Setagaya Boro-Ichi

I am in Tokyo this week on business, and had a weekend to do some exploring.  I saw that a sort of street fair was going on, so I decided to check it out. 

I started my day with a quick bite at a bakery in Shinjuku station.  They didn't have any English on the signs next to the choices, so I grabbed a pig in a blanket, one of my usual favorites, and something that looked like a sweet pastry.

The sausage thingy was damn tasty.  The crust is green from just a bit of seaweed that was in the dough.  Then I took a big old bite of my pastry.  To my great disappointment, it wasn't sweet.  The filling was mashed potato which had been covered with a sauce that although it looked fruity, was actually made from fish roe.  Not what I had in mind.  Off to the festival.

The Setagaya Boro-Ichi has apparently been going on for 430 years. Basically it's like a giant flea market, with over 700 vendors, which goes on for blocks on end. You can find all manner of things there, stylish handbags, plants, antiques, kimonos, erotic posters, tools, you name it. 

I quickly realized I should have skipped breakfast. The festival was a street food dreamland.  One the first items I had was a sausage on a stick, a common sight at Japanese festivals.

Two other street food classics you see all over Japan are Okonomiyaki, a sort of pancake with a variety of savory ingredients, and yaki soba, a stir fried noodle dish.  I wasn't in the mood for either of these, but they did look good.

Many sections of the festival were so crowded with people, that you literally could not stop to look at things.  The massive throng just pushed you along.  It was a little unsettling at times and definitely not for anyone who is claustrophobic or has issues with personal space.  I saw a number of people giving their kids piggy back rides because they would be quite easy to lose otherwise.

A bit further down the market the crowd cleared up, and I found a vendor making yakatori from beef.  The aroma drew me in, and it's hard to go wrong with grilled meat.  These ones were quite tasty.

I saw several vendors grilling mochi over charcoal.  If you've never had it, mochi is a cake made by pounding sticky rice into a smooth dough.  It is served as a sweet, stuffed with sweet bean paste, but it is also often used in savory applications.  When grilled, the mochi gets a toasty flavor sort of reminiscent of plain popped corn.  The texture is what usually turns off westerners.  It's very sticky and elastic.  I was really turned off the first time I tried it, but over the years it has really grown on me.

As I was wrapping up my trip to the festival, I came across a vendor selling imagawayaki, a filled cake made from a pancake like batter, and filled with sweet fillings.  They are served nice an warm, perfect for a cold winter day.  I wasn't sure what the filling was on these, but I grabbed one anyway.  Turns out the filling was a creamy custard which tasted of maple. 

Warm imagawayaki in hand, I made my way back to the train station for the trip back to my hotel.  Below you'll see a few more images from the festival.  Please enjoy.

Smoking inside the house.

My wife came through, and gave me one of the few items on my x-mas list, a stove top smoker.  I've toyed with the idea of getting one of these things ever since I saw Jeff Blank use one to smoke a few quail during a cooking demonstration at the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival about 10 years ago.  I have a gas grill, a charcoal grill, and one of those electric kettle style smokers already, so I kept putting the purchase off.  Now that I have one, I suspect it's going to become one of the most used pieces of equipment I have.

If you've never seen one before, a stove top smoker is basically a roasting pan with a tray, a rack, and a slide on lid.  To use it, you simply put about a tablespoon of wood shavings, sawdust really, in the bottom of the pan, place the tray and rack directly on top of that, add the food to be smoked, slide on the lid, and place it on a burner set to medium.  After about five minutes the chips will be smoking away, but as long as the lid is firmly in place, the kitchen remains pretty much smoke free.

The main reason I wanted one of these things is for smoking seafood.  This always seemed like more trouble than it was worth in my regular smoker, which requires a least a little advanced planning, and is a bit of a mess to clean up.  It's fine if you're going to smoke a brisket or a couple of chickens, but for a fillet of salmon that requires just 20 minutes of cooking time, the hour or more of setup and cleanup were a real non-starter.

For my first attempt with the new toy, I picked up a fillet of wild salmon, and a rainbow trout.  I brined them both for about an hour, then seasoned them with pepper, an smoked them using alder wood shavings for 25 minutes.  We ate the salmon for dinner, and stashed the trout in the fridge for a later use.  The salmon was tasty, with a nice mild smoke flavor.  The next day I made salad with the chilled trout, arugula, and a goat cheese vinaigrette dressing.  The trout was amazing.  Because it was thinner, it took the smoke much more than the salmon had, yet it hadn't dried out at all.  Beautiful.

For the second go, I bought some large shrimp, and more trout.  I gave them the same brining treatment as before, but this time, I used a mix of alder and cherry wood.  The cherry produces a stronger smokey flavor.  We haven't had the trout yet, but the shrimp went into a smoked shrimp cocktail I made for a party last night.  They were a big hit and disappeared in about 10 minutes.  I think quail are next on my list.

Stovetop Smoked Shrimp Cocktail


1 lb 20-25 count shrimp
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
ground black pepper to taste


1 cup ketchup
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp fresh grated horseradish
juice of one lemon
salt to taste


Peel and devein the shrimp, leaving the last segment of shell and tail intact.  
Make a brine by whisking the kosher salt and sugar in 1 quart of water until completely dissolved.  
Add the shrimp to the brine, and refrigerate for one hour.  
Remove the shrimp from the brine, and rinse briefly under cool tap water to remove the excess brine.  Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels.  Season with black pepper.
Set up the stovetop smoker using 1 1/2 tbsps of wood shavings.  Line the tray the rack sits in with aluminum foil for easy clean up.  Smoke the shrimp for 20 - 25 minutes until just cooked through.  Remove the shrimp from the smoker, but reserve any juices that have collected in the smoking tray.  These are salty smokey goodness that can be used to season the cocktail sauce.


While the shrimp are cooling, prepare the cocktail sauce.  Combine the ketchup worcestershire sauce, horseradish, and lemon juice in a small bowl.  Taste.  If it needs salt, add a tablespoon or two of the reserved smoking juices if you have them, otherwise just season with salt.  


Serve the shrimp chilled or at room temperature with the cocktail sauce.

Bunuelo Recipe

As promised, here is the recipe for the bunuelos. 


BTW - I've stopped using the tilde over the N when spelling bunuelos because I think it was causing problems with the way the text was wrapping in the blog.  


Bunuelos

4 cups Sugar
6 tbsp cinnamon

1 Stick of cinnamon
1 tbsp anise seeds (optional)

2 lbs flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs beaten
1/2 c shortening

1-2 Q Peanut or canola oil

Put 2 cups of water in a small sauce pan, add the cinnamon and anise seeds.  Bring to a boil then turn off the head and allow the tea to steep for 20-30 minutes.  Strain into a small bowl or measuring cup.

Sift together flour and baking powder, into a large mixing bowl.  Add the shortening and mix in with your fingers or pastry blender until completely incorporated, and the mixture is the texture of corn meal.
Add eggs and about 1 cup of tea.  Mix adding additional tea until a soft smooth dough is formed.  Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. 

Tear off portions of dough to make ping pong sized balls.
Allow the balls to rest for 1 hour covered with plastic wrap or a damp towel.

Heat 1 Q of oil in a large deep pot to 350 degrees.

Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a large cake pan or roasting pan until completely combined.

Roll the dough into large circles as thin as possible.  Streach the dough by hand until it is paper thin. 


Fry the pastry in the hot oil until pale golden brown and crispy, about 20 seconds per side.  Transfer to a paper lined sheet pan to drain.  


Working with one at a time, transfer the bunuelos to the roasting pan filled with cinnamon sugar, and coat both sides liberally with the sugar.  Gently shake off the excess sugar, and move the finished bunuelo to a box or platter.   


Makes about four or five dozen bunuelos