Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

135 East 1st Avenue (@St. MarksPlace), NYC

Owner – David Ravvin
Consulting Exe. Chef – Hiroko Shimbo
Team – Ali, Alturo, Gave, Stephany, Tiffany, Kiera, Shy

Finally ICONIC (owned by David Ravvin; Hiroko Shimbo as Consulting Executive Chef) will do Soft Opening tomorrow. The menu is;
HAND ROLLD………………….
Spicy Salmon Tartar
Non-Spicy Salmon tartar
Spicy Skipjack Tuna tartar
Non-Spicy Skipjack Tuna tartar
Covia Ceviche
Real Red Crab California
Coconut Shrimp
Eggplant (miso flavored, melting creamy)
Shiitake (braised, traditional)
SIDES………………………….
Kale Salad
Miso Rubbed Baked Corn
ICONIC Miso Soup
ICONIC Nuts
Baked Crispy Japanese Sweet Potato Sticks
DESSERT……………………
Chocolate Pudding
BEERS……………………
Hitachino Nest Beer
Morimoto Soba Beer
Domestic SAMURAI
SAKE………………….
Specially selected

The restaurant will open on Thursday. Looking forward to seeing you all!
Hiroko

Great improvement has been made at ICONIC Hand Roll restaurant at 135 E 1st Avenue. The construction was complete. The non-functioning air-conditioning, leaking pipes,…all problems were solved. I began training of the cooks who are going to reproduce my recipes at this modern and charming quick-serve sushi restaurant. Yesterday was my fourth day of training. The members are Ali, Alturo, Gave, Shy, Stephanie, Tiffany and Kiera. They learned how to make sushi rice, how to prep vegetables and fish for iconic hand rolls, salad and miso soup. The hand roll menu at ICONIC is very special and extensive. Fish rolls includes Non-spicy salmon tartar, Spicy salmon tartar, Non-spicy SJT tartar, Spicy SJT tartar, Cobia ceviche (sounds intriguing and flavor is sensational), Red Crab California (using REAL crab!) and Coconut Shrimp. Menu has two vegetable hand rolls. One is Shiitake (braised shiitake mixed with asparagus and carrot) and the other is Creamy eggplant. In addition to those rolls I have created a very special one – Miso flavored skirt steak roll. See the photo. A lucky passersby was offered to taste this new creation – beef in hand roll? It is outstanding! What makes the ICONIC restaurant stands out is the use of very special sauce which I have created. It looks like mayo, but there is no egg in it. It is the combination of oil, miso, …..well you have to come to taste it. Here are some photos of the training from yesterday session.

ICONIC Hand Roll will open sometime early next week…Tuesday or Wednesday (6-12pm). If you are in the neighborhood, please stop by to experience a new sushi! Please also make an effort to come to say hi to the owner, David, his staffs and me (I will be working there for the first three days of operation. See you, then.

My favorites kale and collard greens joined “The 2012 Dirty Dozen” according to CNN Health. The article continues that “This category was created this year to highlight crops that did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen criteria but are still commonly contaminated with organophosphate insecticides.” Many of the remaining Dirty Dozen vegetables and fruits are unfortunately my favorite – apples, peaches, strawberries, grapes, spinach, blueberries, potatoes and Green beans. Once upon a time eating these vegetables and fruits really nurtured our health and well being. Today it is a different story. What we eat may gradually poison us. Shall I stop eating these vegetables and fruits, or shall I go for organic (which is expensive)? Reading this article did not stop me to purchase delicious looking Tuscan Kale, Collard greens, blueberries and peaches which have been becoming bounty at our local farmers market (80% of the vendors are not organic farmers and I purchase my vegetables and fruits from them). After carrying them back to my kitchen, I thoroughly rinsed the Kale, Collard greens and blueberries, knowing that this does not do much help to remove chemicals. When it comes to peaches and apples, I will go back to my Japanese tradition – peel every fruits before I eat. Grapes…maybe I may spit out the skin. But, skin contains healthful flavonoid…. Today the life has become much more complicated than the time when I was under my mother’s protection.

I have posted the story on shio-koji craz in Japan, the other day. Here is the recipe for you to make your own magic seasoning. You need 300g dry koji (you can find at Japanese food store or online), 100g sea salt and 500g tap water.

In a bowl add the dry koji and gently rub them with your hands to separate the grains. Add the salt and repeat the process. Add the water and repeat the process. When the water acquires milk color transfer the mixture to a plastic container. Leave the container, covered loosely, at room temperature for about one week (winter time; 10 days). Stir the mixture once every day. You may need to add additional 100g water on the second day or so when the koji absorbs the most water in the container. As the mixture matures the flavor changes to sharp salty flavor to mild salty flavor with sweetness. I store the matured shio-koji in the refrigerator and enjoy it for one year, if it lasts that long. Usually it disappears in 3 weeks.

I use shio-koji to marinate every protein ingredients – beef, pork, chicken, seafood and tofu, before cooking them. The digestion enzyme in shio-koji works as a tenderizer, at the same time giving wonderful flavor to the cooked items.

The other day I have marinated the boneless and skinless chicken thigh (1 pound) in the mixture of 3 tablespoons shio-koji, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 6 sprigs of lavender and 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil for 3 hours. After gently wiping the chicken with paper towel I cooked it in the heated skillet and then in the oven. No salt and pepper is necessary when you cook the chicken. The chicken is already flavorful and it is a new flavor experience. You can pickle raw vegetables – for example, cut up carrot, cucumber, red radishes, and so on – in the shio-koji. Summer is the best time to enjoy shio-koji pickling.

While I was doing some research on line I happened to come to the Japanese web-site which promotes “kome-tama” produced in Aomori Prefecture, northern part of main island of Japan. Kome means “rice” in Japanese and tama, a shortened word for “egg”, tamago. According to the site, this special rice-egg has an unusual color and flavor. The yolk is not bright orange but is beautiful sherbet lemon yellow in color. The flavor of the yolk is less intense than the ordinary egg, and is very refreshing.

Tokiwa Chicken Farm which has been raising chickens for eggs with imported corn one day faced a difficulty of getting the corn. A flood in China in 1994 killed lots of corn fields which resulted in the shortage of corn coming into Japan. In order to save their chickens the farm was forced to feed them with domestically available ingredients. The farm turned to the rice which is grown locally. Local rice farmer rented the farm the rice paddy which are not used, then planting rice for chickens began. The chicken waste/droppings became an ideal fertilizer. Tokiwa Chicken Farm raises 45000 birds. The birds are free ranged and very happy birds. In order to reduce their stress or to make their life simply happier the Mozart music – which piece? I do not know – is played in the barn all day long. (This is a very similar practice done at some of the Japanese cattle farm for producing delicious wagyu beef, and is a very Japanese practice.)

Feed rice (brown rice) is mixed with soybean mash, a by product of shoyu production which is locally available. The site claims that this feed mixture offers chickens important nutrients – oleic acid and linoleic acid, which helps to reduce the LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol). Half a dozen kome-tama cost about $6.50. Does it worth a try? On my visit to Japan this summer I shall and let you know the flavor. To see the photos of the color of the egg and happy chickens, please visit http://www.yamaken.org/mt/kuidaore/archives/2012/03/41.html.

I have tweeted some Binchotan barbecue photos several days ago. The skirt steak which I cooked – first marinated in my special red miso sauce and lavender (from the garden) – was exceptional. What Binchotan does is to cook the meat at very high temperature (the heat can go up over 1,000 F) with both convective and copious radiated heat. The cooked steak acquired lightly browned color on the outside (does not burn or char), and inside is uniform juicy and tender. In addition to beef, I cooked potato, onion and eggplant.

This is my Binchotan grill (photo). At the end of three summers ago I bought the simple Weber Barbecue Grill. I filled it with play ground sands. I bought refractory bricks to use as supporting stands for skewers. Sands and bricks are for high heat cooking.

I use two kinds of binchotan for cooking. One is a startar binchotan, which you can see in the photo. It is the one which has a hole in the center. The other one is the main, solid binchotan. To set fire on startar binchotan I use American briquette. I put the briquette in the charcoal chimney, add a little alcohol and throw in the lighted match. After all of the briquette are covered with ash I place startar binchotan over the briquette. After 15 to 20 minutes of waiting hot and burning startar binchotan is ready for transfer to my bincho-tan grill. I arrange the startar binchotan evenly on the sand and place the solid binchotan pieces on top of them so that the heat transfers to the solid binchotan. After the solid binchotan begins to acquire some heat from the startar binchotan, it is ready to start grilling food items. The convective and copious radiated heat last over 4-5 hours.

This weekend I cooked pork ribs – half rack marinated in my special miso sauce and lavender, and the other half rack, marinated in shio-koji, magic sauce. Both of them had an exceptional and outstanding flavor. The power of binchotan is great. After finish cooking I bury all of the burning binchotan deep in the sand in the grill. The next morning I dig them up and store them in the bucket. These used binchotan – small, medium and large – catch fire much quicker than the un-used ones, so they are very useful. Next time I am planning to cook a whole fish or fillet.

Once my darling, little nephew, Takahiro, nicknamed me “Nasu”, eggplant. I never got the reason from him “why?”. Takahiro has become a respectful, handsome 30 years old gentleman this May. Whenever I enjoy eggplant I remember his mischievous golden smile.

There are many great ways to enjoy eggplant in the Japanese way without oil. The most typical one is called “yaki-nasu”, grilled eggplant. The recipe of yaki-nasu is in The Sushi Experience, page 239. The photo of the yaki-nasu dish is shown here next to the pickled red radish and Japanese white turnip, and collard green, cucumber and kiwi juice. This was part of our dinner when NYC registered over 80 degree F. For yaki-nasu preparation you do not need to look for a Japanese eggplant, which sometimes mixed up with a long, faintly purplish Chinese eggplant. Find and use a small size, very fresh local American eggplant in the preparation. Holland eggplant also works very well. The tips of successful yaki-nasu preparation is first to make a very shallow cut through the skin where the frill is located; then, make 4 to 5 more very shallow cuts along the length of the eggplants. These cuts make peeling the skin easier. Cooking time of the eggplant varies greatly for its size/thickness and skin type (tender or tough). After cooking the eggplant for 2 to 3 minutes, touch the eggplant when it feels tender, it is done (you need to turn over the eggplant once). While peeling the skin, do not use the water. You can rinse your hands but not the eggplant. After cutting it into bite sized pieces, arrange them in individual serving bowls and cool it before serving. Garnish the eggplant with a small mound of freshly grated ginger with ginger juice and pour little sauce* over it. I will blog two more eggplant dishes.

* Place 1/4 cup mirin in a pot and bring it to a simmer. Add 1 1/4 cups dashi and bring it to a simmer. Add 1/2 cup shoyu and bring it to a simmer. ADD 1/2 cup of katsuobushi and turn off the heat. Cook the sauce and strain through a paper towel-lined strainer, discarding the katsuobushi.