Ivan Ramen
Page 11
Use these fats to sauté vegetables or finish grilled meats or stews with a drizzle of flavored fat and a sprinkle of sea salt. If you’ve got loads of uncooked fat on hand, multiply the following recipes, and you’ll have an aromatic bath for confit (meat cooked slowly in its own fat).
Sometimes I feel guilty about how often I utilize these fats—it feels a bit like cheating—like I’m trying to make up for missing flavor with delicious fat. But fat tastes better than other cheats, like MSG, and used appropriately it really elevates food to a new level of deliciousness.
GARLIC AND ANCHOVY PORK FAT
Makes about 235 milliliters (1 cup)
235 milliliters (1 cup) PORK FAT
3 cloves garlic
3 cured anchovies
1 Combine the ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer over the lowest heat possible for an hour.
2 Cool to room temperature and store (with the garlic and anchovies) in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
HERBED CHICKEN FAT
Makes about 235 milliliters (1 cup)
235 milliliters (1 cup) CHICKEN FAT
2 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs rosemary
1 Combine the ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer over the lowest heat possible for an hour.
2 Cool to room temperature, strain, and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Schmaltz-Fried Chicken Katsu
Schmaltz-Fried Chicken Katsu
ANOTHER USE FOR CHICKEN FAT
It’s such a simple idea, but when was the last time you fried chicken in its own fat? You could be buying organic chickens and making your own breadcrumbs, but if you just fry chicken in vegetable oil, you’re missing a big flavor opportunity.
All over Tokyo, you’ll find tonkatsu shops serving fried, breaded pork cutlets. This is a slight variation using chicken, but I still serve it with traditional accompaniments of tonkatsu sauce (I like Bulldog brand), a heaping pile of finely shredded cabbage, and a mound of Japanese short-grain rice. Add a bowl of miso soup, and you’ve got a classic Tokyo diner dish that I ate countless times during my first stint in Japan. Cook this for your family, and somewhere, a young, aimless Ivan Orkin with poor Japanese skills will be smiling upon you.
Makes 4 servings
4 (150-gram/5-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breasts
500 milliliters (2 cups) cold water
28 grams (2 tablespooons + 1 teaspoon) salt, plus additional for seasoning
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ head green cabbage
170 grams (½ cup) all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
80 grams (1½ cups) panko
240 milliliters (1 cup) CHICKEN FAT
700 milliliters (3 cups) vegetable oil
Warm STEAMED RICE, for serving
Bottled tonkatsu sauce, for serving
1 Place each breast between two sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Pound the breast flat using a meat mallet or the bottom of a saucepan until it’s uniformly about 13 millimeters (½ inch) thick.
2 Mix together the water, salt, and garlic, and stir until the salt dissolves. (This quick brine is a great flavoring agent that you can use with any meat when your time is short.) Add the chicken to the brine and soak for 30 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
3 Shred the cabbage with a sharp knife or mandoline; reserve in a bowl of cold water.
4 Place the flour, eggs, and panko in three separate shallow vessels. Beat the eggs.
5 Remove the breasts from the brine and quickly pat them dry. Dredge each breast in the flour and shake off the excess. Next, give the breasts a quick dip in the egg, again shaking off any excess. Finally, coat the breasts with panko. Press the breadcrumbs onto the meat to form a solid crust.
6 Choose a sauté pan large enough to hold one or two of the chicken breasts, and tall enough that the fat can cover the meat completely with plenty of room to spare. Heat the chicken fat and vegetable oil in the pan over medium heat to 350°F (176°C), then carefully slide in 1 or 2 breasts, depending on how many fit in your pan. Fry until crisp and browned on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove the fried breasts to a paper towel–lined plate and season with salt. Cook the remaining breasts in the same way.
7 Drain the cabbage well.
8 Serve the chicken with rice and a pile of cabbage on the side. Drizzle tonkatsu sauce all over everything.
Chicken Teriyaki
Chicken Teriyaki
ANOTHER USE FOR CHICKEN FAT
Although in America anything “teriyaki” sounds a little mundane or contrived, this really is a staple in Japanese homes. I make it often for the kids, because a) I always have tons of chicken fat on hand, and b) it’s delicious, so why not?
Makes 4 servings
1 kilo (2 pounds) skinless, boneless chicken thighs
15 grams (1 tablespoon) all-purpose flour
Salt
30 milliliters (2 tablespoons) CHICKEN FAT
120 milliliters (½ cup) sake
120 milliliters (½ cup) mirin
20 milliliters (4 teaspoons) soy sauce
15 grams (1 tablespoon) sugar
Warm STEAMED RICE, for serving
Shredded green cabbage, for serving
1 Toss the thighs with the flour and 1 teaspoon of salt.
2 In a medium sauté pan over high heat, brown the chicken in the chicken fat (it won’t be cooked through), working in batches to avoid crowding the pan and to keep the meat from steaming rather than sautéing. Set aside, then pour off half of the fat but leave any browned bits in the pan.
3 In a bowl, mix together the sake, mirin, and soy sauce, then add the sugar and mix until completely dissolved.
4 Return the chicken to the pan over medium-high heat and pour the sauce on top. Scrape loose any bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook over medium heat until the thighs are cooked through and the sauce is reduced to a syrupy consistency, about 12 minutes. Serve over rice and shredded cabbage.
Omu Raisu
Omu Raisu
ANOTHER USE FOR SOFRITO
Omu raisu (rice omelet) is one of the most popular dishes in Japan, both at home and in restaurants. To Western ears it doesn’t sound immediately compelling—lightly fried rice laced with ketchup and covered with a sheet of runny eggs. It’s slathered with more ketchup to finish, which is probably why I jumped on the bandwagon almost immediately and have never looked back. My childhood recollections don’t include any warm and fuzzy comfort dishes, so when I feel down and out or just need some food love, this is the dish I invariably turn to.
Using sofrito as the base for the rice filling gives it a luxurious silky texture and depth of flavor that it doesn’t always have. You can incorporate any veggie or meat that you like. I’ve used the classics. As far as I’m concerned, this dish is a vehicle for runny eggs and loads of ketchup.
Makes 4 servings
140 grams (½ cup) SOFRITO
150 grams (5 ounces) skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into very small dice
720 grams (4 cups) STEAMED RICE (day-old rice is fine)
100 grams (3½ ounces) frozen peas
Lots of ketchup
8 large eggs
Vegetable oil spray
1 In a wide sauté pan set over medium-high heat, warm the sofrito until it starts to sizzle, then add the chicken and cook through, about 4 minutes.
2 Add the rice. Mix and stir until the rice, sofrito, and chicken are thoroughly incorporated. Add the peas, cook for a minute, then start squirting in the ketchup. This is the most gratifying moment for ketchup lovers like me. Squirt it in to your taste, but it shouldn’t be so wet that you just get a mouthful of ketchup. It should look like red fried rice, with a touch of moisture from the ketchup. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
3 Fill a small bowl with rice and pack it down. Upend the bowl onto a plate to create a molehill of rice in the cent
er of the plate. Repeat for each serving.
4 In a small bowl, whip 2 eggs until frothy.
5 Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until a drop of egg sizzles in the pan. Spray the pan with vegetable spray and pour in the beaten eggs. Rock the pan gently so that the eggs coat the bottom of the pan. The eggs should cook quite quickly. Lift a corner with a spatula to allow the uncooked egg that has pooled on top to run into the exposed area. You’re aiming for a sheet of fluffy cooked egg with a little bit of undercooked egg remaining on top.
6 Slide the omelet over the mound of rice. If you’ve done this perfectly, you now have a “handkerchief” of egg on top of the rice. To gild the lily, tuck the edges of the omelet under the rice to create a neat package. Squeeze ketchup all over the omelet and plate.
7 Repeat the whole process for the other plates. If you’re living in a Japanese household like mine, everyone starts eating as soon as their dish lands in front of them. This would have driven my father insane, which makes it all the better.
Ozoni
Ozoni
ANOTHER USE FOR DOUBLE SOUP
As much as I wished they were, my holidays as a child in the Orkin household were not the wondrous food spectacles of my famished imagination. So when I married into a Japanese family, I eagerly adopted the various Japanese holidays and the celebratory foods that come along with them. Japanese New Year is my favorite. We spend several days preparing for it, so that on New Year’s Day we can start drinking in the morning and eat without doing any work. (It’s like Saturday Sabbath for Jews, but rather than worshipping God, we spend the day tying one on.)
Of all the Oshogatsu (New Year’s) specialty dishes, ozoni is the best. It’s super simple: chicken soup lightly flavored with dashi, pieces of chicken, carrot, mitsuba (an aromatic herb), and crisp baked or grilled mochi (glutinous rice cakes). The stretchy, chewy hot cakes soften in the broth and impart a little smokiness. You can buy mochi at any Japanese grocer.
Every family in Japan makes this dish a little differently, but no matter what, it’s the ideal way to start the New Year. Try this recipe once as is, then have fun swapping in whatever vegetables you like. This dish is usually served along with several others. You can easily make this into an entrée by doubling the recipe.
Makes 4 servings
4 fresh shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed
1 (5-centimeter/2-inch) piece of daikon, peeled
1 medium carrot, peeled
500 milliliters (2 cups) CHICKEN STOCK
500 milliliters (2 cups) DASHI or AGO DASHI
5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) soy sauce
15 milliliters (1 tablespoon) sake
15 milliliters (1 tablespoon) mirin
100 grams (3½ ounces) skinless, boneless chicken thigh, sliced into bite-size chunks and seasoned with salt
4 squares of mochi, plus additional for snacking
4 sprigs mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley) or celery leaves
1 Preheat a toaster oven (or full-size oven, if you must) to 400°F (200°C).
2 Cut a shallow X into the top of each mushroom. Thinly slice the daikon into rounds, then cut each round into 4 wedges. Thinly slice the carrot on the bias.
3 Combine the chicken stock, dashi, soy sauce, sake, and mirin in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the chicken, mushrooms, daikon, and carrots, and simmer gently until everything is cooked through—about 10 minutes.
4 Bake the mochi directly on the oven rack until they become puffy, and the edges turn golden brown, about 10 minutes.
5 Set out four small bowls and divide the soup among them. Put a mochi cake into each bowl, garnish with mitsuba, and serve.
Dashi Maki Tamago
Dashi Maki Tamago
ANOTHER USE FOR DASHI
This fluffy, layered, slightly sweet omelet is served in market stalls throughout Japan, and has an important place on the table at New Year’s Day celebratory feasts. The omelet is a mixture of eggs, dashi, and soy sauce, cooked in a rectangular pan in thin layers that are rolled up over one another. You can find a rectangular pan in a Japanese market, but don’t kill yourself over it—you can still make a fine omelet in a round skillet.
Makes 1 omelet
3 large eggs
5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) soy sauce, plus additional for serving
20 grams (1½ tablespoons) sugar
90 milliliters (6 tablespoons) DASHI
Vegetable oil spray
80 grams (½ cup) grated peeled daikon, for serving
1 In a bowl, thoroughly whisk together the eggs, soy sauce, sugar, and dashi. Set aside.
2 Heat a small nonstick skillet (preferably a rectangular one) over medium-low heat and spray with oil. Pour in just enough egg mixture to coat the bottom of the pan. When the egg is half set, use a rubber spatula or a pair of chopsticks to begin folding it over on itself, starting at the side closest to you with a fold of about 2 centimeters (¾ inch). Continue folding/rolling until you reach the end of the pan.
3 Pour more egg mixture into the empty side of the pan, just enough to cover the bottom. Lift the already-rolled omelet to allow some of the uncooked egg mixture to run underneath. Repeat the rolling procedure, this time beginning with the other end, so you’re rolling the second omelet around the first. Keep the heat low enough that the egg is not becoming crisp and brown, but rather staying soft and creamy.
4 Repeat step 3 until you’ve used all your egg mixture or the omelet is too big to roll. (This will depend on the size of the pan you’ve chosen.)
5 Turn the omelet out onto a plate and allow it to cool and set. If you have a bamboo sushi roller, wrap it in plastic wrap, roll the omelet inside, and exert a little pressure to form the omelet into a perfect rectangular shape. In lieu of a bamboo roller, you could use a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil.
6 Once the omelet has cooled to room temperature, cut it in 2-centimeter (1-inch) slices and serve with grated daikon drizzled with soy sauce.
Cold Tofu with Menma
Cold Tofu with Menma
ANOTHER USE FOR MENMA, CHASHU, AND DASHI
The simplest way to utilize a surplus of menma is to eat a pile while drinking beer. If you’re not into acting like a panda bear, scarfing a pile of cured bamboo, then this dish and the next are for two simple cooked dishes that make use of extra menma.
Makes 4 servings
1 (400-gram/14-ounce) block silken tofu, drained
200 grams (7 ounces) MENMA
100 grams (3½ ounces) warm PORK BELLY CHASHU, sliced into thin strips
4 green onions, cut thin on the bias
5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) DASHI
15 milliliters (1 tablespoon) good-quality toasted sesame oil (I like Kadoya brand)
Sea salt
1 Slice the tofu into 4 pieces and place them in the center of 4 small plates.
2 Combine the remaining ingredients—menma, chashu, green onions, dashi, and sesame oil—in a bowl. Season to taste with salt.
3 Put a small pile of the menma mixture on top of each piece of tofu. Drizzle any remaining liquid over the top of each dish and serve.
Menma Sauté
ANOTHER USE FOR MENMA
Regular chives are not a great alternative here; try green onions if you can’t find nira (Japanese chives). And make sure your bean sprouts are fresh and not slimy.
Makes 4 appetizer servings
50 milliliters (3½ tablespoons) sake
50 milliliters (3½ tablespoons) mirin
50 milliliters (3½ tablespoons) soy sauce
15 grams (1 tablespoon) sugar
15 milliliters (1 tablespoon) sesame oil
500 grams (1 pound) bean sprouts, rinsed
200 grams (7 ounces) MENMA
1 bunch nira (Japanese or Chinese chives), cut in 2-centimeter (1-inch) pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 In a small bowl, mix together the sake, mirin, soy sauce, and sugar, stirring until the sugar is fully dissolved. Set aside.
2 Heat a medium sauté pan over high heat and add the sesame oil. When the oil is hot and shimmering, add the bean sprouts, menma, and nira. Sauté for 2 minutes, then add the garlic. Sauté for 2 minutes more, then add the sake-mirin-soy mixture. Let it bubble up and reduce for 2 minutes, then serve.
Chashu Cubano
Chashu Cubano
ANOTHER USE FOR CHASHU AND PORK FAT
Life is pretty good if your biggest problem is having too much slow-cooked pork belly on hand. The chashu recipe yields much more than you need for four bowls of ramen, so you’ll have enough to make other things like this over-the-top Cuban sandwich.
The Cubano has become a mainstream thing, but if it’s not done well, you’re better off with a PB&J. The importance of garlic mayo cannot be overstated; depending on how much mayo you like on your sandwich, you may have extra for future use. It will keep in the fridge for at least a couple weeks. (There are worse fates.) Wrapping the chashu with ham and Swiss cheese takes the pork to the next dimension. There’s no need to get fancy with the bread—your favorite cheap hero roll is the perfect vehicle for a Cubano.
Makes 4 sandwiches
20 grams (1 tablespoon) roasted garlic from ROASTED GARLIC AND GARLIC OIL
4 cloves raw garlic, minced
30 milliliters (2 tablespoons) garlic oil from ROASTED GARLIC AND GARLIC OIL
175 grams (1 cup) mayonnaise
Salt and pepper