eG Foodblog: Helenjp (teamed with Marlena) - The New Year's here -

[Hiroyuki]

Your home-made koshi an looks good! Nothing like home-made an! Store-bought an is just too sweet for my taste. 200 g... Hmm, that's about right. Anyway, what are going to make with your delicate koshi an? Some sort of wagashi (traditional Japanese sweet)? I must say, however, that I still like tsubu an, which may be rustic but is much easier to make!

As for the size of the kitchen, I think it's something that grows on you. The super-mini kitchen in my resort condo was much more efficient than my new, larger kitchen, requiring much fewer steps. I still miss the super-mini kitchen!

[Corinna Dunne]

I'm just catching up on this blog now. It's fascinating, particularly the pictures of your kitchen. I can't believe that you manage to produce such wonderful food in such a tight space. You must be so organised, and it's so nice to see that you have such great support from your husband.

Just a few questions: is porridge a typical Japanese breakfast, and do you vary what you mix it with? Do you make sushi at home or is this normally bought?

All your food looks wonderful, particularly the tempura and the octapus dumplings. Thank you so much for this incredible insight into Japanese life and cooking.

[helenjp]

Kitchen space...the standard unit of floor space in Japan is 180cm x 90cm, but this unit is interpreted creatively by space-pinching housing designers. Our kitchen is a so-called LDK (living-dining-kitchen )supposedly covering 9 of those standard units - the very smallest ones would be half this size (as my in-laws' LDK is), ours is on the large side, but some new apartments run up to 12 units.

Our kitchen counter area runs the width of the narrow side of our rectangular LDK. It's very roughly 250cm across - the gas range bay is 70 wide, the prep area is around 80cm, and the two sinks and lip are roughly 1 meter.

I think an 180cm total gas range/counter/sink width would be bog-standard in city apartments. In my brother-in-law's one-room apartment, I think his total sink and counter might be 45cm across - including a single solid element. His kitchen is just part of the lobby between front door and living/sleeping/dining room.

MIzducky, I don't know that wealthy people really build larger cooking areas - partly because the size of the units is so locked into the standard floor-size unit. They are more likely to splash out on custom-designed storage and buy up large on crockery etc - I think most Japanese do like to have a big range of china and lacquerware if they can store it.

Breakfast: few Japanese would have heard of porridge, and even fewer be willing to eat it! My husband won't touch it. However, bread is probably more common than rice for breakfast, especially in cities (I think this is partly the result of long commutes and resulting staggered departures of high school kids leaving before 7 for distant high schools or early morning sports, father leaving 7:30 to 8:30 for the long commute, young kids heaading off before 8am for school, and mother and preschoolers leaving before 9 for kindergarten - people want something quick that they can prepare themselves for breakfast, understandably!)

Guys look their best at a sink? Do you think it's just that everybody looks better doing something than slumped in front of TV? The pink gloves are definitely his trademark though - his hands chap easily, so he buys M size gloves in the feminine pink shades, and I get the L size gloves in commando green!

OnigiriFG, I finally realized what your screenname refers to. My son1 rather likes Fruits Basket cartoons, and actually, the English version is one of the best manga translations I've seen. Son1 makes me buy them though, because he's too shy to go and buy girly manga for himself!

I first came to Japan on a Japanese government scholarship in late 1979 - spent 18 months in Osaka, then returned to NZ, where my first husband died unexpectedly. Then I wangled some more money out of another university and spent a year in Tokyo in 1985. I've lived in or around Tokyo since 1990.

I studied some Japanese in high school too - thought it would fill in some time before I got to university where I could study Chinese ...30 years later...

Nakji, we do have tai-yaki "fish" filled with bean jam. I'll talk a bit more about bean jam in my next post...

[helenjp]

A busy day today, but a relaxed breakfast to start it off.

My husband slept in, so I skipped the yogurt (he likes to eat it with bananas year-round, but that combination strikes me as slimy + slimy - no thank you!), and served walnut bread with some NZ Tawari honey (it's normally runny, but it crystallizes very easily in cold weather). We also had grilled tomatoes (done in the trusty oven toaster, of course) and the only sausages that I really enjoy eating in Japan - lemon and parsley sauasages for poaching (a brand called "Entier" for some mystifying reason).

The plan was to make corokke (croquettes) for lunch, but the smell of the gas heater in church convinced me to try something lighter - but this soup had to be put together at top speed to get son1 off to his cram school for 3 and a half hours of exams this afternoon. Don't ask me what this soup is - I couldn't tell you. Gently sauteed negi, garlic, potatoes, and a tiny amount of carrot in olive oil, a tiny handful of shimeji, topped up with a rapidly made chicken stock (would you believe even the carcasses cost USD4.20 per kilo?), some Christmas-shapes macaroni, an orange bell pepper, the last of the New Year ham, and some finely chopped winter spinach. Light, tasty, and FAST!

In fact it was so fast that there was time for some apple. This is from the box we get delivered each month - this month it's San-Fuji. The yellowish splotches in the flesh are called "syrup" in Japanese and denote extra sweetness.

I took son1 down the hill to cramschool, and bought him a small bottle of milk tea and a kind of muesli bar to sustain the inner man in between exams. His tutor told him he'd better come top of his class OR ELSE, but I'm secretly pleased that his cramschool is not vindictively competitive.

I checked the local supermarket for Japanese sweetmaking supplies, partly out of curiosity. This supermarket really caters for the weary working Mum on her way home from the station, and sure enough, it had azuki beans, and the flour required for dumplings (i.e. the makings of "zenzai" sweet bean soup), but none of the more unusual rice flours or the beans required for white beanjam, or the wafers I wanted etc etc.

Meanwhile, son2 is doing a mock exam with my husband, so I shall now go and put all the beanjams I've been making to good use, and get a snack ready.

[helenjp]

Last night, while finishing off the koshi-an, I started making two other types.

One was a white koshi-an made from small lima beans, called "shiro-an" or white beanjam. I don't think that it matters very much what type of bean you use, although commercial confectioners pick varieties that cook up to a very white paste.

The quantities and procedures are exactly the same as for koshi-an (sarashi-an), except that I don't add a pinch of salt as I often blend white an with miso.

Secondly, I made a tsubu-an or whole-bean beanjam. Cook the beans as for koshi-an, until soft.

Then drain the cooking liquid (no need to reserve it), and return the beans to the saucepan with sugar (same weight as the raw beans, or 20-30% less). Normally, you just proceed to cook the beans and sugar together straight away. However, I heard that it's a good idea to mix them together, slam the lid on, and leave them to cool/overnight. I tried it and I like it! The beans absorb the sugar without getting so squished. Here's a photo of the pan this morning - as soon as I put it back on the heat, the sugar liquefied, but at first glance, it looks almost solid).

The bean jam is cooked until you can pull a spatula across the bottom of the pan and leave a mark, just as for koshi-an, and the bean jam is then cooled in the same way too. The beans have broken up somewhat with the stirring, but you can still see individual beans. This bean jam is MUCH easier to make than koshi-an, and every single person I know prefers it - more bean just means more flavor.

One point - commercial sweets from a good confectioner will have much paler, more mealy koshi-an than cheap supermarket sweets. At the very least, the supermarket ones use mizu-ame (like corn syrup) and other sweetners and extenders, and I sometimes wonder if they make beanjam the CHinese way, including some oil (usually sesame oil) to add richness, as Chinese beanjam is also very dark.

Now...to work!

Edited January 8, 2006 by helenjp (log)

[helenjp]

Son2 did famously on his mock exams...Yesssss! I had to take his hands off the plate so I could take a photo, but here's his reward - kashiwa-mochi (oakleaf mochi, filled with koshi-an (sieved) beanjam, and hanabira-mochi (petal mochi, filled with white bean jam flavored with white miso, and served with a sliver of boiled burdock root).

Just about to go and retrieve son1 from his exams, so I'll post details later.

[Hiroyuki]

We also had grilled tomatoes (done in the trusty oven toaster, of course) and the only sausages that I really enjoy eating in Japan - lemon and parsley sauasages for poaching (a brand called "Entier" for some mystifying reason).

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I like that particular brand too, partly because it contains no preservative or coloring agent. I used to buy it often when my children were smaller, but not any more because it's rather expensive. Sorry you don't like gyoniku (fish meat) sausage; it contains no preservative or coloring agent, either. It's a favorite of every Japanese, including my family, and it's cheap!

I didn't know you were going to make tsubu an too. I guess I better keep my mouth shut. Can't wait to see what you are going to do with the three types of an!

[OnigiriFB]

OnigiriFG, I finally realized what your screenname refers to. My son1 rather likes Fruits Basket cartoons, and actually, the English version is one of the best manga translations I've seen. Son1 makes me buy them though, because he's too shy to go and buy girly manga for himself!

I first came to Japan on a Japanese government scholarship in late 1979 - spent 18 months in Osaka, then returned to NZ, where my first husband died unexpectedly. Then I wangled some more money out of another university and spent a year in Tokyo in 1985. I've lived in or around Tokyo since 1990.

I studied some Japanese in high school too - thought it would fill in some time before I got to university where I could study Chinese ...30 years later...

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Helenjp - thanks for answering my question. Wow you've been in Japan for awhile. I've been thinking going into the JET program as I've heard good things about it. I want to take Chinese too. All my friends in LA speak cantonese though so this should be interesting. Hehe I love Fruits Basket. I watched the anime first (I'm an otaku) and then read the manga. Love it. It's my all time favorite series right now. Anime is what started my interest in Japan and all things Japanese. I even started teaching myself to cook Japanese food after seeing anime characters eat stuff. Now I watch J-drama too. Anyway sorry for the non food tangent.

[mochihead]

I love how your shiro-an, tsubushian and koshian came out! My hands are blistering again just thinking about all the sieving and stirring, though. I'm looking forward to seeing how you'll be using all of the an fillings.

I've never tried Tawari honey. How does it compare to other honeys? Is it more subtle, more robust? Flowery? Honeys, like cheeses, are another one of my weaknesses.

[Cadbury]

Helen that soup looks absolutely wonderful. The colours are amazing.

For those interested in making Takoyaki, I have noticed that the Gem Irons I've seen in the shops lately look very similar to my Takoyaki Iron. I'm not sure if gem irons are commonly available elsewhere?

[helenjp]

Cadbury I have a feeling that gem irons are smaller than they used to be, but the old ones are certainly bigger than takoyaki...(I think gems are an Australian/NZ thing...a tasty memory!)

Mochihead, Tawari is a very mild honey, but with a full flavor. It says "butterscotch" in the blurb, and that's not a bad description.

started teaching myself to cook Japanese food after seeing anime characters eat stuff

OnigiriFB, I did that too - hope you have more success! I think I read about norimaki sushi in "Sasameyuki" (translated as "The Makioka Sisters") and decided that rice flour cooked with sugar and vinegar, wrapped in a spinach leaf might be pretty close ...I was about 15, so I should have had more sense than that!

Before I describe dinner...the two rolled mochi were made from the same dough - basically joushin-ko or plain rice flour with a little bit of cornflour and a spoonful of sugar added, kneaded with hot water, steamed for 10 minutes, then kneaded, and rolled out. I've made it with shira-tama-ko (glutinous rice flour) in the past, and that was more successful. I didn't like the texture this time.

The pink mochi was put together like this. I was getting a bit fed up by then, so instead of rolling out delicate pink petals, I rolled out a thing like a pink beach towel...(slight exaggeration). A little sugar is sprinkled on the board before rolling. A stick of boiled burdock root and white bean-jam seasoned with miso are added.

The oakleaf mochi is made the same way. The bean jam is the koshi-an I made yesterday.

The white bean jam is made very simply - about 100g of bean jam with a teaspoonful of white miso and a tablespoonful of water, heated and stirred until smooth.

I also made another type of miso-flavored white bean jam. This one is made with a medium-flavored light brown miso (about 1 tsp), 150g white bean jam, and 45g mizu-ame, heated together till bubbly and pulling away from the sides of the pan.

I couldn't buy the right sort of very fine wheatstarch wafer to fill, so I used these little ginger ones.

The name of this confection is "tsuma-kou", or "Love My Wife" (or possibly "Miss My Wife"). Isn't that nice? We had a couple with a cup of green tea after dinner.

P.S. The "wife" is probably a female deer - it's an autumn sweet, so the rustic miso is supposed to make us think of deer calling their mates in the hills...I think.

Edited January 8, 2006 by helenjp (log)

[nakji]

I'm curious - do you eat the oak leaf, or is it just there for decoration? If you eat it, is it preserved in any way?

[helenjp]

Yes, it's steamed, and if you want to keep them, you can salt them. I buy them vacuum packed! In that condition, they are not very tasty, but the fresh young ones in season can be eaten, though it's not a particularly profitable experience.

[BarbaraY]

I'm glad to see that you have read "Makioka Sisters". I've had my copy for so long and read it so many times that it's about ready to fall apart.

[helenjp]

For dinner we had sukiyaki, as I finally found some thinly sliced Australian beef. As he broke his second egg, my husband urged the kids to eat up - "This is it for 2006! You won't see sukiyaki again till 2007, most likely, so dig in!"

When we thought about it, we realized that we ate sukiyaki most often in New Zealand, where we usually had it Kansai style. I don't think we had more Kansai friends than Kanto friends, so maybe the Kansai friends were just more determined to do things their own way! We never used a recipe, and I wouldn't know how to begin writing one, so here goes...no broth or other nonsense with this style, all you need is soy sauce, sugar (here I've used san-on-tou) and sake.

Heat up the griddle nice and hot. Grease it with a lump of beef fat, or failing that, oil. Toss in some cut onions. Lots of onions, usually, but we like leeks too, so didn't use quite so many onions. You can see the sugar sprinkled on the onion.

Now, in with the meat, spreading it flat as you go, alternating sprinkles of sugar with sprinkles of soy sauce and sake. Sugar fairly generously at this stage, to get the meat and vegetables to shed plenty of fluid. Don't overdo it though, you're not making toffee...

Continue this process, gradually tapering off the seasonings a bit. You DON'T want this dish swiming in juice - we have a bit much juice here, a constant problem with an electric grill, as it is hard to keep it hot enough. We've added funghi (maitake and shiitake), negi dividing onions, and tofu. Later, we added Chinese cabbage, but were far to full to proceed with the konnyaku noodles or spinach (should be chrysanthemum greens, but there were none in the shop).

Each diner beats a very fresh egg lightly in a bowl, and dips the food into the egg before eating.

People often finish off with some pre-cooked udon noodles, but since it's New Year, we added mochi.

Feeling full now?

[helenjp]

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.

...However, just to keep things confusing, the western quince is *also* sometimes available here.

[Hiroyuki]

For dinner we had sukiyaki, as I finally found some thinly sliced Australian beef. As he broke his second egg, my husband urged the kids to eat up - "This is it for 2006! You won't see sukiyaki again till 2007, most likely, so dig in!"

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I know how he feels...

Talking of exams, could you tell me what options are available to your sons after they finish high school?

To keep this post food-related , I'll ask this question: Do you want to send them to culinary school after they finish high school?

[prasantrin]

That sukiyaki looks lovely! And I want some now!

For some reason, I've always though sukiyaki was more difficult to prepare. But now that I've seen how easy it is, I'm going to have sukiyaki for one!

I noticed you used a shallow grill. I always thought a more pot-style was used. I was thinking of using the nabe pot of my electric grill (the other plate has ridges for yakiniku). Should I be using the other one?

[helenjp]

Prasantrin, I think you might use the deeper grill for Kanto style sukiyaki, as there is more liquid. In Kansai, people don't really think of sukiyaki as a "nabe" dish.

It's a very good dish for one, as it makes great left-overs - just pour some lightly beaten egg over the leftovers next day, and let it just set - then serve "donburi" style over rice. Great for lunchboxes, even.

As far as I recall, the sukiyaki we ate in NZ always tasted fine...as long as the beer didn't run out!

Hiroyuki, I'm not planning on sending my boys to culinary school! I mean, I'd love it if they wanted to make a career out of feeding me for the rest of their lives, but I don't see it.

Son1 wants to design airplanes - maybe he won't do that, but I'm sure he'll be some sort of engineer, or work with computers. He enjoys his food, but he eats anything and everything -he's an appreciative audience rather than an eager participant. Son2...music, or geology??? I can see him being a jeweller rather than a civil engineer though! He has many foods he dislikes, but he's also more interested in preparing food and trying new things.

To be honest, the reason why they need to study so hard is that they need to get as far away from their current schools as they can, as fast as possible. I won't say any more than that Kogane is best for memories - your kids are better off at school in Niigata, I am sure!

Edited January 9, 2006 by helenjp (log)

[Chufi]

Helen, I am enjoying this very much. To me, everything looks unusual.. but beautiful... and inspiring!

The pictorial of the tempura makes me think I might try that myself someday... I've always been afraid of tempura..

edited to add: The Makioka Sisters is one of my favorite books. I take it with me on every single long trip and I never tire of it. All my knowledge about Japan comes from literature like that, and movies - I'm a big fan of Ozu's movies - so it's really lovely to see a "real" Japanese (food)life as pictured in your blog!

Edited January 8, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[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.