Japanese foods--nimono

[Hiroyuki]

Have you ever considered golden ratios for seasoning?

Years ago, I provided a link to this webpage, titled "Golden Ratio for Seasoning".

(I carelessly translated the title into "Golden Ratio for Taste". Come to think of it, "Golden Ratio for Seasoning should be more appropriate.)

This webpage discusses that the golden ratio of soy sauce to mirin is 1 to 1. It also lists different golden ratios for different dishes:

Dashi:Light soy sauce:Mirin

14:1:1 -> Broth for takikomi gohan

12:1:1 -> Broth for udon and soba, broth for udon suki and seafood nabe

8:1:1 -> Suitable for kabocha, small satoimo (taro potatoes), daikon & aburaage, and other dishes, with some sugar added to taste. Use this for almost all vegetables.

4:1:1 -> Tempura sauce

5:1:1 -> Dipping sauce for soumen (thin noodles)

* With some sugar added to taste, can be used for oyako (chicken and egg) don, tempura don, gyu (beef) don, etc.

3.5:1:1 -> Dipping sauce for soba and cool udon, dipping sauce for yu dofu (hot tofu).

1:1:1 -> Good when poured over hiyayakko (cold tofu).

(Note that this person is a chef in Kyoto and uses light soy sauce.)

Here is another interesting page on simmered dishes from Hanamaru Market (famous morning TV show).

It divides nimono (simmered dishes) into three categories and gives the golden ratio for each:

1. Fukumeni: Simmered daikon, simmered leaf vegetable (nibitashi)

Golden ratio for dashi:sweetness (such as sugar and mirin):saltiness (i.e., soy sauce): 10:1:1

2. Umani: Simmered satoimo (taro potatoes), niku jaga (potato and meat stew), and simmered beans

Goden ratio: 8:1:1

3. Itameni: Chikuzen ni, kinpira, and simmered hijiki

Golden ratio: 6:1:1

I think those ratios can be a good starting point for anyone trying to pursue Japanese cuisine, but you don't have to follow them exactly. I think the most important thing is to find your own golden ratios.

So, what do you think?

[BarbaraY]

I find this to be a very helpful posting. Now I see how to cook the Kabocha I just bought instead of digging through all my books to figure out the proper amounts.

Thanks.

[Hiroyuki]

I got a lot of satoimo from my wife's father, it was time to make "satoimo no nikkorogashi" again.

I used a meticulous recipe this time:

1. After peeling satoimo, rub them with some salt (1 tablespoon for 500-600 g of satoimo) to remove slime.

2. Put them in boiling water, salt and all, and boil them for 10 minutes.

3. Drain and wash with cold water.

4. Put them in 500-ml boiling water again. Add 1 tsp instant dashi powder and 62.5-ml mirin. Keep boiling on low heat for 10 minutes.

5. Add 62.5-ml soy sauce. Boil for another 10 minutes.

6. Turn the heat high and boil for 5-6 minutes until the broth reduced to one-third.

Result:

Any noticeable differences from the ones made with a much simpler recipe (no rubbing with salt and single boiling)?

No.

But they were really yummy. My children kiked them too.

Note that the dashi, soy sauce, and mirin ratio was 8:1:1.

[torakris]

Another twist on my nikujyaga.

I used my recipe from recipeGullet but used pork instead of beef and added about a cup of kimchi at the same time as the other seasonings and tossed some scallions in at the very end.

Everyone loved it.

[sk_ward]

Looks like it just might be tasty, right??? I thought so too and was horrified to taste it and realize that I used salt instead of sugar. I tried to salvage it and cooked it with just water, replacing the water several times, but it was a futile effort. The whole pot ended up in the garbage.