Vegan New Year Sashimi at Yasaitei

January 5, 2010 dragonlife 6 Comments

January 5th, 2010. Tuesday, isn’t it? Back to the office. Usual break before late evening work. Hungry, but can’t eat too much as dinner will be waiting for me at 9:30 back home.
Only one option: the quick snack at Yasaitei. Becoming too much of a habit….

What would you expect me to order, then?
Vegatables sashimi!
Boring, you might say…
Totally agree, but boredom is so tatsy sometimes!

In the front, “the usual stuff” you might say:
Celery (grown in Shizuoka Prefecture), red radihes and myoga ginger sprouts.
Now, what is that leafy thing on the left in the background?

Common Ice Plant or Crystalline Iceplant? In Japanese? Ice Plant?
The French actually use it in their cuisine under the name of ficoïde glaciale.

Wikipedia will only say that Mesembryanthemum crystallinum is a prostrate succulent plant that is native to Africa, Western Asia and Europe. The plant is covered with large, glistening bladder cells, reflected in its common names of Common Ice Plant, Crystalline Iceplant or Iceplant.
Its leaves are edible, as with other some members of the Aizoaceae family. It is also cultivated for ornamentation (hum!).

And I can tell you they are worth discovering, be vegan, vegetarian or omnivore!

Now, for the second half of the plate: Juicy daikon and crunchy succulent cucumber backed with shiso/perill leaf and sliced winter onions (sweet!)

The dressing was the “usual” sesame oil with rock salt and dark miso.

But I needed a little more (with the second glass of Doman shochu!):
Mukago/零余子！
Now, unfortunately, it might be difficult to find that little thing outside Japan, but note it down on your notebook!

Mukago

A bit difficult to explain. An aerial tuber?
The fact is that it is some kind of fruit/nut/seed (I don’t have a clue here!) produced by yama imo or glutinous yam in Japanese, as one form of natural reproduction.
These mukago are succulent either boiled, or as in this case deep-fried.
Can’t stop eating them once started!

YASAITEI
Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Tokiwa-Cho, 1-6-2 Green Heights Wamon 1-C
Tel.: 054-2543277
Business hours: 17:30~22:00
Closed on Sundays
Reservations highly recommended
Seating: 6 at counter + 20 at tables
Set Courses: 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 yen
HOMEPAGE (Japanese)

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Japanese New Year Cuisine/O-Sechi Ryouri

January 5, 2010 dragonlife 6 Comments

A great friend of mine, who also lives in Shizuoka just sent me pictures of the traditional Japanese New Year Meal he shared with his Missus:
In his own words:

“First meal of 2010. Traditional Japanese food. 45 different items in three boxes, plus sake and special soup. Brunch. Fantastic meal!”

All pictures taken by Marcus Grandon:

Marcus’ first serving!

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Macha Madeleines

January 5, 2010 dragonlife 4 Comments

Since Comestilblog nicely asked me, here is a Japanese-style Madeleine.
Madeleines are easy to make and can be come into infinite variations.
Since I could not make it French for fear to bore everyone, i though that macha tea powder would be welcome!

Macha Madeleines!

INGREDIENTS: enough for 15 small ones

-Egg: 1
-Sugar: 55 g
-Cookie (light) flour: 45 g
-Almond powder: 10 g
-Baking powder: 1g
-Macha Tea powder: 5 g
-Melted butter: 60 g (unslated)

RECIPE:

-Mix and sift flour, almond poder, baking powder and macha powder.
Melt butter.
Butter the madeleines molds with butter (not included in the recipe) and then sprinkle flour on the butter (not included in the recipe) for easy unmolding after baking.

-In a bowl, mix egg and sugar gently (so as not to create any bubbles).

-Add egg mixture little by little to flour mixture and mix.

-Once you have mixed above, add little by little melted butter and mix in gently.

-Wrap the top of the bowl and leave it inside the refrigerator for 1~2 hours.

-Bake at 180 Degrees Celsius for 12~15 minutes (depending on the “charater” of your oven).

-Let cool down completely before unmolding!

Easy, isn’t it?

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/01)

January 5, 2010 dragonlife 8 Comments

Today’s bento was the first of the year.
The Missus being still on holiday made it in a bit of a hurry as she being bsuy cleaning our place like very Japanese housewife does at the beginning of the year. A good time forme to escape to work! LOL

Being conscious of the too many calories I’ve been infgetsing recently she kept my bento to a healthy minimum.: musubi/rice balls, tamagoyaki and salad.

The musubi/rice balls were an interesting concept: She had marinated large egoma leaves (a large and very tasty variety of shiso/perilla) overnght in miso and what else. After steaming the rice, she made triangular rice balls (balls is not the right term, then!), sauteed and then wrapped them inside the leaves. They also contained a honey-sweetened umeboshi/Japanese pickled plum. Very tasty!

The salad dish was basically made up of leftovers:
Potato, onion, cucumber and tobikko/flying fish roe salad, boiled large green beans she rolled with some dressing in the middle. home-made pickled red daikon with black sesame, and plum tomatoes on trevise cabbage.

Colorful, healthy and tasty! No complaints! LOL

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Vegan Sushi Recipe Suggestions 1: Myoga/Myoga Ginger

January 2, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

I already have introduced Vegan and Vegetarian Sushi, but following further requests and questions by my vegan (I’m not!) friends, I decided to contribute a small series of postings to give them more detailed suggestions and ideas!

Now, please check sushi rice recipe HERE to make things more practical!

The first vegetable amenable to sushi I would like to introduce is Myoga, or Myoga Ginger.

Please check Myoga HERE on Wikipedia!

Myoga is a very interesting vegetable as not only the shoots but also the flowers are edible!

The flower in its natural state!

As bought at the market.

Interestingly enough, as Japan makes an enormous consumption of them it has to import a lot from New Zealand and Australia. I’m sure you can buy it at local Asian markets. It could porve an interesting cultivation for some, too!

Myoga sushi roll.

Now there are two basic ways of presenting myoga as sushi.
First, as shown on above picture, as a roll.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just chop the myoga in strips and fill the roll with it accompanied by some wasabi.

Myoga Sushi nigiri.

The other basic way is present it as sushi nigiri on top of a small ball of sushi rice previously smeared with a little wasabi.

You can prepare the myoga in two basic ways,too:
The first one would would be just to wash it and use it raw.
The second would be to pickle it in rice vinegar and sugar for a while, press it and serve it in both sushi styles as explained above.

There are other interesting possibilities when you let your imagination go free as in above picture where the rice is replaced with a small cube of tofu and the topping is made with chopped myoga, tofu and wasabi all mixed together!

To further convince you, look at the picture above:
All vegan sushi:
from top down: Cucumber, egg plant/aubergine and myoga. The last are pickled daikon!

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New Year Sashimi Sets in Shizuoka Supermarkets

January 2, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Tradition has been changed or made with altogether!
From this year, the main supermarkets were oprn on New Year’s Day in Shizuoka.
Economic crisis? Cutthroat competition with “Convenience Stores”?
The result is that you don’t to worry any more about stocking up foood for the long Japanese New Year Holidays!

Not only the Shizutetsu Chain Supermarkets were open, but they had advertized bargains well in advance.
One concerned sashimi.
I just couldn’t ignore it and visited the largest store near my home yesterday afternoon.
I noticed that I had messed with my mobile phone camera today when I noticed the dates printed on the pics. I never do so, but at least, it will serve as a proof that I reaaly the pics yesterday! LOL

As you can see on the above pic there was plenty to choose from.
The main particularity was that the tuna was all wild tuna (Shizutetsu has a direct delivery deal with the various harbours in the Prefecture!)

The set above is priced at about 25US$ and included sashimi from 3 different tuna: honmaguro, tonbomaguro and bachimaguro, from akami to chu-toro.

The above set for about 50US$ is a bit extravagant, athough very cheap (dead cheap abroad, I suppose!) and included three types of maguro/tuna, one tai/seabream, one madai/true seabream, one tako/octopus, one hirame/sole, one ika/cuttlefish, one buri/yellowtail, amaebi/sweet shrimps, hotate/scallops and one shake/salmon!

This is the one I chose for both of us (25US$)!

Top from left to right:
Honbomagurao Chutoro, Surumeika/Cuttlefish, Amaebi/Sweet Shrimps and Bachimaguro Chutoro
Bottom from left to right:
Hirame/Sole, Bachimaguro Chutoro, Buri/Yellowtail, and Hotate/ Scallops.

Of course I had Sake from Shizuoka with that lot!

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Vegan Japanese Pickled Turnips

January 1, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

As i said in my previous posting, for too long, turnips have been considered food for the poor and destitutes.
In France it is also the symbol of a bad play or movie!
Actually they make for great vegetables, cheap and easy to cook!

The Japanese have come with all kinds of ways to prepare them forthe pleasure of vegans, be they Japanese or expats in this country.
The following recipe is called “Kabu no Kiku Hana Zuke/かぶの菊花漬け or:
Japanese pickled Turnips in the shape of Chrysanthemums!

INGREDIENTS: For 4 people

-Turnips: 8 small
-Sugar: 3 tablespoons

-Rice vinegar: 1/2 Cup/100 cc/ml
-Red Chili pepper (dried, 1 whole)

RECIPE:

-Peel the turnips carefully and take out leaves and their green spot from the top of the vegtables. With a sharp knife make incisions two thirds deep all around the top of the turnips.

-Place the turnips side by side inside a bowl. Cover them completely with salted water. Leave them marinate for 15 minutes to soften them.

-Mix rice vinegar and sugar.
Drain the turnips thoroughly.
Pour the sweet vinegar over the turnips and let marinate for a whole night.

-Take turnips out and press out the vinegar only lightly.
Open and spread the indented parts as to give tem the shape of a looming flower like in the picture.
Top with a small circle of cut chili pepper.

Enjoy as a snack any time of the day or use as a central part of a vegetable salad!

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Oshizushi/Pressed Sushi Techniques 4: Seared Seabream/Tai no Aburi

January 1, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

SYNOPSIS:

Sushi exists under many forms and guises.
It is not all nigiri and (more ubiquitous) sushi rolls!
Have you ever heard of Oshizushi?

Oshizushi (押し寿司, litterally pressed sushi), is a pressed sushi from the Kansai Region, a favourite and specialty of Osaka.

Oshibako unmounted

It is made with the help of a block-shaped piece formed using a wooden mold, called an oshibako/押し箱.

Oshibako lined with toppings

The chef lines the bottom of the oshibako with the toppings, covers them with sushi rice, and then presses the lid of the mold down to create a compact, rectilinear block.

Cutting Grilled Eel Oshizushi

The block is then removed from the mold and then cut into bite-sized pieces.

It is great fun to experiment at home for large parties or the family as you can include almost anything.
Moreover, oshizuhi is easy to transport and include in bento!

The recipes and techniques I’m introducing here are professional, but with a little practice I’m sure you will become a specialist

1)Salmon Marinated in Seaweed/Sake Sushi Konbushime, 2) Seared Prime Beef/Gyuniku Aburi, 3) Egg Bearing Snow Crab/Seikogani

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Seabreams or Snappers come in so many varieties all over thw orld that it becomes quite easy to find and adapt to various cuisines.
The Japanese are extremely fond of it either raw or steamed with rice.
When using it as sashimi or sushi, choose a fresh fis. Look at their eyes and press with fingers. And use your nose!

Madai/真鯛　or “True Seabream”, the most commonly used type of seabream in Japan.

For an extra finishing touch for the taste, use fresh leaves of sansho/山椒 or Japanese pepper (also called ki no me/木の芽).
The English name is Shichuan Pepper, although we are talking of the fresh plant here.

In Japan the dried and powdered leaves of Zanthoxylum sancho are used to make noodle dishes and soups mildly hot and fragrant. The whole fresh leaves, 木の芽 kinome, are used to flavour vegetables, especially bamboo shoots, and to decorate soups. Typically the young shoots are used in this way giving an aromatic lemony flavour to food. They are used to denote spring seasonality in food. The buds, seeds, flowers, and hulls are also used.

Chop some leaves finely enough to use with sushi, but not to fine. Cut them as short as shown in picture.

Soften light seaweed in lukewarm water and spread it over a clean cloth.

Line the bottom of the oshibako/box with slices of seabream fillet as tightly to each other as possible.
Sprinkle with chopped sansho leaves.
Fill with sushi rice and press.

Unloose oshizushi out of the box.
Brush the surface lightly with some soy sauce (I sweeten it a bit by mixing it with a little mirin/sweet sake).
Sear the fish lightly.
Repeat the same process twice more so as to cook only the surface and make it take a nice colour.
This way you will be able to taste the fish in two different ways inside your mouth!