Part 7: Cooking Expert Horie Sachiko’s Saké Kasu Smoothies — Eye-Opening, Body-Pleasing Drinks to Start Your Day

“I’m the type of person who will immediately try anything that seems to be good for my body,” Horie Sachiko says with a laugh. As a qualified yogurt sommelier and lactic acid bacteria sommelier, she unsurprisingly incorporates fermented food into her regular diet. One thing that she has been drinking for the past several years without fail is smoothies made with saké kasu [saké lees]. For this article, she taught us many ways to make use of saké kasu, including a super nutritious smoothie recipe.

Saké kasu green smoothies that are so delicious you can’t stop drinking them

“I first took notice of saké kasu about four or five years ago because of an NHK program I watched. What caught my interest was research that the program presented which found that intaking 50 grams of saké kasu a day will boost the amount of collagen in your skin.”

Saké kasu is the solid matter left over when saké is pressed from fermented moromi mash. An unavoidable by-product of the saké-making process, saké kasu is rich in proteins, dietary fiber, amino acids, and other nutrients. It is used as an ingredient in amazake [a sweet drink made from koji rice malt] and has been used in many kinds of food, such as saké kasu soup and saké kasu pickles.

Horie always has saké kasu in her fridge. She divides it into small portions of about 300 grams each, wraps them individually, and stores them in airtight bags.

In order to consume saké kasu every day, Horie came up with the idea of green smoothies that contain saké kasu.

“When I wake up, the first thing I do is make a smoothie and drink it in one go. That alone satiates my hunger to a large degree. After doing some cleaning or other tasks and I get hungry again, I’ll take a short break with a baked sweet potato and coffee. That’s my standard morning routine. (laughs) I chill the smoothies in summer and warm them until lukewarm in winter. I’ve been having them non-stop for years now, but I never get tired of them.”

Horie’s special ginger saké kasu smoothie with Japanese komatsuna mustard spinach and kiwifruit

One glass has a full 50 grams of saké kasu

“Komatsuna is a leaf vegetable that is not very bitter, so it works well in smoothies. If you cut the komatsuna into chunks and freeze it, the smoothie itself will be that much more chilled and delicious. It’s fun to taste and compare komatsuna with other seasonal vegetables such as mizuna mustard greens, mint, or parsley. And of course you are free to use any fruits you like, such as apples, pears, mangoes, or oranges. Since fruits have lots of nutrients just under the skin, I wash them thoroughly and toss them into the blender, skins and all. Once you blend them until the texture is smooth to the tongue, you might not even notice the skins.”

The smoothie has a pleasant combination of sourness and sweetness with the refreshing green taste of komatsuna. Its saké kasu flavor that dissolves slowly at the end adds a mature accent.

“When you use saké kasu in cooking, its distinctive flavor can remain quite strong. In this smoothie, though, it provides just a subtle hint of aroma. The reason I keep drinking these smoothies is just how convenient they are to make and drink. In winter, I heat it up in the microwave for a minute to have a hot smoothie. And the ginger in the drink helps warm your body from the inside.”

How to use saké kasu for pickling and for preparing other foods

Horie’s son, who is in high school, loves her hearty miso soup with pork and saké kasu.
“I put it in a soup thermos so he can carry it for lunch,” says Horie.

Besides her morning green smoothie, Horie uses saké kasu in many dishes at home. For example, she adds saké kasu to hearty pork miso soup. The saké kasu gives the soup a richer, more complex taste.

“Fry in sesame oil pork, burdock, carrots, daikon radish, and other root vegetables along with konjac cut into strips and thinly sliced green onions. When the oil has coated everything, add the dashi stock and saké kasu and simmer for seven to eight minutes. Add miso to the other ingredients and you’re done. I generally use 50 to 60 grams of saké kasu for 250 mL of dashi stock.”

Yellowtail marinated in miso and saké kasu (left),
and bell peppers and other vegetables marinated in a bed of saké kasu

“At home, I use saké kasu to prepare meat and fish and as a pickling bed for vegetables. If you marinate fish fillets in a mixture of miso and saké kasu, it will get rid of the fishy smell and make the fish moist and juicy. Lightly wipe off the marinade and grill the fillets on a fish grill, and you’ve finished one main dish. Another point I like about this is the milder saltiness you get than if you marinated it just in miso. A pickling bed made from saké kasu, mirin, and salt is easier to deal with than a normal nukadoko [a bed of salted rice-malt paste for pickling], so I recommend it for people making their first pickles at home. This time, I pickled cucumbers, red bell peppers, and turnips.”

The mesmerizing power of fermentation to bring out the umami flavor of ingredients

Fermented foods feature prominently in Horie’s daily diet. If you open her fridge, you’ll always find rows of fermented foods, including saké kasu, yogurt, and natto [fermented soybeans].

“I eat a lot of yogurt that I make in one-liter milk cartons. And I get uneasy if I don’t have at least two three-packs of natto on hand. (laughs) My favorite is natto dressing, which I make by mixing together natto, sesame oil, and vinegar. I use the dressing on salads, steamed vegetables, and tofu. I also like kimchi that has fermented to the point where you can taste the tangy acidity. If you stir-fry kimchi lightly and make it into a soup, you’ll get a flavor with real depth. I’m also obsessed with watery kimchi that you can make with just cabbage and salt. When I stop and think about it, I eat all kinds of fermented foods every day.”

The activity of living microorganisms greatly impacts the umami and aroma of fermented foods. Maybe Horie is able to eat fermented foods every day without getting tired of them precisely because they are produced by nature.

“My cooking instructor, Sukenari Futaba, recently shared with me some black koji. I marinated it in soy sauce for about a week to make soy sauce koji, which I then used to marinate some chicken breast. I was surprised to find that the flavor was so well-defined and the texture so nice, even without adding garlic, ginger, or saké. It had the texture of fresh liver, and of course it was not at all dry. The power of koji is different from that of yogurt or miso. I was reminded once again how profound fermentation is.”

Even though we can sum up fermented foods in a word, one of the interesting things about them is the differences in the types and behaviors of the microorganisms in each food. It would seem that the origin of Horie’s boundless energy is the variety of fermented foods she regularly incorporates into her diet.

In our next installment, registered dietitian and food coordinator Atsumi Mayumi will describe her choice fermented gourmet dishes. Be sure not to miss it.