Zawazawa Kitchen

Beerzuke

Yoshie and I have been working a lot over the past few weeks. On work days we often have a beer instead of wine (depends in part on what we are cooking) and some nights we fall asleep before we even finish our beers. Sigh. This leaves the question of what to do with the stale beer the next morning. Our dear friend Susan has come to the rescue with a simple way of making pickles, a rather Japanese style pickle, but quite delicious.

• Beer, one bottle, stale is fine
• 1 cup miso (experiment with red or white)
• 1/3 cup salt
• 1/3 cup sugar (again, try different types)
• Various vegetables, inlcuding eggplant (Japanese or Italian), carrots, cabage, daikon ...)

Mix the sugar and salt, add other ingredients, add vegetables. They are quite good after 48 hours and will improve for several days. These are surprizingly good and similar to conventional Japanese pickles. And they go well with more beer!

Yoshie's Fall 2008 Salads

In the fall of 2008 Yoshie began experimenting with a new style of salad. She was looking for something more substantial than our normal salad, one with more flavour and texture contrasts, that could stand up as the center of the evening meal. With work busy we were eating rather late in the evening, and wanted something more than a snack but less than a full meal.

The new (to us anyway) approach that she developed changed the three main parts of the salad, what we think of as the spirit, the body and the ground.

The spirit, also known as the salad dressing, became more complex. In the past we have used a roughly fifty-fifty balance of oil and vinegar, leaning a bit towards more oil. The main exception would be dressings using lemon juice as the acid, where there would be relatively more oil. In the new style we go for about two-thirds vinegar to one-third oil. They key, though, is to mix vinegars to call out new flavors. One approach is to start with some black rice vinegar and then add in a gentle apple vinegar. Here we generally do one-fifth black vinegar for four-fifths apple. Another style is to use a mixture of champagne and red wine vinegars, blending for balance and high lighting with herbs. We have also upped the amount of shallots in the vinegar and added an edge by putting in very small amounts of various citrus peels. This mixture needs some time to blend and merge flavours, at least an hour and it does well over night, so we begin with this. Once the tone of the vinegar is established we mix oils to match, usually a neutral oil, grapeseed is good, with a hint of a nut or sesame oil, but sometimes an olive oil, preferably one with a bit of a bite.

The body is something added to give the meal substance. Our preferences lean to a medley of dry roasted mushrooms, preferably three or four kinds, with some minced garlic thrown in, or a roasted Japanese eggplant, maybe with a hint of miso and mirin. The stems of broccoli, boiled in heavily salted water, is something we often use. Beets are good too of course, small beets do best, or any other roast vegetable. A grilled fish or some chicken can add the necessary protein. Thai style crispy deep fried fish, broken in small pieces, is a nice change.

For the ground we have been using some of the heavier and crisper vegetables. Thinly sliced cabbage, combining colours, is exceptionally good. With cabbage we find it helps to let it marinate in the dressing for five minutes or so before serving. We also use French beans or asparagus as a base for these salads. Frisee can work as well. In any case, the ground should have some crunch in it and contrast with the taste of the body while highlighting the dressing.

As with all foods, it helps to pay attention to colours, and make sure that there are bright and dark shades in the meal.

We have been eating these slowly, talking, and drinking wine. The evening passes smoothly into night and the street sounds fade into the background of our voices and maybe some music.

Three Simple Eggplant Dishes Japanese Style

When I was a child I refused to eat eggplant because I did not like eggs! It was not until I was in third year university, when Rob Woodbury taught me how to make eggplant parmesan, that I began to like the vegetable, and not until I went to Japan that I fell in love with it.

The undulating purple of a fresh Japanese eggplant (nasu), almost black in places, then shining up to accents of light green, is one of my favourite palates. It is like the sky in the west just before dusk finally fades. And cooked simply or pickled Japanese style it is a wonderful food.

Once back in 1980, just before Yoshie went off to Copenhagen, we spent a weekend on a farm up past Maebashi. One of their main crops was eggplant and the we prepared it very simply, sliced in half, then grilled on an open fire, and served with soy sauce and some ginger. It was at that farm I was told that the sweetest most tender part of the eggplant is found under the cap (stem) and that you should never just cut the end off an eggplant, but peel back the covering and eat it.

The following three dishes are to remember that weekend so long ago, when Yoshie and I had just met, and were discovering the world together (something we are still doing).

Grilled Eggplant

This is as simple and as good as it gets.

• Japanese eggplant
• Mirin
• Salt
• Fresh ginger
• Soy sauce or other dipping sauce, ponzu shoyu is always good with this

Slice eggplant in half. Score the skin side in a crisscross pattern. Soak in brine (very salty water) for about half an hour to remove the bitterness. Dry and press out some of the moisture. Grill or cook at medium heat on a dry frying pan (add a little oil if the pan tends to stick) skin down until there is a first charring, test for tenderness with a fork of thin knife. Flip, increase the heat a bit, and add a splash of mirin. As soon as the flesh is nice and brown take off the heat and transfer to a serving plate.

Serve with fresh grated ginger and soy sauce of ponzu sauce.

Baked Eggplant with Miso

• Japanese eggplant
• Mirin
• Salt
• Fresh ginger
• Miso paste
• Soy sauce
• A sugar, brown sugar or a hint of honey (optional)

Slice eggplant in half. Score the flesh side in a criss cross pattern (note the difference, you score the flesh for this recipe not the skin). Soak in brine (very salty water) for about half an hour to remove the bitterness. Dry and press out some of the moisture.

Prepare a paste of miso, a bit of mirin, mix in some grated ginger (just a teaspoon) and if you like a bit of brown sugar or honey (Yoshie prefers not to do this).

Smear the pate over the flesh side of the eggplant and put in a baking dish with a bit less than a finger's width of water on the bottom. Bake for about forty minutes at 300 degrees until the flesh is tender and the miso paste is forming a light crust.

Serve with some more fresh ginger, ginger shoots if you can find them fresh.

Eggplant Caps Simmered in Stock

• Eggplant caps (use the rest of the eggplant in one of the other recipies)
• Dashi (Japanese stock)
• Mirin
• Salt
• Fresh ginger
• Soy sauce or other dipping sauce, ponzu shoyu is also good with this

Cut off the caps of the eggplant just where the covering ends. Peel off the covering and stem and discard. Soak in brine (very salty water) for about half an hour to remove the bitterness. Dry and press out some of the moisture.

In a sauce pan mix 3/4 dashi with 1/4 mirin and a splash of soy sauce, enough to cover the eggplant caps. Simmer with the lid on over a gentle heat for about 45 minutes, until the caps are very tender, just before they are mushy. Serve in small bowls with the remaining stock from the pan. Put a small cove of grated fresh ginger on top. We sometimes garnish this with a tiny amount of cucumber pickled Japanese style, or even eggplant pickled Japanese style (nukazuke pickled nasu). This adds both colour and a contrast in textures and tastes.