Making Mochi

I have to put my hands up and admit I’m not a big fan of mochi (rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded), but it is a mainstay of Japanese cuisine and served in soup (ozoni) is a traditional aspect of New Year…

So without entering into the mochitsuki ceremony how did we make mochi? (Well, when I say “we”, I mean Mrs Cook Japan and the 10 friends and countless children who had a great time making and eating it at our house.)
First up, mochigome (special glutinous rice for making mochi) was left to soak then wrapped in muslin and steamed in the Cook Japan rice cooker…
        
…and this is where the brilliant idea came into play…use a breadmaker!!!
Traditionally the rice is steamed then put into a huge mortar where it is a pounded to make a paste, whereas their plan was to put the rice into a breadmaker using the “dough” function and keep 20+ collective fingers crossed on the results….
…and what great results they were!  About 30-minutes in the breadmaker produced a wonderfully sticky paste that could be easily moulded then devoured…
           
And what a feast it turned into, never before have I seen so much mochi in one place.  Eaten with adzuki (red beans), natto (fermented soya beans), daikon oroshi (grated radish), kinako (soybean flour), and of course as ozoni, everyone had a whale of a time.
    
So if you’ve got a breadmaker to hand, start steaming your rice and start making mochi!

For more information visit: www.cookjapan.co.uk

Nanakusa-gayu (Seven herb porridge)

Eaten and drunk too much over the past couple of weeks?  Feeling a bit lardy, lethargic and lumpy?  Have a bowl of Nanakusa-gayu (seven herb porridge)…

After indulging too much over ohshogatsu (new year), a long standing tradition in Japan is to eat nanakusa-gayu on 7th January.  Not only is it a simple low-calorie food after all that richness over the previous few days, but importantly it is believed to bring longevity and health, and also intended to ward off evil for the coming year.

The tricky bit if you’re not in Japan (where you can actually special packs at this time of year in the supermarket) is how to get the 7 herbs, traditionally (but with local variations):

• seri – Japanese parsley
• nazuna – Shepherd’s purse
• gogyo – Jersey Cudweed
• hakobera – Common chickweed
• hotokenoza – nipplewort
• suzuna – turnip
• suzushiro - daikon

Your best bet is to therefore replace these greens with whatever locally available green leaf vegetables you can easily get hold of, and more importantly like.  So, armed with some lovely fresh greens how do you make this porridge?

Well, first things first, its not porridge in the western rolled oats sense of the world, this is an Asian rice porridge (in Japan referred to as okayu – but not much different from what you would find in China as congee or similar dishes elsewhere throughout SE Asia). 

In a rice cooker its an absolute breeze to make…

…wash the rice thoroughly, then put 1 cup of rice into the rice cooker with 7 cups of water, press “Congee” and leave the rice to cook.  Probably takes about 40-minutes or so and then it will have a nice porridge consistency (see top photo).  At this point ,add your chopped greens and leave it on “Keep Warm” for a few minutes – but not too long as you don’t want everything to wilt too much.  Add a little bit of salt and serve…how easy is that!

Osechi ryōri (Japanese New Year Meal)

あけましておめでとうございます! Happy New Year!

1st of January can mean only one thing in many Japanese households – osechi.  Osechi ryori is the traditional Japanese food eaten on New Years Day dating back centuries, an array of delicate dishes presented in lacquered boxes.  This year we didn’t get back to Japan so made it at home (check the bottom of the post for last years photos from Japan).

In addition to the traditional 3 jubako (lacquer boxes) we indulged in some homemade sushi and got some chu-toro (tuna belly) for sashimi…

…while not quite up to the standards of a master in Japan, this was really nice sushi (squid, octopus, prawn and saltwater eel)…

The jubako roughly followed the Japanese traditional one one being seafood, one from the land and one from the earth...

 

I couldn’t resist this little photo of one of the Cook Japan kids fave osechi dishes – ebi prawn) tempura on one of our “only to be used on New Years Day plates”…

Osechi wou;dn’t be osechi though without also having a bowl of ozoni – soup with “mochi” (steamed rice pounded into a sticky/elasticy rice cake) inside…but its not for the faint hearted!  Each year there are a few small deaths recorded from people choking on mochi!"

So that was our attempt at making osechi and it was a wonderful meal and perfect way to start what will hopefully be a good 2010.  Last year, we were back in Japan and this is the magnificent food Mrs Cook Japan’s mum rustled up…a true master of the kitchen!!!

…and yes, it did taste as amazing as it looked!

So with the osechi devoured, there’s only one thing left for me to do…relax and enjoy hatsuburo (the first bath of the year).  Oh, and the kids will be expecting otoshidama – the traditional Japanese gift of money on New Years Day!

Happy New Year everyone…and don’t forget the Cook Japan shop is running a 10% discount on all stock through January.

Risotto alla Milanese (in the Rice Cooker)

To celebrate Cook Japan’s little sister getting a new job, I thought I’d invite her round for one of her favourites dishes…Risotto alla Milanese…

This is a famous Milanese version of risotto cooked with saffron.  The think is, I’ve never cooked risotto before in my life…so given that I also invited my risotto-cooking cousin as well it was a real gamble hoping that I could pull this meal off…
…but before I even started worrying about risotto I’d also decided to make a raft of antipasti dishes to get the dinner started.

So along with some olives, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes and Italian meats from the shops, I also opted to make a variety of toppings for some crostini.  First up was grilled vegetables (easy), followed by a cannellini bean and garlic puree that was then topped with rosemary infused olive oil…

We also tucked into some porcini mushrooms grilled with herbs and mozzarella…

…and some lemons stuffed with mozzarella, basil, anchovy fillets and sun dried tomatoes which were really yummy!
 
So with all that taken care, it was down to the pièce de résistance…my first time at the hands of a pot of risotto, but this was not any old risotto, it was a double first as it was cooked in my trusty Cook Japan rice cooker!
First up, chopped shallots were braised in butter and olive oil then in went the Arborio rice which was cooked until translucent along with the wine…

…all that was left was to add the saffron infused stock and the remaining stock, switch the rice cooker to “porridge” mode and tuck into the rest of the food while we waited.
No need to constantly stir the risotto and pay attention to the stove, instead after 20-minutes it switched to “keep warm” so in went some more butter then just before serving a pile of grated parmesan to finish the dish off….

…of course I’m biased, but I thought it was really nice and more importantly my sister who lived for a few years in Milan, where she got her love for the dish, though it was great. 

So next time you want to make risotto do it in the rice cooker! 

For more information visit: www.cookjapan.co.uk

Kind of like dry-curry (and a bit like kedgeree), but also a bit like neither…

…you know how some days there’s nothing really in the fridge, freezer or cupboards from which to concoct dinner?  Well that’s where this came from and thankfully was jolly tasty as well.

As you would expect, and know by now, there was the typical abundance of rice to be found in the cupboards.   It wasn’t to difficult to find an onion, couple of beans and lentils, eggs and the random element in the dish, a frozen “chip shop” battered cod piece from the dark recesses of the freezer.  As for seasoning, curry powder, cumin and some of the usual suspects from the spice rack were roped in for the task as well.

So the idea was something like a Japanese dry curry (basically a kind of curry-flavoured fried rice) and a bit like kedgeree. 

Onions were fried, battered cod went in the oven and then was chopped up, and while all this was going on the trusty Cook Japan rice cooker was busy cooking up some rice with beans and lentils.  Once the rice was cooked, in went the onions, fish pieces and some seasoning and the whole thing mixed up and left on “keep warm” until it was time for dinner…

 

…so as you can see its a bit like a dry curry and kind of like kedgeree, in fact a pretty good random combination that worked out really tasty, full of flavour and a great way to use up a bunch of bits and bods to make dinner…

…ooh, then I thought “i know”, and cooked up a nice hard boiled egg to give it a bit more of a kedgeree feel (well kind of, if you don’t look to closely)…

Yoshinoya – the best beef bowl in the world!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A care package arrived this morning from Japan, but this was not just any old care package it contained packets of Yoshinoya’s gyu-don (beef topping and sauce to go on rice).  The those of you who’ve never been to Yoshinoya, its a classic of Japanese fast food.  Founded in 1899 its now a normal site throughout Japan and sells cheap tasty gyu-don (beef bowls) that really is quite wonderful

I heard Yoshinoya had now started selling packets of their food so you can have it at home, even if home is thousands of miles away from the nearest restaurant. 



What an easy dinner…pop the rice in the Cook Japan rice cooker, the packet into boiling water then when both are done empty the beef and sauce onto the rice. 

It doesn’t get any simpler, just add a sprinkling of shichimi (Japanese chillil powder) and…



I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed eating this and how much I resented having to give some to the kids – ha ha!

Tonkatsu (breaded pork) and Shishito (Japanese green peppers

We are really lucky, one of our Japanese friends near Brighton has a commercial allotment where she grows Japanese vegetables – many of which are then sold to restaurants across the south-east.

As a result, we are able to get a plethora of great freshly grown produce, but without doubt one of my favourites, and one of the hardest to get in England, is shishito.  Shishito is a short Japanese green pepper which we usually just grill, but tonight for a change we opted for tempura shishito…and I’m so glad we did…



Alongside this, there was a bit of last nights Oden still lurking in the pan, rice from the good old Cook Japan rice cooker, a bowl of miso soup and another big favourite tonkatsu.  To make it all you need is a nice piece of pork loin or pork fillet which is then deep fried in a coating of flour, egg and fine breadcrumbs and then served in slices…



Unfortunately we’ve run out of tonkatsu sauce, but if you mix ketchup and HP sauce its a pretty good substitute…



Simple, yet delicious…if you can find shishito buy some!  

A beautiful bowl of Kosheri

We recently got the Ottolenghi Cookbook which is full of fabulous dishes, one we tried last night was KOSHERI…although we didn’t have all the ingredients so had to cut a few corners, but the result was still delicious.  Kosheri is a traditional rice and lentil dish from Egypt that is usually served alongside a spicy tomato sauce…



What you should do is fry some garlic and oil then add tomatoes, water, vinegar, salt and cumin and bring to boil, then simmer seasoning with coriander and a bit of salt ‘n pepper.  Then wash and cook lentils until tender, and then wash some rice, fry some vermicelli noodles in butter until golden brown, add the washed rice and cook.  Leave to steam then sautee the onions and add these plus the lentils to the rice, garnishing with a bit more coriander.

Takes a bit of pan juggling, but is a simple dish to make and tastes wonderful.

What we did, was basically as above, but didn’t have any tomatoes to hand (and couldn’t be bothered to go shopping at night for more) and our lentils were more yellow than green, but other than that we did what the book told us – and anyway, good cooking is always about tweaking things a little…

Its a great dish and a great cookbook if you don’t already have a copy…


For more information visit: www.cookjapan.co.uk

Double donburi delight

Yeah, not one but two bowls of food…double donburi delight!

I was still a bit peckish after my bowl of gyu-don…didn’t need to eat, but was suddenly given the glorious excuse of my wife also cooking up a batch of “buta no kakuni” – a real favourite.  For those of yet to try this delicious dish, its essentially Japanese braised pork belly.

I’m a huge fan of this dish, its a brilliant way to cook pork belly…and it goes wonderfully with sake.

 

 
My wife’s killer recipe for buta no kakuni is to cook the pork belly in earl grey tea for 1-1.5 hours until it is really tender, she then changes this to fresh water and adds ginger, garlic, leeks/spring onions along with soya sauce, mirin, sake and sugar which gives the dish its lovely sweet syrupiness.  The dish is then left to simmer on a low-heat for around 2-hours until the liquid is almost gone and reduced to a sauce.

Try this, its a fantastic way to cook belly pork – there’s a bit left in the pan, tomorrow I’ll eat these remnants and the flavours will be even deeper, yummy!

As for my "entree", by the time the pork belly was done I'd already tucked into a nice bowl of gyu-don for dinner – essentially a “beef bowl”.  Its lovely thin slices of beef that are simmered in a sauce (made from soya sauce, dashi and mirin) and some onions – my wife then popped a dash of corn flour in to just thicken the sauce a little and make it stick to the beef.  Throw some pickles, or in my case shichimi (seven flavour chilli pepper) and you can sit back and enjoy a lovely meal. 

(Of course the rice for both was out of our Cook Japan rice cooker…where else?)



If you love a bit of gyu-don - check out my blog on the packet of "Yoshinoya Gyu-don" I was sent from Japan...oishii!!
For more information visit: www.cookjapan.co.uk

Japan Matsuri – London, 19th September

Really looking forward to the Japan Matsuri this weekend in London (http://japanmatsuri.com/), should be a great day…top entertainment and some yummy food no doubt.

Also looking forward to talking to people about Cook Japan Rice Cookers, be great to see the reaction to being able to buy an affordable and hi-tec rice cooker in the UK.

Hopefully the weather will stay nice and the day will be a great success for all.

Cooking perfect rice in a rice cooker…

Here’s a simple easy to follow run down on how to cook rice in a rice cooker.  Following these easy steps (or using the more detail guidance at www.cookjapan.co.uk) should ensure that you can make perfect rice everytime.
Happy eating…

For more information visit: www.cookjapan.co.uk

New Cook Japan Website goes live…

The new website for Cook Japan as just gone live, check out www.cookjapan.co.uk
Cook Japan™ is a shop and community set up to help you find some of the key tools you need to make great Japanese, and other Asian, food.

One of the biggest problems for lovers of Japanese and Asian food is being able to make perfect rice at the drop of a hat.  Finding high performance rice cookers in Europe like we have at home is extremely difficult and more often than not nigh on impossible.


Cook Japan rice cookers have all the functionality and technology you would expect from a Japanese rice cooker.  We want to make it easy and affordable for you to find and buy top quality micro-computer controlled rice cookers utilising state of the art fuzzy logic and induction heating (IH).  We'll also bring you great recipes and an increasing range of other Japanese cookware.

We are sure you'll have great fun and make great food with your Cook Japan rice cooker.

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