Eating flowers is certainly nothing unusual. Neither in the western world nor in Japan. I love pickled Chrysanthemums in fall as much as salted sakura in springtime (see my last post).
Peach blossom in full bloom
On Monday I had another type of flower for lunch: Peach. Not just palate pleasing, but equally wonderful for the eye – it was almost a crime to eat those wonderful artfully assembled flower-maki.
The art of maki-making
The petals are five small maki-rolls made from rice mixed with yukari, wrapped in nori. Assembled like a flower around a blanched, green asparagus in the center. They were embedded in sushi rice wrapped with another sheet of nori to give it the final maki-shape that you see on the picture. When cutting the maki-roll, be sure to have a slightly wet knife or the rice will stick to it, ruining the beauty of your work.
Springtime in Japan is magical. From the middle of March to the end of April or beginning of May the soft light pink flowers blanket the country, attracting visitors from all over the world and dominate the local’s life.
Tomizawa’s salted cherry blossoms
For this year the sakura (cherry blossom) forecast predict the start of the bloom in Tokyo for March 23 with March 30 to April 07 being the best time for Hanami (flower viewing). In happy anticipation I got myself
Danone’s celebration of the cherry blossom
sakura joghurt and I also got a fresh pack of Tomizawa’s salted sakura that I will use for the sakura rice in our Hanami picnic bento. Don’t miss out on grabbing a pack or two if you are near a store (read here for more details on Tomizawa). They keep well and are equally wonderful as a finish on a perfectly grilled steak.
Not only Japan is pink at this time of the year. The same is true for our home. Even though it could be my second daughter’s liking of that color, it is not. But with three girls in the house Hina Matsuri becomes kind of a mass-event. Hina Matsuri is the day of the girls in Japan, which is celebrated on March 3rd. This itself would account for a heavy use of pink. But that day is also called Momo no sekku (Peach Festival), as March is the peach blossom season, which bloom bright heavy pink.
Our Hina Matsuri decoration
Like in many Japanese Families with girls Odairi-sama (emperor) and Ohina-sama (empress) moved in our home middle of February. Though not with their complete entourage and as a wall decoration in lieu of the traditional Hinadan. A one, three, five or seven-stair display for hina ningyo dolls and former everyday commodities (like tea set, sake cups, swords etc.) that is covered with a red carpet. The Hina Matsuri festival is primarily a family celebration dating back to the Heian period (794-1185) when the dolls came to be viewed as caretakers of the girls’ health and happiness, warding off bad luck and bringing in good fortune.
Hina Matsuri-display in the Meguro Gajoen Entrance Hall
Hina Matsuri is partly reminiscent of Cinderella, as all the decoration has to be taken down before midnight on March 3rd to avoid a delay in the girls’ future marriage. For this year we have set three (!) alarms starting at 11pm. Just to be sure, because we already missed it once and who would want to take chances, right? By the way, Hina ningyo dolls are by no means toys but valuable art crafts, decorated with real gold foil and first-class lacquer, sometimes passed down for generations. The average price for a three-stair display with five dolls is about 2.000€.
Hina Matsuri Display at one of the Meguro Gajoen banquet rooms
One of the most popular public display of Hina ningyo dolls in Tokyo can be found at Meguro Gajoen Hotel (this year until March 6th). More than 500 Hina ningyo dolls are on display in the seven old, breathtaking banquet rooms that can be reached using the 100 stairs in the old annex of the hotel. The stairs are numbered as a service for visitors. Not quite as motivating as the stairs in the much-loved Tokyu Hands Department store that show the cumulated amount of calories that you have burned, but I don’t want to get overboard.
On the day of Hina Matsuri, families get together and enjoy delicious traditional dishes and sake. Some of them are Hishimochi, Hina arare and Shirozake.
Hishimochi, Hina arare and Shirozake
Hishimochi. Diamond-shaped mochi (rice cakes) with pink, white and green layers. The colors representing the pink peach blossoms, the white of the snow of the waning winter and the green for the new, fresh growth of early spring.
Hina arare. Pink, white, green and yellow balls of crunchy puffed rice that are sometimes covered with sugar. Their origin is not quite clear, but it is believed that to make hina arare the left over rice crackers from New Years (Oshogatsu) were turned into rice biscuits in late February, which led to their connection to Hina Matsuri. Given that usually nothing is going to waste in the Japanese Kitchen, it absolutely makes sense. And as such hina arare are a symbol for the economic thrift of a good wife.
Shirozake. White, unfiltered, sweet with a low alcohol content of 8-9%. A sake-like drink that, even though it is called sake, it is technically not nihonshu or seishu (the legal term for sake in Japan). For shirozake steamed rice is mixed with koji (mold for making Sake) and shochu (Japanese rice-liquor), left to age for a month and then sold unfiltered. Shirozake was created around 1600 to 1650. Due to its sweetness and low alcohol content it became tied to Hina Matsuri even though women did not necessarily drink sake in the old days. The white of the shirozake also complements the red (pink) of the peach blossoms and the Hinadan to the traditional colors of celebration in Japan that signify happiness and good fortune.
When in doubt, add a splash of dashi. Dashi is everywhere in Japanese dishes.
Ingredients before and after making dashi
It is cooking liquid, seasoning as well as base for soups and sauces. Good dashi is magical. It is subtle and delicate but has the power to enhance flavors without overpowering dishes with its own taste. Sometimes just a few drops can make all the difference in the world between a good and a gorgeous dish. Making good dashi is easy and only takes a couple of minutes.
So here is a quick guide how to make Japan’s liquid gold from only two ingredients: Katsuo bushi (bonito flakes) and Kombu (seaweed).
Make Kombu-dashi
In Tokyo with its hard water Hidaka-Kombu is the standard, in the Kansei Region with its soft water it is Ma-Kombu. But if you have not access to different types of kombu, just use the one you can get your hands on.
Set-up to make dashi
Take a piece of about 10 x 10cm and let it sit for a minimum of 15 Minutes in a glass jar filled with water. I usually use about 750 ml.
DON’T wipe off any of the white powder that might be on your dry kombu. Similar to the sugar that gets to the surface of dried fruits, the natural glutamates of the kombu appear as a white powder on the surface. And the entire purpose of making dashi is to extract them. So wiping them off would diminish all your efforts.
To save some (waiting) time during the cooking process, I recommend to do this right when you decide to cook something Japanese and have it sit in your kitchen until you are ready to go. This can even be a couple of hours or over night when you put the jar in the fridge. The result that you will get in your jar is kombu-dashi. Kombu-dashi is frequently used in vegan dishes as a replacement for dashi and has a similar flavor enhancing character.
Make Dashi
The water has about 85°C when bubbles break at the surface
To make dashi, heat the kombu-dashi with the kombu in it on medium heat until about 85°C. If you want to be exact you can of course use a thermometer, but a close observation of your pot will do the trick as good: Remove your pot from the heat once the bubbles begin to break on the surface. This is about 85°C and the optimal temperature to extract the glutamates but not the (bitter) tannins of the kombu. Now is the time to add a good hand full
Adding katsuo bushi to the kombu-dashi
of katsuo bushi and wait for two or three Minutes before straining them through a fine mesh layered with Sarashi or a kind of fine-woven cloth that you have on hand. Use the dashi right away or let it cool to room temperature before covering it and putting it in the fridge for later use.
That’s it. It is that easy!
A bowl of golden dashi
Despite all the simplicity there are a few things to consider:
Don’t put in more katsuo-bushi or soak them longer. Doing that would extract the fishiness instead of the smokiness.
Don’t wash the cloth that you used with soap unless you want your next dashi to taste soapy. Just rinse it right away under very warm water and hang it to dry.
Last but not least: There are recipes out there that call for the Katsuo Bushi to sink to the bottom of the pot before straining. That is not a good rule of thumb! The time for the Katsuo Bushi to sink to the bottom depends heavily on their size. Large flakes, that you will often find after just opening a new bag, will sink very slowly. Much longer than the two to three Minutes that you need. Whereas the flakes on the bottom of a bag, that are almost powder, will sink right away to the bottom, which would give them not enough time to release their wonderful flavor.
P.S: As nothing is going to waste in the Japanese kitchen, making dashi is no exception. Save the kombu and use it for quick pickles or tsukdani (simmered in soy sauce with herbs or vegetables) and make tasty furikake from the left over katsuo bushi to sprinkle on rice or to mix in onigiri (
I am not just a foodie. I am also hooked with wines and spirits, which led me to my WSET education a couple of years ago. Being in Japan I just had to get my hands on sake. Nowhere in the world will you find a selection of fine sake as you do in Japan. Which does not come on a surprise, given that Japan is fortunate enough to have a sake industry that comprises about 1,500 breweries. So nowhere in the world can you get a better experience in tasting sake and learn about sake than in Japan.
So on my mission to truly understand the “beverage for the gods”, as sake was called until the Heian period (794 – 1185), I not just tasted a wide variety since I started living in Japan. I also topped my experience with a formal education about sake with the Sake Education Council and theJapanese Sake Sommelier Institute.
Sake Line-up: Tasting of different production methods
That were 261(!) – in words – twohundredsixtyone sake that I tasted in 30 days – plus the average 14 sake that I have at home to train my palate and practice for blind tastings. That is true sakemania. I got to taste many of the sake at breweries that I visited. Big, industrial ones that have high-tech equipment for a large scale year-round production as well as tiny, artisanal breweries that use ancient methods that have been passed down for generations.
The good news is that for pure enjoyment you don’t need to study that hard.
Sake Line-up: Tasting of different sake from one brewery
Knowing that there is more than one sake out there is a good start to find one you like. Additionally you should remember one word: “Ginjo”. Because if the word “ginjo” is on your bottle you have a premium sake in your hands, that means good stuff. Try it and take it from there.
This elegant and wonderful round sake is mild, mouth-watering and well balanced. It’s strong fragrance of strawberry, banana and melon it is only subtly supported on the palate.
With its light body and warm, round mouth feel it would marvelously serve as a sundowner on a warm late summer evening. If you are into Jazz, it reminds me of the voice of Ayako Hosokawa. But whatever music you listen to when you drink it, be careful. The combination of fruit and acidity is seductive, making it hard to stop.
Specifications
Label of the Tsuki no Katsura “Yanagi” Junmai Ginjo
Seimei Buai (Milling Rate): 50%
Rice: Yamada Nishiki
Alcohol: 16%
SMV: +2
Acidity: 1,5
Yeast: #9
Food Pairing
This very light Ginjo goes well as an aperitif as well as with appetizers or a salad with citrusy vinaigrette. Equally well was a pairing with sashimi and a fruity, creamy shira aé (persimmons with tofu sauce).
Brewery Profile:
The Masuda Tokubee Shoten brewery, known under the brand name ‘Tsuki no Katsura’ was founded in 1675 and is therefore one of the oldest breweries in the Fushimi area of Kyoto.
Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai Region
The current president, Masuda Tokubee is the 14th generation of his family to run the brewery, which has been passed down for 341 years. Tsuki no Katsura introduced a new kind of sake in 1964, which is today known as Nigori-sake, roughly filtered and milky sake. It is not just their Nigori-sake, which made Tsuki no Katsura became a nationally known sake brewery. They also preserve probably the oldest aged sake in Japan, dating back 50 years.
I have the roasted soy beans ready. Only the onimask (demon mask) for my husband is missing. My girls tried to make one, but unfortunately it was neither scary nor durable and did not stand the test of time. So we have about another week to get fully ready for Setsubun.
Setsubun accessories
Setsubun is the break of the seasons, which today is only celebrated at the break of winter, on February 3rd. Referring to the Japanese lunar calendar Setsubun was previously thought of something like New Years. As such in the Setsubun ritual the evil spirits of the old year are expelled and the good spirits for the year to come are invited in. In our house my husband gets to be the oni, representing the evil sprits and my girls throw fuku mame (roasted soy beans that are called ‘fortune beans’) at him, shouting “Oni wa soto!” (“demons out!”). But remember – nothing goes to waste, so afterwards they go outside, pick them up again and to my ‘delight’ throw them back in our living room shouting “Fuku wa uchi!” (“luck in!”). To complete the luck, everyone gets to eat the fuku mame. One for each year of one’s life and in some areas one more for the year to come.
This year I have counted 866 soy beans. And even if, I would deny that we are that old, so no way they can all be eaten in our little Setsubun ritual. But they serve wonderfully as beer or sake snack. So for this year I decided that we will enjoy them with a chilled glass of Tsuki no Katsura ‘Yanagi’ Junmai Ginjo from Fushimi in Kyoto, which I will introduce in detail in my next post.
The Japanese kitchen is very seasonal and in its traditional set up only uses fruits, vegetables and fish that are available at each specific time of the year. As such it doesn’t come on a surprise that even pickling, as a method of food preservation, follows the seasonality. Similar to Europe, summer time and in Japan also the previous rainy season are the busy times for pickling. But there are still things to be done in the pickle pot when temperatures drop at the end of the year.
One of the things to be pickled in wintertime is takuan. In a nutshell takuan is sun-dried daikon that has been pickled several months in nuka. Whereas nuka is rice bran that is the byproduct of milling rice for saké and white table rice. Once again here is an example that nothing goes to waste in the traditional Japanese Cuisine (see also my post on yukari).
Bright yellow Takuan on my lunch tray
I really enjoy eating takuan with its crispiness that locks out any outside sounds for the split second of your biting pleasure. So does my oldest daughter. Unfortunately almost all of the takuan that you can buy in Japan – whether it be from an ordinary supermarket, an upscale depachika like Takashimaya or Mitsukoshi or a pickling specialty shop contains MSG. Therefore I decided that I will give it a(nother) shot and try to make takuan myself.
This is actually my second attempt in making takuan. Sadly my takuan challenge 2014/15 ended abrupt. I kept the pickle pot with the takuan outside on the terrace in front of my kitchen. Same as my girls’ sandpit, so that they are (theoretically) in my range of vision. And if I tell you now that nuka fully layered with pickling brine looks very similar to wet sand you might already guess what had happened. Shortly before the takuan was enjoyable my girls decided to help me and added some ‘nuka’ from the sandpit to the pickle pot, which resulted in a completely molded inedible mass.
This time I started the pickling shortly before Christmas last year and my pickle pot is locked away ever since. Pickling takuan is tricky. Many things can go wrong. Follow me as I will soon write more about the beginning stages and the development of this wonderful tsukémono-dish (umbrella term for pickled things).
It was way too warm in Tokyo the past weeks, it felt more like spring and I must admit that I was tempted to decorate my home with the first tulips in happy anticipation of spring. Already two weeks ago I also saw the first mountain vegetables for sale that usually come to market middle of February.
First Plum blossom of the year in our garden
Very odd. But to straighten the seasons winter has kicked in this week and almost suppressed all the happy spring feelings. Almost, but not quite, as this morning I saw the first fully open plum blossom in my garden. I know that plum trees are supposed to bloom when there is still snow on the branches, but nevertheless for me they are a sign that spring is not very far away anymore.
Celebrating this finding I spontaneously decided to make my girls umé boshionigigi (hand pressed rice balls with pickled plum) for their lunchbox today.
Yukari Onigiri with umé boshi
I mixed warm rice (thanks to the programming function of my rice cooker) with freshly roasted white sesame seeds and yukari, which are the red shiso leaves that are dried and pulverized after they have been used in the pickling of umé boshi (pickled plums)*. They are utterly delicious and have a subtle sour and salty plum flavor. My girls are addicted to onigiri with yukari and my oldest one even insisted to shape her own onigiri this morning. She lately enjoys to eat the umé boshi as well, even though they can be quite sour, so we added a little bit of it in the center.
Yukari: Dried and pulverized red shiso leaves after pickling umé boshi
Yukari is especially wonderful when packing onigiri in a bento box to enjoy later, as the containing salt preserves the rice from going bad. Not that this would be an issue with todays temperatures, but when the weather gets warmer and picnics become more popular it is a good thing to do.
A word of caution though. Most of the Yukari that is sold in ordinary supermarkets in Japan contains a lot of questionable ingredients, including Monosodium Glutamate or short MSG. If you are a Japan resident or travel to Japan have a look at a store called Tomizawa.
In Japan Tomizawa Shoten sells Yukari without MSG
Tomizawa sells Yukari without MSG (as well as other types of Furikake – dry rice seasoning). In Tokyo they have shops throughout the city, including Shinjuku Keio, Yurakucho Lumine, Futakotamagawa and Shibuya Seibu. It is a wonderful place to shop for high quality Kambutsu (dried products) and bakery ingredients. Nowadays they label their products bilingual in Japanese and English, so you shouldn’t encounter problems finding what you are looking for. And it enables you to stroll around their store and discover wonderful new products you might have not known before (like e.g. amazingly purple sweet mashed potato flakes – great if you have guests). I usually leave the store with more than what I had planned, but the good news is that we are talking about Kambutsu, which by nature have a very long shelf life, so I know that at some point I will find a good use for whatever I purchase.
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* “Nothing goes to waste in the Japanese kitchen”. For me this is one oft the most important mantras in Japanese Cooking. It is simply amazing how resourceful the Japanese are when preparing their food. Starting with the resources they need for cooking to using an ingredient fully, with many ingredients having more than one use. But discussing this goes beyond the scope of this article and I will write about it in more detail in a separate post. Sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t already and you won’t miss it.
Last week was Nanakusa no Sekku, the festival of the seven herbs in Japan, that marks the end of Oshugatsu, the Japanese New Year. On this day – typically in the morning Japanese – people eat Nanakusa Gayu. This is a variation of rice porridge called okayu that is typically served to sick people, because it is soft and rather bland. With my youngest daughter being less than a year old and an addict to Japanese food, I found myself making okayu quite often in the past months and I must admit that it ranks rather low in my Japanese culinary repertoire.
Nevertheless Nanakusa Gayu is traditionally eaten on the seventh day of the new year as a simple soup made with rice and water (proportion 1:3), or a light dashi broth and seven different kinds of herbs (each having a unique health promoting property) that are quickly blanched and then finely chopped to be added at the end. The soup is meant to let the “overworked” stomach and digestive system rest and bring longevity and health in the coming year.
Traditional Nanakusa no Sekku-herbs
The traditional seven herbs that are added to the dish are:
– seri — Water Dropwort
– nazuna — Shepherd’s Purse
– gogyō — Cudweed
– hakobera — Chickweed
– hotokenoza — Nipplewort
– suzuna — Turnip
– suzushiro — Daikon
Freeze-dried Nanakusa no Sekku-herbs
In Japan it is easy to source those herbs both fresh and freeze dried in conveniently packaged containers.
So instead of preparing my family food, which only my youngest daughter would appreciate, I gave it a little twist this year. I combined Nanakusa no Sekku with Sho-Chiku-Bai (pine, bamboo and plum). This threesome – “Three Friends of Winter” is one of the most popular decorative motifs (e.g. the motive on New Year’s chopsticks), representing promise and good fortune.
So I cooked the Japanese rice risotto style: Deglazing the pan with saké and adding the broth little by little while continuously stirring to bring out the creaminess. As a broth I used the liquid from braising bamboo shoots like you would when making Takénoko Gohan. And which were tossed under the rice just before serving. I added pine nuts to the herbs making a raw pesto-like paste to go on top of the rice and added a sprinkle of dried umé boshi powder on top of the dish (hard to see in the picture) to add a splash of color and palate teaser.
Our Sho-Chiku-Bai Nanakusa Gayu
This variation of Nanakusa no Sekku was a successful experiment. Even my youngest daughter liked the rice. As she is still waiting for her first tooth to come out, there was not much more for her to try. Here is the recipe that I noted while I was cooking:
For the broth :
– 1.100 ml Dashi
– 100 ml Mirin
– 100 ml light colored soy sauce
– 450g cooked Bamboo
– 2 Turnip
– 2 Mini-Daikon
Put dashi, mirin and soy sauce in a pot on medium heat. Add the thinly cut vegetables, cover with an otoshi buta (or alternatively with a round parchment paper) and allow for low simmering for about five minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Remove the vegetables from the soup and save for their later use.
For the Pesto*:
– 2 packages of Nanakusa no Sekku-herbs
– 70 g freshly roasted pine nuts
– 100 ml broth
– 15 ml light colored soy sauce
– 1 pinch of salt (optional)
Mix the pine nuts and half of the broth in a blender. Add the rest of the broth bit by bit – depending on your preferred consistency. Proceed similar with the light colored soy sauce, adjusting the degree of saltiness to your liking. Light colored soy sauce is saltier than normal soy sauce, but does not stain the food. So if you substitute regular soy sauce for the light colored soy sauce, beware that it will affect the fresh, green color.
For the rice:
– 275 g Japanese rice
– 100 ml Saké
– 750 ml broth
– 1 El light sesame oil
– 1 Prise Umé boshi powder
Heat the oil in the pot and add the rice, stirring it for one or two minutes until coated with the oil. Deglaze the pot with the saké and add the broth little by little. For a creamy consistency you need to stir constantly, massaging the broth into the rice until it has reached your favorite doneness (mine was al dente).
Before serving mix the cooked vegetables** in the rice and arrange it nicely on a plate. Top with the pesto and sprinkle some umé boshi powder over the dish .
We enjoyed our Sho-Chiku-Bai Nanakusa no Sekku with a glass of chilled Junmai Kimoto Saké from the Daishichi brewery, which I will be introducing in more detail in a separate post.
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* The amount of pesto that I got was good for six people, whereas the rice was for two adults, two little girls and a baby only. Next time I will cut the recipe in half.
** I used way too much bamboo for the dish. The bamboo flavored the broth nicely, but was too much to mix with the rice that I cooked. I assume that 150 g bamboo would probably have been more than enough.
