Monthly Archive for April, 2008

Cured Tai (Japanese snapper)

Published
by
marc
on April 30, 2008
in Japanese and Seafood
. 13 Comments

This past weekend I made my monthly run across the Hudson to Mitsuwa for Japanese groceries. Their selection is quite impressive and I’m always finding new stuff to buy. Going on an empty stomach would be a mistake for the wallet, but thankfully they have a decent food court which happens to have one of my favourite bowls of ramen in the area. But I digress…

Recent beef find aside, I usually make the trek out to Edgewater for their large selection of fresh sashimi grade seafood. Since you want to eat sashimi as fresh as possible it’s usually best to eat it the day you buy it. To make my haul last a bit longer I buy a couple types of fish specifically for curing in salt. This makes it last a few days or longer (depending on the amount of salt you use).

One of the the best fish for curing is Tai. This fish is loaded with umami and once cured can be eaten drizzled in olive oil, on a salad, or over a bowl of rice with hot green tea poured on top (ochazuke) which gently cooks the fish and turns the tea into a savory broth. If I’m eating it straight I’ll usually use less salt, but if I’m going to use it for ochazuke I’ll load it up with plenty of salt as it seasons the broth.
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Ramp kimchi & Ramp confit

Published
by
marc
on April 29, 2008
in Spring, Vegan, Vegetable, pickle and vegetarian
. 12 Comments

So this weekend we made another trip north to pick ramps. This time we brought home a grocery bag brimming with these delightful members of the onion family (they’re sweet and have a flavor somewhere between leeks and garlic). The reason for this large harvest is that L had the brilliant idea of making ramp kimchi, and I wanted to make a ramp confit.

Kimchi, for those unfamiliar, is a fiery Korean side-dish that’s pickled in a potent mix of chili powder and garlic. The specifics and vegetables vary by region and season, but Korean families take pride in the number of urns of kimchi they prepare per year. Prior to winter, families would gather to pickle the last of fall’s vegetables to last them through the cold months until spring.

Confit on the other hand traces its roots to France before refrigeration where meats like duck and goose were cooked in their own fat to preserve them. The word is derived from the verb “confire” which quite literally means “to preserve” and can refer to fruits or vegetables as well as meat.

If you haven’t guessed by now, the common thread here is 2 ways to preserve these perishable gems so they last more than a few days. I figured it would be fun to employ methods coming from 2 continents, and the results were fantastic!

While ramps are a vegetable that aren’t available in Korea, they work perfectly for kimchi because of their strong (though not overpowering) garlic flavor. The long leaves are well suited for wrapping around a slice of steamed pork, or a bit of rice and the flavors just burst with spicy goodness in your mouth.

The confit on the other hand roasts the ramps in an ample amount of olive oil, rounding out the flavor and intensifying the sweetness. The olive oil it’s cooked in is redolent with ramp’s leeky garlicy aroma and is marvelous on pizza dough or bread.
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Ohmi Wagyu beef (a.k.a. crack)

Published
by
marc
on April 28, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 19 Comments

Wagyu beef has become synonymous with beer fed, massaged beef that no-one can afford. Just one look at the menu’s of many New York steakhouses and you’ll see that Wagyu from Japan lists at around $30 per OUNCE!

Now I’m definitely one to pay the extra buck for quality food, but 30 bucks a bite is a bit steep even for me. I’ve tried both Australian, and American raised Wagyu which are both cheaper than the Japanese kind and while admittedly good, they left me wondering why I paid so much for something only marginally better than a good grass-fed steak.

So Saturday I’m at the Mitsuwa in Edgewater, New Jersey doing my monthly Japanese food run and I noticed these big banners advertising Ohmi Wagyu beef. I’ve seen them carry Wagyu before but they were expensive, and given my past experiences I had no desire to spend $40 for a small steak. As I worked my way to the meat section, I noticed a massive crowd gathered around a table that was wafting a heavenly scent. Samples!

As you probably guessed by now, one taste is all it took before I was hooked. I had the beautifully marbled steak you see above in my cart before the buttery flavor of the sample had left my mouth. A quarter pound of beef for two people isn’t much, but really you have to think of this as foie gras or caviar. It’s something you savor for its deliciousness, not something you’d make an entire meal out of. And delicious it was. I sliced it up, got a pan super hot and quickly seared each side, dipping it in some cherry wood smoked salt and sesame oil on the way to my mouth.

So what is Wagyu and why is it so good? It’s actually a breed of cattle that has been breed specifically for a high fat content. The ones raised in Japan are fed a mix of corn, wheat, rice, sake and beer and are cared for on an individual level (no overcrowded feed lots). Some ranches even massage their cows as it is believed that a calm and stress-free cow yields better meat. Over the past 20 years, some of these cattle have been exported to the US and Australia where ranchers have tried to emulate their production, but having had both, I’d have to say that something in the water ain’t the same.

For those of you in the US that don’t live near a Mitsuwa, you can order it online directly from the importer at ADiRECT Foods.

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Tuna Poke (pronounced poke-ay)

Published
by
marc
on April 27, 2008
in Appetizer, Asian, Japanese, Salad, Seafood and Side
. 15 Comments

So here’s a recipe that draws its heritage from the the tropical islands of Hawaii. It’s been decades since my last visit and I wasn’t even introduced to Hawaiian cuisine till I lived in San Jose, but I’ve become quite a fan of the regional food that quite possibly started the “asian fusion” movement.

For those of you that are from other parts of the world, Hawaii is a blend of people from just about everywhere, including such disparate groups as the Native Americans, Japanese, Germans, and the native Hawaiian population. It then stands to reason that the food reflects a melding of the different ancestries combined with the abundant bounties of the rain forests and surrounding sea.

This dish is my take on on this island classic, combining the asian flavors with some local springtime ramps. The sweet soy sauce, nutty sesame oil and sweet garlicy ramps work harmoniously with the satiny tuna to create something refreshing, exotic and comforting all at the same time.

Best of all, there’s not much work involved beyond a bit of chopping and stirring, perfect for a hot summer’s day. Because shape doesn’t really matter I usually go for the cheaper “kiriotoshi” cuts of the tuna, These are the bits that get cut off when the store shapes the tuna into perfect blocks to sell as sashimi.

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Chilled cucumber with sesame miso broth over rice (Hiyashijiru)

Published
by
marc
on April 27, 2008
in Japanese, Salad, Summer, Vegan, Vegetable, breakfast and vegetarian
. 12 Comments

The summers of my youth were often spent on the southern island of Kyushu Japan visiting my maternal grandparents. They live in what used to be a small, rural fishing/farming village about 2 hours from the nearest small airport (which for an island about the size of South Carolina is a long way).

For those of you that haven’t been to Asia in the summer, it’s hot and humid. The kind of “hot and humid” where you step outside and are met by a curtain of sticky, sweat-inducing heat that makes you want to turn right around to go take a shower. The only tolerable times of the day are sunrise and sunset, but due to the mosquitoes that come out at dusk, you really only want to be out at dawn.

Dawn was one of my favourite times in Japan, not just because of the temperatures, but because this was the time my ojiichan (grandpa) would take me fishing off a stone outcropping, and the time that my o-obaachan (great-grandmother) would take me out into the fields to pick cucumbers, daikon, shiso, and other bounties of the summer.

As the day heated up, we’d go back to the shelter of home for breakfast. Here is a recipe for one of my favorite breakfasts from those summers in Japan. Hiyashi-jiru (lit. chilled broth) is a regional specialty of the Miyazaki region of eastern Kyushu. The chilled crunchy cucumbers with the cold miso sesame broth are poured over hot rice which makes for a delightful appetite enhancing breakfast that’s both nutritious and filling.

While traditionally this is made with a fish based dashi, this can easily be made vegetarian by using a kombu (kelp) and shiitake (mushroom) based dashi. If you can’t find fresh Japanese or Lebanese cucumbers where you live, you can substitute a small hothouse cucumber with seeds removed, or other thin-skinned variety of cucumber. The shichimi is entirely optional, but the shiso really does add something if you’re able to find it (try Japanese markets or local sushi restaurants).
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