‘Cha-zuke’ (the ‘O’ is an honorific) literally means cooked rice served in brewed liquid tea. It is a rice dish in which hot water, hot brewed tea or hot flavored dashi stock (Japanese stock) is poured over cooked rice in a rice bowl. Cha-zuke was born out of necessity because in the past during hard times we did not to waste cooked rice. Also, the hot liquid helped to revive old and tired long-stored cooked rice. You may have enjoyed a variant of this dish, onigiri...
Read MoreAshirai Garnish and Grilled Fish in the Japanese Way
Have you noticed that when you order grilled fish at a Japanese restaurant that the fish is always served with some accompanying condiment: grated daikon and lemon (for oily fish such as mackerel and sardine), pickled turnip, pickled hajikami ginger (ginger with a red stem), pickled cucumber, pickled myoga ginger, sweet simmered broad bean, sweet simmered kumquat to name a few. These garnishes are called ‘ashirai’. All of them serve to refresh your palate while consuming...
Read MoreSawara Yuan-yaki
Sawara can be enjoyed in many preparations including Teri-yaki, shio-yaki (salt grilled), saikyo-miso yaki and yuan-yaki. All are variations on grilling. “yaki” means grill. Here is my favorite yuan-yaki recipe: For yuan marinade mix mirin, sake, usukuchi shoyu (light colored soy sauce), koikuchi shoyu (all-purpose soy sauce) in 1.5 : 0.5: 0.8: 0.1 proportions in a bowl. Add 2 slices of yuzu citrus fruit or lemon if yuzu is unavailable. Marinate the sawara pieces for 15 to...
Read MoreSpanish Mackerel, Sawara and Cooking Tips
You may have had sawara (Spanish mackerel) sashimi or sushi at a Japanese restaurant and remember its rich and sweet flavor. Sawara is a seasonal fish which is wild-caught during winter and early spring. The other day I had the chance to purchase a wild-caught in Florida, very fresh, 3 pound sawara at New York’s Citarella food market. Sawara in Japanese literally means ‘narrow body’. The long, slender, but round body allows this fish to be one of the fastest swimmers in the...
Read MoreSukiyaki is Our New Favorite
Here is the preparation of the always popular sukiyaki dish. As I have mentioned before, prepping nabemono dinner (in this case a sukiyaki dinner) in your kitchen is super quick and easy. It requires cutting of certain raw ingredients, and blanching (quick simmering) some ingredients as necessary. This sukiyaki recipe is Tokyo style. Sliced beef and vegetables are cooked in flavorful ‘warishita’ sauce. The vegetable, including shirataki noodles (made of konnyaku, taro root...
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