cia – Page 91 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Makizushi with Pickled Vegetables

Among my purchases at the Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, New Jersey, were Japanese produce I rarely see outside of New York City’s Sunshine Mart off St. Mark’s Place. I was so excited to see yamagobo, or Japanese pickled burdock, because I have never eaten those outside of Sushiden. The pickled radish, or takuan, was more familiar, and of course, so were the shiso leaves.

These three ingredients inspired me to make my own makizushi at home. I learned to order them from the Dr. after every sushi and sashimi meal at Sushiden. He just asks the chef for the three ingredients, and voila, small hand rolls are served. A few months ago, I had picked up some soy skins in lieu of nori, or Japanese roasted seaweed, and I was glad to finally use them here. (Don’t worry, I’m not turning vegetarian. I bought them because they looked really pretty.) They didn’t add anything special to the rolls and I still preferred the nori over them, but they made colorful presentation when served with fried lotus root.

I’m not going to get into the proper way to make sushi rice and all that, but you’ll need a Japanese bamboo mat to make respectable rolls. In a pinch, you can user Saran wrap, too, just don’t let your Japanese friends know.

Ingredients:
yamagobo, drained, chopped
takuan, drained, julienned
shiso leaves, chiffonade
sushi rice, cooked
mirin, or rice wine vinegar
nori
wasabi, optional

1. Place nori on a Japanese bamboo mat. The mat should lie so it rolls away from you, not from side to side. Keeping your hands moistened with vinegar-water, put a scoop of sushi rice in the center of the nori and spread evenly on top of the seaweed. Spread a streak of wasabi across the middle if using, then add a layer of the vegetables across the center of the rice.
2. To roll, fold the bamboo mat so the filling is enclosed in the center of the nori, then moisten the top edge of the nori and seal the roll tightly so that it won’t fall apart when sliced.
3. Remove the mat from around the roll, seam side down. Slice the roll into one-inch rounds straight down using a sharp knife or serve as small rolls to eat with hands.

Quail Egg Tapas

I was watching a rerun of an Andrew Zimmern episode shot in Barcelona where he came across some quail eggs, pointed at them and said, Quail eggs; we don’t really see that back at home. I found the comment odd because I see them every time I go to Chinatown. And as far as I can remember, we often had them stocked. In fact, I had a dozen in the fridge!

I usually like to boil them, peel off the shell and throw them in a wok of stir-fried vegetables, but over the weekend, I was inspired to fry them for breakfast and eat them with chistorra, a semi-cured sausage from Spain I picked up from DespaÃ±a. You probably make your own breakfast already, so why not use different ingredients the next time? This is very lazy, but the presentation looks like you made an effort.

Ingredients:
quail eggs
chistorra sausages, halved lengthwise
oil

Optional:
mozzarella cheese
basil leaves
tomato
baguette, toasted

1. Using a small skillet, heat some oil. Fry sausages until light brown. If you have a grill press, use it to press the sausages down.
2. In the same skillet with the rendered sausage fat, fry the quail egg like you would a regular egg, but keep watch: it’s smaller and will obviously cook faster.
3. Assemble on serving plates any way you like. Feel free to add mozzarella cheese, basil, tomato or toasted crusty bread.

Mitsuwa Marketplace

I’ve been wanting to return to Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, New Jersey, since the Dr. and I first visited after watching the Romeo and Juliet opera in HD. I’ve also hassled all my friends who have cars to drive me there ever since Anthony Bourdain featured the area in his Food Network show a few years ago. After enough whining from me, Veronica finally relented and picked me up one Saturday afternoon to eat at the Japanese food court and pick up groceries. After filling ourselves with ramen, tonkatsu and pancakes, plus an exciting trip down the aisles of the Mitsuwa grocery store, we ended up in Trader Joe’s where I picked up my favorite dried fruit snacks and at Cafe Archetype where we finished our day with green tea au laits.

You see, New Jersey ain’t so bad.

Kanitama, or crab-egg, omelet on top of rice from China Table Tokyo Hanten was filling.

A delicious bowl of pork salt ramen sprinkled with a red pepper powder from Santoka.

A satisfying bowl of hot miso ramen, also from Santoka, was never finished because we were all full after several other dishes.

A delicately-sized bowl of udon came with pork tonkatsu and rice from Kayaba, next to Santoka.

Mitsuwa Marketplace is on 595 River Road, Edgewater, New Jersey, just over the George Washington Bridge. Check the Web site for shuttle bus info from Port Authority.

Pig’s Feet With Caramelized Onions

With all the fish I’ve been eating the past week, it was time to go back to pork. What better way to celebrate my return than to, ahem, trot back to the kitchen with pig’s feet. This is another recipe from StÃ©phane Reynaud’s Pork & Sons. If you can get a glimpse of the book, turn to page 190–you’ll want to make the recipe at home, too.

In Chinatown’s Deluxe Food Market, pig’s trotters are less than $3 for a pair. If you can’t find them in the frozen section, get one of the Chinese men’s attention and say “feet” while pointing at your shoes; one of them will surely direct you to the right shelf. The original recipe uses walnut oil to bring out the richness of the feet. I didn’t want to spend $12 on a bottle from Dean & Deluca, so I stuck with my good olive oil at home. I think I achieved what the author was thinking of here.

The funny thing about pig’s feet is that people forget that it’s not offal. Sure, a foot is an odd part of the pig to be eating, but you don’t eat it like you do chicken’s feet at dimsum. (I’ve never heard of pig’s foot in a stick either.) It takes a couple of hours to make the feet soft and when you take them out of the boiling water, the meat and skin fall off the bones easily. They are rich in fat content and very gelatinous, so you get the same fatty meat that you do from a very Filipino pork adobo. It’s all that fat you can be squeamish about, not which part it came from.

Ingredients:
2 pig’s feet, thoroughly rinsed
4 strips bacon, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, chopped
1 white onion, halved
2 red onions, thinly sliced
1 bunch scallion, chopped
half a bunch of parsley
2 bay leaves
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
chives, chopped
salt, pepper, oil

1. In a large Dutch oven, put the feet, bacon, white onion, carrots, scallions, parsley and bay leaves with enough water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours.
2. While waiting for the feet to soften, heat some oil in a skillet and sautÃ© 1 red onion and cook until soft. Set aside.
3. After 2 hours, remove the feet and bacon from the pot using a slotted spoon. Using a fork and a knife, separate the meat and the skin from the bones. This should be fairly easy. Discard the bones.
4. Chop the bacon. Combine the sautÃ©d onion with the feet meat and skin plus the bacon. Season with some salt and pepper. Using a Saran wrap, spoon the mixture and arrange like a sausage. Cover and roll like a tight, big blunt. (Oh, come on. You know.) Put in the freezer for 30 minutes.
5. While waiting for the pig’s feet sausage to form, caramelize the last red onion by sautÃ©ing some hot oil in the same skillet and mixing with brown sugar. Set aside for topping.
6. Make your dressing. Whisk together some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
7. After 30 minutes, preheat your broiler. Remove the feet from the freezer, unwrap and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices and place on an ovenproof serving plate. Heat briefly in the broiler, just enough to warm the meat up, less than 5 minutes. To serve, top with caramelized onion and chives, and then drizzle with oil-balsamic dressing.

Soppressatta With Herbs

It really can’t get more decadent than this: one of my favorite sausages happily marinating in the finest olive oil and fresh herbs. Well, okay, add foie gras and you’re really set. But this is so easy; requires only a week of preserving and you have yourself about two weeks’ worth of appetizers.

Ingredients:
a chunk of good quality soppressatta, sliced thinly
2 sprigs of thyme
3 sprigs of rosemary
10 juniper berries
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 bay leaf
olive oil
baguette, to serve

1. Place and arrange the soppressatta slices in a pickling jar with herbs and spices. Pour in olive oil to cover. Seal tightly and store in the fridge for at least a week.
2. When ready to eat, scoop out a serving or two onto a plate and microwave for 15 seconds, or enough to melt the olive oil. Serve with toasted baguette and a nice glass of red wine.