Monday evening is my weekend evening as our soba noodle & Japanese restaurant is closed on Tuesdays & Wed.
Last night I cooked for my parents and our relatives Aussie beef raised in Tasmania.
I pan-fried three different cuts of Tasmanian beef steak and seasoned with my kind of teriyaki sauce called kuwayaki-no-tare. Served with grated daikon or white radish, chopped asatsuki or spring onion, and home-made ponzu. My ponzu suace for the beef steak is made up with kurozu or locally made dark vinegar, koikuchi (dark)soy sauce and a dash of Aussie E.V. Olive oil which was given by my former boss, Master Soba Noodle Chef Yoshinori Shibazaki of Shimbashi Soba So Good on Chevron Island, Gold Coast, Australia. When I had an opportunity to dine at his new restaurant with my Gold Coast friends in April this year, Yoshi-san and his wife Keiko-san kindly gave me a bottle of Joseph 2008 Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil, South Australia. My soba & udon noodle making teachers back in the mid-’90′s Sydney’s Shimbashi Soba Restaurant remember that I love Aussie olive oil.
And the wine last nigh was 2004 Cabernet Merlot, Leeuwin Estate, Margaret River. The bottle was presented to us by Steve Hafer, my aikido mate from Sydney when he and other mates visited us and enjoyed slurping my hand-made soba noodles served with deep-fried shiro-ebi or fresh white shrimps. That day was the day before my 54th birthday, 27 May 2010. Thank you, Steve. We very much enjoyed the wine at last after all the unprecedented hot, humid and endless summer here in Gifu prefecture, Japan.
So with the Aussie beef and wine a great dinner time was had by us all last night.
written by Chef Shuji Ozeki
Aussie beef served with grated daikon, ponzu, Japanese summer herbs
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Aussie beef served with grated daikon, ponzu, Japanese summer herbs
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Bottle singed by Steve H.
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Mum & Shuji toast to
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a local fishmonger sears bonito fillet and dunks into iced water
Tataki-Seared Bonito Fillet with Onion Dressing Sauce serves 4
Every early summer my 75 year old mum makes onion dressing sauce a lot and keep it in a large jar and store it in fridge. It can be used to marinate deep fried whole fish such as small sized aji or yellow tail, and chiayu or baby sweet fish(fresh water fish called ayu). It also makes a very tasty sauce over the deep fried chicken thigh meat (coat the meat with potato starch or corn flour before deep frying). Or dress the sauce over the hiya yakko or freshly made tofu served chilled. This makes a cold entree of tofu salad. This evening we will dress it over the tataki modori-katsuo or seared returning-bonito.
The bonito is a long distance swimmer who begins swimming in early summer from the south of the Pacific Ocean off Japanese archipelago. The fish swims along with the Kuroshio Current, a warm and fertile current traveling from the south west coast of Japan up north as further as off the coast of Miyagi prefecture (on the north eastern coast). Modori-gatsuo (katsuo) or returning bonito is the name for the same fish which has swam all the way from the south in early summer of May and has reached the colder water off the coast of Miyagi. And then it begins returning to the south in late summer or early fall. By that time the katsuo or bonito has plump up with all the good food such as oily sardine it has eaten during the summer months as it travels along the warm and fertile Kuroshio Current. Hence, the returning-bonito wears lots of healthy omega 3 oil that we need to help rejuvenate our body fatigue from the summer heat. It is also very very tasty.
1/4 a whole fresh bonito with skin on, salt and pepper as needed, olive oil as needed, white wine or sake as needed, 4 oba leaves(or fresh dill), 1 hana-myoga (optional, finely chopped and rinsed in water), 1 tablespoon grated ginger, 2 cloves garlic(thinly sliced and toasted), assorted green leaves (rocket shoots, watercress, daikon sprouts, soba sprouts), 8 asatsuki-negi(finely chopped shallots), 40g salted wakame (sea weed, what I call sea lettuce, rinsed and cut in bite size), 1 tomato(cut half and sliced, or diced if you prefer)
To make multi-purpose onion dressing sauce (A) 2 onions (peeled and sliced finely), 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, 150ml apple vinegar (or rice vinegar or kurozu dark vinegar), 150ml soy sauce, 150ml E.V. olive oil,
- Spread sliced onions on a large tray so as to air the onions and leave them for 15 minutes.
- Marinate the sliced onions in the multi-purpose dressing sauce (A) overnight. The dressing sauce will be ready for use the following day.
- How to clean and fillet the whole fish is to be demonstrated during the lesson.
- Skewer the fillet with metal skewers. Salt lover the bonito fillet with skin up and sear the skin side over the flame of gas or char-grilled BBQ, or Tosa style of searing the fish fillet over the flame of rice straw. Sear the red flesh side as well. And dunk into icy cold water, drain and dry.
- Slice the seared fish fillet into 5mm thick and arrange on a plate with fresh green leaves, wakame (sea weed), chopped hana-myoga and sliced tomatoes. Pour the dressing sauce over the dish and sprinkle asatsuki onion or chopped shallots.
Copyright ©2010 Shuji Ozeki ☎ +81 575-22-0128 http://www17.plala.or.jp/shujiozeki/
Soba Kanten buckwheat flour and water set with aga aga, serve chilled
Kanten is Japanese word for aga aga. Kanten is low fat diet food and buckwheat has long been considered food for longevity and good health by the Japanese. Today it has scientifically been proven fact that buckwheat is super healthy due to highly concentrated protein called rutin. During muggy summer months, the Japanese crave for sweets made from kanten and enjoy a moment of cool refreshing treat
Ingredients Serves 12
5g dried kanten (or powdered aga aga), 2 cups water to soak kanten, 50g buckwheat flour, 2 cups water, 110g sugar (or raw sugar), 3 tablespoons honey (to your taste),
- Soak kanten in 2 cups cold water. Cook kanten on high heat till kanten dissolves completely and add 110g sugar.
- In a mixing bowl, put in 50g buckwheat flour and 2 cups water and mix well.
- Combine 1. and 2. in a saucepan and cook on high heat to bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and keep cooking for a few minutes or the kanten mixture is thick and starchy. Remove from the heat and add 3 tablespoons honey and mix well.
- Wet the tin mould with water and pour the cooked kanten mixture into it. Leave it to cool off to the room temperature and set. Cover it with glad wrap and put it in fridge.
- To serve, turn the tin mould upside down on a cutting board and remove the mould. Cut soba kanten into 12 pieces.
(Sorry, working on uploading photos of the making process of soba kanten.)
Dried kanten, aga aga Soak kanten in water Cook kanten to dissolve and add sugar
Add soba flour mixed with 2 cups water and cook. Wet the mould. Pour the mixture into it.
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English website www.shujiozeki.com Japanese website www17.plala.or.jp/shujiozeki/
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email shujioz@gmail.com
