"Irizake" Acqua Pazza

Cooking Tai snapper two days in a row!


Today's menu was acqua pazza with tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san". Acqua pazza is one of my favorite dishes to cook in Fukkura-san (here's my basic recipe). This time, I made a Japanese-style acqua pazza with my homemade irizake and dashi stock.

Irizake, in a sense, is like a fortified sake concentrate, so you can make such a rich and complex flavor Japanese-style acqua pazza just by using it.

Once the ingredients are ready, the process is very simple.


First, tai snapper was getting ready to be broiled just until the skin gets lightly browned.


Aromatics were sautéed, then broth and lightly-broiled snapper, along with the rest of the ingredients, was added.


In about 6 minutes, Irizake Acqua Pazza was ready! I loved it so much.


Irizake Acqua Pazza

Ingredients (2 servings):
1 medium-size (about 18 oz or 500 g) tai snapper, cleaned
1 teaspoon salt
olive oil
2 small garlic cloves, thinly-sliced
1/2 medium-size shallot, minced
2 medium-size shiitake mushrooms, thinly-sliced
1/2 cup (120 ml) irizake
1/2 cup (120 ml) dashi stock or water
10 oz (300 g) clams, scrubbed
1 small Japanese turnip ("kabu"), peeled and cut into 8 wedges
10-12 cherry tomatoes
1 small head radicchio, quartered
some chervil or mitsuba herb, chopped
some black pepper

Procedure:
1. Season both sides of the snapper including cavity with salt. Set aside for 30 minutes. Pat-dry with paper towel.
2. Lightly coat both sides of the fish with olive oil. Wrap the tail and fins with aluminum foil.
3. Broil both sides of the fish until lightly-browned (about 3 minutes each side) in the oven. Remove the foil.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in "Fukkura-san" and sauté the garlic, shallot, and shiitake mushrooms until shiitake softens over medium-heat (about 3 minutes).
5. Add the irizake and dashi stock. Bring to simmer.
6. Lay the snapper in the center, and spread the clams, turnip, tomatoes, and radicchio around the snapper.
7. Cover and simmer for 5-6 minutes or until the fish is cooked through and clams are open.
8. Remove from the heat and sprinkle some chervil and black pepper on top. Drizzle some olive oil. Serve immediately.

Happy donabe life.

Irizake-steamed Clams and Rapini in Donabe

Steamed clams are always great...it's not only such a tasty dish, but also it's so simple and quick to make.

Instead of regular sake-steamed clams, lately I'm so into "Irizake"-steamed clams. Irizake is such a magical seasoning which used to be used instead of soy sauce during Edo Period in Japan, and I've been making Irizake and using it for various dishes for a while.

Since Irizake is essentially a concentrated and fortified sake with salt-pickled plums ("umeboshi") and dry bonito flakes ("katsuobushi"), the dish becomes especially rich and complex when cooked with it.

The process is still extremely simple. To make this, I used donabe steam-roaster, "Toshinsai".


Garlic and dry red chili pepper were sautéed in olive oil, and clams were added.


Clams were covered with chopped rapini. Irizake was added, covered, and just cooked until the clam opened.


A little amount of yuzu shichimi salt were added and stirred.


Irizake-steamed Clams and Rapini

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, thinly-sliced
1 dry red chili pepper
16-18 oz (450 - 500 g) clams, scrubbed
5 oz (150 g) rapini, chopped
2 tablespoons irizake
a pinch of salt (or I use yuzu shichimi salt)
a couple of lemon wedges

Procedure:

1. In "Tochinsai", sauté the garlic and chili pepper in olive oil over medium heat until aromatic (about 2 minutes).
2. Add the clams. Cover the clams with the rapini. Add the irizake and cover with the lid.
3. Let the ingredients steam until the clams open (about 3-4 minutes).
4. Uncover and add a pinch of salt. Add more if necessary. Stir.
5. Serve immediately. Squeeze some lemon if you like.

What a delicious combination of all the flavors. Irizake really makes this simple dish special. I want to eat this every day.

Happy donabe life.

Making dishes with Irizake

Irizake is a very versatile seasoning.  I'm loving my homemade irizake and have been using in different dishes.


For my Haricot Vert Goma-ae (tossed in ground sasame paste), instead of using cooked sake, I used Irizake for making the paste.  Here's how I make it.


Haricot Vert "Irizake" Goma-ae


Roast and ground 3T white sesame seeds and 1.5T black sesame seeds together.


Add 1.5T Irizake, 1.5T soy sauce, 1T raw brown sugar, and 2tsps karashi (Japanese mustard) and mix well into paste.  Add 6 oz steamed (or blanched) haricot vert and 2 oz roasted walnuts and toss in the paste.

The flavor got deeper with the irizake and it was very nice!



This is another appetizer dish, seasoned with Irizake.  This one is even simpler.  To make the sauce, I simply combined 1T of each irizake and olive oil.  I plated 1 avocado (cut into cubes), 8 cherry tomatoes (cut in half) and 1T pine nuts in a shallow bowl, and drizzled irizake sauce over.  To finish, I sprinkled a pinch of each Maldon sea salt and ground pepper.

Simple and gorgeous.

Making Irizake from very scratch

I have been a fan of this very old-school seasoning called, “Irizake” (煎酒-“cooked rice wine”) for a while.  Irizake is not a well-known seasoning in today’s Japan, however, it used to be a very common item at regular households about 200-400 years ago during Edo Period in Japan.  The most basic style of Irizake is can be described as cooked down sake, which was flavored with umeboshi (pickled plum) and katsuo-bushi (dried bonito flakes), or simply with umeboshi.  I heard that Irizake was more popular than soy sauce among regular people because soy sauce was expensive and considered to be a luxury ingredient back then.

Once soy sauce become commonly accessible, the needs for Irizake died down and eventually it became almost forgotten, except at some traditional Japanese restaurants.  But lately, Irizake has been re-discovered by more home-cooks and is going through a quiet revival trend of its own.

Iri-zake is a very versatile seasoning with elegant deep aroma, and it’s much less saltier than soy sauce.  I think Irizake can be a next big ingredient among chefs (or even homecooks) internationally!  It’s perfect as a seasoning for delicate fish sashimi.  It’s also great for just about any styles of dishes, such as salad, sauté, rice, etc.  You can also blend Iri-zake with soy sauce to make more complex flavor sauce.

I researched so many different Irizake recipes (so many variations!) to come up with my final version, which is really simple and basic.  But, it was quite a journey!

Ingredients List:

1 bottle (720 ml) Junmai Sake

1 piece  2” x 2” dashi kombu (dry kelp)

6-7 small to medium-size umeboshi (pickled plum)

15g  katsuo bushi (shaved dry bonito flakes)

SAKE:  Don’t use a “cooking sake” or alcohol-added kind.  Quality “Junmai” sake is a good choice, but there is no reason to use a very expensive kind.  My bottle was about $10.

Dashi Kombu: I used “Rishiri Kombu” (from Hokkaido), because it brings cleaner flavor.

UMEBOSHI: Yes, for a high-quality Iri-zake, you want to use high-quality umeboshi.  So, I ended up making my own umeboshi!  If you use a purchased kind, make sure it has no additives.

Katsuo Bushi: Premium “Honkare Bushi” from Kagoshima.  Bonito was shaved right before it was used.

Procedure:

To start, soak Dashi Kombu in Junmai Sake for 3-4 hours.  Remove.  (No heating is necessary, because kombu is used for bringing just a subtle flavor to the sake.)

Add Umeboshi to the sake and bring to simmer.  Simmer for 5-6 minutes.

Add Katsuo Bushi and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes until the sake is reduced by half.  Remove from heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Strain the sake through a fine-mesh strainer.  This is your Irizake.

The beautiful almost flowery aroma of sake and katsuo bushi filled up the entire kitchen and it was just amazing.  As soon as I tasted my first homemade Iri-zake, I was so blown away.  It was nothing like I’d ever tasted before…I just couldn’t believe how amazing it tasted!  I wanted to drink the whole thing right away!  This Irizake will become an essential ingredient in Naoko’s kitchen from now on.

My first Irizake dish was with freshly made rice with my double-lid donabe rice cooker, “Kamado-san”.  I topped the rice with a mixture of super-thin katsuo-bushi (shaved bonito) and nori (roasted seaweed) and simply drizzled some Irizake.  Righteous!!!  I wish everybody who read this could taste it.  To serve with the Irizake seasoned rice, I made simple tofu and wakame seaweed miso soup with my homemade 2-year-aged miso in the beautiful soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe".  Humble and perfectly gourmet moment.

Happy donabe life.