The capture occurred somehow very unnoticed. Just at one fine moment suddenly it was found that we were all as one, in the hands of the sticks, for dinner, instead of the dumplings, we order sushi, habitually drink them to Sake, and in the lexicon there were mysterious words: "Gakhon", "Vasabi", "Yakitor" . Today, Japanese cuisine for many Russians is not at all exotic, but something is quite familiar and - an important fact! - affordable by price.
At least you can rejoice at our exquisite taste. After all, Japanese cuisine is called "edible art." But how to put accents in the gastronomic preferences of mankind Italian writer Fosco Marai, who lived in Japan, not one decade: "Chinese food is an attachment to art. How does this extraordinary sauce turn out? What were these strange balls in original form? Western food is an introduction to human power. More! Pretty! These instruments of war - knives, forks! Brilliant metal cutting red flesh. Japanese food is an attachment to nature (the root is root, the sheet is a sheet, the fish has a fish), and the amount is measured to avoid suggestion and thus the possible feeling of disgust. "
Some culinary sizes of the Japanese Europeans are difficult to understand. For example, in the summer, in the heat, they are accepted with roasted eel. Only people uninitiated seems to be "unagi" (so in Japanese sounds "fried eel") - a dish of fat and not too suitable for the summer heat, in fact it is not. The eel fillet, roasted in sugar, soybean sauce and rice fault, is really best understood in the summer months.
It is also believed that the Japanese eating through their eyes. Looking at their diet, you can immediately say what time of year is now in the yard. If the bamboo gentle sprouts are served - this is the sign of the spring season. In the fall eating the root of the lotus.
Photo: pixabay.com/ru.
Maki Sushi
To count the varieties of sushi to a person of the uninitiated will seem unrealistic task. Nigiri Sushi, Maki Sushi, Inari-Sushi. Although - an amazing fact - sushi appeared just over a hundred years ago, at the end of the XIX century.
Contrary to popular belief, the Japanese do not eat sushi for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is rather a festive dish. By the way, men can boldly eat sushi with their hands. But for women there is no such passage - they must masterfully own chopsticks.
In Japan, sushi make only men. There is a theory that the temperature of the body in the adorable ladies - half-grade higher than that of men. And from this whether the rice is worse glued, or raw fish loses its properties. But the fact remains a fact: a Japanese woman is preparing all the dishes except sushi.
And now, in fact, how to cook sushi. We offer to prepare Maki Sushi, or Rolls are one of the most popular and already familiar to every Moscow gourmet dishes of Japanese cuisine.
First you need to take care of inventory. The knife should be very sharp. You can, if you wish to buy a special knife - Bento, the blade from carbon steel, the handle - from the Ho wood, which has a specific property when wetting not slide in the hand. You still need a special bamboo mat - Maki-Su, as well as a blade (you can do a wooden spoon) to lay rice on the nori (so called dried sea algae).
Rice for sushi is better to buy in a specialized store - it should be a sticky, not falling into separate grains. In no case use fast food rice treated or brown.
While rice boils in a saucepan, put a piece of Nori on Maki-Su. Cooked rice distribute Nori surface.
Right in the fig, put the filling - it can be an omelet, salmon and dyclone.
Watch Maki-Su, pressing it forward to turn out the roll of an elongated cylindrical shape. Squeeze the rug so that the mass inside becomes more dense and does not fall apart. After that, remove the rug.
Maki-sushi are ready - you just need to cut the roll with round pieces.
Photo: pixabay.com/ru.
Tempura
Well, now we come to one of the pearls of Japanese culinary science - Tempura. Residents of the country of the rising sun call him "Heavenly Osion". Funny, but in fact it is a dish - come from Portugal. In the sixteenth century, Portuguese Missionaries arrived in Japan, who brought with them the recipe for unusual cooking of vegetables, fish and meat in the batter. True, at first the Japanese did Tempura only from seafood and vegetables: even from one smell of raw meat, many of them have fainted.
You can do tempura literally of all - shrimps, eggplants, potatoes, carrots. The main thing is that all the products are written. No freezing - otherwise the result may turn out at all that you expect.
Shrimps are cleaned, vegetables can be cut as the fantasy tells you: even though straw, though cubes, even intricate petals. The dough is kneaded from rice and wheat flour, eggs and ice water (you can even add ice). It is not necessary to knead until the end - it is not necessary - it is believed that lumps and air bubbles should remain in it.
All the prepared ingredients are lowered into the pungent so that it covers them with a thin film. And then dip the products in boiling oil - a mixture of any vegetable and sesame. Now the main thing is to accurately guess the moment when Tempura is ready. This is about a minute or two. And the result - your fingers lick.