Tag: koshihikari

What is it with new rice???

Japanese are big fans of “new” things. “new” as in newly harvested: of course there is new potatoes, but also new tea 新茶 – shincha, new sake 新酒 – shinshu and new rice 新米 – shinkome. If you are not an aficionado of any of the above products you may not get the point of newly made, brewed or harvested, but with a little palate training you can easily make the difference and see what I am talking about below.

New rice is harvested at the end of the summer until early autumn depending on region. Harvesting of rice is linked to many matsuri to celebrate so it’s always a lively time of year. In Isumi, the harvest usually starts in the 3rd week of August and stretches until early September. The harvested rice is then put in husker where the chaff 籾殻 – momigara is removed, and you can see pile of chaff growing in field. Usually used as it is or burned to fertilize fields and kitchen gardens. And a few days later you start to see new rice bags filling the shelves of the local farmers market.

Every year, without fail, I would buy a bag of new rice and enjoy it in the simplest manner. Simply boiled without any addition or a simple homemade umeboshi. New rice when cooked is more translucent and has a beautiful white color and firm texture. The flavor is also more subtle, less plain than when older. The comparison with new potatoes and potatoes is the best I found to explain the difference.

So I encourage you to buy new rice and test by yourself!!! Would you want some new rice from Isumi, post a comment or send me a message and I can arrange shipping of 1kg or 2kg bags.

  • Simply boiled new rice
  • Raw new rice
  • New rice onigiri
  • New rice ochazuke

As I don’t drink I can’t tell much, but for those interested in newly brewed sake I found this article easy to understand.

Simple food: rice

Though when we were first traveling to Japan about 20 years ago, I would get tired of eating rice 3 times a day after one week, now I think I eat rice not enough and I am never tired of it, be it 3 times a day, every days!

It can be plain white rice with just a pickled plum, konbu, miso or salmon, or more elaborated recipes. Everything is good for me as soon as the rice is good. My favorite rice is Koshihikari, as I’ve earlier said, be it from Tsunan or Isumi. But one thing I love to do is to cook more rice than needed so that the next meal can be prepared rapidly using this extra rice. Because if plain boiled rice is amazingly delicious, sautéed rice is also amazing. I love it prepared with sesame oil, and many different seasonal vegetables, it is as versatile as risotto. This time I cooked it with shiitake, carrots and cabbage, and added some sesame seeds and a few lemon peels from the last lemon of these season. A perfectly light combination for both lunch or dinner where the sesame and the lemon are well balanced and the vegetables textures play with crisp and melt…

How do you like your rice???

Half risotto

In Japan people born from one Japanese parent and one foreign parent are called “half” (ハーフ) by Japanese people. Using the same idea I use like to use this word for my cooking recipes. Some would use different words such as ethnic food, fusion food or any other that means nothing to me. But “half” really captures my way of cooking. Whether it is French-Japanese or Italian-Japanese, it’s cooking “half” to me. When I make a Japanese quiche, or foie-gras suigyoza… This time, it’s a risotto I prepared, that is perfectly half, in ingredients and inspiration. Half Japanese and half Italian. The rice: 1/2 brown Koshihikari 1/2 Carnaroli; the vegetables: 2 small leeks for the base, then fresh shiitake and some olive oil preserved Italian purple artichokes (you can use fresh one if you can find some… but really in Tokyo it’s not easy…). I topped my risotto with some freshly gratted Parmigiano but it’s optional, A. prefers his risotto straight!

Half risotto (for 2 servings) :

– 60g of Carnaroli rice (or any risotto rice of your choice)

– 60g of brown Japanese rice  (I use Koshihikari from Isumi, but it’s up to you to use the brown rice you like)

– 1 or 2 leeks depending on size

– 4-10 shiitake depending on size (I prefer smaller ones)

– 10 small purple artichokes  (I used olive oil preserved ones)

– olive oil, salt, pepper, Parmigiano…

First chop the leek and cook in a large pan at low heat in a bit of olive oil, stir regularly so that they don’t change color. Wash and cut the shiitake. Prepare the artichokes if fresh and cut in halves unless very small and tender, if in olive oil drain them. Add the rices in the pan and a bit of olive oil. Increase the heat and stir often. When the rice becomes translucent add about 600ml of water (I don’t use broth because the leeks and mushrooms are alrrady bringing enough flavor), salt, pepper, the mushrooms and the fresh artichokes (if in olive oil, wait until the end). Cook under cover at medium-low heat until the liquid has almost disappeared. Add now the artichokes if they were in olive oil. Stir and serve rapidly. Add gratted Parmigiano if you like!

Wind of change

As crazy as can be it’s the first time we are taking summer holidays!!! Back when we were leaving in Paris we usually would take holidays in the end of September, and since wéve mived to Tokyo holidays mainly rimes with business trip of one or the other, except for Christmas. But this year I was finally relieved of any summer duty at the university and A. could take some vacations easily, so we decided to took off. After investigating several options: Belize vs Buthan vs Road trip in Japan, we opted for the latter. Enjoying Japan in the summer, visiting some friends in the mountains and discovering places we’ve always have had on our bucket list convinced us. Also the attraction of no plane/no jetlag was very strong. Free to go at anytime. It seems that a bit of wind of change is blowing right now with our first summer holidays (actually second, when we were still students we once went to Berlin for a week in the August), and we’ve decided to ride on! Enjoy the present! For those in holidays, have fun, and those still working in emptying cities, enjoy! Summer is too short to let it go!

Before going, a last oneplate dinner, with just a few things: rice, pickled radishes, tomatoes, okras, and some satsumaage (fish paste fried) with some burdock.

Simple Japanese meal

With friends at home for the whole weekend I ended up not cooking Japanese at all, and since Friday I was still craving for some simple Japanese taste. Finally last night I got it done! A. is good at preparing Japanese rice, which saves a bit of time when I am finishing work rather late, and I had some perfect fresh Japanese vegetables for a simple meal: onion for Shirako, white carrots and new lotus roots. I simply wash/peel and cut all the vegetables, heat a bit if oil in a pan and cook them under cover until almost done (the onion being probably the most critical) then I remive the cover, add some soya sauce and cook at high heat for 2 minutes, and serve with the rice. It’s not very elaborated but it tastes perfectly Japanese!

One-plate lunch

What best when it’s getting chilly outside than a bowl of hot and steamy white rice? And to complete the lunch, a plate with angelic (ashitaba-明日葉) omelette, grilled pork, grilled cherry tomatoes and turnips with miso. Very quick to prepare, tasty and warming! 

I am also very pleased to use my new Arita yaki bowls! 

Some more Japanese bowls

Rice, rice more rice, white, brown, red, black, wild, arborio, carnaroli, koshihikari, camargues. Whatever, we love rice!!!  This time it’s a mix of koshihikari white and brown rice, served with enoki, these long, thin and white mushrooms so easy to find st that the time of the year, and lotus roots, cooked in a bit of oil until golden then glazed in soya sauce, and the all thing is topped by a poached egg for the creaminess. So simply delicious!

A long week ahead…

After this nice weekend in the country, cooking and baking simple yet delicious food, we’re now back in Tokyo, but A. is leaving for a business trip for the whole week and I’m staying in Tokyo, with quite a work agenda, starting lectures for the new term and having some important deadline tomorrow. This means that this week cooking is going to be slightly different than usual. I don’t mind cooking for myself but most vegetables when combined together are too big for one person and I don’t really like eating twice the same things. I will have to find some new ideas of recipes to accomodate. Donburi are a real good option and I love them. I may eat donburi for the whole week! Or soup since it has become much chillier than it was last week and now it feels like autumn.

This donburi on the picture is one I cooked this weekend and I love it’s simplicity: new rice from Isumi topped with grilled lotus roots and shiitake. Finished with a little of soy sauce. The perfect dish as a side or a whole for an easy quick meal, tasty and full of different textures.

The simplest Japanese dinner!

Sometimes ingredients just come perfectly together at the farmers market and there is nothing else to do than prepare them in the simplest manner. The summer is soon to ginish but not quite yet and fresh little cucumbers are excellent, crispy, juicy and refreshing. The new rice has just been harvested in Isumi and perfectly cooked it’s crazily delicious, slightly softer and more white and transparent than normal rice. Myoga has started to grow here and there in the woods (our neighbor K. San went to pick some just in the hill back our house and you can find plenty at the farmers market) and the taste of fresh myoga just sliced in a simple miso soup is a little astringent. And to finish a piece of fresh wild snapper filet, simply grilled and topping the rice that goes perfectly with K. San’s fresh umeboshi. I’m starving writing this post and dying for an other meal like that!!!!

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