Morimoto-san

Masaharu Morimoto is my favorite chef from Fuji TV's show Iron Chef. I was so surprised when I found one particular cooking book on the shelf of Sydney library, a book called "Morimoto - The New Art of Japanese cooking" published by DK publishing New York. It's really a great cooking book full of inspiration about Japanese fusion recipes and useful tips by Morimoto-san, the Iron Chef Japanese.

Almost 25 years before Morimoto became an Iron Chef, before he owned four widely acclaimed restaurants and released his own award-winning beers and splendid sake, he washed dishes at Ichiban sushi, a small restaurant in Hiroshima run by Ikuo Oyama, a kind but demanding chef who prepared a wide range of food, including sushi, sashimi, udon and Japanese curry rice.

At 25, he opened his own cafe in downtown Hiroshima. It was a tiny place with a few tables that dealt mainly in delivery to nearby medical offices and a police station. At night, he labored as a sushi chef in another restaurant, delivered newspaper and worked as an insurance agent at Morimoto agency, a makeshift outfit that he alone operated.

Morimoto and his wife landed in New York in March, 1985. He picked up more or less where he had left off in Japan, working afternoons at one sushi restaurant and nights at another. After six years of being underpaid and overworked, he began the search for new opportunities, and eventually worked as sushi chef at the Sony Club, an exclusive dining room that catered to Sony's executives and talents. Fortuitously, he got a position at Nobu Restaurant in New York where he was there from the beginning, surrounded by new flavors and working under a mandate not to be limited by the strictures of tradition.

Morimoto's big break came during a trip to Japan to see his friends and family. A Japanese customer at Nobu who adored his food had invited him to cook for a group of her friends in Tokyo. Although he didn't know it then, this group included a judge and a producer from Fuji TV's popular show "Iron Chef". Several months later, he got a call from someone from the show asking him to be Iron Chef Japanese. At first, he declined the offer but a number of his colleagues started lobbying him and a week later Morimoto reconsidered and signed on. Morimoto flew to Japan every month until the show ended, about a year after he started.

(Source and courtesy of: Morimoto, The New Art of Japanese Cooking)

The Sook Cut

This post is not about amazing gadget from Japan, no.. but indeed it's a really cool gadget for foodies who addicted to facebook or other social networking sites, you can stay connected while cooking at your kitchen, checking out the recipe list, snapshot your creation and share the picture on your facebook all at once.

The Sook Cut is a three-part concept designed by Adam Brodowski, a design student at Savanah College of Art and Design in USA, that makes delicious meals out of ingredients you may not know how to combine.

The cutting board (Sook Cut) contains a moisture sensor, scale, and electronic tongue to determine what food is being prepared, then sends the information to Sook Touch to generate a delicious recipe.

The Sook Touch is a touch sensitive display that lists recipes, detailed nutritional information, and stores a library of ingredients. You can touch and drag the to build custom recipe, save and upload the to the web.

The final piece is Sook Dock, not only does it charge the Sook Cut abd Touch appliances, it also work as an RFID scanner to identify what foods are nearby and then adds them to the Sook Touch database. When you finished cooking, Sook Touch takes snapshots of your creation and syncs them to your food blog!

(Source: Yanko Design)

Sook Cut

Sook Touch

Sook Dock

(All pictures from Yunko Design)

Sushi Rice

Wanna cook your own sushi rice? I found this step by step recipe and clip from videojug is really helpful, it shows some useful tips on how cooking the authentic sushi rice from the master.

Preparation time : 30 minutes

Cooking time : 20 minutes

Step 1.

You will need:

- 3 cups (750 ml) sushi rice

- 3 1/3 cups (830 ml) water

- 1/2 cup (120 ml) rice vinegar

- 1/4 cup (60 ml) sugar

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tbsp dashi- concentrated or powdered fish stock

- 1 small saucepan

- 1 large saucepan with lid

- 1 spoon

- 1 large flat bottomed bowl, preferably wooden

- 1 flat spatula

- 1 fan

- 1 large glass bowl

Step 2.

Rinse the rice. Put the three cups of rice in a large bowl. Lightly rinse by adding enough cold water to half fill the bowl and swill it around with the rice. Pour the water off. Scrunch the rice about in the bowl with your hand. Then rinse, swill and drain again and repeat the scrunching action. Keep following this pattern until the water is almost clear - this could take 3 or 4 attempts. Transfer the rinsed rice into a large saucepan. Pour in 3 and a third cups of water and leave it to soak for at least 30 minutes. As it soaks, the rice will become whiter and the water will appear clearer.

Step 3.

Prepare the sushi vinegar

Put half a cup of rice vinegar, quarter of a cup of sugar, a pinch of salt and teaspoo of powdered Dashi into the small saucepan. Heat gently and stir to ensure that the sugar and salt dissolve. Don't let the mixture boil as this will impair the flavour, only heat enough to completely dissolve all the ingredients then turn off the heat, and leave it to cool while you prepare the rice.

Step 4.

Cook the rice.

Put the pan on the hob with the lid securely on top, and turn the heat to high. Avoid lifting the lid at all ties through out the cooking process as this will allow the steam to escape. When the rice begins to boil reduce the heat and leave to simmer for fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes are up, turn off the heat and leave the rice to stand for another 15 minutes.

Step 5.

Stir the sushi vinegar.

Transfer the rice into a large wooden bowl. Pour over the sushi vinegar. Use the spatula in a cutting motion to fold the mixture into the rice. While you are folding use your other hand to fan the rice. Keep fanning and folding until the rice has reached room temperature, this could take up to 10 minutes.

Step 6.

Ready to serve.

It's best to use the rice immediately. It should be shiny and sticky, with each grain separated and not mashed together. It should be used at room temperature. If you don't need it straight away, cover the bowl with a damp cloth. This will prevent it from becoming too hard.

You can use the sushi rice to make inari, temaki sushi, nigiri sushi, chirashi sushi, with any flavour and topping you like. Here are the result from my kitchen:

Temaki Sushi and Inari!

(Temaki sushi)

(Inari)