The Japan News / Recipe

Recipe Depth and variety of Japan’s cuisine The “Delicious” page, published every Tuesday, introduces simple recipes, restaurants across the country and extensive background information about Japanese washoku cuisine. By uncovering the history of Japanese food and sharing choice anecdotes, we make cooking at home and dining out even more fun. Our recipe columns In this column, we look back over changes in Japanese cuisine by featuring popular recipes carried in The Yomiuri Shimbun over the past century. Preparing a meal for oneself often comes with many complaints such as, “Cooking just for me is annoying,” and “I don’t know if I can eat everything by myself.” In this series, cooking researchers share tips for making delicious meals just for you. In this column, Tamako Sakamoto, a culinary expert who previously wrote the column “Taste of Home” for The Japan News, introduces tips for home-style dishes typically enjoyed by Japanese families. Taste of Japanese mom Chikuzen-ni Chikuzen refers to northwestern Fukuoka Prefecture. Although the dish is widely known as Chikuzen-ni, local people usually call the dish game-ni. There are several possible origins of the name. One idea is that it comes from “gamekomu,” a local dialect word for “bringing together” various leftover vegetables, even scraps, in a pan. Another theory is that turtle (kame) or soft-shelled turtle (suppon) were cooked together. There are also various views about the roots of the dish. One is that it was a battlefield dish of the Kuroda clan in the Chikuzen district, while another suggests the dish was created by warriors who were stationed in Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent a large army to the Korean Peninsula in the 16th century. According to Japan University of Economics lecturer Katsuyuki Takegawa, an expert on dietary culture in Fukuoka Prefecture, iridori — or a dish of fowl boiled down with soy sauce, which is similar to game-ni — was introduced in Ryori Monogatari, a cookbook in the Edo period (1603-1867). When The Yomiuri Shimbun printed the Chikuzen-ni recipe, refrigerators were not yet widely available. Consequently, the dish had a strong sweet taste due to the large volume of mirin used. Chizue Yamagiwa, 67, a cooking expert living in Fukuoka, said: “Japanese people like the dish’s soy sauce taste with some sweetness. I think the dish became popular as its preparation is not complicated, and the ingredients are easy to obtain anywhere.” After World War II, the spread of school lunches likely boosted its popularity. An expert said that the dish has been attracting people’s attention recently as hospital food. Photo taken by The Yomiuri Shimbun in cooperation with Tokyo Gas Co.’s Food Communication Center Our recipe for chikuzen-ni Ingredients (serves 3): 180 grams chicken 110 grams burdock 70 grams carrot 10 grams dried shiitake 145 grams konnyaku jelly 110 grams onion 35 grams peas in pods 10 grams sesame oil 180 grams mirin 50 ml soy sauce 180 cc soup stock Dash of ground sansho pepper Directions: ① Cut the chicken into bite-size chunks. ② Chop the burdock and carrot, boil briefly and drain. ③ Tear up the konnyaku by hand. Rub it with salt, then quickly rinse and drain. ④ Soak the dried shiitake in water until soft. Cut the mushrooms into quarters and boil briefly. ⑤ Boil peas after stringing them. Set aside in a boiling basket and sprinkle with a little salt. ⑥ Cut the onion vertically into six pieces. ⑦ Heat the sesame oil in a pan and fry solid ingredients well, except the onion and peas. ⑧ Add the soup stock (180 cc) and mirin, and cook for a while. ⑨ Add the soy sauce and cook further. When the soup has reduced, add the onion. ⑩ Cook further until the soup is reduced to a minimum. ⑪ Divide into serving bowls. ⑫ Garnish with the quick-cooked peas and sprinkle with sansho pepper. (From Feb. 10, 1923, edition) Taste of Japanese mom Purin Japan is a nation that loves custard puddings, which are called “purin” in Japanese. A variety of inventive purin products can be found on shelves at convenience stores and supermarkets. “The texture soothes the throat and comforts Japanese people,” said Rio Hiraiwa, a journalist who covers the sweets beat. “There is no other country with as many variations of purin as Japan has, I believe.” A recipe for “custard purin” appeared in the 1929 edition of The Yomiuri Shimbun. The purin goes light on sweetness with a pronounced flavor of eggs. The recipe also describes how to make caramel sauce as the topping for the pudding. White sugar is put in a frying pan over medium heat and roasted until it turns reddish brown. After adding about the same amount of boiling water as the sugar, the sauce is complete. In The Yomiuri Shimbun, purin appeared for the first time in the Taisho period (1912-1926). Since then, it has been repeatedly featured as a regular sweet. In Britain, puddings are made by baking bread crumbs, flour, pieces of meat, eggs, and nuts. In Japan nowadays, purin often represents a custard pudding made of ingredients such as milk, eggs and sugar. There are various opinions on the origin of purin, including that it was originally a French dessert. After World War II, along with the spread of refrigerators among households, purin mix, which can be easily made at home, gained popularity. In 1964, House Foods Corp. launched a mix that can be made by simply adding hot water and cooling it. In the late 1990s, there was a boom in purin with a melting texture, which is made of fresh cream and steamed at a low temperature. While soft purin has enduring popularity, old-fashioned, firm-textured ones are making a comeback. “For about five years now, the trend has been getting back to basics,” Hiraiwa said. “Many people are surprised to experience the remarkable taste of [classic purin].” There has been an increasing number of variations of custard pudding, such as lightly sweetened purin targeted at men and a product made of selected eggs and sugar. The Yomiuri Shimbun Our recipe for purin Ingredients: 3 eggs 180 ml milk 1 tbsp sugar Caramel sauce Lemon essence A small amount of butter Directions: ① Beat eggs well, add sugar and milk. Flavor the mixture with lemon essence. ② Spread butter evenly inside molds or cups, and drip caramel sauce into center of each one. ③ Gently pour the mixture from Step 1 over the caramel sauce, so that containers are eight-tenths full. ④ Steam them in a wooden container over boiling water for about 30 minutes. ⑤ Remove the molds. Gently wedge a skewer between the purin and the mold to let in air. The purin should then slide out onto the plate. Enjoy the purin before it cools. * Although this original recipe calls for the purin to be steamed for 30 minutes, doing so will create pockmarks in the mixture. Therefore, it’s actually best to steam the purin for 15 minutes. (From Nov. 26, 1929, edition) Taste of Japanese mom Macaroni salad Salad was first introduced to Japanese tables covered in mayonnaise. Kewpie Corp. started selling domestically made mayonnaise in 1925 after founder Toichiro Nakashima tasted and liked potato salad in the United States. Japan had no custom at the time of eating raw vegetables, so potato salad made from boiled potatoes and mayonnaise was the first salad Japanese people became familiar with. A potato salad recipe was featured on a home life page of The Yomiuri Shimbun in 1928. The second standard salad in Japan was macaroni salad, introduced after World War II. In 1955, a series of domestic flour makers started producing macaroni in large volume, which triggered a macaroni salad boom here. “Macaroni salad might have been inspired by an Italian dish that was similar,” said Tanio Kodate, 70, executive managing director at Nippon Flour Mills Co., which produces the Oh’my macaroni brand. Macaroni salad was served during school lunches and was part of a typical school menu in 1963. It was also sold as a pre-made deli dish, and apparently came to be known as a run-of-the-mill item. After World War II, raw vegetable salads began to gain popularity. Allied forces cultivated “clean vegetables” for soldiers stationed in Japan, and western vegetables such as lettuce spread around the country. In 1958, domestic dressing was launched into the market in tandem with the spread of refrigerators. Naomichi Ishige, former director of the National Museum of Ethnology, said that salad in Western countries is equivalent to pickles in Japan, as people eat salads to cleanse their mouths after eating oily foods like meat. “Pickles were replaced by salads,” Ishige said. “Salad became established as a side dish after it was adjusted to go well with rice through means like putting seaweed into salads and adding soy sauce in the dressing.” Photo taken by The Yomiuri Shimbun in cooperation with Better Home Asoociation Our recipe for macaroni salad Ingredients (serves 5): 80 grams macaroni 50 grams ham 1 cucumber 1 egg ½ cup mayonnaise 1 stalk parsley, finely chopped 1 tbsp vinegar salt, seasoning Directions: ① Boil macaroni in salted hot water for about 15 minutes. Rinse in water and drain. ② Cut ham into thin strips. ③ Rub cucumber with salt on the chopping board and cut into thin, round slices. ④ Mix macaroni, ham, cucumber and season with a little salt, vinegar and seasoning. ⑤ Hard boil eggs and strain the yolks. Chop up the whites. ⑥ Mix whites with ④ and mayonnaise. ⑦ Place in serving bowl and sprinkle yolk and minced parsley over it. (From June 4, 1962, edition) Taste of Japanese mom Mabo-dofu Mabo-dofu, a spicy Sichuan dish made of tofu and minced meat, is one of the most popular Chinese dishes in Japan.

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