My apartment is a feng-shui-ist's nightmare. Mountains of books and documents threaten to collapse and engulf me, my houseplants are in a pitiful state since I have been using a kerosene heater (this is worrying) and a heap of empty cardboard boxes obstructs one of the doorways into the hall - over-eager, early preparation for my move later this spring. All week I've been immersed in working on medieval liturgy, and making preparations for tomorrow's talk on clockwork dolls. Which sounds studious and quite romantic but housework in this ivory tower has rather taken a back seat and hence it seemed prudent not to invite friends over for dinner this week. In any case, according to my sources, dashimaki tamago, this week's challenge is strictly speaking, part of a breakfast menu. So this week's challenge was enjoyed by me on my own and was a practice run for a full Japanese breakfast to shock and awe my house guest next week. According to Jay Raynor in today's Observer, "eating alone requires a carefully balanced combination of commitment, enthusiasm and self-adoration". Check, check, and, hmmm... well, as self-adoring as can be expected at seven on a damp Sunday morning.
Japanese breakfast is essentially quite simple and healthy: soup, rice, pickles and fish. The dashimaki tamago, a kind of rolled omelette, is one of the optional side dishes. It looks very simple to make but appearances are deceptive… The first task is to get hold of one of these rectangular pans and if you are slightly fetishistic about cookware like I am you’ll be well pleased with it (even if you find, like I did, that it takes a little getting used to). I managed to butcher my first attempt by pouring too much of the egg mixture into the pan. It is meant to coat the bottom of the pan quite thinly. You roll it up trying not to poke holes in it with your chopsticks, and leaving it at the end of the pan, pour in another coating. Then you roll your already made dashimaki back over the new coating, rolling it all together. And so on. I’m not entirely sure what happened to my dashimaki tamago but it doesn't look like the photo in the book! It looks like some sort of canape or crepe. Still, it tasted very good but the crushed daikon (radish) on top was certainly necessary to offset the sweetness created by the sugar and mirin.
As for the rest of the menu, I never have been a big fan of miso soup or green tea even though both are staples here in Japan so for breakfast I made sesame miso soup with tofu (from Harumi’s Japanese Cooking) (still miso, but with a rich sesame flavour) and jasmine tea. To accompany that, salmon, tsukemono (pickles) - radish, aubergine (with red chili – so good!) and cucumber, natto (fermented soy beans) with egg yolk, goma-dōfu (sesame tofu) and of course the ubiquitous white rice and umeboshi (pickled plum). By the way, goma-dōfu is typical of Buddhist temple cuisine, and if you want to know where (some) monks get their sensual kicks, look no further, for this is a certain source…The supermarket version I used was good, but temple-made stuff trumps it. I was pleased with the results, as well with the rare chance to have a slow breakfast with an LRB I hadn't had the chance to read yet. Certainly worth getting up early on Sunday for. However, I couldn't manage to eat all of it by myself, and it took me one and a half hours to make it. I fear I'll be back to the coffee and toast tomorrow....
Pictures:
1) Over-poked dashimaki, cowering at the end of the pan while second layer is cooking
2) Canapes? Crepes? Not sure…
3) Btm: rice, sesame-miso soup, natto, tsukemono
Top: goma-dōfu, some mysterious object, salmon
Artfully arranged literary review paper.
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