May 09,2024
In this ongoing series, we ask food professionals for their top recommended fermented foods. This time we speak with Nakamoto Chizuru, an expert in healthy cooking.
Nakamoto, who continually proposes meals that provide vitality and beauty through eating, has been drawn to the health and beauty benefits of fermented foods. She says that fermented foods naturally began to appear on her daily dinner table after she started focusing on having healthy and delicious meals. One thing she looks forward to once or twice a month is her at-home events when she can enjoy white rice to her heart’s content. Her freshly cooked rice is complemented with katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), nukazuke pickles, and miso soup. We documented the day of her fancy brunch that makes the most of fermentation.。
“Delicious rice is a feast in itself,” says Nakamoto Chizuru with a smile. She is a hardcore rice lover who goes as far as polishing her rice at home.
“I order rice called Takomai produced in Tako, a town in Chiba, and I have it delivered as unpolished brown rice. For regular meals, I usually have brown rice cooked in a pressure cooker. If you cook the rice with black beans or soybeans, it will develop a sweetness that makes it more delicious. I enjoy white rice once or twice a month. I use a hagama cooking pot I’ve had for 10 years, which cooks the rice to a fluffy and lustrous finish. It would be a bit much to polish rice every day, but polishing rice once or twice a month is special enough that it doesn’t feel like a chore.”
Pour the unpolished rice into the rice polisher and switch it on
“What makes a hagama special is how it cooks the rice quickly at a high temperature while circulating the rice vigorously. And because the hagama has high thermal conductivity, it only takes a short time to heat up.”
Nakamoto’s rule of thumb is to use 450 mL of water for two cups of rice. After soaking the rice for 30 minutes, set a timer for 15 minutes and put the pot on the burner. Keep the heat high until it boils, then lower the heat if it starts to boil over. When the rice has cooked for a total of 15 minutes, turn off the heat and leave the lid on for another 15 minutes to steam. Now the rice is ready. Nakamoto’s recommended cooking method applies equally well when cooking rice in an earthenware or cast-iron pot.
Nakamoto has been using her four-cup hagama for over 10 years. “It’s light, durable, and very easy to use.” She keeps the heat high until the pot boils and reduces the heat if it appears it will boil over. The total cooking time is 15 minutes. She lets it steam with the lid on for another 15 minutes.
“Freshly polished rice cooked in a hagama is sweet and has a superb flavor. It makes you feel lucky to have been born in Japan, a country of rice. Topping piping hot rice with freshly shaved katsuobushi and a dash of soy sauce is already the perfect meal. So much so that you could do without any side dishes.”
In the Nakamoto household, the first item to complement rice that comes to mind is freshly shaved katsuobushi.
“Freshly shaved katsuobushi has a rich aroma and a sophisticated umami flavor. On days when I have hagama rice, I shave katsuobushi with extra energy.”
Katsuobushi can be broadly classified into two types: arabushi and karebushi. Arabushi is katsuobushi made by boiling, smoking, and drying bonito. Karebushi is made by roughing up the surface of an arabushi block and going through two or more cycles of spraying it with mold and drying it. And a karebushi block that undergoes even more mold-spraying and drying cycles followed by a slow aging process is called honkarebushi.
“Karebushi and honkarebushi that undergo the mold-spraying process are fermented foods that make use of the actions of microorganisms. They break down the proteins and fats and turn them into the amino acids that are the components of umami. The power of fermentation is what crafts its deep umami and the refined, elegant flavor without any odd tastes. Dashi stock made from katsuobushi or kelp is the building block of Japanese cuisine. A nice point is that by preparing your own dashi, you can cut down on the salt and still have it taste delicious.”
The katsuobushi dances gracefully on the hot rice. A dash of soy sauce and it’s ready to eat.
“Katsuobushi is said to be the hardest food in the world, so unsurprisingly it takes a bit of work to shave it. But the delicious taste is worth the effort. Just sprinkling this katsuobushi on all kinds of things like crispy deep-fried tofu or chilled tofu makes the dish exceptionally tasty.”
While fewer and fewer households shave their own katsuobushi these days, the Nakamoto household has been buying honkarebushi from a katsuobushi wholesaler in Tsukiji for about 10 years now.
“It began when my husband and I went shopping in Tsukiji, and my husband, who has a thing for wood grain, immediately fell for a katsuobushi shaver. From there, we went straight to a katsuobushi wholesaler and bought the honkarebushi that the shopkeeper recommended. They even took the time to teach us how to shave it properly. Because of this, my husband is in charge of shaving the katsuobushi. Shaving takes a certain amount of strength, so my husband is definitely better at it than I am. He shaves the katsuobushi skillfully while I’m polishing and cooking the rice and preparing the side dishes.”
You have to put your weight into shaving katsuobushi. “When the katsuobushi gets small, it becomes difficult to shave. When this happens, I’ll take it to a shop and have them shave the final piece with a machine.”
Another side dish that appears on the Nakamoto’s dinner table every day is nukazuke pickles [pickles made in a bed of fermented rice bran called a nukadoko].
“I make nukazuke pickles from carrots, turnips, cucumbers, and eggplants as well as from broccoli stalks and cabbage hearts. Nukazuke pickles are full of plant-based lactic acid bacteria, which are said to be good for Japanese people’s intestines.”
The Nakamoto household’s nukadoko has been cultivated for more than 10 years
The rice bran produced by polishing rice is reused to maintain a healthy nukadoko.
“The nukadoko quickly goes down when you eat nukazuke pickles every day. Polishing rice once or twice a month gives me just enough rice bran to top up the nukadoko. It helps to keep the nukadoko at a constant level and also prevents the nukadoko from becoming watery due to moisture in the vegetables. Topping up the nukadoko is easy. Just mix the rice bran from the rice polishing with salt and then knead it into the nukadoko. The key is to dig up the nukadoko from the bottom and make sure it’s evenly aerated.”
“The combination of fermented foods and rice is perfect. It’s so delicious, you can’t stop yourself from eating too much.” Nakamoto sometimes adds boiled or grilled fish to create a fish course meal.
Once the hagama rice has finished steaming, it’s finally time for brunch. The menu today is shiny white rice, miso soup with turnips and dried shiitake mushrooms, natto [fermented soybeans], and freshly shaved fluffy katsuobushi, along with nukazuke broccoli stalks and carrots.
“I like to keep the complementary side dishes simple because I want to savor the sweetness and umami of the rice. Nukazuke pickles, soy sauce, miso, and katsuobushi — the fermented foods I’ve been eating since I was a child — genuinely suit the Japanese palate. When I asked my husband what he would like to eat for his final dinner ever, he said my katsuobushi rice. (laughs) It’s simple and plain, but it’s a delicious meal that deeply satisfies your body and soul.”
Next time, we pass the baton on to Morisaki Mayuka, an expert on making confectionary. Be sure to keep an eye out for it.
Healthy cooking expert
Healthy cooking expert
Nakamoto’s activities include recipe development, nutritional supervision, lectures, and writing, with a focus on beauty, health, and diet. She makes dietary recommendations that let you lose weight and gain better looking skin while eating. She has earned a reputation for healthy cooking that is rich in vegetables and low in calories and salt. Her books include Easy & Delicious Meals for the Work-From-Home Era.
Official website:https://www.nakamoto-chizuru.com/
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