ume, umemboshi, aoume and umeshu, a love stoy

i have an abiding love for all things ume. like umeboshi: japanese pickled apricot plums, made with the ripened ume fruit. my sincere love for these ripe, pickled, dried, plummy apricots borders on addiction. on each visit to japan, i treasure my trip to the mitsukoshi food courts in ginza and/or ebisu. where i wander around bouncing from counter to counter, deliriously sampling a delicious variety of food treasures. i always always wind up at the umeboshi counter where i enjoy tiny samples of different pickled umeboshi, each with a different percentage of salt, some so sour your face forms a hardened pucker that may never soften; some so sweet they taste like candy. umeboshi keep quite well for many months in the refrigerator, thanks to their high salt content. the flavor of these little squishy jewels is quite pungent, so much so, as to make a small bowl of plain rice a wild and savory ride on a flavor roller coaster. incredible, i tell you, and truly ridiculously delicious.

i also love everything made with these mysterious ume fruits, often called plums, but actually sort of an apricot. right now i am making homemade japanese plum wine. a sweet and fragrant concoction i hope will deliver us through next winter, especially if it is anything like this winter, with it's completely ridiculous amount of snow. only meticulous planning and true love can get you through a winter like that.

umeshu, or japanese sweet plum wine, is made with the unripe version of ume, known as aoume. the process takes a while. slowing things down quite a lot, i present to you the longest recipe ever to appear on cup and table:

umeshu sweet plum wine

1 1/4 pounds aoume, fresh, unripe japanese apricot plums,

available in june, washed, stem bits completely removed

3/4 lb organic granulated sugar

good quality vodka 750 ml

1 Liter jar, sterilized

6 months time

wash the aoume. carefully removing any bitter, woody stem pieces. place in jar. pour sugar over the fruit. pour vodka over the sugar and fruit. give a good stir. come back tomorrow and stir again. do this each day for a week. then, summoning all your patience, place jar in a cool, dark spot in your kitchen or pantry. come back in 6 months, on the darkest day of winter. open, pour, sip. sweet memories of spring come rushing back, as if, from a dream. i like the idea of these aoume steeping and marinating, becoming more delicious each passing hour, and turning into unctuous umeshu.

note: aoume are completely inedible in this unripened state, and only become edible when preserved over several months. you could begin to drink your sweet plum wine after as few as 3 months, but it is best after 6 months.

if you'd like to wander through the food court of mitsukoshi ginza yourself, check out this youtube video clip of just that. though i give you fair warning, you might get curiously hungry and start googling airfare to japan.

tofu and mushroom miso hot pot

4 inches of snow expected in a day or two, time for more japanese hot pot. this time, with tofu and mushrooms and a bit of sweet potato. yum. making this again tonite. real comfort food, with vegetables and a delicious, rich and satisfying broth.

tofu mushroom miso hot pot

broth

4 cups dashi

1/2 cup white miso pate

1/4 cup mirin

first layer

1 large onion, sliced

1/2 cup green or savoy cabbage, chopped intot bite size pieces

2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 large sweet potato, peeled and thinly sliced, and chopped into quarters

2nd layer

1 pound firm tofu cut into 8 pieces

2 oz harusame or bean thread noodles, soaked in warm water until softened, about 10-20 minutes

4 oz shitake mushrooms, sliced

3rd layer

3 oz shimeji mushrooms

2 oz enoki mushrooms

1 leek, sliced

final layer

2 cups spinach leaves

1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

You make this the same way as the salmon hot pot: layering.

start with mixing your broth ingredients. place the onions in the bottom of your medium large pot. next scatter the cabbage and potato and sweet potato. pour over the broth, bring to a boil and cover, simmer for 3 minutes. add the tofu, bean thread noodles and shitakes. cover, simmer for 5 minutes more. now add the third leayer, simmer for 2 minutes. now add the final layer, simmer for 1 minute more. bring pot to the table and ladle into bowls. enjoy with soup spoons and chopsticks. itadakimas.

I wish I could cook a hot pot for everyone in Japan

I want to cook for all the people displaced, for all the people who have lost family and friends, for the people with no shelter. I want to give them comfort and strength and nourishment.

Since it is still quite cold in the worst hit regions, I would cook hot pot. Hot pot, or Nabe Hot Pot, is a Japanese comfort food and one-pot meal that is very soothing in cold weather. Japanese eat hotpot all winter long. It is a wonderful dish that goes back hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. Easy to put together. Incredibly delicious, rich, hearty and sustaining. Eating hot pot always warms me up and makes me feel wonderful. You may be familiar with shabu-shabu, which is a hot pot cooked at the table. There are many kinds of hotpot, shabu-shabu is only one of many.

Here are is a recipe for salmon miso hot pot, the most hearty and soothing variety to me. To everyone in Japan I want to say: take comfort, all is not lost, you have many friends all over the world, we want to help.

Warm, Soothing, Wonderful Miso Hot Pot with Salmon

broth

4 cups dashi

1/2 cup white miso

1/4 cup mirin

1st layer

1 large onion, sliced

2 small idaho potatoes, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, and thinly sliced

1/2 head green or savoy cabbage, cut into bite size chunks

2nd

2 oz harusame, or bean thread noodles, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes

1 package tofu, cut into 8 pieces

6 oz shitake mushrooms, stems removed, sliced

third

8 oz salmon filet, sliced, with skin on or off as to your preference

final layer

4 scallions, sliced

8 oz baby spinach leaves

Prepare the broth by combining the dashi, miso and mirin in a bowl. whisk to blend.

Start layering your pot. first place the onion slices, then potatoes and cabbage. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Once the pot boils, cover with a lid and lower the heat to medium. Allow pot to simmer for 4 minutes. Remove the lid and place the tofu, softened bean thread noodles and sliced shitakes on top of the previous ingredients, this time keep the like ingredients clustered together, rather than scattering them over the pan. This will keep the dish very neat looking and beautiful when it comes time to serve. Simmer for 4 to 5 minutes more. Now add in the salmon and cover. Lift the lid frequently and poke the salmon into the liquid, to allow for even cooking. The salmon will take about 5 minutes more of simmering. Now finish the dish by adding a clump of spinach and the scallions in the center. Allow to simmer 1 to 2 minutes more as you press the spinach into the pot.

To serve, bring the entire pot to the table and allow everyone to ladle their favorite ingredients into their bowls.

Dear Japan! The events of the last week, the triple disaster:earthquake, tsunami, nuclear damage, have left us devastated. It is hard to believe things can deteriorate so quickly, so unavoidably. And yet, you are such a strong and resilient country, you have recovered many times before, from the Kanto quake which destroyed Yokohama and half of Tokyo in 1923, to the devastation of WWII. I have great faith in the Japanese people to come back better, stronger than before. Please help Japan if you can.

beet pickles

pickling at home! you can do it too! (it is so easy.) great for lunches and snacking. and i promise, no fancy equipment or long hours of labor required.

i bought some crazy beets at the farmer's market recently, they were kind of radish-colored. more deep fuchsia than dark burgundy like they usually are, i had no idea what they would look like inside but they looked fresh and amazing, so home they went with me. the amazing crazy stripes were a wonderful surprise. i really loved them visually, and completely.

but then i am one of those people who loves beets. love the mineral-y dense sweet taste of beets, most any way at all. i usually slow roast them in a 300 degree F oven as per thomas keller and alice waters instructions, with a little water and/or olive oil and a pinch of salt in a tightly covered small dish. once tender (an hour or two depending on size) peel them while still warm, then slice and splash a little apple cider vinegar over them and serve with roast pork tenderloin, or make them into borscht, or save for a salad or later munching. but the weather was marvelous, and the day i made these and called for something light and crisp, a fresh fall taste. enter beet pickles. they cured up so quickly, in just 4 to 6 hours. wonderful. these are based on david chang's vinegar pickle master recipe from his momofuku cookbook, with a small change or two. i did not have 2 pounds of beets so i made half beets and half carrots. and i never have rice wine vinegar on hand so i used half rice vinegar and half white wine vinegar. i really love these quick pickles, so great for snacking, packed lunches and of course with david chang's pork buns, which we also made that day for a large lunch with friends.

beet pickles

3 to 4 medium sized beets, peeled and thinly sliced into half moon shapes

1 cup hot water

1/4 cup brown rice vinegar

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

6 T sugar

2 teaspoons sea salt

(note this makes more pickling brine than you need so i made a pound of carrot pickles at the same time. peel, halve and then quarter the carrots into strips). naturally you could double the amount of beets, but that's a lot of beet pickles, even for me.

place cut and trimmed vegetables into a clean glass container (non reactive), pour liquid over the vegetables. cover and allow to cool. after cooled, refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours and a maximum of a week. they will be, of course, lightly pickled at first, which is nice, or more intensely pickled after several days, but will stay crisp and delicious for a week. i have often heard that these quick pickled vegetables retain most of their vitamins and fiber, more so than other preparation methods. try it!

this same recipe will work for cauliflower. many other vegetables and even fruits lend themselves quite well to pickling. some require different recipes and handling than these, based on density and texture. stay tuned for more on my pickling adventures in future posts. once you get started, it is hard to stop.

apparently it is noodle week

don't know why but i've been on a noodle craze. first it was vegetable-y soba with napa cabbage, tofu, bean sprouts, chard, and orange bell peppers, topped with dulse flakes (sea vegetable). and then i decided to get serious with some grilled pork ramen with shitakes, nori, scallions and napa cabbage. my kids slurped this up like it was the best thing they'd ever tasted. which i think it may actually have been, as they said they wanted it for their birthday meal next year. high praise indeed when it is good enough for the birthday.

there is a secret to this ramen dish, which i will now reveal to you. first go and read david chang's momofuku cookbook to get the right mindset, the mindset of a noodle master. and then go to your best local asian food store on the day they are unloading the freshly made ramen noodles and buy them up. fresh noodles are the whole secret. you could probably skip reading momofuku but it does help. the broth and the toppings are so simple you can't really mess them up. i totally winged it myself following no recipe. i made a dashi broth with kombu and bonita shavings and vegetables then added the soy and mirin to taste. and i marinated the some sliced pork tenderloin in soy sauce, mirin and rice vinegar for 30 minutes before grilling.

so go ahead and give this a try. your friends and family will be deeply appreciative, i promise. happy summer solstice to you, by the way. maybe it is the solstice and these ultra long days that is inspiring these long noodles. who can say, but i can tell you i would like to eat them all over again. yum.

the joy and versatility of miso sauce

to have miso sauce on hand is a wonderful thing. so versatile. you can make a salad dressing, a steak sauce, a dipping sauce, a marinade, so many things. it keeps for about two weeks in a glass container. i made a steak salad, pictured above, and also umpteen salad dressings, i tossed freshly cooked still-crisp broccoli with it for an exciting side dish, made a dip for crudite, and a dipping sauce for roast chicken.

miso sauce

1 cup miso (miso basically comes in red or white and all gradients in between, you want a lighter color but a mix is good too)

1/4 cup sake

1/4 cup mirin

1/4 cup agave nectar

1 TBSP soy sauce

1 TBSP lemon juice

place the sake and mirin in a small saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes. next add in the miso, agave nectar, and soy sauce. cook on a simmer for 8 to 10 minutes to combine the flavors, stir to prevent burning. add in the lemon juice and turn off the heat. continue to stir and let rest on stove until the flavors have melded. allow to cool completely.

thin it with some rice vinegar, yuzu vinegar or seasoned rice vinegar for a salad dressing. thin it with some tsuyu sauce or dashi for a steak sauce. use as a soup base for miso soup by adding lots of dashi. stir in some sesame paste for a healthful vegetable dip, mix it in a blender with some silken tofu for another great dressing. marinate some meat or fish (careful to wipe most of the miso off the meat before cooking as it can burn if cooked at high heat). many wonderful possibilities. a great ingredient to play with.

store in a glass container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks and enjoy your new found miso creativity.

i heart aburiya kinnosuke

whenever i am missing japan i go here. a special place in nyc, rather near grand central on the east side, in an area filled with wonderful japanese restaurants, stores and places of cultural interest. there are noodle shops, tonkatsu shops, onigiri shops, japanese groceries, and the japanese culinary center.

aburiya kinnosuke. a wonderful restaurant where i enjoyed a great lunch today. it is just like walking into tokyo as you step through the doors. outside there is no sign, it is unmarked. only a multicolor striped facade. inside is incredible food in a kind of dark, homey, casual environment. (the opposite of most midtown restaurants). i have been here before. but every time their offerings make me swoon. the food is just what i want. it is like a happy dream. their black sesame pudding is incredible. their fish dishes. sushi dishes. grilled dishes, fried dishes. all great. i am not the only one who loves this place. it is always crowded, michelin and zagat praise it as well.

japanese green tea, new harvest

i am a tea fanatic. i love to drink tea. shop for tea. learn about tea. read about tea. visit places where tea is served. study the history of tea,  the economics and politics of tea. the whole 360 degree view of tea. healthful, warm, comforting, energizing, relaxing, tea.

ito en is my favorite tea purveyor in new york. they have a little shop on the upper east side. their specialty is japanese green tea, but they import the finest teas from all over the world. really the most amazing black teas as well. you can read about their first flush spring tea here. but anyway, when ito en sent me an email promoting their new spring green teas from japan, first, flush, hand-rolled, i was highly susceptible to their message. it has been a tough spring in so many ways. and unable to decide which of the two varieties to purchase and have shipped, naturally i bought both. it was not a mistake. they are incredible. so bright, so fresh, so delicious. each cup tastes very special, almost, but of course not quite exactly, like a tea ceremony in my house.  the package design is pretty gorgeous as well. these will make great tea canisters or pencil cups, etc.  long after the spring tea is gone.

broiled salmon, japanese style

i was dead tired yesterday. it has been a week of one too many. as in one too many baseball games, choral and orchestra concerts, dress rehearsals, all town practices, important luncheons, orthodontist appointments, etc. i didn't have much or hardly any sleep. things were not going well. some things weren't working, some things were working too much. traffic was bad. we were completely out of edible food. (they do eat more now, these growing children, i confess i can barely keep up). oh yes we had some rotting produce in the fridge and some pasta and rice of course. but nothing you could actually get excited about eating or cooking. so, on the way home from one of these important luncheons i ran into a grocery store with no plan. no plan whatsoever. incapable of stringing two thoughts together, i looked around. what could we possibly eat after baseball practice ends at 7:30 that takes no time at all? as we will be busy driving to and from this baseball practice that starts at 6? ah yes. broiled salmon. even an extremely tired zombie cook could make this. after practice, we all sat down to dinner. my son, the baseball player, took a bite. "and, mom."  yes, i replied? tiredly, oh so tiredly. "delicious!" he said with a sly grin. 

japanese broiled salmon

adapted from Harumi's Home Cooking, an amazing, truly amazing, cook and book, of course, being me, i've changed both the amounts and the ingredients, but buy her cookbook, it's fantastically brilliant. harumi kurihara is known as the "martha stewart of japan" 

serves 4 hungry people

1 and 1/2 pound salmon fillet, tail end

soy ponzu marinade

lemon slices

1/2 cup of soy sauce or tamari sauce

1/4 cup of mirin

1/4 cup of ponzu marinade from japanese grocery store (clear liquid brand i use is Marukan)

(if you don't happen to have any ponzu marinade on hand...i know i rarely do...i use a mixture of lemon and/or  lime juice, rice vinegar and water or sake and to approximate it. this works equally well, have made this many many ways based on what i have on hand and it is always inexplicably delicious regardless. it must be a bit of magic, but then japanese cooks are magicians with fish, no surprise there)

cut up your lovely salmon into largish chunks with kitchen shears (could use halibut or sea bass etc) and keep the skin on by all means, it really adds to the dish. marinate in soy ponzu marinade with sliced lemons for at least 2 hours, 4 is best.

throw together a veggie stir fry (i used a mixture of cabbage, bean sprouts, peppers, mushrooms and scallions this time). or any other crowd pleasing and easy vegetative accompaniment like maybe broccoli. serve with plenty of japanese rice. start your rice cooker 45 minutes before. if you don't have one, you must cook it in the usual way on the stove, of course. cooking lots of asian food as we do it is the one gadget i own that i couldn't part with, not even for ready money...this is probably because i have a tendency to get distracted with homework questions, ringing phones, etc and can forget i am cooking quite easily, rice can be rather cruelly unforgiving to the distracted cook. 

15 minutes before dinner, set your broiler to high and move the top rack as high as possible in the oven. 5 minutes before serving. put the fish under the broiler. check after 3 minutes. check again at 4 minutes. it should be done around the 5 minute mark all carmelized, crispy, gorgeous and sizzling. however, broilers are highly variable, so you will have to watch it. burns quickly if you don't. also, when buying salmon, i mostly select the tail end, which has fewer bones, important for smallish or choosy children. this salmon is so pleasing, people who don't even like fish tend to enjoy it. 

tofu cuisine

my apologies. i realize this first food photo is quite blurry. i'm not sure but i think it was that i could not contain my excitement when the food began to arrive. you see the course contained yuba, a soy milk delicacy that i adore and crave. it is a special food of kyoto and i am only able to find it every 5 years or so. anyway. this was lunch at an amazing tofu restaurant in ginza. japanese cuisine is so inventive. most of the incredibly varied and delicious dishes are predominantly bean curd.







the restaurant is umenohana and goes down as one of my favorite meals. as you can see it was a lot of food, and though we were full, we felt fabulous when the meal was done, energized even. amazing in every way. indescribably delicious. beautiful private rooms dotted along an indoor river bed made of stone with gorgeous bridges and lanterns inside the restaurant. someday i hope to return.

tokyo: french food underground

when r and i first visited Tokyo back in 1992, we were thrilled to find creme puffs on (nearly) every corner. it was the very first reason i fell madly, passionately, in love with japan. on subsequent trips, we were happy to find that the treat shopping had only gotten better. this time, creme puffs, eclairs, petit chou, even japanese apricot liqueur, creme brulee and french butter cookies, underground. Tokyo metro Ginza line. and i can tell you, with some authority, all of the highest quality. (we sampled more than a few). with underground food this good, you should not be at all surprised michelin awarded so very many stars in tokyo. it is an epic food town.

ice cream flavors

plastic display food can be really beautiful in japan. and often the food for sale is as delicious as the display suggests. this ice cream was no exception. such intriguing flavors. if you click on this photo you should be able to read the labels in english. black sesame sounds really good, and i really wanted to try unpolished rice, and i always love green tea, but check out the last one. hmmm. r says they clearly meant rum raisin. unable to imagine meat ice cream, even with raisin, i think he may be right. anyway, this was from a shop in the very crowded, some might say claustrophobic, asakusa section of tokyo. the traditional section of town, a lovely pagoda and beautiful temples are there. and it is also a great place for handmade bean cakes, mochi, rice crackers, and traditional items like dolls and iron chimes, handmade wooden combs, etc. we loved the ice cream, very delicious. just the sort of energy boost needed to power you through the crowd and incense-perfumed air outside the sensoji temple. if you really love plastic food, there is a street near here that has shops and shops selling the rather expensive plastic food for restaurant supply. it can be quite expensive.

muji cafe marunouchi

tokyo. where to begin? muji cafe. we were fortunate to be staying in marunouchi, a newly fashionable area with a lot of great shops, restaurants and cafes. especially exciting for us was muji cafe. we love all things muji. we fell in love with muji stores in tokyo and they expanded to new york, london, paris, and rome. we have been enjoying their wares ever since, and now a cafe. hooray muji. here is what we were eating, fried tofu patty (gonmae or gonmo or gonmodoki) and salads, hijiki romaine, and napa cabbage with slivered carrots and apple. great pastries and things also. very pleasing and comfortable in every way. always the flatterer, my youngest child said, "the food here reminds me of your food mom." what i am thinking this means is, "obsessed with vegetables." i have just now realized that nearly every post so far on this new little blog has been about vegetables and maybe some fruits. even the pie was a squash pie. i guess i am obsessed because i would love gigantic photos of vegetables on our walls.

soothing soba noodles

when the weather turns cool and wet, I am always looking for some hot slippery noodles to warm our insides. frequently, perhaps too frequently, i turn to soba. buried under all those braised vegetables is some nice hot soba, or japanese buckwheat noodles, in a soothing dashi broth. the cucumber salad on the side adds just the right coolness and crunch to the soft, warm noodles for our purposes. munch munch. slurp slurp slurp. crunch.