Dining with the Chef!

Hello and welcome to Dining with the Chef.

Hello, everyone. Welcome back.

So, Chef Rika, what are you going to show us today?

I'm going to show you the recipes that uses vinegar.

Oh, I love vinegar.

And vinegar is actually a surprisingly large player in the Japanese orchestra of cuisine.

Yes.

Vinegar is such a versatile ingredient.

And it works as an enhancer to add some flavors and in taste.

Sure. It's also healthy, too, right?

Exactly.

You know, you can reduce the amount of sodium intake.

Also, maybe sugar intake.

Cutting back on oil and salt and using more vinegar is the key to healthy cooking.

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.

Our host for this program is culinary expert Rika Yukimasa.

And our co-host is Patrick Harlan, a-k-a Pakkun.

Rika's Tokyo Cuisine.

Today, three dishes making the most of vinegar.

Today's first dish is an Asian-style soup that Rika often cooks for her family.

It has a refreshing tanginess that stimulates the appetite.

I'm going to start with a dish that's easy and quick to make.

- Oh, quick and easy.
- Yes.

- I'm going to cook it.
- Yes.

What is it?

It's an egg drop soup, which is really amazing.

It's so easy, but it tastes...

You can feel the depth and then the complexity of the soup.

And we're adding vinegar.

Yes.

For a little tanginess. A little sourness.

I love sweet and sour soup.

Great.

So, what do we do?

We first...

- I'll show you the ingredients.
- All right.

I'm going to use eggs,

tomato and spinach.

- I like to mix three different colors.
- Okay.

You can also use various different kinds of vegetables,

such as onion or green onion or bacon, whatever you have in the fridge.

- So first, I'm going to cut the tomatoes.
- Okay.

Some people who are meticulous try to peel the tomatoes, but I don't.

- I'm glad to hear that. It would no longer be quick or easy if we were peeling the tomatoes.
- Yes.

And you have nutrients in the peel, so you don't want to get rid of it.

Remove the stem and cut into 1 centimetre slices.

Then, dice them up.

Next, we're going to microwave the spinach.

It looks like a lot of spinach.

Well, you know, if you put it in a microwave, it will shrink.

And you can intake a lot of vegetables.

- Right.
- Yes.

Microwave the spinach for around 2 minutes, and soak immediately in cold water.

This process is not really absolutely necessary.

But once you do it, you can get rid of the acidity from the spinach.

Right.

I will cut the stem like this.

Really? We're going to use the stem?

Yes. It has a lot of nutrients.

Interesting. Okay.

- And now we crack the eggs.
- Mm-hmm.

And when you make the egg drop soup, you don't want to thoroughly mix it.

You can just lightly mix it.

Okay.

Because you want to have a egg white part and egg york, a little bit separate.

Okay.

And then this is a potato starch.

And you place the water into the potato starch,

and mix it.

You know, this is how we make like sweet and sour soup.

Sure.

It gives it a little thickness.

Makes it a little bit more like gelatin.

If you've never cooked with potato starch, give it a shot. It's fun.

Yeah. If you don't have potato starch, you can substitute which corn starch.

Okay.

Is that it for the prep?

Everything is ready.

So, let's call roll.

Our attendees at the party are tomatoes, boiled spinach, eggs, water, "dashi" powder, salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, sake.

And of course, our special guests today.

- The vinegar.
- The vinegar!

Yes!

You can use rice vinegar, wheat vinegar or any kinds of vinegar you like.

Excellent.

- But not too much.
- Not too much.

That is important.

Add two teaspoons of vinegar, and make sure to precisely measure it.

- And it joins the lineup.
- Yes.

To complete our list.

- And finally we have, potato starch.
- Yes.

- We're all ready to go, right?
- Yes.

As far away.

Okay. We're only few minutes to do. Just mix everything.

All right.

Place the water in the pot, turn the heat to high.

You can actually place tomatoes, too.

All right.

And we'll wait.

Okay. Once the tomato and water up there are boiled,

you add the spinach.

Okay.

Lower the heat.

Right, because the spinach is already cooked.

- No one overcook it.
- Yes.

We say, "Akudori," just a little bit of... you see, these bubbles?

Ah.

- Yes, the "Aku" is what comes off the spinach and the tomatoes.
- Yes.

Remove the surface residue and add the "dashi."

You can use chicken stock instead if you prefer.

Add salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, and, if available, sake, to boost the flavor and aroma.

And finally, you add this vinegar.

Mhm.

Is it important to save it to the end?

Well, it depends if you want to have a milder taste, you add at the beginning.

If you want to have a kick, you add in the end.

Be careful not to overcook the vinegar.

You'll lose the aroma and flavor.

And then, I think you should taste the soup if it's okay or not.

- Very good?
- Very good.

Once the soup is seasoned to taste, add the slurry to thicken it.

Potato starch and water tend to separate easily, so give it a mix before adding.

And then from here...

gently pour the egg mixture.

Now, you don't want to mix it with anything because you want to keep the form of the eggs.

Okay.

Wait for the eggs to fluff up before stirring.

Beautiful.

Will warm me up.

Yes. It's so hearty.

I can see it has a little bit thickness there from the potato starch. Nice.

"Itadakimasu."

Oh, so good.

And the sesame oil has a nice aroma, and you've got this nice deep flavors with the spinach.

And, of course, egg goes with anything but the vinegar.

- It's a nice little tangy punch.
- Yes.

As long as you add the right amount of vinegar at the right time, you have excellent meal.

Well done.

When you feel a little bit tired or having a hard day,

this kind of soup is so easy to make, and it warms you up, and it warms your body.

And at the same time, it gives you a little bit of kick.

Sure.

- It's quick and easy, but also super good.
- Yes.

- Well done.
- Thank you.

Cooking with vinegar, á la Rika.

Now for a vegetarian dish that makes a great side dish.

- So our first dish was truly delicious and easy, largely because we did the prep, right?
- Yes.

So don't forget the prep as we move on to our second dish, which is...

Grilled vegetable salad with vinaigrette Sesame dressing.

Sounds great.

Are we using the same vinegar?

No, we're using sushi vinegar.

This vinegar is used to make sushi.

It contains sugar, salt, rice vinegar, and "kombu," which gives it umami.

Rika likes to use it in various ways.

As you may have noticed, I use this sushi vinegar a lot for, like, side dishes and salads.

We use it all the time on the show. I really recommend you get a bottle.

It's a versatile seasoning.

Excellent. And today we're making a seasoning.

Yes.

Vinaigrette and Sesame seasoning.

So here are the ingredients.

We have sushi vinegar, soy sauce, salt and roasted sesame.

- Great.
- Yes.

Let's get cooking.

So we're going to mix the sushi vinegar.

- Remember? Not too much.
- Not too much.

Okay.

And then soy sauce.

And then we add this sesame seeds.

And then when you kind of, like, rub with your finger.

It's almost like grinding the sesame seeds.

And, you know, you can smell the aroma gets stronger.

Oh, smells great.

Yes. It's so easy. Just mix sushi vinegar, a bit of soy sauce, and this sesame.

- That's it?
- You make a great dressing.

- Wow.
- Okay.

- And our vegetable of choice today is asparagus.
- Yes.

What if you don't have or like, asparagus?

Anything else we could use?

Well, you can use onions.

You can use paprika, zucchini, and green beans.

- Oh, green beans. Nice.
- Corn, anything.

Sometimes asparagus is quite hard.

So, you make sure that it's too hard, you can't cut it.

But then from here, it's easy to cut.

You tap along the length, starting at the root.

- And when it gets a little bit softer, you cut right there.
- Right.

Okay.

Cut off the tough ends and then use a vegetable peeler to remove the tough peel at the bottom.

This allows the asparagus to cook evenly.

Grill using a pan without adding oil.

Cook over low heat, turning over occasionally, until the asparagus is tender.

Finally, sprinkle with salt to taste and cut into easy-to-eat pieces.

- Now we're going to mix with the dressing.
- Okay.

You know, when you grill asparagus, it enhances the flavor and aroma.

So the sesame seeds give you a nutty and rich flavor.

And at the same time it's really healthy because you're not using any oil.

So you can have this dish as a kind of in between the dish.

- That looks great.
- Yes.

Finally, today's main dish.

Chicken Glazed with Vinegar Sauce.

The vinegar tenderizes the chicken and gives the sauce a mellow flavor.

It's one of Rika's favorite recipes.

Now for today's main dish, which is?

Which is grilled chicken with vinegar sauce.

- Ooh, I love chicken, but vinegar this time.
- Yes.

You know, like, you grill the steak or chicken it's a regular taste to everyday life.

But if you add some vinegar, it has extra flavor.

- Interesting.
- Yes.

- So, you can use a recipe which you're already familiar with and just chucking a little vinegar to see what happens.
- Exactly.

So this recipe calls for chicken thighs, sesame oil, water, soy sauce, sake, sugar and, of course, vinegar.

All right.

This time I'm using grain vinegar.

So, except for the vinegar, it's pretty much the same ingredients as Teriyaki.

Exactly.

Okay. So, it's a teriyaki sauce with vinegar.

Exactly.

Interesting.

Teriyaki sauce, is soy sauce, sake, sugar, and "mirin."

The process is basically the same for this vinegared dish.

The only difference is the use of vinegar instead of "mirin."

When you cook the chicken thigh, it's important to sort of, like, flatten the shape.

Right. You want to get the same thickness.

What you do is you make a little incision;

Like, this part is thick. This part is thin.

Right.

Now, you want to make, you want to cut like this.

- Sort of diagonal.
- Yes.

You're making a bunch of little incisions to spread it out?

See, it's almost like uniform thickness, right?

Lovely.

Okay.

Once the thickness is even, use a fork to poke holes in the skin.

This allows the chicken to cook through quickly and absorb the sauce.

Preheat the pan over high heat.

Once the pan is heated, turn the heat down to medium and coat with sesame oil.

Then, add the chicken.

Place the chicken, skin side down to prevent the skin from shrinking, coming off, or losing shape.

And once you start listening, this sizzling sounds, you can turn the heat to low.

Okay.

And from here, what you do is you place the lid like this.

And put the heavy pan on top.

What does that do for you?

This will flatten the surface of the chicken.

And then they make this skin part really crispy.

This is a really good way to make a grilled chicken.

Interesting. So, if you don't have a cooking weights, don't worry.

Just use a lid in another pot or anything.

Exactly.

Weigh down and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes.

Remove the weight and wipe off the rendered fat.

Then from here, it's really easy.

Turn over.

- Ooh, look how beautiful.
- See, it's beautiful.

Nice.

Increase the heat to medium.

Then Add water, soy sauce, sake, sugar, and grain vinegar to braise.

Then from here, what you do is you place the sauce on top.

Only this time you have to make sure that it doesn't burn.

- Okay.
- Because when it's burned, it just gives too much bitterness to it.

So, you see, I am tilting the pot so the chicken doesn't get burned either.

Interesting.

And while you are cooking the sauce, the kind of tanginess of vinegar goes away.

Oh, okay.

Braise for about 5 minutes to reduce the sauce.

then remove and slice the chicken.

And when you cut the chicken, you see, there is a dent here.

Cut in half first.

And then turn.

Then I would cut like you see, if you go to the sushi shop and they would cut like this the sashimi.

Oh, right. This slice to slice a "maguro" or tuna.

By doing so, I think that it gets kind of tender.

- Interesting.
- Yes.

Finally, add more flavor and aroma with toppings.

"Yuzu" is a popular citrus fruit in Japan.

The white pith under the peel is bitter, so remove only the zest, and cut into shreds.

You can also use orange or lemon zest instead.

Cut the "shiso" leaves into shreds to use as a topping.

It looks incredible.

Yeah, The mountain of chicken.

Two!

And it's finished.

These days, we actually have vinegar based drinks, which you can buy by like in the convenience store.

They're so popular because the health benefits are so well known these days.

- Yes.
- It's amazing.

And we have various kinds of vinegars.

In the West, do you have like apple cider vinegar and like white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar.

Sure.

We also have vinegar is made from sugar cane or wheat or some not milled rice.

The milled rice or unmilled rice.

So the colors are different. Acidity is different.

So you can vary the taste.

Right.

So tell us first about how we use each of these in general.

For example, the rice vinegar.

Rice vinegar has less acidity than wheat vinegar or wine vinegar.

So we use it mostly to sushi.

- Or sometimes I use it for dressings.
- Right. Oh, it's excellent in dressings.

- And we also use "Kokumotsu-su," which is grain vinegar a lot here, right?
- Yes.

It gives you more acidity.

So during summertime, you want to use this vinegar.

- It's got more acidity. It's more like tangy.
- Yes.

And then sometimes I use it to tenderize meat and fish, which is very... it works really well.

- You're making me hungry.
- Yeah.

What's this dark vinegar we see on the table here?

The dark vinegar, It's not milled rice. It's kind of brown rice, in a way.

- Brown rice?
- Yes.

- And they use the whole grain.
- Yes.

Wow.

So it gives more sweetness.

So sometimes, if I want to make sushi rice with the sweetness, I add a little bit of this vinegar.

Okay.

And then, this one is made out of sugar cane.

It's called "Kibisu."

It's only made in the southern part of Japan.

I don't think I've ever had that.

What is that good in?

Well, it has sweetness to it.

So if you don't like the acidity too much yet, you want to use the vinegar,

I recommend this one.

Great.

- So today we have Japanese vinegars on parade.
- Yes. Exactly.

- The use of vinegar, you have to be a little bit careful, because if you pour too much, then it ruins the taste.
- Right.

So you have to know what kind of vinegar you're using, how much you're putting in.

That is most important.

And now for the moment I've been waiting for.

"Itadakimasu."

- It's beautiful.
- Thank you.

It's almost a shame to have to destroy the masterpiece, but that's what food is for.

- Oh, wonderful.
- Thank you.

You mentioned the vinegar has a property that sort of tenderize meat.

I don't know if that is what it is, but it's really soft and juicy.

And the teriyaki sauce, which I make a lot, often tends to be sort of syrupy and a little heavy.

But this is light and crisp and refreshing.

Not sour at all, doesn't have like that strong, vinegary flavor.

And if you didn't tell me, I might not notice.

Just by adding the vinegar, it gives the complexity.

Really complexed flavor.

Right.

And it makes it difficult for people to guess what's in the sauce.

You know, like when we're eating something, it's almost like a game.

What's in the sauce?

What kind of spices we have, what kind of seasonings we have?

So, we give that kind of chance for people to think of it.

This is definitely going on my family menu.

Great.

And now for the asparagus.

Oh, it's beautiful.

Light green, roasted sesame on top. I'm going to have two at the same time.

Oh, wonderful.

Excellent.

I love the way you especially cook your vegetables.

It leaves the crunch.

And because we didn't use any oil, it's really light.

But it still has the the sesame, which gives it a little bit of depth. It's sort of like peanut butter.

It has that kind of rich creaminess in the sesame plus the light tanginess of the vinegar.

This is amazing.

Sushi vinegar.

Once you start using it as a seasoning, it gives you the chance to sophisticate the dishes.

This time we only combine sushi vinegar with soy sauce,

but you can add a little bit of mayonnaise and wasabi maybe, and they just change and give you so much variety.

- It seems like a fun thing to experiment with.
- Exactly.

I hope you enjoyed watching how I used vinegar today.

Vinegar is a seasoning with many health benefits,

but the best thing about it is that it adds a touch of sophistication to even the most basic dishes.

You can have fun cooking today's recipes with different types of vinegar.

Mastering the use of vinegar will really make a difference to your cooking.

I do hope you'll give today's recipes a try.

Let's recap the main points of today's dishes.

For the egg drop soup, add the tomatoes to the soup and bring to a boil before adding the spinach and seasonings.

Add the vinegar at the end, for a nice kick.

Season to taste, thicken with potato starch, and add the eggs.

Once the eggs are fluffy, it's finished.

For the Asparagus, using sushi vinegar makes things simple.

Rub the sesame between your fingers to release the aroma.

Toss the grilled asparagus or other vegetables in the dressing for a healthy dish.

Next, the Chicken.

The key to cooking chicken is to even out the thickness.

Place skin side down and cook over low heat.

Stir the sauce continuously to prevent burning and drizzle over the chicken to allow it to soak up the flavor.

That's it!

Using vinegar in your cooking will add depth and amazing flavor.

Give it a try!