Flour days

My cherry tree  

Blossoms on the pavement

of my driveway

-ss

Sifted flour

Playing with dough has always had a calming effect on me. There was my mother's dough, which she used to make apple pies. What impressed me about her dough was the enormous amount of butter she used.  She never measured. She didn't even go by a recipe. Yet, when it came to how much water to add to the dough, she was very careful. I believe she even used a measuring cup. She instinctively knew what can make or break a pie crust.  

Sifting the flour

LESS IS MORE

Trying to figure out the optimum amount of water to add to the flour, Kasuiritsu, is one of the critical tasks in soba making.  In January, Tokyo was drier than the rest of the year, ranging from 25% to 35% humidity. So the amount of water we used to make soba ranged between 41% to 45%. Most of the time, we stayed around 41-42%. We relied on the scale and the measuring spoon. A small error  can ruin your soba and your day.  One dough I made turned out like a rock.  I struggled with it for more than 40 minutes to get it into a managable shape.  I had to ask Kotorii to help me.  We both broke into a sweat kneading the stubborn dough. Sensei suggested that we tear it apart, and start all over again. It was brutal.  I am sure humidity was not totally responsible for this.  There is no formlaic answer to how to figure out the optimal water amount for making soba.  Experience helps. Sensei does not believe in adding more water than necessary because it affects the flavor and texture of the dough. Less is more, he kept saying.

LET THE FLOUR TAKE A JOURNEY

After the greetings and lecture, Sensei always made one batch of soba to demonstrate h is technique. I stood next to him and watched his hand movements.  With soba, the initial mixing of flour with water is done mostly with your finger tips.  Like a piano player who is playing with his finger tips standing on the keyboards. the soba maker too moves the tips as quickly as possible. The hand movements are circular, fingers spread, and thumbs pointing towards your belly.  My hands are small so this step was one of the hardest, because I was expected to finish the initial mixing in 30 seconds. "Let the soba take a journey," Sensei would say. It reminded me of the old saying, "Send your loving child on a journey." which means that the child will mature better by learning to stand on his own feet. Same thing with soba. 

The fingers moves quickly to bind the flour with water. 

LET'S NOT WASTE FOOD

Any flour that was stuck on the fingers were wiped off and combined with the dough in the bowl. The whole idea of cleaning the bowl and removing the flour on your finger tips  were to keep flour waste to a minimum.  In class, we used a large and heavy stainless steel bowl. The traditional soba bowls, Hachi, are made of wood.  The stainless steel hachi was unbreakable, and easy to clean.  

Once the initial mixing was done, the next step is to continue mixing, using the fingers again but this time with your palms. Your fingers are afloat.  This step ensures that every cell of buckwheat is fed with water and there are no dry cells left. As you work the flour, you can feel the moisture in the flour building.  Now you are ready to bunch the flour together and start kneading, Neri.

GLUTEN FREE 

Buckwheat flour contains no gluten. Gluten is the Latin word for "glue". It is the glutens in wheat flour that gives kneaded dough its elasticity. So how do we bind soba if there is no gluten?   

When flour is mixed with water and kneaded, the process adds strength to the dough, elasticity and helps bind the flour together wihtout relying on gluten.   At the Academy, we practiced making 100% buckwheat soba, Kikouchi, and Nihachi, 2:8 ration of all-purpose wheat flour and buckwheat flour, and some other variations. I found Kikouchi the tastiest of all Soba. 2:8 ratio was by far the easiest to handle while retaining good flavor and adding some elasticity to the dough. Sensei didn't want to add any more than 20% wheat flour so I didn't even try going beyond that but soba makers, especially those who make dried soba use as much as 70% wheat flour and they still label the package soba, which is something that does not make any sense. So far they have gotten away with such labeling so long as it is identified in the back as its primary ingredient. 

s.  

  The Flour combined with water is darker and mosit.

It is gathered in the middle of the bowl and ready to be knead.

I will talk about Neri, next in Flour days: Living and Kneading in Tsukiji (4)

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Simmer the beans  gently

ZENSAI 

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

300 grams azuki beans  

300 grams white granulated sugar  or more

1 Tbs soy sauce  

4 pieces of Mochi, cut in half

Rinse the beans in cold water several times. Soak overnight in plenty of cold water to soften.  If the beans are very fresh, no soaking is necessary.

Discard soaking water, rinse and cover beans with fresh cold water.  In a heavy saucepan, bring the beans and water to a boil.  Drain.  Start again with fresh water and bring to a boil and then turn heat to a gentle simmer until the beans are cooked throughly, being careful not to overcook or burn them. The beans should be submerged in the cooking liquid and never exposed. It will take about 90 minutes to two hours to cook the beans. Test one bean and squash it with your finger.  If it squashes easily, it is ready.

When the beans are cooked, pour off the excess cooking water leaving just enough to cover the beans. Add 1/2 the white sugar and the soy sauce. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat to a simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add the remaining sugar and cook for another 15 minutes. Taste and make adjustments.  If more sugar is needed it can be added at this point.  Simmer for a few more minutes and turn heat off.  The azuki beans are ready to be served but it's best if you let them rest in the saucepan overnight. 

When ready to serve, cut the mochi pieces in half and grill under a broiler or a toaster oven until they pop. Heat the zenzai until very hot. Place a piece of grilled mochi in individual serving bowls. Ladle the hot zenzai on top. Serve immediately.

This recipe makes about 8-12  servings.   

Note: If the soup is too thick, you can dilute it with a  little water.  If it is too thin, you can

cook it and thicken the soup. This is a matter of preference.  It should have the consistency of a thick soup.

Natto pasta with scallions

When it comes to fusion cusine, Japanese often do things that I find quite daring mixing native ingredients with foreign imports.  Take pasta, for example. The most popular Wafu, Japanese style pastas are Tarako, salted cod roe and Natto, fermented soybeans. Both ingredients have strong flavors.  Tarako is salty, some are spiced with chili, in which case they are called Mentaiko.  Natto is smelly like cheese and slimy like okra. It is an acquired taste.  Fusing Tarako with Pasta is understandable because Tararko is similar to Bottarga, the dried and cured roe, which is used in Italian pasta.  But there is nothing I can think of that comes close to Natto in Italy. The Japanese figured, if Natto works on top of rice, it can also work on top of pasta, and it does, more or less. 

Pasta Carbonara with Bacon, Mentaiko (salted cod roe) and Chives

When my son Sakae and his girlfriend Bina were in Tokyo during the winter holidays, I took them to an inexpensive neighborhood pasta place in Shibuya that's been here since the early fifities called Kabe no Ana, Hole in the Wall.

We ordered the two quintessential Wafu style pastas. The Natto spaghetti came with a generous mound of whipped natto (fermented soybeans) seasoned with raw egg, soysauce and mustard and served over buttered spaghetti. It was slimy as Natto  should be. People either love Natto or hate it. My son loves natto but he was not crazy about this dish. He said he prefers Natto over rice and not pasta.  I feel the same but many Japanese eat Natto this way and love it.

Bina ordered the Mentaiko pasta, carbonara style.  It was your basic egg pasta with bacon which was coated with spicy Tarako, salted cod roe. She ordered the large plate. Compared to the Natto spaghetti, this one was a winner. I orderedTarako, salted cod roe, and with Squid and Shiso.   Bina's dish tasted better. We all ended up taking a bite or two of her pasta. 

Both Natto and Tarako pasta can be easily made at home. WIth natto, you just take it out of the container, mix it with whipped raw egg, a teaspoon or two of soy sauce and mustard and pour it over hot buttered spaghetti.  Not much to it really.  Sesame oil works instead of butter, too. WIth the Mentaiko pasta, you take the cod eggs out of the egg sac with a spoon, or slice it in half, and mix the loose roe into the hot pasta. Toppings such as chopped shiso, scallions, nori seaweed, roasted sesema seeds, daikon sprouts work for both pasta dishes.

1 cup dried hijiki, hydrated

3 -4  dried shiitake mushrooms, hydrated

1 large or 2 small pieces Age (deep fried tofu pouches) optional

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into matchsticks, 1/8 thick

1 tsp peeled and thinly sliced ginger

2 tbls roasted sesame oil or vegetable oil

1 cup dashi, dried shitake mushrooms stock or chicken stock of your choice

2 tbs mirin

1 tbs sake

1 tsp sugar or honey (optional)

1/4 cup soy sauce, or to taste

Salt if needed

Garnish: 1 tsp roasted sesame seeds (optional)

Soak hijiki in cold water to cover for at least one hour. Drain.  Rinse a couple more times to remove impurities.

Hydrate shitakes in cold water to cover, about 20 minutes.  Slice shitakes into 1/8 inch pieces. Reserve soaking liquid for the stock if you like.

Put oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Stir fry the carrots, age, mushrooms and ginger first for 2-3 mintues. 

Add the hydrated and drained hijiki.  Stir a couple times; add the stock or shiitake soaking liquid, mirin, sake, sugar and soy sauce. Stir, turn heat to simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes until most of the liquid is evaporated. Mixture should not be soupy or dry. Taste, and make adjustments with soy sauce, sugar and salt, if needed.

Serve as a salad or appetizer, about 1/3 cup servings per person.  Garnish with roasted sesame seeds.