Week 7: Japan

For week 7, mom asked me if I wanted to draw--with a bit of nervous excitement, I drew, and let the whole family know exactly how I felt: "oh no--not Japan!" Not that there's anything wrong with Japan--not in the least--but for me there's just that something about Asian food that's so mysterious and unknown (and that I automatically associate with strong fish/seafood flavors) that leaves me reeling. The rest of my family seemed cool with the idea of Japan, though.

This week's menu was all researched by Courtney, and decided by all of us that the week should feature either tofu or (as I have feared) seafood. I'll admit that the thought of tofu vs. seafood was not too comforting to me, but I was bound and determined to try whatever we chose with an open mind. The selections that made up our menu were all chosen from a website Courtney found that documented authentic Japanese recipes and cuisine (bento.com). Our dishes were Aromatic Baked Salmon, Ochazuke and edamame with cherries. About half of this menu employed everyday foods for our family, and the other half was more exotic--actually, it may be more like 1/3 everyday ingredients and 2/3 exotic. The salmon dish had several special ingredients, including the main ingredient (salmon--a rare protein choice for our family), sake, mirin and yuzu. While we couldn't find the yuzu (we simply substituted with other citrus), we were able to find salmon and sake and I made my own mirin. The ochazuke was a fairly simple recipe that could be "jazzed-up" with each person's particular favorite flavors--at it's heart, ochazuke is white rice with green tea served over it and then topped with any of a various array of toppings. The edamame with cherries, as you might assume, was a pretty straight-forward recipe--although we don't usually have edamame or cherries in the house, they were easy to find at our local Harris Teeter (and while I found rice vinegar, I opted against spending the $6 for a bottle I might only use once and instead used good 'ole fashioned white vinegar).

Soy Sauce and Soybeans (mistakenly attributed as edamame!)

While discussing my family's plans for Japan week, my friend Brandi mentioned that Japanese food focuses on purity of flavors and that foods are not overly cooked or seasoned--I found that to be true with the prep and cooking processes for this meal. The fish rested for a few hours in a soy sauce/sake/mirin marinade and then simply baked in the oven for a short time. The rice was very easy--as simple as putting rice in the rice cooker and brewing a pot of green tea (which we all know I have quite the "stash" [you tea nerds will get the joke]). The edamame dish was also simple--all that we had to do was blend some of the beans with oil, vinegar and cherries and then mix in with the rest of the beans after they're heated through (in this case, I used dried cherries which I re-hydrated in cranberry juice the night before). The process for preparing this meal, albeit composed of several steps, was not at all complicated and was quite easy to follow.

Salmon in its marinade

As far as the end result--well, let's just say I had the right feeling when I drew Japan out of the hat in the first place! I was not much of a fan of the meal as a whole, personally. The salmon had a strong fishy taste (which, if that's what you like, is great--it's not my thing, however), but the flavor of the marinade was quite nice. The ochazuke didn't translate very well for me, either--I love rice and I love tea so I truly thought it was going to be a home-run success, but I wasn't a big fan; although had we used more of the traditional toppings like rice crackers or dried fish flakes (we opted for saltines [BAD IDEA! LOL] and fresh ginger [which I think overpowered the dish, actually]), we may have had a different opinion. I'd really like to give the edamame with cherries another chance--I actually purchased the wrong kind of beans for the recipe ("soy beans" in a can rather than straight-up edamame [another BAD IDEA! ha!]) which had a flavor very different than that of edamame (mom said the soy beans had a flavor similar to black eyed peas, which I don't care for much either). Overall, I would say that we learned a lot from the Japan meal experience--while I'd more than likely not prepare the salmon again, I might try it again with a less "fishy" fish and take another stab at both the ochazuke and the edamame with cherries. As shocking as it is for me to say, though, I think my favorite parts of the meal were (not-so-surprisingly) the cherries and the sake! The sake is a bit strong, but I truly like the flavor of it!

Sake

Thank you for bearing with me with my late blogging--I've been a bit busy these last few weeks, but it's truly important to me to share these ATWin52 experiences with you all! Coming up tomorrow (since I'm in catch-up mode) will be the blog on week 8's country--Russia! Although there was no vodka involved, we still had a great Russian meal experience--check back soon to find out about it!