About Naomi Kuwabara

Recent Posts by Naomi Kuwabara

Tofu Shirataki Salad (Gluten Free Cold Noodle Salad)

I’ve been thinking about foods easier on digestion. Japanese food, at least authentic Japanese food, is usually digestive friendly so for the mean time I’ll be posting tummy happy recipes. I haven’t given up fish because how could I give up tasty and delicious dashi (fish stock). It must an innate Japanese need to leave fish in my diet.

I found tofu “spaghetti” shirataki (see shirataki) at a Japanese grocery store and thought they were interesting enough to share. House Foods makes these noodles in “fettuccine” and “angle hair” also. My first thought was who thought of such a thing? Are Japanese companies trying to get American’s to eat tofu by disgusing its shape and flavor? That’s what it seemed like. In fact there is hardly any tofu flavor. It smells mostly like konnyaku so you could probably use it as a substitute for regular shirataki in traditional recipes such as sukiyaki or nabe but I thought a cold noodle salad would be even better. Mind you, the recipe on the back of the package called to use the tofu shirataki as a substitute for spaghetti and to eat it with tomato sauce. YUCK! I love spaghetti and tomato sauce but not matter how much it looks like spaghetti, it’s gonna taste like konnyaku and tomato sauce.

I decided on a cold noodle salad that was refreshing and a little summery. It’s warming up here in California so vine ripe tomatoes and cucumbers are already making their way to the grocery store. Avocados are also a nice creamy addition to this salad. However, you can incorporate any of your favorite salad ingredients into this recipe.

Ingredients (Servings 2)

• 1 package of tofu shirataki
• 1/2 medium vine ripe tomato diced and peeled
• (Japanese cucumber)
• 1/4 large avocado
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2.5 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1.5 tbsp sugar
• black pepper to taste
• 1/2 tbsp sesame seed oil

Directions

1. Drain the tofu shirataki and squeeze water out. Allow water to drip out from a sieve for at least 20 minutes and press down periodically to press out water.
2. Dice half a medium sized vine ripe tomato. Peel the skin off first. (Tip: this helps for picky people who claim to like tomatoes only some ways.)
3. Dice the avocado into cubes the same size as the tomatoes
4. Dice the cucumber also into cubes about the same size as the tomatoes and avocados.
5. Mix the soy sauce, sugar, vinegar and black pepper until the sugar is dissolved. Then add the sesame seed oil. (The dressing will be strong because the shirataki will dilute a lot of the vingear.
6. Mix the shirataki, tomatoes, cucumber and avocados in a bowl and add the dressing to taste.
7. Serve immediately

Tofu Shirataki “Fettuccine”

Tofu Shirataki “Spaghetti”

Tomatoes, avocados and cucumbers go great with this salad.

Drain the noodles. Make sure you squeeze out as much of the water as possible. Drain for at least 20 minutes and press water out with your hands periodically.

Cut up the ingredients into equal sized cubes.

Mix the soy sauce, sugar, pepper and vinegar until the sugar dissolves. Add the sesame seed oil. (The dressing is strong but will become diluted because of the tomatoes, cucumber and the shirataki)

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and then add the dressing to taste, about 2 tablespoons.

Serve the salad into a small bowl so that the dressing and juices don’t run away on a plate. (Tofu Shirataki “Fettuccine”)

Tofu Shirataki “Spaghetti” variation with carrots.

Pair salad with a protein and rice for a Japanese style meal.

Making Mochi the Easy Way

I wanted to post some sort of osechi (Japanese new year’s fare) and mochi article for New Year’s but I missed my opportunity. However, I’ve been eating a lot of mochi lately and started thinking about an easier way to make it. I figure eating mochi is a year round thing so I thought I would post my findings on easy mochi making. If you’ve ever made mochi from scratch it’s an arduous process. First you have to soak the rice for 8-10 hours and then you have to steam it and then you have to pound it. Pounding it is another story because that requires a kine and usu (wooden stick and bowl) used to pound it. Who even has one of those? My parents have a mochitsukiki (mochi maker) which is great because it does all the steaming and pounding for you. All you have to do is soak it. The only problem is that they are expensive and I have enough gadgets in my house without getting another large one that only has one function.

I looked around online to see if there were any tips for making mochi using a rice cooker. I found out that I don’t have to soak the rice for 8-10 hours when using a rice cooker that was a plus. This also meant that I don’t have to plan as much when I want to make it. The difficult step was to pound the mochi without having a kine and usu or a mochitsukiki. Initially I put it in a bowl and mashed it up using two pestles. This took about 20-30 minutes and it was difficult to get it to a smooth consistency.

Let me back up a few months to tell the rest of this story. The last few months I started baking bread using an old bread machine I found in my parent’s garage. I kid you not, it looks like R2D2. In fact that’s what I call him. (See Photo Below). Because it’s a bread machine, it comes with a kneading function which incidentally is the same type of technology used in mochi machines. (At least the one that my parents have). Up until this time, Mister man has mostly been in charge of pounding my mochi with bowl and pestle and was probably growing tired of it. One day he turns to me and says “I wonder if your bread machine can make mochi?” It was as if he hit a light switch. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner. Mind you, the only thing Mister man can cook is udon and miso soup. He’s learning though.

Eager to try it out and relieve himself of manual labor, he quickly set off to test his theory. He cooked the mochi rice in a rice cooker, dumped it in the bread machine and set the bread machine to the kneading cycle. The mochi took about 45 minutes from start to finish. Mister man wasn’t sure how long to knead it for so he let it run for the whole cycle, which was about 15 minutes. Kneading times vary by machine but I found that 7 minutes worked well on mine. When you knead too long, it starts to get too gooey, which is what happened when Mister man did it for 15 minutes. If you don’t have a bread machine you can use the kneading function on standing mixers. I have never tested that out but if it worked on a bread machine, I’m thinking it will work with a standing mixer. The only benefit I can see the bread machine having over the standing mixer is that the bowl is non stick.

Tip (Removing the mochi from the bread machine)
When removing the mochi from the bread machine, make sure you have a bowl of cold water handy so you can dip your fingers in it which keeps the rice from sticking to your hands. I found that the kneading process cools down the mochi so it’s not unbearably hot. Do this step quickly and dip your fingers in the water after each nudge.

Tip (Shaping the mochi)
Mochi can be very messy if you try to ball them up into individual size pieces. I like to drop all of the mochi onto a plastic lined grill pan. There are mochi trays in Japan with both horizontal and vertical lines that leave an imprint on the mochi so you can cut it after it cooks. Unfortunately, they are hard to come by so I improvised with a grill pan. Once all the mochi is on the tray or pan, place plastic wrap over it and smooth out the mochi with your hands. Let the mochi cool and place in the freezer about 4-5 hours and cut into squares. If you use a grill pan, you’ll have at least some lines to guide the your cuts.

My bread machine R2D2.

Mochi rice is different from regular rice. It’s whiter and is more plump than regular Japanese rice.

After cooking the sweet rice (mochi rice) in the rice cooker, add it to the bread machine or standing mixer with a kneading function.

After 7 minutes on the kneading cycle, the mochi rice is mochi! (Kneading times may vary with machine)

Line a tray or grill pan with plastic wrap.

Dump the mochi onto a plastic lined tray or grill pan. Use your hands and water!

Lay plastic wrap over the top and spread out the mochi so that it’s about 1 inch thick all around.

Place in freezer for 4-5 hours and flip over to see the lines.

Cut the mochi into squares.

Wrap two at a time or one at a time into individual servings. Place the remaining mochi in a plastic bag and freeze.

Maru mochi (round mochi) vs. Shikakui mochi (square mochi)
In the Kansai region, mochi are typically round and in the Kanto area, they are square. I’m not sure about the rest of Japan but I find that making the square mochi are waaaaay easier.

umamitopia.com: Authentic Japanese, CA fusion, French & Italian influenced recepies.

The Magic Behind Shungiku, an Edible Flower

Shungiku is an edible type of chrysanthemum plant although the flowers are typically not eaten. It is native to East Asia and is used widely in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

In Japan, shungiku is a popular green vegetable to add to nabe (Japanese hot pot), sukiyaki, blanched and mixed with a dressing or stir fried. It has a strong grassy flavor that mellows out after cooking. People who don’t mind it’s distinct flavor use it raw in salads, however my favorite way of eating it is in nabe and sukiyaki. Shungiku is in season in Japan from November through March.

Shunjiku is sold in bunches like this without the flowers.

You can see that the leaves are from a chrysanthemum plant.

Meet Negi, Tamanegi’s Oniony Relative

If you grew up bilingual, I’m sure you can relate to translating words (or phrases) from one language to another and getting it completely wrong.

I was helping my mom in the kitchen one day and she asked me to get her negi. When I came back with an onion (yellow onion) she told me I had a tamanegi and she needed negi. I realized my confusion and got to thinking. Why is onion in English called onion and all related plants are named XXX onion such as green onion, Welsh onions, etc. And why is negi in Japanese and called negi and all related plants called XXX negi such as tamanegi. (In this case, the tama part of tamanegi means ball.)

Ok if you read this far you’re probably thinking who cares. But I wondered this because I wondered if negi is used more commonly as a base in Japanese cooking compared to its oniony relative the tamanegi. At least it seems to me that negi were used in a huge variety of traditional Japanese dishes before tamanegi found their way into Japanese cooking. Now, I’m not sure if onions were traditionally used more than green onions in Western cooking but onions are essential to making a Mirepoix which serves as a base for a wide number of French dishes.

English	Japanese
Onion	Tamanegi
Green Onion	Negi

Ok enough rambling on about words and onion theories.

Negi is interesting because it is used as a herb and a vegetable. It is often chopped fine and added raw as a topping to noodle dishes or cut into large chunks and added to nabe or sukiyaki dishes.

I found these negi in California but they are slightly skinnier than the ones in Japan.

Negi chopped up and ready to be added to my nabe (hot pot).

Japanese Hot Pot Nabe

When I think of the quintessential winter time dish, it has to be nabe ryori. Nabe is Japanese hot pot and like most hot pot dishes, you can put anything in it. It’s like the Asian version of stone soup. There are a few standard items that are usually part of most nabe dishes but there are many types of nabe such as fugu nabe, kimchi nabe or mizutaki (Fukuoka specialty). There are also different ways of eating nabe and it’s even said that each household has their own way of eating nabe.

This recipe is my take on nabe and the way I grew up eating it. I used most of the standard nabe ingredients but as I mentioned earlier, anything goes so put in whatever ingredients you and your family likes. Traditionally, most nabe ingredients call for hakusai, negi, shiitake, shirataki, shungiku, enoki, tofu, fish balls (made from a fish paste) and thinly sliced or large cuts of fresh fish and cooked in a fish broth.

Make sure that you don’t get called a Nabebugyo (鍋奉行) from your family/friends when eating nabe. The person who controls the nabe pot is called a Nabebugyo. It is often used to describe a person who is bossy because the person who controls the nabe pot dictates what goes in the pot and who eats what. Bugyo was a political position (equivalent to a govenor) during and before the Edo Period (1603 to 1868). Therefore, Nabebugyo is a person of authority who controls the nabe.

List of Common Ingredients

• hakusai
• enoki
• shungiku
• negi
• shirataki
• tofu
• shiitake
• fish balls/(chikuwa/kamaboko) fish cake
• thin slices of fish
• large cuts of fish
• chicken thigh (for mizutaki nabe)

Not as common but ingredients I like to add

• suigyoza or leftover gyoza filling
• egg
• gobo
• daikon
• carrot
• thinly sliced beef or pork

Gomadare Ingredients (Servings 2)
2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp. miso
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. dashijiru

Directions for gomadare

1. Grind up the sesame seeds finely in a suribachi (mortar and pestle)
2. Add the miso, sugar and dashijiru (from the pot) and mix well. (I like the keep the sauce on the thick side and use the broth from the pot to thin out the sauce as I eat it.)

Soy Sauce Tare
The soy sauce tare is a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce and ponzu. I like a little acidity in my tare. I add a 1-2 teaspoons in my bowl as I pull items out of the nabe.

If you want to do a vegetarian or vegan nabe, just use kombu to make kombu dashi.

If you want a katsuobushi broth, gently simmer katsuobushi in the nabe pot and let it rest for a while. Add kombu before the katsuobushi to make a classic dashijiru.

After straining the katsuobushi, return the dashijiru to the pot.

Grind the koma until finely ground and add miso, dashijiru and sugar to thin it out.

Put all your nabe ingredients (minus the meat) on the lid of the nabe pot.

Set up your nabe station on the table with a portable gas stove. That way everyone can sit around the able and add their favorite nabe items into the pot. There are also electric nabe stoves as well.

There are many different sauces and items you can put in your nabe. On day two of nabe, I used a different goma dare (sauce) and a soy sauce and ponzu tare.

Add your favorite items to the pot. The hakusai take the longest here so I added it first so that it’s at the bottom of the pot.

The tofu is done first. I used a slotted spoon to take out a few items so I can control how much broth I want.

Add your favorite tare (sauce) on top and add some broth to thin it out and enjoy.

I think shirataki goes well with the goma dare.

Halfway through, I wanted to change the flavor of the nabe and added kimchee. Many people add udon or rice in the end to finish their nabe.

umamitopia.com: Authentic Japanese, CA fusion, French & Italian influenced recepies.

Shirataki in the Spotlight: Think Yam Cake

Shirataki is a type of konnyaku (gelatinous yam cake) that is in the form of thin noodles. They are similar to ito konnyaku in that they both look like konnyaku noodles but differs in that shirataki must be white, whereas ito konnyaku comes in a variety of colors. They are also prepared differently. Shirataki is passed through a tool similar to a tokoroten tsuki and dropped into hot water where it firms up into noodles. Ito konnyaku is prepared in a similar way except the konnyaku is already firm before passing it through the tool to make noodles.

One of the benefits of shirataki is that it has a mild flavor and can be eaten with just about anything. Shirataki is often eaten in sukiyaki and nabe (hot pot) dishes. It is also very low in calories. There are 0 calories in a 28 gram (1oz) serving of konnyaku.

Shirataki comes in bags filled with water.

Drain the shirataki before using.

Shitake and Green Onion Osumashi

Osumashi seemed like the prefect accompaniment to ikura don (Build-a-Meal 40) but I wanted something simple that wasn’t going to require lots of ingredients or cutting out carrot flowers. I wanted to keep this recipe in line with the decadent meal on the go theme so I decided on a shitake and green onion soup. You can use fresh shitake but I had some dried shitake soaking in water overnight so I used those since I thought it would give it a more complex flavor but either will do. Of course if you’re doing an instantaneous dinner then use the fresh shitake.

For my other osumashi and osuimono recipes see Tofu, Kamaboko and Carrot Osumashi and Tamago Osuimono

I also added a small green salad to this build a meal. I didn’t think it was worth posting a recipe since it was just a basic green salad with a sweet Japanese dressing but it helped balance out the meal so I recommend adding a small salad of your choice.

Ingredients (2 Servings)
10 grams katsuobushi
2 cups of water
2 shitake mushrooms (dried or fresh)
1 sprig green onions chopped
3/4 teaspoon of Kosher salt (less if using iodized salt)
1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce
1.5 tablespoons of sake

Directions
1) Make dashijiru. You can follow the basic dashijiru recipe I have but I altered the ingredients in this recipe for two serving and added a little extra katsuobushi.
2) After you have drained the dashijiru, add the broth back into a pot and add the salt and soy sauce.
3) Add the shitake and cook until done.
4) Add the green onions just before turning off the stove so they maintain their green color.
5) Next add the sake immediately before serving unless you need to make sure that the alcohol has evaporated. You shouldn’t taste any alcohol although adding it last allows it to maintain its flavor.
6) Serve into bowls and and pair with a fish or sushi dish.

Shitake and Green Onion Osumashi.

umamitopia.com: Authentic Japanese, CA fusion, French & Italian influenced recepies.

Ikura Don Takes Salmon Roe, Shitake & Green Onion Osumashi to a New Level

What could be better than a decadent meal that takes no time at all?

My friend’s brother goes fishing in Alaska every year to catch the almighty Atlantic King Salmon. And we’re not talking about a little trip to the lake. He goes with his guy friends and live in a dirty man cave for five weeks, all the while catching thousands of pounds of salmon. It’s quite the trek.

Anyhow, my friend and her brother were nice enough to give me some of this salmon. It’s currently in the freezer while I devise ways to cook it. In addition, (such great friends) they gave me some ikura (salmon roe). The ikura, on the other hand, was from some ikura company that specializes in ikura. How wonderful, don’t you think?

I think ikura is one of those things that people love or hate. To those of us who love it, they’re like beautiful reddish orange beads of decadence that pop with flavor in every bite. The pop is probably what people who don’t like ikura hate about it.

This recipe is simple because as long as you get fresh ikura, there isn’t much you have to do. Spend your extra time making a nice osumashi (clear fish broth soup). (See Tofu, Kamaboko, and Carrot Osumashi or stay tuned for my shitake and green onion osumashi.)

In the future, I’ll post a video on how to pull the ikura off the suji (the sack that holds all the eggs). FYI, sujiko is salmon roe still in the sack which has been salted. Ikura is salmon roe that has been removed from the sack and is separated into individual eggs. It is then seasoned with soy sauce and sake.

You can buy already seasoned ikura in Japanese supermarkets. I would taste it to see how much of the soy sauce it has absorbed and adjust the seasoning accordingly. If you have fresh salmon roe that has not been doctored, the standard marinating time after the eggs have been separated is 2-3 days.

If you want it to be fast and easy, just get the prepared ikura and add a little soy sauce and sake and let it sit for a little until it has absorbed some of the sauce.

Ingredients (servings 2-3)
3/4 cup ikura
2 tsp. sake
1 tsp. soy sauce
Japanese rice (2 + 1/4 cups dry rice. Just in case you go back for seconds.)
nori (seaweed) for garnish

Directions
1) Marinate the ikura with the sake and the soy sauce ahead of time. (2-3 days if it is not already seasoned but 20-30 minutes is acceptable if the ikura is already seasoned. In this case start marinating before you start the rice .)
2) Cook the rice. (See electric rice cooker or stove top rice for directions)
3) Top a hot steaming bowl of rice with 1/4-1/3 (or half but I guarantee you’ll be going back for more rice) of the ikura and top with nori strips for garnish. Drizzle extra soy sauce as needed. And TA DAH! Decadence on the go!

BAM 40: Ikura don, shitake and green onion osuimono and salad.

Season the ikura with soy sauce and sake to get rid of any fishiness and brighten up the flavor.

Generously top over hot rice and garnish with thin strips of seaweed.

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