Uncategorized – Page 4 – The Taste of Japan

Arrived !?

For some reason packing seems to be faster than unpacking. By now it has been a few weeks since we came to Berlin, but the most prominent decoration of our home remain to be towers of boxes, waiting in each corner to be unpacked, reminding me every day that there is still quite some work ahead of me.

We like Japan too much for any euphoric feeling to ever occur about us moving back to Berlin, but at the same time there is some excitement in starting all over, that keeps you going – until that one day when you wake up with a ‘hangover’. Actually you carry that feeling around for quite a bit, but then one day you wake up realizing that you are in the middle of a reverse-culture-shock. At least the adults in our house, for whom life in Berlin is something familiar. Our girls however are struggling a bit more. They are German, look like Germans and speak German, but were raised in Japan. Now they need to find their way in a world where no one understands that to them everything is new and strange. Despite the fact that Berlin is tiny compared to Tokyo, life is somehow faster, is duller, is tougher. More elbows, less service, more egoism, less honesty, more swearing, less respect, more dirt, less kindness…

Even though it has been quite on “The Taste of Japan” lately, even though I was busy finding a new home, a new school, new kindergarden and nursery while unpacking and sorting hundreds of boxes to get this family back to a state of normality, it was not quite in my kitchen. Behind the scenes I captured every kitchen on the way and worked on pickling Ume Boshi (pickled plums) and pickled apricots. I also made Yukari (dried and pulverized red Shiso leaves from the plum pickling) and Ume Su (plum vinegar), documented the making of rice and sushi-rice, took my nuka-pot (pot for rice bran fermentation) on a journey around the word and further developed my love for sake where I will be able to share some exciting news soon. I am excited about this restart to cover culinary Japan for you.

And to answer the question if we have arrived. Generally speaking – yes we have. We will also feel at home once we have replaced the boxes by pictures to decorate our walls. But we also know that there will always be some sort of yearning to go back to the land of the rising sun, no matter where life will take us.

Moving

So far I have moved more than ten times. Small ones with just a few boxes and a van to the other side of town as well as big ones to the other side of the world – and back. But even though I have quite a record, I am far from having a routine. Which currently puts me in the middle of our own moving chaos.

Every morning I find myself mucking out old stuff and packing box after box. Here and there dwelling on rising memories, finding long lost items and trying not to go mad over a workload that seems greater than Mount Fuji. Given that all this is happening while my youngest one is taking her morning nap I don’t have a lot of time to linger about. Once she is awake my productivity is going down to zero and shortly afterwards I have to pick up the other two from school, being forced to swap moving chaos with the playground.

As you can imagine, writing is something that I don’t quite manage to squeeze into this schedule. So I apologize for only posting irregularly until we have arrived in our new life and until I can start again to cover culinary Japan on a weekly basis.

Parent and Child

Actually it’s kind of wrong to post the recipe for this dish now – in the high of spring. It would be similar to decorating your house in orange an black on Christmas, but on the other hand it was the first thing that came up to my mind for this week’s post, given that this week we had both mother’s day and father’s day in Germany and children’s day (Kodomo no Hi) in Japan.

I am talking about Harako-Meshi (rice mixed with salmon and salmon caviar). It is a signature dish in Miyagi prefecture, which is in the Tohoku region of Japan’s main island Honshu. It is a typical autumn dish – that’s why it is odd to post it this time of year, but the meaning of this dish is ‘parent and child’, so – for me – it fits perfectly into this week.

Now here is the recipe and you can decide for yourself if you want to be impatient and cook it right away or if you prefer to enjoy it during its season.

Ingredients for approx. 4 persons as a main dish:

2 cups Japanese rice
ca. 2 cups of dashi (alternatively you can use water)
400 g fresh salmon (filleted without skin)
50 ml Saké
15 ml light-colored soy sauce
40 ml regular soy sauce
200g sushi-grade salmon caviar

Method:

I prepare my Harako-Meshi Takikomi Gohan-style. So I simmer the salmon quickly in a seasoned broth, keeping salmon and broth separate afterwards. I then use that salmon-flavored broth to cook my rice. After my rice is done, I add the salmon back again on top of my rice in the rice cooker or pot and keep it warm for a couple of minutes before topping it with a generous scoop of salmon caviar. Here are the details:

Wash the rice well until the water runs clear and save the togi-jiru (read here for my favorite ideas for using it) for a later use. If you have the time let the rice dry after washing for 15-30 min. to prevent it from breaking. For the same reason barely cover the rice afterwards with fresh water and let it soak for another 30 min. Strain the soaking water and set the rice aside until the cooking liquid that you are about to prepare has cooled to room temperature.
Cut the salmon sogi-giri-style* (cutting into slanted pieces) and marinate it in the sake and light-colored soy sauce for min. 10 minutes (or up to an hour in the fridge).
Mix dashi and regular soy sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the salmon with its marinade for ca. 30 seconds until the surface has changed color. Strain and reserve both, salmon and cooking liquid separately.
When the coking liquid has cooled to room temperature (important!) you can start cooking the rice. Put the rice in the rice cooker or the pot and add 2 1/3 cups of coking liquid to it. If you don’t have enough cooking liquid, fill up with dashi or water and start the cooking process.
When the rice is done (keep warm phase on the rice cooker or the self steam phase when cooking rice on the stove) open the lid, put the salmon on top of the rice and quickly put the lid back on. Leave the salmon on the rice between 15 and 20 minutes.
When serving the rice set a few pretty salmon pieces away for decoration. Using a shamoji (rice paddle) mix the rice with folding and cutting motions toss the while flaking the remaining salmon at the same time. If you are nice, make sure to mix in the crust at the bottom (okogé). In our home it would be considered the best part of the dish, if there wasn’t the salmon caviar, which my oldest daughter refers to as ‘funny stuff’, because she likes the mouth feel when she bites on it.
Garnish with a generous scoop of bright red salmon caviar to reunite the ‘parent and the child’.

Enjoy, happy mother’s day and happy belated father’s day!

_____________________

*Sogi-giri-style cutting:

Holding the knife diagonally, almost parallel to the cutting board making almost horizontal cuts. This method results in more surface area of the ingredient so that it cooks faster, soaks up flavor more quickly and/or has a greater surface for a sauce to cling on.

Go shiki, Go mi, Go ho

Preparing the pictures for my next post, I cooked Harako-Meshi (Rice with salmon and salmon caviar) and integrated it into last night’s dinner. I know I still owe you an article on Washoku (Japan’s traditional food culture), what it is and how to put it into practice. Take this article as a first glimpse. Cooking according to Washoku guidelines means preparing ‘go shiki, go mi, go ho‘ – meals. Which describes meals that contain five colors, five flavors and have used five ways of preparation.

Coming back to our dinner last night. Here is what you see on the picture and how this complies to the Washoku guidelines:

The Dishes (starting from the lower left)

Harako-Meshi (knowing that it is actually a fall dish)
Pickles
- Tskudani with enoki mushrooms (soy glazed kombu and mushrooms)
- sweet and sour pink pickled myoga
- nuke zuké (cucumbers pickled in rice bran)
Chawan Mushi with green asparagus and enoki mushrooms (egg custard)
Togarashi (chilli) infused quick pickles with su miso (vinegar-miso-sauce)
Miso soup with snow peas, enoki mushrooms, bright colored yakifu (baked wheat gluten) and slices of fried tofu
Thin, grilled slices of pork with fresh herbs (shiso, myoga, spring onions, young ginger), drizzled with a wasabi infused soy sauce

Five Colors:

yellow: Chawan Mushi, su miso
red: pink pickled myoga, fresh myoga, salmon and salmon caviar
green: fresh herbs, cucumbers, aspargus, quick pickles, wasabi, snow peas
white: enoki mushrooms, daikon (Japanese Radish) in the quick pickles
black: Tskudani

Five Flavors:

sweet: miso, pink pickled myoga
salty: all dishes
sour: nuka zuké, pink pickled myoga, su miso
bitter: fresh herbs
spicy: wasabi infused soy sauce, quick pickles with togarashi

Five Methods of Preparation:

steamed: Chawan Mushi, rice
simmered: miso soup, Tskudani, salmon
seared: pork
fried: fried tofu
raw: quick pickles, nuke zuké, salmon caviar

Why Wash Rice?

Nothing goes to waste in the Japanese Kitchen. Nothing. I have internalized this appreciation that I have learned from Andoh sensei years ago in our very first encounter. After a while it becomes not only a daily practice and routine, it also becomes kind of a hobby to find out how much (more) you can (re)use from an ingredient.

I usually consume white rice. It cooks and behaves widely different than brown rice – and – admittedly because I like it better. Though I do make sure to get my nutrients back in eating nuka zuké (Japanese vegetables pickled in rice bran) and adding different grains to my rice. Which leads me directly to using food – in this case rice – fully. Nuka (rice bran) is a byproduct when milling rice. It is being used as a pickle medium for vegetables and also in the cooking liquid (nuka-jiru) for e.g. fresh bamboo shoots to neutralize the natural occurring toxic and bitter components.

Some of the nuka remains on the rice and this is why you should wash your rice thoroughly before cooking or it will not cook as well. Coming back to my favorite Japanese kitchen mantra ‘Nothing is going to waste in the Japanese kitchen’: Save that water (togi-jiru) and dedicate it to a useful purpose. Need ideas? Here are my top five ways to reuse the water from washing rice

Cooking: The rice oils and the starch in togi-jiru neutralize bitter enzymes that allow the sugars in the vegetable to be more noticeable. Use togi-jiru instead of water to cook e.g. daikon, sweet corn or burdock for a palate-pleasing sweetness.

Beauty: Carefully pour off the water after the sediment has formed on the bottom. Feel it. It is soft and silky. A wonderful cream. I use it for my hands, as it doesn’t leave a greasy film behind and it doesn’t have artificial ingredients that I wouldn’t want to get on my food. Even better: it removes unwanted odors like fish or garlic.

Plants: Frugal cooks also save the second and third wash to water their plants. The containing nutrients really perk them up.

Kitchen Hygiene: Togi-jiru is effective in removing odors from your pots and pans (e.g. after cooking fish). It can also be used in cleaning the tiny contours and crevices of earthenware pots, rice bowls and teacups.

Cleaning: So far I have always used my togi-jiru up for cooking, as a cream or for my pots and pans. But apparently it is said to be also great for giving a nice shine to your floors, shower, bathtub, or toilet. So if you happen to have any left over togi-jiru put it in a spray bottle when wiping down your house.

You can keep togi-jiru for up to five days in the fridge an. This way you can collect the water from washing your rice for several days. The sediment at the bottom of your jar will thicken with each addition, when you pour off the water above it to make room for the new washing water.

Miso Madness: Marinated Fish

Today was one of those days. An overflowing to do list and whatever I started seemed not to end precisely where I wanted. Adding to the distraction that comes with a not-so-much-sleeping-anymore-baby my oldest one joined in, as she couldn’t go to school either. Those days would normally be destined for some take out food or home delivery. Normally. If take out wouldn’t take so much time to pick up, given that I have to take the entire kids-gang with me. If delivery services would make tasty food. If I would find a delivery service that has food for every taste and age. If I would find a delivery service that serves the food either super fast or in a reliable time frame to arm me for the witching hour when my girls transform to kidzillas. But so far I haven’t found one. And on those days I cannot afford to stir a pot on the stove while consoling one, two or three girls at the same time close to tears myself. On those days I need a kitchen lifesaver. Quick and easy soul food. Comforting, healthy and satisfying.

One of my all time favorites in this situation is succulent Saikyo Yaki (Miso-marinated grilled fish), served with a steaming bowl of freshly cooked rice and a savory miso soup. As usual, I have some fish in its marinade in my fridge waiting patiently for those days to come. Now all I need is a tiny bit of preparation to bring out the smiles again with a yummy dinner on the table in about 10 minutes elapsed time. How does that sound?

So whenever you have a moment during the day wash the rice, put it in the rice cooker and keep it warm until you need it. At the same time soak some kombu (kelp) in water and make dashi (basic stock) within a couple of minutes (see recipe here), putting you in the pole position to whip up a miso soup while the fish, that you just need to take out of the marinade, is broiling. That’s it.

Certainly no remedy against the witching hour, but a way to make your life easier in the heat of the moment. Admittedly, I almost always have some salmon marinated in miso sitting in my fridge. Just to be prepared. Also because it simply tastes wonderful and keeps for about five days in the marinade. And even if I don’t have one of those days, I don’t mind a yummy and healthy dinner that only takes minutes to get on the table.

Ingredients

4 pieces á 100g Fish (e.g. Salmon, (Spanish) Makarel, Cod)
some saké (optional
Sarashi or cheesecloth, big enough to wrap the fish
Non-reactive vessel that holds the fish in a snug fit layer

Marinade

450-500g saikyo miso (sweet, light miso)
80 ml Mirin
Zest of one yuzu, lemon or orange

Method

Rinse the fish under cold water and pat it dry. If you want to hedge your bets rinse the fish with sake and pat it dry. Mix the ingredients for the marinade and put half of it in a non-reactive vessel. Place the sarashi or cheesecloth (in a double layer) on top of the miso in the vessel, press down slightly and add the fish (snug fit). Enclose the fish with the remaining piece of sarashi/cheesecloth, put the second half of the marinade on top of it and close the lid or cover with a sheet of plastic wrap. Let the fish marinate at room temperature for a minimum of six hours or in the fridge for up to five days. The longer the fish marinates the firmer it will get and the more intense the salty-sweet miso flavor will become.

To cook the fish scrape off the marinade on top of the sarashi/cheesecloth (save the marinade for another use in a glass jar) and remove the fish from the container. Place the fish skin side down on a piece of aluminum foil and grill it for about three or four minutes (the skin will bubble and char a bit). Turn and grill for another 2-3 minutes. If you use a broiler start with the skin side up (to protect the fish against the heat). If you have neither use a pan and sear the fish slowly (skin side down first) on medium heat, being careful not to let it scorch. Remove the fish from the heat when being slightly crusty and golden on the outside and still juicy and succulent on the inside and serve it right away or at room temperature.

Stay tuned for more kitchen lifesafers and more Miso Madness recipes. Sign up for the newsletter and you will get them directly to your inbox.

Sake is Sake

I usually encounter raised eyebrows when I mention anything about sake breweries, because people are puzzled that ‘rice wine’ is actually brewed. Others are irritated because they assume that sake is distilled, as it can be quite strong. So what is sake?

Sake is the traditional Japanese beverage that has been brewed for 1.000 years like it is today from rice and rice alone. Of course you need yeast, water and koji (a mold that is grown on rice to break the starch into sugar) for the fermentation, but no other grain than rice is allowed. The fact that sake is brewed from a grain makes it more a beer than a wine. But given its complexity of flavors and the amount of flavor nuances (about 400), sake relates more to wine (which has about 200 flavor nuances). And even though sake has a natural alcohol content of 16-20%, is not distilled and not even remotely related to any spirit. In the end sake is sake. A beverage of its own. Subtle, diverse, complex and very enjoyable.

So how is sake made in a nutshell?

Rice is being polished, washed, soaked and then steamed in this order. Afterwards it gets mixed with yeast, water and koji in a small open tank and is then allowed to ferment for about two weeks (sometimes four). After those initial two (four) weeks that mixture (Moto) is transferred to a large tank and more steamed rice, water and koji is added three times in four days. This mixture is now called Moromi. The Moromi will ferment in a large open tank for the next 18 to 32 days after which it will be pressed, filtered, often pasteurized and sometimes blended.

Sounds pretty straight forward, right? So how can something so ‘simple’ develop such a variety of flavors? Because basically ANY variation in EACH and EVERY STEP in the process has an influence on the taste.

What type of water is used and its chemical composition.
Which type of rice is being used and where the rice has been grown.
The weather during rice growing season as well as during the brewing process
How much and how fast the rice is being polished.
How long the rice is being washed, how long it is being soaked (Japanese brew masters go down to adjust the time by seconds) and steamed
How the koji mold propagates on the rice (which is adjusted by humidity and temperature – again, in the 0,5 to 1 degree/percent- range)
What type of yeast is being used and the fermenting temperature
…

The list goes on and on, but I think you get the idea that brewing sake is an art and certainly not straight forward. All the adjustments are decided by the toji (master brewer) based on intuition, experience and his five senses. Machines and computers can only inadequately replace those skills and are therefore only used for ordinary, low grade sake. Thus it doesn’t come on a surprise that it takes decades for a young kurabito (brewery worker) to get the necessary experience and to sharpen his senses to become a toji – if at all.

Sakura Gossip

Spring, meaning the cherry blossom season, has finally reached Japan in full bloom and the country is blanket in white and pink flowers. Weather or not is chilly, people drag outside to have a picnic under the cherry trees. It is also the season for salted cherry blossoms that make fantastic Sakura Gohan (rice mixed with cherry blossoms) – perfect to take on a picnic. But there is more to salted cherry blossoms than Sakura Gohan. They can also – and in face are during wedding ceremonies – served as Sakura Yu (a broth-like ‘tea’). Why is that? It is believed that green tea encourages gossip. And with each liaison there are many opinions about it out there. But on the day of the wedding ceremony it is expected that everybody keeps silent about personal opinions on the couple and to emphasize this, Sakura Yu is served instead of green tea.

So if you are invited to a wedding try to get your hands on a bag of salted cherry blossoms. They make a cute little gift.

Shun: The Peak of Flavor

Washoku, Japan’s traditional food culture has gained increasingly worldwide interest since it has been awarded a UNESCO Intangible Cultural World Heritage two and a half years ago. The heart of Washoku is a healthy, balanced cuisine that embraces and internalizes the spirit of seasonality and seasonal events. It is a century old culinary tradition that is still in evidence throughout Japan.

The Japanese even have a specific word for their attention to seasonality: Shun. There is no equivalent for Shun in the English language. Shun translates to an almost religious obsession to consume food at the peak of its season. Imagine you bite in a big, fat, red, succulent, sweet and juicy strawberry that fills your mouth with this irresistible distinct flavor of early summer. That is Shun.

But nature’s production does not begin and end with this peak in flavor. So the Japanese dedication to seasonality has further divisions of the season: Hashiri and Nagori. Hashiri refers to products that have just come into season or are even a little early. They are usually smaller in size, not as flavorful and rather expensive. Whereas Nagori describes the products at the end of the season, who are no longer really wonderful.

Nihonbashi Yukari’s’ fall menu in November. Hashiri: Shirako, best in the cold months of December and January — Nihonbashi Yukari’s fall menu in November. Hashiri: Shirako, best in the cold months of December and January

Coming back to the strawberries. Hashiri means the run for the first strawberries. You remember the fruity, juicy, succulent and sweet flavor, which you have been waiting to get for the past year. You cannot wait to bite into one, knowing that they are often not fully ripe and tarter than you would actually like, but to get a glance at the taste of what is soon to come in full flavor is worth the high price you pay.

Opening in ‚Nihonbashi Yukari’s’ fall menu in November. Nagori: Dried Persimmons, which have their Shun in October — ‚Nihonbashi Yukari’s’ fall menu in November. Nagori: Sweet Persimmons, which have their Shun in September and October

Nagori is the opposite. Middle of June, when the strawberry season is almost over and the ones that you buy are usually over ripe, easily bruised and no longer wonderful. But you just have to buy that one last basket, one last glimpse of that juicy taste that is so typical for the first warm summer days, because you know that this is your last chance before you have to say good-bye and wait another year for them to come around as wonderful as they just were.

Given this attention to seasonality it does not come on a surprise that in a formal Kaiseki-meal the chef composes a symphonic firework for all senses, fusing the five colors, the five flavors and the five methods of preparation for products from all of the three sub-seasons.

Reading Sake Labels I

This is not going to be a complete sake buying or ordering guide. At least not yet. Nor is this post meant to make you a sake professional, so forgive me if I skip details to keep you focused on the essential information as well as not covering all the sake ground for the same reason. I will gradually build up on the knowledge that I provide, so if you want to know more about sake sign up for the newsletter and you will get the updates delivered to your inbox automatically.

For now let’s focus on Ginjo. As you can read here this is the one word that you should remember when it comes to sake. Why is that? Because by looking at a sake label most people cannot easily tell if it is any good? Ultimately there is no right answer to that question, as whether or not it is any good depends in the end on your taste. But there are hints you can use to narrow it down and increase the chance of ending up with a bottle you like. And the first one is being able to identify the word ‘GINJO’ on the label.

Sake comes in different grades and among them are eight grades that are considered premium sake, for which special regulations (e.g. milling rate) apply. The top four of those premiums all have the word Ginjo in their grade. So if you can identify the word Ginjo on a label of sake you know that you have at least a decent bottle in your hands. Does that mean that all the other sake is not good or not as good? Certainly not! There is wonderful stuff out there that is not labeled to be one of the top four grades, but it is a little harder to identify.

So what is the difference in the ginjo’s above?

The ones at the top (Daiginjo) have (most of the times) more of the rice milled away than the ones at the bottom. The ones on the left (Junmai-type) have no alcohol added as an ingredient but the ones on the right do.

For sake the outer parts of the rice grain are usually being milled away. This is called semei buai and means the amount of rice that is left after the milling. Legally the minimum semei buai for Ginjo is 60% and for Daiginjo 50%. But those numbers are just the minimum requirements. It is perfectly legal and common practice to sell a Ginjo with a semai buai of 50% or less.
Ginjo and even more so Daiginjo are brewed in a very labor intensive way and fermented at colder temperatures for a longer period of time. The resulting flavor is more complex and delicate than the one of non-ginjo-sake, and you will often (not always though) find it to be more fruity and flowery in fragrance and flavor.
Often brewer’s alcohol is added to the sake just before it is being pressed. This is not primarily done to stabilize the sake and increase shelf life. More importantly though this is done to extract more aromas and flavors that would otherwise not be able to delight your palate. So adding a small amount of alcohol does not mean the sake is better or worse. It is just a different method of brewing sake.
Junmai-types are usually a little more full and heavy in flavor than the premium sake that have alcohol added to them. Also the acidity is often slightly higher as well. Generally speaking it is more likely to be a good choice for matching with food, as it tends to have a presence that makes it stand up better to stronger aromas than lighter sake would.

So as a s first step in reading sake labels remember the Kanji below. When you can identify those as a first step you most likely will also be able to identify them when they are written in beautiful but hard to read calligraphy. This plus the general knowledge of how many characters you are looking for will get you started.

– 吟       the ‘gin’-part of Ginjo
– 大吟   Daiginjo to recognize a bottle from the top oft the sake world (Dai means big or important)
– 純米   Junmai, which means ‚pure rice’ and indicates that the alcohol comes from fermenting rice and rice alone.