Japanese Cooking - Contemporary & Traditional (12 page)
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Authors: Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner
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BOOK: Japanese Cooking - Contemporary & Traditional
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2 teaspoons soy sauce (preferably usu-kuchi)
Sea salt or more soy sauce, to taste
Bring the stock to a simmer. Add the
shungiku
(young chrysanthemum leaves) and shiitake, and simmer gently for about five minutes, or until the leaves are tender. Turn off the heat, add the soy sauce, and stir; adjust the soy sauce or sea salt. Serve immediately.
shungiku
(young chrysanthemum leaves) and shiitake, and simmer gently for about five minutes, or until the leaves are tender. Turn off the heat, add the soy sauce, and stir; adjust the soy sauce or sea salt. Serve immediately.
This simply prepared but exotic-sounding soup features the tender, young leaves of chrysanthemums. They are sold in bunches in Japanese markets in the spring and early summer and are eaten as a vegetable. The highly fragrant leaves are unlike any other leafy green in flavor, possessing an almost “perfumey” flavor that may not, appeal to some Westerners. I find that this very fragrance lends a unique flavor to suimono (clear soups). Do not attempt to eat the leaves of chrysanthemums from flower shops; they may be sprayed with unwanted pesticides.
Yield: 3 to 4 servings
New Year’s Stew with 0-Mochizoni
N
ew Year’s Day is the biggest holiday in Japan. The whole country shuts down; no businesses are open for at least the first three or four days of the New Year. This is the time to make your rounds to visit all of your relatives and friends, eating and sipping hot sake at every stop, huddling under the thick comforter of the
kotatsu,
a heated table with a thick blanket over it. Traditionally, housewives would spend the days before the New Year cooking various dishes of a cuisine called
o-sechi ryori.
Vegetables, beans, tiny fish, eggs, and other little dishes were cooked in plenty of sugar, soy sauce, and sake to preserve them for days. This would allow them to be free from the chores of the kitchen during the New Year’s celebrations. (Of course, they would still be expected to entertain.) Although most housewives today forgo this tradition, or simply order these dishes from the many stores and catering services that provide them, the one dish they do cook fresh on New Year’s Day and for the next few days is
o-zoni,
a stew that features the thick, chewy, stretchy rice cake called
o-mochi.
ew Year’s Day is the biggest holiday in Japan. The whole country shuts down; no businesses are open for at least the first three or four days of the New Year. This is the time to make your rounds to visit all of your relatives and friends, eating and sipping hot sake at every stop, huddling under the thick comforter of the
kotatsu,
a heated table with a thick blanket over it. Traditionally, housewives would spend the days before the New Year cooking various dishes of a cuisine called
o-sechi ryori.
Vegetables, beans, tiny fish, eggs, and other little dishes were cooked in plenty of sugar, soy sauce, and sake to preserve them for days. This would allow them to be free from the chores of the kitchen during the New Year’s celebrations. (Of course, they would still be expected to entertain.) Although most housewives today forgo this tradition, or simply order these dishes from the many stores and catering services that provide them, the one dish they do cook fresh on New Year’s Day and for the next few days is
o-zoni,
a stew that features the thick, chewy, stretchy rice cake called
o-mochi.
O-mochi has become quite popular in the United States among natural food aficionados and is available year round, yet in Japan it is eaten primarily (if not solely) during the weeks of New Year’s. O-zoni is the most famous dish featuring o-mochi, and throughout different regions of Japan, as well as in various households, there are numerous versions. In the Kanto region around Tokyo where I was raised, o-zoni is typically a savory soup containing vegetables and chicken. (I wasn’t a vegan at age 6.) Later, when I married a man from Tottori, several hundred miles southwest of Tokyo, I was surprised to find that their o-zoni was sweet, a “stew” of azuki beans cooked with sugar and o-mochi, a dish we Tokyoites called
zenzai.
Apparently, he was equally shocked when he moved to Tokyo to attend college and found that our o-zoni was salty!
New Year’s Stew with O-Mochizenzai.
Apparently, he was equally shocked when he moved to Tokyo to attend college and found that our o-zoni was salty!
zoni
10 to 12 dried shiitake
6- to 8-inch piece of konbu
8 cups water
¼ pound enoki mushrooms
¼ to ½ pound
shimeji
(oyster mushrooms)
shimeji
(oyster mushrooms)
1 tablespoon oil
2 carrots, thinly sliced
7 to 8 taro roots, peeled and quartered
cup sake1 to 2 teaspoons sea salt
2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce (preferably usu-kuchi)
½ teaspoon grated peel of yuzu or lemon
1 bunch spinach, rinsed well with stems trimmed
At least twelve 2 x 2-inch pieces mochi (preferably more)
3 to 4 scallions, minced
2 bunches
mitsuba
(trefoil), page 27, chopped (optional)
mitsuba
(trefoil), page 27, chopped (optional)
Here is a vegan version of this wonderful traditional dish. Use this as a guide and feel free to add or subtract vegetables as is convenient or desirable. Even now, I do not feel right starting off the New Year without several bowls of my favorite stew.
Yield: 6 servings
Soak the shiitake and konbu in the eight cups of water in a large pot for several hours. Bring slowly to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain the shiitake mushrooms and allow to cool momentarily, then trim the stems and slice the mushrooms. Reserve the stock for later.
Cut the bottoms off of the enoki mushrooms to separate them into individual mushrooms or clumps of 2 or 3. Trim the bottom of the
shimeji
(oyster) mushrooms, and tear them apart with your hands into individual mushrooms.
shimeji
(oyster) mushrooms, and tear them apart with your hands into individual mushrooms.
In another pot, heat the oil. Add the mushrooms and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the carrots, taro root, sliced shiitake, stock, sake, and sea salt. Partially cover and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Add the soy sauce and yuzu or lemon. Adjust the seasonings.
In the meantime, blanch or steam the spinach until just wilted. Rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process. Squeeze and cut into 1-inch lengths.
Cook the mochi. Traditionally, this is done with a special broiler that is placed over your gas burner. Lacking one of these, you can easily do this in your broiler or oven at a high temperature. Preheat the oven to 450°F Place the mochi pieces directly on the oven rack. In a few minutes, they will puff up greatly and become slightly browned and cracked. (Kids love to watch this.) Flip them over and cook until the other side puffs up. They are now ready. You can also achieve the same results in a broiler. Place the pieces under your broiler until completely puffed up on one side, then flip over and broil until puffy.
Put 2 to 3 pieces of mochi in each person’s bowl. Place some spinach in each bowl. Pour the hot stew into each bowl, and top with chopped scallions. Devour immediately! Chew your mochi well so that you don’t choke!
Cooking With Tofu
I
n America, plain tofu is often considered bland, and thus by its nature is capable of absorbing the flavors of other ingredients used with it in a dish. In Japan, however, plain tofu itself is appreciated, its flavor is considered delicate rather than bland. This is especially true of tofu freshly made by neighborhood tofu shops. The Japanese tend not to doctor it up, but enjoy it in its simplicity, perhaps with a dash of soy sauce and a grating of fresh ginger, as you will see in the following recipes. Mashing tofu into burgers or blending it for sauces and desserts, as is done in modern American vegetarian recipes, are techniques that are alien to the Japanese as of yet.
Tofu in Hot Watern America, plain tofu is often considered bland, and thus by its nature is capable of absorbing the flavors of other ingredients used with it in a dish. In Japan, however, plain tofu itself is appreciated, its flavor is considered delicate rather than bland. This is especially true of tofu freshly made by neighborhood tofu shops. The Japanese tend not to doctor it up, but enjoy it in its simplicity, perhaps with a dash of soy sauce and a grating of fresh ginger, as you will see in the following recipes. Mashing tofu into burgers or blending it for sauces and desserts, as is done in modern American vegetarian recipes, are techniques that are alien to the Japanese as of yet.
3-inch piece konbu
1 quart water
1 pound very fresh tofu
Soy sauce, grated fresh ginger, and chopped green onions for dipping
Place the konbu and water in a pot. Bring to a simmer.
Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes. Place in the water and simmer gently for two minutes. Do not over-cook; this will toughen the tofu. Remove from the heat. Each person then removes cubes of tofu and dips them in either soy sauce with a little grated ginger and green onions or in the citrus sauce below and eats it along with bites of rice.
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