Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

We started my day with a visit to my father at Zenpukuji Temple where he sleeps. Zenpukuji Temple is the place where Townsend Harris, the first US Councel General, opened the US Consulate in Tokyo in 1859.

After offering a player to my father we walked to Azabu Juban where traditional shopping streets are preserved as they were as yestyears, and had a yakisoba and kakigori lunch at 103 years old Naniwaya in Azabu Juban. Naniwaya specializes two nostalgic food products; Taiyaki – fish shaped soft cookie stuffed with chunky, sweet azuki bean paste, and Kakigori, finely shaved ice sweetened with syrup and served with/without sweetened azuki beans and mochi balls. My favorite one is Ujikintoki, matcha syrup and sweetened Azuki beans.

In Japan July 24th was the day on which it is customery to eat eel, unagi. This date falls on the hottest and humidiest time of the year. During the Edo period (1600-1868) people made it a custom to consume eel, which is fatty and nutrious, in order to regain energy and withstand the heat. So, we went to Kanda Kikugawa (founded in 1947; one of the most authentic and best choice for unagi) to savor the eel and participated in the tradition of eating the eel in the hottest time of the summer. The menu at the restaurant is very simple. There are only 4 choices – A,B,C,D (this is written in Japanese ABC). Every choice comes with grilled and flavored eel, served on top of hot steaming rice in a large rectangular lacquered box. It is served with a bowl of clear soup with an eel liver and a small plate of pickled vegetable. Prices are respectively 2800yen (1 small eel), 3200yen (1 eel), 4700yen (1 1/2 eels) and 6600yen (2 eels). I know that I do not have a chance to enjoy it sooner again, so ordered C. Buzz, feeling a bit guilty to spending $80 for a simple eel meal, anyway ordered D. Oh boy, it was so good.

This time I flew Delta to Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Haneda was used mainly for domestic flights with some Asian airliners in the past. Now Delta flies in. The trip from the airport to my favorite, business hotel in Uchisaiwaicho, was so short and easy. I am staying at Daiichi Hotel, Annex.

I had lunch with my mother whom I have not seen for over one year. It was a best time in my life.

For dinner I met up with chefs Jeremiah and Marc from NYC, who have been having fun already in Tokyo and Kyoto.
I took them to Shun no Aji Ichi in Roppongi. It is a one Michellen star restaurant. Chef Tanaka is a low- key chef but he has many fans who commute to his restaurant to savor his seasonal Omakase meal. Many of the vegetables served at the restaurant are grown by and sent to his restaurant by her Mother. How lucky he is. Chef Tanaka has an extended connections to fishermen across the country. At his restaurant you get everything best in season. We started our meal with chilled zucchini surinagashi soup with house smoked scallops; moved on to tree ripened tomato gazpacho, crisp grilled baby ayu, hamo lever and egg omelet, 3 years aged sake lee pickled celery and sake braised tokobushi.

Then, ….sweet small shrim sandwiched lotus root tempura, hamo and sweet onion shabushabu…..mackerel takikomigohan (there were tough choices for us to choose which takikomigohan to select. Other choices were the ones with uni, wagyu beef, medai fish and corn and scallop. Hamo miso soup was served in a eggplant shaped soup bowls. The dinner ended with jasmin tea jelly with home-made plum sauce.

It was a true feast. On your next trip to Tokyo…please try Shun no Aji Ichi. By the way chef Tanaka is not mixing modern techniques with traditional cuisine. His meal is based on long honed traditional techniques, use of the best seasonal ingredients and his creativity to preserve the best flavor in each prepared dishes. I will tweet the photos separately. Today I go to kappabashi with J and M to buy some kitchen equipment.

Chef Masato may be one of the most celebrated sushi chef in New York City. He is charming (very handsome), very low-key, generous and a very fun person (you cannot guess from his serious face during his work at 15 E!).We were so blessed to have Masato with us.

Each student received one whole fluke to tackle with it. A BIG CHALLENGE. Chef Masato first showed the students how to remove scales and how to fillet the fish into 2 back-side fillets and 2 belly-side fillets. Every student was very serious not to damage their fish too much, because they had to use it later in their sashimi and sushi preparation. Chef Masato, then, demonstrated nigirizushi, an acrobatic movement. Everyone was mesmerized. After the chef left we filleted mackerel, cured it in salt and vinegar and prepared sashimi platter. Then, each spent practicing nigirizushi rice balls, then moved on to making their own nigirizushi platter. Now students know that good sushi comes from far away – many years of apprenticeship, attention to quality and care.

In the evening we gathered at Aburiya Kinnosuke (213 East 45th Street) to celebrate the completion of the course. Chef Jiro prepared us memorable, delicious dinner. Thank you, Chef!

Day 2 was the day in which the students learned how to cook yakitori over Japanese Binchotan charcoal fire. Chef Jiro Iida of Aburiya Kinnosuke joined us as a guest chef. Chef Jiro showed the students how to cut the chicken, how to place each piece correctly on a bamboo skewer and how to cook and baste chicken properly to produce glossy, juicy yakitori items. By the way Binchotan produces radiant, infrared ray, that makes this style of preparation exceptional. If you want to read more about Binchotan, go to my archive. Next I introduced miso – young aged, medium aged and aged – to the students and we prepared the very popular eggplant-miso dish. Licking delicious miso sauce was a favorite of every students. Then, we prepared Miso marinated cod, miso soup (with Swiss chard, shiitake mushroom and tomato; this miso soup was not usual boring tofu, wakame and scallion) and rice tossed with aromatics.

Here are some photos from Day 2.

Today, Day 3, was the day of Simmering, Braizing and Blanching, which are one of the most frequently used cooking techniques for protein and vegetables in the Japanese kitchen. We braised short-ribs (well, short-ribs are not Japanese cuts, but I have adopted them successfully into Japanese kitchen) in sake/mirin/Worcestershire sauce/sugar/soy sauce; we then simmered branzino in sake/mirin/shoyu/ginger. The final simmering was vegetables dish. We cooked summer squash, carrot, Japanese turnip, shishitogarashi and tomato in dashi/mirin/sugar/salt/shoyu.

During the class I have introduced the preparation rules used in the Japanese kitchen, which were developed based on Five Element Philosophy.

Here are some photos from Day 3.

http://nancymatsumoto.blogspot.com/2012/07/six-sauces-and-youre-set-preview-of.html#links

Please check out this blog. It is about my next book, Hiroko’s American Kitchen, Cooking with Japanese Flavors; 6 Easy Sauces; 125 Mordern Recipes

It is hard to blog or tweet when I have nothing to write. It is also hard to do so when I am very busy. I have not blogging or tweeting for weeks…After my consultation at ICONIC Hand Rolls finished I began teaching my one-week long, intensive Japanese Cooking Course, Essentials of Japanese Cuisine at International Culinary Center in New York City. I have a group of great students – Andrew, Maria, Kristin, Marta, Greg, Michael, Justin, David, Adrian, Liz, Margaret, Paul, Colleen and Ferec. We started Day 1 with dashi preparation, udon noodle making from scratch (kneading the dough and rolling out with a pin; no pasta machine, no short-cut) and two types of tempura. Freshly made udon noodles are heavenly delicious – a comment from students; student enjoyed making tempura with the height of the season vegetables from the market – purple beet, golden beet, zucchini, mini carrot, shiso leaves… new flavor and texture experience in the well-know tempura preparation. All of the students especially loved a new tempura, kakiage. Kakiage is a tempura pancake, in which cubes of shrimp and cubed seasonal vegetables are tossed with a slightly thicker tempura batter, then deep-fried.

Here are some photos from Day 1.

Piles of corn have come back to the Union Square Market. During the summer season we buy them each week and enjoy an ear of corn after another. Freshly harvested corn is heavenly moist and sweet. I have reached almost to the state of addiction to it.

Corn was brought by the Portuguese to Japan during the 16th century. The cultivation of sweet type corn began at the end of the 19th century. I was grown up with corn in Japan but did not develop my likeness to it. Partly because corn was not in my mother’s summer vegetable list, so rarely showed up at our dinner table. Partly because I never tasted corn as tasty as the ones which I get here at the farmer’s market.

This is the corn rice dish which I prepare many times during the summer – Corn and Ginger Rice with Shoyu and Butter. The recipe comes form my upcoming book, Hiroko’s American Kitchen; Cooking with Japanese Flavors; 6 Easy Sauces 125 Modern Recipes

“The combination of corn, shoyu (soy sauce), and butter in this recipe may make you think I have strayed far from Japanese cooking, unless you are aware that excellent sweet corn and high-quality butter are produced on Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. This combination – corn, butter and shoyu – is not at all alien today to my native cuisine. Try the dish with just-harvested moist, sweet summer corn, and I guarantee you and all your fellow diners will love it, page 20, Hiroko’s American Kitchen”

6 servings
2 1/4 cups short- or medium-grain polished white rice
2 ears corn
2 1/2 cups kelp stock or low-sodium vegetable stock
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 ounces ginger, julienned (1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
3 tablespoons unsalted or salted butter

Rinse and soak the rice. Drain the rice and let it stand in a fine-mesh sieve for 20 minutes to dry.

Remove the corn husks and quickly grill th e ears over a medium open flame on a gas stove, turning them until the entire surface becomes golden. Cut each corn in half. Place each half ear on the cut end in a large, shallow bowl, and use a knife to separate the individual kernels from the cob. Repeat with all the pieces. This will produce about 1 1/2 cups of corn kernels.

Place the drained rice and the stock in a medium heavy pot. Sprinkle the corn kernels, salt, and ginger evenly over the rice. Do not stir the rice. Cover the pot with a lid and cook. When the rice is cooked, let it stand undisturbed for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and add the soy sauce and butter. With a spatula, gently and quickly toss and mix the rice. Divide the rice into small bowls and serve.

When the weather is hot like yesterday or today I make home-made udon noodles and enjoy it cold. Home-made udon is one of the recipes which I am going to teach for the upcoming Japanese Cooking Course, Essentials of Japanese Cuisine, at International Culinary Center in New York City. It is coming very soon (starts July 19th, 2012). By the way thank you very much for people who signed up the course. I am looking forward to cooking and having delicious fun in the kitchen with you.

At the class after we make the noodles we enjoy it both in cold and hot dishes. Cold noodles is served in a richly flavored nut butter based sauce. We serve hot noodles with a kakiage tempura pancake.

Here is the noodle making recipe and if you have time, try it in your kitchen…honing your skills before coming to my class!

3 Servings
300g all purpose flour, shifted
15g sea salt
135g lukewarm water

In a cup, mix the water and salt. Stir the mixture until the salt dissolves. In a large bowl add the flour and salted water. Rub and blend flour and water between your palms. After making sure that the water is evenly dispersed into the flour, make it into a rough round ball and knead it 200 times. Wrap the dough tightly in a plastic wrap and rest it at 76F for 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the wrap and knead it about 2 minutes. Wrap the dough in the plastic bag and let it stand for 30 minutes.

Unwrap the dough and thin out it with a long wooden rolling pin. If you are using the pasta machine, set it at number 1. After twice of passing it through the machine, change the setting to 2 and let the dough pass through it twice.

Fold the udon sheet into thirds. With a broad, sharp knife, cut the dough into 1/8th wide strips.

To cook the udon bring plenty of water in a large pot to a boiling. Add the udon and cook it for 7 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of your noodles. Drain the noodles and rinse it under cold tap water to cool them. Drain the noodles and serve with the cold ginger spiked, nut batter sauce. Here my garnish is the corn from the market, braised dried shiitake, lots of scallion greens and black sesame seeds.

OKONOMIYAKI re-visited

When summer comes Okonomiyaki, Japanese thick pancake, comes into my mind. In Japan Okonomiyaki vendors appear on the street during summer shrine festivals and other festivals. Okonomiyaki is easy to prepare at home and is a wonderful excuse to invite friends and family and spend long summer day together, cooking, drinking, chatting and eating. Okonomiyaki street vendors use a large flat griddle to cook the pancake. At home we can use a skillet – larger the better so that you can make many pancakes at one time for hungry guests. The best beverage for Okonomiyaki is a chilled beer.

In Japan Okonomiyaki has regional varieties. The most popular ones come from Osaka and Hiroshima Prefecture. Each Okonomiyaki has distinctive preparation method, producing very different mouth feel when we eat it. Osaka style Okonomiyaki is mushy and doughy (the recipe is in my The Japanese Kitchen), so I prefer Hiroshima style. Here is how to make Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki. It requires some practice but once you master it, making it is a great fun. Furthermore, you will be a start at the Okonomiyaki gathering. Follow the photos.

You need; 100g pastry flour, 200g water, fish flakes or dried shrimp flakes (I buy dried shrimp at nearby Korean food store and pulverize it in the food processor), 6 to 7 ounces finely shredded cabbage (LOTS of it), 2 ounces paper thin sliced pork belly, 1 ounce squid, 1 jumbo egg, 1 package ramen noodles (this is optional – I add this to special occasions, but usually omit it), 1 to 2 tablespoons tenkasu (bits of fried tempura batter), 1/4 cup thinly sliced green part of scallion, Okonomiyaki sauce (I create my own by mixing Okonomiyaki sauce and my miso sauce), mayonnaise (I create my own) and aonori (fresh water seaweed) flakes.

Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki is built in layers. Mix the flour and water and leave it in the refrigerator for several hours. When the batter is ready, first step is to heat a large skillet and oil it. When the oil is heated pour in the batter and make a very thin crepe. Sprinkle the surface of the crepe with ground fish flakes and dried shrimp flakes. Second, place the shredded cabbage (pile up high) on top of the crepe. Third, top the cabbage with tenkasu and squid. Fourth, cover the top of the cabbage, squid and tenkasu with the pork belly slices, and lightly salt and pepper the pork. Fifth, sprinkle a little batter over the pork belly. Sixth, using Okonomiyaki spatulas turn the Okonomiyaki pancake up-side down without destroying the very fragile structure. It requires a quite practice to conduct this process without making a huge mess. Shredded cabbage, tenkasu, squid, sliced pork and the bottom crepe are not bound by the batter. They all stay loose during the cooking. To move to Seventh step push the cooking Okonomiyaki to one side of the skillet and make a room. Lightly oil the surface of the emptied skillet and break one egg. With the edge of the spatula break the egg yolk and flatten it in a round disk shape. Eighth, using the Okonomiyaki spatulas pick up the Okonomiyaki pancake without breaking its round disk and swiftly transfer it on top of the egg. Nineth, After the egg is briefly done, turn over the pancake – cooked egg side is on top. All requires some practice. Smear the top of the Okonomiyaki pancake with thick layer of the Okonomiyaki sauce and garnish it with the mayo, scallions and aonori flakes. You can find some amuzing & amazing how to make Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki on YouTube. In my recipe noodles are omitted.
Very tasty lamb chops

Summer is a time of barbecue. Set up the grill on the back garden, invite friends and family, and spend fun time through cooking, drinking, chatting and eating. This weekend at one of the July the 4th celebration parties (which was held June 30) to which we attended I had the best barbecued lamb in my life. The cooking was perfect. But the true reason was the sheep which was raised with care was slaughtered and cooked for the occasion. We were fortunate to be there.

Summer is a time of barbecue. Set up the grill on the back garden, invite friends and family, and spend fun time through cooking, drinking, chatting and eating. This weekend at one of the July the 4th celebration parties (which was held June 30) to which we attended I had the best barbecued lamb in my life. The cooking was perfect. But the true reason was the sheep which was raised with care was slaughtered and cooked for the occasion. We were fortunate to be there.