eG Foodblog: Torakris - New Year's Festivities in Japan

[torakris]

That's great. Thanks.

No oven? Or is there just no need for one given most Japanese food seems to come from stove top?

Brooks

Many Japanese people do not have an oven, there is just no need for it is Japanese cooking.

I do have an oven that also doubles as a microwave, it is rare to find an oven that is just an oven because of lack of space.

That black sitting on the back counter is my microwave/oven and believe it or not that is the biggest freestanding one available. You can get some built in ones, but but they may only hold 5 to 10 liters more......

[Mabelline]

The meals all look great-I must eat in Japan one day soon. Those restaurants look real fascinating. What is the exchange rate yen to dollar,Torakris? What is making this especially cool to me is that you are cooking for a little kids family, and helenjp is cooking for a bigger kids family.

[Louisa Chu]

I wi;; try to get some pictures but I rarely shop at "markets" only grocery stores. and you are not allowed to take pictures inside.

Thanks again Kristin. Oh too bad - that's what I wanted - pix inside grocery stores! And I guess they're wise to the mini-cameras - being Japan.

[torakris]

The meals all look great-I must eat in Japan one day soon. Those restaurants look real fascinating. What is the exchange rate yen to dollar,Torakris? What is making this especially cool to me is that you are cooking for a little kids family, and helenjp is cooking for a bigger kids family.

the exchange rate has been fluctuating btween 107 and 108 yen to the dollar for a couple weeks now. It was up in the 120's a couple months back.

[jackal10]

That simmered pork belly dish look delicious. How long did you cook it?

Can you give us an outline of the recipe?

Thanks!

[JLN67]

I'm really enjoying your blog, Kristin! It's incredibly interesting.

[torakris]

Just finished Tuesday morning breakfast. My husband, son Hide and I had natto, Julia had rice with okaka furikake (these are sprinkles to be put on your rice, this particular one was made with katsuo bushi--bonito flakes). My oldest Mia had instant oatmeal (Maple and Brown sugar) one of her favorite foods. We aslo had the little bit of leftover daikon and pork.

I make my natto with negi (Japanese leeks), katsuo bushi (bonito flakes), karashi (hot mustard), soy sauce and a raw egg yolk.

We all drank water, I never mentioned before but water is the normally the only think we drink with meals, except for my husband who may have a beer or a glass of wine. Water is the only think I can drink when I am eating.

the natto (which by the way for those who are unfamiliar are fermented soy beans)

I want to drink some iced coffee but I need to wait until I get the natto/negi taste out of my mouth....

[torakris]

That simmered pork belly dish look delicious. How long did you cook it?

Can you give us an outline of the recipe?

Thanks!

This pork belly and daikon dish I pulled out of the December issue of Kyou no Ryouri a popular amgazine/cooking show on NHK.

I am probably the only person in the world who buys a pork belly and then proceeds to trim it of most of the fat......

The recipe calls for 200g (less than 1/2lb) of pork belly and 600g (about 1 1/3lbs) of daikon. I used closer to 500g (little over 1lb) of each.

The pork is cur into bite size pieces and then sprinkled with a large splash of soy and a large splash of sake and then set aside while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

The daikon is cut into a roll cut or other large pieces, mince some scallions and some ginger.

Heat a wok and some flavorless oil (I use canola) and stirfry the scallions and ginger for a couple second, toss in the pork (drained of its marinade) and stirfry until the color changes. toss in the daikon and stirfry until coated with oil and then add the marinade that had been drained of the pork mixed with 3 Tablespoons of soy, 1 1/2 Tablespoons of sugar and some pepper. keep stirring until the sasuce thickens and all the pieces are nicely coated, then add 200 ml of water, lower the heat to low and cover and simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until the daikon is tender.

It is really easy and really fast and everyone loved! What more can you ask for.

It was the first time I made it and I will definitely make it again.

[jackal10]

Thanks!

Was the pork belly pre-cooked? If not I'm amazed it would be tender in only 20 minutes cooking. I braise mine for hours...

[torakris]

Thanks!

Was the pork belly pre-cooked? If not I'm amazed it would be tender in only 20 minutes cooking. I braise mine for hours...

no it is not precooked.

I too was surprised by the short cooking time, it wasn't melting tender like I get when i braise it, but it wasn't tough either. It probably would ahve been more tender if I hadn't tried to pull a lot of the fat out . I noticed that the pieces with almost no fat were on the tough side.....

It is a really quick dish, do-able in 30 minutes and becasue half of it is simmering you can get teh rest of the meal done in that time.

I just ate a handful of Cheetos, those curly cheese puffed things. I love those things and my son found a bag and opened them.....

[hillvalley]

Fabulous blog Kris! The natto picture has my mouth watering. Is using a raw egg yolk common in Japanese cooking?

Would you mind telling us how you learned to cook Japanese food and if your kids are more familiar with western food than others? What do they think of American food?

Thanks!

By the way, your cookbook collection is very impressive.

[helenjp]

Now that it's lunchtime, we have finished breakfast! Son's friend stayed over, so we made takoyaki for breakfast...except that the takoyaki had hung around the fridge too long, so we had to replace it with bacon.

I used a commercial takoyaki flour mix (flavorings and baking powder added), made up to a thin batter with beaten eggs and dashi. The "solids" were red salty pickled ginger, chopped long white onion, chopped cabbage, and fried bacon slivers.

Here's three photos: ingredients, boys turning half-cooked octopus balls, and sorry about the pitiful blobs in the third one, not a great image -- it's actually two octopus balls with mayonnaise, thickened worcestershire sauce (tonkatsu sauce) and green nori and katsuo flakes on it.

Went to the rice shop yesterday to pick up our mochi (photos later) -- two big sheets of mochi for grilled mochi, soup etc, and a small decorative New Year's one. Nearby, the vege shop had all kinds of exotic veg only seen at New Year, so we stocked up, and moved on to the fish shop. We bought dried salmon strips for husband to snack on with his beer, if he can fight the boys off successfully. We bought fresh salmon to pickle in salt and honey for our New Year's box, some little fish pickled in millet, and (just shut your eyes, Kristin!) some buri to make buri-daikon with!

Last night for dinner we had nabe, with a pack of frozen crab claws sent by sister-in-law from Hokkaido. We had the daikon (precooked) and the Chinese cabbage simmering in dashi in the pot, waiting for the delivery man to bring the crab! I'm sorry, everybody hoed in, dipping their crab in lemon and soy sauce, before I could take a photo. Later, son's friend's father dropped by. As he has gout, we made him an ozoni soup (dashi flavored with soy sauce and mirin, chicken, greens, and grilled mochi, and citron peel) instead of the crab, and everybody else also had grilled mochi in the soup from the crab nabe.

[helenjp]

oops, the takoyaki images...

http://images.egullet.com/u7941/i1820.jpg

http://images.egullet.com/u7941/i1821.jpg

http://images.egullet.com/u7941/i1822.jpg

[elyse]

Is this a dual blog?

[bloviatrix]

I wi;; try to get some pictures but I rarely shop at "markets" only grocery stores. and you are not allowed to take pictures inside.

Why aren't cameras allowed? That seems odd.

[torakris]

Fabulous blog Kris! The natto picture has my mouth watering. Is using a raw egg yolk common in Japanese cooking?

raw egg yolks and raw eggs are quite common in Japanese cooking, there are some sauces that are made with raw egg yolks, sukiyaki is eaten by being dipped in a raw egg, noodles are sometimes dipped into a sauce that includes a raw quails egg. They make appearances in dressed dishes, and some sashimi preparations. one of my favorite squid dishes is some thinly sliced sashimi style squid topped with a raw egg yolk, some seasoned soy sauce and some shredded nori. You might be seeing this on the menu before the blog is over......

Edited December 30, 2003 by torakris (log)

[torakris]

I wi;; try to get some pictures but I rarely shop at "markets" only grocery stores. and you are not allowed to take pictures inside.

Why aren't cameras allowed? That seems odd.

I found this out two years ago when a tv station was doing a short documentary on our family and they wanted a scene of me shopping. I gave them a list of all of the stores in the neighborhood and out of 10 there was only 1 that would allow a camera in the door.

they explained it had something to do with stores competing with each other, but I didn't get it. Also last month when Texan was here visiting her husband tried to take a picture of some melons in the department store basement and he was asked to stop.

EDIT scene not seen

Edited December 30, 2003 by torakris (log)

[torakris]

Would you mind telling us how you learned to cook Japanese food and if your kids are more familiar with western food than others? What do they think of American food?

I became interested in Japnese when I was 20 and trying to impress my then Japanese boyfriend (a different guy, not the one I married ). We later moved in together and he didn't like to eat too many foods other then Japanese, so I learned fast. I cooked almost nightly for about 3 to 5 of our Japanese male friends who lived alone, we were all college students.

My kids eat different foods almost daily and I don't think they even grasp the concept of "American" food versus "Japanese" food versus "Chinese" versus "Italian", to them it is just food and they really don't have preferences, they love nabe (hotpots) as much as they love pasta.

Some times I try to give them things I loved as a child, they are rejected pop-tarts quickly, but that was good for me as I got to eat the whole box. They do like Mac and Cheese though.

Ok I just turned around and asked my kids if they could name some Japanese foods, Mia (age 8) quickly shouted out "tamago" which means egg, followed quickly by tomato. Then I asked her to name some American foods and she said "pizza". Julia (age 6) just stared at me.....

[Jake]

Thanks so much for this blog -- it's fabulous, especially as I am a huge fan of Japanese food. Possibly because it's not something I cook/serve and therefore always remains a treat...

[torakris]

we have finished lunch, today my husband made some fried rice, one of his specialities. Since we are down to nothing in the house he added onion, scallions, carrots, cashew nuts and egg. Mine, my husband's and Julia's (age 6) were drizzled with sriracha.

We are off now, we are going to drop the kids off at a friend's house and my husband and I are going to Shinjuku (in Tokyo) to see a movie, probably Last Samurai, and then go out to dinner. There is an oyster bar I want to check out and then I want to go to Le Aladdin a restaurant in the same chain of those restaurants I went to in Shibuya a couple days ago.

This sounds like I go out a lot, but this is very unusual. my husband and I in the 8 years since our eldest was born have gone out in Japan with out children a total of 3 times, well this will be the third.... Babysitters are not a common thing and to get a babysitter means a professional which will cost you a minimum of about $15 and hour per child. Some people are lucky and have in laws that babysit occasionally but my in-laws won't. It isn't that common for married couples to go out once they have children and when they do the children are usually brought along.

I babysat for my friend (she has one son) a month ago and she offered to trade and watch my three. If things go well they are planning on spending the night......

[Mayhaw Man]

Good luck tonight with the children. I may not know a bunch about Japanese living but I know about life with children attached at the hip . I hope it works out.

This thing has been fascinating so far. Whoever comes after you and Jackal has got some work cut out.

[SobaAddict70]

Like you, Mr. Mayhaw? Life in the foodie fast lane, in Louisiana? heheh.

Soba

[herbacidal]

Good luck tonight with the children. I may not know a bunch about Japanese living but I know about life with children attached at the hip . I hope it works out.

This thing has been fascinating so far. Whoever comes after you and Jackal has got some work cut out.

hmm. we haven't had anybody do one from southern US yet, have we?

[Pan]

Great stuff again, Kris and Helen. (Yes, Elyse, this is a dual blog - right? )

Kris, how much English do your children speak? Same question for Helen.

[alacarte]

This is one of my favorite blogs yet -- the pictures are especially bringing this to life for me.

Torakris, I've noticed that iced coffee is one of your staple drinks. Do you make it yourself, or is it one of the prefab coffee drinks I've seen in takeout sushi shops? I've always wondered what is in those coffee drinks, since I can't read the list of ingredients in Japanese.