In search of deer soup...

The first time I visited Japan, I was dead-set on visiting Nibutani, which boasts the largest Ainu population in all of Japan. One night I had "traditional Ainu food", which consisted of a really starchy potato cake, deer soup, and some barley tea.

Fast forward to 2010: I have a friend who butchered a deer and had more meat than he could use. So he offered me some, and not wanting to waste a resource, I took some home. The first thing I thought of was that tiny cafe where the chef/waitress pantomimed a "deer" to try to communicate the ingredients to her soup.

I am now on a mission to locate a great recipe for deer soup. It's harder than I thought.

My search for Ainu recipes came up broke, and I am not about to make a soup that contains Cream of Mushroom or frozen peas. I think the deer deserves better. I want to make a delicious slow cooked deer stew that can use ingredients from my garden, Ainu food pairings, and a hint of Japanese flavor. So far, I'm thinking deer, root vegetables from my winter garden (radish? parsnip? carrot?), a touch of miso, and a prolonged simmer in a dutch oven (or crock pot).

Does anyone have any ideas?

Kombucha update!

I just discovered Kombucha for the first time this year, and it didn't take long for me to deduce 2 things:

a) At nearly $4 a bottle, Kombucha gets really expensive.

b) Since it's just cultured tea... it shouldn't be hard to make. I mean, I make tea everyday!

So, i've been trying to make my own batch. I did my research, had some leads fall through, and decided to start from scratch. First i made up a pot of sweetened tea. Then i poured in a bottle of Dave's kombucha (from the store). I put a towel over the lid, and let it sit in our pantry for about 3 weeks. The normal rate is 7-12 days, but since our house is NOT above 80 degrees (which is the recommended), it took a lot longer.

I have yet to actually TASTE the Kombucha (since it is supposed to sit for 2-5 days after bottling), but i will provide an update. It didn't smell completely horrible, at least. I was thinking i'd end up with vinegar the first time, but apparently i lucked out?

More to come!

Let's investigate Kombucha!

Are you as intrigued with this bizarre fizzy carbonated/fermented tea beverage as I am? I purchased one bottle from our local "Green" general store and realized that it was delicious and potent... but also sadly overpriced. Anyone who knows how to brew a good cup of tea knows that it is beyond ridiculous to pay $1.75 for a cup of tea anywhere (especially when said "tea" comes from a teabag out of an old box).

So i'm investigating a bit... the ingredients are by and large very simple-- a glass jar, cleese cloth, tea leaves, white sugar. But the weird ingredient is referred to as either a "SCOBY" or a "Mushroom." I can't get a straight answer to what this "thing" is, other than it's fermented, sort of a spore, and not entirely a mushroom. More like a fermented blanket of spores. Weird, huh?

This SCOBY develops on your tea for a few weeks, and in the process, grows a new scoby for your next batch. So once you're off and running, the materials partially regenerate themselves, making $2.75 per bottle seem sadly too expensive.

Some would wonder, "...and WHY exactly would you drink fizzy, fermented tea?"

I suppose, because it allegedly does wonders for the digestive tract, skin, and hair. And life is too short not to brew your own fizzy fermented tea! Why not?

Wow, is that man making balogna? Nope! It's a giant repulsive/beguiling SCOBY!

Here is the aforementioned "legitimate" version, priced at $2.75

Let's make Okonomiyaki!

Are you feeling tired after a long day of surfing? Just hanging out with the friends and a few cold Sapporo beers? Well, let me introduce you to... OKONOMIYAKI!

Okonomiyaki is alternately referred to as "Japanese pizza" and "Japanese pancake." Just so you know what you're getting yourself into-- Think: delicious, hearty, not exactly healthy. But oh man, talk about comfort food! I've had okonomiyaki at home in Berkeley and abroad in Osaka, and everyone has their own spin on it. You can throw in whatever you want, and it's gonna be wonderful because it's OKONOMIYAKI!!


Different recipes will include carrots, daikon, shrimp, beef, chicken, etc. Some chefs are of the opinion that the number of ingredients you include are directly proportional to the level of deliciousness. The more ingredients, the more delcious.


The secret ingredient in okonomiyaki? Tempura flakes! The consistency is almost chewy, and tooooootally satisfying, especially with beer!


The other trick is to make up the batter and leave it in the fridge, so that it gets nice and thick.


Oh, and use dashi in your batter, by the way...


Now, you swirl the batter around the edge and fold the cabbage (and whatever else you find delicious) into the middle along with an egg. Stirry stirry!

Next step: spoon this mixture onto a hot hot griddle. The second one will cook a little better (if your stove is anything like ours), so whoever is hungrier gets the first one while you, the patient chef, will get the next (and tastier) one!


Here is our divided pancake! You can add nori flakes, bonito flakes, Japanese mayonaise, okonomiyaki sauce, sesame, etc... to the top.


And a close up! Mmmm...

That's all there is to it! Here are two recipes that I referred to, courteousy of Yoshizuka Sensei...

Osaka style:
Hiroshima style: (with yakisoba noodles! Talk about comforting!!)

Let's make Lychee Cake!

Lychee!!

I have heard it pronounced:

a) LEE-chee
b) LIE-chee
c) LIH-chee

and no one knows the truth! I stick with lee-chee, because it just sounds cuter that way. Lychee is a funny flavor, almost like grapes. Not too sweet, and a blast to peel out of the shell if you ever get the chance.

I saw a recipe for lychee cupcakes, which sounded as cute as it did tasty. But since we didn't have the cupcake rounds, i thought i'd find a recipe for Lychee Cake.


First thing to do was to open a can of wupass!
Or, lychees. Mine came from Trader Joe's, back before the white man was scared of them and decided not to buy them.

Here they are, looking like a cross between olives and eyeballs. Hmmm. They taste really good, honestly!

I cut them into small pieces firstly while the oven is preheating.


Then, i mixed the rest of the ingredients. The whole point of a lychee cake, i thought, was to have the flavor of lychees shine through (there were other recipes that asked to include vanilla. What's the point, i thought.)

It's been awhile, but i'm guessing it was flour, white sugar, butter, baking flour, etc. Pretty simple cake recipe.

Then, i rolled the lychees in some sweet potato starch. Or flour. Hmmm. One of the two. Ok, i think flour. They have a really funny texture- almost gelatanous. So if you drop them in, supposedly the batter would not stick to them.

Hence, the flouring.

Come to think of it, this looks like i'm cooking octopus again.








Then, the baking! When i pulled this out, there were curious little marks, as if i was pulling a golden moon out of my oven, and not a tasty lychee cake.

One recipe suggested a lemon-powdered sugar frosting, but again, i thought that the taste of the lychee was most important.




And.... i pulled the funny cake out of the oven....

Ta daa!

Hmmm.... a bit underwhelming. While Japanese cooking is often described as "subtle," this was a bit too subtle for me, even for a cake. The texture was pretty nice, good and moist. But the lychee flavor was pretty much lost.

If i made this recipe again, i would consider adding those ingredients that i was poo-pooing (i.e. vanilla, lemon frosting). But i also feel that would make the recipe seem less like Elizabeth Andoh and more like Rachel Ray.

But, then again, if it tastes nice, that should be enough.

Better luck next time, Lychee Cake.

Let's make Red Beans and Acorn Squash!

If you want a meal that's relatively quick and extremely delicious, i highly recommend the Red Beans and Squash! The recipe called for a Japanese squash which we can't find around these parts, but an Acorn Squash did just fine.

This is one of the simplest recipes i've made yet, and it paid off!

Let's put on "Chrorisitan Dior" by the Pascals-- it's like the Amelie soundtrack made by Japanese hippies.

We started our cooking at 6:00.










Now, you can soak the red beans and all that, or you can just use a can. The one i bought was a little pricey ($3) but still worth it. Plus, you can use it as leftovers for those nice rice balls!

Open up the can, mix it with some dashi and water...




...and then halve the squash. Scrape out the seeds.

I bought some Grapefruit spoons for my partner a few Christmases back, and they work wonderfully for this very purpose.

(I recommend those grapefruit spoons!)



What a nice looking squash! He's so cute...








Once the beans have cooked down a bit, you drain the juice into another pot (you'll save the bean broth. It's like pudding, seriously. Mmmm...)

I have our amazing little colander over a larger bowl. You can also see Cousin Blue on the floor.



While the beans are cooling (and the dashi is cooking, if you are a dork like me and forgot to make a fresh batch), you want to skin some of the outer skin off. This helps the squash to sit flat on the pan. Plus, it looks nice when it starts to cook.





Turn them into the pan, into a shallow lake of homemade dashi. I let them cook for a few minutes, then flip them over.

I've never NOT baked squash before, so this felt a little foreign (har har) to me. (I have microwaved squash before, but that doesn't count).



While you whistle a bit to the Pascals, you measure out some of the red bean sauce to mix in with your dashi. The recipe calls for 2 T, but you may be convinced to add more.

Feel free to add some soy sauce and sake, just in case the red bean doesn't sound sweet enough. Believe me, though; it will be.






Let it simmer, and then mix in some solid beans.

Then, scoop out the squash and serve directly in a bowl. Add a little broth to taste, and a bit more of the red bean broth if yo'd like.

You can spoon the drained beans directly onto the cooked squash and pour some sauce over the top for a really handsome dish.

See?

Mmm mmm is it good! We both ate this so hard. And then the best thing is that you feel like you've had dessert already.

Completely healthy, nearly vegan. It's moist, sweet, savory, salty, satisfying. Comfort food at its finest.

AND, under an hour! You can't even cook squash in that time! (well maybe you can, but why would you WANT to?)

Let's make Octopus Salad and Tofu-stuffed Mushrooms!

Hmm, what a lovely evening! Not too cool, not too warm... need a last minute idea for something to eat. Well, we have some leftover stuff and uneaten ingredients... what about the world famous Tako {Octopus} Salad with Radish Greens and Mustard Sauce?

And perchance a side of Tofu-Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms?
Ooo, it's gonna be good!

Intrigued, are you? Good! First, put water on for some fresh dashi. Then, made up the Mustard Miso sauce. Way easier than it sounds-- just parts light miso, Japanese mustard, and rice vinegar. I later added some dashi to thin it out. That made all the difference in the world! Nice and smooth.

I make it first so that i can just leave it while the water is boiling (and i should have started brining the octopus now too. Whoops.)





Here's what it looks like! Easy, ne?








So now, take the stems off of these guys. This part is oddly satisfying. Removing stems is one of those soothing activities that makes me feel a little less crazy-- just a nice meditation.

These guys were really cheap ($3) and lasted us a good week plus. Made a nice addition to my Udon, and a quick quesedilla i made yesterday.


Every cookbook i read says not to wash mushrooms, but just to wipe them with a damp cloth. I think this is mostly so that they'll soak in all the flavor, but a certain person in my household is kind of uneasy with this. So they get washed.

They still absorb flavors just fine, and to her credit, there is a lot of crap on the mushrooms.

One book even recommends using Q-tips to clean mushrooms. Now, really. Q-tips?? We're all adults here.


Now the tofu part. Puree half a block with one egg and a tiny amnt. of Miso. Ends up looking like hummus, and if you do the processing in the living room, you don't even wake up any babies living in the house!

Notice the tea strainer, too. I tried the bonito trick again, with better results. I think tea bags are the best way to go, though.


Okay, now the freaky part.

I get horror movie "The Orphanage"-level chills when i pull these things out of the package. This is a big part of the reason why i don't like to eat meat, and stuff like octopussies draw that line pretty distinctly-- this thing was alive.

It's not that i feel wistful about that (okay, sometimes i do)

But mostly i just irrationally fear that they will re-animate and start squirming in my hand. I had this phenomenon first happen in San Jose when i was eating some shrimp. They just looked too shrimpy, and i suddenly imagined them swimming about on my plate.

Anyway, you have to first cut off their gross, flacid heads. If you can do this, Brownie Points for you. It sucks. It's gross.

Sans-cephalo octopi can then be brined-- you just rub salt on the legs and let them sit for 10 minutes. Rinse in cold water, and throw into a boiling pot of water. This part is crazy-- the limp legs instantly firm up and get all curly, and it turns this striking color of purple.

This process also removes the membrane-y brown outer layer. Some sites say to boil the legs for a minute only, but the longer you do it, the more of this membrane will come off.

And look what you end up with! Aren't they pretty?

They're especially nice in person, and amazing to handle these firm, tough legs that were just a minute ago really squishy, bland, and drab. Okay, they kind of make you wanna vomit. BUT! Once you boil 'em, they're pretty. Rinse them in cold water again.

Next part-- soak it in lemon or lime juice for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, fill the shitake caps with the tofu/egg mix. This part is really fun. It's like making cookies!

Line them on a paper towel or Trader Joe's bag if you don't wanna have yet another dish to clean.

Believe me, they add up.

Now, grease a pan with vegetable oil (doesn't take much) and put the shitakes stuffing down. Then you press on them with a spatula for a few seconds to make the filling stick to the shitakes.

Flip them after a minute. Then, add that dashi mixed with mirin and soy sauce. This combination, hoo boy. It is GOOOOOD.

They look so funny-- like Deviled eggs that someone ran over.


This is the squashing part.

It should start to smell really nice-- savory, sweet, and salty. It's comfort food at its finest.




Then, put the dressing on the octopus (might as well rinse the lime juice off) and add the creamy Miso Mustard sauce. Then, to make this thing really kick @$$, add some radish greens to the top. These are hard for us to find in the Midwest, but i think they're pretty commonplace in a place with a decent market.

See? Isn't it pretty? The perfect complement-- a nice medium beer. Believe me-- it's a perfect pairing.

Here are the mushrooms finally finished! Probably a bit too much oil, but they end up being really moist. It's almost like eating clams- they are so savory, moist and meaty. Really nice.

Andoh-san recommends serving it with flavored salts, which i don't have. I just recommend serving it with beer.

Simpler Times, though not Japanese, is highly recommended.

Whew!

It did take much longer than i thought (mostly due to poor planning-- i forgot to brine the octopus until i was halfway through the menu), but if you throw in some rice you made earlier and perhaps stir-fry some of those lotus slices sitting in your fridge-- you've got a nice bar-food kind of meal!

And, you've got a nice blue shirt. Sharp, farmer!


It helps to have a wonderful partner who does dishes while you're cooking (even if they are kind of getting in your way, it's more than worth it).

Obviously, dishes are not all from this meal. Notice those cupcake tins? Uh huh.


One last thing-- make sure to empty the trash that night.

Call me superstitious, but i don't want those octopus heads coming back as ghosts to haunt me, with their gauzy beady little eyes....

Plus, you don't want raw seafood sitting in your trash overnight. It's just-- ew. You just don't.

Voila! Octopus and Tofu-stuffed mushrooms!