肉じゃが 鶏肉そぼろと蒟蒻かけ
This was the first thing I had when I arrived Kyoto, well, besides the iced green tea I bought at a vending machine at the airport. In the summer of my sophomore year in college, ages ago, I took a trip to visit my close friend who was attending an university in Kyoto. It was late afternoon when I met up with Kumiko, at the bus stop near her home. Pushing her bike, she led me past alleys of wa-style homes filled with the aroma of dashi stock and miso, a sign that dinner was being prepared. Accompanied by the sound of her bike wheels clicking and children playing, we chatted and laughed before reaching her small flat, where my normal-size suitcase would take up half of her living room, literally. When I came out of the shower, Kumiko was already adding thin strips of beef in a simmering pot, a finishing step in making nikujaga, a typical mom’s dish in Japanese homes.
Niku stands for meat, and jaga is short for “jaga imo,” or potato. It can be roughly translated as meat and potato stew, which gains its rich flavor from the combination of onions, bonito stock, soy sauce, Japanese rice wine, and mirin. While many recipes call for the soy sauce:sake:mirin ratio of 3:2:1, each home has its own way of making this dish, which is passed down for generations. The result is a comforting, homey, yet nostalgic flavor that the Japanese called ofukuro no aji, or mother’s flavor; perhaps it is similiar to what we call comfort food here in the States, a concept universal to different cultures. The meat used in this dish is typically paper-thin cuts of beef or pork, but minced meat or meat balls can be used in its variations. In an attempt to control our diet recently, I’m using minced lean chicken, and reducing the amount of potatoes used by adding konnyaku* and carrots.
My host served the stew in two low-rimmed bowls, each with a bowl of rice, miso soup, and a small plate of pickled root veggies, and gave me the first taste of what it’s like to be in a Japanese home. It brought about a fuzzy feeling, not sure if it was for reuniting with a close friend, for being “home” after traveling alone for several days, or for the heart-warming taste of the food itself. But it was a damn good memory, one that returns every time I make this dish.
At a time like this in Japan, when it’s impossible for those affected by the tsunami and earthquake to make even a humble dish as such, this is made with them in mind.
☞ to make
ingredients:
makes 4 servings
2 medium potatoes, each cut to 4
wedges
2 medium onions, each cut to 8 wedges
8 ounces ground lean chicken
1 block brown konnyaku
8 ounces baby carrots, or carrots
sliced to 1/4"-thick rounds
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cups dashi stock*
4 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons sake (Japanese rice
wine)
1 tablespoon mirin (Japanese sweet
rice wine)
2 tablespoon sugar
shichimi* spices to taste
directions:
- After peeling and cutting the potatoes, rinse away the superficial starch, and soak them in a cold water bath to avoid discoloration.
- In a sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot.
- Add onions and potatoes, strained, sauté until the onions are softened and turned light golden brown, about 10 minutes.
- Add dashi, soy sauce, sake, and mirin, and bring to a boil. Toss in carrots and cover the pan with a lid. (In authentic Japanese cooking, a wooden lid with a diameter smaller than that of the pan is chosen, to allow extra moisture to evaporate and retain the shapes of the vegetables. The lid will sit directly on the food. To serve the purpose, any lid you may have in suitable size can be used.)
- When about half of the liquid had been evaporated, about 20 minutes, remove the lid and make a void of just liquid in the center of the pot. Add minced chicken and season it with white pepper. Keep stirring to prevent the chicken from sticking together, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in sugar, bring everything to a boil, and remove from heat. Serve with Shichimi spices on the side.
*konnyaku - 蒟蒻 - a gummy jelly made of the root vegetable konjac, a health food that has high fiber content but very low in calories. It can be found in block, noodle, or other shapes in Asian markets.
*dashi - だし - a traditional stock of konbu (kelp) and katsuo bushi (smoked bonito flakes), commonly used in Japanese cooking, see recipe below. It can be substituted with dashi powder dissolved in 2 cups of water.
*shichimi spices - 七味唐辛子 - a common Japanese chili mixture consisting seven ingredients, including red chili pepper, dried ginger, roasted orange zest and sesame seeds. It can be found in small, red-capped glass bottles in Asian markets.
Traditional dashi stock
☞ to make
ingredients:
makes 2 quarts
1 3x6” piece of konbu* (dried kelp)
8 cups water
2 handfuls katsuo bushi* (dried, smoked, shaved bonito flakes)
*available in the dry goods section in Japanese markets.
directions:
- Rinse konbu under running water, then add to the water in a medium saucepan, over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer, and remove from heat. Let steep for 10 minutes.
- Add the katsuo bushi. Cover and let steep for 7 minutes.
- Strain the dashi, now ready to use; discard the solids.
