Handmade Iga-yaki Horoku (Sesame Roaster)

Authentic Iga-yaki Horoku (Sesame Roaster) from Iga, Japn.
Horoku is an unique style donabe, and it's a traditional everyday cooking tool used for roasting sesame seeds.  You can also use it for roasting green tea leaves (to make Hojicha tea), coffee beans, sea salt, etc.


Entirely handmade (on a wheel) by a master craftsman, Masashi Kawakami of Nagatani-en.
These authentic handmade Horoku are extremely rare items.  Because of its unique shape with holes, this pottery requires very high level of artisan skills.  So, Mr. Kawakami makes it only when he feels up for it!

Iga-yaki Horoku is for those who find joy in the real depth of cooking, and those who appreciate the true wabi-sabi beauty of classic Iga-yaki pottery from Iga, Japan.

For more information, please visit toiro's website.

Happy donabe life.

Iga-yaki Grill Week...Seafood & Chicken night

Outdoor grilling is typically a summertime thing for us, but table-top Iga-yaki grilling is for all year round whenever we feel like it.

We call it terroir of Iga, because our authentic Iga-yaki Grill, "Yaki Yaki San", is made from 100% clay from Iga, Japan.  This ancient clay promotes far-infrared radiation (like charcoal on the grill) and cooks the ingredients very efficiently.  But, it doesn't make loud cooking noise.  Also, during cooking, the grill releases very little smoke, if any.  So, we don't have to worry about our small dining room filled with smoke, or even setting off the smoke alarm by accident!

Getting the dinner ready with Yaki Yaki San is so easy.  These were all the ingredients for the night.  Jumbo scallops (sliced in half), shrimp, and chicken thighs were all simply marinated with shio-koji for a couple of hours.  Some veggie, condiments (homemade chunky la-yu, yuzu-kosho mayo, scallion, cilantro, lime wedges, and lettuce wraps.

Yaki Yaki San was set on a portable burnet at the dining table, and once the grill was ready, ingredients were arranged on the surface of the grill.

It's always fun to watch the ingredients getting cooked and releasing nice aroma.  Mmm...everything came out really nice and flavorful.  

Such a wonderful way to enjoy simple ingredients.  Yaki Yaki San is our star!

Happy donabe life.

For the ultimate donabe rice...home rice polisher

In my last trip back to Japan, I finally bought a rice polishing machine (精米機) and hand-carried all the way back to LA.

This is the rice polisher.  It's quite compact for what the machine can do for your rice.  The size and weight are just about the same as a regular-size electric rice cooker.  You can polish up to 4 rice-cup amount (about 720 ml or US 3 cups) of uncooked rice.  This is quite a smart machine, as you can change the rice polishing rate from very small to complete white rice level.


The very reason I purchased the rice polisher is because I WANTED TO EAT THE BEST QUALITY RICE EVERY DAY.  I have the best rice cooker, double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", and I thought I've been cooking high quality brand rice.  However, it was only recently that I started to pay attention to the timing when the rice was polished.  Whether it's white (rice bran is completely removed) or partially polished brown rice, from the moment rice is polished, it starts to oxidize from the surfaced fat content of the rice.  The more time rice spends after polishing, the more advanced its oxidation progresses thus its flavor continues to deteriorate.  So the already polished commercial rice actually has a very short shelf life.  Eating oxidized rice doesn't only mean its flavor becomes far from optimal, but it's also less optimal for your health.  So, for both flavor and health, rice is best eaten as soon as it's polished.  Even a regular inexpensive kind of rice can taste dramatically better if it's cooked shortly before it's polished.

Also, for me, using rice polisher is by no means in order to remove the nutrients from the brown rice.  Rather, I got it for my healthier living.  I like only slightly polished brown rice, which is much easier to digest than whole brown rice, while it still contains most of the beneficial nutrients.  Another bonus is that slightly polished brown rice doesn't require long soaking time or cooking time.  It can cook just like white rice.

So, here's how my new rice polisher can work!


I got organic Koshihikari brown rice from Nijiya Market.


You just set the rice into the machine, and choose the polishing rate.  Cover and start it.  The mill rotates really fast, and in just a minute or so, it's ready.


This is 30% style (i.e. 30% of rice bran is polished away) rice.  And the removed rice bran is left in the bottom case, so you can keep collecting it and use for making nukazuke pickles base, fertilizing garden, or making facial packs!  So, you won't waste any part of rice.


The freshly-polised 30% style brown rice, cooked in my donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san".  The rice is so shiny and the texture was beautifully chewy and simply amazing.


Now, for white rice lovers.  It's a complete white rice.  So, all the bran was polished away.  Wow, I've never seen white rice this shiny.  It was really like small pearls.  And the taste was so milky, fresh and chewy.


And, here is my favorite, which is minimum polish style (just about 10% of bran is polished).  So, the polished rice is still very brown, but it can cook just like white rice.


Voila, my ultimate slightly-polished brown rice.  It's super amazing, and I wish everybody who read this could taste it!!  The texture is perfectly bouncy-chewy, and the flavor is really rich.  I also had this rice with my homemade natto (fermented soybeans), which was seasoned with my homemade irizake (cooked-down sake-based seasoning).

Regardless the polishing rate, the freshly polished rice taste simply amazing...the best.  Now, I can't live without the rice polisher for my donabe rice.  If you love rice, rice polisher is a must-have machine for your kitchen!
Ultimate donabe rice dish, indeed.
Happy donabe life.

Donabe-smoked Mozzarella Cheese

You can easily find smoked cheese which is already packaged at a store, and you might find it tasty.

But, you can make smoked cheese very easily at home with donabe...and it tastes really special.  It's so natural, so fresh, and tasting the just smoked (still warm) cheese right out of the donabe is quite exceptional!  With the Donabe Smoker, "Ibushi Gin", I enjoy smoking cheese and tasting it so much.

I got a dome-shape fresh mozzarella (not in a brine) this time.
First, I sliced it into three disks, and in order to make the smoking more effective, I put the in freezer for half-day.  This will dry the surface area for better smoke absorption but also help preventing the cheese from melting too much from cooking heat.


I set Ibushi Gin over high heat on gas stove with smoke chips.  Once the chips starts smoking (about 6-7 minutes), I set the frozen mozzarella slices in it and cover with lid.  Cheese was smoked over high heat for about 7 minutes, then the heat was turned off and rested with the cover on for 20 minutes (it will continue to smoke with the carryover heat and smoke meanwhile).


The smoked mozzarella cheese was ready...so nicely colored!

They were served with some grape and pistachio.  The cheese was nicely smokey and dense in texture. Gorgeous.  It's so easy and good that I hope many people will try this recipe (if you call it a recipe!).

Happy donabe life.

Vegetable Chapchae (Korean-style glass noodle dish)

Chapchae (or Japchae, Korean glass noodle dish) is one of the best known Korean dishes among Japanese people.  There are many short-cut recipes for this dish, but for the best result, instead of cooking everything together, you want to cook some ingredients separately and assemble at the end.  By making this extra effort, the dish creates more layers of flavors and also look much nicer esthetically.

Most typical style of chapchae contains beef, but my version is vegetarian with a lot of mushrooms.
So, here's my style chapchae.


Cook 3.5 oz dry Korean glass noodle according to the package instructions.  Drain and cut by scissors.  The quality of the noodle makes a big difference, so I get a nice kind, made from sweet potato starch in Korea.  The dry noodle is really tough and the color is grey.


Saute 1/2 color bell pepper and 1/3 carrot (both julienned) in olive oil and transfer to a plate.
Saute 1/3 burdock root (gobo - julienned ), and 1/4 onion (thinly sliced) in sesame oil for a few minutes.  Add 6 medium-size shiitake mushrooms (sliced) and 5 oz shimeji mushrooms and continue to sauté until the mushrooms are soft.


In a small bowl, combine 2T soy sauce, 2T sake, 1T raw brown sugar, 1T mirin, 1/2T grated ginger, and 1 clove garlic (grated).  Add the mixture to the pan and stir.  Also add 1/2C soybean sprouts, cooked glass noodles, 1T white sesame seeds, 1T pine nuts, and the cooked bell pepper & carrot.  Stir.  Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary.


To finish, add 1/2C sugar snap peas (blanched and halved in angle), and thinly-sliced scallion.  Drizzle a little amount of black vinegar (optional).  Garnish with shredded dry chili and cilantro.

This dish contains a variety of healthy ingredients and it makes a nice complete meal.

Donabe Steam-fried Shio-koji Chicken Tender

Shio-koji is indeed a magical seasoning, because it makes a simple dish taste so complete.  The enzyme of koji also tenderizes meat.  Super simple, tasty, and healthy donabe dish is here.

For this dish, I used Donabe Steam-roaster, "Tochinsai".  This compact donabe is very versatile and you can used it on both stove top and microwave.

Donabe Steam-fried Shio-koji Chicken Tender

Cut 1/2lb chicken tender into bite-size pieces and marinate in 1T shio-koji for overnight.  On a skillet of Tochinsai, drizzle 1T olive oil and spread 1 clove garlic (sliced).  Add the shio-koji marinated chicken to the skillet so that the chicken is in one layer.  Add 1T sake and cover with lid (by soaking the lid in water for a few minutes before using it, it will give a nice steaming effect).  Cook over medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until the bottom side of the chicken is golden.

Stir the chicken and add 3 oz sugar snap peas and 4-6 cherry tomatoes (halved).  Cover again and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes or until everything is just cooked through.  Drizzle 1 tsp soy sauce.  Turn off the heat and let rest for a few minutes (carryover heat will continue to cook the ingredients inside).  Stir the ingredients lightly and serve.

It's a umami-packed tasty dish.  Chicken becomes really tender.

Happy donabe life.

Summer Asian-style dishes with Donabe

Donabe makes my summer cooking fun and delicious.


With microwavable donabe steam-roaster, "Tochinsai", I can prep even ingredients for salad very easily.  Sake-steamed chicken, kabocha, and green beans in Chinese-style sesame sauce.  The main ingredients were all cooked in Tochinsai in microwave, and they came out really nice.


Sake-nanpla marinated shrimp was steam-roasted in Tochinsai for yam um sen (Thai-style glass noodle salad).


Mini-size classic-style donabe, "Rikyu-Tokusa" was used as a serving vessel for bun (Vietnamese-style rice noodle salad).

So summer-style and nice.
Happy donabe life.