Kyoto Foodie: Where and what to eat in Kyoto » tsukudani

Nishiki Market Best: Kyoto-style Beef Manju Bun

Kyoto Foodie — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:51:46 +0000

Nikuman or beef manju is a very common snack in Japan and something that Japanese are quite passionate about. In the cold months of the year, every convenience store chain has their annual best nikuman lineup in a glass case, steaming hot, next to the cash register. There is everything from primo wagyu-man to exotic pizza-man. Nikuman is of course Chinese, not Japanese, called baozi (包子) in Chinese.

I love nikuman, both the Japanese and Chinese variety. I find the baozi in China has a wonderful variety of hearty and tasty, usually handmade fillings and the nikuman in Japan often have great steamed bread but are a little mass produced in taste and feel. Japanese nikuman lacks the hearty soul of baozi in China as it is almost never handmade or fresh.

Kyoto-style baozi is not something that I had contemplated. It turns out there is a Kyoto kaiseki restaurant in Gion called Hattori Ebisu Rakuan (服部ゑびす楽庵) that developed a Kyoto-style manju that is sold in a few places in Kyoto, one being the foodie’s paradise of Nishiki Market. Hattori Ebisu Rakuan doesn’t actually have a shop in Nishiki but the tsukudani store Ajidontsuki has a steamer full of their nikuman. Give this one a try if you are visiting Nishiki Market, especially in during the winter months. In one recent year this was the number one selling item in all of Nishiki Market!

Kyoto-style Beef Manju Steamed Bun

In addition to being tasty, these nikuman are beautiful. They have a delightful ‘yakiin’ hot iron brand that says kokyo hoka, kokyo means old capital and hoka means hot, and these manju are hot hot hot!

Inside the thick streamed but is a mixture of beef tsukudani (wagyu beef simmered in sweet soy sauce), kimpira gobo (burdock root simmered in sweet soy sauce) and shibazuke tsukemono (Kyoto-style eggplant and cucumber pickled with red shiso)! The addition of tsukemono is really novel.

Kyoto-style Beef Manju Steamed Bun

Kyoto-style Beef Manju Steamed Bun - detail

How did it taste?
This nikuman is served straight out of the steamer and it is REALLY hot. I couldn’t eat mine right away and had to sit down on a chair in the shop while it cooled down.

I took a first nibble but it was still too hot for me to bite through the steamed bread and get to the tsukudani filling. The steamed bread is quite thick and being bread doesn’t have a huge taste. At first I was a little disappointed feeling like it was going to be bland. Then after another nibble or two I finally got to the tsukudani filling, it was amazing! The combination of wagyu beef, burdock root — and tsukemono was a real surprise and quite overwhelmed me with flavor.

The texture was weird and satisfying; gooey rich beef, fibrous burdock root and crunchy, but hot tsukemono pickles. Tsukemono is always served as is, not cooked.

This little snack is a wonderously weird combination of several orthodox Japanese dishes and condiments — and pickles — wrapped up in a bit of classic Chinese cuisine. And, somehow it manages to still feel pretty ‘Kyoto’ to me. The shibazuke is one of Kyoto’s most well known tsukemono pickles and comes from Ohara, a small village in the mountains just north of the city. Ohara is very famous for its red shiso which is used to naturally color and flavor various pickles.

One thing, Miwa said that she has had this many times and sometime it is not so good. It is basically fast food. Though this nikuman was developed by a famous restaurant in Gion, I doubt that it is actually made by Hattori Ebisu Rakuan, on site. Production is probably subcontracted out. But it is still very good, pretty authentically Kyoto — and unique!

Ajidontsuki Shop Storefront, Nikuman Steamer on Left

Ajidontsuki Product Lineup, Mostly Tsukudani

– Map Coming Soon –

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Simmered Shishito Peppers and Jako Itameni

Kyoto Foodie — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:17:36 +0000

Miwa’s Kyoto Kitchen Recipe This simple side dish combines fresh summer shishito peppers with chirimen jako (dried sardine fry) and is simmered with sake and a lot of soy sauce. The textural juxtaposition of sauteed vegetable and crunchy little fish is delightful. It should be made with plenty of soy sauce as the saltiness perfectly compliments rice.

Home Cooking: Shishito Peppers and Jako Simmered in Soy Sauce

Shishito peppers are perhaps the most commonly consumed variety of pepper in Japan. Shishito peppers are ‘peppery’ in flavor and while fairly sweet, it seems that in every bunch of shishito there are one or two hot ones. As you bite into one, you never know if you have a zinger or not! In Japan, Shishito are available all year now.

About the Name of the Dish
‘Itame’ means to saute and ‘ni’ means to simmer, as in nizakana (simmered fish).

Shishito Peppers

Saute Jako in Sesame Oil

Simmer in Sake

Shishito Peppers and Jako Itameni Recipe
Be sure not to use chirimen jako that has already been flavored with shoyu and/or sansho. Chirimen should be whitish grey in color, not brownish red.

Ingredients

20-30 Japanese shishito peppers
1/2 cup chirmen jako (plain, not sansho flavored)
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 – 1 cup sake or cooking sake (ryorishu)
5 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce (shoyu)
1-2 tablespoons mirin (sweet cooking sake)

Preparation
Wash shishito and remove stems. Saute chirimen jako in smoking hot oil 1 or 2 minutes then add shishito and reduce heat. After the bottoms of the shishito have browned slightly pour on sake and cover. After 2 to 3 minutes and most of the sake has been absorbed, add the soy sauce and mirin and simmer until absorbed.

You can add sugar to caramelize the chirimen jako, if you like.

point: Don’t overcook. If shishito are overcooked the collapse and become flat. You want them to be cook and retain their shape. Adjust the amount of soy sauce to suit your taste. This is a side dish, not a main dish. It is intended to be salty.

Shishito Peppers and Jako Itameni – Served

This is another dish that you ought to be able to adapt easily with local vegetables in your region. As chirimen jako is dried, it ought to be relatively easy to obtain outside of Japan. Try online. Let us know of your localized creations!

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Donabe Eda Mame ‘Green Soybean’ Gohan, Matsutake Gohan, Ayu Shioyaki and Tsukudani

Kyoto Foodie — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:07:35 +0000

Donabe Takikomi Gohan: Eda Mame ‘Green Soybean’ Gohan, Matsutake Gohan, Grilled Ayu Sweetfish and Homemade Tsukudani

Being requested for more frequent recipes by our readers on KyotoFoodie, last night I made eda mame gohan cooked in a donabe and tried my new experimental tsukudani. While preparing this simple, seasonal and very tasty dish, Tanigawa-san from Kichisen called and told that he had some wild ayu sweetfish and a box of natsu matsutake gohan for me, so come on over and pick it up. Dinner turned out to be quite a feast!

One of my favorite Japanese dishes is eda mame gohan. Eda mame are most commonly served salt boiled and chilled in the summer as an accompaniment to beer. Eda mame are available pre-packaged in the supermarket boiled and frozen, but I prefer the fresh ones, still on the stalk for this dish. They are a little more expensive and preparation takes more time, but the taste is definitely worth it!

This is a dish that is easy to prepare and you ought to be able to get all the ingredients in your country. If you cannot get fresh green soybeans, try adapting the recipe with other varieties of beans or peas. And, of course, tell us what you come up with!

Fresh Eda Mame ‘Green Soybeans’

Boiling Eda Mame

Eda Mame Beans Separated from Pods

Kodai Sea Bream Heads for ‘Kakushi Aji’ Broth

I bought some baby sea bream (kodai) heads for soup stock and broth and added two to the the gohan nabe. To remove any fishy smell, pour boiling water over the fish heads or grill them lightly. I did both.

Kodai Sea Bream Heads Wrapped in Muslin

To prevent bones and scales from getting in the rice, I wrapped the kodai heads in muslin.

Rice and Eda Mame in Gohan Nabe

All Ingredients in Gohan Nabe

Eda Mame Gohan Recipe
Please see our How to Cook Rice in a Donabe article here for lots of details and explanation. Also, we have an article and video on How to Season a Donabe if you have a new one.

Eda Mame Gohan Ingredients
2 1/2 cups rice, 1/2 cup pressed oats (I use a combination of lightly milled brown rice, white rice and oshi-mugi, or pressed oats)
1-2 cups of fresh green beans
1/2 cup cooking sake
2 1/2 cups fresh, clean water
kombu
pinch of salt

Soak rice and pressed oats in warm water for 30-60 minutes.

While soaking the rice, boil the beans in salt water for approximately 5 minutes. The point is to cook them enough that you can easily ‘squeeze’ the beans out of the pod. Be careful not to cook them so long that they become too soft and squish when squeezing them out.

Measure equal parts soaked rice to water and fill donabe. Bring uncovered donabe to a boil. Reduce heat and cover and simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove heat and keep covered for an additional 10 minutes. Again, see this article for how to cook rice in a donabe.

I added some grilled baby sea bream heads for a kakushi aji, or ‘hidden’ flavor.

The Feast

Kichisen’s Matsutake Gohan – Wrapped

Kichisen’s Matsutake Gohan – Unwrapped

Fresh Seasonal Ayu Sweetfish

Ayu Shioyaki (Salt Grilled Sweetfish)

Eda Mame Gohan with O-koge

O-kage is the charring of the rice at the bottom of the earthenware pot. This is slightly too charred, the color should not be black or dark brown and the rice should not get hard. Just the right amount of o-koge makes you remember why you spent the little extra time and effort to make rice the old fashioned way, not just push the button of the electric rice cooker!

Eda Mame Gohan Dinner Served

Eda Mame Gohan – Served

Eda Mame Gohan – detail

This is REALLY good!

Kichisen’s Matsutake Gohan – Served

This is ‘summer’ matsutake mushroom (natsu matsutake). The fragrance is sublime!

My Experimental Tsukudani

This is made with ‘water’ eggplant (mizu nasu), a traditional Osaka vegetable used mainly for tsukemono, wagyu beef tendon and egoma sesame leaves (egoma-no-ha). It was pretty good, but not a masterpiece. The eggplant variety wasn’t quite right for tsukudani. Egoma leaves, popular with beef dishes in Korean cuisine, aren’t usually used in Japanese cuisine but I like the astringent ‘mediciney’ taste very much. I will keep working on the recipe.

My Experimental Tsukudani

Ayu Shioyaki and Tade Kuzu Vinegar

Tade (蓼) is a bitter wild herb that is used to flavor vinegar for ayu. Kichisen adds Yoshino kuzu starch to their vinegar to make it very thick. This helps ‘stick’ more flavor on the fish. Eating the entire ayu, head, guts and all is quite bitter, but with ayu this small the flesh cannot really be removed from the bones very easily. The alternative would be deep frying, but these wild ayu are too good to just deep fry!

Ayu Shioyaki and Tade Kuzu Vinegar