Miso Hungry Podcast

Over the last few weeks, Rachael has developed a recipe for black sesame pudding that we're such big fans of, we recorded a bonus mini episode all about it. Go visit her blog for the post and the recipe... then make the pudding, and come back and let us know how you like it!

Tonkatsu (豚カツ, とんかつ, or トンカツ) is a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet that is very popular in Japan. It is traditionally served with shredded cabbage, or miso soup, or both. Ton means pork in Japanese. Katsu is short for katsuretto (aka "cutlet").

Keep in mind that we're talking about tonKAtsu, not tonKOtsu - make sure you pronounce it right! TonKOtsu is a type of ramen with a broth made from boiling pork bones, fat, and collagen to make a rich creamy broth. We love both tonKOtsu and tonKAtsu.

Tonkatsu is commonly eaten with a thick sauce called tonkatsu sōsu (トンカツソース) or just sōsu (usually made up of ketchup, mustard powder, soy sauce, Worcestershire, and apple puree), some karashi (spicy yellow Japanese mustard) and a slice of lemon. Some people like to use just soy sauce.

You can make your tonkatsu sauce at home, or buy it. Bull Dog is a very popular brand, but there are quite a few different brands.

Sometimes people sandwich cheese or shiso leaves between thin slices of pork before breading and frying their tonkatsu.

It is said the best tonkatsu is made from kurobuta - black pig from Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan. Kurobuta are actually Berkshire pigs, are a rare bread of pig originating from Berkshire in England. Berkshire pork, prized for juiciness, flavor and tenderness, is pink-hued and heavily marbled. Its high fat content makes it suitable for long cooking and high-temperature cooking.

Tonkatsu is thought to have been introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the late 1800s, and was originally made with beef. It is a type of yōshoku--Japanese versions of European cuisine, although nowadays it's become "Japanized" and is served in the style of washoku (traditional Japanese food) with rice, miso soup, and tsukemono (Japanese pickles) and is eaten with chopsticks.

Some ways you can eat tonkatsu include:

Katsu sando (tonkatsu in a sandwich)

Katsu karē (tonkatsu served on Japanese curry)

Katsudon (bowl of rice topped with tonkatsu, egg, and condiments, such as:

sauce katsudon, with Worcestershire sauce

demi katsudon, with demi-glace and usually green peas

shio katsudon, with salt

shoyu-dare katsudon, with soy sauce (Niigata style)

miso katsudon (favorite in Nagyoa)

It has become a tradition for Japanese studens to eat katsudon the night before taking a major test or school entrance exam because "katsu" is a homophone of the verb katsu, meaning "to win" or "to be victorious" (same reason why Kit Kats are used in the same way).

So, how to make tonkatsu?

You can use pork fillet (ヒレ, hire) or pork loin (ロース, rōsu). The meat is salted and peppered, dusted lightly with flour, dipped in beaten egg, coated with panko, and then deep-fried.

Tonkatsu lovers are very particular about what they believe the perfect tonkatsu should be like. There are different opinions on what the fattiness or tenderness of the pork should be and how crunchy the coating should be.

Regardless, proper preparation is all about oil, temperature, timing, and quality ingredients.

Personally, we're big fans of the recipe Rachael developed. But everyone has different opinions about what makes perfect tonkatsu, so if you don't like that one, search around! There are tons of recipes out there.

It's almost one of our favorite times of the year... cherry blossom season!

Which means it's also time for Hanami festivals! These festivals have been happening for centuries.

Hanami literally means flower viewings, or seeing the flowers. These days, that specifically refers to sakura - cherry blossoms.

In popular places, it's common to reserve a picnic spot long before the party is held. Someone usually arrives early in the morning and spreads out a picnic sheet (most often a blue tarp), then either marks it with the group’s name and the starting time of the party, or somebody stays there throughout the entire day until the rest of the group arrives after work.

The season can start as early as the beginning of February (in the southern island of Okinawa), and go all the way to the end of May (in the northern city of Hokkaido). The blossom forecast (桜前線, sakurazensen, literally means "cherry blossom front") is announced each year by the weather bureau, and is watched carefully by anyone planning hanami, because the blossoms only last a week or two.

We also have a form of Hanami in the US... in 1912, Japan gave 3,000 sakura trees as a gift to the US to celebrate the nations’ friendship. These trees were planted in Washington, D.C., and another 3,800 gifted trees were also taken there in 1965. The “National Cherry Blossom Festival” takes place when they bloom in early spring. There are also numerous cherry blossom festivals all over the US.

Almost as important as the flowers (at least, as far as we are concerned), is the food!

There's a teasing Japanese proverb, "hana yori dango" (花より団子), which translates to "dumplings rather than flowers" and makes fun of people who prefer to eat and drink instead of admiring the blossoms.

Pink, green, and white are often seen in relation to hanami - these are the colors of the sakura trees, and the green also stands for yomogi - a spring herb that grows around this time. (If you're familiar with mochi, you may have eaten the green yomogi mochi before.)

Hanami dango are dumplings, like mochi, except they're made up of a mix of rice flours - mochi rice flour and sushi rice flour. They consist of three balls, which are colored green, white, and pink.

Hanami bento make the perfect picnic meals! They can include foods like tori no karaage, yakitori (or anything on a stick), sushi, tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled egg omelet), sekihan (red rice - mochi rice cooked with adzuki beans), shrimp, grilled fish like salmon and sakuradai (pink sea bream), temari sushi (ball sushi), simmered kabocha (pumpkin) and carrot, and sakura mochi. Spring vegetables and foods such as wild ferns, grilled salmon and green yomogimochi (spring herb dumplings) are also commonly found, as well as rice scattered with vegetables cut into the delicate shape of sakura petals.

To make a hanami bento at home, wherever you live, just use spring ingredients, making sure you have an abundance of warm colors in your box. Use what is local — all fresh and local produce is a perfect fit!

If you don't feel like packing your own lunch, not to worry! There are often many food stalls at the parks where hanami are held. These food stalls serve things like takoyaki, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, jyaga batta (a baked potato that has been steamed, split, and topped with lots of butter), kyuri asa-zuke (a whole Japanese cucumber that has been pickled in kombu and rice vinegar on a stick).

And then, of course, there are lots of sakura-inspired food products.

Like we've mentioned before, there are sakura-flavored kit kats.

Starbucks in Japan has a sakura-flavored frappucchino and a sakura-flavored macaron.

There are sakura arare (senbei) that are covered in a cinnamon-sugar coating.

There are things like sakura-flavored pudding, sakura-flavored mochi ice cream, sakura-flavored sorbet, sakura blossom tea... they even bake whole blossoms into roll cakes.

It's been a year since the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, on March 11, 2011.

But did you know that the region hit was the 2nd largest food production region in Japan?

Tohoku is one of Japan’s major seafood producing regions with a number of fishing ports being home to deepwater and tuna fishing fleets. The region suffered widespread damage to its fishing industry, which in some areas could take years to recover.

Tohoku made up 20% of Japan’s fisheries production. Many processing plants were destroyed by the tsunami and many fishing boats were destroyed in the ports. Many fishermen and fishery processing workers died.

Even one year later, they still have problems landing fish in Tohoku as many ports are damaged and not fully working. Those fishing ports that are open still face numerous problems as the storage and processing plants that were damaged or destroyed still have to be repaired or rebuilt.

Debris from the tsunami, estimated as tens of millions of tons, is still floating off the Tohoku coast and washing up at ports. The debris is floating dangerously in shipping lanes and blocking ports.

The nuclear crisis caused many consumers to stop eating seafood and other products from these regions, fearing they were contaminated and could cause cancer if eaten. Restoring public confidence will be difficult, but necessary in rebuilding the region’s industry.

In March 2011, Japanese officials announced that “radioactive iodine-131 exceeding safety limits for infants had been detected at 18 water-purification plants in Tokyo and five other prefectures.” As of July 2011, the Japanese government had been unable to control the spread of radioactive material into the nation’s food.

Radioactive material has been detected in a range of produce, including spinach, tea leaves, milk, fish, and beef, up to 200 miles from the nuclear plant.

Inside the 12-mile evacuation zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant, all farming has been abandoned.

As of February 2012, the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is still leaking radiaton and areas surrounding it could remain uninhabitable for decades due to high radiation. It could take “more than 20 years before residents could safely return to areas with current radiation readings of 200 millisieverts per year, and a decade for areas at 100 millisieverts per year”

Even today, more than 160,000 people remain displaced - many of these people may never be able to return to their homes.

Japan still needs our help! Here are a few ways you can help out:

Order a copy of the Peko Peko Cookbook, with Japanese recipes from many bloggers including our very own Rachael Hutchings. All proceeds to go the Global Giving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

Tales from High Mountain by Tara Austen Weaver is a well-written book about her time living in Japan. All proceeds go to help Japan.

The slightly racy Nudie Foodies cookbook is donating all their proceeds to the AmeriCares Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

Kibo: "Brimming With Hope" by Elizabeth Andoh is available for download now, for only $3.99 - a portion of the proceeds go toward continuing Japan relief efforts. The book is a culinary tribute to Japan’s Tohoku region and is comprised of recipes and stories from the region.

What else can we do?

Stay educated

Attend events to benefit the region

TRAVEL TO JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week, we're all celebrating Hinamatsuri!

http://youtu.be/yIxsfyHM7JE

Come join our Hinamatsuri party!

(Which actually has nothing to do with wearing stuffed octopuses on your heads like hats. But, you know, that's how we roll here at the Miso Hungry Podcast. We're silly like that.)

So what is Hinamatsuri? Hinamatsuri (雛祭り) is Girl’s Day, or the Japanese Doll Festival, and is held on March 3rd of each year.

It's a day for people to pray for the happiness and healthy growth of girls. Families with young daughters celebrate this day by setting up a display of dolls inside the house. They offer rice crackers and other food to the dolls.

Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display sets of dolls (雛人形 hina-ningyō): Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. The size of the dolls that a family has, or the number of steps that their display has vary, but usually the displays are of five or seven layers. Single-tiered decorations with one male and one female doll are also common.

The top tier always has the Emperor (Odairi-sama), holding an imperial baton, and Empress (Ohime-sama), holding a fan. They're usually placed in front of a gold folding screen

2nd Tier: 3 court ladies (san-nin kanjo). Each holds sake equipment

3rd Tier: 5 male musicians (gonin bayashi). Each holds an instrument, except the singer, who holds a fan.

4th Tier: 2 ministers (daijin)

5th Tier: 3 helpers or samurai, as the protectors of the Emperor and Empress

6th & 7th tiers: variety of furniture, tools, carriages, etc.

Other items displayed on the tiers: Tables holding diamond-shaped rice cakes, cherry blossom trees, lamp stands, silk lanterns, etc.

There's also a Hinamatsuri song! (No, we are not going to sing it for you.)

Akari o tsukemashou bonbori ni

明かりをつけましょう　ぼんぼりに

Ohana o agemashou momo no hana

お花をあげましょう　桃の花

Go-nin bayashi no fue taiko

五人ばやしの　笛太鼓

Kyo wa tanoshii Hinamatsuri

今日は楽しいひな祭り

Let's light the lanterns

Let's set peach flowers

Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums

Today is a joyful Dolls' Festival

And now, to the important part... the food!

Although we couldn't find any (our Hinamatsuri party was a little too early) one of the traditional foods are Hishimochi, which are diamond-shaped rice cakes. They are colored pink, white, and green. Pink stands for the peach blossom, white means purity (snow), and green stands for health (earth/new growth).

Chirashi-zushi (“scattered sushi”)

Sakura-mochi (bean paste-filled rice cakes with cherry leaves) are sweet pink mochi filled with red bean paste, and wrapped in a sakura (cherry blossom leaf) that has been pickled in salt water

(Sometimes they have adzuki bean paste in them. Ours had white lima bean paste instead. Very delicious!)

Hina-arare, which are colorful puffed rice coated in sugar.

(We couldn't find hina-arare either, so instead we went with sakura arare... not the same, but still delicious!)

Shirozake (sweet white sake) - literally “white sake” - which is made by mixing steamed mochi rice, koji mold, and mirin, and letting it mature for a month, then crushing it in a mortar. It has a low alcohol content (10% alcohol, but is considered as a type of liquor). Almost half of the mixture is a sweet rice porridge.

Hamaguri Ushio-jiru, a very simple soup made with a clear broth and clams.

Since this was Allison's very first Hinamitsuri ever, we decided to have a party at Rachael's house!

We ate all those delicious foods...

...played with her cats...

...looked at dolls...

...colored...

...you know, all the important things in life.

Then Allison and Rachael did some recording together (our apologies about the bad echo... this was our first time ever recording in the same location, and we're still figuring things out!), with our special guest hosts,

Today it's tako time! (And we're having a giveaway, so make sure to read the whole post!)

But... don't get that confused with tacos. There are no tortillas to be seen around here.

When we say tako, we mean octopus.

Yum.

Tako is almost always cooked before eating; unlike many fish that are offered raw, octopus is cooked and brined before it is served as sushi. It's rarely ever sold whole outside of Japan. (We want to know, have you ever seen a whole octopus for sale? If you happen to come into possession of one, here's how to clean it.)

Unfortunately... octopus is not one of the more sustainable seafood options out there. Since Japan has a large octopus preparation industry, octopus from all over the world is exported into Japan, where it is prepared and frozen. Then it's re-exported back to other countries where there is a demand for octopus in sushi.

What does this mean for you? It means that it's really, really difficult to know where your octopus actually originated from... which is a big deal, because many countries do not have regulations in place for how they catch octopus, which means that it could potentially be very bad for the ocean.

However, it's not all bad... if you can get tako that you know came from a Spanish fishery, most of their octopus is caught with pots (like little traps that they put in the ocean), which is much less disruptive than bottom trawling. (Bottom trawling involves dragging a net across the floor of the ocean... which is bad for the environment and catches all sorts of additional sea life that they aren't aiming for.)

Morocco is starting to regulate their octopus fishing more, but it still may be a while before we can consider that to be a sustainable option.

Vietnam, Senegal, and Mauritania are all unregulated, so we don't recommend eating any octopus from those countries' fisheries, if you can help it.

In Hawaii, octopus is mostly caught by spearfishing or by lure-and-line, where a lure with many hidden hooks is used to snare octopuses when they pounce. There is very little bycatch associated with this technique. Plus on the bright side, octopuses are fast growing and produce numerous offspring. These traits, combined with a sustainable fishing method, make Hawaiian octopus a "Good Alternative." The same goes for octopuses caught in the Gulf of California.

So assuming you can get a sustainable source for your octopus... how does one eat it?

Since the octopus feeds on other sushi ingredients, like crab, lobster, and scallops, its diet makes it high in protein and gives it excellent flavor. Thus it's quite delicious as sushi. It has a very firm/chewy texture, and only the tentacles are used for sushi. Larger octopuses have thicker tentacles which are easier to slice for sushi.

Before it's made into sushi, octopus is boiled, which tenderizes and firms the flesh. Its gray skin turns burgundy, and its flesh whitens, so it’s also much more appetizing looking when cooked. The boiling is done slowly, over low heat, because rapid boiling toughens the meat. The cooked tentacles are then cut diagonally into thin 1/8-inch slices.

Octopuses are also sometimes eaten live... the tentacles chopped off of live octopus and eaten raw, while still moving. This is very dangerous, because the suckers can stick to your throat and you can choke to death if you don't swallow correctly. We don't recommend doing this.

Takoyaki (たこ焼き) literally translates to mean fried/grilled octopus. But really... they're OCTOPUS BALLS!

They are ball-shaped dumpling made from a batter that’s like a savory pancake batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan, known as a takoyakiki (たこ焼き器). It's a special pan, usually made from cast iron, with spherical indentations in it. Kind of like an aebleskiver pan.

Takoyaki are typically filled with diced octopus, tempura “scraps” (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion,

This week, Rachael and Allison have learned that... they just can't get away from those purple sweet potato mountain mushroom candies. Addicted? Yes, we are.

Hey look, it's the purple sweet potato mountain mushrooms again! (Yeah, we're kind of ...

Today, we're talking about uni (うに)!

So... er... what is uni?

When you're eating uni, you're eating the insides of a sea urchin... more specifically, you're eating the reproductive organs of a sea urchin (but most people call it roe, since it...

The Super Bowl is coming up this weekend!

Wait, who's playing? (Obviously, we're just here for the food.)

But how does this relate to Japanese food? Well, over there, they're baseball fanatics... so we wanted to know what they eat when they're watching sports!

At the games, they eat all sorts of delicious things:

hot dogs (just like we do!)

yakitori - chicken on a stick

takoyaki - octopus balls! (They're like little doughnut holes, with bits of octopus inside.) And remember... tako ≠ taco!

Another takoyaki recipe

(takoyaki were one of the first things Allison tried when she visited Japan)

(speaking of which, have you noticed our super cute octopus mascot?)

edamame (and you can even make an easy dip with leftover edamame)

bento boxes, which usually consist of rice, pickles, and fish or tofu or meat

okonomiyaki - japanese pancakes with delicious things mixed in

some people call it Japanese pizza... (we're not sure we agree, but it's delicious either way!)

they're easy to make

(this recipe is super cute)

and you can even put bacon in them (yum!)

Rachael and Allison are planning on having Japanese-inspired Super Bowl parties this weekend... here are a bunch of ideas that you can use too!

kushiage parties - skewered, breaded, deep-fried meat and veggies

takoyaki parties

Japanese curry, buffet-style

udon buffet

temaki sushi bar (hand rolls), with all sorts of fillings, like:

bacon, green onion, cheddar cheese

prosciutto, arugula

tuna salad, green onion

smoked salmon, jarred pickled jalapeno peppers, cream cheese

or any other crazy sushi ingredient combinations you can come up with!

sushi (Allison's going to be making spicy shrimp inari sushi, and in the past she has made buffalo wing sushi)

cheese age (another fan favorite that Allison will be making at her Super Bowl party)

bento boxes

edamame (another good munchie food is Japanese Chex mix)

onigiri (it's kind of Rachael's thing... that and her addictive chocolate almond toffee!)

Rachael will be making these super-cute onigiri footballs

you could make an oshizushi (pressed, or "box" sushi) football field with temari zushi as the football helmets and inari zushi footballs

(you can also stuff your inari age pouches with somen salad - a cold noodle salad)

tebasaki - japanese-style chicken wings, deep fried with a glaze

karaage - deep-fried meat

Congratulations to Erin R., the winner of our Japanese candy giveaway! We love your idea of using Japanese candy in gingerbread houses. ^_^

By the way, we adore your comments, twitter mentions, and facebook comments! We ♥ you guys, and always love to hear about your experiences with the delicious foods we talk about, and we'd love to see your photos if you make any of these things! Plus, we would love it if you guys could rate us and leave comments on iTunes... every little rating helps us get out to more people, and be able to do more with this podcast!

Want to contact us? Send us Miso Mail to misohungrypodcast [at] gmail [dot] com, chat with us on Twitter @misotalk, and like us on Facebook on our Miso Hungry Podcast page! And don't forget to subscribe to us in your RSS feedreader or on iTunes!

And we totally think you should download Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch app (we think sustainability is super important) - you can get it for the iPhone or Android.

Onigiri!

Japanese comfort food to the max.

It can be anything from a ball of rice sprinkled with salt to rice surrounding tuna or salmon, wrapped with nori.

But it's not sushi. Nope. No rice vinegar involved, thus... not sushi!

They make excellent lunches. Bring them to school or to work - they'll stay fresh unrefrigerated for up to six hours, thanks to the wonderful, magical (okay, not so magical) preservation qualities of salt! And if you fill your onigiri with an umebosi - a very salty, sour pickled plum - it'll stay fresh for up to eight hours.

You can fill them with anything that goes well with rice - common onigiri fillings include flaked salmon, gingery chicken, spicy fish roe, bonito flakes moistened with soy sauce, and tiny clams cooked in a sweet soy glaze. But the possibilities are endless. (Rachael put an olive in her olive-loving older daughter's onigiri; Allison's contemplating how she can get bacon into one.)

Onigiri have been around for a really long time... more than 1000 years. (Holy cow, that's a long time!) There are even Japanese fairy tales about it.

Onigiri can come in all sorts of different shapes. To get them into all these fun shapes, you can form them by hand... or there are lots of different molds you can buy.

So how do you make an onigiri? Lucky for you, Rachael made an awesome video that shows all three methods for making it:

If you're ever in Japan, you can buy onigiri at most convenience stores... make sure to watch this video where Rachael shows you how to open onigiri from convenience stores... it's pretty cool!

Now, we want YOU to make onigiri, and tell us about it! It's so easy to do... and we just know you'll love them.

(Need inspiration for your onigiri? Check out this blog.)

And remember... “Onigiri should fall apart in your mouth, not in your hands.” – Sonoko Sakai

(Don't forget, today's the last day to enter our Japanese candy giveaway!