Korean-style egg & wakame soup

Korean-style egg & wakame soup

Ready in under 10 minutes, this super-quick egg and wakame seaweed soup is good to have up your sleeve in case you need a little something extra to round out a meal. It is on fairly regular rotation at our house, in preference to miso soup, actually. It is our go-to soup for serving with the sashimi rice bowl with ginger, garlic and sesame, below. Both recipes were on the same page of the August 17, 2010 edition of Orange Page (no longer available for purchase).

Every ingredient in the soup is a staple of the Japanese kitchen so I never need to shop specially to make it, but outside of Japan, you may need to get hold of cut wakame seaweed (which is also excellent in salads like this one), toasted sesame oil and torigara soup chicken stock granules.

Kankoku-fu kakitama-jiru: Korean-style egg & wakame soup

Serves 4

1/2 a negi (Japanese leek), sliced into thin rounds
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 cups (400 ml) water
2 tsp torigara (chicken bone) soup granules
1 tsp Japanese soy sauce
2/3 tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 g cut wakame seaweed
2 tsp ground sesame seeds

1 In a small pot, heat the sesame oil over a medium heat. Add the negi and cook briefly until wilted. Add the water and torigara soup granules and bring to the boil.

2 Add the soy sauce and salt and stir, then pour in the beaten egg in a circular motion. Once the egg becomes fluffy and cooked, add the dry wakame and cook for a few moments. When the wakame has reconstituted, ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with the ground sesame.

Enjoy!

Sashimi rice bowl with ginger, garlic and sesame



 Sashimi rice bowl with ginger, garlic and sesame

This is one of the Young Man's favourite quick dinners. He can even make it, and the Korean-style soup we always have with it, all by himself!

With ginger, garlic, negi and sesame, the flavours are bold but fresh. Shredded perilla brightens the dish, but you could use basil instead, if that's what's available.

We usually make this with maguro (tuna) sashimi, but it was not available on the day, so I used buri (yellowtail) instead.

Domburi are a larger sized rice bowl used for oyako-don and other rice-and-topping dishes suffixed with a don! They have a capacity of around 550 ml, compared to 250-350 ml for regular rice bowls. It doesn't really matter how much rice you use in this dish, however, and you could certainly make it in one big bowl to share, if you don't have domburi.

This recipe is from the August 17, 2010 edition of Orange Page (no longer available for purchase).

Sashimi no zuke-don komi-dare: Sashimi rice bowl with ginger, garlic and sesame

Serves 4

700 g warm, cooked rice (about 4 domburi bowls full )
400 g block of sashimi (tuna, for preference), cubed
2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
10 shiso (perilla) leaves

For the dressing
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated to a slush
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp finely chopped negi (Japanese leek)
1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
1 tsp ground sesame seeds
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 sheet yakinori (laver), torn into small pieces (optional)

1 Place the cubes of sashimi in a bowl, pour over the soy sauce, mix well to coat and leave to marinate for about 5 min. Cut the stalks off the perilla leaves, cut in half lengthwise, and slice into fine strips. swish in a small bowl of water and drain on kitchen paper.

2 In a small bowl, mix the dressing ingredients together. Fill 4 domburi bowls with rice and top with the marinated sashimi, including the juices. Pour over the dressing and sprinkle over the perilla and yakinori, if using.

Enjoy!

Shimeji & beef pepper fried rice



Shimeji & beef pepper fried rice

We are finally getting some colder weather in Yokohama, so it is time to dust off a favourite autumnal rice recipe. With meat, veggies and rice, you could just about get away with calling this a one-dish meal, but we often have it with a soup of some sort. Either way, it comes together in about 30 minutes (less if you have already cooked the rice), so it's great for those nights when  you can't be bothered with too much faff and bother in the kitchen.
The pepper here is quite full-on, so adjust the amount to your family's liking. Shimeji mushrooms are one of many great varieties of mushroom in Japan. The most readily available variety here is buna shimeji, but other varieties, or even other mushrooms will work well, too. The beef should be the thickness of bacon, or slightly thinner.

The original recipe, from the October 17, 2008 edition of Orange Page, calls for shungiku (chrysanthemum leaves), but any green will do really, so ring in the changes, as I have here with the komatsuna greens. The original recipe also calls for 200 g of rice per person, but I usually do 2 rice cooker cups of rice for 4 people, which comes out at around 700 g cooked.

Shimeji to gyuniku no pepper chahan: Shimeji & beef pepper fried rice

Serves 4

700 g of warm, cooked rice (enough for 4 domburi bowls)

40 ml toasted sesame oil, divided

4 packs shimeji mushrooms (about 400 g total)

200 g thinly sliced beef (kiriotoshi)

1 bag komatsuna greens (about 200 g), stalks only

2 tsp crushed black pepper

2 tsp Japanese soy sauce

1 Place the cooked rice in a bowl. Pour over 2 tsp of the sesame oil and 1 tsp salt and mix thoroughly. Remove the base from the shimeji and break the mushrooms apart. Cut the beef into bite-sized slices if large. Wash and slice the komatsuna stalks into 7 mm pieces.

2 Place the remaining sesame oil and black pepper into a wok or large frying pan and heat on a medium flame. Add the beef and shimeji and stir-fry for about 3 min. When the shimeji soften, add 1 tsp salt and the soy sauce and quickly mix through.

3 Push the beef and shimeji to the side of the wok and put the rice and komatsuna stalks in the middle. Using a wooden spoon to "cut" through the rice, stir-fry for about 2 min. Once the rice separates, mix the beef and shimeji through. Continue to stir-fry until the komatsuna stalks are done and the rice and other ingredients are well incorporated.

Enjoy!



Grilled chicken with Japanese leek & salt dressing

Grilled chicken with Japanese leek & salt dressing

"Leek and salt dressing?" you ask.

Oh yes, this gutsy leek, garlic and sesame oil dressing is one of the stand-outs of Japanese cooking. It goes well with grilled or sauted chicken and pork, can be mixed through noodles and, stretched with additional sesame oil, used as a dipping sauce for gyoza. Try it once and you'll know what it's all about!


Negi: Japanese leeks

Negi is a Japanese leek. Much thinner and finer than a Western leek, along with shichimi-togarashi, wasabi and ginger, it is considered to be an appetite-enhancing condiment (yakumi).

If unavailable, finely chopped regular spring onions, about enough to fill a 200 ml cup, can be substituted. If using actual negi, the easiest way to chop them finely is to cut a slit down the length of each leek, open them flat and slice finely cross-wise, then the other way.

Add the salt gradually to taste.

Grilling, here, means cooking over or under an open flame. There is an ingenious grill pan many Japanese cooks use over a burner on their stove. I prefer to use my stove's grill. Either way, you want to cook the flesh side first so that the chicken skin crisps up nicely after turning. A lot of the chicken flavour is in the skin, which you will miss out on if you use skinless chicken thighs.

Negi-shio Grilled Chicken: Grilled chicken with Japanese leek and salt dressing

Serves 4

4 boned chicken thighs, skin on (around 800 g)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the Japanese leek-salt dressing
2 Japanese leeks, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, pressed
3 tbsp Japanese sesame oil
2/3-1 tsp course-ground black pepper
1 1/3-2 tsp salt

1 Place the chicken skin side down on a chopping board and remove any visible fat. Pierce the skin of each thigh with a fork around 10 times. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix the dressing ingredients together well in a  small bowl and leave to allow the flavours to meld.

2 Heat the grill for around 2 minutes. Place the chicken on the grill skin side down and grill for 7-8 minutes over medium heat. Turn and grill for a further 4-5 min or until done.

3 Remove chicken from grill and cut widthwise into slices about 1.5 cm wide. Place on a serving dish skin side up and top with the leek-salt dressing.

Serve with steamed rice and salads.

Meshi-agare!

Recipe source: Orange Page March 3, 2009 edition (no longer available for purchase)
Negi photo source

Japanese-style carrot salad with ginger soy sesame dressing

Japanese-style carrot salad

This little vegetable side packs a punch and comes together in a snap. With a few speedy side recipes like this up your sleeves, cooking a Japanese meal on a weeknight is a much more do-able proposition.

Carrots and the spice ginger are a classic pairing in Moroccan cuisine, as in Claudia Roden's eye-opening carrot spread. Here, the ginger is not the dried spice, but fresh ginger juice which, if anything, is even more of a palate wake-up call!


Ceramic grater



The intention here is that you will serve this salad with a main dish, another small side dish and rice. The recipe is easily scalable, though, if you will be making fewer dishes.

The ginger-soy-sesame dressing would also be good with pan-fried broccoli or in place of regular soy sauce on hiyayakko (chilled tofu).

To get the juice from the ginger, I use a ceramic grater like this one, which pulps rather than grates the ginger. Squeeze the pulp and the juice comes right out. Since grated ginger and ginger juice are often called for in Japanese cooking, I wouldn't be without this neat little gadget in my utensil drawer.

The nori (dried laver seaweed) called for here is the plain kind, but use what you have or just skip it if you don't have any.

Wafu ninjin salada: Japanese-style carrot salad with ginger soy sesame dressing



Serves 4 as a side dish

1 carrot (about 160 g)

ginger juice from a piece of ginger the size of a man's thumb

1 tsp Japanese soy sauce

2 tsp Japanese toasted sesame oil

yakinori

salt

1 Peel the carrot and either continue shaving it into strips with the peeler or cut into fine strips with a mandolin. Place in a bowl, add a pinch of salt, mix with your hands and leave for 5 min to release some of the juices.

2 Meanwhile, peel and grate the ginger, preferably with a ceramic Japanese grater, and squeeze the juice out. Discard the ginger pulp. Squeeze the juices from the carrots by hand, tip out any juices remaining in the bowl and return the carrot strips to the empty bowl. Add the ginger juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and toss. Tear the yakinori by hand and add to the salad. Toss again and serve immediately.

Meshi-agare!

Recipe source: Orange Page March 17, 2012 edition

Cherry blossom dainties

Cherry blossom dainties

Cherry blossoms (sakura) are serious business in Japan. As the season approaches, the weather report always carries estimated times of blossom opening and full bloom so people can plan their cherry blossom appreciation parties accordingly. A quick burst of warm weather during the week had the weather people forecasting full bloom last weekend. The timing couldn't have been more perfect for trying out this easy recipe for sweet bean-filled cherry blossom dainties, AKA sakura mochi!

Tomoe koshi-an powder

This may require a trip to the Japanese grocer's. I don't keep shiratamako (glutinous rice flour with added potato starch) or an (sweetened bean paste) on hand, much less salt-preserved cherry blossoms, so it certainly did for me!

Shiratamako, despite its name, is not actually a powder. It has a lumpy texture in the packet, but dissolves instantly on contact with water. It differs both from joshinko (Japanese white rice flour) and mochiko (glutinous rice flour without added potato starch).

The shop I went to had a couple of choices on the an front. The portion-sized packets seemed to be on the watery side to me, so I opted for Tomoe koshi-an powder. This worked really well, and there is plenty left over for future adventures into Japanese sweet making. If using ready-made an, you will need 160 g. I use smooth koshi-an, but the original recipe calls for the bumpier tsubu-an.

The Young Man (and many Facebook friends) were mightily impressed with these. I am almost ashamed to admit that they came together in just over 40 minutes!

Sakura mochi: Cherry blossom dainties

For the an
36 g Tomoe koshi-an powder
108 ml water
80 g sugar
[or 160 g ready-made an]

16 g shiratamako
80 ml water
40 g plain flour
4 tsp sugar
pinch red food colouring dissolved in 1/4 tsp water
vegetable oil
6 salt-preserved cherry blossom flowers

1 To make the an, bring the water and koshi-an powder to the boil, reduce the heat to medium, add sugar and stir until thickened, taking care not to allow the an to burn. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Roll into 8 equal sized balls.

2 Gently swish the preserved cherry blossoms in a cup of water to remove the excess salt.

3 To make the mochi batter, using whisk, mix the shiratamako with half the water. Add the food colouring-water mixture, flour, sugar and the remaining water.

4 Heat a frying pan over low heat and coat with a little vegetable oil. Make oval-shaped pancakes with the batter, using about 20 ml of batter each time. When the first side dries, cook briefly on the other side and set aside to cool.

5 Wrap a pancake around each ball of an, with the side you cooked first on the outside. Top with a cherry blossom.

Meshi-agare!

Recipe source: ABC Cooking Studio (there's also a helpful video (in Japanese))
Tomoe koshi-an photo source

Cucumber with Yukari purple perilla seasoning

Cucumber with Yukari purple perilla seasoning

Spring has come to my part of Japan in a rush. The cherry blossoms are blooming and the sun out and the wind up. The hearty vegetable sides of last week are making way for this week's fresh and crunchy salads. I've been waiting for this!

This simple salad, if you even want to call it that, features cucumbers pressed to release their juices then tossed with a tart-fruity-savory seasoning mix and sesame seeds. It's the sort of thing you can easily whip up on short notice if another small dish is required.

Japanese cucumbers are long and thin, and usually measure about 15 cm in length. Their flavour is mild and cooling. Continental cucumbers and other Western varieties can be substituted here, but it might be worth removing the seeds and any bitter skin first. Lebanese/Middle Eastern cucumbers make a better substitute.

Fresh green perilla leaves (aojiso or oba) can be hard to get outside of Asia. Mint or basil (or a combination of the two) can be used instead. Whatever takes your fancy, really.

Yukari is a brand of dried purple perilla seasoning more often used to flavour cooked rice, although it goes well with crunchy vegetables, too. It contains dried purple perilla leaves, salt, sugar and other flavorings. I've heard it called Japan's sumac, so feel free to substitute sumac if you have that but not Yukari in your cupboards.

Cucumber with Yukari purple perilla seasoning

Serves 2 as a side dish

2 Japanese cucumbers or 3 Lebanese cucumbers
5 fresh green perilla (aojiso) leaves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Yukari brand red perilla seasoning (or sumac)
2 tsp white sesame seeds

1 Slice the tops and tails off the cucumbers, halve lengthwise and slice thinly on the diagonal. Cut the stalks off the fresh perilla leaves and tear into small pieces.

2 Place the cucumber slices in a plastic bag (a sandwich bag is ideal), add the salt. Holding the opening of the bag tightly closed, gently squeeze the cucumbers to help release their juices. Squeeze the air out of the bag, twist the top and leave for about 10 minutes. Squeezing the cucumbers lightly from the top, pour the juices out of the bag. Add the Yukari or sumac, toss quickly to coat, and arrange in a bowl or serving dish. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

Recipe source: Orange Page April 17, 2010 edition (no longer available for purchase)

Meshi-agare!

Bulgogi-style beef and veggies

Bulgogi-style beef with veggies

Bulgogi, according to a CNN survey, is one of the world's top 25 most delicious foods. It's pretty popular here in Japan as well. This recipe uses ingredients found in almost every Japanese kitchen to approximate the Korean original. It might not be authentic, but it is very tasty, and the Young Man can't get enough of it.

The recipe uses a "bunching" technique, where the meat is placed in a hot pan in mounds and left to cook for a few minutes undisturbed. This keeps the meat juicy and stops it from becoming stiff. I am happy with the results, so I do it this way, but you could probably just stir-fry in the normal way.

The meat itself comes pre-sliced in Japan. There are two types: usu-gire (thin-sliced) and koma-gire (a-hem, thin-sliced). The difference between the two eludes me, but with koma-gire, the slices are not uniform in length. As koma-gire tends to be cheaper, my guess is that it's odds and ends left over from butchering other cuts. It has around 15-20% visible fat, cooks quickly, and when cooked with plenty of vegetables as it is here, allows you to reduce the amount of meat you eat without feeling cheated (g).

Once the veggies and sauce are prepped, this is on the table in under 10 minutes. However, if you need to slice the beef yourself, you will need more time. That sounds like madness-making work to me and is probably best left to your butcher, but if you insist, you are looking for shabu-shabu-thick slices.

Recipe source: Orange Page June 2, 2009 edition (no longer available for purchase)

Bulgogi-style beef and veggies

Serves 4

600 g koma-gire (thin-sliced) beef
1 small red pepper
1 onion
1 bunch (100 g) garlic chives
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp flour
For the sauce
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 tbsp miso paste
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
1 tsp tobanjan (doubanjiang) chilli paste, or to taste

1 Peel and halve the onion lengthwise and slice thinly. Halve the red pepper lengthwise, remove the stalk, seeds and membranes, and slice lengthwise into 2-3 mm strips. Remove the root from the garlic chives and slice into 5 cm lengths. Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.

2 In a large frying pan, heat the vegetable oil on medium heat for 2-3 min. Dust the beef with the flour, divide into 8 portions and place each mound in the hot frying pan. Cook, undisturbed, for 2-3 min.

3 When the meat has changed colour to about half way up the mounds, flip and layer the onion, red pepper and Chinese chives on top, then pour over the sauce. Turn the heat up a little and cook for around 3-4 minutes, breaking the mounds up as you go. When most of the liquid has gone, transfer to a serving dish.

Meshi-agare!

Oysters with lotus root and garlic chives

Oysters with lotus root and garlic chives

Oysters are a common winter treat in Japan. They are enjoyed both raw (of course!) and cooked, and most supermarkets (in my part of Japan, at least)  have a stock of both kinds--ready shucked--during the season, which runs until around April.

I've been meaning to incorporate oysters into my winter menu for a few years, and have been collecting recipes for a while. This recipe, from Korean-Japanese food writer Koh Kentetsu, is a real find. Far from overwhelming the plump brininess of the oysters, the assertive ginger-garlic-garlic chive sauce and lotus root crunch really complement and enhance the tender mollusks.

This recipe appeared in the Orange Page column Koh Kentetsu's yasai de otsumami (vegetable dishes to enjoy with drinks). Koh recommends Shaoxing wine, beer or shochu with this dish. I say it is too good to save just for drinking parties. Why not have it for dinner tonight, while oysters are still to be had!

Renkon-iri kaki-nira itame: Oysters with lotus root and garlic chives

Serves 4

1 lotus root bulb (around 240 g)
1/2 bunch garlic chives (around 50 g)
16 shucked oysters

2 tsp Japanese soy sauce
2 tsp cooking sake

For the sauce
4 tbsp (60 ml) cooking sake
4 tsp Japanese soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp Japanese rice vinegar
1 tsp katakuriko potato starch

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
piece of ginger the size of 2 thumbs, chopped finely
2 tsp tobanjan (doubanjiang) or other chilli paste, or to taste (optional)
dribble of toasted sesame oil

1 Place shucked oysters in a sieve in a bowl. Wash gently to remove any grit in water to which you have added a little salt. Drain, pat dry with kitchen paper and place in a bowl with the Japanese soy sauce and cooking sake. Mix gently to coat and set aside. Wash lotus root well and peel with a vegetable peeler. Cut in half length-ways and cut each half cross-ways into slices 5 mm thick. Wash the garlic chives and cut into lengths 4-5 cm long. In a small bowl, mix the sauce ingredients.

2 Heat 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan or wok over medium heat. Add the oysters and stir-fry quickly until plump. Remove and set aside. In the same frying pan or wok, heat the remaining 1 tbsp vegetable over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger and tobanjan, if using, and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the lotus root and continue stir-frying until it becomes slightly transparent.

3 Return the oysters to the pan. Stir the sauce ingredients and pour into the pan in a circular motion. Mix and continue stir-frying until the sauce thickens. Dribble toasted sesame oil around the edge of the pan, stir once and place on a serving dish.

Recipe source: Orange Page

Meshiagare!

Grilled chicken marinated in garlic, ginger and basil



Grilled chicken marinated in garlic, ginger and basil

Here's a bright and snappy dish for a dull winter evening. The fresh tomato sauce is made with cherry (mini) tomatoes, which are flavoursome even in the winter months.
In Japan, chicken thighs are probably more popular than breast, and I have to admit the darker meat is all that I buy. They come ready boned and open up to about the size of a man's hand. You don't want to skin them--there's a lot of flavour in the skin--but remove any visible fat lurking under the skin.

The chicken is cooked in an uncovered frying pan, then covered and steam/fried on low heat until cooked through. This is a common method of cooking chicken in Japan, but you might just as easily  grill it and get crispy skin!


3 "vats"

I made an interesting discovery when doing some desk research for this post: Just about every kitchen in Japan has little rectangular stainless steel or aluminium pans that are used for marinating, draining deep-fried foods and keeping things together during food prepping. These pans are called batto in Japanese and written in a way that indicates the word is of foreign origin. Often such words are are loans from English, but since I couldn't think what that might be I assumed it was from another language. Surprisingly, it turns out the word is vat!


Recipe source: Orange Page, January 2, 2009 (no longer available for purchase). Batto photo source: http://marve.shop-pro.jp/


Toriniku no marine yaki: Grilled chicken marinated in garlic, ginger and basil

Serves 4

2 large boneless chicken thighs (around 600 g)
For the marinade
2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 clove garlic, crushed (or to taste)
1 tsp garlic juice
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 parsley stalk (optional)

For the fresh tomato dressing
5 cherry tomatoes, hulled and chopped coarsely
1/6 white onion, chopped coarsely
1/2 clove garlic,  crushed (or to taste)
leaves from 1 stalk of parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

1 pack (about 25 g) mixed baby leaves or rocket

1 Remove any visible yellow fat from the chicken thighs and prick the skin side here and there with a fork. Halve the parsley stalk (if using). Mix the marinade ingredients in a container large enough to hold the meat and marinade. Add the meat and coat well. Cover with wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight, turning the meat from time to time.

2 In a medium sized bowl, mix the chopped cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, parsley leaves, Balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

3 Remove chicken from the marinade, shaking off the excess liquid. Season generously with salt an pepper. Place in a cold frying pan skin side down and turn the heat to medium. Turn once the skin browns nicely. Cook the other side until browned, then cover with a lid and steam/fry over low heat for 6-7 minutes or until the liquid runs clear when the meat is pricked with a skewer. Leave to cool slightly in the pan.

4 Arrange the baby leaves or rocket on a serving dish. Slice chicken and place on top of the leaves. top with the fresh tomato dressing and serve.

Meshiagare!

Osechi 2012 Tier 2: Kaki Namasu

The second Osechi tier traditionally contains grilled and fried seafood and meat, as well as pickles, basically fancier versions of everyday fare. My 2nd tier rather un-traditionally contained Date-maki, a sweet rolled omlette made with hampen, a fluffy steamed fish paste, and  Kaki Namasu, a "red-and-white" pickle of daikon, carrot and dried persimmon.

After having boring cylindrical date-maki two years ago, I bought a special onisudare date-maki rolling mat, like this one, in Kappabashi, Tokyo's kitchen and table ware mecca. The mat is made of triangular "dowels" of bamboo, and rolling the date-maki with this rather than a sushi rolling mat creates the traditional date-maki zig-zag. You could try to achieve a similar result by placing round bamboo disposable chopsticks at regular intervals on your sushi rolling mat before rolling but, honestly, its probably not worth the bother.

If you can't find hampen for the date-maki, you can use the same weight of white fish of your choice, chopped to a pulp.

Kaki Namasu: Pickled daikon and carrot with dried persimmon
Symbolizes progress, education and culture
Time/Effort: * Cost: * Flavour: ***

Dried persimmon adds a luscious sweetness to this pickle, but it is not something I've come across outside of Japan, although they are a common sight in winter here, when it's slim pickings for fresh fruit. If you don't have access to them, you could substitute soaked dried apricots instead, or just leave them out. Given all the other sweet Osechi fare, I think I will go with a yuzu citron-flavoured namasu next time.

Making this without a mandolin is possible, but I really wouldn't recommend it unless you have chef-level knife skills. A LOT of liquid comes out of the daikon. Some effort is required to squeeze it all out. You should think of it as stress relief ; ).

You want to make this a day in advance to let the flavours meld.

600 g daikon
80 g carrot
2 cups (400 ml) water
1 tbsp salt
50 g deseeded dried persimmon

For the pickling liquid
2/3 cup (66 ml) Japanese rice vinegar
6 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

1 Using a mandolin, shred the daikon and carrot along the grain into fine ribbons 4 cm long. Place in separate bowls.

2 Mix salt and water and pour 2/3 of the amount over the daikon and the remaining amount over the carrot. Soak until the vegetables become pliant. Squeeze the vegetables in the water a few times with your hands, drain and squeeze until very dry. A great deal of liquid will come out of the daikon. Keep squeezing until no more liquid comes out.

3 Chop the dried persimmon fairly finely. Mix into the pickling liquid ingredients.

4 Add the daikon and carrot and mix gently.

Enjoy!

Osechi 2012: Tier 1 Subasu and Tatsukuri

The top tier of the 3-tiered box traditionally contains foods that represent wishes for the family's health and prosperity (e.g. tatsukuri (seasoned young anchovies) and kazunoko (preserved herring roe)), and celebratory red-and-white items (e.g. red & white kamaboko (steamed fish paste) and cooked prawns).

This year, I made (clockwise from the left) green-and-gold Matcha-iri Kurikinton (sweet potato and chestnut paste with matcha), Subasu (spicy pickled lotus root), Koh Kentetsu's Pirikara Tatsukuri (Korean-style spicy dried young anchovies in gochujang-sake dressing) and Kuromame  (black soy beans in soy sauce caramel).

Subasu:
I ventured into new culinary territory with lotus root. I don't know why, but I'd just never got round to cooking anything with this crunchy mid-winter staple. I'm very glad I did, and this super easy Osechi item is very satisfying. "Carving" petals into the root was a bit fiddly, but that step can be omitted if time is tight. This needs to be made at least a day in advance to ensure full flavour. (Note: I messed up! This pickle should have been in the 2nd tier. Live and learn ; ))

It is best to use Japanese rice vinegar, which is more mellow than other vinegars. You will need a small amount of dashi stock for this recipe.

Subasu (spicy pickled lotus root)
Symbolizes the ability to foresee the future
Time/Effort: ** Cost: * Flavour: ***

1 section of lotus root (approx. 15 cm long)
splash of Japanese rice vinegar

For the amazu sweet vinegar pickling liquid
5 tbsp dashi stock
3 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt

1 dried Japanese red chilli, sliced finely
2 cups boiling water
3 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar
pinch of salt

1 Peel lotus root with a vegetable peeler. Cut away sections of flesh between the holes of the root to create a flower shape (it may be easier to cut the lotus root in half around the middle and repeat this process on the two halves). Slice the root into rounds 5-6 mm thick. Soak in water with a splash of Japanese rice vinegar added to it.

2 Make the amazu pickling liquid. In a small pot, heat the dashi stock, rice vinegar, sugar and salt. When the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat, add the sliced dried chilli and allow to cool.

3 Bring the water to the boil, add the rice vinegar and salt. Boil the lotus root for 1-2 min, or until slightly transparent, and drain immediately. Take care not to overcook or the texture will become unpleasant.

4 Place the cooked lotus root and the pickling liquid in a zip-topped bag and leave to marinate for a day. Keeps for around 1 week.

(Adapted from the recipe in Kihon no Osechi to Shogatsu no omotenashi 2010 (Basic Osechi and special occasion food for the New Year) (Gakken))

Tatsukuri:
I've made several versions of tatsukuri, dressed dried young anchovies, over the years, but was never quite satisfied that this was the one. I think I've finally found what I've been looking for with this recipe from Koh Kentetsu, the ever-smiling Korean-Japanese darling of Japanese food TV and publishing. The son of a renowned Korean cooking expert and sibling of another food personality, he is the real deal.

With spicy gojujang Korean miso, garlic and ginger, this moreish riff on tatsukuri fairly pops in the mouth. I'll be making this often as a nibble for drinks.

Dried young anchovies (niboshi) and kochujan/gojujang are available at Japanese and Korean grocers, respectively. Choose the smallest niboshi you can find.

Koh Kentetsu's Pirikara Tatsukuri
Symbolizes an abundant harvest
Time/Effort: * Cost: * Flavour: ***

30 g niboshi (dried young anchovies)
1/4 cup sake
1 tbsp kochujan (gojujang spicy Korean miso)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp honey (or to taste)
1/2 clove garlic, crushed
piece of ginger half the size of your thumb, pulped on a Japanese grater
1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds

1 Mix the sake, kochuujan, sugar, honey, garlic and ginger in a small bowl to make the dressing.

2 Toast the niboshi in a dry frying pan over medium-low heat, stirring gently,  for 2 min or until crispy and fragrant. Add the blended dressing and continue to cook, stirring gently, until thickened. Remove from the heat and cool. Keeps for around 1 week.

(Adapted from a recipe in http://www.orangepage.net/book/orp/new/090102_orp.html (no longer available for purchase))

Osechi 2012

Osechi is the traditional New Year cuisine of Japan. It is made over a number of days in the lead-up to the New Year and served to the family in a three-tiered  box. Previously in Japan, all shops were closed for the first 3-4 days of the New Year. Osechi, which keeps well, tided families over the break until fresh supplies could be bought. The preparation of Osechi is a quite time-consuming, and many these days buy it in, rather than take time out of the busy Year End period, with its socializing and spring cleaning demands, to make it from scratch.

I rather like a good cooking challenge, and managed to rustle up seven Osechi dishes this year, including a few that have become staples over the years (recipes on my other blog, Saffron and Lemons):

Tier 1 (Front box): Matcha-iri Kurikinton (sweet potato and chestnut paste with matcha), Subasu (spicy pickled lotus root), Pirikara Tatsukuri (Korean-style spicy dried young anchovies in gochujang-sake dressing) and Kuromame (black beans in soy sauce caramel. (The terrine on the left was store-bought)

Tier 2 (Middle box): Date-maki (sweet rolled fish paste omlette), Kaki Namasu (pickled daikon and carrot with dried persimmon)

Tier 3 (Back box): Matsukaze-yaki (gingered chicken meatloaf) (normally this box would contain simmered vegetables, but I've not yet found the right recipe for that one. Maybe next year...)

As usual, I served these with Gochiso Buri Daikon (Special Occasion Teriyaki Yellowtail on Pan-Seared Simmered Daikon) and Ozoni Soup.

My plan of attack was:

• December 26/27 Choose dishes and make shopping list; buy non perishables
• December 28 Dry-fry the anchovies for the Tatsukuri; soak black soy beans for Kuromame
• December 29 Start simmering the Kuromame; make the Tatsukuri, prepare the Subasu and Namasu pickles; peel sweet potatoes for Kurikinton and soak in water overnight
• December 30 Give Kuromame a second simmering; make Kurikinton; buy the perishables
• December 31 Make Date-maki and Matsukaze-yaki; prepare Ozoni and Gochiso Buri Daikon components other than the seafood

As it turned out, my dear friend H invited me to stay overnight on the 31st and join her and her family for their New Year's celebration. She'd just arrived back from the UK, so it was only fitting that I share my bounty with her. Half of everything I'd made up to that point travelled with me on the train to her place in Tokyo. There were a lot of young ladies carting overnight bags that night but, strangely, mine was the only one trailing pickled daikon odours (g).

Another dear friend Gh, who hails from Iran, joined the Young Man and I for our own celebration on the 2nd, when we learned that you can save grilled mochi rice cakes by scraping the burnt bit off. Oh, the fun we have in the kitchen!

Yuzu

Welcome!

Welcome to Miso and Yuzu, the Japanese food companion to my warm-climate food blog Saffron and Lemons (S&L). Without realizing it, I somehow managed to take a one-year hiatus from S&L. It wasn't just the trauma following the triple earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster last March. The truth is I had just been cooking more Japanese food and got out of the habit of posting on S&L (tut tut!).

So, Japanese food? I've often heard it said that Japanese food is so healthy! So delicate! So artistic!

Riiiight.

Sure, Japanese food can be all of those, but do we really think that the person cooking the evening meal, night after night, has three hours to make it all pretty on a raft-load of dishes (and do the washing up)? Or that Japanese people's palates are so refined that nary a spice crosses their lips? And can I be the only one that suspects that what Japanese typically eat today is often more laden in salt, sugar and fat than I'd really like to admit?

At the risk of ruining anyone's visions of the culinary purity and aesthetics of Japanese cuisine, that's just not the Japanese food that I know (and cook!).

I hope the recipes that will appear here will help to dispel some of the cliches that have grown up around Japanese food, and give you a better idea of what Japanese really cook at home for their families, with maybe a few special occasion recipes thrown in for good measure. After all, the cuisine of Japan is as wide and varied as any of the other classic cuisines of the world (and far wider and more varied than the one I grew up with in Scotland and Australia).

The recipes will come from Japanese language food magazines, primarily Orange Page, the most popular in the country, and occasionally others such as Haru-mi, the eponymous food magazine of Japan's "charisma housewife" (read "Martha Stewart"), Harumi Kurihara. They will, therefore, assume you have the basics of the Japanese pantry:

• Shoyu (regular Japanese soy sauce)
• Sake (rice wine for cooking)
• Mirin (sweetened rice wine for cooking
• Miso (fermented bean paste; I usually have a blended miso and a white one on the go)
• Dashi makings (I use "dashi pack", a big teabag of dashi ingredients, and, occasionally, dashinomoto, a granulated stock powder)
• Torigara soup (granulated chicken stock)
• Su (Japanese rice vinegar)
• Goma (sesame seeds, toasted whole white and black seeds and ground white seeds)
• Nerigoma (toasted sesame seed paste; tahini can be substituted but tastes slightly different as it is untoasted)
• Goma-abura (toasted sesame seed oil)
• Katakuriko (potato starch powder; cornflour/starch can be substituted at a pinch)
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Sugar

With these, you have the basic flavour building blocks of Japanese cuisine. Add one or two spicy extras as the need comes up, and you will be set for just about all the recipes that will appear here.

• Wasabi (the pungent green horseradish-like paste in sushi)
• Karashi (Japanese mustard; rarely used at my house)
• Togarashi/Taka-no-tsume ("falcon's talon," Japanese dried red chillies)
• Shichimi togarashi ("seven-flavour chilli", a blend of dried chillies, citrus peel, sesame and other spices)
• Yuzu kosho (a paste of yuzu (Japanese citron) zest and fresh green chillies)
• Kochuujan (Gochujang, a Korean chilli, glutinous rice and soy bean paste)
• Tobanjan (Dobanjiang, a Sichuanese chilli and soybean paste

If you plan on cooking Japanese food quite often, it is also worth having Japonica rice in the pantry. I've seen this marketed as "sushi rice" in Australia, but any short-grain rice will probably do. Long-grain rice is less desirable, as the grains do not stick together as well after cooking.

And just so you know, I'm a make-it-from-scratch kind of cook. I routinely cut the oil and sugar and salt in recipes. I don't often have time to make more than 2 dishes for a Japanese meal (though that would be on the low side for many Japanese), I'll sometimes forgo rice (which would really be sacrilegious to most Japanese) and, since I do all the washing up, I usually don't faff about with lots of little bowls and dishes. Lastly, I deliberately didn't include mayonnaise and tomato sauce/ketchup in my pantry list above, as more often than not, I don't bother with recipes that are overly reliant on these ingredients.

Sound like your kind of cooking? Then let's get on with it!

Yuzu