[Sca-cooks] Japanese Feast

[Debra Hense/Kateryn de Develyn]

Well, Raid or Trade: Nippon is done and over with.

The following is the menu we ended up with:

First Service

Miso Soup
Yakitori (chicken) with teriyaki sauce
Salad (red radishes, red and green cabbage, lotus root slices) with sweet gingered sesame dressing
Salt-Pickled cucumber
Somen Noodles
Melon (Honey dew and Muskmelon)with a sliced plum
Maki Rolls (with fillings of cucumber, fresh spinach, grated carrots, daikon, pickled beet, and jicima - in various combinations)
 
Second Service
 
Cold Smoked Salmon
Beef Rolls with wasabi with red radishes for decoration
Mountain Yam(Jicima)  w/ sweet plum sauce
Shiitake Mushrooms
Daikon (pickled yellow)
Pickled bamboo sprouts (sweet vinegar)
Rice with Black Sesame Seeds

Final service
Green Tea Sorbet

Drinks: iced gingered water (water with ginger slices), iced lemon water (water with lemon juice added) and plain iced water.  

Site limitations (ie: 1 barely working refrigerator) and 1 stove and 1 double-sink (apartment sized), in a non-air conditioned 10 by 8 room. 

I cooked everything before the feast as I didn't want to deal with a dozen or two grills (we weren't allowed to dig a firepit). And reheated them in roasters.

We used sources and inspiration provided by Mistress Kiri and Dame Hauviette d’Anjou as taught in their class at Middle Kingdom's Cooking Collegium last December.  

The green tea sorbet was a modern recipe - but I knew it was going to be a very hot day and would be a refreshing treat for everyone.  It took me a month to make it. I used my ice-shaver freeze cups (just five of them) and made a batch a night for four nights a week.  It had a gritty (what I think of when I think of granita) texture, but the flavor and cold were just wonderful in the heat. 

And the day was hot.  Heat index was approx 105.  We used five roasters.  1 for rice, 1 for the shiitake mushrooms, 2 for chicken yakitori on skewers, and 1 for the beef rolls.  We rolled up the maki rolls through part of the afternoon, then finished chopping the jicima and cabbage.

I had put the bamboo shoots in jars with the sweet pickling sauce two days before and refrigerated it.  The pickled yellow daikon was bought commerically prepared, and then chopped to matchstick size for serving.  The radishes were finely cross-hatched and kept in cold water to open into a vague flower-like structure.  

The chicken and beef ended up being way overdone.  The hickory-smoked salmon was to die for (I thought it was good). Good smoked flavor, but still very moist and flakey. But, several tables didn't even try their fish. Several other tables took from the tables that weren't eating theirs.  I brought home enough for two weeks eating it for my lunch (yeah! I love salmon)  I got a great deal on the salmon - fresh farmed salmon that had been deskinned and filleted for $3.50 a pound at Costco's. I just lightly salted both sides of the fillet about 10 minutes before putting it in the smoker.  Then smoked it for an hour on the low end of safe heat.  I wanted to smoke flavor it - not dehydrate it.  I could eat half a fillet myself.

The miso soup - we used a block and a half (approx 1 & 1/2 pounds) per large stock (approx 4 gallon) pot of water.  We simmered it for several hours and then added chopped green onions. Then just before serving, we added the cubed extra-firm tofu to the pots.  People raved about the soup.  It was hot and they wanted more.  I ended up with maybe a quart left to take home and try for myself.  

The feast recipes were for the most part modern - taken from Japanese country and folk cooking books after first consulting with the Ryori Monogotari about ingredient mentions and preparation methods.  

Yesterday - I cleaned my kitchen (where all the preprep took place).  I can now see table and counter tops again.  I can also walk through my kitchen without weaving a path through all the food and coolers.  I have only the floor to hand-scrub (the hand-mop just doesn't get all the places I want cleaned really clean) and the refrigerator to scrub out and my home will be my own again.  

Now, I can finally turn my attention to getting things ready for my laureling ceremony this coming weekend.  

Kateryn de Develyn