Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

Very unique delicacy, Shirako

When I was small our family lived for a short time before moving to Tokyo in Toyama Prefecture, north east of Tokyo, facing the Japan Sea. When freezing winter with much snow comes my father’s patients brought to our house an endless gifts of fresh cod (Pacific cod and Alaska pollock) as a sign of appreciation. So, my mother had to prepare all the time something out of it. Among them she frequently prepared a dish called Tara-chiri. Tara-chiri is a hot pot dish in which cleaned and cut up cod (with skin) pieces are cooked in a large earthenware casserole in a kelp broth along with Chinese cabbage, shiitake mushrooms and chrysanthemum leaves. The whole cooking and eating are done at the table as other hot pot dishes. Since the broth was not seasoned, we dipped the cooked fish and vegetables in a shoyu based sauce, in which the height of the season yuzu juice is freshly squeezed in. No matter how many times my mother brought this dish to the table, I never felt fed up with it. I loved the white gentle, fraky flesh of cod and mild sweet flavor. When the cod season is gone I made my mother sure that we will enjoy more Tara-chiri next year. You can click this site to see the photo of the Tara-chiri.

Visit http://www.lettuceclub.net/recipe/dish_00001183.html to see the photo of Tara-chiri hot pot dish.

In the Tara-chiri hot pot there was always one non-attractive ingredient in the pot which I did not touch until I fully grown up. My father and mother adored it. It was Shirako, which is a male organ of Pacific cod, Madara. My dislike ness is not associated with the fact that Shirako is a particular part of the fish. When we were small my mother did not explained it to us clearly what Shirako is. Shirako has snow white color and looks like a kind of fish roe or fat and short intestine. It also presents plump, bouncy and shinny appearance. Cooked Shirako has cream like texture without fatty sensation which you get from real cream. There is a subtle sweet flavor. Today I love this delicacy, but the chance of getting it locally as a consumer in America is zero. Many Japanese restaurants in NYC however offer this delicacy as a “seasonal specialty”. I am writing this article too late even for me to try it this year. The season is already over. So, here is for your head-up for this November and December.

There is a restaurant called Kyoya in NCY. It is at 94 East 7th Street, NYC. If you never been there, please remember that Kyoya is a must-place to go for delicious Japanese meal. Do not forget to make a reservation at the counter, so that you can chat with a cool chef, Chikara-san. Chef Chikara served several delicious Shirako dishes, including Shirako no tempura. Chef agrees that Shirago goes the best with sake, either hot or cold.

Sally, thank you very much for commenting on my mis-spelling of “career” in the previous post. I could change the one in the title of the blog, but the one in the second paragraph remains “carrier”. Edit did not do the work. As you mentioned it “career” and “carrier” are far from each other! Thank you very much for correcting me. Great appreciation.

It was almost 7 years ago when I first met food-and people-loving Kelly Ann Hargrove. Kelly Ann was the cordinator of popular Cooking School of Central Market in Austin where the nation’s popular chefs, cookbook authors and tv personarities flocked. I taught several classes at the school and always enjoyed receiving her smile and warm hospitality.

Life is continuous and unpredictable. To my wonderful surprise Kelly Ann moved to New York City to build her carrier. Today she has established her business as Layer Cake (www.layercake-nyc.com) and offer culinary consulting and private chef service. Please check out her web-site and contact her!

Please join me in my Sushi Class sponsored by Zojirushi America (www.zojirushi.com). You will learn delicious rolls and the perfect way to make sushi rice. Here is the schedule;

January 31: Cook’s Warehouse in Atlanta Georgia. 1. 10-1pm at East Cobb location; 2. 6:30 to 9:30pm at Midtown location.

February 1st at Chef Central (240 Rt. 17 North, Paramus, NJ 07652; 6:30 – 9pm

Last Sunday our friend Steve Popple invited me to his bread baking workshop. He took a baking course at King Arthur Flour. Since then, he has been immersed into it. He built a special kitchen with an additional oven, a counter top and a sink dedicated to baking bread in their roomy kitchen so that he does not disturb his wife’s territory. He has been practicing and perfecting no-kneading bread making. There are couple of techniques which Steve showed me and I want to share it with you. First one is how he treats dough without kneading. You need time for this technique but not your strenuous work. First Steve mixed flour and water in a bowl just briefly (you can see the photo – a kind of bad mixing). Leave the dough in the bowl and leave it 30 minutes (uncovered). Remove the dough from the bowl and deal it just briefly – twice folding (no kneading), that’s it. The dough is then transferred to a plastic box (with a fitting lid) and stored at temperature controlled, warm kitchen corner. After 30 minutes of resting Steve took the dough out again onto the wooden board and repeated the brief folding. Steve repeats this folding 5 times in 3 hours time stretch. At the end the dough acquires baby’s cheek or baby’s bottom like smooth, tender yet springy and silky texture – wonderful result.

The second technique is how to add hot steam in the oven at the beginning of baking. Many people try to spray water from a small spray bottle into the oven. I was one of them. Steve says this process only helps to reduce the temperature of the oven and small sprayed water in the oven does nothing. Steve is right. I did not get any specific result from spray bottle spraying, so I stopped that practice. This is how he came up with. He heat the cast iron skillet very hot while heating the baking stone in the oven. After adding the shaped dough on top of the baking stone, Steve quickly pour the water into the well heated cast iron skillet and shut the oven door immediately. This process instantly create high steam production inside the oven. Very smart idea!

Here are some of the bread which we/he baked. This is Chiabatta with nice airy holes on the cut surface. We enjoyed it with local cheese and home made jams. It was a bread heaven.

I began my tweet at the end of last year. Dear Meaghan Dillon kindly helped me to establish my twitter account. Since then, I have been (not all the time, though) enjoying to tweet. Suddenly yesterday my Timeline stopped refreshing and I cannot tweet. Error message appears: There was an error posting your tweet. It has been saved as a draft, please try resending later. (Error: unauthorized)

I appreciate any of your advice!
Hiroko

It is a bit too early, but I am looking for restaurants which are interested in hosting my forthcoming cookbook. The content of the book is cooking American ingredients with Japanese flavors and techniques. It will be wonderful to share with you my new American friendly recipes at your restaurant. RVSP at hiroko@hirokoskitchen.com

Tonight NY will be around 20degree F. It will be wonderful if we can enjoy sake hot! – beyond body temperature. So, here is the list of sake which are suited to higher temperature warming.