These days, I no longer have to make long treks to find the Japanese ingredients I grew up with – so many are now easily available in even remote towns and villages, and those that aren’t I can order online. This is what helps make the writing of YO! Sushi The Japanese Cookbook so exciting for me – I know that if I am asking you to find a certain ingredient, you’re more than likely going to be able to source it fairly easily. I want to help demystify Japanese cooking at home, the way YO! Sushi has done for the restaurant diner.
To the uninitiated, Japanese food may seem intimidating or overly complicated to prepare. While it is true that some dishes require an attention to detail, there are so many dishes, including the sometimes mysterious sushi, that even the most inexperienced home cook can prepare. The main point to understand is that the basic principle of Japanese cuisine is to enhance, not to change what nature offers. This means that food is prepared and eaten, whenever possible, in its natural form. In Japan, we say ‘less is more’ and this applies to our ways of cooking.
The philosophy of Japanese cuisine is encapsulated by the ‘five principles’: five colours, five tastes, five ways of cooking, five senses and five attitudes. The first three cover the practical sides of cooking so that a meal is balanced and nutritious. The last two are more esoteric and philosophical.
The five colours preach the virtue of having five coloured ingredients – white, red, yellow, green and black (which includes dark brown and purple), to provide a balanced and nutritious menu.
The five tastes means a meal should combine a harmonious balance of saltiness, sourness, sweetness, bitterness and umami – the fifth sense of taste that was first formulated in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda at the Tokyo Imperial University. Although there is no direct translation in English, umami describes a subtle savoury flavour which is found in many foods such as meat, fish, seaweeds, vegetables and cheeses.
The third principle urges cooks to use five different cooking methods – boiling, grilling steaming, frying and combining flavours.
The fourth deals with the sensual elements of food. Eating Japanese food engages all five senses, not just taste, which is in fact the last element after scent, vision, sound and feel.
The final principle, five attitudes, is more spiritual and is based on Buddhist teachings: a man should respect and appreciate all human efforts and be grateful and humble of nature.
If all of this sounds too profound, you need not worry. Most young Japanese people today would be unable to recite, let alone explain, the big philosophical fives of our cuisine. What we do have is an innate, almost instinctive sense of composing a meal or choosing from a restaurant menu to eat a well-balanced harmonious meal – it is in our culture, it is in our blood!
So, how should you apply these principles in your own kitchen? The answer is to keep it simple. Choose the freshest and the best seasonal ingredients you can possibly buy from your local shops and markets and you are set for a winning start. Remember, the idea is not to change your ingredients but to bring out their best by doing less, not more. Let nature’s offerings speak for themselves.
My aim for this book is to encourage you to take the fun and inclusive YO! Sushi dining experience into your home kitchen. The book is organised so that you can start with the basics and expand your repertoire from chapter to chapter as you gain experience. I invite you to join me in the pleasures of cooking Japanese food and to share it with your family and friends.
Kimiko
The secret to successful Japanese cooking is choosing the freshest ingredients, using traditional Japanese flavourings and mastering the basic techniques. This chapter includes basic recipes, such as dashi stock, explains ingredients that you may be unfamiliar with and shows through step-by-step pictures how to roll sushi, cut sashimi and make crispy tempura.
Many Japanese ingredients are now available in supermarkets or health food stores, and those that aren’t can be found in Japanese stores or ordered online. See page 188 for a list of suppliers.
essential flavourings
There are five essential ingredients that are used either on their own or combined with each other to produce the distinctive Japanese tastes and flavours.
soy sauce (shoyu)
Soy sauce is probably the best known Japanese seasoning ingredient and is made from fermented soybeans, wheat, salt and water. Although there are many different types in Japan, there are three types that are available outside Japan. These are: dark, light and tamari. The dark all-purpose soy sauce is used for most of the recipes in this book unless specified otherwise. If you or anyone in your family suffers from wheat intolerance, use tamari, which should not contain wheat. However, as manufacturers often use the term loosely, always read the label carefully before buying. Slightly thicker and less salty than the other soy sauces, tamari is also used for dipping. Light soy sauce is much saltier than the dark variety and is used in cooking when dark soy sauce would discolour the food. Buy a small bottle of dark soy sauce if you prefer to keep only one type.
Available in glass or toughened plastic bottles, soy sauce is best kept tightly capped in a cool, dark kitchen cupboard or, better still, in the refrigerator, if you have room. Its subtle aroma does fade after several weeks so buy it in small quantities. You may find that small sodium crystals have begun to form around the cap during storage. These are not harmful – just wipe the bottle clean and continue to use it.
In response to recent concerns about daily salt intake, some reduced-sodium soy sauces are now available, but the flavour can be disappointing. If you want to reduce your salt intake choose recipes that require little or no salt, or dilute regular dark soy sauce with water or dashi (see pages 16–17). However, you will find that the recipes in this book use surprisingly little salt.
miso
Alongside soy sauce, miso is one of the most important seasonings in Japanese cooking and, like soy sauce, is made from fermented soybeans. It is an exceptionally healthy food, packed with vitamin E and minerals. During fermentation its soy protein is converted into an easily digestible form of amino acids. Miso lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, and is said to help ward off cancer.
Miso is available in different colours and textures, ranging from pale cream, called ‘white’, through to a light peanut butter and milk chocolate colour to a steely dark brown. The texture of different misos can also vary, from a soft cream cheese consistency to grainy, then dry and hard. In general, the darker the colour the harder and saltier the miso. A good all-purpose miso to use is a medium-brown, milk chocolate-coloured paste with a texture similar to cream cheese. You will probably find that you choose the most popular variety of rice miso, which is fermented by adding rice to cooked soybean mash. Others, however, are made from wheat, barley or soybeans alone.
Sold in plastic packaging or containers, miso is best transferred to an airtight container once opened. It will keep well for up to six months stored in the refrigerator.
vinegar
Every culinary culture has its own favourite vinegar and in Japan this is rice vinegar, which is a light golden colour with a mild and fragrant flavour. Throughout this book, use Japanese rice vinegar unless specified otherwise.
There are many brands of rice vinegar and each manufacturer produces several different grades. The grading of rice vinegar is quite similar to that of olive oil. Junmai-su, which means ‘pure rice vinegar’, is the highest quality – the equivalent of extra virgin olive oil – and is made from the first pressing of polished white Japanese rice. The next in order of quality and purity is kome-su, meaning ‘rice vinegar’. Lower-quality vinegars contain added alcohol and are made from other grains. In general, price