Twilight roasted fish jaw

A simple early dinner.
ぶりかま焼き (buri-kama yaki).
I baked the jaw of a buri (yellow tail). I’ve simply drizzled oil + mirin + soy sauce on it and passed under the grill. Then, mmm….
That looks like nothing. The jaw of fish is often discarded and that’s great for me, because I can get it for a song. But if you roast it, you have a dish for a king. That’s the case for most big fatty fish, so try it with tuna and salmon too.

I had crispy radicchio (trévise)
that I ate with just a little salt and olive oil.

My usual veggie stir-fry.

Add rice, you have a yummy menu.

Ryori, a Japanese classic menu… (compilation by cooking techniques)

Quick list of Japanese “classics” to help you navigate on this site. That’s not complete at all. I tried to make it representative. I often make them with a twist, but I tell you in the post.

Short memo about the Japanese meal

-all dishes are brought at the same time, ideally served in individual dishes, one plate per item.
-there is rice + soup + three items. Or more.

The items, called okazu tend to be side-dish sized. On the menu in restaurants, traditional style was to present the okazu by cooking technique.

ONE :

GOHAN, rice
rice cuisine list ***** sushi list

and ONE :

吸い物,SUIMONO
A soup to drink !

DASHI (basic stock tutorial)
vegan dashi tuto
misoshiru (miso soup, in many posts)
shijimi miso soup
clear soup
O-zoni New Year soup
sake kasu Winter white soup

And THREE, FOUR, FIVE… many :

OKAZU LIST

お造り o-tsukuri
Normally, that’s a term for seafood sashimi, raw seafood. I don’t *cook* it of course.

scallop sashimi
calamari sashimi noodles
hamo no aburi (flamed sashimi)
hiya yakko (chilled tofu cubes)
konnyaku faux-sashimi

和え物,aemono
Cold dish with sauce.

shira-ae veggies
goma-ae kogomi (sesame fiddle heads)
snappy beans and shrimps in kimizu-ae (yolk sauce)

蒸し物, mushimono
Steamed.
egg tofu
dobin mushi (steamed soup)
okowa kabocha (steamed pumpkin with rice)
steamed scallop

御浸し, o-hitashi
Blanched.
mustard green o-hitashi
green leaf maki
reishabu (poached meat)

揚げ物 agemono
Fried dishes.

tempura (tutorial)
kakiage (mixed tempura)
karaage fish
agedofu, fried tofu DIY
kaki-furai (fried oysters)

焼き物, yakimono
Grilled dishes.

shioyaki (salt grilled fish)
kabayaki conger eel
yakiniku, beef BBQ
yakitori (chicken skewers)
teriyaki chicken(the “real” thing, recipe)
teriyaki fish
miso yaki chicken
miso yaki fish
dengaku (skewers)

鉄板焼き,teppanyaki
Grilled on the hot plate.
Beef liver teppanyaki
okonomiyaki (compilation)
ika-yaki (calamari)

煮物, nimono
Simmered.

pumpkin kabocha no nitsuke
kakuni (pork)
beef shigure
buri daikon (fish and radish)

炒め物 itamemono
Stir-fried.

champuru (Okinawan scramble)
kinpira

漬物, tsukemono
pickles
wasabi leaf tsukemono
daikon radish leave tsukemono
dashi’t, Obanazawa pickle
pink lotus root tsukemono

酢の物, sunomono
Quick vinegar pickles. Salads with lots of vinegar.

potato sarada
daikon ume sarada
kabocha sarada

korokoro yaki onigiri

Yaki-onigiri of red rice, with gomashio (sesame and salt).

A Japanese classic with a twist or two.
Korokoro is the noise of balls or small wheels rolling…
Onigiri are balls of cooked rice, but they tend to be shaped in the hand (nigiri =grasped), so they are like triangles usually. These are perfectly round balls.

And they are grilled (yaki). That gives them a crispy crust all around, with a little pop corn flavor. While the reheated rice is very soft. Addictive !

First particularity : instead of plain white rice, I used a leftover of this sekihan (rice with red azuki beans). That’s not forbidden. Any rice leftover will do. If it’s plain you’d want to add some kind of stuffing or flavoring. That’s not necessary here.

Then I grilled them in the tako-yaki device. That’s a metal tray with half-sphere holes. There exist some electric machines, some big gas ones for shop, mine is a cheap and small cast iron one that I heat on my induction stove. This mold is not exclusive to Japan. It’s used in different Asian countries. And also in Denmark to make ebelskiver pancakes.

I oiled the holes of the hot mold, put rice. Then when they were done, I took out the grilled half balls, put more rice, and a little miso as glue to fix 2 halves together for the miso version (below). Those on top are plain.

Miso stuffed version, on lettuce.

Osechi 5 : chicken matsukaze

Matsukaze, kaze the wind passing through the branches of matsu the pine… That gives good luck for sure. I don’t know more. It’s the name of this recipe of chicken.

Chicken matsukaze

Adapted from the recipe “ichimatsu noshi tori” (chicken on a chessboard) of Mrs Suzuki.

Ground meat was used in the initial version. I used a full breast.
With a knife, cut a 300g of chicken breast in the smallest bits you can. It’s easier if the meat is very cold, slightly frozen. Put half of the meat in an oiled heated pan, ans stir-fry it till golden. Let it cool. (photo 1) In a blender, combine 1 small egg, the raw meat, 1 tbs of chunky white miso, 1 tbs of low salt soy sauce, 1 tbs of sugar. Mix it into a cream texture. Add the cooled cooked meat. Mix again slightly or longer, depending on the texture you wish. I think smooth is more traditional. I prefered chunky.

Put cooking paper in a square/triangular dish and fill it in order to have about a 5 cm height. (photo 2).
Bake covered with a foil about 20 minutes at 250 degree C. Take out the foil a few minutes before it’s done. After 15 minutes, start checking if it’s cooked with a pick. If the pick gets out dry and some liquid splashes out, it’s done. (photo 3)

With a serrated knife level the top and take out the “roasted” bits. Cover the half with sheet of paper to make a rectangle topped with white poppy seeds. Move the paper and cover the other half with powder flaked aonori green seaweeds. Let it cool. (photo 4).

When it is cold, cut regular bicolor band. Place them in reverse order in the box to form a checker pattern. Serve the 2nd to 5th day as taste is better after a little rest.

It was DELICIOUS !!!!! I didn’t know that dish. It’s this year’s Osechi discovery for me.

Osechi ryori compilation