Foggy Morning Comforts ~

Genmaicha in my favorite teapot, hot milk spongecake Eve made last night as a surprise dessert.

Listening to Kate Bush’s new album 50 Words for Snow as the fog begins to lift (but not too much, lucky for me – looove the fog).  I can’t think of better music for a day like today (or almost any day).  Kate Bush is an absolute genius.  Off to work soon ~ hope you all have a lovely day.

PS: my persimmon is almost ripe!  Can’t wait to eat this bad boy.

Happy first day back to work, everyone ~

Only four more weeks until the next vacation!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn, Hello Winter

Seattle weather is a little different every year but this summer was especially odd.  After a very cold winter and a very cold spring, we experienced a very chilly (and depressing) beginning to summer.  It wasn’t until August when the days really started to warm up and then, like a miracle, August and September delivered the most beautiful indian summer I can remember.  One beautiful, seventy-five degree day after another came rolling along until it felt like summer would go on forever.

Of course, that was when it started to get chilly again, but by then I felt as though I’d gotten the summer I’d been waiting for.  Summer this year was a little hard on me as it was, having been diagnosed with skin cancer earlier in the year, for which I underwent surgery in June.  I had to ditch my gauzy summer dresses and spaghetti straps for hats, long skirts, scarves and thin sweaters – for the rest of my life.  It was a hot and rather unpleasantly dressed summer for me, never getting to feel the sun on my face and lathering up with sunscreen wherever I went (doctor’s orders, unfortunately).  I have a post in the works about my special “skin cancer fashions” but for now, let’s just say that although the end of summer was absolutely beautiful, I wasn’t as sad as usual to see it go.  It sure made dressing myself a lot easier!

~

What followed was the most beautiful autumn (honest!) that I can ever remember.  Is autumn always this gorgeous?  The leaves seemed to linger forever, shades of gold and red that made my eyes burn.  The crispness in the air, wrapping myself in warm sweaters and getting my nabe cookbook off the shelf, I really relished in all of these things.  I wish I’d gotten some photos of the beautiful leaves around my house – the burning red maples and the yellow ginkos – but whenever we went out for a walk, we just wanted to talk and spend time together and I forgot my camera every time!

~

In that transition between summer and autumn, near the end of September, we spent a weekend housesitting for my parents in the house I’d grown up in.  A lot has changed about the house – new floors and carpet and paint, new retaining wall in the garden – but it was very sweet and special to spend the weekend there, just the two of us.  It was so quiet, baking bread in the kitchen I used to watch my mom and dad bake bread in when I was little, playing with flour while the kneaded the dough (my dad still makes all their bread, every two weeks or so, from flour they grind themselves).  It was the first time I didn’t have to use a recipe!

Eve snapped a couple of pictures of me while I worked.  I have my classic look of concentration, haha.

Here are a few more shots from that weekend.  It really did seem like the last hurrah of summer.

After that, the weather started to get cold, and when the weather gets cold, my thoughts go directly to: what nabe am I going to cook for dinner?

Japanese Hot Pots: Comforting One-Pot Meals, by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, has been used so many times since we bought it that the book is already falling apart.  We already had a number of nabe recipes collected before we invested in this book, but knowing the history of the dishes, information about substitutions, and suggestions for shime (the nabe “finish”) have made the book indispensable.  There were so many things I ate in Japan that I didn’t know the name of, or the ingredient list, and I continuously have that wonderful experience of taking a sip out of my nabe bowl and saying, “oh, I remember this one!”

I’m working on a larger post showcasing more of the nabe we’ve been making (some of them unusual and delicious) so I won’t talk much more about it now.  Both nabe and this wonderful cookbook deserve their own post, to be sure, but here’s a preview below:

This soup comes from Akita, a dish traditionally enjoyed by hunters up in the mountains, a rich broth made with chicken stock, soy sauce and sake.  The tube-shaped dumplings are called kiritampo.  Hunters used to make them ahead of time and bring them on expeditions to add to their soups.  The rice is cooked, mashed until paste-like, wrapped around chopsticks and then grilled in a broiler.  Ours turned out pretty well, but I think they could have had a little more flavor.  I’m planning on mixing some mushrooms in with the rice next time, to give them a more savory flavor.

~

Thanksgiving has also come and gone.  We did the whole thing for the first time this year, hosting both sets of parents for a cozy, immediate family-only gathering that made for the best Thanksgiving any of us could remember.  We ordered our turkey ages ago from a farm we often buy from at the farmers market and even though it was our first time stuffing and roasting a bird of this size, it turned out beautifully.  I couldn’t believe it!  Sorry for the flash in the picture, but you can see the happy, surprised look on my face when we took the muslin cloth off.  Turkey!

After that came a few days of lazy walks, turkey sandwiches, naps, and finally cutting up the whole carcass and making it into a delicious batch of turkey soup.  We’re baking the rest of the leftover stuffing in a couple of kabocha today, and I’ll be sure to report how that turns out!  Happy autumn, happy Thanksgiving, and happy all-keeping-warm-activities to you all!

Miso for what ails you (recipe)

Home sick yesterday.  With sick one and two-year-olds weeping on my shoulder every day (ah, the beginning of a new school year), I can only avoid an early autumn cold for so long.  Though I suppose this will only be an early autumn cold by Friday.  Until then, it’s a late summer cold!

 

Whenever I get sick, the only food apart from my dad’s homemade chicken soup that can really make me feel sustained is Japanese food – soups and okayu (savory rice porridge).  I thought that since as long as I was home, and making myself some lunch, I might as well post a tutorial to what I believe to be two of the cornerstones of traditional Japanese cooking: dashi soup stock and miso soup.

 

There are a great many wonderful miso and dashi tutorials out there already, but everyone has their own, and this is mine!  Nothing is more fulfilling than a bowl of hot miso soup prepared at home with fresh ingredients and good miso.  It was the first Japanese meal I ever learned to cook for myself and I’ve been making it year after year ever since.

 

The essential element to any miso, apart from the quality of the miso paste itself, is a good soup stock.  Japanese soup stock can be made from any number of ingredients but my personal favorite is a konbu and bonito dashi, made from presoaked seaweed and boiled fish flakes.  Konbu is a marvelous Japanese ingredient – long, thick ribbons of seaweed that are sustainable harvested (they just sheer off the tops, like a lawn) and dried.  Many grocery stores carry konbu now in the asian food section, and it’s delightfully inexpensive.  I use my kitchen scissors to cut it down to the size I need and reserve the rest in a drawer, keeping it for months at a time.

Konbu often has a sort of chalky residue when you remove it from the package, but don’t be alarmed.  This is a mineral deposit from sea water, a result of the drying process.  Some people say you should rinse it off, others say it adds to the taste.  I’ve done both and I suppose my taste just isn’t refined enough to to tell the difference!  If it grosses you out, just brush it off, or quickly run the dry konbu piece under the tap to rinse it, then drop it in a pan, like so.

As I’m only making a few cups of stock, a piece this size will do (size).  Depending on how strong you want your stock to be, you can use a much larger piece and let it soak for many hours, even overnight sitting on the stove (I recommend covering the pot if you own a cat who, like mine does, enjoys splashing in any available water).  A standard soaking time is about twenty minutes, so I will pour three cups of water over the konbu, set the timer for twenty minutes, and move on to preparing the rest of my ingredients with plenty of time.

 

~ If you are a vegan or vegetarian and don’t wish to add any fish flakes to your dashi, konbu dashi is very good on its own.  You can also add dried shiitake mushrooms and allow them to sit along with the konbu, or just make a mushroom broth on its own (same method).  ~

For my miso today, I’m using some vegetables I happen to have around the house: carrots, daikon radish, acorn squash, and nappa cabbage.  The carrots are julienned, the nappa leaf washed and sliced at an angle.  This helps it absorb the flavor of the broth better.  Daikon is a wonderful and traditional flavoring agent for miso, but it is strong, so make sure you like it before you put it in!  The skin of the daikon is tough so I recommend peeling it first to get closer to the core, the sweetest part.  Slice into very thin quarter rounds, or julienne.  Peel and chop the squash into small rolling wedges.  Any veggies can be used in miso, but this is a particularly autumnal bunch – a very traditional basic combo would just be some wakame (dried seaweed), tofu and green onions.  Use what you have (and I admit that not everybody has a daikon sitting in their fridge . . . probably).

I’m also adding some tofu for protein.  This tofu has been rinsed and cubed.  Another traditional method of preparation is just to break it apart with your fingers into bite-sized chunks.

 

Now all my ingredients are ready, so it’s time to finish the dashi preparation.

 

Bring the konbu to a boil, keeping an eye on it.  Right as it reaches a boil, add a generous handful of bonito flakes to the broth and turn off the stove.  Bonito flakes are made from the bonito fish, which is smoked until leathery, then preserved and shaved thinly; it will also last for months in a drawer.  I allow my bonito to sit in the broth for about thirty seconds more, stirring with chopsticks if they seem to be gumming up on top of the konbu (the konbu can also be removed ahead of time, just before the bonito are added, but it’s up to you).

 

The moment the bonito settle in, your kitchen will be filled with a wonderful roasty fish aroma.  Yum!

Next, it’s time to strain the broth.  This can be done through a sheer kitchen towel, but I am using a paper towel here, which I will throw into my compost bucket along with the remains of the bonito and konbu.  Settle the paper towel or cloth into a mesh strainer and, over a bowl, strain all the broth.  Make sure it drains completely, wrap the leftovers up, and toss them!  As with many economical Japanese recipes, these leftovers can be saved and used again.  You can use them together a second time for a much milder dashi, or you can save just the konbu.  Boil it a little longer, slice it thinly, and it will be soft enough to eat!  Toss it with some rice and veggies.

 

 

Success!  You’re left with a beautiful, clear dashi, still steaming hot.  Dashi can be stored in a jar in the fridge for up to three days, or frozen for later use, but it’s best fresh.  If you’re making your miso right away, toss the broth right back into the pot (make sure it’s free of any debris from cooking the stock) and toss your vegetables in.

Simmer the veggies until they are tender, allowing them to soak up the flavor of your dashi.

 

Now comes the part I always used to mess up when I was younger: adding the miso paste.  Miso, like yogurt, has active live cultures that are very good for you, but if you add the miso to boiling water, they will be killed, as well as turning the miso grainy, yuck.  Make sure that your broth is not boiling when you add the miso.  To be extra safe, I usually  just turn the stove off completely.  I am using a white miso paste (shiro miso) because white miso is typically eaten in the warmer months, while red (aka miso) is more commonly eaten in winter.  Still, there are many more types of miso than just red and white, and I am far from being an expert in them!  Let’s just say I like white miso.  Make sure to get a non-GMO, no MSG miso – always check the ingredients.  It may cost a dollar more (and it may not) but you get what you pay for, and miso can keep for months and months, so invest!

 

Scoop out however much you want with a scoop that is larger than the amount you’d like to use.  The reason for this is that miso is very thick, and must be mixed gradually into the broth to make sure it’s all incorporated.  I like my miso soup to be of medium strength, not too salty and not too watery, so for three cups of water, I will use about an 1/8 of a cup, scooped out here in my 1/4 cup measure.  A full 1/4 cup of miso for a recipe of this size is probably more standard.

Dip the scoop into the dashi, fill it with broth, and use your chopsticks to slowly stir.  As you stir, the miso will begin to turn to a smooth paste and you can continue to dip the scoop as you stir, pouring off the mixed miso until all the clumps are broken up.

Last but not least, add the tofu.  I like to do this step last so the tofu is barely warmed through, but you can also add it with the veggies.

Pour into bowls and enjoy.  Beautiful miso soup, rich and savory.  Japanese cooks like to incorporate different colors into their foods (all five colors, you will often hear them say) and I’ve been told that something green in miso is a must – for beauty as well as for nutrition.  The orange carrot and the white daikon also give it a lovely look, the good-luck colors of New Year namasu pickles.  Pair this soup with a bowl of plain Japanese white rice and you’re eating what my English language students in Japan ate for breakfast every single morning (they used to tell me in English: I have a rice and miso soup).

I hope this tutorial is helpful to someone, or at least inspires them to make their own favorite miso recipe.  Stay warm and healthy!

Murakami and the summer that almost was

I’ve been having one of those summers where, when someone asks you how your summer is going, you sometimes answer “really well” and sometimes “it’s okay.”  And you’re being honest, both times.  It always depends on the day, right?  Context!

I know that the weather has something to do with it.  We’ve been having temperatures regularly in the 50s all summer long.  I find myself looking through my nabe cookbook already, searching for hotpots to warm my family up in the chilly evenings.

 

I’ve had successes too.  I finished a novel I’ve been working on and am about to start the revision process (wish me luck).  It’s been a while since I finished anything, so I’m feeling very celebratory about it.  Eve and I have done a considerable about of champagne toasting to it and other small miracles.

Also, I’ve started working again.  I prefer working to being in school, always have, but being back at work provides its own casualties from day-to-day.  I feel as though I’m settling in well to the job, but it’s not exactly the job I hoped it would be.  It’s all fine for now; I’m very much in need of a calm, indefinite situation, and that’s just what I’m getting.  So when the cold or whatever has me a little down, I’ve been turning to some reliable simple pleasures: Japanese cooking and Haruki Murakami.

 

Since the summer began, I’ve been reading almost nothing but YA fiction.  I knock one off in a day or two on my lunch breaks, they’re diverting and pleasant, but YA fiction has its own rhythm.  It’s been a while since I read anything literary and so, when I saw a coworker reading my favorite book of all time, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, I decided to revisit some Murakami for myself.

Reading Murakami is a unique pleasure for me.  There is something spine-tinglingly good about his writing, something so clear and perceptive in the way he writes that I read lines over and over again merely for the pleasure of it.  Picking up one of his books is delicious, like when you step into a luke-warm shower and the hot water suddenly comes back on, or your first sip of ice cold beer on a very hot day.  It’s the kind of pleasure I don’t really feel with any other author.  I’m guessing everyone has a few books like that, books you just want to hug when you’re done with them.

I’m reading Dance Dance Dance over again right now.  It still has its paper cover on from the Kinokuniya in Tokyo where my father bought it the first time we were all in Japan together.  Japanese people often like to keep what they are reading private, so booksellers provide these handy paper covers.  It’s sort of cozy, isn’t it?  And it keeps the cover beneath safe from scratches.  One of those very small things I hardly noticed when I was living there but noticed the absence of when I returned to the States.  Whenever I get into a slightly low mood, I start the grass-is-always-greener routine in my head about going back to Japan.  Whatever helps, right?

This is how I finish up my mornings before work now: fresh matcha and daifuku (well, I don’t get daifuku every day, but I do get matcha).

Also, chilled shabu-shabu udon for lunch, though it’s been so cold I had to heat it up!  What a summer!

Another sunnyandmild weekend is coming up.  I’m hoping for pastries from Honoré, writing and drinking coffee, and maybe (I’m really hoping) some peaches and tomatoes finally at the Farmers Market.

Wishing you all a warm and wonderful summer.  Do you have any comfort books you’re curling up with?

things i love

Spring.

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Morning tea.

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Homemade Granola.

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My Wife.

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Favorite Books.

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Spring is really coming on slowly here, but despite the (rather bitter) cold, the cherry blossoms and magnolias are out.  Everything looks deceptively springish.  School has been hard, but I’ve been doing huge amounts of writing, cooking and reading to keep myself from going crazy through the thesis-writing/Japanese-studying process.  The books above (minus my Moleskine) are two absolutely wonderful YA novels I’ve read recently, (The Man Without a Face, my personal favorite YA book ever, and The Marbury Lens, by the fabulously cool Andrew Smith) though make sure you’re in for the ride before you sign on with either of them (just sayin’)

 

Other things that make me happy are this Anthropologie dress I now own (and am wearing, thank you extra day of work) and Delancey tonight for dinner (lucky us!)

 

Hope everyone is well and having a lovely spring.

Thanksgiving

Thank you to this delicious heritage turkey, raised by a family friend for our holiday.

 

 

Thanks to my parents and friends for providing yet another truly fabulous evening of great food, great conversation and (as you see) great champagne.

 

 

Aaaand . . . my wife is beautiful.

 

 

Thanksgiving has by far become, I think, my favorite holiday.  It’s always good, never a disappointment.  Yesterday was no exception, relaxed and extremely tasty.  I think I was planning on talking a little more about some of the food preparation here, but thanks to a tiny hangover, I think I’ll save that for another day.  I wish I’d taken more pictures yesterday at dinner, but I was having such a nice time, I kept forgetting the camera was even there.  As it should be.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.  I hope you had a wonderful holiday!

standing still

Yesterday (and today) something happened that NEVER happens . . . the University actually closed.

I woke up around 4am yesterday morning to howling wind and snow drifts in my back yard, but by midday, the sun was out and shining and the whole world was completely silent (we’re all trapped!)

Eve and I spent the day in extreme comfort, walking in the freezing weather and cooking.  A much-needed mental health day, just when my midterms were really starting to get to me.

And of course, in the wake of some neighborhood kiddies, sled tracks.

I returned to a cooking experiment I’ve been putting off, which turned out to take about ten minutes from beginning to end.  I am beginning to prepare and test recipes out for my おせち料理 for the New Year’s Eve dinner.  Here’s the product:

These little candied sardines are called tazukuri and, while I think they are absolutely delicious, nobody else in my house can stomach their fishiness!

About them, The Japan Times says:

The characters used to write tazukuri are the pictographs for “field” and the verb “to make.” Combined, they mean “to ready the fields for planting.” In tazukuri at New Year there is a play on tsukuri, another word for the first-course sashimi that generally begins a formal meal. Before refrigeration, in the inland areas where rice is cultivated, fresh sashimi-quality fish was not always available. Small gomame sardines — the same ones fishermen scatter in the waters as bait, as if sowing a “field” in the ocean — were dried, roasted and seasoned for special occasions to make “farmers’ sashimi” or “field tsukuri.”

SUPER EASY TAZUKURI RECIPE

~ 1 oz. dried sardines (ごまめ)

~ 1 Tbsp shoyu

~ 1 Tbsp sugar

~ 1 tsp mirin

~ 1 tsp white roasted sesame seeds

1. Scatter dried sardines in a dry skillet (cast iron works best for me) and cook on medium heat, stirring gently and often to prevent burning, until they begin to pop and can snap in half between your fingers.  Remove them from the pan and clean out any debris the fish have left behind.

2. Add shoyu, mirin and sugar to the pan and turn the heat back on.  When the sauce begins to thicken, throw the sardines back in and toss to coat.  Turn the heat off, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and remove tazukuri to a tray to cool (they will stick together if left in a pile, but it doesn’t affect the taste, just the presentation!)

Enjoy these as a jobina (side-dish) or on top of hot, white rice.  They are deliciously salty-sweet and extremely calcium rich.

And of course, we ended our wonderful day with the absolute best cookies my wife has ever made.  Bless these cookies.

Happy Holidays everybody and stay warm and safe!

reading to paradise, haha

The Children’s Book

Possession

Gravity’s Rainbow

The Line of Beauty

Iron Council

Brideshead Revisited

Keeping track here of what I’ve been reading.  Crossed out is finished, italics are in process.  I’m reading Possession for the second time and enjoying it much more than the first time.  I’m on a Byatt kick, apparently.  She makes me want to write, because she goes on and on about everything.  Though The Children’s Book was a bit much for me – not because it went on, but because what it ended up going on about.  I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone, but I did love it.  Anyway, reading during school has been a new thing for me these last two quarters.  Amazing how much time I end up having when I completely disengage from the internet.  I hardly check my phone anymore, I don’t check e-mail except when I have to.  Things are a lot more peaceful in my head, and I get a lot more done.

I’ve not been much on the computer writing either.  I’m writing by hand again.  I have a Moleskine substance abuse problem; I must have six of them, all with different uses.

Oh man, you know it’s been a long day when you have a bottle of beer in one hand and the phone in the other and you put the beer up to your ear to talk.

 

I need a new job.