March 24, 2019 A Very Fishy Day Brunch – Lax, Onion, Asparagus, and Cream Cheese Omelet. Dinner – Chirashi Donburi (Sashimi and Sushi Rice) with Pickled Carrots, Radishes, and Daikon

March 24, 2019 A Very Fishy Day  Brunch – Lax, Onion, Asparagus, and Cream Cheese Omelet. Dinner – Chirashi Donburi (Sashimi and Sushi Rice) with Pickled Carrots, Radishes, and Daikon

I awakened at 6:48 and fetched the papaya, and pineapple from the garage fridge and peeled and cubed them plus two mangos, and three navel oranges to make a tropical fruit salad.

I then ate some granola, milk, yogurt, and fruit salad.  At 10:30 I diced about three oz. each of Lax, red, onion and asparagus stalks and whipped four large eggs and brought a package of Neufchâtel cream cheese in from the garage. Suzette came in hungry after spending the morning fixing the sprinklers and cleaning and putting new head rests into the hot tub.

After brunch I spoke to another prospective tenant and sent emails to her and Rebecca and then lay down for an hour’s nap while Suzette went shopping for furniture to furnished recently rented apartments at the Center for Ageless Living, which will become fully occupied by the end of the month.

I was awakened at 3:00 by a call from Willy after his soccer game.  I invited him for dinner of sashimi at 6:30.

I then researched recipes for Sushi Rice and Pickled Daikon and Carrot Salad in my Japanese cookbook.  The Sushi Rice recipe was too complex but I had the ingredients, Kombu seaweed, Aji Mirin, salt, and sugar.

Sushi Rice and Sweet pickled Carrots and Daikon

So I improvised.  I boiled about two T. of dried kombu seaweed threads in about three cups of water with 1 tsp. of dehydrated dashi.  In a separate small pan I heated 2 T. of rice vinegar, 2 T. of mirin, 2 T. of sugar, and 1 ½ tsp. of Korean sea salt to make the seasoning sauce for the sushi rice.

I then made the sauce for the pickles by combining and heating  ½ cup of dashi, ½ cup rice vinegar, 2 T. of Mirin and 2 T. of sugar until the sugar dissolved into solution in another pan.

I then removed the kombu threads and poured off the last bit of undissolved dehydrated dashi and cooked 1 ¼ cup of rice in the remaining 2 ½ cups of dashi/kombu broth.  Although the sushi rice recipe did not call for dashi, I figured the rice would taste even better with a slight dashi flavor.

Here are the recipes for the pickles and Sushi rice.

The sweet sauce is third from top on page closest to the caption

The Red and White Vinaigrette Salad

                                                           The sushi rice recipe

Suzette returned at 4:30 while the rice was cooking and I was slicing carrots and Daikon into 1 ½ inch by ½ inch wide strips and three red radishes and putting the sliced vegetables into the pickling sauce in a steel bowl that I put into the fridge to chill.

Suzette asked, “What can I do to help.”  She then set the table with chop sticks, and our Japanese rice bowls and dipping sauce bowls and chop stick rests and Chinese plates and small rice bowls for the pickled vegetables and small Chinese tea cups for sake. She also fetched the large Portuguese appetizer plate to lay the sashimi on.

I went to the basement and fetched a magnum bottle of Gekkeikan sake and Suzette heated the bottle in a pan of water.

I thawed five sea scallops from the freezer.

When the rice was fully cooked I stirred in the sushi seasoning sauce and covered the pan to keep it warm.

It was 5:30 when I started slicing the 1 lb. salmon filet and ¾ lb. Aji tuna filet, the five scallops, and a small avocado.

Willy arrived shortly after 6:00 when I finished slicing the items for the sashimi plate which Suzette garnished with the last of our sliced pickled ginger.


Suzette then squeezed wasabi sauce into the dipping bowls and poured soy sauce into them and filled the sake cups with hot sake, while I made green tea and filled the small bowls with pickled vegetables and the rice bowls with rice.

Here is a picture of the table set for dinner.

 

We had a wonderful sashimi dinner with sushi rice and Daikon and carrot pickles..

The salmon filet cost a bit less than $8.00, the tuna cost a bit more than $5.00 and the scallops cost about $5.00.  The organic Daikon cost $.72.

So this immense expanse of sashimi cost less than $20.00.  I finished the last of the salmon and scallops after everyone was so stuffed they could eat no more.

Willy left around 8:00 after the news of the Mueller report was made public and we had started watching a Hallmark movie called something like Love, Romance, and Chocolate about a young American woman who travels to Bruges, Belgium and falls in love with a chocolatier and combines her skill at making cupcakes with his skill at making chocolate to create award winning cherry cola petits fours that seals their union and recognition as royal chocolatiers.

Suzette celebrated with a bowl of chocolate ice cream.

We went to bed around 9:00 or 9:30.

Bon Appetit