Dining Japanese (Lots of Fish but No Sushi)

Trying out a few new recipes and a couple of old ones tonight. Starting off with chawan mushi. I just love saying chawan mushi. Here is a basic recipe. I've struggled with this dish over the years and recently learned that the ratio of eggs to dashi should be 1 to 3. In other words, ignore the recipes, and if your eggs are on the small side, add another one. Tonight I topped it with a bit of leftover Chinese roast pork.

 Next up was salmon. I wanted to try something different and this cold pickled salmon dish fit the bill. Salmon Nanban-zuke is quick fried salmon that's tossed in a Japanese vinagrette -- a mixture of rice vinegar, soy, sugar. Here's a recipe that added a bit of dashi (I cut that down significantly since other recipes I looked at called for no dashi at all).

And more fish - this time miso cod a la Nobu. I have to admit, I've never been a big fan of this dish even when I had it at the restaurant. But cod was on sale and I was committed to Japanese, so I gave it another shot. Gotta say, I liked it but didn't love it. I feel like the miso just takes over. Here's a Food and Wine recipe for the dish.

Had a few of my daughters' friends tonight for dinner and decided we needed a crowd pleaser in case the fish dishes didn't go over well (and I was right). Who doesn't love fried chicken. In this case, it was kara age. I really liked this recipe -- marinade chicken thigh pieces (with skin on) then I dredged in a combination of flour (I used Wondra, great for frying) and cornstarch.

 In all, a great dinner! My daughter's friend asked "do you eat like this every night?" And I responded "of course not, only on Sundays."