<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by j biesinger:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Another trick to making the sauce is to use the chicken skin, toss it over the coals just a bit, and dunk it in the tari sauce. Keep doing that and reduce the skin in the sauce. This makes the best tari sauce, a trick a guy from Kagoshima taught me. Smiler </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thanks for the recipe. Its very similar to what I do, however I grill and slightly blacken a couple chicken wings (or wing tips if I plan on using the wings as the dish). I'll break them up and toss them into the sauce as it reduces. You are so right in how great this makes the sauce taste, kind of like a rich roasted stock base. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes, same difference. The thigh skin is better for that, but the wings will work fine. The thigh skin is a bit fattier, so works well for that. My wife like the thigh better for yaki-tori as it doesn't get as dried out (and cheaper than breast, so it's a win-win).
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by j biesinger:
I think I saw Jacques Pepin making those very mushrooms on pbs and thought those were outrageously cool. Make sure you let her know that I'm impressed and thought they were real! couldn't figure out why someone would put real mushrooms on a cake though. My daughter's almost 5 and is really into cooking. For xmas, my wife got her
Fanny at Chez Panisse: A Child's Restaurant Adventures with 46 Recipes and she's been carrying it around calling it her favorite book. Your daughter might be a bit old for it, but we are all impressed with it, the story is a bit Like Eloise meets Julia Child. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
It could have very well been Jacques Pepin who she saw, she saw a guest chef on Martha Stewart's show and got the recipe off her website. She prepared for a couple days, getting the stuff ready. She was really bummed with the mushrooms when she first cooked the caps and stems, they didn't look like mushrooms at all...*lol* But she got pretty excited after getting them together with the dust on top, and then they started to look like mushrooms.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by j biesinger:
I just got my wife a book on Tsukemono. got a quick suggestion that we should try? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Most of that stuff my wife just wings it. I'll ask her if she has any recipes written down, or can translate one to english. She really doesn't keep those types of recipes around as that is just mainstay and she does it all the time. She'll often just cut up some Japanese cucumbers in pieces, with some cabbage, and I'm not sure what she does to it, adds some rice vinegar, or sake, I'm not sure...but the Tsukemono doesn't need to sit very long, sometimes she'll do it the same day she serves it. There is another style that is done inside bran and/or soy/miso, and it ages for a while, my mother-in-law does that for me, my wife doesn't do that very often. That is done with the smaller round radish, kabu possibly, I can't remember the name. This is done in a miso/bran mixture I believe.
My wife also makes her own miso, she just got done doing a batch. It took about 3-6 months. That's a kinda complicated process or cooking the soy beans and letting them age.
When New Years comes around, the Japanese have a lot of food that has been aged/pickled so that it doesn't need to be refrigerated as much, since during New Year (Sho-Gatsu) most of the country closes down, and in the old days people didn't have refrigerators. Much of the stuff is cooked in sake/vinegar/etc...to preserve it. Things like the kobumaki, that's a very traditional dish which I love as it looks like little presents wrapped up. My MIL has always made that for me at New Years as a kinda tradition as she has always felt it unusual that I will even eat it. *lol* That dish is pretty hard to make as you have to prepare the kobu, then the fish, and the daikon to wrap it, etc...not to mention it needs to cook for about 8 hours or something.
Good luck to you and your wife in the quest to learn Japanese cuisine, it's all about preparation and presentation, even if it's not cooked, which much of their food is not. Sometimes very subtle, it is those small details that become apparent when served.
Most of the Japanese folks we know have not cooked yaki-tori, since most don't have bbq's in Japan and always go out to eat it. But a few have taught me some tricks, like brazing the skin over the coals, but the majority don't 'que much until they get here to the states. By the time most families go back to Japan, they typically have a Weber kettle, they seem to go more traditional and prefer charcoal. I only cook with charcoal, no gas 'ques at my house, but I have about 4 or 5 'ques. BTW, you'll see a pic in the galleries that those pics above link to with some smoked salmon...a friend of mine does that in a propane smoker (Great Mountain or some similar name. He uses Japanese Okanomiyaki sauce on it that my wife turned him onto, he considers it his secret sauce...*lol* He always has to get this one specific brand, and he can't pronounce it properly, so he always calls it ogugimagi sauce or something like that...but he knows which bottle to buy at the Japanese market we send him to...(Mitsuwa, but Marukai just opened in Cupertino). He brines the salmon for 2 hours, let's it dry for 2 hours, and he said the fat will come to the surface...(leave the fat there), smoke it for 1 hour at 190, and 2 hours at 110, which is almost like a cold smoke. Comes out great, my wife uses that for sushi rice and makes rolls out of it (we call it Bobu-Maki as his name is Bob
).
Thanks for all the compliments, give it try guys, the yaki-tori is a big hit always, it's just a PITA to stick...(my daughter will do it as she likes yaki-tori, but will always complain while doing it...
It is a very easy dish that goes over really well, great for appetizers, or main course, best served hot off the grill...so it's good to eat while chit-chatting out by the 'ques...you guys could do this in your sleep...it's that easy. After you make your own tari sauce, it opens up some possibilities, you can make it thin or thick and experiment...
