AP – When Sonoko Sakai’s mother snuck a little miso into her lasagna, she wasn’t thinking of the kind of Japanese fusion that became an American dining craze in the 1980s.
Rather, she was doing what Japanese cooks had been doing for centuries, adapting to outside influences. Many dishes now thought of as quintessentially Japanese are fusions once considered foreign to the country.
Gyoza dumplings arrived from China only about a hundred years ago. Curry arrived when the English brought spice mixes from their Indian colonies.
Each dish was adapted to be more, well, Japanese, said Sakai, a Japanese-American cooking instructor who explores this combination of influences in her new book, Wafu Cooking.
Wafu literally means “Japanese in style.” That could mean blending Western and Japanese flavours or even adjusting a dish’s presentation or sensibility to Japanese tastes.
Slipping in an ingredient on the sly is also a Japanese tradition, one called kakushiaji. It means “secret flavour” but Japanese cooks think of them more like secret agents, Sakai said. “I call them little ninjas.”
She sneaks soy sauce and ginger into her Italian Wedding Soup, a dish she learned from relatives on her grandmother’s side, who are from the Italian part of Switzerland. The meatballs are similar to the filling she makes for her gyoza, using potato starch as a binding agent instead of the egg in Italian meatballs.
JAPANESE ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP
For the meatballs:
– One pound ground beef
– One yellow onion, grated
– One garlic clove, minced
– One egg
– One tablespoon soy sauce
– Two tablespoons potato starch or cornstarch, diluted in two tablespoons water
– Half teaspoon sea salt
– Quarter teaspoon freshly ground pepper
– Quarter cup minced fresh parsley
– One-and-a-half teaspoons oregano
– Half cup grated Parmesan cheese
For the soup
– Two tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
– Half yellow onion, diced
– Two garlic cloves, minced
– One large carrot, peeled and diced
– Eight cups chicken broth
– One tablespoon soy sauce
– Half head escarole, coarsely chopped
– Half cup acini de pepe or other small pasta (such as orzo)
– One teaspoon lemon zest
– Grated Parmesan cheese, to serve
– Crusty bread, to serve (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C).
To make the meatballs, combine the beef, grated onion, garlic, egg, soy sauce, diluted starch, salt, pepper, parsley, oregano and Parmesan in a medium bowl. Mix the ingredients with your hands until just combined. Form meatballs about one tablespoon in size, and set them on a parchment-lined sheet pan. You will get about 40 meatballs. Bake on the middle rack for 20 minutes, until they are lightly browned and nearly cooked.
To make the soup, set a large pot over medium, add the oil, and sauté the onions and garlic until softened, about three minutes. Add the carrots and sauté for another two to three minutes. Then add the broth and soy sauce to the pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and add the meatballs, one at a time. Simmer until the meatballs are cooked through, about five to seven minutes. Add the escarole, cover with the lid, and simmer for another 10 minutes.
In the meantime, bring a small saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add a pinch of salt and the pasta. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until al dente. Rinse with cold water, drain and set aside.
Just before serving the soup, add the cooked pasta to the pot. Season with salt, pepper and lemon zest. Serve with grated Parmesan and crusty bread, if desired. – Albert Stumm
