Chicken aspic terrine 鶏肉のジェルテリーヌ

When we barbecue chicken in the Weber grill, we usually cook two birds since the effort to add another chicken is minimal once the Weber is set up. We eat only a small fraction of the two birds on the day we cook them. We removed the meat and use it for other dishes such as the sandwiches we take to work. I also use the cooked chicken in small dishes such as chicken with sesame sauce or chicken quesadilla. The easiest way to use up the cooked chicken meat before it goes bad is in chicken noodle soup. I wanted to come up with some other dishes I could make using the cooked chicken. I was thinking of making some kind of terrine and came across this recipe on the Web.  The original recipe uses uncooked chicken breast to start but I modified it to use our cooked chicken.

The image below is the "remake" of my first attempt. I missed one sentence in the recipe "Terrine will be quite fragile: If slicing, use an electric knife; otherwise, serve with a spoon". The first terrine (see picture below, the second from the bottom) was so fragile and I could not slice it using a regular (very sharp I might add) knife.

After the remake, I could slice it and present it on the plate. I served it with fresh cilantro and the sauce  (hoisin and rice vinegar) (below).



I served this with soba noodles which was suggested in the original recipe. I did not think the hoisin sauce would be suitable for soba so I served the usual dipping sauce with the addition of nori and scallion.



Come to think of it, we have not eaten soba for some time. But in hot summer this is a good especially in combination with the chilled and jellied chicken terrine.



This was a cold plate lunch on another day. I served this terrine with my potato salad, grilled corn and black bean salad, bulgur wheat salad and Montparnasse cauliflower.



I made some modifications the the original recipe especially since the chicken meat I used was already cooked.

3 cups chicken broth, fat skimmed (I used low fat low salt Swanson chicken broth).
1/2 cup medium-dry Sherry (I used half and half of sake and mirin, instead)
2 teaspoons soy sauce (I used light colored soy sauce to keep jell light in color)
1 1/2-inch piece fresh ginger root, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
6 scallions, each cut crosswise into thirds and flattened with the flat side of a large knife
1 1/2 tablespoons star anise pieces, crushed lightly
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound skinless boneless chicken breasts*(about 3 breast halves) (I used both white and dark meat from barbecued chicken, hand shredded about 2 cups).
1 envelope plus 1 1/2 teaspoons (about 4 1/2 teaspoons total) unflavored gelatin (I added one more package when I remade the terrine).
1/2 cup fresh cilantro  leaves, washed well and spun dry

*If using uncooked chicken, porch in the broth for 15 minutes and after removing the chicken, add water to make the amount of the liquid to 3 cups.

For sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
4 teaspoons rice vinegar (not seasoned)

I put the chicken broth in a pan with sake, mirin, ginger root, scallion, star anise, and light colored soy sauce (I did not add the salt). I simmered it for 25 minutes, strained and removed the solids and returned the broth in to the pan and added shredded chicken (both breast and dark meat). After 15 minutes of simmering, I separated the meat and broth using a sieve. I tossed the chicken meat with cilantro leaves and placed it in a terrine as seen below.



Meanwhile, I sprinkled the gelatin powder in 1/4 cup of water and let it bloom. I put the broth back in the same pan on simmer and whisked in the bloomed gelatin. when the gelatin melted completely, I cut the flame and poured the mixture over the chicken meat and cilantro. After the mixture came to room temperature, I moved it to the fridge and let it cool  over night. I un-molded the terrine (by soaking the bottom of the pan in hot tap water for a few seconds). It looked nice as seen below. But it was too fragile to slice. We ended up tasting (as the original recipe suggested) using a spoon. It was remarkably good. The star anise and cilantro and soy sauce all went together.



The next day, I remade this terrine. I placed the jelled terrine in a pan and warmed it until the gelatin melted. I then removed the chicken meat with a tong and placed it in the loaf pan. I bloomed an additional package of unflavored gelatin in 1/4 cup of cold water. I whisked in the bloomed gelatin and after it melt completely, I poured it over the chicken meat. This time, all the chicken pieces were coated with gelatin-broth mixture and the additional gelatin made the terrine firmer. After over night refrigeration, the terrine was formed (below).



This time, the terrine was firm enough and the all chicken pieces were coated with the gelatin-broth. I could slice it nicely without tearing the entire thing apart.  The hoisin sauce and rice vinegar combination made a nice sauce which complimented the flavor of the jellied chicken terrine very well. The addition of fresh cilantro added fresh flavor. This is rather delicate "Asian" flavored chicken terrine.  

"Negitoro" from frozen yellowfin tuna ネギトロ

This is another installment of my ongoing effort to make low-quality frozen block of yellowfin tuna more palatable. I have made "namerou" なめろう of tuna before and this one is similar but better. I saw this recipe for "negitoro*" ネギトロ on the web and I had to try it.

*Digression alert!
This was supposedly started at a sushi bar in Asakusa 浅草 called "Kintarouzushi honten";金太楼鮨本店 as a staff meal or "makanai" 賄い. It was made from the scrap meat of tuna including the fatty meat or "toro" which was scraped off of the skin and bone (called "nakaochi" 中落ち) and chopped into a paste like concoction. This was later served to the "regulars" as either "gunkan" 軍艦 sushi, small "hosomaki" 細巻き rolls or as a topping for a "donburi" 丼 rice bowl. Initially, only large sushi bars which could buy whole or big portions of tuna had access to "nakaochi". Later as it gained popularity,"negitro" was commercially produced on an industrial scale from the red meat of low grade tuna with added oil, flavoring, and other additives (Pre-packed ones are widely available in regular markets or by mail order in Japan for consumption at home).The availability of inexpensive and widely distributed commercial "negitoro" products made it very popular in sushi bars like those with "belt conveyer" or "kaitenzushi" 回転寿し. It was named with  a word "negi" but it does not mean "scallion" but it is reportedly related to another famous restaurant in Asakusa called "Mugitoro**" 麦とろ which the sushi chef and his family frequented. He named this dish "negitoro" on a whim just because it rhymes with "mugitoro".

**Another digression alert!! This Japanese restaurant is famous for serving mugi-toro. "Mugi" literally means "wheat" in Japanese but, in this context, it is barley. Thus, "Mugi-toro" is cooked barley or "mugi meshi" 麦飯 topped with "tororo" とろろ which is grated "slimy" mountain yam "Yamaimo" 山芋. The combination is abbreviated as "Mugi-toro".  Some years ago my wife and I were wined and dined at this restaurant and we were served "negitro" as a last "shime" dish. Slimy potato on cooked barley was not our favorite despite its touted health benefits

I made this dish very close to the recipe, I topped it with chopped scallion, nori, and thinly sliced myoga.



I served it with wasabi and soy sauce (this time a special "Sashimi soy sauce" 刺身醤油 from the bottle). My wife decided, it was not efficient to dip a small amount of negitoro into the soy sauce so she took a short cut and poured the soy sauce with wasabi over the negitoro. This preparation really improved the taste and texture of this less than prime tuna. Remarkably it really had a taste reminiscent of toro.



It started with frozen block of yellowfin tuna, thawed (I used half of the block, this was rather large block).



I divided this half of the block into two. I first thinly sliced the tuna, added chopped scallion and perilla leaves (optional) and mayonnaise with a bit of soy sauce (this is a deviation from the recipe).  and chopped and mixed (this process is called "tataku")



Because of the added mayo, the color became lighter visually resembling fatty tuna or toro. Following the recipe, I cut the remaining tuna block into fine dice (but not into paste) to give it some texture.



I mixed it which is the final product. We really like it. Addition of mayo makes this low quality red meat of tuna more unctuous and fatty like real toro. This is better than "namero" made from the same tuna.  For the negitoro, we opened a bottle of Dassai 50 獺祭.

Myoga flower clear soup 花茗荷のお澄まし

I am trying to come up with more recipes using the myoga flowers ミョウガのはな we harvested the other day. Since the myoga flower is rather delicate in appearance and flavor, I made a simple clear soup. It is important to start this type of clear soup from a good broth. Since this was a lunch and I did not have much time to prepare (we were hungry), I used a dashi pack (mixture of bonito and kelp). I made about 2.5 cups of broth. I seasoned it with a splash of mirin (you do not want to taste real sweetness) and light colored "usukuchi" soy sauce 薄口醤油 . I tasted it and thought it was ok but if you prefer more saltiness and don’t want to make the clear soup too dark (even using light colored soy sauce), you could just add salt. I had some silken tofu from Japan (which is meant to be eaten "raw") so I made some small cubes and put it in the soup. I also added a small amount of myoga buds finely julienned and scallion (in retrospect, I should have omitted the scallion. It was a bit too strong; the myoga flavor alone was sufficient). After I put the soup in individual serving bowels (or "owan"  お椀), I garnished with several myoga flowers in the center.



This soup was an accompaniment for a marinated tuna rice bowl or "maguro-zuke-don" 鮪ずけ丼.



This soup was very good. The tofu was nicely silken. The soup made with good "dashi" was flavorful and mild. The myoga flowers had a subtle and distinctive myoga flavor. My wife is usually not a fan of Japanese soup but she drained the bowel and asked if there was any more.

Tuna ”zuke” bowl 鮪漬け丼

My “emergency” frozen block of yellowfin tuna needs to be consumed every-now-and-then since it does not improve with age in the freezer. Since we harvested myoga, I made a variation on marinated tuna rice bowl　鮪ずけ丼.

I topped it with a onsen egg 温泉卵, nori, perilla and a myoga flower.



Keeping the theme of myoga flower, I made a clear soup with tofu and myoga flower.



Since this was a lunch over the weekend, I used frozen rice to make sushi rice by simply microwaving directly from the freezer and seasoning it with sushi vinegar. I placed strips of nori, perilla, scallion and myoga (not too much) on the rice.



I then placed marinated tuna on the rice (I should have sliced it a bit thinner). This time I marinated the tuna in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin and sake (2:1:1) with the juice from grated ginger and ground sesame seeds (I dry roasted the sesame seeds in a frying pan and then ground coarsely using a Japanese mortar (suribachi). I marinated the tuna over night which is longer than I usually do.



I then placed an onsen egg in the center and more nori and perilla and topped it with a myoga flower (the first picture). Since the myoga flavor is rather strong, you do not want to over do the myoga.  I served the remaining marinade on the side.  For an impromptu tuna zuke donburi, this was quite good and filling. We successfully resisted  having sake.

Myoga flower ミョウガの花

This year we were a bit late in harvesting myoga (myouga) ミョウガ.  The area of our backyard where the myoga is growing is solidly in the domain of mosquitoes and requires some resolve and protective gear on our part to enter their territory without paying inordinate “blood tribute” (literally).  Usually, my wife bravely volunteers for the task but that was slow in coming this year (I do not blame her).  This year, we kept postponing the harvest until my wife pointed out she could see little white flowers surrounding some of the myoga plants (meaning that the myoga, which is best used before it flowers, was moving past its prime). So, one weekend we donned protective clothing and together we harvested the myoga. Of course, my wife is a much better myoga harvester than I am (it is not easy to find the myoga buds that have not yet-flowered since they are buried below the surface of the soil and the soil can be almost hard as rock). Many of the ones we (especially "I") found had already blossomed. In previous years we discarded those. This year, however, my wife advised that once we had suited up and were scrabbling with our noses in the dirt we should retrieve every myoga we could find regardless of its condition and we could sort them out later. As we sorted through our haul we realized that even if the myoga has blossomed, we could eat it as long as the bud was still solid; once the bud becomes "hollow" or soft, it can not be used. Since we usually discarded the myoga with blooms, we never really paid any attention to how the flowers might be used. Although the flowers generally wilt quickly, this year we had more flowers than usual and many of them had just opened so we decided to eat them rather than discard them.

Here I used myoga flower to garnish my cold simmered vegetables. This time the cold veggies included daikon, carrots, renkon (lotus root) and konnyaku (devil's tongue). I garnished it with blanched haricoverts  and myoga flower.



Here are two flowers open from a single bud.



We removed the flowers and washed them in cold water.



The below are "good" myoga before blossoming.



The myoga flowers are usually not available in stores even in Japan since they are very perishable and probably not worth harvesting or selling. The flowers do have a nice ethereal quality. They have a distinctive myoga taste but are very delicate in texture without the somewhat hard or fibrous texture of the buds. They may also be slightly bitter. They can be used as a garnish or just eaten as a part of a salad.

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.

Bulgur wheat salad バルガーウィートのサラダ

This is one of my wife's grain salads. She made some modification and added edamame. This is a nice salad which can be served as a snack. Bulgur wheat is the hulled kernel of wheat which has been parboiled and then dried. It cooks rather quickly and has a nice texture.



One of her secrets is to roast the bulgur wheat in the toaster oven. It adds a nice roasted flavor.



The dressing is simple. Finely chopped fresh mint really adds a fresh taste.



Ingredients:
1 cup Bulgur wheat
1/1/2 cup chicken broth
Celery
Walnuts (toasted with the brown skin rubbed off  using a dish towel
Sweet onion (red or Vidalia)
edamame
Fresh mint

Dressing:
Rice vinegar/lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Toast the bulgar wheat in the toaster oven until it turns dark brown and exudes to sweet almost honey like aroma. Remove from the toaster oven and rinse in cold water. (At this point the wheat may be smoking a bit and steam will rise as it is rinsed). Put the chicken broth into a pan and bring to a boil. Add the rinsed bulgar wheat, put on the lid and remove from heat . Let it sit for about 20 minutes. Use a fork to fluff up the grains. If there is some liquid left drain the wheat and let it cool down.
Once the wheat has cooled add the other ingredients basically to taste. For example, add as much mint as tastes good.

This is a very nutty flavorful salad. The toasting adds a bit of sweetness.

Otoshi 3 kinds お通し三種類

These are another example of my otoshi appetizer threesome. Again these were made quickly from mostly leftovers.



The first  one is sort of Italian style octopus, a leftover part toward the tip of the tentacles after using thick portion for sashimi; Cucumber cut into small cubes, black and green olives, dressed in olive oil seasoned with smoked paprika.



The second one is my usual braised burdock root or "Kinpira gobo" 金平牛蒡, which I made the prior weekend.



The last one is leftover cooked salmon (broken into small pieces) dressed in mayo (mixed with Japanese one flavor pepper flakes 一味唐辛子 and light colored soy sauce 薄口醤油 garnished with ikura salmon roe.



Except for the Ikura, all these appetizers will go with either sake or wine. Instead of just one appetizer, having three is more enjoyable.

PA Dutch Wet Bread stuffing

This is another one of my wife's PA dutch dishes triggered by our recent trip to rural Pennsylvania. It is essentially, a hybrid of mashed potato and bread stuffing but it tastes more like mashed potatoes than bread stuffing. When my wife was growing up, she used to eat something called wet bread stuffing served in the school cafeteria as a side dish for lunch. She remembers it as a loaf cut into slices and heated with a gelatinous texture.  Not one of her favorites as a child (it was that gelatinous texture) but as an adult she was curious to try it again. After some searching she found this recipe and though this may be it.



Ingredients (for 8 servings):
2 1⁄4 lbs potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 slices white bread, torn into pieces (My wife used Pepperidge Farm flavored bread stuffing about 2 cups). Several of the recipes go into great detail on how to handled the bread such as toasting it, frying it, and other methods to dry it out.
1⁄2 cup diced onion
1⁄2 cup diced celery
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Saute the onions and celery until the onions are just translucent and soft
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
3. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes.
4. Drain, mash, salt and pepper to taste. Add enough milk and butter to give the mashed potatoes a very creamy texture. They should be a bit more liquid than usual for mashed potatoes because the dried bread soaks up the extra liquid. At this point just the potatoes themselves are good. 
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Lightly grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
7. In a large bowl, mix together the potatoes, white bread (or flavored stuffing), onion, celery, salt and pepper. (First picture below)
8. Pour into prepared casserole dish, dot with pads of butter (second picture below) and bake for 1 hour. (Final picture below).

(Mix the seasoned bread stuffing with the mashed potato).

(Fill casserole and dot the surface with butter).



(Bake for one hour at 350F).



This was not exactly the dish she remembered from her childhood. For one thing, there was no gelatinous texture and it was very good. The bread stuffing completely amalgamated with the potatoes. The flavored stuffing really made the dish savory. It was like mashed potatoes but different. It must have been a great way for PA Dutch cooks to use stale bread and leftover mashed potatoes. The first day, it didn't hold together and we spooned it onto the plate as shown in the picture above but a few days later it could be sliced. My wife is still curious about the concoction she ate as a kid but from her descriptions of it, I'm glad this was not it.

PA Dutch Crumb Cake クラムケーキ

Recently we visited rural Pennsylvania where my wife grew up. The trip was very nostalgic for her. One of the highlights was stopping at two regional grocery stores; Henning's and Landis. When she was a girl they were just small country stores which have grown a lot larger. (Henning's boasts 57,000 square feet). She was beside herself standing in front of the deli department stocked with all the Pennsylvania Dutch goodies such as beet pickled eggs, chow chows of all types, multiple types of scrapple. I had to remind her that  there was only so much room in the car. The real piece de resistance was the stop at Landis. Every Christmas she mail orders shoofly pie and funny cake from them. There, she stood confronted with shelf after shelf of shoofly pie, funny cake, apple sauce cake, apies pie, hard tac cake and others.  They even offered free samples with a small cup of coffee!! She couldn't resist and loaded up. Despite the mother load she brought back with her, she was inspired to make some PA Dutch dishes. This is one of them called "Crumb cake". It is not too sweet, and is very moist with interesting rough texture. I really like this cake. (Like many Pa Dutch baked goods although it is a cake it is made in a pie pan).



The name "Crumb" comes from the fact the whole cake; both top and bottom are made from "Crumbs".



Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup butter
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

Sift together flour, baking power, salt, sugar and soda.
Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until the mixture has the consistency of course meal or small peas. (These are the crumbs for which the cake is named. )
Reserve about 1 1/2 cups of this mixture and set aside.
Combine the eggs, milk and extracts and stir into the remainder of the dry ingredients and blend. (First picture below)
Pour into 2 well-buttered 10-inch pie pans.
Brush the top of the dough w/ butter and sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture. (Middle picture below)
Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until cake is done. (Last picture).

(Pie pan filled with wet and  dry "Crumbs" mixture).

(After reserved dry "Crumbs" were put on).

(After baked at 350F for 30 minutes).

The cake is mildly sweet with a lovely moist texture. The combined flavors of the brown sugar, vanilla and almond is very distinctive but delightfully mild. The cake went so well with our espresso. The cake is so easy to make. We'll be seeing this one again.

G Sake on the rocks G 酒 オンザロック

When we were at Izakaya Kurakura 蔵倉 in Kyoto recently, we had "Icebreaker" summer sake on the rocks which gave us the idea to taste G sake on the rocks. We posted G sake Joy and G sake Fifty in 2013. While they were good, we were not wild about these sakes (we liked the original G sake) and thought they were a bit too assertive/savory in taste with cloying sweetness (this tendency was more pronounced in "Fifty"). As a result several bottles of G sake have stayed in the refrigerator untouched. Since they were a rather assertive undiluted genshu with higher alcohol content (18% alcohol), we thought they may taste better on the rocks like Icebreaker sake.

We first tried G sake (2013 version) on the rocks.



The glass came from Kitaichi glass 北市グラス in Otaru 小樽. While we were in Japan, we noticed some of the Japanese tumblers were made of incredibly thin glass. We learned that since incandescent light bulbs are becoming a thing of the past in Japan, the same technology used to make light bulbs is being used to make very thin-walled glass tumblers. The ones we bought have little dimples on the sides making them easier to grasp. We tasted G sake "Joy" on the rocks in these tumblers accompanied with deep fried small sweet fish or "ayu".



A few days later, we tried G sake "Fifty" (2013 version) on the rocks. The major difference between "Joy" and "Fifty" is the degree to which the rice has been polished; 40 and 50% (of outer kernel removed), respectively.



This time we had octopus sashimi and raw ocutopus in wasabi yuzu dressing (in the square container,  from a frozen package). I also served matchsticks of nagaimo in vinegar dressing garnished with dried "aonori".



We liked G sake "Joy" on the rocks. The cloying sweetness was much less and the slight dilution and icy temperature made the G sake taste crisp and better.  G sake "Fifty" got much better than tasting it straight but the cloying sweetness broke through even on the rocks. Certainly, we can drink it much more easily on the rocks than straight. In conclusion, it is a good idea to have G sake on the rocks in hot summer. The assertive tastes of G sakes are actually perfect for on the rocks. We much prefer G sake "joy" over "fifty". We have not tried the most recent brews, however.

Octopus 2 ways たこのお通し２種類

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

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



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



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