FINDING NORI

By Victor Manuel and Chelsea Monera

 Many people are big fans of Japanese cuisine. It has touched the hearts and filled the stomachs of many satisfied eaters and picky gastronomes alike. Perhaps a reason why people love it so much is that it does not only appeal to taste, but also to the other senses as well. Japanese food aims for a full experience, satisfying its eaters in every aspect.

Beef Kare is simply the beef curry of Japan. It is composed of beef stock, different aromatics, Japanese curry paste and leeks. Curry is popular in Japan, in fact, curry can be considered a Japanese national dish similar to ramen. It’s flavor differs from the usual Indian curry having a milder, smoother and deeper taste. Infusing it with Japanese spices such as togarashi gives it its unique taste, certainly making it a “wafu” dish, or a dish that has been “Japanized”. It simply means dishes that have found it’s way to Japanese pallets and embraced it as their own.

Chicken Teriyaki - Apart from sushi and tempura, chicken teriyaki is another popular dish from Japan. Teriyaki is derived from two Japanese words; “teri” meaning glossy, and “yaki” meaning grilling. We used Kikkoman, sake, mirin, ginger, brown sugar, salt and pepper for the teriyaki sauce and we thickened it with slurry, also giving it it’s glossy appearance. As what chef said, Japanese dishes revolved around 3 main ingredients: Shoyu, your Japanese soy sauce, Sake, Japanese rice wine, and Mirin, a sweetened version of Sake. Taste mainly differed on the proportions of these 3, in the case of the teriyaki, Mirin is used more than Sake, giving it its distinct sweetness. The chicken is marinated in the sauce, grilled, then topped again with the sauce.

Gyoza is a Japanese pork potsticker. Our filling for our gyoza are minced pork, kutsai, cabbage, mushroom, garlic, onion, sesame oil, Kikkoman, salt, pepper and togarashi. It is closed like a Pinoy empanada, then folded up in the side to resemble a fan. The technique we used in cooking it is searing then steaming. We have to use a non - stick pan so that the wrapper won’t stick to it. What basically makes it different from your chinese dumplings is using shoyu instead of regular soy sauce, enhancing that savory taste.

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made from glutinous rice. The outer layer is the chewy dough, while the filling, though traditionally a red bean paste, has now been popularly replaced by ice cream. To give it a more Japanese feel, we used a matcha - flavored ice cream. Doing it was certainly tedious. You have to work with the dough while it’s still hot, putting frozen ice cream in the middle, wrapping it quickly and freezing it immediately. Unfortunately, our freezers our not that reliable, causing the filling to melt inside, distorting its shape while refreezing. On the bright side, the mocha still tasted well, the smooth ice cream complementing the chewy texture of the dough.

Assorted Sushi/Sashimi/Maki - Sushi has become a staple to Japanese food. Though up to before the war, the rice and nori were ways to preserve the fish, the Japanese soon found out that the fish tasted better with the fermented rice, at the same time instead of just throwing them away. To prepare it, rice is first cooked, dried, then mixed with Mitzukan, Japanese rice vinegar, salt and a sugar. In assembling yung maki, put your nori sheet on top of the sushi mat. Cover it evenly with the sushi rice, put the meat and other fillings, then roll. Finish it by rolling it lightly on tobiko or ebiko, which are flying fish and shrimp roe respectively, then slicing to serving portions. This time, we did it differently by putting the filling on top instead of inside. For the nigiri, shape it using the palm of your one hand, and the index and middle finger of another. Get a portion of the rice, then press is with your two fingers, rotating it until it gets the oval shape. Put the fish on top then tie with nori. With the temaki, cut the nori into squares, fill with rice and toppings, then wrap like a cone.

Asari Butter Clams - This one is my favorite of all the dishes, and one of the easiest to make. Heat your hot pot to smoking point, then add your clams. Deglaze it with sake and cover. Then, make compound butter with garlic and melt it in a shallow pan. Add your clams and deglazed sauce. Season with shoyu and pepper, finish with sesame oil to make it more aromatic. Simple dishes, simple ingredients, wonderful flavors.

Pork Miso and Ramen Miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of dashi, a seafood based stock. Almost all Japanese meals are served with miso soup. Although there are many different kinds of ingredients that can be added to miso soup, we decided to put in tofu, leeks, spring onions, konbu, sake and Shoyu for seasoning. This time, we used it as the soup base for our Porkloin ramen. We first let our porkloin sit in a hot stock for an hour. Then, sliced it into chops, to go with each bowl of ramen and miso. Sadly, the ramen was not cooked well, being put in the boiling water only for a short time, and also letting it sit in the miso soup, causing the soup to become thick because of the starch and reducing in volume because the noodles absorbed the liquid. However, the taste still remains to be flavorful, having that savory taste with a hint of bitterness.

Assorted Seaweed Salad uses different kinds of nori. First, we used the konbu, hydrated it and sliced in julienne. Then, the hijiki seaweeds which also needed to be hydrated. They were brought in little strips then enlarged when soaked. Lastly, the nori we use for our sushi. We toasted it a bit, sliced it to a fine julienne and added it as garnish. Along with the seaweeds are blanched enoki mushrooms and a sesame oil vinaigrette.

Though we were late in service, I was happy with the outcome of the dishes. Perhaps it’s really a no – brainer why people keep coming back to Japanese food. Because in these dishes, we are able to savor the real taste of umami, the one that brings the deliciousness of the food, without using any artificial ingredient to stimulate it. In Japanese cooking, it’s just really there, present in every bite. <i>Itadake mas</i>!