Posted on: Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Japanese essentials

By Sharon Noguchi
Knight Ridder News Service

There's more to Japanese food than food.

There are tools.

I was reminded of this not long ago when I offered to prepare a simple, homestyle Japanese meal at my husband's aunt's house. I forgot that tools make the chef. And my utensils were a continent and an ocean away.

A multitude of gadgets and tools, each with a specific use, is available for the Japanese kitchen. But there really are only a few essential ones. So, for cooks taking up Japanese cuisine or wondering how their friends get the cucumber slices so thin or the ginger grated so fine, here are tools useful in everyday cooking.

Donabe (lidded ceramic pot). For making one-pot meals such as yosenabe (chicken or seafood stews) or oden (fishcake stew), nothing beats these homey pots designed to go directly on a burner. They produce better flavor and distribute heat more evenly than do metal pots. They also retain heat. Usually, I start the pot on my range, and when the food is partly done, I carry it to the table to continue cooking on a tabletop burner (in Japan, many families have gas outlets near the table to power their burners). But when I'm in a hurry, I'll cook the whole meal on the stove. The inside of the pot is glazed, and the outside is unfinished.

Chopsticks. Not just for the dinner table, these are the most versatile and useful of any utensil. They turn over fried oysters, scramble eggs and fish out pickles from jars. Long (about 14 inches) cooking chopsticks, often connected by string at the top, or — my preference — sturdy Chinese-style chopsticks are most handy on the stove. They allow more precise handling of food than either tongs or meat forks do; they're indispensable for arranging food on platters. Metal chopsticks are available for deep-frying.

Otoshi-buta (drop lid). A circle of wood with a handle on top, this lid floats on simmering food. It allows liquids to be evenly distributed, so that flavors permeate the food. Because it also helps prevent a rolling boil, food doesn't get jumbled around and lose its shape.

Fish grills. Normally, these flattened cages with a drip pan attached are placed right on the burner. But I don't like cleaning up grease on the range nor smelling mackerel all night long. So I enclose the fish and set the grill on the barbecue. You'll need to use an oven mitt to turn it over, but it's much easier than flipping a fish on the grill, or unsticking it when it's done.

Knives. No tool is more important than a sharp, properly designed knife. Over the centuries, Japanese craftsmen honed the arts of swords and cutlery; today, Japanese knives are among the finest in the world. Unlike Western knives, only one side is sharpened. Those sold for household use have a thin cutting edge of hard steel encased in harder steel. Carbon steel can be sharpened better than stainless steel, but it does rust and needs precise care.

In the array of special-use knives, I find four the most useful: a heavy-duty, general-purpose fish knife, used also for meat and chicken; a vegetable knife that looks like a lightweight, small cleaver; a good paring knife; and a thin perforated knife for slicing sushi and cake. The perforations help keep delicate or dense foods from sticking to the knife.

Because diners are supposed to be able to eat Japanese food with just chopsticks, the cook does the slicing, either before or after cooking.

Vegetable grater. Before mandolines became all the rage, these plastic-and-metal graters with interchangeable cassettes were a Japanese kitchen staple.

I use one to slice cucumbers paper-thin for sunomono salad, shred carrots for fried rice or grate daikon for a condiment. You can find low-end, all-in-one slicers at Japanese stores for less than $5. Some of the nicer ones slide onto a plastic box to catch the finished vegetables.

Fine grater. Made of stainless steel, aluminum or ceramic, these are for grating ginger. I suspect nothing else would work on the fibrous root (which needs to be periodically trimmed with kitchen shears during the grating).

Suribachi (mortar) and pestle. This decorative-looking bowl has rows of narrow grooves etched into its unfinished ceramic interior, perfect for grinding sesame seeds. Grinding the seeds releases their flavor. The pestle looks like a short, tapered rolling pin.

A suribachi also works well for mashing garlic and herbs, but I avoid using mine for those because I don't want the odor to permeate the porous clay of the bowl or the wooden pestle.

Rice cooker. This is a convenience, not a necessity.

I grew up listening to the bouncing lid as rice steamed in a heavy metal rice pot on the stove, and I went through a phase where I cooked my rice in a clay pot. The rice really did taste more like a grain, less like a processed food, and it had a crispy brown crust on the bottom. But the realities of life in the silicon-chip era mean too little time to think about brown-bottom rice, much less to make it. A rice cooker makes near-perfect rice and also frees up a stove burner and the cook's attention for other items.

If you're going to invest in a rice cooker, I'd recommend the fuzzy-logic models that let you preset cooking times and adjust for various types of rice or outcomes. Brown rice comes out tender, not overly chewy; porridge doesn't bubble over; and the rice will be ready at 5 o'clock when the rest of dinner is. It's pricey — about $180 — but worth the investment.

Wok. This is, of course, Chinese. But it's useful for sautéing, simmering and deep-frying. The heavy-duty ones that distribute heat more evenly produce better results.

Here are some recipes for using all those nifty tools when you get them:

Green Beans with Sesame Miso Dressing

• 1 pound green beans, strings removed
• Salt

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds (with hulls), toasted in a dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant
• 4 tablespoons red miso (see note)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon mirin

Chop or snap beans into 1 3/4-inch lengths. Cook, covered, in lightly salted boiling water until barely tender. Rinse in cold water and drain.

Make the dressing: Set the mortar on a damp cloth so that it won't move while you work. Pour in sesame seeds and grind with the pestle for a few turns. Don't overgrind; seeds should end up in pieces, not ground to a powder.

Add the red miso all at once to sesame and mix with the pestle. Add the sugar and mirin and mix with the pestle or rubber spatula. The dressing will be rather coarse in texture.

In medium bowl, combine beans and sesame-miso dressing and mix until beans are well coated.

Serve at room temperature in neat mounds in individual dishes.

Serves 4.

Grilled fish conveys the essence of Japanese cooking. It's simple and it's unadorned, and it depends upon the fish being absolutely fresh (or fresh frozen and carefully thawed). You can find sardines in the frozen section of Japanese grocers or fresh at many Asian markets.

Classic Salt-grilled Fish

• 4 (8-inch) sardines or (6-ounce) swordfish steaks
• Sea salt
• About a half-pound daikon (to yield 1 cup grated)
• 4 teaspoons shoyu
• 1 lemon, cut in wedges

If the sardines are not cleaned, clean them one at a time. Have at hand a large bowl of cold salted water (about 1 1/2 tablespoons fine salt per quart of water). Rinse whole fish under cold running water. If needed, scale fish by running a small sharp knife several times from the tail toward the head. Cut open belly and remove gills, by grabbing them from below and pulling them firmly. Remove intestines without damaging them. Rinse inside of belly thoroughly but gently, under running water. Rinse fish again in the salted water. Drain fish and wipe dry with paper towels.

If you're using swordfish steaks, rinse them in cold salted water (1 1/2 tablespoons of fine salt per quart of water) very briefly. Once the fish is filleted and cut into pieces it loses its flavor quickly in water. Drain steaks and wipe them dry with paper towels. If you won't be cooking fish for several hours, wrap in plastic and refrigerate.

On a bamboo rolling mat like the kind used for rolling sushi or a steel rack set inside a pan, salt the fish, inside and out, using 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon per piece. Let stand about 20 minutes, or if not absolutely fresh, 25 minutes. (The oilier, thicker or older the fish, the longer the required salting time — as long as 50 minutes.)

During the salting period, fire up a grill or broiler. Heat the grill rack or broiler pan to a very high temperature before placing the fish on it. This will prevent the fish from sticking to the surface.

After salting sardines (or any kind of oily fish), rinse in salt water. Wipe the fish with a paper towel before cooking.

After salting swordfish or a lean type of fish, you may skip the rinsing and simply wipe off the exuded liquid with a paper towel.

Place fish on hot grill rack or broiler pan, about 4 inches from heat source, with side that will face diner toward the heat. Cook fish over high heat until its surface has attained a golden color. Turn fish just once. A 1-inch-thick fish takes about 8 to 10 minutes of total cooking time.

Peel the daikon and grate it, using a Japanese grater or the grating cassette on a slicer. Mix with shoyu. Accompany each serving with a little of the daikon mixture and two lemon wedges.

Serves 4.

The beauty of donabe, or earthenware pots, is not only their aesthetic appeal, but also their utility. You can place it on the range, and when brought to the table, the pot keeps the food steaming hot.

Nabeyaki Udon (piping-hot noodles in earthenware pot)

• 3 1/2 ounces spinach, about half a bunch, washed well, keeping stems and roots intact
• 1 pound dried udon (thick noodles)
• 5 cups kakejiru (see below), broth for hot noodles
• 1/4 pound boned and skinned chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 4 slices (1/4-inch thick) kamaboko (steamed fish cake)
• 1 naganegi (Japanese long onion), preferably, or 4 thick scallions, white parts cut into 1 1/2-inch lengths and green parts into thin rings
• 4 eggs
• Shichimi (seven-spice powder)

In a medium pot of boiling water, parboil spinach without separating the leaves from the stems and roots, for 1 minute. Drain spinach, cool it in a cold-water bath and squeeze it to remove excess water. Cut the spinach, leaves and stems, into 2-inch lengths, discarding roots.

In a large pot of boiling water, cook noodles al dente, 4 to 6 minutes or as instructed on noodle package. Drain noodles in colander and rinse them under cold running water, rubbing them between your hands until noodles are cold and no longer starchy on the outside.

In individual donabe pots or a communal donabe, or a large enameled pot, bring broth to a boil over medium heat. Add chicken, steamed fish cake slices and white parts of the long onion or scallions. Cook, continually skimming any foam, for 4 minutes.

Add cooked noodles and bring mixture to boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook 5 minutes.

Add long onion or scallion rings and spinach. Break eggs and drop them gently on top of noodles without breaking yolks. Spread eggs so that they cover the whole surface. Increase heat to medium, cover pot and cook until eggs are barely done, about 3 minutes.

Bring pot, covered with lid, to dining table. Since noodles and broth will be steaming hot, diners should be supplied with small individual bowls and spoons. Each diner picks up a small portion of noodles and other ingredients from the pot with chopsticks, transfers them to his or her bowl and, with a ladle, pours a generous amount of the broth over noodles. Pass the seven-spice powder to sprinkle on top.

Serves 4.

Kakejiru (broth for hot noodles)

• 2 6-inch squares kombu (dried kelp)
• 5 1/2 cups water
• 3/4 cup tightly packed katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 teaspoons regular shoyu
• 1 1/2 teaspoons usukuchi shoyu (light-colored soy sauce), preferably, or regular shoyu (see note)

Wipe kombu with damp towel. In medium pot, bring kombu and water almost to a boil; remove kombu and add bonito flakes. Wait 10 seconds then remove from heat. Let sit 2 minutes. Strain and return liquid to pot.

Add sugar, salt, shoyu and light-colored shoyu. Bring to a slow boil over low or medium heat.

Note: Japanese soy sauce, or shoyu, comes in light and dark. The light sauce doesn't change the color of food but is saltier than the more common dark kind.

This salad is a standard in Japanese restaurants.

Cucumber Sunomono

• 4 Japanese cucumbers (or 2 Western cucumbers, peeled and seeded)
• Salt
• 1 cup rice vinegar
• 1 cup dashi (see notes)
• 4 tablespoons shoyu
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Optional:

• 2 tablespoons wakame seaweed (see notes), soaked 10 minutes in cold water to reconstitute
• 1/2 cup crab meat or imitation crab, pulled apart in strings
• 1/2 cup very fresh scallops, rinsed and sliced into thin rounds (see notes)

Wash cucumbers. Slice very thin using a Japanese slicer or a mandoline or with a knife. Sprinkle with about 1 tablespoon salt. Mix gently, and let sit about 5 minutes. Over a colander, squeeze out the cucumbers.

Combine vinegar, dashi, shoyu and sugar and bring to a boil in a medium-size saucepan, or heat for 1 minute in microwave. Force-cool by placing the pot or cup into a larger bowl of iced water, or placing the cup in freezer.

Pour slightly more than half the sauce over the cucumber. Gently squeeze cucumber with your hands. Pour off excess from the cucumber and discard. Finally, pour remaining sauce over the cucumber. If you add sauce to the cucumber only once, the mixture will become watery.

Add wakame, crab or scallops and mix. Transfer small mounds of cucumber drenched with sauce to small individual dishes. Serve at room temperature.

Serves 4.

Notes: To make dashi, bring slightly more than 1 cup of water to boil with a 2-inch square of kombu (dried kelp) that has been wiped with a wet cloth. Just before it boils, remove the kelp. Or you may use an instant dashi powder or bag.

Wakame is a kind of seaweed, sold both dried and preserved in salt in the refrigerated section of Japanese stores.

Because the scallops are served raw, be sure they are absolutely fresh.