Blue Lotus

Chili

So this is what I made to go with the cornbread: chili. This is only the second time making it here in Japan, which is something Hideaki has never been happy with. He is a chili fiend and is always bugging me to make it. I love chili too, but have been avoiding it for two reasons: the first has to do with chili's anti-social after effects. The second is that ever since my first time making it in Japan, soon after we got married, I've considered this to be a rather expensive dish to make here. Partly because beef is so expensive here, and also because back then I paid big bucks for canned tomatoes and beans at an import grocery store.

This time around, I now have a source for cheap canned tomatoes: they are perpetually on sale at Kaldi for 90 Yen a can. For the beans, I used dried rather than canned, and chose Japanese varieties: soy beans and a kidney-like bean called kintoki mame. And I used a mix of ground pork and beef. And the final product is as economical as it would be back home.

This is very similar to the chili my mom makes, with just a few differences. It's got bacon in it, mostly because I had to cook some to make bacon fat for the cornbread. I also added a little red wine after the meat and onions were cooked, and let it reduce a bit before adding the tomatoes. And in addition to the chili powder, oregano and cumin mom uses, I added a bit of Chipotle Tabasco sauce. I would have loved to use real chipotle or another fancy pepper, but that trend has yet to reach Japan and this sauce was as close as I could get. Finally, I cooked it a day before in order to get that second day flavour. Mom never did that-- there's no chance we would have let the chili sit uneaten overnight.

It was indeed torture waiting a whole day to eat it. But it was so worth the wait. Delicious, comforting, a lot like mom's, and great sopped up with corn bread. I added a little sour cream and cilantro to mine, both of which are minor luxuries here (I usually avoid buying because Hideaki hates them but every once in a while I deserve a treat). Best of all- no nasty side effects. I had taken care preparing the beans, changing the water several times during the soaking and cooking.

Cornbread

This is my first cornbread ever. And I don't just mean the first cornbread I've ever made-- this is the first time I've eaten it, too. Oh, I may have tried a cornbread muffin sometime, but I certainly don't remember it. I guess it's just not a very popular food in southern Ontario.

Not knowing what cornbread is supposed to taste like, I was a bit nervous. I needn't have been- it was dead easy to make, and seems to have turned out fine. And it was so quick-- done it about 30 minutes, from start to finish. How can I have gone on so long without knowing about such a quick and easy bread?

I did a little research first and discovered that cornbread is best made with freshly stone-ground cornmeal, and buttermilk, and is best baked in an cast-iron skillet. These three points presented a bit of a problem: it's hard enough to find regular cornmeal here, and I'm pretty sure stone-ground, fresh or not, is unavailable. Buttermilk is also unavailable. And a cast-iron skillet? Even if I could find one, it wouldn't fit in my little oven. I almost bought a cast-iron sukiyaki pan, which looked like it would just fit, and then I noticed that the care instructions warned not to use it in the oven.

So I improvised: regular cornmeal, milk with a touch of vinegar, and a pyrex baking dish. And it worked-- the crust even turned out crispy, which I expected would be impossible without cast-iron. That might have been thanks to the bacon fat I used, which was heated up in the dish before the batter was poured in. Thank god I can at least buy bacon in Japan.

Here's the cornbread cut open and buttered. It was delicious and I'm totally satisfied with the flavour, but is it supposed to be so, well, dry? I know cornbread is not supposed to be moist, and is mostly meant for supping up juices, but man was it ever dry! Did I screw up? Maybe overcooked it a bit? I'm not sure what the colour on top is supposed to be like, but it looks a bit dark. Otherwise this cornbread is great, and as long as it's well-buttered or served with something soupy, it's going to be a regular on our table.

Here is the recipe. I chose it because it was the simplest one I could find (no sugar or flour), but if anyone else has a recipe they can recommend, please let me know.

Oh, and I did serve it with something soupy, something both Hideaki and I have been craving for ages. Can anyone guess what it was?

Wine Class

Here are a few members of my wine class, about to head home on the final day of school. Sandra Shoji, the teacher, is third from left.

I think I mentioned the class before and made a vague promise to post about it soon. Well, it's already over-- today was the final day. So I figure I better post about it while it's still (somewhat) fresh in my memory.

I learned a lot, but what I learned only makes me want to find out more. I have a feeling that this is a subject that no matter how much I know, there will always be more to learn. Which could either be really frustrating or really challenging. In any case, I have a lot to learn and look forward to doing so.

I also have a feeling that this is a very expensive hobby to get into, but with fewer health benefits than other pricey hobbies like golf or yachting. Looking on the bright side though, it is probably a healthier interest, both physically and financially, than cigars, gambling or internet porn addiction. So I'm in.

During each class we learned about wine history, grape varieties, wine regions and the like, and tasted anywhere from 6 to 10 wines (and today we had something like 13 wines, including a blind taste test). The class was at Temple University and was taught by Sandra Shoji, who writes the wine column for the Daily Yomiuri.

I liked nearly everything we tasted, except for a couple Greek and Japanese whites (but even then I could see myself enjoying them in certain situations). My tastes didn't really change or become more refined: I prefer crisp, fruity and aromatic whites, and soft, complex reds. In fact, it turns out that my tastes are much wider than I thought- I seem to like pretty much any good, well-made wine. The difference is that now I have a slightly better idea of how to tell which wine will be good.

Anyway, here are some of the wines I especially liked. I wasn't able to get pictures of everything, so this is a bit of a random selection.

Moscato D'Asti 2005, DOCG, Scrimaglio. A reasonably priced frizzante (semi-sparkling wine) white with a lovely fruity nose and sweet flavour balanced by crisp acidity. It is also very low in alcohol and I'd love to drink this on a picnic with dessert. 

Barbera d'Alba, Superiore 2000, DOC, Giocomo Vico. From the same region as Moscato d'Asti, Piedmonte. Full bodied but smooth, with mellow tannins and spicy, cherry flavours.

We tried Port, Sherry, and Madeira, and although I thought I didn't like fortified wines I loved these three. My favourite was this Barbeito 10 year old Boal Madeira, from Funchal, Portugal. It has a complex nose with spicy, nutty, fruity and smoky notes, with a sweet marmalade flavour balanced by acidity. It went fantastically with Stilton cheese, although the teacher preferred it with chocolate. It is over 4000 Yen for a bottle but will keep well after opening, and at 19% alcohol it will probably last quite a while, making the price quite reasonable.

Feral Fox Pinot Noir, 2004, d'Arenberg. From Adelaide Hills in Australia, this had aromas of spice, vanilla, and black cherry, with juicy flavours and plenty of tannins.

On the last class we were joined by Bill Campbell of Hotei Wines, an importer of fine California wines, who gave an outline of the wine importing business and brought several wines fro us to taste. He started off by opening a bottle of sparkling wine (Gruet Methode Champenoise Blanc de Blans 2002, from New Mexico) with a champagne sabre, which certainly got our attention.

Again, I enjoyed all the wines. This Cline Viognier California 2005 was very nice. Like the other Hotei wines, it was tasted blind, and it really confused me-- I was expecting a California wine but this seemed like an Alsatian Gewurztraminer. Obviously this was my first time trying viognier, which is apparently a cult grape in California. I can't wait to try more.

I also liked the Havens Albarino Napa Valley Carneros 2005, with its dry, tart flavours and intense peachy citrus aromas. This Spanish grape is also new to me, And Havens is apparently the only producer in America that grows it.

Finally, I seemed to have liked this Stag's Leap Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, but by that time I was a wee bit too tipsy to describe it properly. All I have on my notes for this wine are a purple wine stain and the words "NICE!" and "spicey". Yes, I know it's misspelled. I really have a problem remembering to spit-- the more I enjoy the wine, the more likely I am to swallow it. And with so many good wines today, I didn't do much spitting.

鰤の照り焼き

• White rice
• Green beans simmered with abura-age (deep-fried tofu)
• Buri no teriyaki (yellowtail grilled teriyaki style)
• Mentaiko (spicy code roe) to share, as a rice topping
• Takuan (pickled daikon)
• Miso soup with shiitake, wakame seaweed and negi (green onions)

One great thing about Japanese food (the everyday kind of Japanese food, that is) is that it's fast: it took me about 20 minutes to get this meal on the table. Okay, the rice was washed this morning and set to cook by timer, but that hardly took any time at all. And true, this meal would be a bit skimpy if it was for a family, in which case one or two more vegetable-based side dishes would likely be served. My trick is to serve an extra-large bowl of miso soup with lots of gu (solid ingredients) to make up for the lack of side dishes. That's enough for us, and being able to whip up a proper meal even on a busy night is very satisfying.

Duck breasts with curry passion fruit sauce

Duck breast with curry passion fruit sauce; mashed potatoes; butter-sauteed maitake and button mushrooms with ponzu (soy-citrus sauce); kabu (Japanese turnip) bulbs and greens sauteed in duck fat; and green pea soup with sour cream.

This was my first time cooking duck and I had no idea what to serve with it and how to present it (thus the super-crowded plate). Or how to cook it-- I actually bought the duck (frozen) 2 months ago but hadn't been able to find a recipe that looked good. And would be acceptable to my picky husband, who doesn't like fruit and overly sweet flavours with meat. I was also extremely nervous, which is silly because it was actually very easy to cook.

The duck turned out really well. The skin didn't crisp up as nicely as I'd hoped, but the flavour and texture of the meat was perfect. And the sauce was great-- I made it up myself, having given up finding a simple not-too-sweet-and-fruity recipe. I used a bit of the duck fat, wine (Ironstone Obsession Symphony, an off-dry white with incredible fruit and floral aromas and balanced acidity), soy sauce, passion fruit jam, and curry powder. It was just fabulous, but that is probably thanks mostly to the duck fat.

And boy was there ever a lot of it! The two duck breasts gave off over half a cup of the stuff, and I really I hope that discarding it down the sink didn't clog the drain.

Just kidding! Ha ha! I may be be new to duck cookery but I have gathered this much: the fat is precious and must never be thrown away. After sampling some tonight after it cooled down, I understand why: duck fat is magical. It is completely delicious, all by itself, and was magical in the sauce.

So now I have a little container of duck fat in the fridge, waiting to do its magic on some lucky dish. Roast potatoes, perhaps?

讃岐うどん

Sanuki udon (wheat noodles from the Sanuki region of Kagawa Prefecture on the island of Shikoku) served cold, topped with a raw egg, katsuobushi (bonito flakes), negi (green onion), and age-dama (balls of deep-fried tempura batter), with a splash of cold soy-based broth.

Sanuki udon is far firmer and chewier than other kinds of udon, thanks to a long kneading process (often by foot rather than hand). These were a souvenir from a student of mine who had visited her son in Kagawa, and it was much appreciated as I love Sanuki udon.

今日の晩ご飯

A nice healthy Japanese dinner tonight:

• Horenso no ohitashi: boiled spinach dressed with soy sauce, sake and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
• Buri no shioyaki: salt-broiled yellowtail with grated daikon
• Shibazuke: cucumber and eggplant pickled with aka-shiso (red perilla leaf)
• Oboro-doufu: soft tofu topped with negi (green onions), katsuobushi and soy sauce
• Rice
• Kenchin-jiru: miso soup with ground chicken, daikon, carrot, gobo (burdock root), kabocha, shiitake, and negi.

Don de Dieu

Another snacks-for-dinner post. This time I assembled some brie and crackers; bread and olive oil; Italian sausages; and grilled shishamo (smelt with roe).

I was really excited about the Italian sausage, since I've never been able to find it here. But last Saturday I discovered that Nissin, an import supermarket in Azabu-juban, carries three kinds of Italian sausages. And a whole bunch of other good stuff. I've known about the place for years but have never bothered going, assuming it was the same as National Azabu or Kinokuniya (two well-known import shops that don't really have anything that I can't get far cheaper elsewhere).

But Nissin beats the pants off of those other two shops, with a huge selection of meats, cheeses and dry goods and fairly good prices. Along with the sausages, I bought a few kinds of cheese, a chunk of eisbein (German cured pork leg) and tamarind paste, which I was lamenting just a few weeks ago about not being able to find.

But the best part of Nissin is its wine and spirits, which have an entire floor to themselves. Easily the biggest and best wine selection I've seen in Japan, at surprisingly low prices. Then I checked out the beer selection and got a nice surprise: they had three Canadian beers! One was Molson Canadian, a mediocre beer from Canada's biggest brewer, but the other two were from Unibroue, a Quebec microbrewery that makes fantastic beers which until recent years haven't been very well-known outside of Canada. So, pleasantly surprised (and overwhelmed by the wine selection) I picked up both Unibroues.

The beer above is Don de Dieu ("Gift of God", named after explorer Samuel Champlain's boat) and it was rich, complex and delicious, and went really well with the food, which was totally accidental. The other one is Raftman, which is brewed with whiskey malt. I'm looking forward to trying it but am wondering why this was one of only two Unibroue beers on sale. It's a bit of an odd choice, and I kind of wish I could by another beer instead, like Maudite, Fin du Monde, or Blanche de Chambly (my brother is a big fan of Unibroue and these are three from his stash that I really like drinking when I go back home). But I guess I should actually try the Raftman first.

Anyway, I'm very curious about these beers in Japan and wonder if they're available anywhere else.

Nissin World Delicatessan
Open daily 9 aam to 9 pm
03-3583-4586
2-34-2 Higashi Azabu, Minato-ku Tokyo

Lamb chops for my Valentine

This is what I made for Valentine's Day dinner last night. Nothing fancy-- in fact I did it using random stuff I found in the fridge, as it was raining and I didn't want to go out shopping. Which explains why there are two starches and no vegetables.

• Kabocha and carrot soup topped with bacon
• Pilaf with carrots, celery and shiitake
• Potatoes tossed with parsley
• Roasted lamb chops with garlic red wine sauce

Valentine's Day cookies

Valentine's cookies for my husband: chocolate chip cookies made with chunks of dark chocolate and pecans, and reverse chocolate chip cookies with dark chocolate dough and chunks of white chocolate and pecans. Both recipes from The New Canadian Basics Cookbook. The cookies are delicious and have just the right level of sweetness (I find most North American cookie recipes too sweet). The texture is perfect too-- firm with crisp edges and softer centres, and they are also a bit on the flat side, which I love.

The reverse chocolate chip cookie recipe is easy enough to share here: just adapt your usual chocolate chip cookie recipe by substituting the same amount of white chocolate chunks for chocolate chips, and adding cocoa to the flour (125 ml/half a cup cocoa to 500 ml/2 cups flour).

I used chunks instead of chips because good chocolate chips are hard to find in Japan, while good chocolate abounds. So I just bought bars of high quality chocolate and chopped them into chunks. And the result was so good I'll be doing this every time from now on, and recommend you try it too. Chocolate is best cut with a sharp knife at room temperature; chunks under 1 cm are best.

I'm not much of a baker, but I do know that thicker cookies are preferred and the flat shape of these would probably be considering a flaw. I'm assuming the flatness is due to some kind of mistake I made, but I was careful to chill the dough well before baking and I also tried increasing the oven temperature after the first flat batch, but they still spread out and flattened. So I'm thinking that I might have under or over-creamed the fat with the sugar, or used too much fat (it was an equal mix of butter and shortening). Any ideas? Like I said, I like my cookies flat, but I would like to try to make them properly next time.

Dinner

I'm making more of an effort than usual to eat carefully, after pigging out in Nasu this weekend. Tonight's dinner was a simple Japanese meal: white rice with umeboshi (pickled plum); hijiki to toriniku no itame-ni (chicken braised with hijiki seaweed); mizuna greens dressed with soy sauce and katsuo-bushi (dried bonito flakes); and miso soup with kabocha squash, tofu and negi (green onions).

Eating in Nasu

This was a long weekend in Japan, and my friend Emi invited me on a trip to Nasu, a resort town in Tochigi Prefecture just North of Tokyo. I couldn't miss my wine class on Saturday so I went up on Sunday and just stayed for one night. We stayed at Epinard Nasu, a large resort hotel that Emi had some coupons for. And because it was such a short trip, it feels like all we did was eat. Not that that's a bad thing, as we had some excellent food, but there are probably lots of other things to do in Nasu.

Well, we did manage a few long soaks in the hotel's onsen (hot springs). They had several different baths, including 2 rotenburo (outdoor onsen) with a view of a Japanese-style garden with a koi (carp) pond and a little rocky waterfall (pictures here). It was lovely enough just to sit there and take in the garden, but when it began to snow it was just fantastic. Imagine sitting in boiling hot water while snowflakes fall on your face and shoulders-- quite a nice sensation.

But back to the food.

When I arrived in Nasu Emi picked me up in a rental car and we drove to Okamoto, an udon (wheat noodles) shop. After waiting a considerable amount of time (inevitable for a long weekend in Nasu) we both ordered the same thing: yasai tempura kake-udon , which was cold udon topped with vegetable tempura, with a cold soy-based broth served seperately in a little pitcher. The udon was Sanuki style, meaning they were firm and very chewy, which I love. It came topped with katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), nori seaweed, negi (gren onions), daikon oroshi (grated daikon) and a lemon slice. With a bit of the broth poured on top, those toppings would have been enough, but the tempura was delicious as well. It was cooked perfectly-- light and crispy, even with the broth splashed over it. At 700 Yen I think this was a great deal, and if I'm ever back in Nasu on a day when there isn't a one-hour line up, I'll definitely be coming here again.

For dessert we went to 1988 Cafe Shozo, a large sun-filled cafe full of retro and vintage furniture imported from England (pictures here). The place is famous for its scones, and although I was still full from the udon I had to order them. They were English-style (as opposed to the giant crumbly American-style scones popular here), only a bit smaller and firmer than usual, and served in the proper English style with clotted cream and raspberry jam. They were probably the best scones I've had in Japan, if not ever. I had them with a delicious cup of Darjeeling tea.

Dinner was shabu-shabu at Fontaine, a restaurant at the hotel (I wrote about shabu-shabu recently here). The meat was Tochigi-gyu (the best wagyu, or Japanese beef, is named for its area, with Kobe-gyu being the best known example outside of Japan). It was sweet and rich from the generous marbling, but had a good beefy flavour, which is something that good wagyu sometimes lacks.

The beef was all-you-can eat, and we had four plates of it, dipped in three different sauces: the usual goma-dare (sesame) and ponzu (a citrusy soy sauce), plus an unusual garlicky miso sauce that turned out to be my favourite.

The meal finished in an ususual way as well: with ramen instead of the usual udon. The rich broth leftover from the shabu-shabu was thinned out with a light chicken broth, a little salt and soy sauce were added, then ramen noodles and shaved negi (green onions) were cooked in it for a few minutes.

It was a fantastic ending. The broth was delicious and if I wasn't so stuffed I would have drunk it all up. There was lots leftover and it made me sad to just leave it.

The next morning we had the hotel's buffet breakfast, but I forgot to bring down my camera. It was actually really good-- somehow Japanese hotel buffets (at least the ones I've been to) manage to offer great food.

We skipped lunch, being full from the buffet, and caught a bus back to Tokyo lamenting how short the trip was. We'll definitely be making it a full weekend next time.

Udon Shounin Okamoto
Udon from 700 Yen
0287-76-6567
1147-236 Takakuhei, Nasu-machi, Nasu-gun, Tochigi

1988 Cafe Shozo
Scones and tea or coffee, around 1000 Yen
0287-63-9833
6-6 Takasago-machi, Nasu Shiobara, Tochigi

Hotel Epinard Nasu
1 night with dinner and breakfast from 13,500 Yen
0287-78-6000
1 Takakuhei, Nasu-machi, Nasu-gun, Tochigi

Breakfast

Hideaki made me breakfast today. The odd-looking stuff on the right is isobe-yaki: grilled mochi (sticky rice cake) dipped in soy sauce, and wrapped in nori seaweed. He adds grated mozzarella cheese, which is melted by the piping-hot mochi and makes this even more delicious. On the left is a bowl of leftover tonjiru (miso soup with pork and root vegetables) that I made for lunch yesterday, in which he has poached an egg. Not something I've ever thought of doing, but it was tasty. And a great way to liven up leftovers.

And in keeping with the leftovers theme, we nibbled on the soybeans leftover from Setsubun. We were actually supposed to eat our age in beans that day, but that's a lot of beans, and we had to save space in our tummies for the eho-maki.

Spring at the table

It may be too early to celebrate spring, but a walk through the produce aisles of a Tokyo supermarket might convince you otherwise. The shelves are full of spring vegetables like nanohana (rapini), fuki (butterbur), and various types of sansai (wild "mountain vegetables"). Combined with the warm sunny weather we're having, it's easy to forget that it's still mid-February and imagine that winter is over and the cherry blossoms are about to bloom.

So I brought a little bit of spring to the table tonight:

Nanohana to toriniku no itame (chicken sauteed with rapini); spinach salad with broccoli sprouts, myouga (ginger bud) and cherry tomatoes; sansai soba (cold buckwheat noodles dipped in a soy-based broth with wild mountain vegetables). It was tasty, and a nice break from the heavy winter meals we've been having. But I missed the warming effect of hot food, so until winter is officially over I think I'll stick to hot noodles.

Risotto and venison stew

Above, spinach salad with grape tomatoes and walnuts; porcini risotto with truffle oil. Below, stewed venison with potatoes.

Exploring the outer limits of my neighborhood this weekend, I discovered a branch of Yamaya, a discount wine shop. I picked up a bottle of Barolo, a wine that I can't really afford but felt like splurging on. I'm taking a wine class at the moment so I figure I better be drinking good stuff at home so I can practice all the stuff I'm learning.

It was a 2000, which I thought might be a bit too young to drink not, but after a bit of online sleuthing I determined that it was ready. Which is a good thing, because there isn't exactly room for a wine cellar in this little apartment. I also found a few ideas on food that might go with it, so I spent a good part of the day in the kitchen making the stew and risotto.

It did seem to all go nicely together, and I was really pleased to be able to put some of the stuff I'm learning to good use. For example, I was able to recognize the rusty orange colour in the rim of the wine, which is a sign that the wine is starting to age. Although this kind of basic wine stuff is common knowledge to most drinkers, it's new to me and noticing it gave me a bit of a thrill. And more importantly, the wine was delicious! So was dinner, and I'm really hoping another friend-of-a-friend bags a deer again soon so we can get our hands on some more venison...