Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

Back to the note of consuming sake warm; I like Hitohada-kan temperature(body temperature, 98 degree) in which we can taste slight sweetness of sake without masking the distinctive flavor of it. Which sake suited to Hitohada-kan? Here is my list. All sake mentioned here is available in America. Enjoy cold evening with body warming sake over delicious Japanese meals. Need recipes? Find ones in The Japanese Kitchen or The Sushi Experience!

Tengumai, Yamahai, Junmai from Ishikawa Prefecture
Suigei, Tokubetsu Junmai, Kochi Prefecture
Nanbu Bijin, Tokubetsu Junmai, Iwate Prefecture
Kikusui, Junmai, Niigata Prefecture
Tamano Hikari, Yamahai, Kyoto Prefecture
Shirakabegura, Kimoto, Hyogo Prefecture
Azumaichi, Junmai, Saga Prefecture
Kikumasamune, Junmai, Hyogo Prefecture
Hakkaisan, Honjozo, Niigata Prefecture

Are you attending IACP Annual Conference, New York, this March-April? Please come to celebrate the pre-opening dinner at Hiroko’s Kitchen. I am preparing Kaiseki dinner – Kaiseki dinner prepared in American Kitchen using American ingredients.
$110
max. 12 guests
March 29, Thursday

Kaiseki is an elaborate, formal Japanese meal in which about eight to ten dishes are served sequentially in individual small bowls and plates. I will produce fork and knife friendly Kaiseki dinner – five courses – using ingredients available and familiar in America. During the meal I will explore with you the structure, meaning and beauty of this special form of dinner. Some raw seafood included. It is a delightful and fun culinary journey held at my modern New York apartment.

Sign up! at IACP website. I found out that registration of the Conference, classes and events are coming soon.

Just as Americans have a special vocabulary related to the serving of alcoholic beverages – “neat”, “on the rocks”, “straight up”, and so on – we use specific terminology in the endlessly discussed subject of cooling and warming sake. Now it is the best time of the year to enjoy sake warmed, and you can enjoy it in six different ways.

Hinata-kan (sunshine warm, 86 degree), Hitohada-kan (body temperature, 98 degree), Nuru-kan (lukewarm, 104 degree), Jo-kan (warm, 113 degree), Atsu-kan (hot, 122 degree) and Tobikiri-kan (superhot, 131 degree).

Warming sake brings up the sweetness and distinctive flavor of sake. Sake suited to warm are not the Ginjo- or Dai-gnjo class (warming destroys the delicate aroma and flavor), but Junmai, Yama-hai Kimoto varieties. Read more about sake in The Sushi Experience.

By the way, please let me know if you know any restaurant or sake bar which offer sake with six different temperatures.

I had exchanged several mails with Chef Jessica at International Culinary Center about a particular seaweed which a two-Michelen star restaurant chef is desperately searching for. My last straw (advice) to offer to her was aonori, which I later learned that it was not the one which the chef is looking for. There seems to be variety of edible, delicious seaweed enjoyed by non-Japanese. You may do not much aware of aonori as chef Jessica, so here is some information for you. Aonori grows in blackish water many places in the world. The leaves are very thin and fine strips. Their growing months are from late autumn through winter. The color of the aonori is intense, beautiful green. It is always sold dried. The flavor of aonori is unique and different from other Japanese seaweeds such as wakame. Aonori has a distinctive chlorophyll-like……fragrant green flavor. I gave some aonori (from Japan, the very special one) to Chef Jessica and suggested that she should try it in her risotto. I am waiting for her reaction.

There is another very noted seaweeds which we consume in Japan. It comes from the southern most island of Okinawa. It is called umi budo, grapes of ocean. Tiny balls of seaweed – looks like tiny green caviar – is crusted to a string of seaweed. When I visited Okinawa 5 years ago, I had an opportunity to eat them fresh. When I bit into tiny green caviar, I heard thunder of crunchy noise which was followed by delicious (yes umami) flavor going up my nostril. Later when I flew to Tokyo I found the salt cured umi budo sold at department store food court. I tried this type, but the fresh one was much better. I will find the photos of umi budo which I took during my stay in Okinawa and post it later.

Yanagawa Nabe is a dish which is served in a shallow, small-sized hot pot, in which fresh water fish called dojyo and thinly shredded burdock are cooked together with egg. The dish is locally famous and there are some specialty restaurants in Tokyo. I tasted the dish with my parents several times when I was little, but was not excited about the flavor of the fish – a kind of muddy taste. Dojyo (a kind of loach) is about 7 inch long and has distinctive 10 short whisks on its chin. The fish lives in shallow muddy water, including rice paddy. Unfortunately, dojyo is not available in NYC, so today I am making the yanagawa nabe using only the leftover shredded burdock. Here is how I make. Add the shredded burdock into a pot, cover it barely with dashi stock and cook 10 minutes. Flavor the stock with some usukuchi shoyu (light color soy sauce), shoyu (soy sauce) and mirin. Break three eggs in a bowl and beat them lightly and breifly. Pour the eggs over the burdock and cook until eggs are briefly set. Do not overcook the egg. Bring the pot over the table and divide it into bowls. I had too much broth in my pot. The broth should be just covering the gobo and plenty of egg should lightly cooked and bind the broth and gobo.

Here are some guests who attended the celebration;

I found two long (3 1/2 foot each) gobo, burdock, left in my kitchen which I purchased toward the end of last year. I planned to make one more Osechi ryori dish, tataki gobo, but I abandoned the idea. It was too much.

One of the most popular burdock dish is kinpira gobo, whose recipe you can find it in my The Japanese Kitchen. Instead of making this homey traditional Japanese dish, I decided to make something with Western flavors. Here is burdock pasta. I have shredded the burdock with a vegetable peeler into thin and long slices. I parboiled them in the water for about 2 minutes. I cooked the drained burdock in plenty of olive oil (I infused the oil with salt pickled anchovy) with some garlic and chile pepper flakes. I served the burdock pasta with a sausage. The crunchy texture and earthy flavor of the burdock was perfect accompany for the sausage.

Burdock is rich in dietary fibers. It helps to reduce blood cholesterol and prevents constipation. Eating good food nurishes our body. Eating bad food makes us sick. We call it Ishoku Dogen.

Finally I have been plating the Osechi ryori which I started to prepare on Dec. 28th last year. Today we have about 40 family and friends coming to celebrate the beginning of New Year with auspicious (to some people, misterious) food items. I will post the reaction to Osechi ryori from our guest tomorrow. To most of them it is a new experience. Happy New Year!
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Sea Moss

I had no idea what sea moss means when Molanzo Ollivierre from Mayreau island in Granedine mentioned it to me. When I asked what kind of seawead do locals eat in this part of the world, his answer was ” I aquaculture sea moss”. The locals seem to use it to make special healthy drinks and even jelly. I asked him to take me to his farm which is located at the shore of Mayreau island, a tiny island with mere 375 population. Molanzo is farming two different kinds of sea moss – ucquma and Grassoleon (he wrote down these words on my notebook). Here you see the photo of Molanzo and just harvested sea moss. I picked one small piece and popped it into my mouth. It was salty, crunchy and had full of umami flavor. According to Molanzo the locals do not consume it fresh, but dry them in the sun. I came back to New York City with some dried sea moss with a drink recipe from Molanzo. Molanzo suggested me to go on-line to find similar sea moss drink recipes. “There are many more.” I am not ready to try any of the drink recipes yet. Molanzo’s dream is to export his sea moss to North and South America. Anyone who is interested in his sea moss/ seaweed, here is the contact. Marilyn Ollivierre (Molanzo’s Mother: 1-784-432-2766); Molanzo: 1-784-527-5478/ mis_tic_man@hotmail.com

Kazunoko (herring roe): Kazunoko is a reconstituted dried herring roe. I love the popping crunching noise which echoes in my mouth while eating them. Kazunoko is an expensive delicacy and is an indispensable part of Osechi ryori. Without it Osechi ryori is not complete. Tiny eggs of herring roe symbolizes family prosperity, and its golden yellow color represents gold. Herring roe is sold dried or salt cured. For this year’s special New Year’s party I have acquire the very special dried variety at the end of last year. It takes 3 to 4 days to reconstitute it properly. After the roe is reconstituted, I carefully remove thin films which covers tiny eggs, and pickle them in the mixture of mirin (sweet cooking wine) and shoyu (soy sauce) sauce. Every year when my mother was preparing the herring roe, she told us not to use a knife to cut each roe into bite sized pieces, but break it with fingers. The knife smashes tiny eggs and allows fish juice (quite strong) spills out of them. We serve herring roe garnished with little fish flakes.