147 replies to this topic

[Swisskaese]

Your dinner and the mochi look very good. I thought the oak leaf was fake. What else do you make with the oak leaves? Is it used in a similar way as we use grape vine leaves here?

[Abra]

I'd be willing to take exams if I could have some of those mochi!

I'm puzzling over the sugar in the sukiyaki. Can you estimate how much sugar you ended up using?

[marlena spieler]

Helen, do you get artichokes in Japan?

How much do they cost and what kinds? do you use them in any japanese-y way? tempura is the obvious choice. what about with udon? or.......?

In California artichokes are a dime a dozen (well, close to it). In the UK at my local Waitrose they can cost up to L3.50 gb pounds each (about 6 usa dollars). in greece they cost virtually nothing, and in france very reasonable.

In new york city they can cost 2-3 dollars. when i visit my daughter in new york via california you can bet i travel with a suitcase full of artichokes. Trader Joes sells the hearts for 1.99 a big box! sometimes i overwhelm her with chokes and then poor thing, she has to cook, cook, cook to get rid of the glut of artichokes! even so, i know she loves them so!

Marlena

[Hiroyuki]

Some of the foodstuffs you showed in your photos are quality ones, such as tokusen (choice) soy sauce, mutenka (additive-free) shinshu miso, and sake made from rice only. Do you use such quality foodstuffs regularly? How about mirin? Do you use real mirin for every recipe that calls for 'mirin'?
As for me, I'm getting more and more indifferent to additive-free, organic, and other healthy products, now that my children are bigger (still 9 and 6, though). Don't blame me just because I use fake mirin for every purpose. I have to support my family on my meager income!

[helenjp]

Abra: my grill pan is about 45cm x 32cm and I think we probably cooked 2 pansful of meat and vegetables.

I think I probably used a total half cup of sugar - could have used a little more without being unusual. Probably used close to a cup of soy sauce. That's 100ml and 200ml by volume respectively. It works out that I sprinkled about a tablespoon of sugar on each onion, and maybe 2-3 tablespoons on 500g of thin-cut meat.

Artichokes---I think I've only once or twice seen a fresh artichoke on sale in Japan - ONE withered artichoke in a bag, with a big price-tag. So I didn't bother! They are not common in NZ either. My grandmother had one or two growing in the orchard. She tried cooking one once, decided it was a waste of a nice flower, and after that, we just enjoyed watching them grow!

NZ is SO strict on any kind of plant and animal product that traveling there with a suitcase of anything that used to be alive is a headache. I rarely risk anything more than commercially packaged snacks and sweets.

Hiroyuki, I probably save money on ingredients and spend money on condiments, because the cost per meal is small, but the effect on taste is noticeable. However, some of those products were better quality than I usually buy. For example, I buy good quality mirin for New Year cooking...I use mirin instead of sugar in many cases, so I can't afford to buy best-quality mirin every day, of course.

As for the soy sauce...I ran out of soy sauce on New Year's Eve, and there was only really bad quality and really good quality soy sauce at the convenience store!

I do look for miso and sake without additives. However, I think that avoiding instant ramen probably has more impact on health than using cheap sake for cooking! Since I flavor things somewhat lightly, and also don't cook Japanese food for every meal, maybe I use less miso/sake/soy sauce/mirin in a month than the average Japanese household - I'm not sure.

I'm somewhat allergic to soy beans, so I do buy miso and soy sauce that has really been fermented, as it seems to be mostly non-fermented soybeans that cause itchy rashes etc.

[helenjp]

P.S. I realized years ago that my Japanese cooking skills were all from NHK "Kyou no Ryouri" magazine or books by stern-looking reputable chefs (not tarento ones)...that's no way to cook the daily dinner on a budget, so I started buying Orange Page and asking my friends about what really went on in their kitchens. That way I learned to stop cooking subuta (sweet and sour pork) according to Mr. Famous Chinese Restaurant Owner, and make it with ketchup like everybody else .

[helenjp]

I forgot to talk about the actual food!

We had our usual toast and yogurt this morning. Today is the last day of the boys' New Year holiday, so we are trying to get back on schedule in the mornings.

In my efforts to stop the boys catching colds, I haven't been able to prevent myself from coming down with a 100% first-class, nose-streaming cold, so I started the day with a big cup of "Gingerbread Spice" tea with several slices of ginger in it.

For lunch, we had sukiyaki-donburi -- added a few more maitake and some seri greens, plus a handful of soaked beanthread vermicelli, heated it all through in a frypan, then gently poured over some lightly beaten eggs. It's best not to use a lid, as they can overcook, but wriggling a spatula around here and there will allow some of the raw egg to flow down to the bottom. The top should still be a little wet and runny. Here's son1's serving - doesn't look as if there was any meat left over!


BOTAMOCHI
I saved a little of the warm rice, pounded it a little bit in a bowl with a half teaspoon of sugar till it was a coherent mass, then formed small rolls.
I spread some wrap on my hand, sprinkled a tiny amount of salt on it, and spread a thinnish layer off tsubu-an. I folded that round the rice, adding a patch if necessary, and shaped the bota-mochi. Using cold beanjam is a key point - useless to try it with soft, warm freshly-made beanjam.


"ohagi" is the polite term, "bota-mochi" is a more homely term. It's easy to see why this is a granny's treat - stuffing mochi with beanjam takes only a little, but covering a rice ball with it uses a generous amount.

Finally, once lunch was cleared away, the inevitable occurred - we cleared the kotatsu so that the boys could do their New Year calligraphy homework. 175cm-tall son1's legs are included for scale (he wasn't using them, anyway - spent all morning in the kotatsu!). The square in the middle of the frame has a simple enclosed heating unit on the underside, and a thermostat dial on the front. The cord is passed through a couple of hooks so that it doesn't get pulled out by feet, and at the far right of the picture is a grey lump - that's the on-off control.
Blankets and quilts go over this frame, then the table top leaning against the wall is lowered on top. The tabletop is not fastened to the frame anywhere, though in summer when the quilts are removed, some tables have a shallow peg/hole arrangement.

Here's son1 doing his calligraphy...behind him is the MESS on the dining table (at the opposite end of our dining-kitchen from the counter and sink) - the stuff on the floor is mostly my work .
The dining table is surrounded by ill-fitting windows - it's cold in winter, and in summer, it's too hot as it faces south - so we lost a dining table and gained a beautiful kitchen storage area...


Dinner will be our last blogged meal - what shall we have, I wonder?

Edited by helenjp, 08 January 2006 - 10:31 PM.

[Hiroyuki]

P.S. I realized years ago that my Japanese cooking skills were all from NHK "Kyou no Ryouri" magazine or books by stern-looking reputable chefs (not tarento ones)...that's no way to cook  the daily dinner on a budget, so I started buying Orange Page and asking my friends about what really went on in their kitchens. That way I learned to stop cooking subuta (sweet and sour pork) according to Mr. Famous Chinese Restaurant Owner, and make it with ketchup like everybody else .

I thought about commenting on how elaborate your 7-herb congee recipe was, but that would be insulting to a serious cook like you, so I didn't. I just boiled all the herbs in boiling water and some salt for a few minutes before cutting and putting them in the congee. I even found a recipe that says to finely cut the herbs and put them in the congee five minutes before turning off the heat.

[helenjp]

finely cut the herbs and put them in the congee five minutes before turning off the heat.

That's about what I do - I salt and squeeze them a bit, which takes the edge off any bitterness, and keeps them a nice color, but 7-herb congee is certainly not hard work.

P.S. I'm never insulted by hearing about easy ways to do things - my artichoke-gazing grandmother used to say "Laziness is no good unless it's properly carried out!", which seemed to mean that it was worth using your brains to save your hands.

Edited by helenjp, 08 January 2006 - 10:25 PM.

[IrishCream]

Thanks so much for this blog! I have learned alot...and realized how little I really know about Japanese cooking. I guess I'll be spending more time on the Japan forum.

[prasantrin]

Abra, I forgot to say that quinces here are different from European ones - they don't mellow when cooked. They are therefore usually steeped in alcohol or honey and used as a cough medicine in hot water.

Crap! I didn't know that! We have a lot of Japanese quince trees on campus, and I had planned to one day make some quince jam or something like that. But now I know I can't!

Now that is why these blogs are so great! You learn at least one thing (most often many things) new with each one!

And after seeing your pictures, I now have all the ingredients I need for sukiyaki, and my rice is cooked. Time for dinner!

[Swisskaese]

Thanks Helen for bringing us into your kitchen. I learned a lot about everyday Japanese cooking.

[Chufi]

That looks so good! Almost even better than the original sukiyaki!

[fou de Bassan]

helen,
Thanks for the photos, the explanations and the miracles you turn out of your kitchen! (Un)fortunately my son has seen these photos and we are going to try our hand at bean jam making Can we use a food mill with the fine blade?
I understand your table now! I think I might grow attached if we had one here, literally.
Thanks again for blogging

[marlena spieler]

I feel very moved watching Son 1 do his caligraphy!

we don't have the same connections to our culture in the us/uk any longer, or did we ever have such a connection to an artform such as caligraphy?

marlena

[helenjp]

Another dinner made by my husband - my little cold turned into a high fever with aches and shakes. So much for healthy eating!

He made miso soup with wakame (using the Shinshu miso in the bean jam photos), rice, lamb stirfried with vegetables, and ate it with natto (the white packets), Chinese cabbage pickle bought from the sweet potato man who appears upthread, and some takuan and nara-zuke, bettara-zuke pickles on the far right.

It's been great fun, and a challenge doing things (like making koshi-an) that I haven't done for years. Thanks for bearing with me.

Fou de Bassan, I'd go for the tsubu-an rather than the koshi-an - much tastier and easier. I have tried it with a food processor - . It ends up being full of gritty scraps of beanskin - total failure. I think you could do it with the rub-through type of mouli food mill and then press through a sieve though - it may seem like a waste of effort to sieve twice, but it's hard, hard, hard work to try doing it in one step (and how do I know that???).

As far as strained beanjam goes, the white (small lima bean) version came out more smoothly using a metal sieve than the straight azuki koshi-an.

Prasantrin, I'll post in the Japan Forum about quinces. I researched a lot about them...and forgot it all.

P.S. Chufi, if you make tempura add about 20% cornflour or similar - it keeps it crisp. Too much and the flavor suffers, too little and the tempura quickly gets soggy.

Now to crawl back into the kotatsu - I've even talked my kids into bringing my pillows and blankets down here .

Edited by helenjp, 09 January 2006 - 04:27 AM.

[marlena spieler]

i hope you're feeling better soon, helen.

this generous glimpse into your family life has taught me--us all--so much. like the others, i'm going to need to visit the japan section of egullet more often!

marlena

[prasantrin]

Like Marlena, I hope you're feeling better soon!

And what a great husband--pitching in when you're sick. Not all the husbands I know (in Japan or elsewhere) would do so!

My sukiyaki was pretty good, if I do say so myself. I used too much liquid, though, because I started out with too much sugar so I had to add more soy sauce and sake to balance. Then I made the mistake of adding not-parboiled-enough shirataki which sucked up all the sauce, and turned very dark brown but were still hard. But the rest was yummy!

[Swisskaese]

Feel better Helen. Thanks again for a very interesting blog.

[Behemoth]

Helen, I just had a chance to sit down and start reading this blog. Before it runs its course, I just wanted to say I love your writing style, and the food looks wonderful.

[mochihead]

Thank you so much for sharing your food, family and life with us for this last week! I really enjoyed everything and learned so much! Sending happy, healthy wishes for a speedy recovery your way!

[Hiroyuki]

I hope you get well soon, Helen. We still need you.

But..., YOU bought pickles from Kuromonya?? How come? You don't make all pickles yourself?

Wakeme... I remember you mentioned that your husband liked quality wakame from Hokkaido.

Just out of curiosity, what characters did son1 write, acrobatically on the kotatsu? My son's calligraphy assignments for winter holidays were Bokushi (ぼくし, the name of a writer who was born here in Shiozawa in the Edo period) and Takeuma (竹うま, stilt).

And, what did YOU eat for dinner, Helen?

[BarbaraY]

I have really enjoyed reading your blog. Thanks so much.

[therese]

Great blog, Helen.

Also a fan of "The Makioka Sisters." Some particularly cool food references in "Some Prefer Nettles" as well, especially contrasts between traditional and new (for that era), Western style foods.

[Chufi]

Helen, you did such a great job - keeping on blogging through migraines and colds!!
Thanks for sharing your family life with us. I love that picture of your son doing calligraphy on the kotatsu.
I hope you feel better soon.

[Abra]

Wonderful and inspirational blog, Helen. I'll be trying some of your beautiful recipes for sure. Feel better soon!

[Smithy]

Helen, I've been so ill myself I've barely had time to even skim your blog, and I've still found it wonderful. Thank you for blogging again. Add my wishes for your quick recovery to the rest of the readers' wishes.

I'm so fascinated with the table, and it looks like a wonderful way to keep food warm. After a moment I realized that in our household there would be at least one of the 6 cats, at any given time, sleeping there when the heat was on. I waved goodbye to the fantasy.

You commented upthread about how difficult it is to bring formerly-live things into New Zealand. What about coming the other way, from New Zealand to Japan? For instance - if you wanted to bring lemons into Japan, could you? This question harks back to a discussion we started in my foodblog. I've always wondered about the answer.

[helenjp]

Smithy, hope you're feeling better - I'm done with the shivers, anyway, and it's rather nice to feel hot and feverish in a cold Japanese house .

Food import laws in Japan are more relaxed than in NZ, but they do exist - I can't bring in salami made with fresh meat, for example. Also, I've been so brainwashed by the NZ approach that there must be things I could bring into Japan if it ever occurred to me! I rather doubt if I could bring in lemons because they contain viable seed, but I'm not 100% sure.

Soon we'll have birds in our plum tree here, eating the buds.

The quilts actually insulate the heat so effectively that the tableTOP is not warm. About cats, a common winter pastime is watching the cat in the kotatsu make a fast exit when somebody farts...

Hiroyuki, I rarely make hakusai-zuke these days, except for maybe a small batch in the depths of winter, because the winters have been so mild here that they don't develop a really full taste. My husband always says that hakusai tastes best when you have to break the ice on the pickle barrel to pull out a chunk of pickle...

Son1 was writing "Mirai no Yume" (Dreams of the Future), while son2's grade did "Nagai Hama" (Long Beach, presumably a reference to the beaches on Chiba's eastern coast).