Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

The Art Institute of Chicago is inaugurating a new wing incorporating a major gallery of Japanese art.  In celebration of this event the Art Institute is holding a black-tie dinner at the museum on September 25.  I am fortunate to have been chosen to design the menu and serve as co-executive chef for this important cultural event.  Please join me if you can.  Here is the link to this specilaoccasion; http://www.artic.edu/aic/calendar/event?EventID=7965&EventType=12.

Cooking rice with seasonal delicacy - vegetables and seafood - is a very common practice in the Japanese kitchen.  This style of rice dish is called takikomi gohan and is traditionally made in a donabe (earthenware pot).  Like paella or pilaf dishes, we cook everything in one pot, so that the rice absorbs good flavor from every ingredients added to the pot.  If you do not have a donabe, try it in an ordinary, heavy bottomed pot, or rice cooker (I recommend Zojirushi). 

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Now let me first give you some story about ayu fish.  Ayu, which is translated “sweetfish” because of its unique flavor said to resemble watermelon, is a summer delicacy.  No Japanese can pass summer without savoring it at least two or three times at home or restaurants.  The ayu fish lives both in salt and fresh water.  The adults fish (about 8 inches long) swims down the river, gather and spawn in the lower part of river in late summer through autumn.  The fry remains in brackish water (coastal water) during the winter until spring.

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Last week while making a gastronomic tour - jorneying from one restaurant to another - in one of my favorite places, the city of Barcelona, I encountered an intriguing food history site - a place where Romans produced garum, a fermented fish sauce, when they occupied the city 2000 years ago.  Records and (more…)

Japanese curry is hot.  It is not Indian curry, nor South East Asian curry.  Japanese curry has its own unique taste and texture.  How curry came to Japan and became a national dish is a fascinating story.  The British who staitioned in India during 18th century brought back a variety of spices to England.  People back there instantly loved the new spices, but there was one problem.  The British did not know how to combine  (more…)

Visit www.cookstr.com and find out the Chef of the Day!  Thank you. Hiroko

My lucky friends have been enjoying my wonderful five-year old, home-made, rich golden-color, mildly sweet and tart umeshu (plum wine) until the supply began to decrease to the point that I was not longer offering it; hording the remaining “wine” for Buzz and me.  Umeshu preparation, patience and drinking is a continuous cycle of work and enjoyment.  Umeshu is not a fermented product like grape wine, but is simply and extraction of the flavors and juices of the ume by alcohol sweetened with sugar.  It takes a year to complete the process, and the longer the time the more delicious the “wine”.  While I lived in Japan I never missed the yearly cycle, because when the time came every early summer the supermarkets carried baskets of freshly harvested bright green ume plums along with large glass jars, bags of rock sugar and cartons of distilled white liquor containing about 35 percent alcohol.  These materials are always conveniently lined up next to each other at the store.

After moving to New York City the story was different.  There are no ume trees on the East Coast.  Ume plums grown and harvested in California are sold only at Mitsuwa Marketplace, one of the largest Japanese supermarkets in New York area, in Edgewater New Jersey across the Hudson from New York.  And they are only available for one or two weeks sometime during May.  Since I do not go to the Mitsuwa Marketplace for shopping every week, in the past 5 years I kept missing the chance to purchase the plums when they came in the store. 

This year Andrew and Kelly, two of my students reminded me about this narrow window for making umeshu.   They e-mailed me with a note: Mitsuwa has ume plums this week.  I immediately sent Buzz to fetch them.  Buzz purchased 12 pounds of plums along with 6 pounds of rock sugar.  For the distilled alcohol we went to the Wine & Liquor Warhouse, a great discount wine store in our neighborhood, to purchase the most economical vodka for a source of alcohol.  We found 80 proof (40% alcohol) vodka made in Ukraine for $14 for a 1.75 litter bottle.  Not so bad.

Plum wine production is very simple.  First carefully rinse the plums several times under the cold tap water.  With a tooghpick remove the stem from each fruit.  Drain and dry the fruit and transfer them to a glass jar, alternating with rock sugar in 8 layers - plum, sugar, plum, sugaer, plum, sugar, plum and sugar.

Then pour the alcohol over the plums and sugar, and cover the jar tightly with a lid.  In the photo you see the newly made batch and the 5 years aged liquor standing next each other. 

Store the jar in a dark, cool place.  Once or twice every month for the first three months, shake the jar gently to dissolve the sugar in the liquid.  After one year, when you are ready to prepare a new batch of plum wine for the next year, you can filter the previous year’s matured wine and remove the plums.  You can enjoy it then or let it age even longer with the plums as I have done for us 5 years old stock.  After the filtration you have delicious drunken plums left in the jar.  Transfer them to a small, clean jar and store them in the refrigerator.  They are absolutely delicious to nibble just as they are (I remember diligently assisting my mother who filtered her yearly home-made umeshu, knowing that I could pop some of the delicious drunken plums into my mouth as a reward), so they disappear very quickly.

Here are the event dishes which Hiroko’s Kitchen offered.  All attendees enjoyed new flavor, new texture and seasonal fairs which Hiroko created.  Breakfast menu: Rice with Greek Yogurt, Lightly spiced red cabbage and asparagus miso soup, Tamagoyaki omelet with asparagus and colorful fruit basket from the market.  Lunch menu: Nigirizushi, Very bright green pea soup, Steamed spring vegetables with miso bagnacauda, Almond flavored milk jelly with strawberry.   Lite bites: Tomato kuzu jelly in watermelon gaspacho, Pork belly slider, Spicy yellowtail and salmon tartar, Steamed chicken pouch, White bean truffle and yuzu granita.  Here are some of the photos.

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Thank you very much Dick, having my service at you exciting Event.   I will post the dishes which he and his clients enjoyed in my next post.  I told him (standing next to him) that I felt very small.  Dick’s answer was he feels tall next to anyone, but I am sure that this was the tallest experience for him……………..

The flavor of yuzu citruss fruit continues to make a “buzz” in American culinary scene.  Yuzu is a tangerine-sized citrus fruit with a thick, bumpy rind.  Bright green in summer, yuzu turns golden yellow in autumn when it is ripe.  Like lemon, yuzu is valued for its rind and juice, which are bursting with fragrance and a slightly tart and bitter flavor.  The yuzu is not generous, producing only a little less than a tablespoon or so of juice per fruit.  To get 1/2 cup of the juice from fresh fruit, you will be spending lots of money even in Japan.

In America today pure yuzu juice packed in a bottle is available at many Japanese food stores.  So, you can enjoy using it in the preparation of yuzu granita, yuzu ice cream, yuzu dressing, yuzu mousse, yuzu chocolate, yuzu coctails and other yuzu juice flavored dessert creations. 

Today Japanese companies are bringing higher quality Japanese products to America, and yuzu juice is a part of that trend.  When I was in California at the beginning of March, I was introduced to a “this is it” yuzu juice.  The name of the brand is Yuzu Passion and it is produced by Kitomura Company in Kito Village, Tokushima Prefecture.  The company uses a traditional wood press to extract juice.  This prevents the bitter flavors of the fruit from being overly extracted into the juice.  To produce 500ml of yuzu juice, they press 50 to 60 fruits, against using 10 to 20% fewer fruits and more harsh pressing method used at other factories.  Check-out www.yuzupassion.com for more product information.

When you taste Yuzu Passion you will be amazed by its robust fragrance and pure appealing flavor with a wonderful smooth touch.  In addition to the juice they also carry yuzu ginger conserve.  Wow, I cannot stop lapping them up on toast, crackers or other good bread.  So Delicious!