Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

Koji loves Koji-muro which provids them Tokyo summer-like weather – high temperature and heavy hujmidity. Sometimes you see in the sake production photos that sake makers who are working in the koji-muro is naked from the weist to the top. That’s the best to wear. Koji, which is fed on cooked rice, multiplies and produces enzyme such as amylayze. Amylayze, then, breaks down starch in the rice into glucose. This process generates much heat in the rice. If the temperature of the rice goes up too high, koji dies, so at about every 10 hours interval workers walk into the Koji-muro and toss the rice to cool it off. The labor even falls on beyound midnight. Proper Koji Rice making requires patience and experience. As time passes each grain of rice is covered with snow white fuzz, and sweet and very fragran smell permeates through the Koji room. At the very end the koji rice is no longer moist and sticky, but rather dry and separate.

Good news is that you can purchase already made koji rice packed in a plastic container here in America for your own sake production. If making of own sake is not for you, definitely try to make nutritious, mellow sweet delightful amazake drink. You can find the recipe on my May, 2012 blog. I use rice cooker to control the temperature of amazake production. By the way amazake’s direct translation is “sweet sake”, but it it not alchol drink. Amazake is for all of your amily members. Amazake strawberry shake….excellent. Or, make a fancy cocktail with amazake for your next wild party.

I will post the continued story: It is about Making of Mother of Sake.

It is exciting that today there are so many quality, delicious sake available in America, like the one which I have recently blogged – Daishichi Sake. Many of these sake are made at small family run breweries in Japan. Some have been in their business at least for one hundred years, others, close to 400 years.

Production of sake is far more complicated than the wine making. Like beer sake is made from rice. In order to allow the fermentation to occur starch in rice has to be broken down into glucose. Fungi called koji does this work. In the next several blogs I will take you a tour to a sake production process in which I can show you how koji, fungi, plays its role.

In this first blog let me introduce you the first step of sake making in which koji, Aspergillus Oryzae, is the primary ingredient.

After polishing rice – the degree of polishing rice decides the grade of sake, but I am not talking about it here -, it is soaked in water then steamed in a large high pressure rice cooking pot. Cooked rice is then cooled to 104 degree F. Workers at the factory sprinkle koji, a greenish color fungi, over the cooled rice and toss it to have evenly distributed koji in rice. The koji innoculated rice is, then, transferred to a special room called Koji-muro. This room has a set humidity and temperature; temperature at 77 to 95 degree F and the humidity at 97%. The rice stays in this room for about 48 hours.

Next blog is about WHAT koji is DOING during this 48 hours period.

Shiogama-Yaki (protein cooked in salt crust) is a very popular technique used by Japanese chefs in Japanese-, Italian-, and French-kitchen in Japan, because of its stunning presentation and its ability to retain the maximum flavor of ingredient used. The popular ingredient used in this technique in Japan is tai, sea bream – a fish known as the king of fish. The whole sea bream baked in a thick layer of salt crust entertain the diners with its maximum juice and flavor.

The most respected Japanese chef, Yoshihiro’s Murata, uses Abalone with this technique in his elaborate cookbook, KAISEKI. My friend chef, Jiro Iida of Aburiya Kinnosuke learned the technique under a Japanese chef who cooks Italian cuisine in Japan. Now he prepares it at his Japanese restaurant in New York City.

So, I had a question. What is the origin of Shiogama-Yaki? Who invented this technique? Possibly from China?

I found an interesting story at red cook.net/2009/07/08/chicken-clay-grill. There is a dish called Jiao hua Ji. It is a dish in which a whole chicken stuffed with aromatics are covered with a thick layer of mad and baked. The author of the site tells the legend of this dish as…..”During Qing Dynasty a beggar, cold and hungry, stole a chicken. In order to hide the chicken temporarily from the owner of the chicken he buried it in mud. Later that night he retrieved the chicken. Since there were no cooking tools to use to cook the chicken, the beggar made a wood fire and throw the chicken, which is covered with a thick layer of mud, into the fire. After the mud crust became dry, charred and hard, he cracked it and opened it. Extremely juicy and tender chicken was disclosed”. There seems to be many variations of this story. At this site you can find a modern recipe of Jiao hua Ji, which is translated as beggar’s chicken. I remember that chef Alex Ong once cooked this delicious dish for us at his Betelnut restaurant in San Francisco.

In my next blog, I will go back to the Shiogama-Yaki and its story. The origin of Japanese version seems not to have any relationship with the beggar’s chicken. Anyway this is the Shiogama-Yaki which I prepared for my dinner guests recently.

Those who attended ICA Grey Stone’s 2012 World of Flavors Conference, you may remember Chef Iida Jiro’s Market Place dish. It was Hoba dish. He used salmon as a main ingredient and cooked it with special miso, all of them wrapped up in dried Hoba leaf. Hoba is a magnolia leaf (Magnolia obovata) and this humble preparation – cooking ingredients on top of dried leaf – comes from the mountainous region of Hida, located in Gifu Prefecture on Honshu, the main island of Japan.

My recent book, Hiroko’s American Kitchen, has a recipe of Hoba Miso with beef (page 124) and describes the dish’s history (page 125). Traditionally, the main ingredient used were vegetables – no salmon nor beef -, and cooking was done over bincho-tan charcoal fire. The leaf does not catch fire during cooking because the dried leaf is soaked long enough before using, and the infrared bincho-tan heat does not produce flame.

Lucky group of fourteen (14) people will be visiting the Hida region as a part of my Culinary tour to Japan with Hiroko Shimbo soon. The tour will take place on March 21st through March 30. Right now the village of Hida is covered with deep and lasting snow. This year they are receiving more snow. On our visit we will surely find some left snow on the ground. Our group attends Tofu making class in this rural village. I have also requested the traditional Hoba Miso dish demonstration. It will be thrilling for us to see and taste this several hundred years old preparation on the site where it was developed.

Here is the Hoba dish which I made for dinner last night. (Pardon me, but I have Hoba leaves in my kitchen.) My kitchen cannot burn bincho-tan charcol, so I cooked the salmon partially on the skillet, then, baked it with miso and vegetables wrapped up in the leaf in the oven. My Hoba Miso Steak recipe in the Hiroko’s American Kitchen does not use the impossible-to-get hoba leaf in America. But, by following the recipe great tasking Spicy Miso Sauce (page 102) makes an experience of the flavor of a true Hoba miso dish unforgettable.

Michael Miles, chef-instructor at Houston Central Market, Culinary Consultant, Private Event chef, introduced me an impressive method to hone a cooking knife.

Michael was one of the chefs who has recently assisted my class at Houston Central Market Cooking School. During the prepping of the class his knife caught my eyes. He uses good quality Japanese knifes. All of his knives looked very sharp. He mentioned Korin, NYC, as his must stop place on his every visit to New York City. I asked Michael how frequently he sharpens his knife. This conversation led me to a delightful discovery of sharpening knife in an unexpected way. Michael hones his knife using diamond honing paste; not wet stone. After the class he showed me how to do it.

He has his own honing kit, which uses hones he made from medium density fiberboard (it is a consistent and extremely flat surface, Michael said) placed on a stone base (you can see in the photo). After showing me his kit he painted the surface of the board with a very thin layer of diamond honing paste. Michael then placed the knife on the hone, cutting edge touching the surface. After finding the angle of the cutting edge of the knife, Michael smoothly moved the knife up and down over the hone without much pressure. From that light pressure I did not believe that the knife is getting sharp. After sharpening I touched the cutting edge. It was super sharp. Michael indeed uses wet stone when he needs to do major sharpening of the knife. Michel’s sharpening stone is not Japanese toishi, but Shapton waterstones. Here is his e-mail address: milesculinaryservices@gmail.com. If you have any questions about sharpening knife go to Michael. He has truly mastered the art of knife sharpening and honing.

Here is the information of where you can get the diamond honing paste.

http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/DMT-Dia-Paste-Diamond-Compound-P249C11.aspx

I will be trying his way very soon.

Thank you very much for all who attended recent Hiroko’s American Kitchen cooking classes at Central Market in Houston, Austin and Dallas. Great to see you all. Delightful that every student loved the dishes which I presented – Spiced Kabocha Squash Soup (under Kelp stock, page 18), Sake-Braised Short Ribs (under Kelp Stock, page 33), White Sumiso Sauce (Basic Sauce, page 76), Mushrooms and Poached Eggs (under White Sumiso Sauce, page 84) and Cumiso-Marinated Grilled Chicken (under White Sumiso Sauce, page 97). You really ate very well.

Central Market Cooking School is one of the best avocational cooking schools in America. They take care of both students and visiting instructors like myself. Good management, highly committed and superb quality chefs working in the kitchen and fresh and quality ingredients from the store are always impressive. I do not have a whole names here but I would like to extend my thanks to chef Linda and Patrick from Dallas school, chef Scot, Cindy and Louis from Austin school, and chef Tony, Michael, Mario and Juan from Houston school.

Here are the photos from the class.

I recently gave a lecture demonstration on miso and misoshiru (miso soup) at the New York Mutual Trading Company at the Japanese Restaurant Show in New York City. Let me share with you …

(more…)

Here is my red radish pickles recipe. You can mix the radishes with summer baby Kirby cucumber and/or baby eggplant. After 1 to 2 days of waiting – depending on the size of the vegetables that you are using; smaller vegetables are pickled in a shorter period than the larger ones – they are ready to eat.

These pickles area healthy, delicious snack anytime of the day. 

(more…)

Crisp, small and colorful radishes are abundant starting the 
beginning of summer at the Union Square Green Market here in New York City.  “What do you do with them?”

I have often been asked when I am  sorting through the bunches for my purchase. After taking them back 
to my kitchen I thoroughly rinse them in a large bowl of cold tap water, changing the water several times.

(more…)