Unagidon: Japanese summer survival tool

Japanese summer is relentless, especially in the cities. The concrete jungle absorbs the sun heat while millions of air-conditioners pump out typhoons of hot area in the streets. It is in fact so bad that it is a national custom to send "midsummer heat fatigue" (natsubate) greeting cards inquiring how others are managing.

Unagi-don, grilled eel fillets served on top of hot rice, is supposed to provide strength to withstand the exhausting heat. There is even a special day, Doyou no Ushi no Hi, when its consumption is deemed especially beneficial.

Whether a commercial gimmick or Oriental wisdom, unagi-don is a superbly delicious dish. In fact, I enjoy it even more in winter. I cook it the Kansai way: cutting the eel's belly and basting the grilling fillets with tare made of sake, mirin and shoyu. Unlike epicurean Kansai merchants, stuck-up Edo (Tokyo) samurais hated that practice as it reminded them of seppuku (commonly and incorrectly known as harakiri).

The recipe is really simple:

1. If you have a whole eel: cut of the head, gut it, cut it in 6-7 cm pieces and removed the spine. Don't worry about the small bones.
2. Mix shoyu, mirin and sake half a cup each. Marinate the filets for at least an hour.
3. Grill the filets, regularly turning them over and basting with the marinade. Depedning on your grill takes up to 20-30 minutes.
   
4. Serve on top of freshly cooked Japanese rice. For the authentic taste only use short-grained japonica, long-grained jasmin and basmati just wont' be right.
   

Ho mok talay: a super fancy omellete

Thai food is never too complicated to cook nor is it awfully time-consuming. It is down to the right combinations of fresh ingredients to impress the eater.

The list of what goes into ho mok talay may sound intimidating to the uninitiated, but it is really a coconut-milk based seafood omelette with herbs and spices. And a great one at that!

Normally it is steamed in banana leave boxes, but I couldn't be arsed with such dainties. I just slow-cook it in a huge pig iron wok with just the same result! The quantities of the ingredients really depend on how much of ho mok you want to end up. So there you go:

1. Heat a nice thick-bottomed wok. Oil it with odourless vegetable oil.
   
2. Chop half a bunch of pak bung and line the wok with it.
3. Add seafood and white filleted fish. I use shrimp, squid, mussels, clams, baby octopuses (octopussies?) and whatever gifts of the deep brine I can get lay hold of.
4. Beat eggs and mix them with coconut milk and some corn starch: about 2 eggs and a tablespoonful of starch per tin. Two tins and 4 eggs fill up my huge wok.
5. Add: sliced galangal root (about 2 inches), 6-8 finely shredded kaffir lime leaves, a tablespoonful of ground kurkuma, 2 stalks of lemon grass (chopped) and 1-2 chopped chilies (ho mok is not supposed to come out too spicy!), 3 tablespoonfuls of crushed peanuts.
   
6. Pour the mixture into the wok and make sure it goes al the way through the fish, seafood and pak bung.
   
7. Cover with a lid and cook on low fire until it achieves the texture of omelette.
8. Serve with freshly steamed jasmine rice!

The technology is the same with those banana leave boxes, but then you steam them for 15-20 minutes.

Nothing cookin': Japanese hiyayakko

This simple dish takes no cooking at all. It is a variation of hiyayakko - a classic Japanese beer snack.

Raw silken tofu is simply garnished with wakame seaweed and ever so lightly poached enokitake mushrooms.

I make the dressing out of equal parts of:

• soya sauce
• sake
• katsuobushi extract and
• lime juice (because I can't find yuzu that the original recipe requires).

An itsy drop of wasabi adds a pleasant zesty tone. That's it. Nothing cookin', really.

Veg(etari)ans: just skip the katsuobushi extract.

Thai durian does not smell!

The king of fruit, durian, is my favourite ever. Thanks to globalisation now you can buy it in many ethnic groceries even in the West.

It's got a bad rep because of its alleged pungent odour but that is so not true. The real culprit is the cheaper yellow-fleshed variety common in Malaysia in Indonesia. In Thailand it is known as Chani and generally looked down upon. It smells indeed rank and does not taste as good as the superior type, the more expensive Mong Thong, the Golden Pillow.

Its creamy flesh reminds of fruity custard but, really, is just incomparable to anything else. It is delightfully sweet but the Thais can't seem to have enough, they eat it with sweetened sticky rice boiled in coconut milk!

Met mamuang thod: toasted cashew nuts with chilies, red onion and lime juice

Met mamuang himmaphan thod is a beer snack. Lightly toasted cashew nuts are mixed with chopped red onions, chilies and sprinkled with lime juice.

Quick, tasty, savoury, healthy, very Thai, indeed.

Dashi: Japanese stock bases

In Western cuisines cooks use chicken, veal or beef broth for the base of many dishes. In Buddhist Japan meat consumption was banned so people had to look elsewhere. This is how in Japanese cuisine we now have three basic stocks (dashi):

1. shiitake (mushroom)
   
2. konbu (seaweed)
   
3. katsuobushi (fish)

They give Japanese food that unmistakable flavour, just a refined hint of natural decay, inherently connected to the aesthetic concept of wabi-sabi, transience of all creation.

All these basic stocks naturally contain glutamic acid that is responsible for the taste we associate with savoury foods like meat, cheese or mushrooms. In Oriental cuisines this constitutes the seventh taste (umami, xianwei) in addition to sweet, sour, salty, spicy, tart and bitter.

When isolated, a derivative of glutamic acid, the naturally occurring monosodium glutamate, aka MSG, is used to enhance tastes of food. In the late 80s, it was demonized in the US media as causing the so-called "Chinese restaurant syndrome". In fact, no evidence but anecdotal has ever been found to back that claim. In fact, at the time America found itself in the midst of the Yellow Peril hysteria, searching for a new enemy to replace the Red Peril of the Soviets. Before the extremely convenient myth of War on Terror emerged, Japan and China became the "enemies du jour". In line with this, ubiquitous Chinese takeaways were chosen for a smear campaign. Despite scientific research that disavowed this myth it has persisted in public opinion to this day.

There is one secret however to correct usage of ajinomoto as MSG is commercially known: add it at the very end of cooking and try to avoid rewarming. Actually the same applied to preparing all Japanese dashi from scratch: the broth never reaches the boiling point! Glutamic acid is a natural amino acid and gets destroyed by high heat: this is how overcooking actually kills taste.

These days hardly anyone prepare dashi from scratch though. Imagine having to make broth every time before you start cooking a meal! Katsuobushi stock is sold in granules as in the picture but I make konbu and shiitake stocks myself. I just bring water with a few pieces of konbu to about 90 degrees or soak dried shiitake in water overnight. I use both to cook Western food too as it adds a whole dimension to the taste!

A bowl of goodness: Asian seafood and mushroom noodles

A bowl of noodles is a favourite Asian lunch. It is healthy, filling and delicious.

The type I make most often is a little constellation of delightful chunks and pieces.

Seafood:

• two types of shrimp,
  
• squid,
  
• baby octopuses,
  
• clams,
  
• mussels.
  

Seaweed:

• konbu,
• wakame,

Mushrooms:

• shiitake,
• cloud ear,
• jelly ear,
• yamabushitake,
• oyster mushroom,
• snow ear.

Veggies:

• daylily buds,
• lotus root,
• pak choy,
• kang kong.
  

A smidgen of toasted black and white sesame seeds livens up an already vibrant mix even further.



I made this one Korean style, flavoured with kimchi, but I also make it, with the help of some herbs and condiments, in a variety of other styles:

• Japanese miso (miso paste and katsuobushi extract),
• Thai tom yam (galangal root, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves, chilies and fried chili paste) or
• spicy Szechuan (doubanjiang, Szechuan pepper and sesame oil).

Dim sum : touch my heart!

Dim sum is supposed to be lunch food only, something you grab in between business appointments. At dinner you are expected to take your time with your family. Since I am not burdened with either, I can do as I please. So when I'm lazy I just fix me dim sum.

I line a bamboo sieve with a banana leave. Its gentle scent transfers to the dough with hot steam and make simple lowly buns a culinary delight.

While the pot is steaming away, I make my own Thai-style dip:

• a glub of Thai chili sauce
• juice of one lime
• a clove of garlic, crushed (NOT chopped!)
  
• a sprinkle of fish sauce
• a wee splash of Kikkoman soya sauce
  
• chopped fresh coriander.

Twelve minutes and, voilà, lazy bachelor's dinner is ready!

Phat phak ruam mit: Thai stir-fried vegetables

Time to take a break from carnivory: phat phak ruam mit are traditional Thai stir-fried vegetables, spicy, delicious and aromatic.

Cooking takes about 5 minutes but you need the right ingredients in the correct succession to achieve the right taste and flavour.

1. Chop finely half a head of garlic and Thai chilies: 1 for bland, 2 for lightly spicy, 3 for moderately spicy (pretty much the limit for Westerners).
2. Wash very well a pound of pak soi and a pound of kang kong. Cut into 4-5-cm pieces.
3. Cut 6-8 button mushrooms (champignons) and a couple of tomatoes. If the mushrooms are small, leave them whole. If you use cherry tomatoes, cut them in halves.
   
4. Put the wok on the highest heat, wait for it to get piping hot, then add 2-3 tablespoonfuls of flavourless vegetable oil (olive oil WON'T do!)
5. When the oil starts smoking, tip the garlic and chillies with 2 tablespoonfuls of dried Thai anchovies. This may end up in a spectacular semi-explosion of pungent smoke and even flames, fear not! Make sure to keep the kitchen door closed though.
   
6. When the garlic is golden brown, tip the mushrooms, tomatoes and veggies starting from the bigger chunks, e.g., the whites of pak choy.
7. Stir vigorously for a minute or so to make sure all the bits get exposed to the heat thoroughly.
   
8. When everything is still crunchy, add fish and oyster sauces to taste, turn down the heat and stir once again.
   

In my vegan days in Thailand, the superbly hunky cook I befriended in my soi's neighbourhood restaurant would add a pack of silky tofu to my veggies about at the same time as fish and oyster sauce. I do it these days too, for the good memories' sake.

One thing you really need to keep in mind: DO NOT OVERCOOK, everything should be just lightly cooked and stay crunchy. 5. to 8. really takes under 3 minutes.

Phat phak ruam mit in Thailand is featured nearly in every dinner to balance animal protein intake with vegetable fibre. Well, it is never worded so but the principle is just that.

How to cook Indonesian tempeh

Tempeh is an Indonesian product of fermented soya beans. It smells mushroomy when raw and tastes bland and doughy. When cooked it has a lovely meaty texture and a nutty flavour also reminiscent of fried bacon.

It is delicious with freshly made jasmin rice and sambal manis. This is how I had for the first time in a remote mountain village on a stopover during our Trans-Sumatran Death Trip From Hell.

It took me some time to replicate that taste. The components of the secret are:

1. Cut the tempeh loaf into even 4-5-mm cubes, this way they all will get cooked evenly.
   
2. Heat very well a pan/wok with thick bottom, then pour about 1.5 cm of non-smoking cooking oil (mustard rapeseed or grape seed oil is good) and wait until it gets hot.
3. Don't save on oil, if you've poured too much you can always strain the tempeh and cut the rest with a paper towel.
4. Keep stirring! Make sure the tempeh cubes get evenly fried on all sides.
   
5. Fry until crisp and dark golden brown, NOT dark brown.
   
6. A dash of fish sauce (or soya sauce for vegetarians) closer to the end adds flavour and saltiness.

It comes out so good you can have it as a snack on its own, or use it instead of meat in various dishes. Just remember it does not need any additional cooking. Also don't let it soak in sauces too long as it will become soggy.

I yet have to find good tempeh in London. What I've tracked down so far looks more like vacuum-packed goobers. Do you know where I can find real one? I hope I won't have to resort to making it myself.