how-to

More about onigiri: keeping them fresh and more

maki — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 06:06:25 +0100

In a comment to my Onigiri Revisited post, Jennifer said:

I’ve made fresh onigiri a number of times and would love to be able to make it the night before and take into work with me the next day. How do I do that? (or am I out of luck?) The rice gets all hard and I’ve tried sprinkling water on it in the microwave, but then it falls apart. Suggestions? Do I need a special type of rice? How do I store it after it is made?

Onigiri really are better if made the morning of the day you’re going to eat them. I remember my mom waking up very early in the morning to make onigiri when we had a school outing (which usually meant an obento lunch with onigiri).

That being said, you can make them the night before, but you need to take some measures. There are a few things you can do to have moist (but not wet) rice balls.

Tips for making moist-until-you-eat-them onigiri

Use Japanese medium-grain rice (uruchi-mai, or sushi rice) - other types of rice don’t really stay moist enough. (Short grain mochi rice is a possibility, but they make for very glutinous and gooey rice balls.) See the Looking at rice post if you’re not sure what rice is what.
Make sure you are making them with freshly cooked rice, that’s still hot, not cooled. Don’t make onigiri with room-temperature rice..it will not stick together well and will dry out fast. The cooked rice should be nicely moist and plump to start with.
Wrap them completely in plastic wrap before storing in the refrigerator. This keeps the moisture in and prevents the surface from drying out. (Wrapping them in nori would have a similar effect, but then the nori will turn out rather soggy. I prefer to wrap in plastic and bring the crispy nori along separately.) A typical refrigerator is as dry as a desert inside, so you have to protect the rice from that dry air.

Keeping onigiri fresh

Onigiri were developed as a portable meal. Salting the surface is not only done for flavor; the salt helps to preserve the freshness of the rice. So be sure not to skip the salt if you plan to eat the onigiri some time after you make them.

Traditional onigiri fillings tended to be salty had long keeping qualities. Umeboshi (pickled plum) in particular is purported to have antibacterial qualities, so were an ideal filling for rice balls that were to be carried for a long time by hot, sweaty travelers.

If it’s only going to be a few hours until you eat the onigiri, AND you can keep them reasonably cool (in a dark place out of direct sunlight), AND you use enough salt on the surface, they can be kept at room temperature. If you think you’ll be carrying them around for a very long time though, it’s probably best to use umeboshi or another long keeping, salty filling, rather than something like tuna-mayo or Spam.

Nuke them

If you are bringing them somewhere where you have access to a microwave, you can also freeze them. Defrosting time depends on how many onigiri you have, how big they are, how powerful the microwave is, etc. but once you get the timing right you can get hot onigiri that taste like they were just made. Be sure to wrap them in microwave-ready plastic wrap in that case! I often make extra onigiri and tuck a few in the freezer as treats.

What to do with dried out onigiri?

If the surface has dried out a bit but the insides are still moist, you can turn them into yaki onigiri. But if they are further gone than that, you can turn them into ochazuke, rice with tea. Just heat up the onigiri in the microwave, or even better grill them a bit a la yaki onigiri to make them crispy, then proceed as described in the ochazuke recipe by pouring on hot tea with toppings. Delicious!

Surviving Thanksgiving, a Don't Panic! list for new cooks

maki — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:05:52 +0100

I've been living off and on in Switzerland since 1995, but I think this is the first year that I've actually not been in the U.S. for Thanksgiving. I usually made an effort to go there around that time, even if I didn't always spend it with my family. Of course there is no Thanksgiving celebration in Switzerland. We've already moved directly to Christmas season (which also encompasses St. Nicolas Day on December 6th). There are several Christmas markets on already in the area. Even though the weather's been so balmy and warm it feels like September, I'm slowly getting into the Christmas spirit.

When I did live in the U.S., I was in charge of making Thanksgiving dinner most years (sometimes with my sister Meg, who as I've mentioned before is a trained chef). If this is your first time being in charge of making the big feast, here are a couple of ideas on how to get through it without panicking.

You have written out your menu, yes? No? If not, do it TODAY (Monday). (Tip: if your family is not totally Traditional American, including one or more items from your cultural/ethnic heritage is a good idea. For instance, we always had sashimi as the appetizer course being Japanese and all that.)
You have done all your shopping? No? Do it TODAY (Monday), except for the turkey if you're getting a fresh one (which you have, hopefully, pre-ordered already ready for pickup on Wednesday).
Clear as much shelf space in your fridge as possible to make room for all the things you will be stashing in there.
Don't be too ambitious. You don't have to make everything from scratch, especially if you're not used to it. Buying good pies or other desserts, bread, and bagged stuffing mix, is not going to send you to Culinary Hell. You also don't need ten different side dishes. You'll just have more leftovers. And you know, some people actually prefer that jellied can o' cranberry sauce.
Write out your time plan for Wednesday night / Thursday morning. A Gantt chart is really useful. The turkey itself is going to take more time to defrost (if you're using a frozen bird) and cook than you ever thought possible. So map his timeline out first, at the top. Then, figure out how you are going to fit the other tasks in below that.
Try to do as much as possible in advance. You do not have to make everything on Thursday morning. If you're making pies, bake them today/tomorrow and stash them in the fridge or freezer, and warm up a bit before serving. Cut up vegetables on Tuesday if you can and stash them in ziplock bags. You'll be using mass quantities of chopped up onion/garlic/celery/carrot etc. for stuffings, dressings, gravy and what have you, so if you can chop that all up, sauté it and store it in the fridge ready to go you'll save yourself a lot of last-minute trouble. You can peel potatoes, season them and coat them well in melted butter in a ziplock bag the night before too, ready to roast.
Use your assistants. Make them go and pick up the turkey, missing ingredients, etc. with clear lists/instructions. Don't try to do everything on your own if you can help it.
If you've never stuffed a turkey before, consider making the stuffing separately (which would be called 'dressing' in some parts of the country). It tastes just as good if not better than stuffing.
If you don't have a food processor, try to borrow one if at all possible.
Remember to get plenty of rest on Wednesday, because you'll need the energy. And while you're working, drink lots of water.

Good luck! It's going to be a pretty tough task anyway, and I can't say I miss doing it. I'll be spending Thanksgiving (plus a couple more weeks) this year on vacation...

P.S. And, whatever you do, don't make Turducken. :)

How to navigate a farmer's market

maki — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:13:50 +0200

Long time readers of this site will know that I just love open-air markets. I make it a point to search out farmer's/food markets (marchés) wherever I go. It's not just about shopping for food, they are entertainment centers where you get to see colorful people as well as colorful food. I enjoy them as much as, or sometimes even more than, visiting restaurants when I'm traveling. Here are some tips on how to tackle a farmer's market, especially in Europe.

Get there about 1 hour after it opens, and no later than 1 hour, preferably 2 hours, before it closes. If you get there too early they are still setting up, and a lot of stalls start packing up 30 minutes before the official closing time.
...unless you are going to a very popular market by car. In that case get there as early as you possibly can, to avoid getting into a fist fight over a parking space (or walking very long way from where you end up parking to the market).
Wear comfortable shoes, warm clothing in the cool months, and a hat if it's hot and sunny.
Bring along a cloth shopping bag or a sturdy backpack to put your purchases in. A bottle of water can be a good thing to have along too.
When you first get there, don't get distracted by the first stall you run into. Raise your head and survey the whole market to see approximately how large the market is, and plan your movements accordingly.
If you can, make an overview run around the market first to see which stalls you want to tackle.

Touch the merchandise or not? This seems to differ on where you are. In Paris for instance you may get yelled at if you do; here in Zürich many of the stall holders will hand you a plastic bag so you can choose your own, and in Provence you often get a little basket into which you place your own hand-selected produce. The "When in Rome" principle applies here. However, do not squeeze soft fruit, then put it back. Ascertain the ripeness by smell.
Take photos quickly and discreetly. Some stall owners frown when you take pics, while some will even pose for the camera. If someone seems obviously pissed off at you when you aim the lens at them, just shoot quickly and move along. (While some stores will stop you from taking photos, I've never had a market stall person do so.)
As for the customers, a lot of people don't like it when you take photos of them without permission, especially old ladies and mothers with kids. Kids in particular - don't shoot them from the front unless you have permission from a parent. People are getting more paranoid about such things these days unfortunately.
Try to resist the persuasive sales pitch. This is a trap I fall into all so often. Some of those stall holders are master salespeople, offering a stream of seductive language together with tempting samples. If you don't want it, just say no, smile and thank them and move on. This lady baker was so good, we ended up buying about three times more bread than we actually needed from her cute stall.

Know what's in season and don't complain about the lack of asparagus in September, tomatoes in February, or pears in April. And if you see those things being sold out of season, don't buy them. Your taste buds will thank you.
If you are concerned about buying local, look for the signs for country of origin. Markets primarily are for local residents so don't assume that they only have locally produced items. In France for instance you often see green beans from Kenya. Here in Switzerland a lot of stuff comes from France, Italy and Spain. In French locally produced things say "du Pays"; in German if it says"Eigene" or "Eigen Production", it means the stall holders produced it themselves.
And finally, try not to buy more than you can actually eat within a reasonable time!

Japanese basics: the anatomy of a Japanese meal

maki — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 23:28:37 +0200

In this episode of my continuing series exploring Japanese food basics, I'd like to explain the breakdown of a typical Japanese home meal, which differs quite a bit from a Western meal.

In Western culture, a meal consists of a light first course or two, followed by a main course, then smaller following courses. The most basic format is soup or appetizer, main course, then a dessert. The main course itself is centered around the protein part, whether it's meat, fish or something vegetarian, and the vegetables are starch are the side dishes.

In Japan, a home meal is served in one course, but with several dishes. There is the starch, which is usually steamed rice; a soup, which is usually miso soup, and at least two dishes. The rice is taken for granted, but it's the central point of this meal. The accompaniments are collectively called okazu, and they are the supporting cast to the rice.

The main okazu is usually protein based - a grilled fish, or some sort of meat dish. The secondary okazu can be a vegetable dish, or more protein such as a bean dish. Everything is served in its own container usually. The secondary okazu in particular are often served family style, from which each diner takes his or her portion. The usual way to eat a Japanese meal is to take the rice bowl in your hand, then take a little of this and that from the various okazu. Occasionally, you set down the rice bowl, take the bowl of soup, and take a sip and eat some of the things in it.

When you go to a Japanese restaurant in Western countries, you'll often see a selection of side dishes listed in the Appetizer section. This is bowing to Western food habits - those side dishes are actually designed to be eaten with the main meal, with the rice. (High end Japanese restaurants in Japan do serve each dish on its own as a course. This means that a meal can go on for hours!) Dessert is not a traditional ending to a meal - one usually just has a cup of hot tea. Japanese people eat sweet things as a snack in-between meals. Of course this custom is changing as more people take on European/American ways of doing things, but I personally like eating sweet things separate from a meal.

There's a special category of okazu called hashi yasume, or "chopstick rest". This is a side dish that contrasts in flavor, texture, temperature and so on to the main side dish. Pickles are the most typical hashi yasume. Small side salads are often used as hashi yasume too.

I've pulled together a collage of dishes that might make up a Japanese meal:

The rice is at the center, with the soup, then there is the main dish , a side dish of vegetables, and perhaps another (cold) vegetable dish.

You might think it's a lot of food. Well, it is a lot of items, but quantity wise each dish is quite small. You also tend to eat a Japanese meal a lot more slowly too, which makes it rather ideal for weight watching. It's rather hard work on the cook of the family though! Most Japanese households don't serve Japanese meals every day partly for this reason.

How-To: Photographing Food In A Restaurant (and Elsewhere On The Road)

maki — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:39:33 +0200

This article is not about the technical aspects of food photography per se: I'm certainly not the best food photographer/blogger out there. It's more about how to take decent photos of food in restaurants and other public settings, in both social and technical respects from my experiences. It should be of interest if you are a food blogger, or just like to share pictures of interesting or pretty food you encounter. I used a lot of these ideas on my recent road trips.

I take all of my food photos with one of three cameras. The bowl of peaches (and one apricot) was shot with each camera under the same daylight conditions, from the same angle, using the Auto setting on the cameras. (On the camera phone there is only an Auto setting.) Each is reduced in size to 400 pixels wide at a 72 pixels/inch resolution, but otherwise I've left each photo untouched by Photoshop or any other image editing software.

The workhorse is a 6 year old Nikon Coolpix 880. This is a small automatic camera with some manual overrides, a basic zoom lens and autoflash. It does show its age, but is still very useful. The photo is a bit oversaturated but that is something easily correctable in Photoshop.
My most recent acquisition is a digital SLR, the Nikon D70s. I use this with the basic lens that came with it, a 18-70mm zoom lens. Even with this rather mediocre lens, it still takes great shots.
The final part of my camera set is a Sony Ericsson W800i phone. This is a 2 megapixel camera phone, with a digital 4x zoom. I chose this camera out of the "free" camera lineup offered by my cell phone service provider, Orange, because of the good quality of its camera. As you can see, it takes fine if rather 'flat' pictures.

Here are some more food photos shot with the W800i, or the K750i which has similar camera capabilities, in indoor/low-light conditions:

Through the glass of a display case indoors

Taken at dinner in a restaurant (indoors, incandescent light)

Taken indoors at a market (flourescent lights)

When I'm shooting food at home, I now use the D70s exclusively. However it's a big camera that's very obvious, especially when using the zoom lens. It also has one of the loudest shutters I've ever heard.

That being said, whenever there is any doubt I ask if I may take photos, especially at a restaurant. Most of the time there hasn't been a problem, and I just pull out the chunky D70s and shoot away. In certain situations though, you want to be more discreet, out of courtesy to other diners at a quiet restaurant for example. In such cases, I go for the Coolpix or theW800i camera phone. The Coolpix still takes better pictures, but the phone is the most discreet of course (you can pretend to be looking at something on the screen while you shoot away).

When shooting discreetly, the first thing to remember to do is to turn off the auto-flash. You should never use a flash when shooting food indoors anyway for picture quality reasons, but a flash is very distracting and annoying. The sound of the shutter can be as distracting and attention-getting as a camera flash; fortunately the Coolpix has a silent shutter, though the zoom lens makes a whirring sound when it's in action. The W800i has a loud digital shutter sound, which can be turned off by activating Silent Mode. If you are in the market for a new camera, test out the shutter sound.

Sometimes an establishment will simply tell you not to take pictures, period - this happened to me in the Globus department store when I was researching my Food Destinations article. If that happens I stop taking photos and don't post them on my site either. As I've already stated, it's pretty rare that people tell me to stop shooting. (If you are Asian like me, telling the waiter you are genetically incapable of not taking photos may help. Sort of kidding, but it did actually work for me once.)

Some people, such as market stall vendors, are simply camera shy; if that's the case just focus your lens on their products. Including the people who brought you that food experience in your photos is always nice though.

Some tips for shooting "on the road":

If you're having lunch, try to have it outside, or at a brightly lit window. Daylight is your friend when taking food photos.
Never ever ever ever use flash for indoor food photos. Without adjustments, flash-lit food simply looks awful in most cases. Even if you end up with an underexposed picture, it will still be better than flash-lit, and you can probably adjust it in Photoshop or similar image editing software. (Flash can be useful in some outdoor situations but that's getting off topic.)
Put your plate a a bit away from you to get a better overview, rather than shooting it from directly above. This also helps to focus on the food better with the automatic camera options. It's most important to keep at least a portion of your plate in focus.
Use the table to steady your camera in low-light conditions for longer exposure times.
Use those pristine white napkins, and your dining partner's torso, as a handy reflector or neutral background. Have him/her tuck the napkin in his/her collar and spread out the napkin on his/her chest and belly area as flat as possible.
Don't forget to shoot the table decorations if they are exceptional!
For shooting through glass, such as through a display case or a shop window, either try to put the lens almost directly on the glass or shoot at an angle, minimizing the reflection of you the photographer.
Shoot a lot of photos, not just one or two - this increases your chances of having a good one out of the bunch.

[Update:] L at Still Life With... has posted a terrific article about how to improve those low-light photos you take at restaurants and such with Photoshop.

Technorati Tags: food photography, nikon d70s, restaurants, sony ericsson w800i

How to brew a perfect cup of shincha (new green tea)

maki — Wed, 24 May 2006 19:25:53 +0200

My mother always says that she is not a particularly good cook, though I beg to differ. But she proudly admits to having the skill to brew a perfect cup of tea. The tea that she makes with shincha - green tea made only from new, young tea leaves - has a delicately sweet flavor that seems to blossom in one's mouth, with no bitterness at all. Since she is here now for a month long visit from Japan, I thought that I'd finally pry out her secret to making such delicious green tea. And so...here it is.

Make sure that you have good shincha, which has a true delicate sweetness.
Use an earthenware or ceramic pot. Make only one or two cups worth at a time if you can.
Use charcoal-filtered water if you can (though regular tap water produces good results too, unless it's overly chlorinated.- Maki's notes.)
Bring the tea water to a rolling boil, then let it cool down to about 90°C/194°F. (Note: 100°C is the boiling point for water, so you want the temperature to be just below boiling.)
Pour some of the hot water into the waiting teapot to warm it up. Warm up the tea cups at the same time, then throw away the water.
Use 1 1/2 teaspoons of tea leaves per 2 cups, and put in the warmed up pot.
Put in enough hot water (2 cups worth), then let steep for about 3 minutes, no more.
Use a tea strainer to gently pour out the tea.
Sip slowly and enjoy.

You might be skeptical, thinking "you need boiling water for a good cup of tea!". That's what I thought too, until I tried this method. It really does produce a most superior green tea. Boiling water seems to work better in bringing out the oils in more robust teas though.

Note: Gyokuro is a type of tea that is most often sold as shincha and is widely available.

Technorati Tags: green tea, Japanese, ocha, tea

Using del.icio.us to track online recipes

maki — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 22:03:48 +0100

If you're not familiar with del.icio.us, it's a great, very easy way to keep track of bookmarks regardless of your location, and to share them with other people. I've been using del.icio.us to keep track of mostly geeky bookmarks (as in my working life I am a geek), but it just came to me that it's a great way to keep track of recipes too.

I try a lot of recipes that I've found online, but I often either forget to bookmark them, or if I do remember to bookmark them I don't remember if the recipe turned out well or not. And I don't really want to blog about each and every recipe. Bookmarking with del.icio.us allows me to add a short comment as to how well it went etc. so the next time I'm looking for that "lamb-tomato-curry that was on BBC2 Saturday Kitchen that wasn't called curry" I can just go to my del.icio.us recipes tag page and there it is. I've just started doing this but it's already working out very well. If you have trouble keeping track of online recipes too, give del.icio.us a try. (If enough people kept del.ico.us bookmarks tagged "recipes", it could be quite fun.)

Camembert in Calvados, and apple bunnies

maki — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 21:19:02 +0200

On Easter, we had a selection of cheeses, one of which was this very interesting Camembert soaked and aged for a while in Calvados. Since Calvados is an apple cider-based brandy, apples seemed to fit well. And, since it was Easter, the apple wedges were transformed into apple bunnies.

In Japan, we sort of grow up knowing how to make apple bunnies (usagi ringo), but they caused quite a sensation on Sunday. It's very easy to make them: with a sharp pointed knife, score a V shape into the skin of the apple wedge. Then with the point of your knife, carefully pick up the point of the V, wiggle your knife under the skin, and peel off, taking care not to break the peel you want to keep on. This illustration shows where to score, and which part to peel off:

Slip your knife under the "ears" part of the apple skin, separating them from the flesh, so that they point up and out. At this point, if you're making several, put them in some lemon or salted water.

The Camembert itself had no label on it - we just bought a wedge at a small local grocery store. It was quite intensely flavored though, much more so than an ordinary Camembert which can be a bit bland. It was very nice indeed with wine and bread.

When I arranged a wedge of the cheese with the apples, I had to take it outside onto a bank covered with spring wildflowers and fresh green leaves to take a picture. The crazy things one does when maintaining a blog.