Uni "ruibe" うに酒盗ルイベ

We got this with fresh "uni" sea urchin and other uni products from Maruhide 丸秀 sometime ago. Finally we got around to tasting it. This is called "Uni-shutou-ruibe" うに酒盗ルイベ.  I sliced it thinly while it was still frozen and served it with slices of cucumber and cold sake.

I'm quoting from my previous post: "Ruibe" is a word derived from the Ainu アイヌ, the endogenous people of my home island Hokkaido. Roughly translated, it means "thawing food". In the severe cold of Hokkaido, salmon harvested in early winter quickly froze. In its frozen state, it was sliced thinly and served semi-frozen or over hot rice where it thawed--hence thawing food.

"Shuto" 酒盗:  These two letters literally mean "sake" and "stealing". The origin of this name reportedly came from the allegation that shuto is so good with sake that when people run out of sake while eating it, they are compelled to obtain more sake even if they have to steal it. There is a similar preparation called  "shio-kara" 塩辛 or, as my wife calls it, "squid and guts". It is made of strips of raw squid salted and fermented with squid guts (mostly liver) which we really like and is also perfect with sake. Shuto appears to have originated and become popular in Kochi 高知 prefecture on Shikoku island 四国. This island is famous for "Katsuo" 鰹 or bonito fishing. Instead of discarding the innards (stomach and intestine), they cut them up, salt, and ferment for 1 year or more. According to what I read,  the digestive enzymes present in the innards ferment and preserve the fish guts. Many variations incorporating different flavorings and using bonito flesh instead of innards as well as other fish exist but I have not tried them. "Uni shuto" appears not to contain fish innards.

We really like this. It is a cross between fresh uni and uni product called "Neri-uni*" 練りウニ. The uni flavors get concentrated. What we really noticed was the texture transition that occurred after we placed it in our mouth.  It went from cold and frozen with little flavor to melt in your mouth flooding with fresh uni flavors.  We really enjoyed this on slices of cucumber followed by a mouthful of cold sake but it will definitely go well with fresh white rice. "Uni-shutou-Ruibe" is not a traditional Japanese product and according to "Maruhide", this is exclusively available at "Maruhide" in Los Angeles.

*Neri-Uni: This is a more traditional preserved "uni" product. The uni is mixed with salt and alcohol. The resulting paste is packaged in a small glass jar.

Tuna cutlet with shallot sauce マグロのカツレツとネギソース

The frozen yellowfin tuna sashimi block I thawed when we returned home from a trip to find our cherry trees in full bloom was rather large. So, the next day, being inspired by a recipe I saw on line, I made this tuna cutlet.  I also made a sort-of onion (actually a shallot) sauce to go with the cutlet. Although the weather wasn't good enough to sit outside, we admired the cherry blossoms while sitting inside.

The center of the tuna was still basically raw but the crust and the surface of the tuna were cooked and crispy.

Although the original recipe called for an onion sauce I made a sauce using shallots instead. Actually, my sauce was inspired by but not really based on the recipe; I just came up with it. This is  a variation on the classic Japanese "onion" sauce ネギソース which is often used with deep fried food in Japan.

Ingredients:
Tuna Sashimi block, cut into two 1.5 inch wide pieces.
Flour, egg+water, and Japanese Panko bread crumbs for dredging.
Salt and black pepper for seasoning the tuna.
Oil for deep frying (I used peanut oil).

For sauce
Shallot, one medium, finely chopped
Olive oil, 2 tsps
Soy sauce, 4 tsps
Mirin and sake 1 tsp each
Lemon juice, 1 tsp

Directions:
For the sauce
1. Slowly sauté the shallot in light olive oil on medium-low flame for several minutes until cooked but not browned or caramelized.
2. Add the soy sauce, mirin and sake and let it come to a simmer for several minutes. Then let it cool to room temperature.
3. Before serving, add the lemon juice (I thought of using black vinegar instead, if that were the case, I would add it with the rest of the ingredients).

For the cutlet
1. If using frozen tuna block, thaw ahead of time, season with salt and pepper
2. Dredge with flour, egg water and Panko bread crumbs.
3. Deep fry for 1 minute or less in 370F oil until the surface becomes crispy and golden brown (picture below).

4. Drain on a paper towel lined plate (see below). The center should still be uncooked.
5. Slice into 1/3 inch slices.

This was much better than I expected. I could have added more acid to the sauce but the cooked shallot worked well; It was sort of a cross between onion and garlic with good sweetness and some nuttiness. The cutlet had a nice crunchy crust with a center of uncooked tuna giving a nice textural and taste contrast. The sauce really made the dish. We found another good way of serving low-quality frozen yellowfin tuna block.

Braised Tarako, shirataki and mushroom 白滝と舞茸のたらこ炒め

I had one set (two sacs) of salted cod roe leftover after I made "Tarako spaghetti". I also had maitake mushroom 舞茸 (hen-of-the-wood) which needed to be used. So one evening, I came up with this dish. This is a variation of the dish I previously posted.  This is a perfect small dish for cold sake.

I also served "Chicken Matsukaze yaki" 松風焼き (reheated in the toaster oven).

Ingredients:
Maitake, one package, bottom portion removed and separated (#1).
Shirataki*  白滝, 1 package, washed in cold running water and boiled in plenty of hot water and drained (#2)
Tarako cod roe たらこ: Two sacs (#3). Sacs opened and the roe scraped off removing the membrane (#4 and 5). Sake or mirin 1 tbs
Vegetable oil, 1 tsp with a splash or sesame oil
Soy sauce, 1-2 tsp (adjust depending on how salty the cod roe is).

*Shirataki is a thin noodle made of Kon-nyaku (Konjac) こんにゃく. Right out of the package it has a rather unpleasant smell. But the smell disappears after washing and par boiling. It does not have much taste and zero calories but adds a nice texture to the dish and delivers whatever seasoning you add. In this case, the added seasoning and flavor would come from the cod roe clinging to the Kon-nyaku noodles.

Directions:
1. Add the vegetable oil to a sauce pan on medium flame.
2. Add the drained shirataki and stir for a few minutes.
3. Add the mushrooms and stir another minute.
4. Add the sake (or mirin if you like a slightly sweet taste) and stir until only a small  amount of liquid remains (#6).
5. Add the tarako and stir until the roe becomes opaque (1 minute or less).
6. Season with the soy sauce, stir for 30 seconds.

This is a quick dish which goes perfectly well with sake. You can add other items such as "chikuwa" ちくわ fish cake, shiitake mushroom etc. You could also add a hot sauce  (Sriracha or Tabasco or Japanese hot pepper flakes) to add spiciness if you like. The matsukaze yaki had a nice nutty taste from miso. These two snacks went a long way to enjoying the sake.

Hanami 2017 花見 2017

This year the cherry blossoms were an on-again, off-again, on-again event. We had unseasonably warm weather in February and the trees started to bloom early.  The smallest of our three cherry trees was in full bloom in early March. We celebrated the little tree's valiant effort with a pre-hanami or cherry blossom gazing. The warm weather continued and a few days later, it was clear the largest trees started blooming to about 20%. Then, (and you knew this was coming) there was a cold snap complete with a late season snow storm and these flowers were zapped. We were concerned that even the buds might have been destroyed and hanami would be a non-event this year. Not only the trees in our backyard were at risk but there was some concern that for the first time in 40 years even the trees at the Tidal Basin would not bloom. The cold weather held for a while and the cherry blossoms were put into a type of suspended animation until the cold spell broke the last week of March. We were out of town that week but when we arrived home we were pleasantly surprised to fine our backyard awash in cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, since we were out of town we missed the peak and the largest and second largest trees were slightly past full bloom. Since we arrived home in the late afternoon and the sun was still warm, we sat outside on our deck admiring the display and the fact that despite the vagaries of the weather there were  cherry blossoms this year.

Although some browned remnants of zapped flowers were visible, it was still spectacular.

the ski was blue and there was no wind.

Since we did not have a chance to go grocery shopping, I tapped into our frozen cache of tuna. I made marinated tuna sashimi or "Zuke" of tuna マグロのずけ. This time, I managed to marinate the tuna long enough to attain a dark red color and the "nettori" ねっとりor "soft" texture. Since I did not have any fresh greens, I served this as is. Initially, I thought this would go well with red wine like beef tartar but it did not so we switched to cold sake.

I also found leftover oden おでん in the fridge, which I had made before we went out of town. I reheated it and served it. The shiitake mushrooms were dried ones that I re-hydrated for a few days in the refrigerator before putting them in the oden. They were packed with umami.

Finally we had leftover tonkatsu of pork filet ヒレカツ. I just warmed it up in the toaster oven; Not as good as if it had been reheated in hot oil but certainly we could enjoy it.

The weather after this mini-hanami was really rainy and we had to wait until the following weekend for Hanami. By then, the cherry blossom was way past their peak but it was still beautiful.

Cod roe and homemade spaghetti pasta 自家製スパゲティでたらこスパゲッティ

This is a variation of cod roe spaghetti. We usually make this dish with thin Udon noodles うどん. After my wife got me a pasta machine, I have been making pasta. Since I made spaghetti and happened to have some tarako たらこcod roe, I tried this dish using the homemade "spaghetti".

Makings of spaghetti (for 2 servings):

Ingredients:
200 gram flour (I used Hodgson mill pasts flour which is a mixture of semolina and durum wheat flours).
80 gram mixture of one egg, olive oil, salt and water, well mixed. (I weighed these ingredients).

Directions:
1. I put the flour into the chamber of the machine (left upper) and turned it on.
2. I then slowly poured in the liquid.
3. It turns several minutes. It never come to one mass of dough but remains rather dry.
4. It automatically stops and reverses the direction which will feed the dough to the extruder and the pasta starts coming out (right upper).
5. The lower two pictures show the final product. It is rather dry and does not stick to each other.

For tarako sauce.

Ingredients:
One small onion, halved and sliced, caramelized in olive oil
Two sacs of "Tarako" cod roe
Sake
Olive oil, 1 tbs
Lemon juice
Perilla leaves, thinly julienned (I did not have perilla so I used baby arugula)  Nori , thinly julienned

Directions:
1. Cut one side of the roe sacs. Using the back of the knife, scrape off the roe leaving the sac.
2. Place the roe in a small bowl and add sake (small amount, probably 1-2 tsp) and mix.
3. Cook the spaghetti (I may have over cooked this).
4. Add the olive oil in a frying pan on medium flame.
5. When heated, add the cooked spaghetti, caramelized onion and mix. When the spaghetti is coated with oil and warm, add the cod mixture and quickly mix for 1-2 minutes until the roe becomes opaque (i.e. cooked).
6. Cut the heat and add the lemon juice (1 tbs).
7. Serve on the plate garnished with think strips of perilla leaves and nori.

This was a bit of disappointment. Since the fettuccini I made was  very good with nice texture but somehow became a bit mushy, I was expecting better. We decided using thin Udon noodle is much better.

Sake lee and miso marinated grilled salmon 鮭のハラスの粕味噌焼

This is a variation of sake lee marinated grilled fish. The usual marinade for this kind of dish is made of mostly sake lee with  a small  amount of miso. This past new year, however, I made two kinds of herring roe; one of which was marinated in the mixture of sake lee and miso. Although this marinade is a mixture of miso, sake lee and sake, it differs from the one described above in that it has much more miso. After I removed the herring roe from this marinade, I used it for fish and vegetables. I realized I have not posted it, so I used it again for my usual filet of salmon, belly portion (or "harasu" ハラス) . I served the marinated salmon belly with my cucumber onion salad as a first small dish for the evening.

1. I scaled the skin (I always have to do this since it is usually not properly scaled at the store. We suspect this is because not many people enjoy the skin as we do so the fish mongers don't "waste their time" carefully scaling it since the skin will generally be discarded). I then separated the belly portion.
2. In a small ziploc bag, I put a small amount of the sake lee miso marinade and pressed to spread making a thin layer. I then put in the salmon, and added more marinade on the side which did not already have the marinade. I pressed and spread the marinade to cover the fish.
3. After sealing the bag, I kept it in the refrigerator for a few days to a max of 1 week.
4. Just before grilling, I took the fish out and washed it in cold running water to remove the marinade and patted it dry using sheets of paper towel.
5. I grilled this in the toaster oven but I had be very careful not to burn the skin too much. I also moved the toaster oven under the hood of the stove since it creates some smoke. I started from the meat side and them cooked the skin side so that when finished, the skin was crispy.

Although we like salmon belly just salted and grilled, the marination adds subtle flavors and a different texture which is very nice for a change.

Nagaimo and salmon sausage Isobe fry 長芋とサーモンソーセージの磯辺揚げ

This was inspired by the vegan cooking by a Buddhist monk in Kyoto. He briefly cooked the nagaimo 長芋 rounds in broth, soy sauce and mirin to season it before making a type of tempura called "Isobe-age" 磯辺揚げ with the batter containing dried "aonori" 青海苔. I also made salmon sausages we got from my mother for new year into a similar tempura. I served it as a drinking snack with green tea salt, wedges of lemon and skinned Campari tomato.

I cooked the nagaimo a bit too much but I just used the leftover nagaimo dish and converted to the current dish.

Ingredients (for two small servings):
Nagaimo, peeled and cut into half inch thick rounds (four)
Dashi broth, soy sauce, mirin and sake
Salmon sausages, sliced diagonally in half inch thick (four)

For the tempura batter
Cake flour and potato starch
Cold water
Dried "Aonori"

Directions:
1. Cook the nagaimo in seasoned broth (Japanese broth seasoned with soy sauce, mirin and sake) for few minutes and let it cool in the broth (see below, this one is cooked longer than called for in this dish).

2. Make the tempura batter by mixing the flours and "aonori" with cold water until desired consistency (I made this rather runny). Coat the nagaimo and sausages.
3. Heat vegetable oil (I used peanut oil) to 350F and deep fry for few minutes.
4. Drain and serve immediately.

Since this was converted from "simmered Nagaimo" dish, the nagaimo was cooked more than needed before it was deep fried. Still, it had nice crunchy texture. It has nice crust with aonori flavor. The salmon sausages also tasted much better than when we tasted as is. This was  unusual but quite good tempura items.