japanese

Yatsuhashi, Cinnamon sweets from Kyoto

maki — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:43:11 +0200

Just about anyone who takes a trip to the historical city of Kyoto goes home bearing a box of yatsuhashi　（八つ橋）, a small delicate sweet that is flavored with nikki or cinnamon. While I am not from Kyoto, I get a fit of nostalgia for yatsuhashi on occasion. Fortunately they aren’t that hard to make at home.

Yatsuhashi, which means ‘eight bridges’, come in two basic forms: nama or ‘raw’ yatsuhashi which are soft, and yaki yatsuhashi which are hard and cookie like. Nama yatsuhashi, pictured below, are soft, thin squares of cinnamon scented mochi (sticky rice) dough, folded into a triangle with a filling of sweet azuki bean paste (tsubuan).

Like other mochi-based sweets, yatsuhashi are totally gluten-free, so if you are gluten intolerant you might want to try these out. They also happen to be more or less fat free and vegan too. (They are definitely not sugar-free though!)

Really traditional yatushashi calls for nikki sui or cinnamon water, but ground cinnamon is much easier to get a hold of so that’s what I’ve used here. I have also used natural or raw cane sugar for additional flavor.

Some notes about this recipe

You might hate me for this if you are in the U.S., but as a departure from my usual practive I’m only giving you metric weight measurements here. Because so little of each ingredient is needed, accuracy is very important. Fortunately most modern scales can switch from metric to imperial measurements and vice versa, and a good scale is really a good thing to have if you do any kind of baking, not to mention portion control!_

I’ve given two dough recipes here. One uses mochiko or sweet/glutinous rice flour only. Mochiko or the Chinese equivalent which is usually labeled “glutinous rice flour” seems to be quite widely available at Asian grocery stores and health food stores. Most Japanese recipes for yatsuhashi call for a mixture of medium-grain rice flour (joushinko) and sweet rice flour, but when I used this mixture for mitarashi dango I got a lot of comments and emails that it was hard to get the joushinko. Note that the amount of water is a bit different when you use 100% mochiko vs. a mix of mochiko and joushinko.

Recipe: Nama Yatsuhashi

This amount of dough makes about 12 small yatsuhashi, or a batch of baked yatsuhashi. For maximum cinnamon flavor, make sure to use fresh cinnamon powder!

Dough - Mochiko or glutinous rice flour only version:

100g mochiko or glutinous rice flour
60g raw cane sugar or light brown sugar (in Japan use wasanontou （和三温糖）)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
85g (85cc) water

Dough - Mochiko and joushinko mixture version:

40g joushinko
60g mochiko
60g raw cane sugar or light brown sugar (in Japan use wasanontou （和三温糖）)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
95g (95cc) water

Other ingredients:

3 Tbs. kinako (ground toasted soybeans)
1 Tbs. ground cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling
3-4 Tbs. tsubuan or other filling (see notes below for suggestions). You can make your own tsubuan, or buy cans or bags at a Japanese grocery store.

Measure your ingredients accurately!

Mix the dry ingredients together well with chopsticks or a fork, add the water and mix very well. It will be rather loose and sludgy.

Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Take out and mix well again - most of the moisture would have been absorbed.

Put back in the microwave and cook on HIGH for 1 minute 30 seconds. Take out and mix again. At this stage it will form a rough ball and more or less clear the sides of the bowl.

Spread a large piece of heat-proof plastic wrap (like Saran Wrap) on your working surface, and turn the dough out on it.

Wrap the dough up in the plastic.

Knead the dough several times, using the plastic wrap as a heat barrier and to prevent sticking between you, the working surface and the dough. This kneading is very important to ensure the dough is smooth and pliable. You may have to open the plastic wrap and re-shift the dough a few times. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth and shiny.

The dough here is almost ready - it just needs a few more kneading turns to make it totally smooth.

Mix the 3 Tbs. of kinako and 1 Tbs. of cinnamon, and use this as the dusting ‘flour’ to roll out the dough as thinly as possible. It helps to use more plastic wrap to prevent sticking here. If you have trouble getting it thin enough, try dividing the dough and rolling out smaller pieces.

Cut the dough into 10 to 12 squares. Wet two sides, fill with about 1/2 tsp. of filling, fold up into a triangle and press hard to seal. I then like to coat them again in the kinako-cinnamon powder mix, and dust on extra cinnamon to serve, but this is optional.

Green tea is the perfect accompaniment to these.

Filling notes

If you can’t get or make tsubuan, you can try:

Sweet white bean paste
Nutella - this really fits!
Peanut butter mixed with a little sugar
Apricot jam

If filling the dough doesn’t work, you can just spread the filling of your choice on top of a flat piece and pop it in your mouth.

Baked yatsuhashi cookies

You can use the dough to make little cinnamon flavored cookies that are, of course, gluten and fat free.

Just cut the thinly rolled out dough into squares, or fancy shapes with cookie cutters.

Bake in a 170°C/335°F oven for 15 minutes, then turn the heat off and leave the cookies in there for an additional 15 minutes. The cookies may or may not puff up, but either way they will be very crispy. You can optionally sprinkle them with additional cinnamon or cinnamon sugar while still warm.

About Japanese ingredients and substitutions

maki — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:28:08 +0200

[Updated to add Substitution section.]

I haven’t exactly counted it up, but of the thousands of comments left on Just Hungry, not to mention Just Bento, probably at least a quarter are questions about ingredients or ingredient substitutions. So I thought I might put down what my criteria are for what kind of ingredients I choose to feature in the recipes on either site, especially when it comes to Japanese recipes. [Update added on August 15th, 2008]: I’ve also added some suggested, and acceptable, substitutions.

Can I get a hold of it?

In case you didn’t know, at the moment I live in a country with a fairly miniscule Japanese expat or immigrant population (the last I heard there were less than 2000 Japanese people living in the Zürich area). There is only one real Japanese grocery store near me, and it is quite small with a limited selection of products. There’s also an equally small (though slightly better stocked) Korean grocery store, and a couple of Chinese grocery stores. (See Where I shope for Japanese/Asian ingredients in Zürich.) I supplement what I can get locally by placing an order with Japan Centre a few times a year.

My point is, that what I can get is fairly limited compared to many people, though more generous than others. So by sticking to what I can get here, I think that I’m in a good middle ground for people trying to cook anything Japanese. If you live in a region (e.g. most of California, New York City, or Hawaii) with big Japanese expat/immigrant populations, you have a much bigger selection available to you than I do!

(My mom also sends me things from Japan periodically, but I do not include the more exotic things in the recipes here, though I might mention then in passing.)

Is it available by mailorder?

I also periodically check to see if certain ingredients are available online. Some online merchants don’t have very comprehensive listings on their web sites, but by emailing them they can tell you if they have something in stock.

Where to look for Japanese ingredients

In order of the likelihood of finding Japanese ingredients:

Japanese grocery stores, including online stores. This is obvious. Please consult the Worldwide Japanese grocery store list for your area, and go to your nearest store to see what they have! That’s the best way to get acquainted with unfamiliar ingredients.
Korean grocery stores. A lot of Japanese ingredients are used in Korean cooking.
Chinese grocery stores and general Asian grocery stores. Chinese grocery stores tend to stock less Japanese ingredients than Korean grocery stores, but you can still find a lot of things.
Health food stores, including online stores. Many dry and/or vegan ingredients, such as rice flour, kuzu powder, agar-agar, miso and so on can be found at health food stores.
South East Asian grocery stores (Thai, etc.) These stores don’t stock Japanese ingredients per se, but some of the fresh product and things can be used.
South Asian grocery stores (Indian, Sri Lankan, etc.) These can be a surprisingly good source for ‘exotic’ vegetables and such that are used in Japanese cooking.

Is it a widely used ingredient in Japanese cooking?

In general, I try to stay away from any ingredient that might be considered to be too regional or esoteric in Japan, and stick to ingredients that are likely to be in any Japanese kitchen.

Is the recipe something that is normally made in Japan?

When I do traditional Japanese recipes here, I try to stick to ones that are commonly made in Japanese homes (vs. something exotic, regional or so complicated it’s only available in restaurants).

The exception to this rule is when I try to make something that is readily available in Japan, but not necessarily elsewhere. An example of this is really fresh tofu. The hard work required is worth it for the results.

Ingredient substitutions

In certain cases, you can make substitutions without a problem. I try to include substitution recommendations whenever possible, or when I am fairly sure it would work. For instance, many Japanese recipes call for katokuriko （片栗粉）which is a flour made from potato starch, but this is hard to get outside of Japan in most places. Cornstarch (or cornflour) has a very similar texture and performs the same function, so that is an easy substitute. Using honey or syrup instead of maple syrup will change the flavor a bit but also works.

In some cases though there is no substitution. If you are making kuzumochi, you really can’t use anything other than kuzu powder if you want the same texture.

Sometimes you just need to try out a substitution to see if it works. For instance, when I call for a specific rice flour like shiratama-ko or joushinko, but you can’t get it, try substituting a rice flour you can get and see how it goes. (I ‘ve made rice dumplings with red rice flour from Sri Lanka, and it turned out fairly well.) The worst that can happen is that you end up with an inedible dish that you have to throw away, but that’s not the end of the world. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes!

Some acceptable substitutions

[This section added on August 15, 2008]

Mirin and sake. I think more people ask about substitutes for these two ingredients than anything else put together. Both are alcoholic beverages (though mirin is never drunk and is only used in cooking). Mirin is stronger and sweeter than sake. Sake can be used as a substitute for mirin (with an added pinch of sugar), and vice versa. If you cannot get a hold of either, you can use sweet sherry or Chinese shiaoxing wine. If you cannot use alcohol for religious or other reasons, even though most of the alcohol will evaporate after cooking, just leave it out - it will affec the flavor but there’s no reasonable non-alcoholic substitute that I can think of. See also: The role of alcohol, onion and garlic in Japanese meat dishes (also applies to fish dishes in many cases)
Japanese-style or sushi rice. Keep in mind that ‘sushi rice’ is a name given by non-Japanese sellers to Japanese style or japonica medium grain rice. Medium-grain Italian rices that are used for risotto, such as vialone and arborio, are acceptable substitutes for Japanese rice; long grain rices including basmati and jasmine rice are not.
Dashi stock. Japanese stock is usually made from kombu seaweed, dried bonito flakes (katsuobushi), dried fish called niboshi, or a combination of all or two of these. (See basic dashi recipe.) You may find it difficult to find these ingredients, or they may be too expensive. Powdered or granular dashi stock is similar to stock cubes, and can be used instead of made-from-scratch dashi; keep in mind that dashi granules are saltier and often contain MSG. See also vegan dashi stock made with dried shiitake mushrooms and kombu seaweed. If you can’t get a hold of any of these, you can use a basic vegetable stock instead - it won’t taste that Japanese but it’s better than plain water at least!
Miso and soy sauce. There are no substitutes for these. As to whether you should stick to Japanese soy sauce or use other kinds - I do believe that Japanese soy sauce tastes quite different from, say, Chinese soy sauce, but your palate may not be able to detect a big difference. Kikkoman is the most famous Japanese brand, and is available worldwide.
Japanese tonkatsu sauce or okonomiyaki sauce, or “bulldog” sauce. Bulldog is the brand name of a popular line of barbeque-type sauces that are used in a lot of dishes, from panfried noodles (yakisoba) to deep fried pork cutlets (tonkatsu) , okonomiyaki, takoyaki and more. If you’re in the U.S., you can use A-1 Steak Sauce, maybe tempered with a little added sugar and/or ketchup. Elsewhere, you can use Worcestershire sauce for the flavor if not the texture.
Rice vinegar. White balsamic vinegar is the best substitute, but that’s rather more exotic I think than rice vinegar! You can use also use a mild white wine vinegar instead, with a pinch of sugar to mellow it out.

In the vast majority of recipes here on Just Hungry as well as on Just Bento, I try to stick to these flavoring ingredients, plus universal ones like salt, pepper and sugar, so hopefully you won’t run into too many problems around here at least.

Are there any other ingredients you’d like to know possible substitions for? Let me know in the comments.

New potatoes with sweet-spicy miso

maki — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:29:14 +0200

Here is another great way to enjoy new potatoes. It’s almost as simple to make as new potatoes with soy sauce and butter, though it uses a few more ingredients. Boiled whole new potatoes are panfried in a little sesame oil, then coated in a sticky sweet-salty-spicy miso sauce. The strong flavors of the miso sauce really go well with the blandness of the potatoes.

Recipe: New potatoes with sweet-spicy miso

About 500g / 1 lb tiny organic new potatoes, washed and unpeeled
1 Tbs. sesame oil
2 Tbs. miso, preferably red miso, but any miso will do
1 Tbs. kochujang (Spicy Korean bean paste, available at Korean or Japanese markets)
3 Tbs. raw cane sugar or light brown sugar (or if you have neither, regular white sugar will do)
1 large garlic clove, grated
1 piece (about twice the size of the garlic clove) fresh ginger, grated
Chopped green onions for garnish

Boil the potatoes in their skins until they are tender (if you poke one with a knife point or skewer, it goes through easily).

Heat up a large frying pan. Heat up the sesame oil. Add the potatoes, and pan-fry them until they turn brown and crispy.

In the meantime, combine the miso, kochujang, sugar, grated garlic and ginger in a bowl with enough water to make it into a smooth, loose paste, about the consistency of ketchup. (I use a microplane to grate the garlic and ginger.)

Add the paste to the hot pan and toss the potatoes around rapidly to coat them well. The water will evaporate and the sauce will turn very sticky. Take off the the heat before the miso burns.

Serve sprinkled with lots of chopped green onions.

This is a very rich and strongly flavored dish, almost a meal unto itself. In Japan it would be a side dish, eaten with rice and soup and a couple more dishes such as grilled fish or meat plus pickles or salad, etc. You could serve these as a side dish as part of a Western style meal. It’s a great vegan dish - you could add some pan-fried tofu or seitan or something to go with it.

It’s also very nice in bento, but I do prefer it when it’s still hot from the pan.

For a non-spicy version, omit the kochujang and increase the miso to 3 tablespoons. This non-spicy version would be more traditionally Japanese, but I like a bit of heat to cut through the sweetness.

Corn on the cob with butter and soy sauce

maki — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:32:50 +0200

I have to admit that I’ve been quite taken aback by how popular the new potatoes with butter and soy sauce recipe has been. Butter and soy sauce are so familiar to me as a tasty combination that I hadn’t quite realized that it would be new and exciting to a lot of people.

Anyway, here’s another extremely simple yet delicious way of using this magic combination on another summer vegetable - sweet corn. Here in Europe, eating corn on the cob is a relatively new custom imported from the U.S. - corn around here is either dried and ground up (as polenta and so on), or used as animal feed. So it’s not always possible to buy great, very fresh sweet corn. This treatment can perk up even an ordinary supermarket-bought corn on the cob, and will really shine with corn that you’ve just picked from your own garden.

Corn on the cob with butter and soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 360°F.

Unhusk and de-silk the corn.

For every ear of corn, use about 1 to 2 Tbs. of unsalted butter. Soften the butter, and smear it all over the corn, so that it goes into all the crevices.

Wrap each ear of corn in a large piece of kitchen parchment paper (aluminum foil will work too), twisted each end tightly as if you were wrapping up a big piece of candy. Place the wrapped corn on a baking sheet. Make a small opening in one seam and pour in about 2-3 tsp. or so of soy sauce, and roll the corn around a bit to distribute the soy sauce.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn over. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes.

Serve each ear of corn on a big plate, wrapper and all. Each person opens up the paper to eat the corn. Here’s how a wrapped one looks next to a partially unwrapped one.

The butter will have penetrated into the corn kernels, while the soy sauce adds a great salty-yummy flavor. (You can dip the corn as you eat it in any residual soy sauce in the paper.)

Quick tip: Making the most of wasabi powder

maki — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:20:23 +0200

Please forgive the lack of photos - in the middle of packing, I’ve somehow misplaced my camera. I’m sure it will come out soon, but in the meantime here is a handy tip for bring out the best flavor in wasabi powder.

In an ideal world, I’d love to use fresh wasabi all the time. Unfortunately it’s just about impossible to get fresh wasabi root here in Switzerland, and even in Japan it’s pretty expensive. So, like other people I made do with wasabi powder most of the time and reserve my precious hoard of froen fresh root for special occasions.

My stepfather (who lives in Yokohama) loves sashimi, and has it for dinner every other day at least. Even when he lived in New York, he liked to indulge in sashimi. He used wasabi powder most of the time too, but had a trick to bring out the flavor in it that he has learned from an old itamae-san (sushi chef):

In a small bowl, reconstitute the powder with enough water so that it forms a very thick, not watery, paste.
Invert the bowl on a plate or on the tabletop. Leave it like that for at least 10 minutes, preferably about half an hour.

I’m not sure how or why, but when you make reconstituted wasabi that way it has a lot more flavor. This works well with reconstituted mustard powder too, so I suspect it has something to do with the mustard-flavor being trapped and getting concentrated, or something.

So if you like wasabi, give this trick a try!

Steamed eggplants (aubergines) with spicy peanut sauce

maki — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:44:48 +0200

[From the archives: This eggplant/aubergine dish is really nice served cold, though it can be served warm too. It doesn’t heat up the kitchen since it’s made in the microwave (yes, the microwave, and it works great!) so it’s great to make on a steamy hot summer evening, with in-season eggplant. Originally published July 2007.]

Here is another summer dish. I love eggplants (aubergines), but cooking them without using a lot of oil can be a bit tricky. I read about this method of steam-cooking eggplants in the microwave in a Japanese magazine some time ago, and ever since it’s one of my favorite ways of preparing these rather spongy vegetables - they’re done in just 5 minutes without heating up the kitchen, which is hard to beat on a hot summer’s day. The whole dish takes less than 10 minutes to prepare.

Here they are served cold with a spicy peanut sauce, which makes it a very nice vegetarian/vegan main dish. Serve with rice or cold noodles.

Microwave-steamed eggplants (aubergines) with spicy peanut sauce

This makes two servings as a side dish, or one main vegan dish.

4 slim Asian style eggplants (aubergines)
2 Tbs. chunky style peanut butter (or more if you want it very peanutty)
1 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. mirin
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. red chili paste (Korean chili paste, or Harisa. If you don’t have chili paste you can add some dry chili powder)

Peel the eggplants with a vegetable peeler. Take off the tops. Wrap each one loosely in microwave-safe plastic wrap and place in a circular pattern around the edges of a round plate. Place the plate in the microwave on the rotating plate and microwave on high for about 5 minutes. (If you don’t have a rotating plate in your microwave, nuke on high for 2 1/2 minutes, then turn the plate about halfway and nuke for an additional 2 1/2 minutes.)

In the meantime, mix together the rest of the ingredients in a small pan; bring to a simmer to dissolve the sugar and amalgamate everything, then let cool. Make ready a large bowl of cold water.

Once the eggplants are soft, carefully drop them, plastic and all, into the bowl of cold water so they rapidly cool. Take them out of the water and take off the plastic; drain the eggplants if necessary.

Cut them on the diagonal into bitesize pieces and arrange them on a plate with some green garnish (here I’ve used shiso leaves). If you’ve made them in advance, chill in the refrigerator until it’s time to eat.

To serve, spoon the peanut sauce over the eggplant. Mix well with the sauce to eat.

Notes

The microwave steaming method works best with slim Asian style eggplants, but you can use the big Western style ones too - just cut them up into large cubes, and adjust the microwaving time.
The eggplants are peeled because the skins turn rather dark and grey-looking when steamed like this. The peel can be used in another dish if you want to be frugal.

Chilled wintermelon and shrimp soup

maki — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:12:31 +0200

These days, the house generally looks like a warzone because of the packing, and I am not in the mood for involved cooking. So I’m making very simple bentos, and mostly one-dish/one-pot type of things for dinner. A great one-pot meal is soup of course, but it is also summer, when we aren’t always in the mood for a steaming hot bowlful.

The answer is chilled soup that can be made ahead and just taken out at dinnertime. This one is really easy to make too, which is a big plus. Winter melon has a inherently cooling quality according to old (Chinese) medicine, so this is really nice to have on a warm evening.

A bit about wintermelon

The name wintermelon (in Japanese tougan 冬瓜) is a little misleading, because it may seem that it’s a melon that is only in season in winter. It actually ripens in hot weather in temperate zones (it can be grown year round in hotter areas), but the hard, waxy outer skin allows it to be kept in a cool place for a long time, so that it can be eaten in the winter months. I think it’s most suitable for eating in the warm months, because it’s watery and very subtle in flavor, with a crisp texture that is retained even after cooking (though cooking it for a very long time will make it soft).

Winter melon has a pale green, shiny smooth skin, and is quite big. (Be sure it’s smooth skinned - the dark green crinkly ones you may see sold nearby are bitter melon (also called goya, in Japanese nigauri にが瓜) and are treated quite differently.) You see them anywhere from around 10-15 cm / 4-6 inches in diameter on up. If you buy a whole one, you can keep it in a cool cellar until you decide to use it. You can also buy cut portions, which may be a more convenient for a small family or if you don’t want to commit to one huge fruit.

When you cut into it, it looks like this.

The inner part with the seeds is fluffy and inedible (like the innards of a pumpkin, to which it is related), so you need to scoop it out. The skin is really quite tough, so be careful when peeling it.

In Japanese cooking, winter melon is usually cut into bite size squares and parboiled for about 10 minutes in plain water, before being stewed, used in soups, stir-fried, and so on.

Recipe: Chilled wintermelon and shrimp soup

2 cups of parboiled wintermelon cubes
5 cups dashi stock, vegan dashi stock or chicken stock (yes you can use water and granules or a stock cube - I do myself when I’m in a hurry)
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. mirin or sherry
1 Tbs. kurosu (black vinegar) or balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. fresh ginger juice (grate some fresh ginger and squeeze out the juice)
200 g / about 7 oz. fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined
Salt
Green garnish (here I have used edamame and green onion tops from the garden)

If you haven’t already, peel, de-seed and cut up the wintermelon into cubes about 1 inch / 2 cm big. Put them in a pot of water, bring up to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes. Drain.

Put the wintermelon in a pot with the dashi, soy sauce and mirin. Bring up to a boil, then simmer slowly for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, peel and devein the shrimp, and cup up into chunks (or use small shrimp). Add the shrimp to the soup. Simmer a couple of minutes, and add the ginger juice and vinegar. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Take the pot off the heat, and transfer the contents to a bowl or other refrigerator-appropriate container. Let cool down to room temperature cover tightly with plastic film or a lid and chill until ice cold. (You can put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes before serving to make sure it’s really cold.)

Serve garnished with some edamame, green onions, etc. on top.

The soup keeps in the refrigerator for a couple of days. To make it a complete one-bowl meal, add some cooked and well rinsed somen or soba noodles, a bit more soy sauce, and a lot of green onions on top.

Vegan version

Use a vegetable stock or vegan dashi stock, and blanched (boiling water poured over and drained) tofu cubes instead of the shrimp. You may need to add a bit more soy sauce to compensate for the blandness of the tofu.

Other variations

Try cut up chicken breast instead of the shrimp
Add some cut up tomatoes and a bit more vinegar
Scoop out the wintermelon and shrimp, thicken about 1 cup of the soup with 1-2 Tbs. cornstarch, and pour over as a sauce. This is called ankake.
Gelify the soup with gelatin or agar-agar for an interesting savory jelly

In Shojo Beat Magazine

maki — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:13:07 +0200

I was interviewed recently for Shojo Beat Magazine, an English magazine published in the U.S. dedicated to shojo manga (manga for girls), and the results of whatever I said are in the most recent issue. Unfortunately the articles isn’t online, so I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but the whole issue is dedicated to Japanese food and manga - sounds like fun!

Update: Here is the link to the article (an excerpt I think). (Thanks heatherbug!)

Incidentally, I am periodically asked 1. if I read manga, and 2. what manga I like. The answers are 1. yes, sometimes, and 2. I’m a bit of a classicist (or you could say, jidai okure or ‘behind the times’ old fogie). I am not fond of most recent manga really, though if I were pushed to name some I did like I guess Nodame Cantabile is pretty good - the idea of a whole manga series based on a love of classical music is just awesome. It does bug me a bit that the heroine is some sort of idiot savant, who is frequently (and willingly?) thrown and bashed about to get sense into her! Karekano (or kare to kanojo no jijou) went from awesome and funny to more serious then WTF to a sort-of-satisfying ending (I have the whole manga series).

My favorite manga are from a select group of authors who are considered to be masters of the shojo manga genre. No. 1 by far for me is Moto Hagio (萩尾望都), who writes everything from fantasy/SF to extremely gritty drama to sweet romances. No. 2 is Yumiko Ohshima (大島弓子）, who writes almost ethereal, delicate manga with a bite. (Many of her most popular works feature cats.) No. 3 is probably Ryoko Yamagishi (山岸涼子; her forté is ballet drama manga, but she’s also written historical dramas and more. All three of these authors (all women) made their debuts in the　late 1960s to early 1970s, and are still turning out top notch manga. If you want to know more about them, American manga scholar Matt Thorn has written extensively about them, especially Moto Hagio, with whom he conducted an extensive interview.

Early on in her career, Moto Hagio wrote a sort of novella-length manga called “Cake Cake Cake” (ケーキ　ケーキ　ケーキ). It was about a girl who had no special talents to speak of, not even cooking, but loved sweets and cakes more than anything in the world, and could turn out terrific pancakes. Her love of cakes leads her to Paris, where she becomes the apprentice of a downtrodden patissier. I read this manga when I was about 10, and while it’s not the best work by the author by any measure, it’s one of my favorites because it’s so full of life. I think it even started me on the road to somehow end up living in Europe as an adult!

Full Japanese Breakfast, slightly scaled down

maki — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:22:21 +0200

Recently, a reader asked in the comments about what I have for breakfast. It is definitely not as elaborate as this one.

This is a typical breakfast that is served at a traditional inn (ryokan) in Japan. (You can also get it at Western style hotels in Japan too, if your knees are not up to sitting on the floor to eat.) It is either served in your room, or at a large communal dining table.

The star of the show is a fresh, whole fish (more desirable in Japan than a piece of fish) - an aji or horse mackerel in this case - grilled and served with a little grated daikon radish and soy sauce. There’s also a packet of flavored nori seaweed, which is used to wrap little morsels of rice.

There’s also an onsen tamago, a soft poached egg where the white is soft set and the yolk is harder set, served in a sauce.

There’s also a couple of slices of kamaboko (a fish paste product, sort of like a firm sausage in consistency), a small container of natto, and a hot bowl of miso soup with tofu and wakame seaweed. (Often you will get some pickled vegetables instead of kamaboko.)

Just in case you were wondering, this is a miniature. You can see the scale here compared to my fingers, as I lift up the lid that keeps the rice warm in the bowl.

It’s one of the sets in the Mankitsu Washoku Dokoro series from Re-ment (previously). This series celebrates traditional Japanese cooking (washoku) in its many forms, and a breakfast like this is certainly a great part of that.

Do Japanese people eat like this all the time though? Not really. As you can imagine, it takes some time to assemble a spread like this. So people look forward to a breakfast like this when they go to an inn, more often than not at a hot springs (onsen). At home, you might have an abbreviated version of this breakfast, perhaps with the rice, miso soup and one or two other items (a fried egg and some pickled vegetables perhaps). But more often than not a breakfast in Japan is likely to be toast, eggs and fruit or something. (Cereal is also eaten, but is not that popular.)

I guess you could call the breakfast spread a Full Japanese, akin to a Full English (breakfast) with eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, baked beans, and so on. I occasionally get a craving for a Full English too! But I really look forward to my next trip back home to Japan to enjoy a Full Japanese at an hot springs inn.

Tamago dofu: Cold savory egg custard

maki — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:17:35 +0200

Previously, I explained how some dishes that are not tofu are called -tofu, because of the shape, texture or both. This is the case with tamago dofu　（卵豆腐） , a smooth savory egg custard that’s served cold.

You can make it in a square mold, to make it look tofu-like. But I prefer to keep it a lot simpler by cooking the tamago dofu in the serving container it will be served in. This can be anything as long as it’s heat-proof. Here I have used some sturdy glass cups made of pressed glass, but I’ve also used little pudding molds, tiny glass bowls made for holding ingredients while you’re cooking, and even coffee cups.

There are very few ingredients in a tamago dofu: dashi or soup stock, eggs, and a few flavorings. Because of this, each component should be of top quality, because you’ll taste each one quite clearly. Traditionally the soup component is dashi, but I don’t really like the fish flavor of dashi when it’s cold. So I prefer to make a simple vegetable stock instead.

Tamago dofu should be served ice cold. It’s a great appetizer for a summer meal, or an interesting and soothing snack. I have been guilty of making 4 cups and ‘hiding’ them so I can eat them all by myself.

Recipe: Tamago dofu in a cup

Makes 4 servings of about 3/4 cups each

For the vegetable stock:

1 medium onion
1 celery stalk
1 small fennel bulb
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
1 bay leaf
1 piece of fresh ginger, about 1 inch / 2 cm square
1 piece of kombu seaweed about 15-20 cm / 6-7 inches long

Chop up the vegetables roughly. Put everything in a pot, and add enough cold water to cover. Bring up to a boil them simmer slowly for about 20 minutes. Strain out the vegetables. (This makes more stock than you will need for the recipe; use the rest in a soup, stew, etc.)

For the tamago dofu:

4 ‘large’ eggs
2 cups / 440 ml vegetable stock or dashi
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1 tsp. salt
grated fresh ginger
parsley leaves for garnish

Equipment needed:

4 heat-proof molds or cups or glasses
a fine meshed sieve, or a tea strainer
a large pan or pot with a tight fitting lid
plastic wrap
a kettle or something to boil water

Boil some water in a kettle while you assemble the tamago dofu. (I use an electric kettle.) You’ll need enough boiling water to come up at least halfway up the cups or molds you’ll be using when placed in the large pan.

Mix the soy sauce and salt into the stock. Taste and add a little more salt if needed (remember when it’s cool the flavors will dissipate a bit).

Beat the eggs with a fork or chopsticks, trying not to make it too foamy. Add 330 ml / 1 1/2 cups of the soup stock to the eggs, and mix thoroughly.

Strain the egg mixture through a fine meshed sieve. This smooths out the texture by getting rid of the bubbles and any bits of unincorporated egg white. You can skip this step if you can’t be bothered - it won’t affect the flavor, though the texture may not be as velvety smooth.

Pour the mixture slowly (so you don’t make any bubbles) into the 4 containers. Cover each with plastic wrap, then punch a few holes in the plastic with a skewer or knife tip. (The plastic prevents water drops from falling into the egg custard, and the holes allow excess steam to escape).

Put the containers into the large pan. Very carefully (don’t splash the water into the custard) pour boiling water into the pan so that the water comes at least halfway up the sides of the containers. Cover the pot with the tight fitting lid. Leave it there for 15 minutes.

At the end, the custard should be fairly firm and the color will have turned pale. It will still be wobbly. Very carefully remove the cups from the pot, take off the plastic film covers and slowly pour the rest of the stock evenly over the top of the custard. This prevents the surface from forming a film. Leave to cool to room temperature, then re-cover each cup with fresh plastic film and cool in the refrigerator until ice cold.

You can make this up to a day in advance. Serve with a little grated ginger and a parsley leaf garnish on top.

Notes

Normally tamago dofu is cooked in a steamer, or steam-cooled in a simmering water bath. Some people also make it in the microwave. For me, using any of these methods makes custard all bubbly and spongy instead of smooth. By leaving it in boiling water as specified the custard cooks all the way through but remains silky smooth. However, this method only works if you’re making individual portions as I am here - if you make a large square of tamago dofu, you will need to add heat.

If you serve this hot with some added ingredients like shrimp, ginko nut, etc. in it and serve it piping hot, it becomes chawanmushi, a classic winter dish.

(Sidenote: Sorry I took an unintended week off from blogging! What with a cold and being buried in boxes all of last week, I totally lost my appetite and my foodblogging mojo. Fortunately both seem to have returned somewhat. The cold is almost gone, though the boxes are multiplying like bunnies.)

japanese

Yatsuhashi, Cinnamon sweets from Kyoto

Some notes about this recipe

Recipe: Nama Yatsuhashi

Filling notes

Baked yatsuhashi cookies

About Japanese ingredients and substitutions

Can I get a hold of it?

Is it available by mailorder?

Where to look for Japanese ingredients

Is it a widely used ingredient in Japanese cooking?

Is the recipe something that is normally made in Japan?

Ingredient substitutions

Some acceptable substitutions

See also

New potatoes with sweet-spicy miso

Recipe: New potatoes with sweet-spicy miso

Corn on the cob with butter and soy sauce

Corn on the cob with butter and soy sauce

Quick tip: Making the most of wasabi powder

Steamed eggplants (aubergines) with spicy peanut sauce

Microwave-steamed eggplants (aubergines) with spicy peanut sauce

Notes

Chilled wintermelon and shrimp soup

A bit about wintermelon

Recipe: Chilled wintermelon and shrimp soup

Vegan version

Other variations

In Shojo Beat Magazine

Full Japanese Breakfast, slightly scaled down

Tamago dofu: Cold savory egg custard

Recipe: Tamago dofu in a cup

Notes

See also