15
This past week I made a very nice meal from my cookbook Japanese cooking: traditions, techniques, ingredients and recipes by Emi Kazuko and Yasuko Fukuoka. The only problems I had were 1) finding a daikon (instead I used a different type of radish that I found in Chinatown that was fairly close) and 2) I fried the tofu with a cornstarch coating – very bad idea! But other than that, it was very nice. I wouldn’t recommend this for someone new to Japanese food unless you have tried something with dashi in it before (e.g. in agedashi tofu) since it is a bit fishy for the uninitiated. Once you try it, however, you will come to love the taste. It goes very well with tofu and this smelled so good while it was cooking. As for the mushrooms, the book describes them as the “vegetarian equivalent of steak” and that’s not too far off! I found they were nice warm and cold. Anyway, on with the recipes:
Simmered tofu with vegetables
4 medium or 6 small dried shitake mushrooms
450 g daikon (its a big radish!)
2 atsu-age (deep fried tofu), about 200 g each (note: you can easily fry your own tofu at home rather than buying them, just cook in a thick layer of oil and turn until the tofu is cooked through)
100-150 g green beans, trimmed and cut in half
1 teaspoon uncooked sushi rice
100-150 g carrot, sliced
300g baby potatoes, washed but not peeled
3 cups second dashi (see this website for a good tutorial, alas I used the instant)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sake (rice wine – unfortunately I can’t afford sake so I omitted this and it turned out fine)
1 tablespoon mirin (cooking rice wine)
Soak the shitake mushrooms overnight in the fridge (as I do, being paranoid of food poisoning) or at room temperature for 2 hours. Discard the liquid and remove and discard the stalks. Peel the daikon and slice into 1/2 inch discs. Shave the edge to make rounded edges – this helps them cook evenly and looks ever so cute). Put them into cold water to keep from discolouration. Cook the atsu-age (or open the package you bought) and wash away the excess oil with hot water and drain. Cut into pieces of 1 x 2 inches. Boil the green beans for 2-5 minutes, drain, and cool. Set aside until later.
Put the daikon in the pan with the water and the rice (it takes away the bitter taste during cooking). Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 15 minutes, then drain. Discard the rice. Put the atsu-age, mushrooms, carrot and potato in the pan with the daikon. Add the dashi stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and add the sugar, soy sauce and sake, gently staking (not stirring) to mix. Cut wax paper to be about 1/2 an inch smaller than the pan and place over the stew. Put the lid on the pan and gently simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the paper, add the green beans and cook for 2 minutes more. Add the mirin and then taste the sauce – add more soy sauce if desired. Arrange the ingredients on a plate and pour some of the sauce over. Serve warm.
Fukumé-ni (slow cooked shitake)
20 dried shitake mushrooms
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I tried using 1 tablespoon to reduce the oiliness the second time I made it and it didn’t taste as good, maybe 2 is better?)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Soak the mushrooms overnight. Save half a cup of the liquid and discard the rest. Cut off the stalks and discard. Heat the oil in a large pan or wok and sir-fry for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to lowest setting, add the liquid saved earlier, the soy sauce and sugar. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add sesame oil and remove from the heat.