I heart skewers

Mini yakitori lunch with skewers of chicken hearts. But let’s start with veggies :

Red sweet pepper.

Summer kabocha.

Chilled cream :
I put in the blender boiled kabocha, a raw red pepper, a few steamed shimeji mushrooms, a little miso and 2 tbs of roast sesame.
Served very cold with freshly ground black pepper on top.
It’s sweet, feeling and refreshing.

Chicken hearts and green sweet pepper skewers. To grill in the oven-toaster.

I’ve painted a few times the hearts with this so-su ( Worscester-style sauce).

Konnyaku noodles and sweet chili sauce.

Yakitori tsukune

Tonight yakitori !
But the photos are… night photos. Sorry.

You’ll see nicer in this post with 2 more versions of this basic skewer. And a mini-compil :

other yakitori

Soft tsukune recipe :
-For about 150g of meat (not too lean ground chicken), I’ve added a 1 tbs of ginger (minced), 1 tbs of leek (minced), 1 ts of soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, 2 tbs of sake, 1 tbs of sesame oil, plus a little more salt. After adding the previous ingredients and kneading, I’ve mixed in 2 big tbs of potato starch and about 1/2 cup of water. I let it rest 2 hours so flavors can mix.
-Then the balls are formed and boiled. Bring a pot of water to ebullition, pass on medium heat and throw in freshly made balls. When they are done, they are white all around and they come afloat. Take them away. They can be cooled and stored for a later meal, or used immediately.
-Put balls on skewers, oil, salt and grill. It’s the simple “salt grilled style”.

Yuzu citrus and togarashi hot chili pepper tsukune. I also made nira tsukune by adding minced nira (garlic chive) to the mix.

With the broth I made a soup, adding slices of ginger, shimeji mushrooms and negi leeks.

Lacquered yakitori balls and grilled kabocha

Sauce tsukune.

Sesame tsukune.
Two more variation of tsukune (meat balls) of yakitori (grilled chicken skewer bars). For simple “salt” version, see here.

Yep, they are painted…

The boiled balls (preparation here) are put on skewers, then painted several times with sauce, before, during and after being grilled under the broiler or on a brasero. I have not made my sauce, I’ve used the fruity Bulldog sauce (more here). Some yakitori shops use that, but most make their mix.
For the sesame ones, after 2 or 3 times, I stopped adding sauce but passed the skewer in a mix of white and black sesame seeds.

As I used the oven-toaster, I also grilled thin slices of kabocha pumpkin. Just like that, no salt, no oil. It’s delicious.

Vegetables (raw red onion, blanched and cooled okra and ninniku-no-me garlic stalks) and the leftover of creamy pesto dressing (preparation here). I mixed and let one hour.

Then 2 appetizers, I kept them “nature” without adding salt :

The seeds of kabocha, baked with the rest.

Edamame.

So I had a small casual dinner… well, that was a lunch.

other yakitori

Shishito no kushiyaki – A skewer of lion peppers

A.simple.Japanese.delight.

Take tasty ingredients, do the minimum to showcase them.
These small Japanese peppers, called shishito (lion pepper) have spent the Summer under the sun, and you can smell and taste it. They have an incredible flavor.

I caught them with my spear and grilled them in the oven toaster just 4 minutes. Grrrr…

Disbanded ! I enjoyed them very hot, with shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix).

Yaki-hearts

A heart shaped yakitori lunch.
Tori is bird, yakitori is grilled chicken, the generic name for the Japanese small chicken skewers. All parts are used. You can grill on a brasero, if you have. I use the oven toaster for my individual y-t.

Before you saw yakitori (click on text) :
with negi leeks

gizzards

salt grilled tsukune (meatballs)

sauce tsukune

sesame tsukune

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Today chicken hearts. They are opened flat on small skewers.
You have 2 options :

Shio-yaki. Salt grilled. Just sprinkle coarse natural sea salt, then grill.

In sauce. You can buy a yakitori sauce if you like buying stuff. Or simmer a little soy sauce with mirin, sugar or honey (or a mix) and add a very small amount of starch if you wish it was thicker.
Coat your skewer in that sauce. Start grilling. Paint again with sauce. Finish grilling.

The 2 types.

On the table, also serve the rest of sauce, and shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix), on a side plate. For more flavor, you can dip the skewers before eating. Or not. The flavor of the grilled meat is enough.

Heart color side : salsa soup. Tomato juice, Louisiana chili, tomatillos, green pepper.

Tomatillos would not float (unless supported by green pepper or their “package”. They fell in the bottom of the soup.

Matsutake kayaku gohan. Flavored rice. In the rice cooker, I added soy sauce, mirin, spinach stalks and matsutake mushrooms (sliced stalks). For the color, I mix in spinach leaves at the end. It’s genmai, brown rice here.