Editor’s note: The theme of Gohan Lab is to help people make simple, tasty “gohan” (meals).

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The last entry in our series on mastering seasonings from around the world focuses on balsamic vinegar.

The sweet-and-sour seasoning made from grapes whose birthplace is Italy varies in flavor and price mainly depending on the length of its aging process.

Balsamic vinegars that are matured over long periods are thick, sweet and offer a rich aroma like prunes. Ones with short aging periods are thinner and sour and suited for dressings. This week, we'll introduce a way to slowly reduce the second type and turn it into a rich sauce for sauteed chicken.

Adding some refreshing daikon radish takes the edge off the sauce and changes its texture. A key to getting the dish right is to keep the heat low the whole time you're cooking. The trick is to heat the chicken and daikon radish thoroughly while cooking the chicken's surface so it's crisp and aromatic.

Using wine will make the dish turn out sharper, while using sake will make it mild and a good match with rice. The dish will add a little brightness to your spirit and the dinner table at the end of a year that posed many restrictions and bewildering moments.

AGED IN BARRELS MADE OF DIFFERENT WOODS

Until fairly recently, most Japanese were unfamiliar with balsamic vinegar. A home-life page in an edition of The Asahi Shimbun published in 1995 carries an article that says the seasoning has “become easily available at department stores and other places due to the surging popularity in Italian cooking.”

In Italy as well, balsamic vinegar is said to have been a local specialty produced in the northern provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

Though it is now produced in different places and using different methods, the “traditional balsamic vinegars” of the two provinces are protected by detailed rules on the variety of grapes, production method, color, container and label.

As the water content gradually evaporates, the vinegar is poured into barrels of successively smaller sizes every one or two years. The wood used to make the casks is also changed and includes oak, cherry, chestnut and mulberry.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

(Supervised by Kuniaki Arima in the cooking aspect and Midori Kasai in the cookery science aspect)

* Ingredients (Serves two)

250 grams chicken thighs, 3 cm (100 grams) daikon radish, 1/4 (40 grams) onion, 1/2 clove garlic, some flour, bit of salt, bit of pepper, 1 tsp olive oil, 2 Tbsp sake, 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 10 grams butter

About 390 kcal and 1.8 grams salt per portion

1. Crush garlic with flat side of kitchen knife. Quarter daikon radish lengthwise and cut thickness in half. Finely chop onion. Sprinkle bit of salt on chicken's skin, salt and pepper on the other side and cut into larger bite-size pieces. Dust skin side with flour (PHOTO A).

2. Pour olive oil in frying pan, line chicken skin side down and cook over very low heat for 10 to 12 minutes. When the pieces have colored, add daikon radish and cook (PHOTO B).

When daikon radish has also browned, turn radish and chicken and add garlic in the center. Let it cook in fat until it is aromatic and then add onion.

3. When onion has softened, add sake, 2 Tbsp water and balsamic vinegar (PHOTO C).

When sauce comes to a boil, turn chicken again. When sauce is reduced to about a quarter, add butter, turn off heat and melt butter in residual heat and let it coat chicken. Sprinkle with black pepper corns if preferred, serve on plate and garnish with herbs (baby leaves of red sorrel in photo).

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Kuniaki Arima is the owner-chef of Passo a Passo, an Italian restaurant in Tokyo’s Fukagawa.
Midori Kasai is a professor at Ochanomizu University and former chairwoman of the Japan Society of Cookery Science.

ARRANGED VERSION

Balsamic vinegar salad with scallops

Dust one side of eight scallops with flour. Melt small amount of butter in frying pan and cook from the dusted side. When that side has colored, add 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, turn scallops and cook. Serve with mixed salad leaves, some sauteed onions and potato and pour 1/2 tsp each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, bit of salt and black pepper corns.

COOKERY SCIENCE

Traditional balsamic vinegar is made by simmering away grape must and storing it in wooden barrels. Inside, alcoholic fermentation and acetic acid fermentation happen at the same time from the action of microbes and the aging process proceeds. Sugar and amino acids react to create the aromatic component, the color darkens, the water content evaporates and the liquid becomes concentrated. The vinegar turns sweet when the acid is allowed to cook out through heating.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Gohan Lab column