Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

February 3rd at Chef Central (240 Rt. 17 North, Paramus, NJ 07652; 6:30 – 9pm

This is the correct information for my additional Zojirushi sponsored sushi class. Hope to see you all!

Thank you for joining me the hands-on sushi classes sponsored by Zojirushi America (www.zojirushi.com) at the Cook’s Warehouse this Tuesday, January 31st (Monday)! Every students performed very well – made delicious rolls.

One of the most excited part of the class for them was learning how to use the rice cooker and producing perfectly cooked rice to use in the sushi preparation. You know that quality of cooked rice decides the quality of sushi. No mushy or too firm rice, please. Cooking rice in the rice cooker always produces cooked rice with consistency and quality. In addition to, the rice cooker has a program to cook sushi rice perfect. Cooked rice for sushi use has to have firmer texture (of course, they are cooked through and plump) than the eating rice.

One student told me that she has been owning a rice cooker for some time, but she is not using it because she does not know how to use it. I have asked her if she read the instructions. She did, but a new machine just scared her. So, I took whole group of students to a journey of how to cook rice in the rice cooker; measuring 3 cups of dry rice using a cup which comes with the rice cooker (it is smaller than US measuring cup), rinsing the rice in the pool of changed waters and draining the rice, placing the drained rice in the rice cooker bowl, filling the rice cooker bowl with cold water to the line which is specified for cooking 3 cups of Sushi rice, covering the rice cooker with its lid, choosing the program of cooking White/Sushi rice and pressing Go button.

In addition to sushi rice I also taught how to enjoy cooking MIXED rice in the rice cooker. Rice cooker is not just to cook simple (no salt, no oil) rice for every meal. We also cook flavored MIXED rice, in which we cook rice with seasonal ingredients – vegetables, seafood and chicken – and flavor it with salt and/or shoyu (soy sauce). It is a Japanese version of paella but using very little oil. The resulting rice dish is flavorful and light. The students learned how to make shrimp, chorizo and pea rice. Here is the recipe. If you own a rice cooker try it. It is super easy and delicious!

Shrimp and Chorizo takikomi rice

Brown rice cooked with Spanish chorizo and shrimp, one ingredient from the land and the other from the sea, absorbs wonderful flavors from these ingredients. Perfect for light lunch or as a side dish for your favorite protein.

4 to 6 servings

3 cups long-grain white rice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 cup clam juice
About 3 cups chicken stock
5 ounces small shrimp, fresh or frozen, shelled
2 ounces hard dry chorizo, cubed
1 1/2 ounces green peas, fresh or frozen, blanched and cooled in ice cold water
1/4 cup thinly sliced ginger, blanched

Rinse the rice thoroughly by changing water 4 times. Drain the rice and let it stand in a new water for 20 minutes. When using the ZOJIRUSHI NS ZACC18, skip the soaking process.

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet. Add the onions and cook over medium-low heat until they are transparent. Add the garlic and cook 20 seconds.

In a rice cooker bowl place the rice and pour in the clam juice. Add as much chicken stock as you need to fill the bowl to the 3 cup-rice water line. Scatter the cooked onion and garlic on top of the rice. Then, scatter the shrimp, chorizo and half of the green peas evenly over the rice. Do not stir the rice. Cook the rice. After the rice is done, open the lid of the rice cooker and add the remaining green peas and sliced ginger on top of the rice. Close the lid and let the rice rest for 10 minutes. Open the lid and gently fold the rice and ingredients with a spatula. Divide and serve the rice in 4 to 6 bowls.

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.