A Fish Out of Water

11/29 Dinner: Roast potatoes

• Roast potatoes
• Cucumber tomato salad with onions, olives and feta cheese
• Some kind of old sausage I found in my freezer

As you might have guessed, I'm trying to clean out the fridge and freezer, thus this odd meal. The potatoes were fantastic though-- they didn't brown as nicely as I hoped, but despite their pale appearance they were super-crispy. And moist and fluffy on the inside.

There are a few tricks to getting the potatoes this way. The first is to start with good starchy potatoes, and to peel them. I like potato skin and try to leave it on for other recipes, but peeled potatoes crisp better. The other trick is to parboil them before roasting.

I add the peeled, chopped potatoes to a pot of water (I don't think salting the water is necessary, as the potatoes won't be in there long enough to absorb much salt) and boil them for a few minutes, until the outer edges are a bit softened. After draining, return them to the pot and shake the hell out of them. Beating them up like that creates a rough surface that will suck up the oil for maximum crispyness. Meanwhile, I'll have a pan pre-heating in the oven with a generous splash of olive oil, and while the roughed-up potatoes are still hot I toss them into a pan, along with salt and pepper, and shake them around to coat with the oil. Then I roast them until crispy, turning them over a few times.

I'm still experimenting with these potatoes, working on a proper recipe. But the above steps have so far given me good results. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

11/28 Dinner: Spaghettini alla carbonara

Broccoli sauteed with garlic and parsley, tofu salad (not shown), and spaghettini carbonara (thin spaghetti with bacon, onions, egg and Parmigiano cheese).

This is a creamless version I learnt when I worked in an Italian cafe/restaurant in Vancouver. I was taught to return the drained pasta to the still-hot pan of pancetta (Italian bacon) and onions, pour the egg and cheese mixture in and mix it all up until the eggs were fully cooked. I suppose this was due to salmonella fears, but I really like the way it's done in Japan, with the eggs still runny (the eggs are safer here).

So that's what I tried to do tonight. I mixed everything up in a big bowl, and while the eggs stayed nice and runny it was luke-warm by the time it was on the plate. I want it hot! I'm going to have to experiment a bit to find a way to keep it hot without fully cooking the eggs. Anyone have any tips? Hopefully that don't involve adding cream?

11/27 Dinner: Chigenabe

Chige-nabe, also called kimchi-nabe, is a popular Japanese hotpot with Korean flavours. The broth is rich and spicy, made with garlic, chili peppers, ginger, kochujang (a sweet and spicy bean paste), miso, soy sauce, and chicken stock. And, of course, kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage). The nabe ingredients are shiitake, hakusai (Chinese cabbage), tara (cod), negi (fat green onions), maroni (clear noodles), thinly sliced pork, shungiku (chrysanthemum leaves), shimeji mushrooms, and yakidofu (lightly grilled firm tofu).

It was great and went down very nicely with beer-- Ebisu for me, non-alcoholic for Hideaki. And it was so spicy and warming that we were removing our clothes layer by layer (not as sexy as it sounds, as cold Japanese apartments require a lot of layers), and even after we turned off the heat we were sweating. There's definitely a reason why we save chige-nabe for winter.

11/26 Dinner: Okinawan

I met my friend Emi for dinner yesterday, hoping to eat some good Thai food. But after we found the place we had planned to eat at closed, we chose an Okinawan restaurant instead. It was pricier than we thought and I wasn't really impressed by my somin champuru (fried noodles), but the salad we ordered was tasty. It was made with shimadofu (Okinawan-style tofu), lettuce, mizuna greens, tomatoes and umibudo (sea grapes) and is topped with an ume (salted plum) dressing with jako (baby whitefish) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes). I love umibudo and have never thought of using the little delicacies as a salad topping, but the salad was great.

Tokyo walking

Today Atsuko, Marya and I joined the 8th annual Kokyo Jingu Gaien Guruto Walk, which is a 10km walk around the Jingu Gaien and Imperial Palace area of Tokyo. It started at Hibiya Park and went through the Nagatacho area, where the National Diet and other government buildings are located, before heading to Akasaka. There we stopped at Toyokawa Inari Shrine, where we washed our hands and prayed for a good walk. We also took a break there and had a cup of amazake, a hot and sweet fermented rice drink that is much better than it sounds. This was a child-safe version (it is usually mildly alcoholic) and Marya loved it, drinking almost half of Atsuko's cup.

From there we went to Aoyama and walked along Icho Namiki, an avenue lined with beautiful ginkgo trees that were in various shades of green and yellow. There was a festival there and we stopped for more refreshments: dango (sticky rice balls in a sweet sauce) and hot wine. I had hoped they meant hot mulled wine, but it really was just hot wine, with no spices other than the garnishes shown. Oh well, at least the dango were yummy. From there we passed by the Shotoku Kinen Kaigakan (Shotoku Memorial Art Gallery) and then headed back through Akasaka to the Imperial Palace, where the moats were full of ducks and the occasional swan.

When we returned to Hibiya park and got our finishing prizes (an energy drink and a portable fork and spoon set), Atsuko remarked that 10 kilometres was much easier than she thought. I was thinking just the opposite. Because of my stupid toenails falling off this summer, my feet have been in too much pain to walk and I've been either riding my bike or taking the bus everywhere. Luckily the nails are almost growing in, and my feet no longer hurt (as long as I wear comfy shoes). But it seems that there are a bunch of muscles in my body that have been lying dormant for months, and boy did they get sore.

It was such a relief to pop into an udon noodle restaurant and sit down to a nice hot lunch. Marya was happy too- she loves udon and ate half of her mom's. Poor Atsuko- I wonder if she ever gets a full meal to herself!

Thanksgiving

I already celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving last month, but today was Kinro Kansha no Hi (Labour Thanksgiving Day) here in Japan. It is nothing more than a civic holiday, with no particular celebrations or food, but it happens to fall on the same day as American Thanksgiving. So the Tokyo Hilton had a Thanksgiving lunch complete with turkey and American-style fixings, and Hideaki and I met his sister Atsuko and her daughter Marya there for a feast.

Unfortunately none of the pictures of the food, or of Marya watching a clown make her an animal balloon (she got Miffy the rabbit), turned out well. But we had a great time, and when we were done we went to Takashimaya Department store where Marya checked out the shoes. The girl is obsessed with shoes. She also really dug this baby mannequin.

The Christmas lights are up outside Takashimaya and the Southern Terrace area of Shinjuku, and a quick stroll around had us feeling really Christmasy. Hard to believe it's just one month away! I really have to get busy-- lots of stuff to do before Christmas, and even more before New Years. I always swear I'm going to start early, but it never happens...

11/20 Dinner: Buri saikyoyaki

• Ni-kokumai-gohan: white rice with kibi (millet) and mugi (barley); topped with umeboshi (salted plum)
• Buri saikyoyaki: yellowtail marinated in saikyo miso (a mixture of white miso, sake lees, and mirin) and grilled
• Yamaimo (mountain yam) topped with ikura (salmon roe), garnished with kaiwarena (daikon sprouts)
• Miso soup with wakame seaweed and shimeji mushrooms

11/19 Dinner: Anago nanban soba

That friend of my husband's who was in the hospital a few weeks back is out and all better, so to celebrate we had dinner at Yabusoba, a wonderful old soba restaurant in Kanda Awajicho. We first went last year and have been looking forward to another visit.

I had the unusual anago nanban soba (soba noodles in hot broth with grilled conger eel), a house specialty. Nanban soba is usually made with duck, but the anago was a nice change- as rich as duck but far less greasy. In the background is ebi kake-age, a deep-fried delight of small shrimp held together in a ball of light, crispy batter.

The picture isn't very appetizing, because we arrived just before closing and by the time our food arrived we were the last customers. With the waitresses standing around watching us eat, I didn't feel like dawdling with my camera. But it was a delicious meal and I can't wait to go back (nice and early, hopefully).

Kanda Yabu Soba
11:30 am to 7:30 pm
03-3251-0287
2-10 Kanda Awajicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

11/18 Dinner: Stuffed green peppers

• White rice with mugi (barley) and kibi (millet)
• Cold tofu dressed with katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and soy sauce
• Yasai no satsuma-age (deep-fried fish cakes with vegetables)
• Piman no butaniku-zume (green peppers stuffed with pork)
• Mentaiko (spicy cod roe) and umeboshi (salted plums), to eat with rice
• Miso soup with onions, potatoes and kabocha squash
• Soy sauce for dipping the satsuma-age and stuffed peppers

Bell peppers are called piman in Japanese, presumably from the Spanish pimiento. The Japanese version is a bit smaller and longer than its western counterpart, with a thinner skin. Green peppers are very popular here, while red, yellow or orange peppers are relatively rare and quite expensive. That's one more thing about this country that I'll never understand.

Just like back home, green peppers are one of the most hated vegetables amoung Japanese children. Stuffing them with meat is one way clever mothers try to get their kids to eat peppers, and apparently it works. But there's no reason why grown-ups can't eat them as well, so when I saw a giant bag of green peppers on sale at the supermarket today, I knew what I'd be making.

The stuffing can be ground pork, beef, or a mix of the two, and it is made pretty much the same way hamburgers are made, with milk-softened breadcrumbs, onions, and egg, and seasonings (I used salt, pepper and nutmeg). The stuffed peppers are roasted in the oven until browned on top, and eaten with soy sauce.

11/17 Dinner: Penne alla Vodka

• Salad of mizuna greens and kaiwarena (daikon sprouts) with tomatoes and calimari in a creamy tofu dressing
• Penne alla vodka: penne (pasta tubes) in a tomato cream sauce kicked up with vodka

It's always a dilemma when there's more sauce than pasta-- do I keep the leftover sauce in the fridge even though it's only enough for one serving? If so, who gets to eat it (both my husband and I work at home and thus eat all of our meals together)? Or do I take the easy way out and serve the pasta swimming in sauce?

I think you can tell which route I went tonight...

11/16 Dinner: Sanma no gomayaki

• Cucumbers with mentaiko (spicy cod roe) sauce (made of mentaiko, shiso, ground sesame seeds, sesame oil and soy sauce)
• Hiya-yakko (cold tofu topped with green onions, bonito flakes, soy sauce)
• Sanma no goma-yaki (Pacific saury crusted with sesame seeds), garnished with daikon oroshi (grated daikon) and sudachi citrus
• Miso soup with shimeji mushrooms, wakame seaweed and green onions
• White rice with mugi (barley) and kibi (millet), topped with umeboshi (salted plum)

Tarts

On the weekend we picked up a couple of tarts from Planetes, a local cake shop I've blogged about before. It seems to be quite well-known and sells its cakes in the depachika (basement food halls) of expensive department stores in central Tokyo, so we're extremely lucky to have the head shop nearby. Just look at these lovely cakes!

And these ones:

That's my fruit tart on the left, and Hideaki's caramel nut tart on the right. They both come in the same rich, buttery, and crisp cookie crust, with the fruit tart filled with a spongy cake topped with a thin layer of custard cream and glazed fruit. Hideaki's was filled with an incredibly dark, rich caramel with crushed peanuts, topped with dark chocolate and a dollop of heavy whipped cream.

They were both delicious, but I think the caramel tart was a true masterpiece. If it's still there on our next visit (the selections change seasonally), I know what I'll be getting.

11/14 Dinner: Sake no oyakodon

Sake no oyako-don (salmon and ikura over rice).

I've turned sujiko (whole salmon egg sacs) into ikura no shoyu-zuke (salmon roe cured in soy sauce) once again. And again I forgot to take pictures of the process, something I've been meaning to do in order to finally post proper instructions. So I guess I'll have to make ikura yet again before the season ends. Oh, the torture I put myself through for this blog.

This donburi (rice bowl) was constructed by filling a bowl half-way with rice, adding a thin layer of thinly sliced toasted nori seaweed, covering it with flakes of grilled shio-jake (salted salmon), topping that with chiffonade of shiso (perilla), and then topping the whole thing with the ikura.

And it was magnificent. I might be getting a wee bit too used to ikura, but recently I find plain ikura-don (a donburi topped with ikura) to be overly rich. Using less roe and adding salmon was a nice way to cut the richness, and left me with enough ikura leftover for at least one more meal.

11/13 Dinner: Chicken stuffed shiitake caps

• Rice with five grains
• Cold tofu topped with sliced okra, katsuobushi (bonito flakes), umeboshi (salted plums) and soy sauce
• Shiitake no toriniku-zume (shiitake caps stuffed with ground chicken) simmered with daikon, carrot, and renkon (lotus root)

I bought a box of jumbo shiitake last week and have been happily using them up, one by one. Not only are they huge, they are delicious-- meaty and plump with a hearty, earthy flavour. But it seemed wasteful to use such rare giants for regular cooking, so tonight I took advantage of their size and stuffed the remaining shiitakes with a mixture of ground chicken, minced negi (green onions), minced shiitake (I sacrificed the smallest one), and an egg. These were sauteed on each side and then simmered with the vegetables in a stock made with kombu (kelp), the shiitake stems, sake, mirin (sweet cooking sake) and soy sauce.

Turned out wonderfully, and I'll be on the lookout for another box of these beautiful mushrooms. Here's a gratuitous close-up:

11/12 Lunch: Nikomi-udon

So this is what we did with last night's leftover nabe broth: nikomi-udon. Udon noodles and shiitake were simmered in the flavourful liquid, a couple of eggs added near the end, and it was topped with thinly sliced green onions. Behind it is a side dish made with the spinach and hakusai (Chinese cabbage) that we couldn't finish last night. I had cooked it quickly in the broth, and today all it needed was a splash of soy sauce and sprinkling of ground sesame seeds.

With most of the work done last night (and it hardly felt like work), this was a fast and easy meal. But delicious and incredibly satisfying, and made me wish we could eat nabe every other day.

11/11 Dinner: Yose-nabe

Yose-nabe, our first nabe (hot pot) of the year. Yose-nabe is an mixed nabe, in this case with Pacific cod, pork meatballs, tofu, maroni (clear noodles), hakusai (Chinese cabbage), spinach, negi (green onions), and shiitake. They are cooked at the table in a donabe (clay pot) full of a lightly flavoured broth made with kombu dashi (kelp stock), sake and soy sauce. One cooked, the food is dipped in a mixture of ponzu (a soy-based citrus sauce), daikon-oroshi (grated daikon radish) and shichimi (seven spice mix) and eaten.

After weeks and weeks of beautiful Indian summer weather, today was cold, rainy and miserable-- the perfect day for nabe. It was as satisfying as it was delicious, and as usual I forgot about the camera once we had started. Sorry you can't see what it looked like cooked.

A nabe usually ends with rice or noodles cooked in the leftover broth, but we ended up eating too much and will have to do that tomorrow. Actually, we do that pretty much every time-- I don't remember the last time we were able to finish up an entire nabe in one go. Which is no problem at all, and we're looking forward to a delicious lunch tomorrow.

11/10 Dinner: Miso-glazed pork chops

• White rice
• Tofu salad topped with katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
• Miso soup
• Boneless pork chop marinated in saikyo-miso and sauteed, with thinly sliced cabbage

Another quick meal, this time semi-home cooked. The rice was frozen from leftovers (I always have some in the freezer for emergency eating) and microwaved, the soup was packaged instant stuff. And the pork, having been slathered in the saikyo-miso a few days ago, only required a quick saute. Meanwhile, a few vegetables were sliced up, and viola! A decent meal in 15 minutes.

11/09 Dinner: Ramen

It's time to be honest with you, dear readers. Every dinner is not a feast. I don't always work for hours, preparing several different items and serving them in separate little dishes. Sometimes-- quite often, in fact-- I go the lazy route, and serve something pretty much straight from the package. These meals usually do not make it to this blog, but I think it's time to show you what we really eat.

Packaged ramen, straight from the pot. On the right is miso ramen (half eaten), on the left is soy sauce ramen. Made from frozen packages, cooked for 2 minutes, dressed up with sliced negi (green onions) in each and an egg in the soy sauce ramen.

And you know what? It was pretty good. Especially considering what I paid: about 215 Yen for everything, thanks to my local supermarket's frequent half-prize sales on frozen foods.

So next time I don't blog my dinner, you'll know what we ate.

11/08 Dinner: Aji no sashimi

• Rice with 5 grains
• Sauteed shishito peppers sauteed flavoured with soy sauce and katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
• Oboro-dofu (soft tofu) topped with green onions (it looks like a huge amount but that's not all for me-- we shared the bowl)
• Green beans dressed with white sesame sauce
• Miso soup with dried shiitake and kabocha squash
• Aji (horse mackerel) sashimi with shiso (perilla) and grated ginger

The aji were bought whole and sliced up at home, which is why they look a bit messy. But I really prefer preparing my own sashimi to buying it pre-sliced, because it seems safer that way. It's also usually cheaper, and now I have the leftover parts of the fish to make soup with.

11/07 Dinner: Fusilli alla arrabiata

• Tofu salad with mizuna greens, cherry tomatoes and black olives
• Fusilli with arrabiata sauce (a spicy tomato sauce)

The tofu is oboro-dofu, an extra-soft and delicious variety. I was surprised at how well it went with the simple olive oil dressing (extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and a splash of ponzu). Is there anything tofu doesn't go with?

11/06 Dinner: Natto-tsukimi soba

• Stir-fried broccoli with maitake and enokitake mushrooms
• Whole scallops sauteed in butter and soy sauce, with mizuna sprouts dressed in ponzu
• Natto-tsukimi soba (buckwheat noodles in hot broth with fermented soybeans and an egg)

Nattou can sometimes be found as a topping for cold noodles, but it is not normally something you'd put in hot soba. So this is kind of my own invention. It's not bad, and although the beans mostly sink to the bottom and don't really get eaten until the noodles are gone, they do add a nutty, funky flavour to the broth.

I'm trying to eat tofu, natto or some other soybean product at least once a day. It was challenging at first, but natto and tofu are so versatile they can be thrown into a wide variety of dishes. Now the major problem is simply keeping some kind of soybean product in the fridge-- I go through the stuff so quickly I sometimes forget to restock.

There are actually a number of things I'm trying to eat every day, with varying success: green tea, fish, umeboshi (salted plums), wine, nuts. The fish is especially challenging, and after all factors are considered-- cost, presence of mercury and other toxins in larger fish, environmental and health risks of farmed fish, overfishing-- I only really end up eating fish 2 to 5 times a week. And green tea- I kind of gave it up this summer when it got too hot, but am slowly getting back into the habit of drinking it regularly. The wine? Not a problem at all.

Negishi

After visiting a friend of my husband's in the hospital today, we didn't feel like going straight home-- the depressing atmosphere of a hospital always seems to require some sort of antidote. Luckily the hospital is in Kichijoji, where there is no shortage of stuff to do. Especially food-type stuff.

So we had dinner at Negishi, a place known for its grilled beef tongue. We started with cold tofu topped with a poached egg, flavoured with slivers of chili pepper, soy sauce, and katsuobushi (bonito flakes). Then we each ordered a tongue teishoku (tongue dinner set) with grilled beef and grilled pork on the side.

The dinner comes with mugigohan (barley rice) and tororo (grated mountain yam flavoured with soy sauce); pickled greens; a clear oxtail soup; and thinly sliced charcoal-grilled tongue flavoured with a soy-based sauce.

I never liked tongue until I came to Japan, but now I'm a huge fan of it. This tongue didn't disappoint- rich, juicy, soft enough to bite in two but with just the right amount of tonguey chewyness. And I love the light soup and wonderful sticky tororo, which cut the grease enough that after the meal is over I hardly feel like I ate meat.

And Hideaki's friend? He'll be fine, but may be in the hospital for several more days. We'll be more than happy to visit again-- as long as there's time for a meal afterwards.

Negishi Kichijoji
0422-28-5858
Daia Palace 1-11-30 Kichijoji Honcho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo
Other Tokyo locations listed here (in Japanese)

11/03 Dinner: Curry udon

This is what Hideaki whipped up for dinner tonight: curry udon. That's udon (thick white noodles) in a curry-flavoured broth with onions and pork, topped with thinly sliced negi (green onion) whites.

It was delicious, but very very spicy (my husband always has a heavy hand with the curry powder). The addition of a raw egg helped tame the heat, but it was still hard to finish. I've decided to supervise his next effort.

11/02 Dinner: Sanma

• Kinoko-gohan (rice with mushrooms: shiitake, maitake and shimeji)
• Mizuna green salad with tofu
• Miso soup with green beans, wakame seaweed and negi (green onions)
• Sanma no shioyaki (salt-grilled Pacific saury)

Curry pumpkin seeds

Pumpkins aren't just fun to carve into jack-o-lanterns-- they also produce delicious seeds. When I was a kid my Mom always roasted the seeds from our pumpkins and I looked forward to the these tasty snacks almost as much as the Halloween candy that would come a few days later. And now that I'm all grown up and there's no Halloween candy, I'm hardly disappointed. Because I still have pumpkin seeds.

To make these ones, I cleaned the seeds, boiled them for about 15 minutes in salted water, drained them, tossed them with a little more salt and a sprinkling of curry powder, then roasted them in the oven for 20 minutes or so.

The boiling is a new trick I saw online. Apparently it lets the salt permeate the shells to the seeds inside, and it also removes any overtly pumpkiny flavours. I seem to recall my Mom soaking the seeds in salted water for several hours, which might have been for similar reasons.

Another online tip I used was to put the pumpkin in the sink and fill it up with water once the lid was cut. The pumpkin guts were way less slippery under water which made separating the seeds from the slime easy. And once separated, the seeds mostly float and the guts mostly sink, so retrieving the seeds from the water was easy.

So how did the seeds turn out? Excellent! The curry flavour was very mild and mellow and really went well with the flavour of the seeds. The salt was just right, and it really was present in the seeds themselves rather than just on the shells. These seeds aren't going to last long, so I wish pumpkins were more readily available here. Maybe I'll have to try this with kabocha seeds.