Hiroko's American Kitchen: Cooking with Japanese Flavors

403 Pages·2012·8.36 MB·English

by  Hiroko Shimbo

Contents

INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: KELP STOCK
CHAPTER 2: DASHI STOCK
CHAPTER 3: WHITE SUMISO SAUCE
CHAPTER 4: SPICY MISO SAUCE
CHAPTER 5: BEST BASTING AND COOKING SAUCE
CHAPTER 6: SUPER SAUCE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SOURCES FOR JAPANESE FOOD PRODUCTS
METRIC CONVERSIONS AND EQUIVALENTS
INDEX
Curried Tofu Squares
INTRODUCTION

This book, Hiroko’s American Kitchen, was born from my own experience of
bridging two vastly different cultures and cuisines: my native Japan and my
adopted home, America. It shares with you my discoveries over12 years as a
Japanese cook navigating America’s culinary waters, resulting in an exciting
new way of cooking that combines the best of both traditions.
While the recipes may be new, they are in the spirit of Japan’s culinary
history. Our cooking culture has always been flexible and open to the
adoption of new ingredients, flavors, techniques, and presentations. A
thousand years ago, we learned from the Chinese. We got sushi from
Southeast Asia. Our version of Wiener schnitzel, tonkatsu pork cutlet, came
from Europe. Our most popular comfort food, Japanese curry, came from the
British (not from India). Tempura arrived from Portugal, while Japanese-style
hamburgers came from “you know where.” Like these famous “Japanese”
dishes, the ingredients, preparations, and presentations in this book are not
the confused products of fusion cuisine; they are extensions of Japanese
cuisine as a living, continually growing and evolving part of Japanese culinary
culture.
The mission of this book is to share with you a collection of recipes that
expand and extend Japanese cuisine to encompass today’s cooking and
food preferences. Using a core family of key stocks and sauces, I have
married Japanese ingredients, preparation techniques, and traditional dishes
with a rich array of American ingredients while retaining respect for the food
cultures of Japan and America. The recipes will create balanced, healthy,
and appealing meal options for you, your family, and your friends.
Hiroko’s American Kitchen is built around a core of six easily prepared
homemade stocks and sauces. These Japanese-style stocks and sauces
serve as the central ingredient in each of the recipes, adding a dose of
satisfying and surprising flavor to primarily American ingredients. I believe
that the dishes presented here will have universal appeal at your table, even
for your most unadventurous diners. This is not a volume promoting exotic
and unfamiliar foods.

BACKGROUND

The family of handy stocks and sauces has greatly enhanced my own life. I
rely on them both in my personal life and in my professional life as a
consultant-chef and chef-instructor. When I first moved from Japan to
America, it was a struggle. Gone were the familiar ingredients I had grown
up with and cherished, including the seasonal array of Japanese produce
and wide variety of freshly caught local fish. Instead, I had to confront
unfamiliar foods at the market: new vegetables, different cuts of meats, and
limited (and at times poor-quality) fish and shellfish. But the initial period of
uncertainty gave way to an exciting time of experimentation as I gradually
realized that I gained more in this new land than I lost.
Today in this country, there are three times the variety of vegetables that are
available in Japan. Large cuts of meat such as pork and lamb shoulder, beef
short ribs, and skirt steak can be transformed into flavorful Japanese meat
dishes with proper preparation. I have also embraced the limited varieties of
fresh and frozen fish, adding variety with inventive preparations. Out of
necessity, I have truly learned to do without many of the native ingredients
and foods of Japan and to take advantage of the abundance of quality
materials here. Today I celebrate mainstream American ingredients using
Japanese cooking techniques, and my family of stocks and sauces has made
this task easier than ever.
Let me explain how the core concept of this book—the use of a family of
homemade sauces—came about. Several years ago, I began storing
traditional stocks and sauces in the freezer and refrigerator in order to save
time and simplify the process of daily meal preparations. Having the sauces
ready, I could rely on consistency of flavor, which also led to innovation and
experimentation. By adding Japanese stocks and sauces to readily available
American ingredients, I was able to greatly expand my horizons. The result is
a collection of Japanese recipes that have the feel and appeal of traditional
American cooking using seasonal domestic produce, which is also more
affordable.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The chapters are named for each of the stocks and sauces found in this
book. Two stocks and four sauces—all part of (or derived from) traditional
Japanese cuisine—are used to produce a wide variety of dishes. By using
these handy stocks and sauces, the complexity and time required to prepare
a Japanese meal is significantly reduced and cooking can be done with ease
and enjoyment. These six stocks and sauces are:
KELP STOCK—a simple brew of kelp and water
DASHI STOCK—kelp stock made with dried fish flakes
WHITE SUMISO SAUCE—light miso, rice vinegar, and sweetening
SPICY MISO SAUCE—dark miso with crushed red pepper
BEST BASTING AND COOKING SAUCE—soy sauce, sweetener, sake,
and flavorings
SUPER SAUCE—a new blend of soy sauce, mirin, kelp, and fish flakes
that I have created

Each chapter of the book leads off with the recipe for the stock or sauce and
is followed by a diverse selection of recipes employing the chapter’s
namesake stock or sauce. You might want to start by preparing one or two
of the sauces or stocks, trying some of the recipes that use them, and then
proceeding to the remaining stocks and sauces and their accompanying
recipes.
You will find some traditional recipes as well as some that are new and
unfamiliar. For example, you might consider the miso soup with leek, potato,
and bacon as presented in this book “unauthentic” because it isn’t served at
Japanese restaurants in America. Answering the question of what is truly
“authentic,” however, is a discussion that can consume a lifetime. From my
point of view, the clichéd miso soup with mundane and stereotypical
Japanese ingredients such as tofu, wakame seaweed, and scallions is
boring. I believe it is much more thoughtful, interesting, and appealing to
utilize readily available, seasonally changing vegetables. In fact, using local
produce in season is a basic concept of Japanese cuisine, and since my
miso soup recipe uses Japanese dashi stock and real miso, its flavor and
spirit couldn’t be more authentic.
Let me cite another example: There is a wonderful recipe for lamb braised
with miso sauce in this book. In Japan, this miso-braising technique is used
most often with mackerel. But since good-quality mackerel is difficult to find
in America (and this oily fish that I dearly love may not appeal to many
American diners), I use lamb—readily available and, as a strongly flavored
meat, a perfect companion for the miso sauce. This combination results in a
surprisingly light and flavorful authentic Japanese lamb dish. The lamb and
the soup are perfect examples of how an adaptable and flexible approach
can lead to Japanese cuisine’s integration into American kitchens.
You will find these recipes easy and fun to prepare in your own kitchen
because of the handy stocks and sauces you will have stored in your
refrigerator and freezer. Join me in Hiroko’s American Kitchen to discover a
wonderful world of Japanese cuisine that will satisfy your appetite and all
your senses and will contribute to a healthy life.