atsuage kabayaki

Tried making atsuage kabayaki with this and some leftover kabayaki sauce.

There were only 6 pieces and they looked tiny.

I poured hot water over the atsuage then in a non-stick pan I put a little oil and heated it up.

Then I put the atsuage in and flipped it several times to heat it up.

I drizzled the sauce but I only had a teaspoon, so it wasn’t enough.

It was delicious but would’ve been better had I had at least a teaspoon more of the the sauce.

I loved this brand of atsuage, the middle was soft, not firm like most atsuage I’ve tried before.

I am going to try making this again.

kabayaki corn

Last week, I made nasu kabayaki, and even though I made half the recipe, it still left me with some kabayaki sauce.

Since I was grilling some veggies on my grill pan, I tried grilling some corn drizzling it with some of kabayaki sauce.

Nope.

The sauce didn't stick to the corn and burned before the corn was actually grilled.

So the next day, I mixed some sauce with butter and put it into the microwave oven for a couple of seconds.

Then after steaming the corn, I put the corn into the fish grill/broiler.

On high, I turned the corn after 1 minute.

Then, I used my "pastry brush" (which is actually a paint brush that I use as a pastry brush) and brushed on some of the butter/sauce mixture.

Closed the drawer and waited 30 seconds.

I did this about 4 times.

Voila!

Grilled corn.

This version was delicious!

I hope to make this again.

kaneko unagi

Yesterday, I walked twenty minutes to Sakurai intending to shop at Daiei.

I didn't realize (until I got there) they were renovating and were closed...boo!

This was the perfect chance to try Kaneko Unagi, a tiny shop that sells unagi kabayaki (grilled eel with a sweet-salty sauce).

While I appreciated that they only sell unagi raised/caught in Japan, they are pricey.

For the one unagi that I bought, it was 2470 yen (tax included), and that was the most inexpensive one...

Satoshi and I shared it for dinner.

It was good, the flesh of the unagi was very moist, the skin quite crispy.

I may be back, but not too often.

Kaneko Unagi
2-1-14 Sakurai
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.721.4057
Closed Sundays
Hours: n/a

nasu kabayaki donburi

On a recent television show, which showcases the odd & mysterious cuisines from different prefectures in Japan, there was nasu kabayaki.

When one hears the word "kabayaki", most often one would think of unagi kabayaki (grilled eel).

Nasu Kabayaki is popular in Gunma prefecture. It is served just like unagi in a lacquered box, at the bottom is rice, next come slices of teriyaki chicken, on top, the grilled eggplant.

The texture is sort of similar to unagi, but has less calories.

Kabayaki Sauce: adapted from the internet : makes 3/4 cup
75 mililiters mirin (sweet rice wine)
25 mililiters sake (rice wine)
62 grams brown sugar
90 mililiters shoyu (soy sauce)

In a pot, bring the mirin and sake to a boil
Add the sugar and shoyu
Bring mixture back to a boil then turn down heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Transfer to a glass container and cool before putting into the refrige.

Veggies
2-inch piece zucchini, thinly sliced
2-inch piece carrot, thinly sliced
1/2 package maitake, torn apart with fingers
1/4 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

Sautee veggies in a non-stick pan until they are cooked through, set aside.

Nasu Kabayaki (grilled eggplant): serves two
2 eggplants, peeled
2 tablespoons kabayaki sauce (see above)
sauteed veggies
sansho (Japanese pepper)
200 grams cooked rice

Cut the eggplant in half, lengthwise then make another cut in the middle lengthwise but not cutting all the way through.

Put it into a heated non-stick pan and drizzle some of the kabayaki sauce on it.

(Reserve about 1 teaspoon of sauce)

Flip eggplant over and drizzle a little more sauce.

When everything has caramelized a little, add a little water and cover.

Flip the eggplant and add a little more water. Cover the eggplant and cook. It should be soft but not too mushy.

Before serving, drizzle 1/2 a teaspoon onto the rice and top with eggplant and other veggies.

Sprinkle some sansho.

NOTES: this was good! Actually the original version uses a pastry "blow torch" to char the side not on your pan, but I thought that was a bit over the top to do in my kitchen, so I just kept flipping it over.

I served it with some tomato & onion miso soup. I'm definitely making this again.

breakfast & dinner

Today's breakfast and dinner were "wa", which stands for Japanese. Whenever you go out with friends and they ask you what you want to eat, they'll usually say, "wa, yo, chu". "Wa" is the shortened version of "washoku" and means as I said, Japanese, "Yo" is the shortened version of "yoshoku" and means Western food (Italian, French, etc.) and "chu" is the short version of "chuuka" and stands for Chinese food.

Well, I got this idea from Blue Lotus' post. What she did was open a can of fish and stick in under the broiler. That's what I did this morning for breakfast. One can of iwashi (sardine) (left) seasoned with shoyu (soy sauce) and one can of sanma (pacific saury) kabayaki (right).

Kabayaki is a style of cooking which is usually associated with eel, you may have heard of unagi kabayaki. The eel, in this case, the saury is split and broiled over charcoals and a thick sweetened soy sauce is used to coat the fish/eel, I guess you could say it is a kind of Japanese "barbecue".

I think I could of left it under the broiler a little longer because the iwashi didn't get very brown or crispy, but the sanma had a very nice roasted flavor, next time I'll know better!

I also made some akamiso-shiru (red soy bean paste soup). There are all kinds of miso all over Japan, the key is to find something you like. It is thought that akamiso speeds up metabolism.

Here's the shoga (ginger) that I mis-ordered. It is so sour! I think it was soaked with the ume (pickled plum).

Our rice is one cup of genmai (brown rice) and one cup of white plus a sprinkle of gokokumai (5-grain rice). I usually pour enough gokokumai to cover the bottom of the measuring cup (the one that comes with the rice cooker). After washing the rice, I just add the gokokumai--unwashed.

Some strawberries and sudachi-cha. Sudachi is a type of lime. It is mixed with kombu-cha (kelp tea), kind of an interesting combination of salty and sour.

Since we hardly (didn't) have any veggies with breakfast, I kind of went overboard with them for dinner...

From left to right counter-clockwise: wilted spinach with katsuobushi (shaved dried bonito), kinpira gobo (strips of burdock root and carrots cooked in sesame seed oil, shoyu (soy sauce), mirin (sweet rice wine), sugar and chili pepper), shiokombu (salted and seasoned kelp), ume (pickled plum), konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly seasoned with sesame seed oil, dashi-joyu (soy sauce mixed with stock) and chili pepper), and rice.

Wow, May has flown by and June is just around the corner...