Kibo ( Brimming With Hope ): Recipes and Stories From Japan's Tohoku
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Stack the fried tōfu so the cut ends face in the same direction. Hold the stack over the sink and press to squeeze out excess liquid from the cut end (your hands will become greasy but can be washed in a moment). Blot away any oil and moisture with paper towels and place the pieces on your cutting board. The squeezing should have been sufficient to make each piece into a small pouch (see if you can pry open from the cut end). If not, place the fried tōfu on your board and roll a chopstick over the slice, from closed to open end, pressing out air and moisture. With your fingers, gently pry open to make a pouch.
Stuff each pouch with carrot strips arranging them at the bottom to lie flat. Flip over and roll to make a snug cylinder. Place one end of the kampyō ribbon under the midsection of one roll.
Make a double knot and snip off the long ribbon end. Repeat this knot-making procedure next to the first knot.
Slip each of the knots toward opposite ends of the roll, rotating the roll slightly if need be. Later, after cooking, each roll will be cut between the knots to separate into two pieces.
Choose a skillet or pan just large enough to hold the rolls snugly in a single layer and place them in it, knots facing down. Add the liquid from soaking the kampyō ribbons (or other stock), sugar, and saké. Use an otoshi-buta (“dropped” or inner lid), a double layer of cheesecloth, or cooking parchment to keep the rolls covered with liquid as they cook. Place the skillet over high heat until the liquid comes to a boil. Adjust to maintain a steady, though not especially vigorous, simmer. Cook for 3 minutes checking on liquid in the skillet. Flip the rolls so that the knots face up. Replace your inner lid and cook for another minute. If at any time the rolls look in danger of scorching, add a bit of boiling water or stock to keep them barely submerged in liquid as they cook.
Flip the rolls so that the knots face down. Add the soy sauce, replace the inner lid, and cook for 1 minute, or until slightly glazed. Remove the skillet from the heat, keeping the inner lid in place. Set aside until the broth is cool, about 20 minutes. It is in this cooling down period that flavors meld.
Typically, these sorts of rolls are made ahead of time and served at room temperature—they will keep refrigerated for 2 or 3 days. Just before serving, cut the rolls between the knots to make a dozen knotted mini foxy rolls.
Daté maki Salmon-Stuffed Kelp Rolls Fish Sausage Patties Rice Taffy Dumplings with Crushed Édamamé Squid Jerky and Carrot Strips Kelp-Alone Scrolls
OSECHI (A FEAST FOR THE NEW YEAR)
Special dishes eaten during the New Year holidays are collectively called osechi. Arranged in a multitiered jūbako box, the distinctive menu offers glimpses into Japan’s culinary culture.
An auspicious play on the word for kelp—kobu—and being happy—yorokobu—translates into delicious fare, especially when paired with the word maki, which means to be “wound, encased, or enveloped.” Eating these sweetly soy-stewed rolls means you will be “enveloped in happiness”!
Black beans cooked in sugar syrup, kuro mamé, sounds like kurō (“hard work”) and mamé (“diligent attitude”) are another treat. Eating the shiny jet-colored beans ensures sweet returns on earnest efforts.
Mochi—rice taffy—sounds just like mochi, meaning “having” or “owning.” Topped with zunda (crushed green soybeans), these chewy sweets declare their allegiance to the Tohoku region.
Throughout Japan, bright yellow rolls of fish paste–filled omelets called Daté maki are included in osechi holiday fare. Named after the Tohoku’s medieval warrior-statesman Daté Masamuné, the (slightly gaudy-colored) ornately shaped omelet calls to mind Daté’s flamboyant ways. A trendsetter in his own time, Daté’s name is still invoked today with the phrase: Daté mono, “the sort of (outlandish) thing Daté would have liked.”
For most Americans and Europeans, a ritual spread of Thanksgiving turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, or a goose or ham at Christmastime, conveys a sense of comfort and continuity. In the same soothing spirit, osechi offers solace and succor to the Japanese as they gather round the holiday table this year embracing the challenges of recovery.
The traditional New Year greetings of akémashité omedetō gozaimasu (“congratulations on a bright new start”) and kotoshi mo yoroshiku (“please continue to care for, and about, me”) seem to be imbued with special meaning as 2011 (the Year of the Rabbit) turns to 2012 (the Year of the Dragon).
Persimmons Stuffed with Fall Fruits in Pine Nut–Tōfu Sauce
Persimmons Stuffed with Fall Fruits in Pine Nut–Tōfu Sauce
MATSU NO MI SHIRA AÉ, KAKI UTSUWA
Many food cultures scoop out juicy melons and citrus fruits then serve the fruit, cut into bite-sized pieces, in the hollowed-out shell. In Japan, persimmons are used in a similar fashion. The carved-out shell becomes an impressive cup in which the diced persimmon is served on its own or in combination with other fall fruits—grapes, pears, crisp apples—that have been napped with a classic sauce of pine nuts and tōfu called shira aé.
To make the creamy sauce, some cooks merely mash tōfu and season it with a drizzle of mirin (sweet rice wine) and a drop of usukuchi shōyu (light-colored soy sauce); others will blend mashed tōfu with sweet, pale miso or a spoonful of rich sesame paste. In the Tohoku region, many cooks add toasted, crushed pine nuts to enhance their rendition of shira aé.
SERVES 4
4 small firm persimmons, preferably the boxy-shaped Fuyu variety
2 ounces seedless green or red grapes (about 10), sliced in quarters lengthwise
1 small Fuji apple, cored and diced
1 cup Matsu no Mi Shira Aé (Pine Nut–Tōfu Sauce)
Slice off the top of one of the persimmons to make a “lid” about ¼ inch thick. With a curved serrated knife (the kind used to cut grapefruit segments), carefully trace a circle around the inner rim of each persimmon. Ideally, you will leave about ¼- to ⅓-inch thick walls. Repeat to make four persimmon “cups,” each with its own lid.
Dice the flesh you removed from the persimmon cups and put the pieces in a bowl with the grapes and apple.
Just before serving, toss the mixed fruit with the tōfu sauce. Divide among the four persimmon cups, mounding the filling slightly. Set the lids at a jaunty angle to the side of each.
Rice Taffy Dumplings with Crushed Édamamé
ZUNDA MOCHI
A traditional Tohoku dish, jade-colored zunda is true to its name—the word is written with calligraphy for “crushing” and “beans.” The beans in question are édamamé—the same green soybeans that are served salted in their pods as a beer snack. But in this dish, the édamamé are transformed into a dessert-like dish by grinding them into a sweet topping for chewy little rice-flour dumplings, called omochi.
MAKES 20 MARBLE-SIZED DUMPLINGS AND ½ CUP SAUCE, TO SERVE 4
SUGAR SYRUP
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
ZUNDA SAUCE
8 ounces flash-frozen édamamé in the pod (half of a 400-gram bag)
DUMPLINGS
½ cup lightly packed rice flour, preferably dango ko (about 2 ounces) or ¼ cup shiratama ko or mochi ko (rice flour made from mochi-gomé or sticky rice) and ¼ cup jōshin ko, rice flour made from uruchi mai or ordinary table rice (about 2 ounces total)
2 to 3 tablespoons warm water
To make the sugar syrup, heat the sugar and water in a small pot, stirring to dissolve. Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring, for 1 minute, or until the mixture becomes transparent, begins to thicken, and the bubbles become a bit foamy. Half of this syrup will be mixed with the beans; the other half will be used to “marinate” the dumplings.
To make the sauce, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the beans and blanch for 30 seconds after the water returns to a boil. Drain, allowing the beans to cool naturally (you can hasten the process by fanning them, but do not refresh in cold water). When cool enough to comfortably handle, about 3 minutes, begin to shell the beans. Be sure to remove the thin skins that encase each bean
. When finished, you should have about ½ cup shelled beans. Put in the food processor and pulse until smooth but slightly textured. Add half the sugar syrup and pulse until smooth, shiny, and very cohesive. The sauce should be stored in this concentrated form until you are ready to serve. At that time, the consistency can be adjusted by adding more sugar syrup or water.
To make the dumplings, put the rice flour in a bowl. Drizzle in half the warm water in a spiral pattern, starting at the rim of the bowl and working toward the center. Using your fingertips, stir to mix. Gradually, add more water until the flour easily forms a mass that comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl. The dough should be soft but firm, what the Japanese call mimi tabu, or “earlobe consistency” (if you lightly pinch your own earlobe, then the dough in the bowl, it should feel similar).
To shape the dumplings, lightly knead the dough to be sure it is smooth and of an even consistency. Divide the dough into twenty equal pieces. One at a time, roll each piece between your palms to form a marble-sized sphere and then press each with your thumb to flatten to a disk shape. Your finger pressure should leave an indentation. Set aside on a flat plate or tray.
To cook the dumplings, bring a wide, shallow pot of water to a rolling boil. Gently drop the flattened disks into the boiling water. The dumplings will bob to the surface as they cook through; allow them to cook for at least 2 minutes after they have floated to the surface. Using a fine-mesh skimmer, remove the dumplings from the pot and drop them briefly into a bowl of very cold water or ice water to rapidly chill them. Once cooled, about 1 minute, remove the dumplings from the water and put into the remaining sugar syrup. Allow the dumplings to “marinate” for a few minutes in the syrup.
These dumplings are at their chewy-tender best when eaten within 30 minutes of making them. If you need to hold them for longer, submerge them in the syrup in a single layer in a covered plastic container or resealable bag (laid flat on a plate or cookie sheet). Refrigerate them for up to 2 days. While the dumplings are still submerged in syrup, zap for 20 seconds in the microwave to help restore elasticity to the rice taffy.
When you are ready to serve, remove the dumplings from the syrup and place in dishes, three to five per serving. Using a few drops of the marinade, or water, adjust the consistency of the zunda sauce. Ideally, it should be thick but not stiff. Place a dollop of the sauce over the rice taffy dumplings. Serve with a small fork or spoon.
MEASURING RICE FLOUR
Japanese home kitchens typically have scales for weighing rice flour and other dry ingredients (metric measures are used). Most home cooks in America use volume measures—cups and spoons—for the same ingredients. I offer guidelines for both methods. Some rice flours are finely pulverized and others are quite lumpy and chalky. If you are measuring by volume, it is important that you use the flour as is, and do not attempt to pulverize it before you measure it. My measures have taken into account the empty spaces that will surround clumps.
A Guide to the Kibō Kitchen
THIS GUIDE was shaped by the lively exchange I had with my team of resourceful and observant volunteer recipe testers. As they worked diligently on the assignments I gave them, a barrage of questions ensued. I have culled from that correspondence what I hope will help you in your kitchen as you explore the Tohoku’s rich culinary culture.
I begin this guide with a few words about menu planning. Many of my volunteers asked for help in integrating Tohoku dishes with non-Japanese foods. Many asked about vegan and vegetarian options. I share with you the advice I offered them.
Next come some basic recipes for making rice, stocks, and sauces. Those basic recipes are followed by a glossary of (probably) unfamiliar (and possibly confusing) ingredients you will encounter in the recipes in Kibō. After that comes instruction on a few special ways of cutting and slicing, and an explanation of some (clever) tools that Tohoku cooks use to great advantage (I am hoping you will follow suit).
I finish up with a section devoted to saké, the contribution of knowledgeable colleague, Yukari Sakamoto. This miniguide will enable you to enjoy Tohoku saké while supporting the recovery efforts of those in the industry.
MENU PLANNING AND VEGAN/VEGETARIAN OPTIONS
Whether you seek to integrate a few Tohoku dishes into your current culinary routine, or you want to create a larger, Kibō-themed menu, you’ll find that adopting a washoku approach will help you plan well. Although the origins of washoku, Japan’s indigenous cuisine, are deeply rooted in native culinary history and habits, anyone, anywhere, can apply washoku principles to their own cooking.
Washoku menus are based on a practical set of guidelines:
• Choose a colorful range of ingredients (red, yellow, green, black, and white) to ensure nutritional balance;
• Include various flavors in your menu (salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and bitter) to avoid food cravings that can lead to overeating;
• Prepare dishes in different ways (simmering, searing, steaming, frying, or raw) to change the look and texture of a limited number of ingredients;
• Feature foods at their peak of seasonal flavor;
• Combine foods from various terrain (a surf-and-turf approach to food sourcing).
For those wanting to prepare and serve plant-based foods exclusively, look for the vegan/vegetarian mark next to recipes and tidbit titles. This design element indicates the recipe is vegan/vegetarian or that a vegan/vegetarian variation is included within the recipe. Because I selected dishes for Kibō that do not contain dairy products, eggs, or honey, more than half the dishes in this book qualify as vegan. Although standard dashi stock does call for fish flakes, you can substitute kombu dashi (kelp stock) or sankai dashi (kelp and dried shiitaké) whenever stock is required. The liquid remaining from softening naturally dried kampyō gourd ribbons also makes a fine vegetable stock.
ABOUT RICE
Rice that is consumed at most meals, “table rice,” is a grain known as uruchi mai in Japanese. It is short-grained, appears somewhat translucent in its hulled but unwashed state, and is often sold outside Japan as “sushi rice,” since that is the most common use for it in households that do not eat rice daily. Most table rice is sold “polished,” which means that the outer hull and bran layers have been removed. White rice is synonymous with polished rice.
In addition to uruchi mai, the Japanese also enjoy mochi-gomé, another type of short-grained rice that is stickier and tastes sweeter than ordinary table rice. In the Japanese kitchen, mochi-gomé has several uses: steamed and pounded to make omochi (rice taffy); soaked, dried, and crushed to make sticky rice flour (shiratama ko); and mixed with table rice to make okowa. Salmon Rice Topped with Red Caviar (Harako Meshi) is an example of okowa. Such dishes evoke fond memories of family celebrations from an earlier, happier time.
While most parts of Japan produce and prefer a rice variety marketed as Koshihikari, the most popular table rice in the Sanriku district (Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate prefectures) is a varietal called Sasanishiki, developed in Sendai and trademarked in 1963. A brand of Sasanishiki called Hitoméboré (“love at first sight”) is much-loved among professional sushi chefs and obentō-making mothers because the rice retains full (nutty-sweet) flavor and a good (tender-chewy) texture as it cools to room temperature. If you can obtain Miyagi Hitoméboré, you are in for a special treat when you prepare rice for serving at room temperature. Post-Disaster farming in the region, however, is uncertain. Outside Japan several varieties of Koshihikari rice are readily available: Kokuho Rose (uruchi mai) and Sho-Chiku-Bai (mochi-gomé).
When mochi-gomé is sold outside Japan, it is labeled in various (and, unfortunately, confusing) ways. “Sticky rice” and “sweet rice” are most commonly seen, but sometimes packages are labeled “glutinous rice” (although rice is gluten-free). Recipes in this book refer to this ingredient by its Japanese name, mochi-gomé. Both uruchi mai and mochi-gomé are short-grained, but mochi-gomé grains are especially plump and chalky white in appearance.
Cooked Whi
te Rice
MESHI
Yield: 2 cups cooked rice
Pot: 2-quart or larger pot, or 5- (Japanese-sized) cup rice cooker
Rice: 1 cup uncooked polished Japanese-style white rice
Cold Water: 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons
Yield: 3 cups cooked rice
Pot: 2-quart or larger pot, or 5- (Japanese-sized) cup rice cooker
Rice: 1½ cups uncooked polished Japanese-style white rice
Cold Water: Scant 1¾ cups
Yield: 4 cups cooked rice
Pot: 3-quart or larger pot, or 6- to 8- (Japanese-sized) cup rice cooker
Rice: 2 cups uncooked polished Japanese-style white rice
Cold Water: 2⅓ cups
Yield: 5 cups cooked rice
Pot: 4-quart or larger pot, or 8- (Japanese-sized) cup rice cooker.
Rice: 2½ cups uncooked polished Japanese-style white rice
Cold Water: Scant 2¾ cups
Yield: 16 cups cooked rice
Pot: 8-quart or larger pot, or 25- (Japanese-sized) cup commercial-size rice cooker
Rice: 8 cups uncooked polished Japanese-style white rice
Cold Water: 9⅓ cups
Washing Rice
Rice needs to be washed just before cooking to remove excess starch from the surface of the grains. Depending upon the type of rice—uruchi mai (white table rice) or mochi-gomé (sticky rice)—the amount of starch will differ. Uruchi mai has a great deal of surface starch and will need to be rinsed many times; mochi-gomé will need to be rinsed only once.
After measuring the rice, place it in a deep bowl and cover it with cool water. If you are using both types of rice (to make okowa, for example), measure and wash them separately. Stir and swish the rice vigorously. The water will become cloudy. Frugal cooks save this starch-intense (and slightly oily) first rinsing water, known as togi-jiru, for parboiling root vegetables such as daikon and burdock root (gobō) or foods such as dried herring. Potted plants love to be watered with togi-jiru, too. Store togi-jiru in a lidded glass jar in the refrigerator if you won’t be using it right away. The starchy matter will settle to the bottom, forming a white, oily layer of sediment. Stir to recombine just before using. Use within 5 days.