Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2012
Japanese cuisine is rich with foods cooked over fire: yakitori, robatayaki, kushiyaki, and other things that end with “yaki.” Now, this new offering from Chef Tadashi Ono and co-author Harris Salat is promising to be somewhat of a handbook for those keen on grilling at home.
The book opens with basic Japanese ingredients and grilling essentials. Mastering the heat can make the difference between bland and brilliant food, and the principles are spelled out with photos. There are also helpful tips on skewering, which is much harder than you might imagine.
What makes this book is the simplicity of the recipes. There is a handful of master recipes for marinades, dipping sauces, and dressings that can be kept in the fridge for a long time. The yuzu kosho marinade is a unique one that we love both for saba (mackerel) and hotate (scallops). The wafu salad dressing and citrusy ponzu are now staples in our fridge.
Classic recipes will have you curing seafood in miso, salt, or sakekasu (sake lees, or sediment). The himono “half-dry” fish technique is surprisingly easy to master. Grilling himono at home, paired with sake, is so good that your neighborhood izakaya’s business will start to suffer.
Some of our favorite recipes so far are the squid with ginger-soy sauce, crispy chicken wings with seven-spice powder, sansho-rubbed butterflied chicken legs, and asparagus with miso-mayonnaise dipping sauce. Japanese burgers with wasabi-ketchup are a nice change-up on the typical burger, made softer with breadcrumbs and milk.
The chapter “Perfect Side Dishes” includes several vegetable dishes so appealing that we have been cooking them repeatedly. In particular, we like the lip-smacking green cabbage salad with carrot-ginger vinaigrette and the crunchy arugula-jako salad with soy-sauce vinaigrette. Cooking vegetables in foil is a great technique and made better when a ponzu butter is added.
We tested many of the recipes at home on our indoor fish grill without a hitch. Some dishes are also made in a sauté pan or in the oven, so it can be a year-round cookbook.
Ono and Salat had great success with their first book, Japanese Hot Pots: Comforting One-Pot Meals. Their next book, Japan Soul, is “a cookbook and travelogue that will introduce authentic Japanese comfort food and the dining culture of the old-school ‘downtown’ neighborhoods of Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other cities” says Salat.
The Japanese Grill: From Classic Yakitori to Steak, Seafood, and Vegetables (Ten Speed Press, 2011, pp.184), ¥2,108 from major bookstores and Amazon.jp.
Whole Grilled Japanese Eggplant with Lemon and Soy Sauce
Courtesy of The Japanese Grill: From Classic Yakitori to Steak, Seafood and Vegetable
Serves 4
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 4 Japanese eggplants (about 1lb/450g)
- 1/4 cup katsuobushi, dried, shaved bonito flakes, optional
Whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, and olive oil in a bowl to make dressing; set aside. Score the stem end of each eggplant, making a circular cut in the skin (this will make it easier to peel). Poke a few holes into eggplants with skewer or fork to allow steam to escape as they grill.
Preheat a grill to medium. Grill for about 8 minutes, turning the eggplants a quarter turn every 2 minutes. Try to grill the eggplant all around. Test for doneness by pressing against their sides with a pair of tongs. If they give easily, they’re ready. Transfer to a plate.
As soon as eggplants are cool enough to handle, carefully peel off the skin (comes off more easily if eggplant is warm; don’t let cool completely). Then remove stems, and slice each eggplant into 4, cutting on an angle.
Transfer slices to a platter. Drizzle with dressing, sprinkle with the bonito, and serve.
