Fish Dinner Night

Pretty Colorful, isn't it? Wondering what this is? Maybe some of you figured out that this is chirashi zushi (uncaked sushi), but not sure what’s on top, right? Those fish-meat like chunks are vinegared gizzard shad. Many of you probably have had sushi more often than I did, and might have heard the name kohada. That’s what it is. Kohada is often vinegared and I’ve heard a lot about it, but this was the first time that I made vinegared kohada myself. And this boiled fish is what we call chinu (black sea bream). I had a hard time taking a shot trying to hide the ugly parts as much as possible, because the skin came off here and there... :( Very simple sweet and salty seasoning with sugar, soy sauce, sake, mirin and a few slices of ginger root. There’s a very good reason why these fish are not very photogenic. I gutted and filleted them myself. I know, I know. I live “in a rural town with abundant seafood from the Pacific ocean” and I’m originally from a coastal town known for fishing. So you think I’m supposed to be good at such preparations? Wrong. I can manage, but it’s a real clumsy work which is a typical “daimyo oroshi” (filleting work that a feudal lord would do, leaving lots of the flesh of the fish on the middle bone). This expression is used among (elder?) professional cooks probably because feudal lords in the past were those who were least likely to gut and fillet fish, and least stingy about the flesh left on the bone.　(*Sorry, I just found that daimyo oroshi was the name of a legitimate filleting method. It doesn't really mean "shitty work." ) Why did I go through all those troubles this time? Let me tell you, dear readers. These fish were special. They were not from the supermarket. They were straight from a local river, and I witnessed all the catching process! Oh, about the dishes above, vinegared gizzard shad was OK, and black sea bream was excellent, though it was small. (* I used instant mix for making the sushi part. Of course! How can I manage gutting/filleting fish AND making sushi from scratch! No way. ;P ) My kitchen is filled with the smell of fish right now. I’m not totally happy with it, but I have to admit that it makes me feel somewhat nostalgic. After all, that’s something I was very familiar with in my childhood. * And here is the story of how I got these fish.

My Very First Double-Crust Apple Pie

My Very First Double-Crust Apple Pie Take a look at the double-crust apple pie that I made yesterday! It was my very first time making pie crust myself. The temptation to bake an apple pie was triggered when I saw several kogyoku apples on sale at the Sunday market yesterday. Kogyoku is a tart variety that is suitable for pies and cakes. For someone like me who wants tart apples for baking but can’t buy Granny smith online, Kogyoku is the best substitute. (Granny smith apples are not available at regular stores in Japan but you can buy them from farmers by ordering online. Most likely you have to order by box and the postage will not be cheap.) So can you imagine how delighted I was when I found kogyoku apples on sale: 4 for 100 yen (apx. US$1.00)?! Usually 4 Kogyoku apples cost almost 500 yen at supermarkets. For my very first double-crust apple pie, I picked a basic recipe to stay on the safe side because I am not very experienced in apple-pie baking. But there was one thing I was determined to do no matter what; I wanted to bake a double-crust pie with leaf-shaped holes in the top crust. And see? I really had fun making the holes using my leaf-shaped cookie cutter. Now this is what came out of the oven. Not terribly bad, isn’t it? Unfortunately the crust was a little stiff because I did a substitution that no one would probably approve of. I didn’t have vegetable shortening, so I substituted it with butter and a little vegetable whipping cream. I saw a recipe somewhere that used butter and heavy cream but no shortening, so I assumed whipping cream wouldn’t be a too crazy idea. Maybe it was… (Later I googled for “substitute for shortening” and went through some forums. Most people recommended palm oil or coconut oil, but no one ever mentioned whipping cream. Hahaha... BTW, is that true that Crisco made a new trans-fat-free shortening?? I really want one.) Other than that, the pie was not really bad after all. The tartness of kogyoku really made a difference in the filling and I am so happy that I went to the market last Sunday. It was even better when I did… …this! Mmmmmm… :)

Sunday Market in October

Though it is still quite warm and humid around here for October, fresh fruits and vegetables at the market tell us that it’s Autumn now. *Click photos to enlarge. I'm happy to see wider variety of grapes sold at stores these days. In the past, we only had grapes with thick skins in Japan (or at least in Shikoku, I guess) and we never ate the skins. So I was shocked when I saw, for the first time, people eating grape skins in the U.S. Now we have grapes with thin skins here in Kochi, too, and my mom wouldn’t be frightened to see her daughter eating up grapes, leaving seeds and stems only. I always love to see the crafts at this stall. When I was a kid, one of my dreams was having my own chestnut tree so that I would be able to eat chestnuts anytime I want. Here they sell “red rice” and “black rice,” the kinds of rice widely grown in ancient times, but very rare now. Their nutritious values have been rediscovered recently and some people seem to love mixing them into regular rice. (But see the price…) Big Asian pears, ginger roots and early tangerines. Honeycombs& honey, and of course, sweet potatoes! Mushrooms and greens. I didn’t see many today, but pretty soon persimmons will be in season. Oh, there's no break for foodies, right? ;)

The Killer Imoten (Deep-fried Sweet Potatoes)

Imoten (Batter-fried Sweet Potato) from the Sunday Market Ask someone in Kochi city this question, “Do you like imoten sold at the Sunday market?” You’ll quite likely get, “Oh yeah! I love it!” type of response with a heartwarming smile on his/her face. This everyone’s favorite, "imoten" is simple batter-fried sweet potatoes. “Imo” means potatoes and “ten” came from tempura. It’s the kind of food that is so simple and yet so good that you never get tired of. I can’t help craving for it once in a while. (Well, maybe twice a month.) Preparation is awfully easy -- all you have to do is to peel and chop up sweet potatoes, dip in batter and deep-fry. That’s it. But It’s also the kind of food that anyone can make at home but often ends up saying, “But I can’t do it like they do.” Walking through the Sunday market, you can find a stall where they deep-fry imoten (and other kind of tempura, too) right in front of you and sell them hot. When locals in Kochi say “Sunday market imoten,” it means the ones sold at this stall. I guess the secret of the great taste is the kind of sweet potatoes they use. Imoten from this stall is soooo sweet and ”hoku-hoku.” (How can I explain “hoku-hoku” in English? It’s not just “dry,” I suppose.) I also assume that they add something to the batter to make it slightly sweet and a bit chewy but not too heavy. Maybe sugar and possibly a bit of soy sauce as a hidden flavor?? I don’t know… The lady at the stall told me that they have been selling imoten for about 30 years at the Sunday/Thursday market. Their imoten is widely known now, being included in many guidebooks and websites, and you often see customers standing in line in front of the stall. It's just something you don't want to miss.

Broiled Chicken with Moromi-miso Glaze

Tori no Moromi-miso Yaki (Broiled Chicken with Moromi-miso Glaze) Maybe it’s about time I took a break from the culinary world tour I’ve been enjoying recently. I made a Japanese dinner tonight after coming back from Izakaya work. The entries were: satoimo no nimono (simmered taro), komatsuna no ohitashi (blanched Japanese mustard spinach with bonito flakes) and -- this was the experiment of the day – tori no moromi-miso yaki (broiled chicken with moromi-miso glaze). Yes, this is the moromi-miso that my colleague gave me the other day. I still have a plenty left, and I’ve been searching for recipes of dressing/glaze that call for moromi-miso. During the net search, I found a good number of Japanese sites that mentioned broiled chicken (or pork) with moromi-miso glaze, and I got tempted. Unfortunately none of those sites had a recipe with the amount of ingredients clearly mentioned, so I just improvised the whole thing. OK, here’s what I did: First, I sprinkled sake all over the chicken thigh pieces, grilled them in a frying pan, covered, over very low heat. While the chicken was cooking, I mixed about 1 Tbsp moromi-miso with a little sake, sugar and mirin. I needed to make the miso a little sweeter because, as I mentioned in the previous post, it was pretty salty--- a lot saltier than regular moromi-miso. When the chicken pieces were almost done and looked golden brown, I took them out from the frying pan, spread the moromi-miso glaze on top (skin side), and this time put them in the toaster oven to brown the miso glaze until I smelled its appetizing aroma. The chicken was served with a pinch of ground sansho pepper and a slice of sudachi orange on top. It was good. I’m glad that I tried. Sometimes my improvisation (or gamble) does seem to work ;) * If you're wondering what exactly moromi-miso is, I'm going to do a little research on the miso soon and add an explanation here, so please wait.

Nashi Infused Vodka

It was my pay day today, so I kicked off another project: Nashi (Asian pear) infused vodka. I definitely prefer European or American pears for making desserts, but for infusion, I think these crisp, juicy and sweet Asian pears would be very nice. I could be wrong but I’m eager to find out. We’ll see. (No sugar added.)

Garden Report - October 2005 -

Thyme and Sweet Marjoram It’s getting cooler day by day (though it’s been a little hot and humid for the last couple of days), and my herbs seem to be relieved. No more crazy summer heat! This year it really damaged my plants in the balcony garden, and almost killed my blueberry, sunshine blue. You see the part with brown leaves still remaining on the branch? I have to make a confession here…in July this year, my sunshine blue looked that way all over. Yes, all leaves turned brown and the whole plant looked completely DEAD. That 's the reason why I skipped the garden report that month. I was too hurt and depressed to take a photo of my sunshine blue looking totally dried up and dead. It was a result of several unfortunate factors combined, but above all, it was my fault. One day I was in a great hurry to meet up with someone and didn’t give enough water to my plants. Unfortunately in the afternoon the temperature went up sky high (record high, IIRC), and my god I forgot to turn off the air-conditioner before leaving my room! That was the only time in the whole summer that I forgot to turn it off before going out. And my sunshine blue was placed very close to the outside unit of the air-conditioner. Read More As I wrote above, I couldn’t take a photo of or write about the tragic happening at that time. On the other hand, I had a slight hope that the blueberry plant might come back. It was only one afternoon that it was exposed to abnormal heat …not several days. So I watered it like crazy every day after that, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed... I almost jumped with joy when I saw, after all the brown leaves fell, a few tiny green buds sprouting. But I waited to take a photo until more green leaves come out. It looked almost OK in late August – early September and I was so relieved…but I still waited , hoping to see more green leaves. And now it’s already October. ;P I hope my sunshine blue fully recovers from the shocking incident and have more berries next summer. I’m very happy with my thyme this summer. It looked completely dead at one point, but it came back, and now looks better than ever! Last year I had a problem of scale insects in my balcony garden especially on basil, rhubarb and thyme. I had to remove them with an old toothbrush again and again, and that really drove me nuts. This year, I had only a couple on basil and rhubarb, and none on thyme! Now, the dog-rose is the problem. I was hoping to be able to pick some rose hips this Autumn and that was the reason why I bought two (rather expensive) young plants of dog-rose online last spring. But they didn’t bloom. No flowers means no rose hips. Did they cheat or does it usually take a few years before it starts blooming? Nevertheless, I should say that I’m grateful for what the balcony garden gave me this summer. I had my first harvest of blueberries, rhubarb and lemongrass, which was really exciting! Rosemary, mint and sweet marjoram are constantly doing well. Unfortunately, myoga ginger did not bloom, but dill bloomed for the first time (it didn't last year) and now I have about 2 teaspoonful of dill seeds at hand. Parsley doesn’t look too healthy but at least I can always get the amount I need. Not bad. Not bad at all. :)

Guess What I Made This Morning - Sourdough Pancakes -

My very first sourdough pancakes Yes, sourdough pancakes! See? I finally sacrificed Charlie II. Just like the home-made pita bread I made last Sunday, this was my very fist attempt. But unlike the pita bread, I had no idea what sourdough pancakes should taste like, so I felt far more adventurous this time! That was part of the reason why it took me some time to decide on which recipe to pick out of numerous sourdough pancake recipes on the net. I couldn't imagine the taste/texture from the amount of sugar or oil in the recipes. I mean, they call it "sourdough" so it should taste sour, but how much? And I was a little surprised to see so many recipes being associated with "Alaska." Is this pancake originally from Alaska or something? Anyway, I finally picked this one because it is said to be a signature recipe of a lovely bed and breakfast place, and it calls for powdered skim milk. So, as mentioned in the instruction, I did some preparation last night, right before going to bed. I took Charlie II out of the fridge and mixed 1/2 C of him with flour and warm water. (The recipe was downsized to half.) Then I covered the batter with a damp cloth and left it on the kitchen table overnight. This morning, many small bubbles appeared on the surface of the batter. Charlie II was alive! I prepared the batter following the instruction and cooked my first sourdough pancakes. It was fun to watch them being cooked. Now, about the taste. It’s definitely ... mmm, what should I say... interesting. I think I will love sourdough pancakes but with some modifications to the recipe to suit my taste. The pancakes I made this morning were a little too sour with a slightly tangy aftertaste. Is this the way they are supposed to be or do you think something's wrong with my starter? Is Charlie II contaminated with some unwanted bacteria or something?? I hope not... (He has been in the fridge since the day I posted about him last time.) After all, it was fun to try the pancakes I'd never ever tasted before. I’ll try a different recipe next time, but it should be after I finish eating all the 4 big leftover pancakes that I froze this morning.

Yogurt Jelly - Minty Minty -

Yogurt jelly with mint-liqueur flavored layer on top Just wanted to post something refreshing to look at, because it was so humid all day today. Yogurt jelly with mint-liqueur flavored layer on top. What do you think? I used this yogurt jelly recipe (in Japanese) for the yogurt jelly (without the fruit cocktail), and the blue-green colored layer was my improvisation. As usual, I tried hard to make the green color in the photo look closer to what I saw with my eyes, but without much success. I finally gave up, and instead, tried intensifying the effect of the backlight to make the photos look somewhat interesting. It was not quite successful, either, but I guess this is the best I can do. The plastic cups are from the office where I work at in the daytime. In other words, I washed and saved those cups after we ate store-bought coffee jelly there, and brought them home for future use ;P The taste of the jelly? Not too good and not too bad. The minty top layer did add a refreshing taste to this dessert, but I’m rather reluctant to call it my favorite.

I Did It! - Home-made Pita Bread -

Home-made Pita Bread with Hummus Yes, I made home-made pita bread today! It was fun. Really. I followed this recipe (thanks paola for the link!) step by step, and finally, I was able to enjoy the hummus with pita as many of you suggested. Yay! I would rate my first home-made pita bread as … maybe B-. The recipe yielded 8 but I downsized it to half and made 4 of them. Two out of them puffed up perfectly but the rest didn’t. Maybe the dry yeast wasn’t fully awake… it had been kept in the freezer for months and I didn’t leave it at room temperature long enough before mixing into the flour. (Or just as firmgirl says, "All pitas do not puff." That remark really made me feel at ease.) That said, the pita bread (with or without pockets) went well with the hummus, as many of you said. Thanks again for the suggestions! Next time I’ll try home-made whole wheat pita. With pita bread at hand, I HAD TO try out this recipe, Lemon Chicken Pita Burgers on Joe's site. I found the recipe about a week ago, but was about to give up on that because I didn't think I could buy pita anywhere. Unfortunately, there was another thing called for in the recipe that was not available around here: Greek seasoning mix. So I googled to see what kind of spices were included in the mix and just picked the ones I had: ground cumin, paprika, pepper, salt and garlic powder. I had to use regular oregano in place of Greek oregano, and probably that made a big difference because I read on several websites that Greek oregano is tangy or pungent. Anyway, making many bold (?) substitutions and omissions, I made something that can be called “Chicken Pita Burgers” which might be very different from Joe’s. Chicken Pita Burgers and Hummus-stuffed Cherry Tomatoes My burgers were not totally terrible, though… they were just another B- stuff, I would say. The problem was that I couldn't really taste the tang of lemon, and the pita bread was rather plain... To improve the taste, I put some hummus inside the pita burger. So it was pita+hummus combination all the way. Next time I’ll try this with whole wheat pita bread (home-made, of course) and more lemony yogurt sauce. BTW, I gave one thumb up for the hummus-stuffed cherry tomatoes. Those were pretty good. (I just love bite-size finger food ;))

Infused Vodka Project

Grape (left) and Plum (right) infused vodka See the result of my project inspired by rae's post: grape (left) and plum (right) infused vodka. To tell you the truth, the grape infused version is already gone... I drank it up more than 10 days ago. Good thing that I didn’t forget to take this shot before emptying the glass. As you can see, its color turned a lot darker compared to how it was about a month ago. Color-wise, I like the amber color of the plum infused one much better, but the grape version was definitely a lot sweeter and flavorful. The cucumber vodka didn’t turn out good so I didn’t bother to take a photo. This was how they looked 3 days after the project started The project was actually finished in mid September, which means, I removed the fruits/veggie and strained the liquor about 2 weeks ago. And the grape infused vodka was consumed right away. Now plum version is the only thing that’s left, and I'm thinking about starting another batch with grapes soon. (Or I might go for something more adventurous with grapes... ;)

Weekday Dough Blogging #2

Charlie II (Day 5) Looks like WDB (Weekend Dog Blogging) has been widespread in the blogsphere recently, but mine is Weekday Dough Blogging. Poor obachan doesn’t have a furry animal to blog about on weekends (or weekdays). And unlike those on WDB or WCB, eventually she is going to eat the very thing that she’s feeding and blogging about. Sadistic! Anyway, as you might have noticed, this is not the same dough as this one in my 1st sourdough starter post. The first batch with bread flour was thrown away because it started showing a couple of pinky-orange colored spots. (I cultivated something other than yeast, didn't I?) That was Charlie I. Then I started my 2nd batch with whole wheat, Charlie II, and this is his 5th day. And I’m not sure if he is ready to go into fridge of not…I do see tiny bubbles on the surface, but seeing from the side, I don’t see bubbles like this. No, not at all. So I still keep feeding him every 12 hours, and started worrying about how much mineral water and flour I would have to invest on him. What do you think? Is he ready yet? (I’m almost sure he’s not…) BTW, I named him Charlie so that I can start a day with saying “Good morning, Charlie.” ;)

Hummus with Eggplant

Hummus with Eggplant To be honest, I don’t now much about Turkish food. I might have tried a few of them without knowing that they were Turkish, but I’m not sure. Of course I didn’t know what hummus was -- I didn't even know that it was food. Then a few days ago, when I was bloghopping all over the world, I accidentally found this recipe on Isil’s site. It looked really attractive to me especially because I had some eggplants that needed to be used up. I love grilled eggplants. I love chick peas. Therefore, the combination of them must be something I would love... but you never know how it would taste until you actually give it a try. So why not? I had all the ingredients in my kitchen except chick peas, and I bought the peas at a supermarket on my way back from work this afternoon. Then I spent some quality time in the late afternoon with my new electric blender, and finally I was able to take a shot of the result before I left my apartment for my night-time work . Yes, dear readers, this is the result of my very first attempt of trying out a Turkish recipe – hummus with eggplant! First I tasted this with a small piece of soft and fluffy Japanese bread, and thought that it was a bit too garlicky. ( I used real big cloves.) So I added a little more chick peas and a bit of milk to make it milder. It worked!! They say that hummus is traditionally served with pita bread, but I have no idea where I can find it around here. Oh well, at least I can get some crackers or cracottes tomorrow. What else would be good to eat with hummus? Any suggestions? BTW, this nice looking bowl and spoon are a present from my boss. They made a perfect debut with my very first attempt of hummus. Yesterday was actually my lucky day -- I got a present not only from my boss but also from a colleague. She said that someone gave her bunch of home-made moromi miso, so she gave me some in a big tapperware. This is not as sweet as the regular ones sold at stores. Thanks to her, my late night supper was upgraded with a small plate of moro-kyu (cucumbers with moromi miso ) last night. ------- Sep. 29, 2005 Thank you guys for so many great suggestions! :D Right now I’m enjoying the hummus with veggie sticks and Doritos. Mmmm…too bad there’s no beer.

"Hello Carroty"

Carrot Cake Just because this piece of cake has a ribbon at the same place as Hello Kitty does. (BTW I didn’t know until I saw the site linked above but they say she was born in a suburb of London and her blood type is A!) I made this to use up the carrots left from the carrot halwa I made the other day. Since I’m on a real tight budget now, I didn’t allow myself to buy walnuts and cinnamon to make this cake. So this has only about 2/3 of the amount of cinnamon called for in the recipe and absolutely no walnuts. The taste is… I would say C+. And I froze the leftover cream cheese frosting.

Tofu Steak

Tofu Steak with Bean Sprouts Here’s another Japanese dish that can be a vegetarian dish if the butter was replaced with something else. I highly doubt if this can be called “authentic,” but I like it anyway. I came up with this recipe many years ago, first being inspired by a few Japanese women I met in the U.S. and later giving it a few twists of my own. Tofu Steak with Bean Sprouts Ingredients (1 serving) 1/2 tofu (=150 to 170 g) a clove of garlic a little bean sprouts some flour for coating butter or veg. oil or sesame oil for frying minced scallion for garnish Sauce 2 Tbsp soy sauce 2 Tbsp sake 1 to 1.5 teasp sugar 1 to 2 teasp mirin (dash of instant dashi powder…optional) Wash bean sprouts and drain. Slice garlic. Slice tofu into 3 to 4 pieces and roll in flour to coat. Mix sugar and all liquid ingredients in a bowl. Heat butter (or veg. oil) in a frying pan and sauté garlic slices. Add tofu slices and fry both sides until golden brown. Transfer tofu to a plate. DO NOT WASH THE FRYING PAN YET! Add bean sprouts to the same frying pan to sauté over mid-high heat only briefly. Pour in the liquid ingredients mixture. Heat until the sauce is hot and pour the sprout-sauce mixture all over the tofu. Garnish with minced scallion. Serve hot. When you eat, make sure to put a little bean sprouts and garlic slices in your mouth with tofu. IMHO, the harmony of those three is what’s great about this tofu steak. BTW, I like using silken tofu for this dish. A nice thing to accompany the main dish would be a bowl of: You guessed right. I couldn't use up the tofu and bean sprouts. LOL