stephle

How about some very finely grated Ricotta Salata? That'd add some nice saltiness alongside some umami for depth>

Actually the hearts are almost as nice as the gizzards -- same texture without the whiteskin. For frying, they'd be indistinguishable - I eat them all the same, for confit/sautee, definitely different. That's why if you get them at the asian market you can get all gizzards and no hearts.

Ooh, those look tasty!! Love the takuan in the middle-colorful and tasty too! I also thought about making an outside in lettuce wrap type roll -- could be interesting too. I still think my favorite filling for more traditional rolls though are soft shell crabs. Bristol Farms (a grocery store out here on the West Coast) does a pretty good one if you're in the hurry and need a fix.

Rather bland but (and I hate to say this) chickeney -- not liverish *at all*. It's more of a textural thing I think -- kind of chewy, a little crunchy if you don't cook them too long. Extremely tender if you parboil or pressure cook them for a good while. Very lean, IMHO good protein. A wonder food in itself. What I'm surprised at is why they haven't caught on more -- tasty versatile and cheap. Oh well, leaves more for me

I'm going to risk being moved over to the 'things that don't belong in sushi' thread but here goes... I was at the Korean market a while back and wanted some food to eat in the car on the way home (it's about 40-45 mins to the store over and back) but the food court only had stews, noodles, or a full blown meat/rice/panchan dinner. I guess Korean food hasn't devolved to the level of McDonald's yet (as sad as I was, i was actually happy about this). We've got an upcoming camping trip and usually when we arrive after the 60 min drive we have a light dinner--I've been thinking this might be the chance to attempt a Korean roll on the go. Was thinking about a sushi-type roll with tamago, chopped kimchi, some of those nice bean sprout panchan, a slice of cold cucumber and perhaps some spicy pork as the center piece. Perhaps spread a little ssangchang or goguchang on the rice before rolling? Does this sound like it'd work from a taste/texture perspective or have I totally gone off my rocker and should I just go and get a proper korean fix at a restaurant?

Newest addiction are the Calpis chews -- the ones in the blue and white packages -- look like Starbursts. Gave one of these to my husband and without knowing he said 'Gosh, these taste just like Dannon'. Too funny. Other catch are the Lotte Relax chocolates -- 72% chocolate laced with Gaba to make you 'relax'. I think the serving size is something like 1/3 of a jar (they come in a pot as little chocolate nuggets) but I never eat that many -- just a 4-5 chunks before bed everynight (hey, I was told dark chocolate was good for you

Thanks! But it's all about the presentation. It doesn't look very yummy when presented in the oval plate in the photo, does it?: Anyway, here is the recipe: 30 ml mirin 30 ml sake 30 ml soy sauce (1:1:1 ratio) 1 knob ginger Combine them together. 300 g thinly sliced pork Pan-fry pork with some salad oil until almost done. Add the mixture and continue to cook for 1-2 min. Done! Very simple yet yummy! Edited to add: Grate ginger and squeeze to get juice, of course. ← Thank you!! I will be making this for dinner this week and will send you pictures of my attempt to see how I did against the master I also just finished reading your wonderful blog - my best wishes to you and your family, hopefully things are getting better now. My sister had a major stroke 3 days after having her baby (she was only 34) so I understand how hard something like this must be, so I doubly thank you for blogging during such a stressful time. It's really lovely to see a slice of regular Japanese family life. As an avowed Japanophile, so much of what I see about Japan is either so slanted towards urban Tokyo life or written by visiting/relocated westerner's filtering of life through their eyes that I really appreciate your beautiful uncensored snapshot of what real family life in Japan is like. You're very talented Hiroyuki and you shouldn't deny it. Please continue sharing your cooking, photography and blogging -- you make this a better place for doing so. Send my best wishes to your wife and if there's anything that would make her happy from Southern California, please let me know and I'll do my best to make it happen best steph.

Wow Hiroyuki, that looks just beautiful -- all glistenting and all, my mouth is watering. Would you mind sharing the rest of your recipe for this dish??

I joke not, gizzard confit! (can you tell I like these suckers?) - proper french name is confit de gesiers I believe Basically you do the same dry rub drill that you'd do for duck leg confit (thyme, garlic, cracked pepper coarse salt), let sit for a few hours or overnight then poach them slowly in chicken fat. You need enough chix fat to completely cover them while cooking. When finished, you can put them in a pot the same way you would duck confit (make sure you pour enough fat over them to completely cover them before sticking them in the fridge) and pull them out as needed. I like to take the finished gizzards, gently warm them, give them a little chop and put on top of a nice mesclun salad--sometimes with roasted beets added for a twist. I make a dijon vinagrette with the melted fat instead of oil. Delicious. Almost as good as the pressure cooked deep fried babies. BTW -- I have frozen the deep fried ones before. They definitely don't reheat the same. Tend to be soggy and unfortunately a little greasy. It's better to freeze the gizzards right after you've cooked them but before the batter, defrost then batter and fry before eating. I do this quite often to good result.

I love gizzards! Used to be a chain here in SoCal called Pioneer Chicken which had the best gizzard basket and fried liver basket (or IIRC you could get half and half). Lovely rrispy batter, never greasy, always really tender. The closest approximation I've ever been able to make is by putting the gizzards into my pressure cooker, cook for 30 mins or so, let cool then deep fry in beer batter recipe. Yummy! If you're looking for beautifully prepared gizzards, go to your local Japanese market. Mitsuwa has them perfectly ready for cooking -- their chicken livers are also beautifully prepared, all deveined, etc.

Those three bullets look so good in the grotto. Beautiful job on the meat! mmm. Anyone know if it's ok to smoke on a townhouse patio? ← In my experience, it typically depends on how much you share with the homeowners president We used to have a very small patio in our townhouse -- I would shamelessly smoke regularly out there on my Brinkman water smoker (the one that was like 18" across and 3 feet high) -- patio was just big enough to fit. It generated a fair amount of smoke, especially while I was still learning how to control smoke, heat, etc but it was never enough to set off smoke detectors or anything. On breezy days, I did have to shut the patio slider to prevent the smoke from blowing back into the house, but other than that, no problems. To be honest, the biggest hassle with smoking on the small patio was cleanup -- always a bear trying to get the drip pan into the house where I could drain/clean it up (not enough room on the patio and no running water). I'd go for it (so long as your HOA rules don't have anything against fire on patios or anything). Might not hurt to share some of the finished product with neighbors on either side to proactively prevent complaints. best, steph.

WOW! What beauties and how talented is this person to make them?!!! Thank you so much for sharing!!

Heads up for anyone who's looking to buy some Konnyaku/Shirataki but doesn't have access to a good Asian market, my local Whole Foods has been carrying the wide noodles (the ones mixed with tofu that resembe fettucini). Cost is a little higher than at Mitsuwa but when you factor in the 30 miles I need to drive, it's a bargain!

You guys are the best! Thank you. And I'd particularly like to thank Peter for the beer suggestion. The most essential part of any good asian meal especially a fiery one

Hi Gang -- heading out to the Korean Supermarket (Galleria in Northridge CA)...went there once before and was overwhelmed so only ended up buying my usual Japanese staples. This time, I'm heading out with the intention of buying ingredients to beef up my Korean repetoire... What would you guys consider to be the staples of being able to throw together a quick Korean (or Korean inspired meal)... Obviously Kimchi, gojuchang -- but what else?

Yumm!! I like my ribeye seasoned with coarse salt, freshly cracked pepper, cooked the pink side of medium rare in my iron skillet. While steak rests I like to throw in a good few shakes of Brandy, deglaze and reduce then cold butter and some freshly chopped parsley. For side, only thing that really works for me is a fresh batch of bearnaise. Nothing better than using the fries to soak up the lovely pan juices on the palte then dunking them into bearnaise. Mon dieu! I'm feeling faint at the thought of it. Need to go lie down

MMM. Skirt Steak=Carne Asada. Family recipe is marinating the skirt steak in a combination of: lemon juice dried oregano beer garlic salt fresh garlic black pepper (I also like to add a little EVOO) Then throw on a hot grill and scorch briefly (do not overcook Yum. I think I know what's for dinner tonight!

I'd agree with FatGuy on this -- I've also done it (done worse, left it out overnight unrefrigerated) and lived to tell the tale. Granted, it was cool in my kitchen and I did as was suggested above and brought it up to a boil for many many minutes before using it. My only caution which I'm sure you've already considered is to make sure you're not going to use this in anything that might go to children, the elderly or anyone with a compromised immune system. They might not be able to fight off something as easily as those of us with constitutions like a horse might be able to

How about a stroganoff or paprikash pie? Meat sliced thin, mushrooms, carmelized onions, some fresh cream+sour cream? If you went lightly on the sauce to make it easily portable I bet this'd be tasty.

I don't know if you were looking for input on the spices you used (and I'm certainly no BBQ guru but wouldn't adding a little extra garlic powder -- maybe up to 1 Tablespoon and some sugar -- again ~1 Tablespoon punch this up a little? Seems like you need more garlic for zest and the sugar for the carmelized complexity it'd bring to the party? Regardless, it all sounds yummy! I think I'm going to need to haul out the Weber tonight

Great thread! I can't stand going to my sisters house to cook. She's got these beautiful appliances, beautiful kitchen but uses cheap (really cheap flimsy TJMaxx nasty cheap) pans to cook in. The kicker is that when you look up (above the butcher block island) she's got a brand new full set of All-Clad hanging there collecting dust because she and her husband don't want to get them all mucked up because then they won't look nice. Sometimes I want to break in there and fry up a skillet full of bacon, cook a hollandaise in the saucier, boil up a big batch of spaghetti--give each pan a chance to give their best just to know they didn't live their lives hanging there going to waste. Love my sister but man, the genetics just didn't fall the same way there.

Yum, yumm. You had me there until you got to the eel part -- not a fan of any smoked fish. That being said, I'd think lashings of butter over mashed potatoes would make just about anything tasty

Salad dressing. Have never figured out why anyone would choose a bottle of god knows what thickened with all sorts of emulsifiers and preservatives over a well made batch of home made. My fav dressing right now is a clove of garlic, 1 shallot, good squirt of anchovy paste, 1 egg yolk with enough evoo to blend in the processor. Add a few drops of sherry vinegar and some good sea salt and ground pepper. Enough for a few days of good salads. Mmm good.

I'll be the minority here but I don't like Salmon in any way shape or form. Strange because I'm a pretty adventurous eater (menudo, tripas, oysters on the half shell, ebi heads, sweatbreads) but for some reason have never found a salmon I liked. Every year I force myself to try it again to no avail. What's sad is that I know it's so good for your skin that I really really want to like it but it's obviously not meant to be. (and funnily enough, after roasting some butternut squash the other night, I've decided that's another one I'm not too keen on).

Doh! just realized these were round STEAKS, not roast. Ouch. You got me there, I'm at a loss as to what to do with these. Sorry