How LA’s N/Soto Assembles Its Trout and Ikura Donabe Dish

Chef Carole Iida-Nakayama uses kombu dashi to season the trout and rice inside the donabe

On this episode of Plateworthy, chef Nyesha Arrington visits chef Carole Iida-Nakayama at LA’s N/Soto as they make a trout and ikura dish in a donabe, which means “clay pot,” and which serves as the finishing rice course on the menu.

When asked by Arrington whether there is a specific stock or liquid that is traditionally used in donabe dishes, Iida-Nakayama refers to kombu dashi, consisting of bonito flake and kombu steeped in a pot of water. “In Japanese food, you can’t cook without dashi,” says Iida-Nakayama.

The dish is assembled by first putting washed rice into the clay pot, then the trout on top of the rice, and topping it with the ichiban dashi before it goes onto the stove. “This is just a ratio of 10 parts dashi, one part usukuchi soy sauce, and then there’s a little bit of mirin to add a little sweetness,” says Iida-Nakayama.

The donabe allows everything to cook evenly and the steam to be trapped inside with the food.

“There’s nothing hyper-technical about this,” says Iida-Nakayama. “It’s really about the deeper meaning that I really want people to get from N/Soto and Japanese cooking.”

Watch the full video to see how Arrington and Iida-Nakayama cook and assemble each part of the trout and ikura donabe dish.



from Eater - All https://ift.tt/TrVUz2K

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Comforting Braised Pig Feet Recipe Perfect for Your Pressure Cooker

Image
Louiie Victa Chef Jenny Dorsey’s recipe is a testament to the trotter’s versatility When I go grocery shopping, I always look for pig feet. In the sea of unrecognizably standard-looking cuts of animal muscles at grocery stores — disk-shaped loins, round humps of pork butt — trotters are always the anomaly. They look most precisely as they were: feet, hooves, the tired bones and tissue that kept an animal upright its whole life. Unfortunately for pig feet, their look hasn’t exactly made them a popular part of the mainstream American diet. As Cecil Adams wrote back in 2016, one of the challenges in encouraging more Americans to consume offal and organ meat is that “organs resemble, well, body parts: any steak slapped on a plate looks like dinner, while a lovingly presented calf heart may suggest an autopsy.” And, Adams added, there’s the “socioeconomic stigma…that had a racial component too,” which is only exacerbated by “travelogue shows [like] Bizarre Foods .” Despite being mali...
Read more

Beyond Impossible: The Sanitarium and World War II Past of Meat Substitutes

Image
Photo by Tom Kelley/Getty Images We’ve come a long way from John Harvey Kellogg’s “protose cutlets” It’s no stretch to say that fake meat is having a moment . With the popularity of brands such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat joining fast-food menus and grocery store aisles alike, plant-based meats are no longer seen as a sad option for vegetarians long denied flavor with meat substitutes (though, as we know, plenty of vegetarian food is packed with flavor), but for anyone who enjoys a good burger, fried chicken, or nuggets. But are meat substitutes really the future of eating? Maybe by necessity as food resources run out, but not likely by choice. In fact, despite the big money raked in by Impossible and Beyond over the past few years, industrial meat consumption in America is actually on the rise. This week on Gastropod , Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley see how the not-sausage gets made, with visits to the Impossible Meat lab and Meati , a Colorado-based start-up that’...
Read more

Without Government Aid, Americans in Need Are Shoplifting Food Essentials

Image
Photo: Niloo /Shutterstock Plus, Colin Kaepernick gets his own Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor, and more news to start your day More people admit to shoplifting what they need to survive Since the pandemic began, Americans have called for relief for individuals and small businesses. Stimulus checks, rent and mortgage cancelation, and universal health care have all been on the table. But aside from $1,200 months ago, we’ve gotten none of that, and the latest stimulus package is woefully inadequate. So, as the Washington Post reports , more people than ever have resorted to stealing essentials like bread, baby formula, and diapers to survive. Honestly, what did the government expect? WaPo says there’s been a 45 percent increase in the number of Americans facing hunger this year, up to 54 million people. Lines at food banks have been miles long for months, with many saying that mutual aid groups and donations can’t keep up with demand . And with SNAP and WIC programs cut back,...
Read more