Back To Basics

Advanced Japanese Cuisines Day 1.

Chef Hiroki Murashima

Lecture

Before jumping into the our cooking lesson, our class began with an introduction to formal Japanese cuisine. We learned about the history of basic Japanese cooking and how its formal food practices (Kaiseki) began. To learn more about the history of Kaiseki (coming soon).

Into the Kitchen

“It's like going back to fundies. We're going back to square one."

Once we got into the kitchen, the class was introduced to a completely new set of equipment. There were pots without handles (which I honesty thought were just bowls), rectangular pans, and a lot of chopsticks. It was like we were going back to fundies (a kitchen fundamentals class). Each piece of equipment had small differences from what was typically used. These small changes proved to be quite the hurdle, even for a class of students with formal kitchen training.

Rice:

One of the key components of every meal is the rice. Rice is revered in many aspects of Asian culture as a symbol of spirituality, family, wealth, life, death, and the list goes on. Essentially, rice is very important, holding greater meaning beyond a product of sustenance. With this in mind, we learned the proper way to wash rice. Ridding the grain of its excess starch to produce a more supple and clean taste. Yes, as silly as it sounds, there is a proper way to wash rice. In order to cook Japanese rice, it must be washed at least 2-3 times, gently polishing it until the water's murkiness just fades to clear. The rice must not be cleaned too much as it may cause it to be too dry or lose shape. Once cleaned, the rice was cooked in an electric rice cooker, using the water to rice ratio labeled on the inside of the rice bowl (approximately 1:1).

Knives:

Unlike the average American kitchen knives, Japanese knives tend have a single bevel. Now if you're like me when I started learning about knives, you may be thinking, "What the heck is a bevel and how many is my knife supposed to have?"

The bevel of a knife, simply put, is the shape of its sharp edge. Generally, double and single bevels are the most common types of knife edging (but of course not the only kinds). A double bevel (standard in American) will have 2 sides of its blade shaved down to the same degree. If the knife has a single bevel, the edge is formed by shaving down a single side of the blade at an angle. Both types are displayed below for reference.

On the outset this may not seem like it would be much of a change, however these angles of the knife blade alter the way the knife needs to be held. Because a double bevel has equal angles on both sides, one could hold the knife perpendicular to cut straight down. A single bevel knife requires its users to cut at a slight angle in order to make a straight cut. You may be wondering, "Why would I want to use a knife that doesn't cut straight?" For the sake of keeping this post as short as possible, I will create a separate post about Japanese Knives (Coming Soon).

Not Your Average Knife Cuts

Back to class: In addition to the bevel of the knife, we also learned knife cuts. Most of us, having used double bevel knives for most of our careers found this to be a small hurdle to overcome. We learned to properly peel vegetables using our new knives. This method also works as a method for thin cuts as well. Not pointing to anyone specifically (it was me), there were many uneven and poorly cut pieces of veg on the cutting board at the beginning of class. With practice and patience I was cutting (sort of) acceptably by the end of the class.

Miso Soup

Another important component of a Kaiseki meal is the soup dish. Today, our class was briefly introduced to Dashi (which was already prepared for us) and we used it as a base for our soup. This soup base was was not only a method to add flavor, but to add umami. For more about dashi click HERE.

The dashi was boiled with green beans, mushrooms, and all thicker cut veg. Once the vegetables became tender, we added the thinly cut vegetables like the carrots and daikon.

After boiling for a minute or so, we incorporated the miso paste to the soup. To fully incorporate the paste, we added a ladle of the hot dashi from the pot into a bowl with the miso paste. We combined the two together until all the lumps were gone and added it back into the pot. We mixed everything together and then the soup was done.

On a Roll

One of the most iconic Japanese foods (arguably) is Tamagoyaki AKA a rolled egg omelette. This was one of my favorite parts of class. The egg was mixed with dashi, mirin, soy, and sugar, but can be adjusted in ratio according to preference. The mixture is poured in small portions onto the rectangular pan, spread evenly and quickly rolled. In this step it is important to know that with this pan, you must not use the same flicking motion typically used when making common omelets. With this rectangular pan, you must flip the egg using a lifting motion where your hand does not move forward, but the end of the pan is lifted towards you.

It is also important to pour just enough mixture to coat the bottom of the pan and you also want the egg to be pale in color like the one chef is making in the picture above. More egg mix is poured with the previous roll still in the pan. A snowball effect if you will, but of course NOT in the shape of a sphere. Once all the batter has been used, the egg is sliced into bite sized pieces and served.

Side Dishes

As in many Asian cultures, Japanese cuisine includes a variety of side dishes to complement the meal and rice. These dishes act as pallet cleansers, aromatic additions, flavor enhancers, and can be utilized to further express the seasonality of the meal.

Spinach

To begin, we washed and blanched (in slated water) the spinach. The water was gently squeezed out of the spinach and placed to the side. For the dressing, we used a mortar and pestle to make sesame paste and added in dashi and soy sauce to season. The spinach was tossed into the sauce right before serving.

Daikon

To go along the Tamagoyaki, we grated daikon. To this, we added a bit of soy sauce and dashi. This dish worked as a pleasant palette cleanser, contrasting the heavier egg. The daikon was refreshing and paired well with some pickled ginger.

The Meal

Once all of the food was made, everyone including our chef sat down together to enjoy the food. We also paired the meal with a pot of tea and bottle of sake.

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All photos taken by me unless stated otherwise.

Ingredients and measurements here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f6o_6MPin-xK0QDCJZ1HOvtLk7d2BbWzdwB9-6xJxwM/edit?usp=sharing