A Fish Out of Water

Spring Dinner

So here's some food. I don't do a lot of proper cooking these days, but I try to do some nice seasonal Japanese food once in a while.

Clockwise from the top:

Takenoko gohan (bamboo shoot rice). From a mix. I was all set to make it from scratch, which is a huge deal because fresh takenoko takes ages to prepare, needing to be peeled, carefully simmered with komenuka (rice bran) and peeled again. Usually, at least in the past, takenoko is sold together with a little bag of komenuka but the two places that were carrying bamboo shoots didn't have it, just a sign saying you can simmer the shoots in rice washing water. Well guess what? I use musenmai, rice that doesn't need to be washed. So I just bought a takenonko gohan mix. So why does anyone bother making takenoko from scratch? Because it is a thousand times better freshly cooked than pre-cooked, and it only shows up for a short time in the spring. I used to make it at least once each spring but haven't attempted it in years.

Snappu endou (sugar snap peas). Shuma has gone through a few phases where he eats tonnes of these. On this occasion he would only eat the peas inside, leaving the tasty pods for me.

Miso soup with tofu, wakame, beans and shiitake. That's kind of a big variety of stuff for miso soup, but you never know what Shuma will eat, and also I was lacking side dishes. 

Fuki (butterbur) with chicken meatballs and wakame seaweed. Fuki is another spring vegetable with a unique, fresh flavour. It is somewhat similar to celery, but needs a bit of work to prepare. You have to cut it down (the stalks are almost a metre long), rub it with salt, parboil it, pull the strings out, then cut it again and cook it. The huge leaves are also edible and clever cooks make use of them, but I just threw them out this time. These meatballs are Japanese style, so very very soft and lightly flavoured. The wakame is a favourite with Shuma. The three are simmered with dashi (Japanese stock) flavoured with soy sauce and sake.

It doesn't look very fancy but is more work than I usually put in. Only possible on a weekend, when Hideaki can distract Shuma. Frankly I'd usually rather be with them as cooking in my tiny cupboard of a kitchen is not much of a break. But this meal was good enough to be worth it.

New Year round up

Yes, it's the middle of February, so it seems a little late to be blogging about our new year's holidays, but they tend to drag it out here (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). So I already shared our nengajo (new year postcard) but I thought I'd show a few of the outtakes. He's holding the ball in some pictures partly as a distraction and partly to represent that flaming ball or pearl that Chinese and Japanese dragons are often depicted holding (don't ask me what it actually means).

This year we were only in Osaka for a few days and we stayed at a hotel. My mother-in-law broke her wrist in December and was unable to cook, clean or drive so we just visited during the day and helped out in the kitchen as well as we could. My sister-in-law took charge and did most of the work, but I was able to learn how to cook some of the osechi ryouri (the traditional new year's dishes) that my mother-in-law usually makes. No pictures as we were rather busy, but there are years of osechi pics in the archives (here is last year, for example). Here is a picture of the whole family taken at our hotel after a dinner out.

We had lunch at Haneda airport on our way back, at one of the small restaurants in Terminal 2's 3rd floor that share common seating overlooking the departures lobby. We've always avoided this little alley despite some interesting looking restaurants because it's kind of like a food court and the seating looks crowded and uncomfortable, but we noticed some nice big chairs in front of a Sri Lankan place called Court Lounge. The food was good and not outrageously overpriced, and upon sitting down we noticed that every chair is different and we'd definitely snagged the best ones- Shuma loved swiveling around his his big armchair. I think we'll eat here every time we fly from now on.

Back home I decided to try cooking some more osechi. I've never, ever had to do it because my MIL always does everything, so I didn't want to get too ambitious. I decided to just try a few simple favourites, so I did yakitai (roasted sea bream), kani sarada (crab salad) and ozoni (soup with mochi), along with some quick cabbage pickles (not really osechi, I just wanted something pickled). My in-laws always order a great big sea bream that comes already cooked, wild-caught in the Seto Inner Sea, known for its delicious bream. I've always been under the impression that it must be really hard to cook, but mine (a little farmed one from nowhere famous) turned out beautifully and was surprisingly easy. I want to make this again, not just for new year's.

The crab salad was nothing special, my MIL's is much better and is presented really beautifully.

But the ozoni was good, it's very hard to screw up. It's almost the same as MIL's: a clear dashi broth with chicken thigh, hakusai (Chinese cabbage), mitsuba (trefoil) and square-cut mochi (rice cake), but instead of namafu (raw wheat gluten) I used shiitake. That's it above, with some of the sea bream.

Just like in Osaka, the day after eating yakitai we had taichazuke, which involves making a broth with the leftover fish head and bones and serving it over rice with any leftover meat. This is probably my favourite new year's food of all.

On January 7th we ate nanakusagayu (rice porridge with the seven herbs of spring) without taking a picture, but the herbs and the final dish look exactly like this every single year so I didn't bother with a picture. A few days after that is Kagami Biraki, which is when you break the kagami mochi (rice cakes displayed during the new year's holidays). That's our kagami mochi above, and you can tell how busy/lazy I've been because look at this year's compared to the one we had a few years ago. I mean, no little altar, an ugly fake citrus on top- I'm not even trying.

The mochi was stuffed into abura-age (pockets of fried tofu) and added to oden (a stew of vegetables and various fish and tofu products), which is not at all traditional but as you can probably tell by now I'm not too big on perfectly following tradition these days.

It was yummy though, even if this picture makes it look gross.

The final chapter in a Japanese new year is (I think) Setsubun, which falls on February 3rd. This is a time to drive bad luck out of the house (in the form of oni, best described as an ogre or troll) and bring in good luck. This is done by throwing around dried soybeans, which is really fun to do but rather annoying after because the floor is littered with beans. I really want to sweep them up as soon as they are thrown but seems wrong somehow, so I always mean to leave them overnight and clean them the next day, but by then they are already crushed or kicked away into crevices and I forget. And then for weeks or even months after I find the stupid little beans in random places. Like finding a forgotten chocolate easter egg in June, except not because it's a tasteless bean.

This year I got smart and decided to throw something different. A lot of people through whole peanuts instead, because they're easier to clean up, but I'm not a fan of raw peanuts (and like I have time to sit around shelling them). So I went with little bags of mixed nuts, and it may look like total cheating because there are no soy nuts but it was in the Setsubun section next to all the proper beans and accessories.

Besides being easy to clean up, these packages contain corn nuts and now you too know how to say corn nut in Japanese. What an awesome name, and if you think it makes no sense think about the name "corn nut". It's not a nut, people!

Some families get festive and dress up the dad or other volunteers as the oni. Oni are always red and blue and have horns (or a horn) and usually look rather grumpy. These ones were made at my playgroup so are on the friendly side.

Shuma would only tolerate wearing it for a second or two, so Hideaki and I had to be the oni.

But Shuma happily participated in the throwing part. All other customs, like eating your age in roasted soybeans (yuck!) and eating ehomaki (a fat sushi roll that is supposed to bring luck but is just a made-up thing to get you to but sushi were discarded. I will consider eating my age in giant corn though.

丸ごとトマトの味噌汁

Here's a nice early-autumn dinner we had recently. From top left: maitake-niratama (maitake mushrooms and garlic chives stir-fried with egg); umeboshi (pickled ume plums); tori no kurozu teriyaki (chicken teriyaki with black vinegar, served with green peppers); simmered mystery squash; marugoto tomato no misoshiru (miso soup with whole tomato); steamed rice; kabu to abura-age no nibitashi (simmered turnip roots and greens with fried tofu).

The last time I posted about a meal with the soup I had a few questions about it. It's actually really easy to do and very yummy, with the tomato adding a pleasent sweetness, amplifying the umami of the miso and dashi, and giving an unexpected but nice kick of acidity. Plus if you use really good tomatoes you get that lovely garden-fresh tomato flavour. Try it for yourself: the recipe follows.

丸ごとトマトの味噌汁 (Marugoto tomato no misoshiru: Whole Tomato Miso Soup)

2 small tomatoes
400 ml dashi (instant or freshly made)
2 Tbsp regular miso, or to taste
1 or 2 stalks of hosonegi (thin long onions, also known as bannou negi or konegi- substitute thin green onions)

Prepare the dashi in a small pot. Wash and core the tomatoes.

Pierce the core of one tomato with a fork.

Holding the tomato over an open flame and turn to evenly char skin.

It is not necessary to completely char the skin; it should be blackened in some areas and have a crack or two. It shouldn't take more than half a minute.

Set aside to cool, repeat with other tomato.

Peel the skin off of both tomatoes, taking care not to damage the flesh.

Add the tomatoes to the dashi, bring to a simmer over medium heat, then turn to low and cook until tomatoes are soft, about five minutes. Do not boil or overcook, or tomatoes may disintegrate. Meanwhile, thinly slice the hosonegi.

Stir in miso and taste, adding more if needed. Transfer each tomatoe to a soup bowl, ladle broth over and garnish with the hosonegi.

Note: if gas range is unavailable or if using a large number of tomatoes, peel them in the usual way: dunk into rapidly boiling water for a few seconds, remove to a bowl of ice water, and peel.

Serves 2

Dinner

A nice late summer dinner: chikuwa to ingen no itame (sauteed green beans with chikuwa, a fish paste product); steamed rice; kabocha no nimono (simmered kabocha squash); asupara no nikumaki (asparagus pork rolls); and marugoto tomato no misoshiru (miso soup with a whole tomato). Shuma got rice, plain boiled pork, plain green beans and a piece of the kabocha (the same as we had, seasoned with soy sauce, sake and sugar which explains why he only got one little piece).

The tomato soup is a new favourite. Tomato and miso go surprisingly well together, and the resultant broth is full of sweetness and acidity from the tomato, saltiness from the miso, and umami from both.

 

 

アボカド鮭丼 (Avacado sake don)

A typical summertime weekday lunch, requiring no heat (thanks to frozen rice, reheated in the microwave): hiyayakko (cold tofu) topped with sliced okra, katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and soy sauce, and avocado sake don (rice topped with salmon sashimi and avocado). For Shuma, rice, avocado, tofu and shirasu (partially dried baby fish).

To make the avacado sake don: Slice a chunk (about 100 grams or so) of salmon sashimi, add to a bowl with a cubed avocado half and about five shiso (perilla) leaves, thinly sliced. Splash with soy sauce and ponzu, to taste. Fill a donburi (large rice bowl) with hot rice, top with salmon avocado mixture. Done!

 

Mother's Day

On Mother's Day Hideaki's family had a lunch in honour of Ah-chan, his maternal grandmother. In attendance were his mother, who flew in from Osaka just for the event, his aunt, his sister Atsuko and her husband, daughter Marya and baby Yuuki.

We met at a restaurant called Tsukiji no Uemura in Mizonokuchi, Kanagawa (near Ah-chan's nursing home) and had a feast. It was tasty, and Shuma had rice in non-okayu (rice porridge) form for the first time and ended up eating nearly half my bowl. But we didn't much pay attention to the food, as this both Ah-chan and my aunt's first time to meet Shuma and Yuuki.

The kids were happy to see each other, and Marya proudly showed off her missing teeth (the picture sadly didn't turn out). I can't believe she's losing her baby teeth already, it seems like she was just born (yes, I realize I'll soon be saying this kind of thing about Shuma, and yes, it totally blows my mind). The babies spent most of the time engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

And Ah-chan was very happy to meet the babies. They loved her right back, and were generally charming and remarkably well-behaved. Ah-chan is 94 (I think) and it was pretty incredible to have four generations together, with nearly a century between the eldest and youngest. I hope all four generations can meet up for many more years.

Nikomi Ramen

Nabe (hot pot) is my favourite thing to eat in cold weather, but we didn't eat nearly enough of it this winter- and how could we? A squirming baby in our laps does not go well with a konro (portable gas range) at the table. But once Shuma was big enough for a high chair it was safe to cook at the table once again. We were all about nikomi ramen this season, a simple nabe using unfancy ingredients and instant ramen noodles. What's special about this dish is that while nabe is usually finished by cooking noodles (usually udon, but ramen is occasionally used) or rice in the leftover broth, nikomi ramen involves cooking and eating the noodles together with the other ingredients. No waiting until the end for what many people consider the best part of the meal.

In this case we used chicken thigh, carrot, kombu (kelp), shiitake and maitake mushrooms, shungiku (chrysanthemum greens), atsu-age (fried tofu), and cabbage. And for a taste test, two kinds of ramen noodles: the regular dried instant kind, and fresh.

Here it is being cooked in a broth of dashi (kelp stock), sake and soy sauce.

And here are the fresh noodles: nice, fat and toothsome, but with the disadvantage of clouding up the broth a little.

And the instant noodles, perked up with a topping of chili peppers and sesame. A little on the mushy side, but with the advantage of being, well, instant.

The verdict: the fresh noodles were way better, and the extra time needed to cook them is not much of a drawback considering nabe is supposed to be a slow, leisurely meal. But the instant noodles didn't suck either.

This is one of the coldest springs ever, so I don't think we're done with nikomi ramen quite yet.

Oshogatsu

What I did for Oshogatsu (the new year holidays): spent nine babyriffic days with my in-laws in Osaka.

You'll recognise one of those babies in the picture above. The other baby is his cousin.

Meet Yuuki, my three week old nephew. He was there with his mom (Hideaki's sister) and his big sister, Marya.

It was highly entertaining sharing a roof with two babies and a five year old, and not nearly as noisy as I'd imagined. In fact, every time we heard a baby crying we knew it was Shuma, as Yuuki barely cries at all- he just gives the occasional, very polite, little whimper. 

My visit started with a fancy double-decker bento, full of tasty morsels too numerous to list here. The next night we had tonyu nabe (soy milk hotpot), which was a first for me and is way better than it sounds, but like a lot of meals I was too distracted by the baby to take pictures. I'll be trying it at home soon and will be sure to blog about it then.

Shuma had all kinds of firsts in Osaka, starting with his first time riding in a car seat. After a bit of crying he seemed to like it, and it was one of the few places he was able to nap. Now I really wish we had a car!

He also had his first experience sleeping on a Japanese style futon. Considering he continued to sleep well at night (and refuse to nap during the day), I think he liked it.

Other developments included a dramatic increase in the use of his hands, and the first time playing with a toy all by himself. This Very Hungry Caterpillar became a favourite.

He met his first doggy, a pomeranian named Shiro. They became good friends and Shuma was on the receiving end of many a sloppy dog kiss, which delighted both him and Shiro.

And a very exciting first: snow! We had one day of snow, and it was actually cold enough to build up a little, so of course we went out for a walk. His reaction?

"We are not amused."

He wasn't impressed by the whiteness of it all, didn't seem to like the cold, and had no reaction to a bit of snow on his cheek. I'm not a winter person at all, but I was a wee bit disappointed.

But he's half Canadian, so he'll learn to love snow eventually I'm sure.

 

The best first of all was him meeting Yuuki. Like all babies they loved looking at each other.

In Japan, New Year's Eve can sometimes seem a little anti-climactic, but for the last several years ours have been very fun. In addition to the traditional toshikoshi soba (year crossing noodles) we feast on crabs sent from my brother-in-law in Hokkaido. No pictures this time as I was busy taking care of Shuma and cracking crab legs. But wow, were they ever good.

The new year begins with three days of osechi (traditional new year's food). Osechi are heavily seasoned and meant to last throughout the holidays, and most are symbolic of various wishes for the year, but as I've explained some of them in past years (here's last year's) I think I can skip it this time.

Osechi is usually served in a multi-layered lacquerware box, but my in-laws favour this revolving server. Above we have, from top, kamaboko (steamed fish paste), tainoko (bream roe), gomame (glazed baby fish), kazunoko (herring roe), sake no kaburamaki (thinly sliced daikon rolled around salmon), datemaki (thick rolled omelet), and kuromame (black soybeans) in the middle.

Kuromame are flavoured with soy sauce, while the shiromame (white beans) above are sweet.

Kurikinton is another sweet one, made of mashed sweet potatoes and chestnuts.

New this year was the kaburamaki, which was marinated in vinegar so nice and refreshing with all the other heavy flavours.

This is matsumaezuke, which is pickled kazunoko (herring roe), konbu (kelp), sakiika (dried skid) and carrot. It's homemade and very good, and the only way I like herring roe.

Above is more of the matsumaezuke, chicken braised with anise, and homemade kimchi. All excellent drinking snacks, and I would have done much more drinking if I hadn't had a little one to feed.

Other osechi included the umani (braised vegetables and beef) at bottom left, which includes the auspicious kuwai (arrowroot) and the namasu (pickled daikon and carrot) at bottom right. Usually for breakfast and lunch osechi is served with mochi (sticky rice cakes) while for dinner it is served with rice and non-osechi side dishes, like the buta no kakuni (braised pork belly) and stir-fried vegatables shown above.

A meal of osechi always starts off with a toast of otoso, a syrupy concoction of sake steeped in sugar and medicinal herbs.

The mochi is usually served in ozoni, a clear soup with chicken and vegetables (at least at my in-laws' house- the soup varies depending on the region and family).

Osechi is always eaten with brand-new chopsticks served in pretty paper wraps. The ones above have our names on them.

New Year's Day is doubly special for us, because it's also my father-in-law's birthday. He turned 77, which is a big deal in Japan and normally we would have gone out to celebrate, but with a brand-new and almost-new baby we stayed home and had a feast delivered.

It came in several huge boxes, with everything already plated- all we had to do was set the table (and wash all the dishes before they were picked up the next day). The meal started with a tray of pretty appetisers, above, along with suimono (clear soup) and chawan mushi (savoury egg custard).

We each had our own servings of sukiyaki that came on little burners.

Here's the sukiyaki served with the onsen tamago (poached egg) provided. A very nice meal, but hopefully we'll all be able to go out for FIL's next auspicious birthday, his 88th.

The next day we tried to do hatsumode (first prayer of the year) at a local shrine, but the line-up was too long so we just bought a few snacks at the yatai (food stalls) and added some fuel to the dondonyaki.

Dondonyaki is a fire on which last year's New Year's decorations burnt. Marya was in charge and did a fine job.

She was hardly scared of the fire and very proud of herself for getting up close.

Hideaki didn't get any time off for the holidays, so just came for one night. While we dropped him off at the airport we took a few lame pictures.

They had a clearly male ground crew member, a clearly male pilot, and two nearly identical skirted and high heeled stewardesses. Did we just ring in 2011, or 1961? Hideaki is mildly obsessed with those ground crew workers who direct taxiing airplanes (there's got to be a proper name for them), so that's what Shuma got to be.

Shuma had way too much attention to really notice his daddy was gone. He had a special seat which he sat in, with the help of a Bumbo, and he took to sitting in it with his arms on the armrest, which earned him the nickname of "Shacho" (president).

Yuuki was just starting to give those fleeting newborn smiles, and I managed to catch one. He felt so tiny when I held him, and it was hard to believe Shuma was the same size just three months before.

For our last night we had homestyle yakiniku (a Japanese version of Korean bbq), which is cooked on an electric griddle at the table.

This could very well have been the best beef I've ever had.

Instead of the usual yakiniku sauce, we had oroshiponzu (grated daikon with ponzu, a soy-citrus sauce). Delicious!

On the bullet train ride home Shuma was a very good boy, which was a relief as I was not looking forward to being on the receiving end of stink eyes from other passengers annoyed by his crying. I hope our first flight goes this well.

It was hard for both of us to get used to being back home- hard for me to get back into doing my own cooking and laundry, and hard for Shuma to adjust to the lack of non-stop noise, excitement, and attention. But I think we've got the hang of it now, and he's even napping once in a while. I hope it's a skill that he gets better at in 2011.

Salmon-don

Leftover steamed vegetables; abura-age to negi no nibitashi (fried tofu simmered with long onion); salmon-don (chopped salmon sashimi over rice). The latter two dishes were inspired by a recent episode of the NHK cooking show Kantan Gohan and turned out to be super-easy and tasty. The original recipes (in Japanese) are here and here, and here are my versions:

 

Salmon-don

2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sake
2 tsp mirin (sweet cooking sake)
200 grams sashimi-grade salmon
1 stalk negi (long onion), white part only
A dash of sesame oil
Two bowls of steamed white rice
A handful of kizami nori (thin strips of nori seaweed)*
2 egg yolks, optional

Add the soy sauce, sake and mirin to a microwave-safe bowl, microwave 30 seconds, let cool.

Chop salmon into small pieces, finely slice negi. Add salmon and negi to a bowl, pour in the soy sauce mixture and a dash of sesame oil, mix well.

Sprinkle the bowls of rice with kizami nori. Arrange the salmon mixture over nori, top with egg yolk.

*Kizami nori can be bought already sliced, or you can just make it with sushi nori: cut nori into 2 cm wide strips, cut strips widthwise into thin slices.

 

Abura-age to Negi no Nibitashi

3 sheets abura-age (fried tofu)
1 stalk negi plus green half of negi from recipe above
200 ml dashi
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sake
1 tsp mirin

Bring a kettle of water to boil. Place abura-age sheets in a strainer in the sink and pour the boiling water over them, rinse with cold water to cool. Squeeze out excess water then slice widthwise into thin strips. Slice negi diagonally into 5mm slices.

Bring the dashi, soy sauce, sake and mirin to a simmer in a pot, add abura-age, bring back to simmer and cook for one minute. Add the negi and simmer until wilted.

Remove the abura-age and negi with slotted spoon and arrange in bowls, serve.

Anniversary

A few weeks ago we celebrated our 11th anniversary. I was all set to tell the story of our wedding and took a bunch of pictures of our old wedding photos (we were wed in the pre-digital era, unfortunately, so getting the pictures online is not an easy process) and then I was hit with a bout of lethargy which kept me away from the computer. I don't know if it's directly pregnancy related, or if this summer's endless heat wave finally got to me, or what, but I've stopped loving being pregnant and now just want this baby to come out. So the wedding story (stories actually, as we ended up having four different celebrations) will have to wait, and all you get for now are the pictures.

We celebrated our anniversary in a very small way. Hideaki brought me a little bouquet of flowers, and I cured this year's first batch of ikura (salmon roe), which was put to use in the dinner above. Clockwise from top left: edamame (green soybeans); kyuri no asazuke (quick-pickled cucumbers); nasu to myouga no nimono (simmered eggplants with ginger buds); okura to myouga no misoshiru (miso soup with okra and ginger buds); and umi no oyakodon (mother-and-child seafood over rice).

Oyakodon (mother-and-child over rice) usually refers to a chicken and egg dish, but this seafood version uses salt-grilled salmon and salmon roe, with a garnish of shiso (perilla).

For an anniversary lunch out we went to our favourite local seafood restaurant, Marufuku. Hideaki had the kinmedai furai teishoku (deep-fried alfonsino lunch set). Alfonsino being a high-mercury fish I only snuck a few bites, and man was it ever good. It was also very rich though, and I couldn't imagine eating a whole plate of it.

I chose the sashimi moriawase teishoku (assorted sashimi lunch set), which came with a salad and chawan mushi (savoury egg custard), not shown, and the tray above: pickles, rice, miso soup and a beautifully arranged plate of sashimi. Clockwise from left: suzuki (sea bass); maguro (tuna); sawara no aburi (seared king mackerel); shake (salmon); and buri (yellowtail). It was all excellent, particularly the sawara, which is not a fish I eat often for some reason. Researching it later I discovered that it's very high in mercury, which was a bit of a surprise- I'm pretty careful about mercury but I guess because I don't come across sawara very often it just wasn't on my radar. And here I was worried about the tuna (I gave most of it to Hideaki) and alfonsino.

Actually, I've just checked the the Japanese government's mercury guidelines, and sawara tests as low in mercury (the high mercury listing mentioned above is American). Who to believe? I don't think the very small amounts of tuna, king mackerel and alfonsino I ate have any chance of harming the baby (and all the good stuff from the fish would outweigh any harm anyway), especially given how careful I normally am. But how frustrating to have two official sources give such vastly different information! I swear, once this baby is born I'm going to have the biggest mercury feast ever.

Marufuku
03-3925-1345
4-2-2 Higashioizumi, Nerima-ku, Tokyo
Open weekdays 11:30am-12:00am, Sundays and holidays 11:30am-10:00om, closed Mondays