Post by Bun'ami on May 21, 2018 20:01:13 GMT -5
Another thing that happened last weekend in our Kingdom was a cooking competition. The theme was to make something that was preserved. Something that has been pickled, brined, cured, dried, candied, en confit, or fermented.
I made what could have passed for a Japanese breakfast.
Here is the picture of my entry.
My oshiki (serving tray) was to small, only 11x15, it should have been 15x15.
I'll describe what I served starting with the rice and moving clockwise.
Rice made from hoshi'ii (dried rice), to the left of the rice bowl you can see a ceramic rice pot where I cooked the hoshi'ii along with examples of plain rice and the dried rice. Surprisingly enough, it turned out better than some restaurant rice.
Natto was next, here is another crock where I fermented some natto, using boiled soybeans and a seed mother liquor made from purchased natto, I could not get the rice straw. The small ceramic container has sea salt, this is how they ate natto then, just plain with salt on top. The judges had heard of natto, and were a bit scared to try it, but they all liked it, even some asking for seconds.
Next is himono (dried fish), I salted and dried some mackerel fillets, then grilled and served it on the green rectangular plate. I had to display it on the cloth because my oshiki was to small. There is a large tan table cloth underneath all of this, it's not directly on the floor.
Kasuzuke pieces at the top on my small cutting board and in a flat bowl at the center of the oshiki. Pickles made from sake kasu (sake lees). I pickled 3 kinds, cucumber, diakon and eggplant. They were buried in the crock in the sake-kasu, right of the cutting board, and pickled for 2 weeks. They were also well liked by the judges.
Then the noritake. A recipe I made up that 'could' have existed in period. Nori back then was not in sheets (that is post 1750) but served as a paste. I soaked some shiitake that I had dried in water, used that water to re-hydrated the nori, added in the chopped shiitake and the leftover kastuobushi from the soup, cooked it into a paste.
The last thing was the miso soup, made the stock with kastuobushi I had shaved with my knife, you can see the chunk to the far right, added in some freeze dried tofu I had made along with some purchased wakame and miso.
Lastly there was documentation, a short 12 page description.
It all went over very well, I even won the competition.
If anyone wants the documentation, in PDF form, send me a request.
Bun'ami
I made what could have passed for a Japanese breakfast.
Here is the picture of my entry.
My oshiki (serving tray) was to small, only 11x15, it should have been 15x15.
I'll describe what I served starting with the rice and moving clockwise.
Rice made from hoshi'ii (dried rice), to the left of the rice bowl you can see a ceramic rice pot where I cooked the hoshi'ii along with examples of plain rice and the dried rice. Surprisingly enough, it turned out better than some restaurant rice.
Natto was next, here is another crock where I fermented some natto, using boiled soybeans and a seed mother liquor made from purchased natto, I could not get the rice straw. The small ceramic container has sea salt, this is how they ate natto then, just plain with salt on top. The judges had heard of natto, and were a bit scared to try it, but they all liked it, even some asking for seconds.
Next is himono (dried fish), I salted and dried some mackerel fillets, then grilled and served it on the green rectangular plate. I had to display it on the cloth because my oshiki was to small. There is a large tan table cloth underneath all of this, it's not directly on the floor.
Kasuzuke pieces at the top on my small cutting board and in a flat bowl at the center of the oshiki. Pickles made from sake kasu (sake lees). I pickled 3 kinds, cucumber, diakon and eggplant. They were buried in the crock in the sake-kasu, right of the cutting board, and pickled for 2 weeks. They were also well liked by the judges.
Then the noritake. A recipe I made up that 'could' have existed in period. Nori back then was not in sheets (that is post 1750) but served as a paste. I soaked some shiitake that I had dried in water, used that water to re-hydrated the nori, added in the chopped shiitake and the leftover kastuobushi from the soup, cooked it into a paste.
The last thing was the miso soup, made the stock with kastuobushi I had shaved with my knife, you can see the chunk to the far right, added in some freeze dried tofu I had made along with some purchased wakame and miso.
Lastly there was documentation, a short 12 page description.
It all went over very well, I even won the competition.
If anyone wants the documentation, in PDF form, send me a request.
Bun'ami