Surf and turf, Japanese Style
Beef and seafood are two I strongly associate with Japan. Both have a quality that is on another level compared with products from anywhere else that I have been. While there is seafood at can rival that found in Japan, no one has ever been able to match the beef. It has never been replicated.
When I had the opportunity to some surf and turf in Japan I jumped at the chance. The place I went to was located in Akihabara. This surprised me at first because I have never come to associate Akihabara with good food. However, I was assured that this the place we were going was famous for preparing beef in a western style so my fears were partially assuaged.
They had various steaks as well as beef qualities as options. All beef was Japanese with high prices for higher grades. My eyes glazed over the pages as I saw picture after delicious picture of steaks. I locked onto one page that contained a piece of beef loin and a giant shrimp. This is the one I wanted, price was ¥6300, no big deal it was beef and I had to have it.
When it came to our table the meat and shrimp were on a heavy cast iron hot plate, the fat still sizzling from the residual heat. The portion of beef was puny compared to the cut you get at an American steak house. However, what it lacked on size it made up for in flavor. There was a nice beef flavor and richness that is hard to match. The marbling of the beef made it melt in your mouth. This combination made every bite a bit of heaven in your mouth and I wish for a bigger piece so I could eat more and continue to savor it. The shrimp was comparable in size to a lobster. It seemed like it was twice cooked, lightly boiled sliced in half and mayonnaise placed on top then grilled. The mayo gave it a tangy taste and infused it with an additional fattiness that one would normally get with melted butter. There was a lot of mayo for one which over powered the shrimp. I wasn't able to experience the sweetness of the seafood as much as I would have liked. However, the combination of the richness and tangyness of the mayo, with the sweetness of the shrimp went well together and it was a good combination. Overall the meal was fantastic and for the price I though was pretty reasonable. I would have liked a bigger piece of meat or even one from Matsuzaka, but that definitely would have made the cost of the meal exorbitantly high.
Hamburg Steak
Hamburg steak is a Japanese dish that has it origins in a classic western dish, Salisbury steak. Many may know of this dish from frozen dinners or school lunches, and this variation isn't much different. It also a component of another dish that I make called Locomoco which is a Hawaiian dish.
This version is made from a combination of ground beef and pork mixed in a 5/3 ratio. To this diced onions are added, I usually caramelized them before I mix them in. This gives the onions a sweeter more mellow flavor not as raw of a taste, plus the softer texture melds well with the meat. Next is a couple of eggs and breadcrumbs to bind everything together.
Beef Stew
If your looking for a meal that will fill you up, last for days, and tastes great even days later, try a stew. Stews are great dishes to do if you've got a lot of time on one day, but not a lot on the following days. If I am especially busy during the week I'll cook up a pot of stew, it usually last a couple days so no cooking dinner, and no fast food or frozen dinners either!
Stews are simple to make, but they take time. It takes me usually two hours of cooking time to make a stew. This is because I use a tough cut of meat that requires a lot of time to break down the connective tissue and make tender. For me they are also hit or miss on the viscosity, sometimes too thick others too thin. Reducing helps drop the liquid level, but it is still usually thin. To thicken it up I usually make a roux then add the stew liquid to it to help it thicken up.
Friday dinner: Japanese beef curry
For the first time in a while I made curry. Curry for me is one of those things that is good once in a while, but never more then once every month. The last time I made curry was when I still lived in SOMA. Recently I have had problems with my curry not tasting like curry, but tonight was the first time in a while that it actually tasted like curry. I'm not exactly sure what I did differently to make it taste okay this time. I have decided that it is two different variables that could have caused this changed. First I did a mix of beef and chicken broth this time, and I cooked the curry into the onions longer this time before adding the broth. It was not without its problems though. One problem that occurred was the potatoes were not cooked long enough. I think this could be related to the size of each piece. If i made them smaller I think I would have cooked on time. Secondly it felt too thin, I had to make a secondary roux to thicken and still it felt slightly too thin. I believe if i had made a roux 3tbsp instead of 2 it would have turned out better.
Monday dinner: stuffed meat loaf
Tonight I made dinner with my roommate. I prepared the meat loaf and she prepared the sides. I've done this meatloaf several times before, although each time has been a different variation. My consistency is incredibly lacking. The inside is stuffed with various vegetables and the outside is covered with bacon and a glazed made with brown sugar, ketchup, and cumin. The sides were a mixed wild rice and a zucchini onion dish. Overall for me the meatloaf was alright. The taste was there, but the vegetables seemed undercooked. I should have roasted them, did this step previously and it turned out rather well. Since they were roasted they shrank so I was able to fit more in there. One step I did this time was tuck the excess bacon underneath the loaf. I noticed this actually allowed it to hold its shape better and it seemed there was less leakage of juices.
