Rika's TOKYO CUISINE: Coffee Gelatin Parfait

Dining with the Chef.

Hello and welcome to Dining with the Chef.

I'm Rita Yukimasa.

Today, I'd like to show you how to make two dessert for grown-ups.

First, a coffee, gelatin parfait, made with freshly brewed coffee, strawberries, and ice cream.

And then a refreshing Sake gelatin dessert with kiwifruit, which combines the sweet flavour and aroma of sake with tangy kiwifruit.

Both gelatin desserts are made with drinks that are popular in Japan.

Tokyo, an Asian city with the largest metropolitan population in the world, the boundaries between old Japan and futuristic Japan are blurred in this metropolis.

The food here is a fusion of cuisine, not just from around Asia, but around the globe.

In this program, Tokyo-based culinary artist, Rika Yukimasa demonstrates the current trends from her own kitchen, near Tokyo Bay.

Our co-host is Patrick Harlan, widely known in Japan as Pakkun.

Rika's Tokyo Cuisine.

Today, Japanese gelatin desserts for grown-ups!

I love hand dripped Coffee.

It just brings up the aroma and the flavor of the bean. So much better.

Yes.

That's wonderful.

I love hand drippe. It's my favorite.

We're using your tools today.

Yes.

And I can tell, You must have some serious particular favorites among your coffee making and bean selection.

Absolutely.

Pouring the pour over coffee.

The action itself is almost like a meditation.

Sure.

So it seems kind of similar to matcha making.

And so we, I think, fell in love with the process of making coffee.

I believe it.

And also we have you know the can coffee that something amazing.

And also ice coffee, I thought these two are normal thing outside of Japan, but it's not.

No you can't.

They're becoming more popular in the West.

But when I came here 30 years ago, I was like, What is this amazing drink?

It's an iced coffee with a lovely, sweet flavor in a can, which never goes bad.

And it's always good any time. Day or night.

Yeah.

If you go to a vending machine or even a convenience store, there's a whole wide variety of coffees and cans and bottles and freshly brewed.

Right.

So I'm very impressed with Japan's coffee culture.

Yes.

Are we doing coffee today?

Well, not today.

We're actually using coffee to make coffee Jelly.

Coffee Jelly, which is also popular in japan. Right?

Yes.

You can find coffee jellies also in convenience stores or served after dinner in a coffee shop or a local cafe?

Yeah, It's great.

It's low in calorie.

And instead, dessert for grownups.

That's right.

And it's a Japan specialty.

So, I hope you join us making some coffee jelly.

First, a look at the ingredients for the coffee gelatin.

If you don't have coffee beans, you can use instant coffee.

Use whatever fruit you like to decorate the parfait.

So let me show you how I usually make coffee.

Great.

Yes.

So, I used this grinder.

This is important, actually.

To grind, you know, fresh beans it tastes much better.

For two servings are usually use like three tablespoons.

Okay.

And this one is a bitter roast because we want to have the coffee jelly.

But usually, I have the medium roast.

Okay.

It becomes almost like kosher salt.

Fine. But not powdery.

Yes.

Since we're adding gelatin, it's best to make strong coffee.

Set the paper filter in the holder so that it fits properly.

Then boil the water.

So first, you pour some coffee over this paper filter.

Some water, you mean?

Yes, yes, water.

So that you want to get rid of papery smell.

Interesting.

I didn't realize there's a papery smell.

It just makes a little bit tastier.

Okay.

Rinsing the filter removes the papery smell and facilitates the extraction of the coffee's aroma and flavor.

So these are the details I would skip but a true master paid attention to.

That's what separates us.

Okay.

Place coffee.

And from here.

You slowly pour the water. Hot water.

Oh, I see. I poured too fast last time.

Yes.

You see the... You start to see the coffee blooming. You know?

Ah So this first water, it's just giving the coffee beans a chance to kind of become fluffier.

Oh, It's wake up call.

Yes.

Time to do your job, guys.

- Exactly yes.
- Okay.

We slowly kind of like just circling motion.

Circles Okay.

So it's very nice to have this Japanese gooseneck kettle.

This one because the tip is really sharpened, you can have very thin layer of water.

Interesting.

You know, I wish you'd told me this before we shot the opening.

Sorry.

I want retake it.

I looked like a neophyte.

Which I am! An amateur.

So you pour water from outside.

I see.

Slowly, elegantly, gracefully.

Smell is so good.

Yes.

Do you have a special shop where you always get your beans?

Do you go to a specialty coffee place?

Yes. I've tried various shops.

And this one particular place, which is far away from Tokyo.

But I asked them to roast Ethiopian mocha and they sent me.

Nice.

Yeah.

And then once you make a coffee, this time, instead of pouring over mug, you pour to this.

Here.

Oh, because we're making jelly.

Yes.

Instead of cups of coffee.

But look at that color.

Oh gorgeous.

So now we have that full of coffee?

Yes.

Freshly brewed.

For instant coffee, mix two teaspoons with 250 mililitres of hot water.

And you adds some sugar.

Okay.

Mix it.

So you want to do this while the coffee is still hot so you can melt the sugar?

Yes.

Okay.

This doesn't have to be super hot, but it has to be hot enough so they dissolve sugar and also this gelatin.

Soak the gelatin sheets in water beforehand to let it bloom.

Wow. That's such weird stuff.

Water in there. You want to just get the gelatin.

Okay? Interesting.

It's so easy.

Let it cool to room temperature and refrigerate for four to five hours.

So now let's assemble the parfait.

Okay.

In Japan, you can have dedicated glasses like these.

Right on the right, we see that a lot. Right?

But since you may not have one, you can use just regular wine glasses.

What's important is you have to think of the layers that you put into.

You can have, the strawberries, coffee jelly and ice cream.

Right.

If you have a tall glass, you can have ten different layers.

Right.

And you need to use a glass glass so that you can see it from the outside.

The visual presentation is half the fun.

Okay?

Okay.

I need to get rid of this.

Alright, take off the stem.

Stem.

And place this.

The strawberries will be a nice contrast.

Red and black with the coffee, right?

Yes.

And you add a little bit of sugar depending on the sweetness of strawberries.

You can decide.

Right.

To mix of it, you don't make juicy taste. Roughly.

Oh, I see.

You don't want to puree the strawberries.

Your dessert will taste better if they're chunky.

You can use kiwi, or peach, mango.

Any fruit is good.

That's true.

Yeah.

Great.

Wow, looks beautiful.

Yes.

Now.

Oh, that's so cool.

Jelly is ready.

I love the gelatin hard like that. It's just need.

What I think it's very important is just right amount of gelatin.

Okay.

If you put too much, it gets too hard.

And if you put too little, you don't it doesn't get hard enough.

I've decided I'm going to have strawberry at the bottom.

Ooh, nice.

It's like the prize at the bottom.

The treasure at the end of the hunt.

Yeah.

Then this one.

Oh, that's fun.

Oh, I see.

So you're not exactly chopping it up.

You're just sort of scooping off layers.

Yeah.

And you don't want to mix it with the strawberries. I see.

Okay.

That's cool.

This is a dish like whenever I make it, my kids would love it.

Ha, ha. No doubt.

And parfaits are one of those things that you can experiment with, with anything you enjoy.

You can put crumbled up cookies in there, for example, or cereals.

Some places in Japan sort of parfait with cereal or sprinkles those things that go on cake.

That looks excellent.

Yes.

Okay, then ice cream on top.

Great.

This is just regular vanilla ice cream, right?

Yes.

You can have matcha ice cream or whatever you like.

Just one scoop.

Looks so nice on the black coffee gelatin.

That's neat.

So instead of eating too much ice cream, we just have a little.

But you can be satisfied because variety of different tastes.

Really? I enjoy eating too much ice cream.

That's part of what my purpose in life is to eat too much ice cream.

Know what I do from here.

So, I pull a little bit of matcha.

Matcha.

Matcha and coffee, it goes really well.

Really?

Yeah. Different kinds of bitterness.

Matcha is sweet and bitter.

And coffee has a little bit of different taste.

Sure.

But matcha on coffee in the same meal that's kind of unusual.

Oh, and a little mint.

Lovely.

It's amazing.

Look at that, gorgeous parfait.

Pretty? At the bottom. Yeah.

Well done.

Nice.

If you can find the orange liqueur, It goes really well with both coffee and strawberries.

You've created yet another masterpiece.

Thank you.

The sake gelatin recipe, yields 15 portions, enough for parties.

You can use whatever kind of sake you like, but since it's a dessert, a mild sake will probably work best.

So what's next?

We're gonna make a sake gelatin dessert.

Love sake , love gelatin.

Pretty good.

Yes.

And in America, too, nowadays, you can get access to various kinds of sake, right?

Very popular in Europe as well.

So they use different molto.

So they taste differently.

That's right.

So you have to find what kind of Japanese sake you like.

So what should we use for our jelly?

Well, my preference is, I like Junmai-Ginjo.

Junmai-Ginjo.

It's less sweet than Daiginjo.

But it's a little bit sweeter than Junmai.

Right.

You should drink a little before you make that jelly.

It's going to be great.

Today I'm going to make this as a kind of, like, potluck party.

Ooh.

So if you have this kind of flower glass you can use this as a gelatin, sweet container.

What a great idea.

So first, you're going to put this wonderful fragrance sake.

Love the aroma of sake as well.

Even the smell is sweet.

So sweet.

And then also sugar.

This is almost like two cups of sugar.

- Wow.
- Yeah.

So we've got sweet sake and sweet sugar.

It's gonna be a dessert, for sure.

It's a lot because...

You gonna big crowd.

Big crowd.

15 people can feel.

Once the sugar dissolved, you're good to go and placed gelatin.

Okay.

Heating the sake helps to burn off some of the alcohol, so it can be enjoyed, even by people who don't drink that much.

Once the sugar has dissolved, add the gelatin softened in water.

And then you mix it.

And then you see want it to dissolved you add more water.

Once the gelatin has dissolved, add the water.

If you use cold water, the gelatin will set faster, so it takes less time to make.

That is going to be a lot of Sake jelly.

Yes.

Pour into a tray to cool.

Okay. Now we put this in the fridge.

Right. But wait for cool down first, right?

Yeah, but since we...we had some water. Cold water.

It's good to go.

- Yes.
- All right.

Refrigerate for several hours.

Meanwhile, prepare the fruit.

It's cut the kiwi.

Okay.

So I have placed the here green kiwi and yellow kiwi.

Are yellow kiwi always smooth and green kiwi always fuzzy?

Yes.

The pattern is interesting.

Okay.

Yeah. I like both of them.

Uh, green one has kind of like it's more, I would say, acidity in a way.

And green one is sweeter.

Really?

Most of the time, yes.

So it's a little bit more acidic, but also more sweet.

- Yes.
- Interesting.

And the yellow one is a little bit less sweet, but not as acidic.

Right.

I almost never use yellow kiwi, I think.

ha.

I should? Is that what that eyes means?

Yes.

Suddenly intake of breath means that I should be using more yellow kiwi.

- Yes.
- Okay.

First time I encountered with yellow kiwi I was stunned.

Why didn't I know you!

Really? Wow.

It's very good.

So when you have any kinds of fruit in season, usually it's cheaper than normal.

So you can start in joining this dessert.

So this is one of those things which once you have the base down, you can use whatever fruit is in season.

Right.

Great. And we're lucky because it's Kiwi season.

Yeah.

I start placing the kiwi.

Could be interesting to go with different colors.

Oh. So we're going to do layers.

Depending on what country you're living in, whether or not you can have a party with open food for many people to eat may be a little questionable during the age of COVID.

But you probably do with your family.

Yeah, this is fine.

It's just kind of like wow kind of dessert.

And it's low in calories.

That's the great part.

We are not using creams or other stuff.

Okay. From here.

It's not easy.

So this time you're sort of cutting it.

You're not scooping out in she is like, last time?

Yeah, this one is a little harder.

Harder than the ones I made coffee gelatin, because this is for potluck party.

Okay.

So you can do like this.

But that's beautiful.

Yes.

The gelatin glitters like jewelry.

Yes, it does.

And you can do it any ways, but this is easy.

So if you had a party with like 30 people, you can just make whole layer.

Sure.

- Now for another layer.
- Put another layer.

So cooking is a very creative process.

Well, it's almost like learning different language in a way.

When you learn the language, it's so difficult in the beginning.

But once you can start using the language, it becomes a lot of fun.

Sure.

Same with the cooking.

In the beginning, cutting and heating of the pan.

Everything is so difficult.

But once you start being able to control then, it becomes a joy.

Sure.

Wow. It's looks like almost like ice.

Yes, it does.

And I think people would be surprised when they take a bite and learn its Sake flavor, right?

Yes.

People don't expect Sake with their fruit dessert, I don't think.

And it's something that you can make people happy.

But even if it turns out really bad, you cannot make somebody unhappy.

Good point. Good point.

This looks great.

That does look nice.

What fun.

If I go to somebody's house and say, "tara, this is tonight's dessert."

People will be really surprised.

Yes.

And you know that no one else is going to walk in with the same thing.

That happens when you make macaroni salad.

It will never happen with your Sake gelatin dessert with kiwi of two different colors.

Yes.

Scattering flowers on top turns it into an even greater party pleaser.

If you can get hold of edible flowers, that's even better!

A coffee gelatin parfait made with hand-dripped coffee and an elegant sake gelatin dessert.

Both look fantastic!

Let's have a taste!

It's amazing.

I've got two beautiful desserts, and they're all mine.

I can't wait to try them.

"itadakimasu" Look this. It's Gorgeous!

Wow, look at that.

Looks fantastic.

Mm.

Really full coffee flavor.

And I'm glad you love the chunks in the strawberry because you can bite them and the strawberry flavor explodes without the other flavors sort of melting in.

So you have the good coffee flavor, you get the ice cream flavor, and then you take a bite of the strawberry and it's like a strawberry explosion.

And the matcha on top that's nice.

Yes.

It's a little bit of bitterness, a little Nigami in Japanese, which is a little bit more like a, astringency.

And it's a little bit different from the bitterness of the coffee.

This is wonderful.

Thank you.

And now for the Sake gelatin dessert, which is a first for me.

This is really exciting.

I'll start with the green kiwi variety.

It glistens like a diamond a gelatin.

Incredible.

Oh, it's so delicious.

Thank you.

This is such a well-developed, rich.

It's sweet, but it's just a full bodied gelatin dessert.

I've never had anything like it.

Yeah.

And the Sake, if you didn't tell me I'm not sure I realize sake.

Right.

It's blends so well. It's not intrusive, not aggressive.

It's like high class gelatin dessert.

It's hard to believe.

Now, let me try that famed yellow kiwi.

Yes.

Oh, it's fun to have two different varieties of kiwi in the same dish.

They are different completely.

The sweetness and even the texture is a little different.

- Right. It's softer, you know?
- Much softer. Yes.

It's closer to, like a mango.

Oh, exactly.

This is fantastic.

People tend to think gelatin dessert is for kids.

But as I showed you today, they make a great dessert for grown-ups, too.

In Japan, we say "hara hachibun-me," which literally translate as 80% full,

meaning eat in moderation to enjoy a health and longevity.

I think this applies to snacks and dessert, too.

Gelatin dessert is relatively low in calories, and if you combine the gelatin dessert with plenty of fruit,

it makes a healthy and popular dessert without having to add too much calories.

Gelatin desserts are easy and fun to make, so it's good for the body and the soul.

I do hope you have fun making today's desserts.

Thank you all for joining us.

It was our dessert just to have you with us.

And we will see you again next time right here on dining with the chef.

Bye bye.

Let's review today's recipes.

First, the coffee gelatin parfait.

Make the coffee on the strong side.

Add the gelatin and refrigerate for four to five hours to set.

Chop the strawberries into small chunks to retain texture.

Use wine glasses to serve.

A delicious dessert of vanilla ice cream, fruit, coffee gelatin, and matcha, that combines sweet and bitter flavors.

Now for the sake jelly with kiwi fruit.

Heat the sake and dissolve the sugar.

Add the softened gelatin and water and refrigerate to set.

Pour into a tray.

Place sliced kiwi fruit into a vessel, break apart the sake gelatin, and put on top of the kiwi fruit.

Decorate as you like, and you are done.

Try these Japanese-style gelatin desserts for grown-ups!