Part 9: Cooking Expert Sakashita Chie’s Vegetable and Meat Rollups with Miso Tare Sauce’s Kinship with Rice is Their Greatest Strength
Dec 07,2023
In this ongoing series, we ask food professionals for their top recommended fermented foods. Our guest for Part 9 is Sakashita Chie, a lifestyle professional who provides information not only on cooking but also on cleaning, organizing, and storage. Perhaps because she is originally from Nagano, Sakashita’s soul food is miso. We asked her for the secret to creating miso-flavored side dishes that help complete daily bento lunches.
Shinshu miso is Sakashita’s prime miso, but she selects miso from different regions depending on her mood and preferences
Nagano, where Sakashita was born and raised, is the largest producer of miso in Japan. Miso, for her, is the taste of her hometown.
“I grew up with miso. My grandmother made miso by hand, and miso was used in all kinds of food in my childhood home. For example, grilled rice balls were normally flavored with miso, not soy sauce. Back then, the miso we used was Shinshu miso, which is a dry, light-colored miso made with rice koji malt and soybeans. I came to Tokyo for university, and I was surprised by all the varieties of miso available. I had a great time trying out the different types.”
Even today, she mainly uses Shinshu miso but does use miso from other regions to suit the recipe or her mood.
“When I’m coming up with recipes for work, I generally use Shinshu miso because it’s widely available. Shinshu miso is easy to use in cooking, and it’s my go-to at home too. But there are days when I want to have soup made with red miso paste, and there are dishes that go best with the distinctive sweet flavor of white miso. I feel that changing just the type of miso can make an old standby dish taste a bit special.”
Miso-flavored side dishes that go well with rice are also perfect for bento lunches
The snappy miso-flavored meat rollups are the perfect partner for rice
Miso is a dependable ally for the bento lunches Sakashita makes every morning for her younger daughter who attends junior high school.
“Miso is a fermented food, and its complex umami flavor and aroma are what make it attractive. It is rich and delicious even when cold, so miso is super useful for seasoning bento lunches.”
Sakashita shared her recipe for vegetable and meat rollups with a miso tare sauce, a handy side dish for bento lunches.
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- Ingredients (for a two-person serving)
- Pork loin (or leg meat)6 thin slices
- Green beans6 to 9 pods
- Carrot1/3 of a whole carrot
- Cake flourAs needed
- Vegetable oil1/2 teaspoon
- [A] (for the miso tare sauce)
- Miso, saké, mirin rice wine2 teaspoons each
- Soy sauce1 teaspoon
- Water1 tablespoon
- Potato starch1/4 teaspoon
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- Directions
- 1.Cut the stems off the green beans and cut them into two or three equal pieces to match the width of the pork slices. Similarly, prepare the carrot and cut it into sticks about 8 mm square to match the width of the pork slices. Boil the cut vegetables in boiling water for about 4 minutes, drain, and leave to cool.
- 2.Roll the pork slices out flat, arrange the green beans and carrot from Step 1 evenly on the pork slices, and roll the pork tightly around the vegetables. Press the end of the roll down with your fingers and lightly dust the entire roll with cake flour.
- 3.Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, place the rollups from Step 2 in the pan with the seams facing down, and cover. Cook for about 6 to 7 minutes, turning the rollups over occasionally through to ensure they cook evenly.
- 4.Wipe away any excess oil in the frying pan, add the tare sauce mixture A, and coat the rolls completely in the sauce and let them simmer. When the rollups have cooled, cut them in half.
“The key is to add water to the seasoning sauce. If you use miso or other seasonings alone, there won’t be enough moisture and the sauce may burn before it has a chance to coat everything. Diluting it with water will help it to coat the rollups evenly. As it simmers, the added potato starch thickens the sauce to perfection.”
Adding half to a whole teaspoon of sugar to the sauce mixture will give some sweetness and make it more delicious. Any leftover sauce can be frozen. Seal it up and use it within about two weeks.
“I also recommend marinating chicken thighs in the same miso tare sauce and then baking them in the oven until they’re nicely browned. While they’re baking, you can use the time to make other side dishes or even get out of the kitchen for a while.”
Sakashita always has Eki-Miso in the fridge because it makes cooking fast and tasty
Marukome’s Eki-Miso [liquid miso] series is very useful in the Sakashita household, where miso soup is essential. There is always a bottle in the side fridge pocket.
“It is really convenient because the liquid miso dissolves very quickly. There’s no need to make a dashi broth, and it feels to be as easy as making instant miso soup. On busy mornings, it’s a huge help because if you quickly cook up the vegetables, meat, or fish in your fridge with it and make miso soup, you can get your vegetables and protein at the same time.”
The compact bottle that stands on its own so you can make use of all its contents is one thing Sakashita likes about Eki-Miso
“Rice, miso soup, and then side dishes or pickles that go well with the rice. I’m grateful for this pattern in Japanese meals that you can follow without thinking about it. It’s familiar and reassuring, and if you switch up the ingredients and seasonings, you won’t get bored. This is its strongest point. Supporting this comforting flavor is fermented seasonings such as miso, soy sauce, and salted koji. For example, simply adjusting the seasoning of the vegetable and meat rollups completely changes their character. For example, you can change from a miso flavor to a sauce made with miso and salted koji or to a soy sauce-based teriyaki sauce. You can really feel the benefits once you get the hang of using fermented seasonings and your menu options will literally double or triple.”
A week-long trip to France reaffirmed the greatness of miso soup
Miso soup is terrific in bento lunches in the winter months too. She pours hot miso soup or miso pork soup in a thermos for her family members to take with them.
Sakashita became aware of her love of miso again about five years ago, when she went on a trip to France with her family.
“The freeze-dried miso soup I’d tossed into my suitcase turned out to be a lifesaver on the trip. Even though it was only a week-long trip, I felt restless if I didn’t eat miso soup. The whole family praised the miso soup, saying, ‘Miso soup is the best!’ and ‘Rice and miso soup are our soul food!’ (laughs)
“When I think about it, I rely on miso soup more than anything to ensure a good nutritional balance in our diets. The standard in our family is a hearty miso soup with lots of vegetables. I add in Western-style vegetables like broccoli, and sometimes I chop up leftover omelette from bento lunches and have it in the soup instead of deep-fried tofu. Anything goes, no rules. My daughter tells me that our miso soup is a bit odd, but regardless of what she says, it’s surprisingly delicious.”
A chunky miso soup is the routine in the Sakashita household. So when she keeps it simple, her family contrarily says “Today’s miso soup is extravagant.”
“Eating a hearty miso soup somehow makes me feel at ease. These days, people tend to spend less time and energy on preparing bento lunches and cooking dinner. Still, I really like making and eating meals every day that are simple but reassuringly delicious.”
In our next installment, the baton travels to Iwama Akiko, a fermentation food researcher who became fascinated by vinegar. Please keep an eye out for it.
