Tuna Tartar Don(丼)

And Tuna Rice Sandwich

 

The Maguro (鮪/tuna) I bought was a bit unsightly, un-uniform in color…well I was watching my budget, less expensive than sashimi grade tuna for sure... Still grateful to get fresh maguro block. I decided to make tuna tartar…actually, mincing the meat with seasonings on the cutting board is called tataki (たたき)or namero (なめろ) in Japan. Check out similar recipe on my past blog here

Simple and flavor packed tuna tataki topped on the cooked rice is so awesome! Some of my friends can’t stand raw fish…why?  It’s so good!…But I totally get their sentiment… just like I have strong dislike of beef tartar… totally!

Ingredients and Instruction for 4 servings (Print Recipe Here)

• 200g of fresh tuna cut in chunk
• 1 inch ginger, new ginger prefer or 1 myoga cut in small pieces
• 1 stalk of green onion minced
• 1 –2 Tablespoons miso paste  If you like heat then use Korean spicy miso paste (1/2 teaspoon) instead.
• 2 3  teaspoons sake  Note: I boiled to remove alcohol and cooled.
• 2-3 teaspoons soy sauce or tamari soy sauce
• pinch of salt (optional)
• Shiso leaves

1. Put Tuna, ginger or myoga, miso paste, sake, soy sauce and salt if using on the cutting board and using *two knives to pound to *finely chopped until the meat starts getting little slimy and well blended. You might want to do a taste test at this point and add more seasoning to suit your taste. It is not necessary but I like to put in container, cover with plastic wrap and chill in a refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour. *Texture wise, micro mincing is not recommended. *Heck, you don’t need two knives but it’s cool that way!I should have used a bigger cutting board…
2. Assembly – Put warm rice in the bowl, topped with tuna tartar and sliced shiso leaves. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi on the side (optional).

For Tuna Rice Sandwich –There are trendy rice balls happening in Japan. Ordinary rice ball is called ‘onigiri’ (おにぎり) but the new style ‘onigirazu’ (おにぎらず) is show off the filling better and is easier to eat.

Equipment: square container – I used 4 inch x 4 inch

• Warm cooked rice
• Shiso leaves
• Tuna tartar (see recipe above)
• Nori(seaweed) sheet 7-1/2 x 8-1/2 inch

1. Put about 1/3 cup rice firmly in a square container, make sure to level off.
2. Lay couple of shiso leaves on top of rice.
3. Spread about 1/4 cup tuna tartar evenly on top of shiso leaves.
4. Lay shiso leaves on top of tuna tartar
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5. Put  about 1/3 cup rice firmly on shiso leaves, smooth the top.
6. Lay nori sheet on flat surface and dump the step #5 on top of nori diagonally
   .
7. Fold corner to wrap the  ‘onigiranai’, wet with a little water to secure the corner if necessary. Wrap tightly in plastic and leave for few minutes.
8. Cut in half. Voila! Neat, right? Variation: Make different filling such as tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet).For food safety, keep in a cool place and consume within an hour.

Last week’s Today’s Tapas #todaystapas - Momofuku Pork belly, quick cucumber pickle – My fav…I never get tired of this dish

Mango Lassi recipe from ‘ Thirsty for…’ YouTube video jump over from Linda’s Peaceful Place.blog. Check her feel good blog.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Don/丼

Chicken wings rice bowl

I believe that properly cooked chicken skin is loaded with umami flavor. I particularly like it cooked till crisp. But for some, they simply don’t care enough so they remove skin from the meat and transfer it to my plate…Oh, thanks hon. My husband does the same for salmon skin.

It will be difficult to separate skin and meat with this recipe however, a measly amount of meat is all that is on the chicken wings and the rest is epidermis. This is technically teriyaki chicken in a donburi (bowl) style, don for short – rice and whatever dish in one bowl. For me having a meal this way, always stimulates my appetite. And less dishes to wash.

When the donburi style was started is not clear. Some say that a restaurant in Asakusa,Tokyo served Unagi (eel) don in 1837. As the popularity grew, other ‘don’ dish like oyako (chicken and egg ) don was created in 1891, and my fav, katsudon (fried pork cutlet) was introduced in 1913…genius!

Note: Preparing chicken wings is rather tricky and bothersome though, it’s all worth it in the end. You're using just middle part of the wing (tebachu/手羽中)keep the rest for other dishes. The chicken wings shrink as it cooks so make plenty. I will show you the recipes using the rest of chicken wings at next post.

Ingredients and Instruction for two servings  (Print recipe here) 
Modified recipe of Masahiro Kasahara – see his other recipe here

• 8 Chicken wings – 4 chicken wings per donburi
• For sauce (the amount is for 8 chicken wings)
        Soy sauce, sake and  Mirin 2 Tablespoons each
        Sugar 1 Tablespoon Whisk to combine well.
• Cooked rice 1 cup per donburi. Keep warm
• Seaweed (optional)
• Powdered sansho pepper (Japanese pepper)
• White toasted sesame seeds
• White radish sprout or long onion julienned for garnish.

1. Prepare wings  - wash chicken wings in large bowl full of water to inspect for any dirt or feathers and clean. Dry with a paper towel.
   A. Cut off the pointy part of the chicken wing.
   B. Slit skin in the between the middle section and rest. Grab both
        ends and bend to break the bone joint then cut off with a knife.
   
   C. Hold the flabby skin and slide knife above and along side of  bones to butterfly.
   
   

   D. Cut connecting tip of two bones. Scrape off the bones from meat. Remove any cartilage left on skin. After I was done with this I found an easier way to remove bones on YouTube. I definitely will try that method next time…just butterfly after you pulled off both bones…so much for the futile effort.

    
2. Heat non-stick pan at medium heat. Lay the prepared chicken wings in the pan skin side down and brown. Turn over to brown the other side. Be careful, chicken releases a lot of fat, it may splash. Turn off heat and wipe the excess oil up with a paper towel. Note: grill them until charred instead of pan fry if you like.
   
3. Turn the heat back on and pour the prepared sauce and cook until well coated.
4. Assembly – put rice in donburi, scatter torn seaweed on top of rice (if using), Place 4 pieces of chicken wings with some sauce over the rice, sprinkle with sesame seeds and Japanese pepper. Garnish with radish sprout or long onion. Serve warm.
   .

We finally tackled the procrastinated attic clean up. Guess what I found? Japanese currency. Lucky!

And a Disney dollar!

….from when we went to Disneyland for Christmas time many years ago… forgotten photos are destructing when you have more boxes to go through. Stand with Minnie quick! I demanded. No? My daughter was way too cool to pose for a photo with Disney characters.

Wow! How neat to find a photo of my brother-in-law. He is much older than my husband but they are close…super nice guy. I bet he is not happy that the San Antonio Spurs did not sweep the Portland Trail Blazers team in the playoffs last night.

Old records…collector items? Yeah, that’s us said my husband. ‘Junk collector’My very first ‘don’ that I made…this was in a mystery box #7, so many boxes so little time…

Always happy to receive flowers on Mother’s Day or any other day.And dinner at Masu was fantastic! From left – rip city rolls, fried tofu mousse, lamb curry rice and orange chocolate ice cream with edible flower.

So good that we finished it all up!

Crisp

Nagoya Style Chicken Wings

My desire to go to Japan was heightened while I was making these chicken wings. When my husband and I travel to Japan, we usually stay in Nagoya the first night. As we age, our coping mechanism for jet lag will diminish and all we want is to sleep in a horizontal position. The city of Nagoya is between places and we know a great hotel to crash at. We did this same travel pattern often enough that we feel know Nagoya Station well. No matter how late we get there, we drop off our luggage in the room then hurriedly go down to a convenience store to buy puddings or musubi (rice ball)….that is the sort of things I long for…

This recipe is from Masahiro Kasahara (笠原将弘)’s cookbook ‘Let me handle the chicken wings too’ (手羽も俺に任せろ). He is owner of ‘Pros and Cons Arguments(賛否両論) ‘ restaurant in Tokyo. The place has far more favorable than negative reviews of course and it’s very hard to get a reservation. He has studied cooking since he graduated from high school and his late father was also a cook. It’s in his DNA to be in this field I bet. He practices Christianity and despite devastating loss of his wife last year, he makes best efforts as a chef and as a single dad for his three young daughters. Last September he opened the 2nd same name restaurant in Nagoya. I hope we could find this dig next time there. You see, we are only familiar with inside the perimeter of the station.  

Ingredients and instruction for 8 to 10 chicken wings (Print Recipe)

• 8 to 10 chicken wings

• For Marinate – sake 2 Tablespoons, salt 1 teaspoon

• Potato starch 3-4 Tablespoons

• Glaze – Mix all in small sauce pan - sake, soy sauce, mirin 4 Tablespoons each, rice vinegar 2 Tablespoons, sugar 1 Tablespoon, grated ginger 1 teaspoon and grated garlic 1 teaspoon

•  Oil for frying

• White toasted sesame seeds

1. Cut off chicken wing ends and keep the middle part. Save two other parts for chicken stock (see pic) etc..
   

2. Prick the chicken with fork
   

3. Rub chicken with sake and salt and let rest for 1-2 minutes. Wipe lightly with paper towel.
   

4. Coat wings generously with potato starch.

5. Heat oil to 356 F. Fry wings until golden color; approximately 4-5 minutes
   

6. While the wings are frying, boil glaze until it thickens some.

7. Brush the liquids over the just-fried wing on the skin side only and sprinkle with white sesame seeds. Serve with lots of napkins!
    

Crispy, Sweet and Salty chicken wings are sure hit with the Super Bowl crowd! Go Seahawk!

Last week…I noticed the tree had some buds coming in and tulips start shooting up… Why on earth I could complain about slightly below 40 degree weather since other parts of the country are freezing?

Large piece of cherry pie shared from a neighbor. I looked for ice cream in our freezer but there was none. I whipped up cream by hand. Mmmm, life is grand! Or cherry on top?

Thank you for reading thus far. Wishing you a wonderful week!

Oh one more thing…my husband is tweaking my blog and he designed that ‘nippon nin’ logo. Whada ya think?