Edomae Sushi , Vinegar and Sushi rice

I learned interesting facts about Edomae Sushi at Tokyo Sushi academy during my Japan visit. Edo is the old name of Tokyo. Edomae Sushi is Tokyo style Nigiri. Nigiri is a shaped Sushi made with sliced fresh fish and Sushi rice.
Here is introduction to Sushi vinegar. Sushi vinegar is made of rice vinegar, sea salt and sugar. Sushi vinegar in east part of Tokyo is different from west part. In the west include Osaka, Sushi vinegar recipe include more sugar or sweet (Osaka style) while east part of Japanthe Sushi vinegar is less sugary (Tokyo style). Since I am from Hiroshima which is located in the western part, my home style Sushi is made from sweet Sushi Vinegar. Edomae Sushi uses Vinegar called Akasu or Red vinegar. I had lived in only western part of Japan and never heard about Akasu before hearing from Tokyo Sushi Academy instructor. Akasu or Red vinegar is made from Sake Kasu which is byproducts from sake making process.(See http://www.esake.com/Sake-Food/Kasu/kasu.html .)
Edomae Sushi chef has his/her unique recipes of Sushi vinegar by blending, partially red vinegar and the rice vinegar. Sushi rice made using Red vinegar is called Aka Shari which means red Sushi rice in Japanese. Tokyo Sushi Academy uses Mitsukan brand. Mizkan sells Akasu or Kasuzu for only commercial use. Here is a bit of history of Red vinegar from Mizkan Japan website which is not included in American Mizkan Site.
“… Founder of Mizkan, Mr. Matazaemon Nakamura was born as a Sake producer’s son in Edo period. He recognized when bacteria got into the Sake barrel, Sake turned to vinegar. He decided to make vinegar from byproduct of Sake and successfully made Kasuzu or Akasu. Meanwhile, Haya Sushi(fast Sushi), which is origin of Nigiri made of sea food and Sushi rice, was very popular in Edo or former Tokyo. Haya Sushi was made with expensive rice vinegar. Mr. Nakano marketed his Kasuzu as inexpensive alternative to rice vinegar. Sushi chefs at popular restaurant in Edo recognized Kasuzu had flavor and Umami suitable to Sushi rice. They madeHaya Sushi with Kasuzu. Since then, Kasuzu or Akazu has been necessary ingredient to make Edomae Sushi ……”
When I was in Tokyo, I looked for Akasu or Kasuzu. I had to go four super markets and several more expensive than rice vinegar due to long processing time. I brought back this rare vinegar to Seattle and made Sushi vinegar by mixing 1:1 ratio of rice vinegar and Akasu. Sushi rice was beige. I made lettuce wrap stuffed with Sushi vinegar, vegetables and meat. They were delicious.
Lastly, things that you should know before you decide to go to traditional Edomae Sushi restaurant. Sushi chef decides the price of Sushi when he/she sees the face of the customer. It means the same Nigiri can be cheap at one Sushi restaurant but expensive at another. No price will be listed on the menu. That is why people like to go Kaiten Sushi (conveyor belt Sushi) or Sushi train place. There you can estimate how much you had by number and color of your empty plates.
Here is
Tokyo style Sushi vinegar recipe
½ cup Rice vinegar
1 table spoon sugar (Preferably superfine sugar)
1 tea spoon sea salt
In the cooking pot, combine all ingredients and heat to melt sugar and salt. Do not boil. Cool the Sushi vinegar and use for Sushi rice. For sweet Sushi vinegar, add extra 1-2 Table spoons of sugar.
As you wish you can adjust sugar and/or salt amount.

Pancake to benefit Japan earthquake survivors

Pancake breakfast for Japan Earthquake relief March,2011

Although my Japanese family lives in Hiroshima and was not affected by 9.0 earthquake, I was born and raised in Japan and wanted to help people affected by Earthquake.
Around Seattle, there are many fund raising events involve food.
Bake sale, Auction dinner, Cake walk and pancake breakfast are good examples. I am not rich enough to give away fancy dinner but can host fund raiser Pancake breakfast at Prune Kitchen. Our friend, Lyle, often invites many friends to his pancake breakfast at his apartment. I asked him if he can help me pancake breakfast at Prune Kitchen to help Japan earthquake survivors. He agreed to be one of hosts and cook breakfast. He brought two large industrial size coffee makers with fresh coffee, two hot plates, and pancake ingredients. I bought sausages, potatoes, bacon and fruits.
I wanted to have breakfast menu include carbohydrate, protein, and fruits.
Menu of the breakfast
Lyle’s Pancake with Syrup or homemade berry sauce
Pork sausage
Pan fried Potatoes with onion and bacon
Fruits (Slices of Apples and Oranges)
And Coffee, tea or orange juice.

We raised $5062.41 total for American Red Cross, Peace Winds America and World Vision.

Here are recipes of pan fried potatoes and potato pancake from the left over potatoes.
Fumiko’s Pan fried Pototoes with bacon recipe:
4-5 servings:
3~4 medium sized Red or yellow potatoes boiled and cool the day before the breakfast
3 slices of bacon
3tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic

1. Peel cold cooked potatoes and cut about ½ inch cube.
2. Cut bacon to small pieces
3. Fry the bacon until outside edges turned to brown.
4. Drain about a half of bacon fat from bacon
5. Add onion and garlic to the cooked bacon and cook over medium heat until onion turns transparent
6. Add potatoes and fry together with bacon and onion.
7. Turn the potato over when the bottom is brown and crispy.
8. Cook the potatoes until light brown.

Potato pancake from the left over fried potatoes with Bacon or mashed potatoes

Left over cooked potatoes with bacon or mashed potatoes
Unbleached all purpose flour as needed
1 egg
1TBSP cooking oil

1. Mash the left over potatoes and bacon. (If you use leftover mashed potatoes, skip this process.)
2. Add an egg and flour in the potatoes.
3. Mix well and the potato mix is too soft add more flour. I like small amount of flour to have crispy potato taste while my family like more flour added to have stiff but well formed pancake.
4. Make the ball and press to make hamburger shape.
5. Heat the frying pan and add oil
6. Cook potato pancake in the pan.
7. Cook both side of the potato pancake to light crispy brown.
8. Serve it warm

Cooking for my mother

My sister called me that our mother lost appetite and got ill. I decided to go to stay and cook for a month at my parents’ for my mother. She used to be bit over-weight. When I arrived at my parents’ house, my mother was very skinny. She was too weak to even speak up what she wanted.
According to my sister, she started eating very little. When she was in a hospital, she didn’t want to eat. My sister prefers cooking simple meals and doesn’t like cooking much. She made Japanese hotpot or Nabe, and Variety of ingredients cooked in large pot or Oden. They are nice simple Japanese Winter meals. However, because my mother is very good cook and love to eat, I know she love to eat Japanese dishes which is more complex. I wanted to make something easy to digest and meet her taste bud. She has high blood pressure problem. She used to cook and eat low sodium meals and will not eat any salty meals. Go good soup stock is key to cook dishes with less sodium without losing flavors. I made Dashi (Japanese soup stock) from Iriko (Dried small fish) which home cooks in Hiroshima use instead of dried bonito flakes to make Miso soup. Using this sock, I made Miso soup, Chawanmushi( steamed egg dish), cooked root vegetables, and most Japanese dishes. I hope that eating slow food which I prepared from fresh ingredients with love make her healthy and happy.
My mother told me that I make more Japanese meals than my sister who live in Japan. I harvested , Daikon (typoe of radish), Gobo(burdock) and cabbage in my mother’s garden. I cooked Daikon and Gobo with Dashi. I made small rolled cabbage made with ground Chicken and Tofu inside cooked in Japanese soup stock hint of tomato flavor. My mother was not sure about rolled cabbage at first. After she ate one, she loved it and asked another one. She gradually gained her appetite and started eating more. By the time I left her house, she could make Sticky rice or Mochi and teach us how to prepare fresh octopus and sea cucumber which my uncle fished. I told her that I would be back to cook for her in May if she is well.
After I came back to Seattle, my sister told me that doctor told the test results of our mother is better than her last visit.
The photos shows meals which my mother had.

Japanese Breakfast Cooking Together

I hosted Japanese breakfast cooking and eating for Pacific Northwest Cooking Recipe meetups at my new kitchen.
4 members and my husband attended the cooking event. I set the menus, bought ingredients and directed them to cook. Here is the menu
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Menu:
Rice
Miso soup.
Baked Halibut
Panfried Tofu with grated daikon and ginger
Natto
Sautéed Burdoc and Carrot(Kinpira Gobo)
Boiled Spinach with Bonito flakes and soy sauce
Toasted and seasoned seaweed (Agitsuke Nori)
Pickled vegetables (Tsukemono)
Pickled plum(Umeboshi)
Sesami kelp(Goma Konbu)
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In addition to these, because my friend had given me Matsutake mushrooms yesterday, I made Matsutake rice.
All attendants learned bit of Japanese cooking and happy eating delicious Japanese breakfast.I am including recipes of 3 items from this breakfast.
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Miso soup(4 Servings)
1. In the bowl add ½ cup of water and 1 tsps of Dried seaweed (Wakame).
2. Cut 1/8th of Tofu into small pieces.Chop green onion.
3. In the pot, add 2 Dashi packs and 4 cups of water and heat to boil. Boil for 5 minutes to make soup stock. (I used all natural Dashi pack which looks like teabag. )
4. Remove the Dashi packs and add Tofu
5. Heat the soup and add Soy bean paste (Miso) 1/8cups and more as needed.
6. Before the soup boils, turn down heat to keep warm.
7. Seaweed will be hydrated by this time. Drain and squeeze the excess water of seaweed.
8. Add the seaweed and green onion into 6 portion to add it in the bowls.
9. When other food is ready, pour the Miso soup into each bowl.

Sautéed Burdock and Carrot (Kinpira Gobo)
1. Peel Burdock (Gobo) and cut into Julienne. Soak the Burdock in bowl of water with 1tsp of rice vinegar to avoid browning.
2. Peel carrots and cut it into Julienne.
3. Heat a frying pan, add 1 TBSp oil.
4. Add Burdock and carrot and fry
5. Add ½ tsp Chili flakes.
6. Add 2TBSP water 1TBSP Sake, 1 TBSP Mirin, and 2SBSP Soy sauce.
7. Cook until all liquid is evaporated.
8. Add 1tsp sesame oil and 2 tsp of Sesame seed.

Boiled spinach with Bonito flakes and soy sauce
1. Wash spinach well.
2. Boil water and add spinach.
3. Cook the spinach until the stem is tender
4. Take spinach out and put it into the iced water
5. Squeeze the excess water and cut it into one inch length wide
6. Dish the spinach and serve with dried bonito flakes and soy sauce(Add Dashi to make less salty).

Kabocha Thai curry

My life has been hectic. I haven’t written my blog for while. I will write more what kept me busy later.
I resume my blog and try to write more.
I joined Pacific Northwest cooking and recipe meetup group and attended “Your favorite Recipe Share and Tell Pumpkin and Apples” meetup. I thought Japanese way to cook Kabocha but it may not be popular among the attendants. I thought curry may do well with pumpkin. I decided to select other Asian curry rather than Japanese. I searched my collection of Indian then Thai recipe books. I found one which I could imagine to make tasty curry. I changed quite bit from original “Sweet Pumpkin and Peanut curry” in Thai the essence of Asian cooking by Judy Bastyra.(There are many good recipes and nice photos in this book.)
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Kabocha Thai Curry Recipe
Kabocha is Japanese pumpkin. It is dark green. It is smaller and sweeter than large yellow pumpkins.Original version uses peanuts,regular pumpkin, garlic and chicken stock, no meat, no zucchini. I used Kabocha and boiled them before adding them to curry soup.
Ingredients
1 large Fresh ginger cut into julienne
1 Shallots chopped small pieces
½ Kabocha peeled and cut to chunks
Zucchini ¼ inch sliced
Fresh Mushrooms sliced
Chicken ½ inch cube
Oil 1Tbsp
13.5 oz can of coconuts milk
Fish sauce 1-2 TBSP
Yellow Thai curry paste 1-2TBSP
Cooking instruction
1. Boil Kabocha 5 minutes. The Kabocha is halfway cooked
2. In a large stew pan, heat oil and stir ginge and shallots.
3. Add chicken and cook until done.
4. Add the curry paste, mix and stir.
5. Add coconuts milk, fish sauce, Zucchini, mushrooms
6. Cook until the vegetables are well cooked
7. Add pumpkin and cook until pumpkins are tender.
8. Serve with toasted Pumpkin seeds.
(Notes)This curry is very satisfactory itself without rice. Make it vegetarian by eliminating chicken and adding nuts or beans.

Creating interesting looking and tasty food

Please see my blog at fumikob.com

Easter eggs

My new blog posted to http://fumikob.com/