When I think of a summer slaw to go with the barbeque, I want something light, tangy, cold and crunchy. Traditional coleslaw just doesn’t do it – its heavy mayonnaise dressing really weighs down the vegetables. Instead of a mayo-based dressing, my Asian slaw is made with a bright, citrusy ponzu sauce – one of the most versatile Asian sauces that I own.

Ponzu is a Japanese “sauce” however I refer to it as both a dressing and sauce. It’s much lighter than soy sauce, with a distinctive tangy lemon/orange flavor combined with a savory note. It’s a perfect balance of salty, sweet and sour! You can use it as a dipping sauce for potstickers, a light sauce for steamed vegetables and combined with some crushed garlic, make the best marinade ever.

I’m working with Mitsukan (pronounced mit-soo-kon) to develop several recipes using popular Japanese sauces and vinegars. This Asian slaw that I’ve made is incredibly simple: thinly sliced cabbage, carrots, snow peas and fennel with a 4-ingredient dressing: ponzu, sesame oil, sesame seeds and salt. 10-minutes to make and you’re done!
Continue reading Asian Slaw with Ponzu Dressing...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 30 comments

Do you enjoy wasabi with your sushi? If you dine at sushi restaurants here in the U.S., chances are the green paste served is not real fresh wasabi, but rather regular horseradish with green food coloring. Today’s guest post is from my friend Tim Mar, owner of an online foods store, Chef Shop based in Seattle, Washington. They feature and support the small family owned, artisan producers that make amazing products like Amabito No Moshio – ancient sea salt from Japan.

Tim sells fresh wasabi grown by family farmers Brian, Laurencia and daughter Aleena. The crops are grown in three locations in North America, whose exact locations are kept a secret because U.S. grown wasabi is incredibly rare and valuable. There is such a high failure rate in wasabi farming that Brian must keep his location and harvest schedules confidential.

Enjoy the article below! ~Jaden

What is Fresh Wasabi?

by Tim Mar

Ever wonder why Wasabi, that fiery green paste and indispensable sushi accompaniment, tastes so much like horseradish?

Here’s why: because it IS horseradish.

Although we’ve learned to call it Wasabi, what we’re served in sushi restaurants in North America – and largely in Japan, too – is nearly always a mixture of horseradish and green coloring, with perhaps a little dry mustard, with possibly a very little bit of real Wasabi added in.

Why not offer the real deal? Because real wasabi, Wasabia japonica, is very rare. Even in its native Japan, demand constantly outstrips supply, and it’s expensive to import and notoriously tricky to grow.

It is a rare find and an unmatched taste experience.
And here it is…

The Secret Wasabi Grotto

It’s a chilly, gray morning in May here in the Pacific Northwest, and I’m peering through dark-colored shade tarp walls into a long greenhouse. Inside, a thick, lush carpet of wasabi plants extend from one end to the other, almost ready to be harvested. There’s barely room to pick a pathway through the sea of green.

We are here to talk with Wasabi Meister, Brian, his wife, Laurencia, and their 10-year-old daughter, Aleena, who met us at one of their prime wasabi-growing sites. As Aleena leads us into the greenhouse, the rich, heavy, green smell of the damp plants envelops us. We watch as Brian selects a big, bushy plant that’s ready for harvest, after years of growing.

Loosening it from the ground with a hoe he pulls it up, leaves, roots and all, and carries it outside to a cleaning and prep station conveniently set up right outside the greenhouse.

After a brisk washing in lots of cold water, Brian deftly trims away the leaves (which he saves; they’re edible too – and delicious!), cuts off the roots, and holds out a knobby, 3-inch-long, greenish, root-like object: the coveted wasabi rhizome.

The rhizome, which is a root-like stem that grows above ground, is the part of the plant that’s grated to make wasabi as we know it – that is, wasabi as we’re used to seeing it but not tasting it!

Aleena, their daughter, proudly does the honors of grating the wasabi. Traditionally a sharkskin grater is used and is still considered optimal, but ceramic works well, too. (We’ve also found that A MICROPLANE zester will work for some applications, although it does not mash the rhizome, which is ideal.)

In a minute, Aleena amasses a little pile of grated wasabi, a lovely, light shade of green. (It really is green; the color comes from chlorophyll, since despite its root-like appearance, the rhizome grows above ground.) She pushes the shavings into a neat little pile, and then we let them rest for one to two minutes. This allows the wasabi’s flavor to develop; the flavor-producing compounds react following grating and exposure to the air. They’re extremely volatile, though – meaning that fresh wasabi loses its pungency and hot flavor in about 20 minutes. It must be eaten freshly grated!

Finally, on the tip of a chopstick, we taste the fresh wasabi. It’s a revelation – like nothing I’ve ever tasted. It’s strong and hot, but with no harshness and no lasting burn. Plus, it tastes green, herbal, distinctly plant-like (unlike the imitation version); it’s a very clean, pure flavor.

The Joys of Real Wasabi

Just imagine this with sushi – but that’s not all. Imagine it with grilled fish, as an accompaniment to fresh lump crab salad, dotter atop steaming mashed potatoes, or along a plate like a coulis. From steak to fresh vegetables, it’s a brilliant accompaniment. And you can’t get it anywhere else…!*

But wait, there’s more: don’t forget the wasabi leaves and their long stems!

The large, heart-shaped leaves and crisp stems, known as petioles, are edible and excellent. Pleasantly spicy, resembling spicier varieties of salad greens but with a distinct hint of wasabi flavor, they’re flavorful and refreshing (and the touch of heat fades quickly, as with the grated rhizome). Even more than the rhizomes, the leaves are extremely rare outside of Japan. What better touch for your next springtime dinner party than a wasabi-leaf salad?

Chefs are Crazy about Fresh Wasabi

Brian and Laurencia are finding an enthusiastic audience among local chefs that’s particularly interested in their recently available fresh wasabi. They also work with chefs from around the world; from the Pacific Northwest, with its terrific culinary scene and strong Asian-Pacific influences, to the U.S. and Europe. A number of chefs at Michelin-rated restaurants are customers, even as far away as South Africa where one chef brings wasabi to the table for customers to grate themselves! Wasabi is particularly suited for table-side service, since its flavor fades quickly. In addition to accompanying sushi and sashimi, chefs are serving wasabi with oysters, with steak, and to flavor soufflés, to name a few ideas!

How to Store Your Wasabi

Rhizomes: One way is to individually wrap each rhizome in a damp paper towel and then store them in a bowl, uncovered, in the fridge. Do not use plastic; the rhizomes need air circulation. Keep the paper towels damp, and rhizomes will store well for a couple of weeks. Morimoto explained to me, in Aspen at the Food and Wine Classic, that we should store the rhizomes in ice water, changing the water daily. The rhizomes will darken around the edges, but you can just scrape off outermost layer with a vegetable peeler before grinding.

Leaves and Petioles (Stems): These store very well in the fridge for about 10 days. Wash leaves and petioles and leave them moist; store in a plastic zip-type bag.

Preparing Fresh Wasabi

Preparing wasabi to eat is a snap – and it’s fun, too! Start by washing the rhizome and trimming any bumps. Then trim the root-end (holding the leafy end upright) for a fresh surface, and grate wasabi into a small pile. Let it rest one to two minutes for flavors to develop, and then serve!

NOTE: Wasabi loses its flavor very quickly – in about 15-20 minutes when exposed to air – so gathering the shavings into a ball not only keeps it together for easy use as a condiment, but minimizes exposure to air.

TIP: You can freshen up wasabi that has lost its flavor by grating on a little fresh wasabi into the pile and gathering it all into a ball again, rolling it between your fingers. Wasabi should be “sticky;” it should easily stay in a ball-shape.

How Fresh Wasabi Ended Up In The Pacific Northwest

Despite its incredible culinary appeal, Brian initially became interested in wasabi for its potential health benefits. Brian, who until five years ago was a researcher and lecturer in botany at the University, came across some information about wasabi and its potentially anti-cancer properties right at a time when he had recently lost several family members to cancer.

In 1993, he ordered his first wasabi seeds from Japan and planted them. They died soon after, but a second batch sprouted and grew. Fast-forward to today – skipping past years of trial and error, endless experiments with growing conditions – now, the wasabi is top-notch. It’s now available year-round from farms in the America’s and can be shipped over-night.

Wasabia Japonica is native to Japan, where it has long been a coveted delicacy (and also known to have medicinal benefits – more on this below). Such was wasabi’s desirability that, according to one story, shoguns gave Samurai warriors wasabi plantations as a thank you for services performed.

In the wild, wasabi grows naturally in cold, mountain stream beds. Traditional Japanese farmers have also planted it in streams for cultivation, which produces great plants; semi-aquatic, or sawa wasabi, is considered more desirable for flavor and character than soil-grown. For Brian, however, in-stream was not a viable long-term planting option, considering the meandering route of streams, even controlled for planting. “It’s not very linear,” he points out – certainly not in the Western farming model of neat fields on acreage! Now, after years of research and experimentation, Brian and his associates have developed a method of growing sawa wasabi, with excellent results.

Wasabi is considered by many people to be a very difficult plant to grow. Brian agrees with this statement, however, “It’s like baking a difficult cake; once you figure out the recipe, it’s not so hard,” said Brian.

Perhaps not, but the recipe took many years to discover! Even now, they continue to experiment and tweak their methods.

The Health Benefits of Wasabi

In a published article of Naturopathy, Brian detailed some of the potential benefits of wasabi, some of which are summarized below.

- Wasabi is a member of the super-healthy cruciferous family, which includes kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, mustard and more.

- When ground up and mixed with water – that is, when chewed – a group of compounds in fresh wasabi convert to isothiocyanates (ITCs); much of the health-related research on wasabi has focused on the attributes of these ITCs. (They don’t occur in dried wasabi, but recent work is showing that freeze-drying preserves them until they are ingested.)

- In Japan, wasabi has long been believed to have medicinal properties. ITCs inhibit some strains of bacteria, yeast and mold; it is believed that wasabi’s anti-microbial effects are a reason that it became a part of the diet in Japan, an effective complement to any ill effects of raw fish.

- ITCs also have anti-inflammatory effects, meaning that wasabi may be useful for controlling seasonal allergies and asthma. Brian and his family are convinced that it is, and they love to tell stories of friends and family members helped greatly by wasabi (in freeze-dried capsule form). They have recently found a clinical trial done in Japan that supports the fact that wasabi is very good for seasonal allergies.

Other potential benefits are helping to prevent tooth decay and, possibly, working against cancer cells. Research has been limited, partly due to the low availability of wasabi and the expense in obtaining it. Brian hopes that, having learned to grow it, he will be able to help scientific research on wasabi progress.

- Fresh wasabi is occasionally available at some well-stocked Asian groceries.

Fresh Wasabi – The Whole Nine Yards

Plants: Wasabi is ready to harvest after at least 18 months, when the bushy, leafy plants are about knee-high. The whole plant is pulled up.

Wasabi Rhizome: The rhizome – a thick, root-like stem growing just above ground-level – is the coveted part of the plant. The knobby rhizome is about THREE to SIX inches long.

Leaves and Petioles: Virtually unknown in North America are the wasabi plant’s leaves. The palm-size leaves and long, crisp, light-green stems are both edible and delicious. They don’t taste quite like wasabi, but they have a bit of a spicy bite to them, and they make an excellent salad green.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 23 comments

Since last summer when I posted my 15 Minute Udon Miso Soup recipe, I’ve gotten so many requests for a recipe for Miso Ramen that I’ve decided to post this recipe that appears in the Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. Though truthfully, the only part of this recipe that I follow is a) the miso soup base and b) cooking the ramen noodles. All other toppings in my Miso Ramen varies each time I make it depending on what’s in my refrigerator, as most times when I’m craving this dish it’s usually pretty darn close to midnight. Or 2am.

Ramen Noodles

These are dried ramen noodles, though the ones that are fresh are much better. But at 2am, I’ll take the dried kind. I’ve also been known to rip open one of those 29 cent instant ramen noodle packages and use the noodles from the package, throwing away the spice pack. A couple times, as an emergency measure, I even used…..dried spaghetti pasta *covering eyes*

So I guess what I’m saying is, keep a package of dried ramen noodles in your pantry.

The Miso

White miso, or shiro miso is my favorite. It’s more delicate and less salty than the other kinds of miso. This stuff lasts for 6 months in the refrigerator (just keep it well sealed and preferably in a plastic tub)

Not only do I use it for making Japanese style noodle soups, but if I’m making a whatever-soup that needs a kick of flavor, I’ll stir in a big tablespoon of miso paste, which is a natural umami-master.

The Dashi

This is instant dashi, which like sand-colored tiny granueles. Dashi is Japanese bonito fish stock. Don’t be intimidated if you’ve never used dashi – there’s absolutely NO fishy taste at all. In fact, if you like miso soup, you like dashi. All miso soup is made with a dashi base.

This is always in my pantry too. Of course, you can make your own dashi from scratch from dried bonito shavings and seaweed – Fuji Mama shows you how.

The Toppings

Raid your freezer and refrigerator:

Fresh spinach – blanch, then squeeze all of the water out.
Frozen spinach – defrost, then squeeze all of the water out.
Corn – canned, fresh or frozen
Green onions – chopped
Bamboo shoots – Canned or fresh
Bamboo Shoots in Chili Oil – oh yummmm my favorite
Dried seaweed
Tofu – drained and cubed
Snow peas – blanched
Barbeque cha-siu pork
Enoki or shiitake mushrooms
Sliced Japanese fish cakes
Fresh bean sprouts

The Shoot

As I was going through my old photo files for the Miso Ramen, I found a couple I’ll share with you just for kicks. When I was writing the cookbook, I was teaching myself food styling and photography as I was going along. Basically, that means trial and *cough* lots of errors.

These photos were taken July 15, 2008 with my first dSLR camera, the Canon Rebel XT and the cheapy $100 lens, the 50mm 1.8. I was still really unsteady (oh handshake!) and 90% of the photos from the shoot were blurry and unusable. In fact, even the final shot wasn’t as sharp as I would have liked.

I was just learning to shoot tethered, meaning hooking up my camera to my laptop so that I could see the photos better. I also had a $30 tripod that had a leg that kept buckling, which taught me never to buy a $30 tripod ever again. These days, I trust my heavy-duty Manfrotto tripod to hold up and support the Canon 5D Mark II camera with 24-70mm lens….basically a $500 tripod to hold up $5,000 worth of photography equipment.

On the day of the shoot, since the leg of the cheap-o tripod kept coming down, I grabbed a step stool and relied on holding the camera myself. I wanted an overhead shot. And yes, on the floor is my famous $3 foamboard. Cheapest photo studio around.

Let me try to explain the shot. I wanted the entire bowl plus lots of the gorgeous indigo-colored Japanese fabric as possible. The lens, the 50mm, is a 1:1 lens, meaning, what you see is what you get. It replicates what you see with your naked eye. Hold up your fingers to create a “frame” in front of your face. That’s what the 50mm lens will shoot.

I placed the stool as close to the foam board as I could to get an overhead shot. However, when standing on the stool hovering above the bowl of ramen, I really couldn’t get the entire bowl in the shot.

Problem: I’m short. The stool is short.

So then I had to move the laptop, stand on the ottoman which is a good 6-inches higher.

The ottoman was squishy, making it difficult to balance. To get a true overhead shot, I needed to lean waaaaay forward.

Problem: I’m still short. And have no balance.

The last shot as I was faaaaaaaalllling off the ottoman:

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 29 comments

Wendy, one of my best friends and I were whisked away to NYC for a 4-day vacation to celebrate NYC Restaurant week, featuring over 200 restaurants in NYC with prix fix $24.95 lunch and $35.00 dinners. Fancy restaurants like Nobu, Bar Basque, Adour Alain Ducasse and Aquavit participate! UPDATE: Restaurant Week has been extended until Feb 27, 2010

What we didn’t expect was the crazy cold weather – we’re Florida girls and we’re used to flip flops in January. In fact, this was taken a couple of weeks ago:

And this was NYC when we arrived, in between 2 huge storms.

So we bundled up as warm as we could – I have like 24 layers on – which meant that I couldn’t button up my big coat. Which meant that the 24 layers were useless. That hats? Useless because they didn’t cover our ears.
Continue reading Steamed Fish with Black Bean Sauce...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 23 comments

Hey guys ‘n gals – it’s Green Eggs and Ham 50th Anniversary this year and to celebrate, rock stars Melissa d’Arabian, Michael Symon, Mitzi Dulan and I created some fun recipes using…you guessed it…green eggs and ham. Together, we’re on the consumer advisory council for the Pork Board.

I’ll tell you what though, my toughest cooking challenge ever was making green eggs look appetizing! My first experiment with green food coloring in the eggs resulted in a gnarly concoction that looked more like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

uhh….hmm….ha!

Okay, so Dr. Seuss books aren’t great for appetite and I’m suspiciously eyeing that Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook. I wanted to create food that wasn’t just for show and tell but a dish that was actually appetizingt o both little kids and big kids.

So, Green Eggs and Ham Sushi was born (hat tip to American Style Sushi Cookbook). The eggs are mixed with chopped spinach, lots of chopped spinach.

By the way, did you know you can also get the book with Chinese and English, French (les oeufs vert et jamon) and even Italian (proscuitto e uova verdi). The boys really love the animated DVD (it’s only $5.99!)

Below are step by step photos on how to roll the sushi – please try it with your kids! They’ll have a blast making sushi with you!

Take a look at more Green Eggs and Ham Recipes -
Melissa d’Arabian: Ham and Green Egg Mini Tartlets
Mitzi Dulan: Ham and Avocado Deviled Eggs
Michael Symon: Ham Sandwich with Greens and Eggs

oooh and before you go…can I humor you with An Ode to Spam in the Style of Seuss?

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 28 comments