Dinner! 2002

[Priscilla]

No, Jinmyo, I have never made my own, although a Japanese co-worker of a friend says it's done in the home all the time--applesauce, Worcestershire sauce, etc. We've become stuck on Kikkoman as our bottled fave, it's nice and spicy.

Can you tell me how to make it myself? I'd love to try.

[Jinmyo]

I will.

But I have to go now.

I'll edit it into this later.

edit:

Okay.

I caramalize dicced apples and onions with a bit of ginger. Add half as much tamarind and twice as much mirin. Puree. Strain. To this add equal amount of shoyu. Season with white pepper, sometimes with a bit of chile.

[Stephanie]

Needed quick meal last night, so made salmon filet poached in water, lemon juice, and white wine vinegar, with raisins and sliced onions. Served it with tri-color couscous and frozen veggies (I know, shame on me). The fish poached up really quickly and was excellent quality--it was imported Scotch salmon from Wild Edibles' stand in Grand Central.

[FoodMan]

Last night we had an improvised sort-of pad thai pork.

I rubbed a piece of pork shoulder with ginger, garlic, corriander, salt and cayene and let it sit overnight. I braised it in the slow cooker with some white wine, water, soy, sesame oil and star anise. by the time I came back from work it was falling of the bone and the whole apartement smelled great.

I shredded the meat and sauteed it with garlic, ginger, green onions, honey, lime zest and soy sauce.

I served it with some "rice sticks" noodles with a generous squeeze of lime and crushed peanuts.

[tsquare]

Shrimp sauteed with jalapeno, garlic, white wine, oregano, mint, and fennel fronds (see Mario's first book for the origination), served with toasted sourdough and late harvest sliced tomatoes.

Unfortunately, the fresh mozzerella wasn't anymore.

[torakris]

No, Jinmyo, I have never made my own, although a Japanese co-worker of a friend says it's done in the home all the time--applesauce, Worcestershire sauce, etc.  We've become stuck on Kikkoman as our bottled fave, it's nice and spicy.

Can you tell me how to make it myself?  I'd love to try.

Does your co-worker mean people in homes in Japan? or people who are living abroad and have no access to a Japanese market?

Almost no one in Japan actually makes any type of sauce, this is the bottled sauce capital of the world!!

People's jaws drop if I mention that I make my own salad dressing.

Heck people in this country don't even make their own tonkatsu, if they don't buy it already fried in the deli section of the supermarket then they pull it out of fresh meat section already breaded and ready for the pan.

[torakris]

Last night's dinner:

Hawaiian style brasied pork with stirfried cabbage, great recipe from Epicurious, the pork chunks were simmered til tender in a soy based sauce with lots of garlic and ginger and a touch of 5 spice powder and chiles. The cabbage was a simple stir fry with lots of ginger.

Curried persimmon soup, this was interesting (another thing pulled off the internet). I really liked it aswell as 2 of the 3 kids but my husband didn't care for the sweetness in a soup. It really reminded of a pumkin pie, but with a curry flavor, I think I am going to work on this and try to cut back on the sweetness just a tad.

Dessert (as well as this mornings breakfast) was persimmon bread

[cugel_the_clever]

A modified chicken version of ROQUEFORT-STUFFED PORK CHOPS . Pretty damn good, but verrry rich and filling.

[Priscilla]

Does your co-worker mean people in homes in Japan? or people who are living abroad and have no access to a Japanese market?

Almost no one in Japan actually makes any type of sauce, this is the bottled sauce capital of the world!!

People's jaws drop if I mention that I make my own salad dressing.

Torakris, the person in question is Japanese, living in the U.S., so I assumed (could be wrong!) she meant expats. My impression was that she preferred her version to bottled, or perhaps, why buy it when it's so easy to make. It certainly is not at all difficult to get Japanese ingredients here in Southern California, so I doubt that's a consideration.

It was all bottles--ketchup, applesauce, Worcestershire, other stuff, all the elements of what's in the prepared bottled sauce, only in component parts. I keep thinking I'll get the details and give it a try someday, but Kikkoman is so good! I use no other prepared sauce except Heinz ketchup (oh of course I keep a can of Herdez salsa on the shelf at all times!), but bottled tonkatsu sauces seem just right, certainly because we came to the dish through eating in Japanese restaurants, and that is what is served.

But lookit Jinmyo's fabulous sauce:

Okay.

I caramalize dicced apples and onions with a bit of ginger. Add half as much tamarind and twice as much mirin. Puree. Strain. To this add equal amount of shoyu. Season with white pepper, sometimes with a bit of chile.

Looks pretty wonderful. I will be applying it when I next make tonkatsu.

Thanks again, Jinmyo.

(I just know that the nice Japanese woman who has given me cooking hints over the years would think I'm even crazier than she already does if I told her I was making tonkatsu sauce from scratch!)

[Jinmyo]

You're welcome.

Actually, I usually use my own bread crumbs for tonkatsu as well.

Kristin, the persimmon soup sounds interesting (though sweet).

[Priscilla]

Fried chicken thighs, 3 veg salads: green bean with mustard/honey vinaigrette, grated carrot, coleslaw, heart-shaped biscuits (still benefitting from the schooling in the Biscuit discussion) with butter and honey.

[Jinmyo]

Disclaimer: Professional kitchen, staff of three. But this is easy enough to do at home.

Tabletop grills:

Bulgogi (marinated strip loin steak slices), cremini mushrooms marinated in shoyu, ocean perch, asparagus spears, scallions, poblano pepper slices.

Chinese chive pancakes.

Miso broth.

Cabbage and cubed daikon kimchees.

[tommy]

jinny, in what do you marinate the beef??

[mixmaster b]

Had guests for dinner last night. (6 of us total--as many as my dining table will fit. )

Started with sage focaccia, crackers, and various cheese (a fresh pecorino, an aged pecorino, some chaubier, some cheddar) and olives, consumed at the coffee table with French 75's.

First course seared tuna served carpaccio style with arugula, capers, lemon vinaigrette.

Second course beef short ribs braised in red wine, served with "celery duo": celery root puree and braised celery stalks. This recipe was from Epicurious, a Daniel Boulud/Shiela Lukins recipe. I followed exactly except added a bit of brandy and a hunk of butter to the wine sauce to dress it up. Came out nice and satisfying for a rainy night.

Dessert was apple tarts served with honey vanilla gelato. (These thin apple tarts are our fall-back dessert because my S.O. can whip them out in a flash.) Gelato was homemade (also by S.O.) and very delicious.

Espresso.

[Jinmyo]

jinny, in what do you marinate the beef??

Well, tommy, the bulgogi sauce I make is quite similiar to the tonkatsu sauce discussed earlier.

I puree onion, apple, and a bit of garlic. Press this through a sieve. Add an equal quantity of mirin. Add to this an equal quantity of shoyu. Add a splash of rice vinegar and a bit of sesame oil. Add some good twists of black pepper and some chile seeds.

[tommy]

thanks jinny. i'm going to try this.

tis the season for short ribs i suppose. last night night i prepared beef short ribs braised in red wine. basically the recipe from NYC's Ouest's Tom Valenti (found here). i've always had great results with this extremely simple approach. i trim the excess fat before plating.

served with with horseradish mashed pots and braised spiced red cabbage.

[Suzanne F]

Jinmyo -- is the tamarind you use in your tonkatsu sauce the jarred paste, or the moist packaged pulp?

Friday was plain NY strip steaks and plain baked potatoes (well, with a little yogurt on top), and our usual mixed salad with olive oil and cheap balsamic. So to keep from falling asleep while eating: a bastardized Indian-flavored spinach: chopped onions, garlic, and grated ginger sautéed in canola oil until golden, then Madras curry powder plus a little extra ground fenugreek, cumin, and coriander sautéed in; about a cup of flaked coconut (rinsed off the sugar first) and a cup of chicken broth, let that simmer an hour or so. At the last minute, added a package of frozen chopped spinach, cooking just enough to thaw and heat it, and mixed in chopped mint and cilantro just before serving. Unauthentic, but pretty good, and definitely more interesting than the rest of the meal.

[Jason Perlow]

Last night we made Klinkbasa with purple cabbage, apples and potatoes. Although we only had tastes of it and ordered out Vietnamese food, since we ate some the sausages with traditional sauerkraut and mustard accutriments earlier in the day and were a bit sausaged out.

Rachel browned the sausage, then added:

1 whole red cabbage, cut into large slices

1 granny smith apple, peeled and cubed

1.5 lbs of small red potatoes, quartered

1 lemon, all the juice and a few strips of zest, minced

2 Tbs white vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup water

After it had braised for about an hour, stirring occasionally, Rachel added a slurry of 1 tsp cornstarch to thicken the juices. The dish was delicious, the unanimous favorite of all that sampled the kielbasa that day.

[Jinmyo]

Jinmyo -- is the tamarind you use in your tonkatsu sauce the jarred paste, or the moist packaged pulp?

Friday was plain NY strip steaks and plain baked potatoes (well, with a little yogurt on top), and our usual mixed salad with olive oil and cheap balsamic.  So to keep from falling asleep while eating:  a bastardized Indian-flavored spinach: chopped onions, garlic, and grated ginger sautéed in canola oil until golden, then Madras curry powder plus a little extra ground fenugreek, cumin, and coriander sautéed in; about a cup of flaked coconut (rinsed off the sugar first) and a cup of chicken broth, let that simmer an hour or so.  At the last minute, added a package of frozen chopped spinach, cooking just enough to thaw and heat it, and mixed in chopped mint and cilantro just before serving.  Unauthentic, but pretty good, and definitely more interesting than the rest of the meal. 

Suzanne, I usually get tamarind pressed into rectangular cakes. I just slice off a strip and proceed from there.

You know, I've never used frozen spinach but it occured to me a few days ago to pick up a few packages of it for emergencies. How is it? I seem to remember St. Julia abjuring it and casting it behind her.

tommy, short ribs done with the bulgogi sauce are basically kalbi.

But I love braised short ribs so much that I rarely make kalbi and instead do bulgogi using strip loin.

[researchgal]

fall feast...beef carbonnade using Guinness

egg noodles

mashed balsamic sweet 'tatoes

salad of mixed greens, toasted walnuts, maytag bleu, pears

[tommy]

orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage.

green salad with a lemon garlic vinaigrette and homemade croutons.

i think i'll cook the sausage separately next time, letting the EVOO play the biggest role in the sauce.

[Jinmyo]

Excellent, tommy. Yes, it's best to cook the sausage seperately. Not only so the flavour doesn't overpower but because I've found that the fats that come out are not necessarily the "lipid of choice".

Another nice combination is orecchiette with broccoli rabe and lamb, veal, or even pork kidney or chicken liver.

[Blondie]

Mushroom ravioli with sage brown butter and truffle oil. Grilled treviso, mushrooms and shallots. Majorero and Garotxa with guava paste and apples (Jonah Gold).

[Suzanne F]

Jin, I think I would die of anemia if not for frozen spinach. It is one of the very few frozen veg I will ever have in the house. So when a last-minute urge strikes for a green veg besides lettuce, I've got it at hand. As long as it's kept well and doesn't get freezer burn, I find it adequate (especially when sauced or used on pizza). If I am an apostate, so be it.

Tamarind: that's what I've got, so I shall try your sauce. Thanks. Been wanting to make tonkatsu lately.

[Varmint]

On Saturday we had a few friends. I bastardized a few local dishes and added twists on fairly common (and overkilled) standards:

Green tomato and jalapeno soup with crab, creme fraiche and country ham cracklings.

Pan roasted duck breasts with riesling and shallot sauce, served on pumpkin & wild mushroom risotto (someone mentioned this risotto a couple of days ago)

Your standard molten chocolate cake with a caramel truffle buried inside (surprise), served with homemade coffee and egg nog ice cream.