Pork Chops with wild mushroom sauce

The chops are salt-and-peppered before searing in a hot pan.  Mushroom and onion are then sautéed in  the pan until soften.  Deglaze with a little white wine, reduce then add some cream and let it thicken.  Put the chop back to warm up and that is it.  Tasty but quite fattening.

Smoked Coho Salmon

Trying something different.  I have smoked king and sockeye salmons and they are typically the type of smoked salmon in the market.  Here I smoked some coho.  Coho is a little less fatty than both king and sockeye but still a very tasty with slightly softer fresh.  I marinated it over night with soy sauce, sugar, salt, maple syrup and water then dried in the fridge overnight then smoked with maple chips for 4 hours.  The result is quite good.

Chicken roasted with wild mushroom

I brined the chicken with salt and sugar for four hours then dried it well.  Browned it all over quickly in a heavy pot before wild mushroom and onion and garlic were added to cook for a few minutes.  Cooked it in a 300℉ oven for 30 or so minutes until the chicken reached 150℉ then remove the lid and turn the oven way up for 10 minutes...







And I had a tender and juicy roast chicken with wild mushroom and sauce directly from the pot.

Disappointment

I picked this up while I was waiting at Narita airport.  Never seen or heard of this make so gave it a try. Well, don't like it at all.  Usually when I think of daiginjo I think of something on the delicate side with pretty nose of fruit and flower.  This does have some fruit and flower but it is also very dry, almost sharp, with a rather powerful alcohol attack.  It is almost like they mix daiginjo with honjozo.

欖仁 Salad

One of my favourite salad is with pine nuts and Stilton. Recently I try a pine nut look-alike we call 欖仁 . I think it is more fragrant then pine nut though less buttery.  I am not sure what it is though,  My guess is that it is either olive nut (as the Chinese name suggest) or Indian Almond (as there is a tree with edible nut with the same name).  If someone out there knows, please let me know.