This is a classic Japanese home cooking dish: nikujaga. Nikujaga is based on Western beef stew and I have tried to give a novel Kyoto taste to it. This autumn I have been trying to perfect it and I must say that I am proud of this one. Please give it a try and enjoy!

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KyotoFoodie’s Original Kyoto-style Nikujaga with Wagyu Beef Tendon and Kakushi Aji
Nikujaga (肉じゃが) was invented by cooks in the Japanese Navy and is based on beef stew. Niku means meat, as in beef, and jaga (jagaimo) is potato. Nikujaga is now a very popular home cooking dish in Japan. The main ingredients for nikujaga are thin sliced beef, potato, carrot and onion. These typical beef stew ingredients are then simmered in a Japanese style broth of sweet sake and soy sauce.

Beef Tendon: I decided that I wanted to use a non-roast cut of beef for this recipe and decided on fatty tendon. In Japan, beef tendon is popular simmered in sweetened soy sauce and sake. After it is well cooked it is pleasantly ‘mochi-mochi’, or mochi-like in texture. If tendon is undercooked it is just rubbery. After thoroughly cooked it is pleasantly chewy, but more gooey like mochi than rubbery. This cut of meat is called called suji niku in Japanese, literally ‘tendon meat’. This is not just tendon, it is tendon with some meat and fat. Properly prepared, tendon is really good! Give it a try.

Hidden Taste: Next I wanted to add a little non-conventional taste and kakushi aji, or hidden taste. The kakushi aji is cinnamon. Why cinnamon? Cinnamon has been used for centuries to flavor Kyoto’s ubiquitous confection called yatsuhashi that no one in Kyoto actually eats. Today, yatsuhashi is mainly purchased by junior high school students as omiyage when they come to Kyoto on their school excursion. In true kakushi aji fashion, I wanted the cinnamon taste to be there and noticeable but not prominent enough to catch right away as cinnamon.

I was a bit inspired for this recipe by watching Heston Blumenthal’s In Search of Perfection series. This is my perfect Kyoto-style Nikujaga. For the early stages of this dish, I also referred to a recipe in a ‘quick and easy’ type cookbook (村田吉弘の10分でできる和のおかず) that I bought at Kikunoi some years ago written by Chef Yoshihiro Murata. (Mainly the microwaving of potatoes part.)

Here is what it looks like:

Michael's Original: KyotoFoodie-style Nikujaga Wagyu Tendon Beef Stew

You might notice a few things in the photo that are not on the beef stew list of ingredients above. I wanted to add a few non-traditional things; two are ‘Kyoto’ and one isn’t. The ingredients are:

Aburaage: Deep fried tofu used to make the wrapping for Kyoto’s inarizushi.
Yaki Fu: Wheat gluten that has been baked. Various preparations of fu are an important part of Kyoto cuisine.
Kampyo: Kampyo is strips of dried gourd that are most commonly found in sushi rolls.

These three ingredients absorb that flavors of the broth and add contrasting textures.

One last ingredient is ito konnyaku, or threads of konnyaku jelly. Ito konnyaku is often used in nikujaga. While it doesn’t have a lot of taste on its own, it gives an additional contrast of textures.

There is some authentic Kyoto-style philosophical discussion regarding the dashi broth, but lets talk tendon first.

Preparing the Suji Niku Beef Tendon
While it is possible to find just beef tendon in Japan I prefer the part that is a mix of thinner tendon, meat and a bit of fat. It needs more time to cook than the vegetable so I cook it twice before adding the veggies. Sometimes this wagyu suji niku can be quite fatty, the tendon in the photos here is not very fatty though.

I start by boiling the suji niku in salt water for about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the tendon. I am mainly doing this to remove fat, but not the flavor. After giving it a good boil I pour off the water and rinse the suji niku with hot water in a colander and allow to cool. Once cool enough to handle I cut it into bite sized portions and put it in a wok or frying pan. I cover the meat with sake or cooking sake (ryorishu), cover (and use a wooden otoshibuta if you have one) and cook covered over high heat. I cook it down until all the sake is evaporated and I can hear the oil from the meat sizzling in the pan and then remove from heat.

Wagyu Suji Niku (Beef Tendon)

Wagyu Suji Niku Boiled to Remove Fat

Wagyu Suji Niku Simmered in Sake

Wagyu Suji Niku Simmered in Sake

The Other Ingredients
The other ingredients don’t require much preparation. Cut the kampyo strips into bite sized pieces. Simply drain and rinse the konnyaku and quickly rinse the kampyo and yaki fu in hot water and then place in the dashi broth to reconstitute. The before slicing the aburaage, place in a colander in the sink and slowly pour a pot of boiling water over it to wash any remaining oil from the deep frying process.

Yaki Fu and Kampyo

Aburaage and Konnyaku

Sliced Aburaage

The Dashi Dilemma: Clear Soup or Stew
In Kyoto, dashi soup broth is very serious business. Many traditionalists say that (clear) soup is the climax of the meal and even just pretty good Kyoto restaurants make their dashi from scratch every morning. Some fanatical restaurants make it 3 times a day! It is said to lose its freshness after just a few hours. Dashi is the basis of many classic dishes. At Kichisen I was amazed to learn that they cook their sushi rice in dashi! (They don’t really even serve sushi to guests. But when they make sushi, they use their $5 a cup dashi to cook the rice!)

The typical nikujaga usually has a light broth but I decided to go with a more gravy or stew-like consistency (I live in Kyoto, but I am from “out on the edge of the prairie“), I also wanted to make it with the traditional kastuo dashi — and a little inspiration from Heston Blumenthal! (See this video, 4:02, potato skin infusion.)

Thanks to Heston, I decided to develop a ‘potato dashi’, I call it jaga dashi. While jaga dashi may not be ‘Kyoto’ in taste, I think that it is sufficiently ‘crazy about dashi’ to be authentically ‘Kyoto’.

First I simmer the potato skins in katsuo dashi, this infuses the dashi with the most flavorful part of the potato. Also, I overcooked about 1/3 of the potatoes in the microwave and then dissolve them into the jaga dashi to thicken the consistency and add even more flavor.

 About the katsuo dashi, I never use the chemical powdered stuff. I use the dashi packs that contain all the ingredients that go into proper dashi, these ingredients are just ground and put into a tea bag. Making authentic dashi from scratch is just not something done in home cooking now, leave that to the masters. Dashi packs are a reasonable compromise between ‘chemical’ and ‘from scratch’.

After cooking, most of this jaga dashi will be absorbed into the vegetables and meat, but making it more soupy would surely be yummy too. Just add more sake!

Starting Jaga Dashi

Well Microwaved Potatoes Jaga Dashi

Jaga Dashi Broth with Yaki Fu and Kampyo

Cooking: Simmering the Stew
The peeled potatoes should be pre-cooked in the microwave oven for about 5 minutes. Saute the reconstituted fu and kampyo, konnyaku, aburaage slices and onion with suji niku and remaining oil. Saute covered over high heat for several minutes and until browned slightly.

Next come the sliced potatoes and carrots, chuck them in and then add the jaga dashi and ‘top off’ pan with sake or cooking sake. Most cooking sake has lots of salt added to it so that it can be sold in grocery stores. You want to use seishu (clear sake) if at all possible. Just buy the cheapest sake you can find but make sure it is seishu and not synthetic (goseishu). It has been said that I use an insane amount of sake when I simmer this dish.

After you have drowned all the ingredients in sake turn up the heat. I prefer to use a Chinese style wok instead of the typical Western-style stew pot because I don’t want to stir the nikujaga while it is cooking. Stirring will break the potatoes.

Next you add the cinnamon and tare (soy sauce, mirin, sugar, salt and probably some more sake).

Saute the Beef and Other Ingredients

Drown those ingredients in sake!

Bring to boil

Add the Cinnamon and Tare

Disperse Dashi in Ingredients

Cover with Foil and Simmer

Dekita! ... I think this one is a masterpiece!

My Perfect Nikujaga Served

Kyoto-style Nikujaga Served

Kyoto-style Nikujaga First Bite: Kampyo, Suji Niku and Carrot

Kyoto-style Nikujaga Recipe
This recipe will make at least 10 servings and like any stew, nikujaga tastes even better as leftovers. Just half the ingredients if you want to make less. When I make a large portion like this I use less sugar, salt and soy sauce as it is more healthy. The recipe below you may find bland. I think that you could double the amount of mirin, soy sauce and sugar and add another teaspoon or so of cinnamon to rev up the flavor. If I were doing this recipe for guests or for just one meal, I would definitely use more sugar and soy sauce. Try this as your base and then taste and adjust as you cook.

Ingredients

• 500 g beef
• 1.5 k potato
• 1-2 onions
• 3-4 carrots
• 1 cup sliced aburaage (deep fried tofu)
• 1/2 – 1 cup konnyaku (thin sliced or ito konnyaku)
• 30 g kampyo (dried gourd strips, unbleached if possible)

dashi

• 1 liter water
• 2 katsuo dashi packs
• skins from peeled potatos
• 1/3 of the potatoes, well microwaved and lightly crushed with fork.
• dried kombu kelp (optional)

700 ml – 1 liter of cheap sake (this much ryorishu with salt will ruin the stew)

tare

• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 200 ml sake or cooking sake (ryorishu)
• 100-150 ml Japanese shoyu soy sauce (not thick koikuchi)
• 200 ml mirin (sweet sake)
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar
• salt (pinch)

Preparation
Ingredients: Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters or eighths depending on size, then cover in a bowl and cook in a microwave oven until about half-done. Use about 1/3 of the potatoes for another round of microwaving, cook well. The overcooked potatoes will be used to thicken the jaga dashi.

Peel and slice the carrots and onions.

Drain and rinse the konnyaku. Cut the kampyo into bite sized strips and rinse with hot water with the baked fu and then reconstitute in jaga dashi.

Pour boiling water over aburaage and cut into strips after cooling.

If necessary boil the beef once to remove excess fat. (See above for details if you are using tendon. If you are using roast or similar cut, this step is probably not necessary.) If using tendon or other tough cut of beef, simmer in sake.

Dashi: Simmer about 1 liter of water with several katsudashi packs and the peeled skins from the potatoes. After 20 minutes remove dashi packs and potato skins. Gently mash the over-microwaved potato slices and add to dashi and simmer covered for about 20 minutes.

Saute the beef with other ingredients except potato and carrot until lightly browned then add the jaga dashi. Next add the potatoes and carrots and fill pan with sake until all ingredients are covered and bring to a gentle boil.

Tare: Over a low flame, heat the tare ingredients gently until sugar is dissolved.

Simmer the over medium heat and add tare and cinnamon. Use a ladle to mix the tare with the dashi well. Avoid stirring to not break the potatoes. Cover with foil, leaving a small hole for steam to escape. Simmer and reduce dashi to a thick gravy-like consistency.

Flavor Balance and Kakushi Aji
Either a thick gravy or a light broth for this recipe would be nice, I think. The amount of salt and soy sauce is very important, so do like real chefs do and taste as you go. You can always add more but you can’t take it away.

The most important point in the recipe for me is the cinnamon. I want it to be a hidden taste. I want the person eating it to say, Uh, what is this? I know this taste but I can’t quite place it. If they say something like; Wow, cinnamon flavored stew, that’s interesting. Then, I think have used too much cinnamon.

Help Spread Kyoto Culinary Culture and Get a Present from Kyoto Foodie! If you make and adapt this recipe and publish it on your blog, I will send you box Kyoto foodie goodies. (If a lot of people do it, I think I will have to choose just a few winners and not send everyone a prize.) Send a trackback and/or comment with a link to your nikujaga! Be daring!

Reference and Links
Nikujaga
Dashi
Aburaage
Fu (wheat gluten)
Kampyo
Yatsuhashi

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Dashi broth, udon noodles, chicken, egg, mushrooms and shrimp tempura are all placed in a covered earthenware nabe pot and boiled vigorously over high heat for several minutes. This dish is called nabeyaki udon, it is served piping hot in the nabe pot that it was cooked in. Kakutani’s nabeyaki udon cannot be topped!

Nabeyaki Udon
Nabeyaki is served literally boiling hot and the heavy earthenware nabe holds heat. So, you will want to be very careful not to burn your tongue. I sprinkle on shichimi (seven spice chili powder) and just let it sit for a bit. This allows it to cool and the shichimi flavor to be absorbed. Next use the small ‘torizara’ bowl to serve small portions that will cool down quicker.

Nabeyaki Udon: Served

Shichimi is in the bamboo container on the left. You just pull out the peg and sprinkle it on.

Nabeyaki Udon: Shichimi Added

Nabeyaki Udon: Shiitake, Egg and Udon

Nabeyaki Udon: Egg and Udon

Nabeyaki Udon: Shrimp Tempura and Udon

Kakutani Interior

Kakutani Restaurant
One of the first restaurants, maybe the very first, that I discovered after moving to Kyoto for graduate school some years ago was Kakutani. Kakutani is a shinise restaurant that has been in business since the late 18oo’s and is on the south side of what is now Kyoto University. Kakutani’s soba is excellent, their dashi broth is great, but in the winter, when it is cold, there is nothing that I like better for lunch than nabeyaki udon and Kakutani’s simply cannot be topped.

Kakutani is a very friendly, family run restaurant. In the winter I only order their nabeyaki udon. I walk in the door and they smile and say, ‘nabeyaki?’ I’m like, ah, yeah, how’d ya guess? This time, I hadn’t been there for like three years because I moved, and I didn’t think that they would remember me. But, without fail they did. They even remembered what I would be ordering! Now that’s service!

Kakutani Showcase

Shinise style plastic food.

Kakutani Exterior

Kakutani is located in the Shogoin neighborhood. This is where Kyoto’s most well known wagashi and omiyage, Yatsuhashi comes from. In the neighborhood you can visit a number of Yatsuhashi shinise stores and try the countless variations of this simple confection that are offered.

For sightseeing, nearby is Heian Shrine, and on Yoshida ‘Mountain’ there is Kurodani Temple, Shinnyodo Temple and Yoshida Shrine.

English and Access
Kakutani 京都 かく谷老舗
English service: No English menu but you can see most dishes in the show case, just point to order. The owner/staff are all very friendly.
Website: www.kakutani-rouho.com (Japanese language only)
Hours: – (only open for lunch)
Location and Access: Kakutani is located just northwest of the Higashi-oji and Marutamachi intersection.
Address
: Kyoto-shi, Sakyo-ku, Shogoin, Sanno-cho 39 (京都市左京区聖護院山王町39)
Telephone: 075-771-2934

Map

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There is a blend of sophistication, beauty, simplicity and cuteness in namagashi, especially Kyoto namagashi, that is just unlike anything else in the foodie universe. In food and non-food related design, the traditional Japanese sense is something from another, bygone world, but still seems so essential even in our time.

Year of the Ox Namagashi

Eto: Year of the Ox Motif in Food
I came across this New Year’s delightful and whimsical namagashi at Toraya the other day. 2009 is the Year of the Ox in the Chinese Zodiac system, or Eto 干支 in Japanese. Toraya is a very old and famous wagashi shinise in Kyoto that is probably best known for it’s sweet yokan ‘jelly’ made from azuki beans. Toraya also has a store in Paris.

Year of the Ox Plate

If you are a regular KyotoFoodie visitor, you may recall seeing these plates before. Each one in the set has one of the 12 Eto animals on it.

Year of the Ox Namagashi

Cinnamon Cow Spot
Sweetened bean paste is sculpted into this ox-like form that though extremely simple and cute, does not come off as childish or cheap. Red and white are colors associated with celebration in Japan.

The brown ‘spot’ on the ox head is a simple brushing of cinnamon. This is really great. Cinnamon came to Japan centuries ago and is still an exotic taste to many people, it used in the Kyoto’s Yatsuhashi wagashi souvenirs for sale where ever there are tourists in the city.

Year of the Ox Namagashi

Year of the Ox Namagashi


How Did it Taste?
I don’t recall ever having namagashi flavored with cinnamon before and I really enjoyed this. It had the conventional sweet bean namagashi taste, but made more complex with the addition of cinnamon. This, combined with the playful visual element made this namagashi a homerun for me.

Difference Between Kyoto and Tokyo (Edo) Wagashi
Kyoto: How much can be taken away and still say, ox (or whatever the theme is)?
Tokyo: How can we emphasize the ox theme?

Visually, Kyoto wagashi is different from that of Tokyo. Kyoto’s is simple, refined and subtle. Tokyo’s is more garish and pronounced. I think of it as the difference between art and communication; communication as in PR and visual design.

Year of the Ox Namagashi

Nodokana Ashita and Eternal Kyoto BS in the Year of the Ox
Toraya’s name for this namagashi is Nodokana Ashita のどかな朝, poetically meaning ‘peaceful and mild morning/tomorrow’. Toraya’s explanation of this namagashi says that “it suggests cows are eating grass in a pasture peacefully in soft, spring sunshine”. This is typical Kyoto shinise BS. There is nothing about this namagashi that suggests eating grass, a farm, spring or sunshine. Because Kyoto is Kyoto and shinise are shinise, they can often get away with just making up meaning that just isn’t there. Many people will literally eat it up. This is nothing more than sales talk, shinise style. The person who created this doesn’t believe these words. Not all shinise do this, but don’t be taken in by it.

The Japan Dento Spell
Because something is old and rare in the world today, many people are willing to believe something about it that just isn’t true. I remember seeing an article on Kyoto Journal a few years back. Someone photographed a concrete covered mountainside in Japan that had been completely raped by the construction of a new highway. The patterns created by the different planes of concrete stuck me as extremely ugly and completely un-designed. It was creation of a gear head with a calculator. However, the author of the article, under the spell of traditional Japanese aesthetics said that it was a typical example of how Japanese designed everything to be beautiful. Take a walk around Tokyo, Osaka, or even a lot of Kyoto, look at the modern city and tell yourself that Japanese design everything to be beautiful.

Don’t be cast under this spell, there is plenty in Kyoto and Japan that is authentic to be be inspired by.

It is too bad that Toraya makes up this kind of exaggerated sales talk because this wagashi, on it’s own, without any BS is, in fact, completely remarkable. Wouldn’t you agree?

Year of the Ox Namagashi – Cross Section

I cleanly cut this in half to illustrate how the namagashi is constructed. Japanese wouldn’t cut it apart like this.

Year of the Ox Namagashi – Package

This is what it looks like when you get it home and open the box.

link: Eto 干支 (Chinese Zodiac) Wikipedia article

link: Yokan 羊羹 Wikipedia article

link: Toraya English Website