By HIROKI KOIZUMI/ Staff Writer
July 14, 2022 at 07:00 JST
Udon noodles in cold soup flavored with egoma (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)
Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
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Hiromitsu Nozaki, executive chef at a Japanese cuisine restaurant called Waketokuyama in Tokyo’s Hiroo, hails from Fukushima Prefecture. His hometown, Furudono, sits in the Abukuma mountain range area.
His household consisted of his grandparents; his father, who was an elementary school teacher; his kindhearted mother and the couple’s nine children. Nozaki was the eighth child.
“Probably because we lived in a rural area that lacked places to go drinking, our house was lively, with people coming and going,” Nozaki said.
People who liked drinking were drawn to his grandfather and gatherings were frequently held. Even traveling entertainers and medicine peddlers stayed the night.
The scars of war had yet to heal in Japan when he was a child, and many were still in need of basic necessities. The family grew grains and vegetables and mostly lived on what they produced. They often ate "udon" noodles in cold soup flavored with the seeds of “egoma,” or Korean perilla, for lunch on hot summer days.
Egoma is endearingly called “junen” in Fukushima and was grown at most homes back then. The noodle dish was a staple that was served around 10 times every summer.
“Whenever I was told, ‘We're having udon in cold soup,’ I remember looking forward to it,” Nozaki said.
The udon flour was self-produced, and the family also made the noodles from scratch. Young Nozaki helped to knead the wrapped dough by stepping on it.
Mealtime was a rare occasion when the entire family was present. Everyone gathered around the generous amount of udon served on a bamboo sieve.
The noodles were smooth, chewy and rich in flavor. All it took to make the egoma-flavored soup was to grind the toasted egoma seeds in a mortar, mix with homemade miso and add water.
We may associate Japanese cuisine with “dashi,” stock made from dried skipjack tuna and dried kombu kelp, but “dashi is not required in home cooking,” Nozaki said, since he thinks the umami released by the ingredients become stock on their own.
No dashi was used in this week’s recipe.
“The flavor of the egoma and umami of miso stand out more that way,” he said.
Hiromitsu Nozaki: Born in 1953 in Fukushima Prefecture, Nozaki is the grand chef of a Japanese cuisine restaurant. After honing his skills at Tokyo Grand Hotel, Happo-en and others, he became the head chef of Tokuyama, a restaurant offering pufferfish dishes, in 1980. He opened Waketokuyama in 1989. He accompanied Japan’s national baseball team to the Summer Olympics held in Athens in 2004. He has written books including “Oishiku taberu Shokuzai no techo” (A memo of ingredients for delicious food), put out by Ikeda Publishing.
BASIC COOKING METHOD
Main Ingredients (Serves two)
50 grams egoma seeds, 70 grams miso, 500 ml water, 2 cucumbers, 10 shiso leaves, 1/2 green onion (naganegi type), 2 servings of udon noodles (frozen)
1. To prevent excessively toasting the egoma seeds, cook on low heat in a frying pan. Grind in a mortar.
2. Thinly slice cucumber, immerse in salt water with salinity of 1.5 percent for 15 minutes. Squeeze out water. Tear shiso leaves into bite-size pieces. Finely chop green onion.
3. Add miso to ground egoma seeds and mix. Add water and stir in miso. Add cucumber, shiso leaves and green onion and mix.
4. Cook noodles, immerse in cold water, drain and serve in a bowl. Pour egoma soup on top.
About 390 kcal and 5.1 grams salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)
A key to toasting the egoma seeds is not to excessively heat them. Instead, lightly dissolve the oil in the seeds to enhance the flavor. Listen carefully to catch the popping sound that is a sign the seeds are heated.
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