs which I removed. I then cut the legs into individual pieces*. I further cleaned and washed the cavity of the body of the squid (upper right in the picture below). I pondered whether I should remove the skin. In the end I did using paper towels to get traction.



* I marinated the legs in the 1:1 mixture of mirin and soy sauce and then grilled them over a charcoal fire when we did "Yakitori" the next day--but did not take pictures. The legs can be cooked with the rest of the squid or even used as a stuffing (cut into small pieces) with rice.

Cooking liquid: I made the cooking liquid with dashi broth (2 cups made from kelp and bonito flakes), sake (1/3 cup), mirin (3 tbs), sugar (3 tbs), and soy sauce (1/2 cup).

Rice: I washed and soaked  "mochi-gome" 餅米 or "glutinous" rice over night in the refrigerator  (1 cup, this can be had in a Japanese grocery store. It is sticker than regular Japanese rice. This is a particular kind of short grain rice from which "mochi" 餅 or rice cake is made).

I stuffed the squid with the drained glutinous rice. The amount of the rice is crucial. I just filled a bit less than half of the cavity (do not try to use up all the rice). I closed it using a toothpick. Not over filling is important since, when cooked, it will swell up and if overstuffed, it will burst.

I then placed the stuffed squid in a shallow pan and poured in the cooking liquid. I placed an "Otoshi buta" 落とし蓋 and a regular lid and cooked it on a very low flame for over 1 hour turning it once (lower left in the picture above). I took out the cooked squid and let it cool a bit before slicing.

This was a good dish. The rice is very sticky and absorbed all the flavors of squid and the cooking liquid. Just before eating I  poured a small amount of the cooking liquid over the rice. I could have made a sauce by reducing the cooking liquid but I did not.

For the leftover piece, a few days later I micro waved  it to warm it up a bit which worked well. I hope I can get this type of squid again but this happens only sporadically.

Grilled sanma さんまの塩焼き

During this DC summer, we happened to have a rare low-humidity-not-too-hot couple of days. Since mosquitos on these days were less aggressive, we decided to have sanma 秋刀魚 (Pacific saury) grilled outside. I have pontificated about sanma previously so I will not repeat myself. I got frozen sanma from our Japanese grocery store but I am not sure if this came from Japan or somewhere else. It was still early in the sanma season in Japan (the catch had just started in Hokkaido) and these may not have come from Japan.

In any case, I charred the fish a bit too much. It tasted good, though. I served it with traditional grated daikon. This time I gutted the fish but left the head just for esthetics. I even found a long plate which accommodated sanma in one piece. The plate was made by one of the local artists which we got at one of their yearly sales.



I also grilled Japanese pepper "shishi-tou" 獅子唐芥子 (miraculously none was atomically hot) and fresh shiitake mushroom. I brushed the shiitake with olive oil and after I turned the gill side up, I poured a small mount of soy sauce on just before removing from the grill.



Using lump charcoal and Looft lighter, it is easy and mess free to prepare the fire in our yakitori grill.



Within 15 minutes, fire was ready.



I cleaned and gutted the sanma after thawing. I salted and placed them on a paper-towel lined  aluminum pan and kept them (uncovered) in the refrigerator for several hours before grilling.



The fire was a bit stronger than I intended and the skin charred rather quickly.



I brushed olive oil and then salted shishi-tou  before grilling.  It took only few minutes on each side to grill.



This was a definitely bonus day for us as we could grill sanma outside.