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!