A family meal celebrates time together, well-being, and family identity. Jennifer told me about all of these things when she described her family through the food they share.
Her father’s family was in the produce business and her grandmother was a cook, so food is a part of who they are as well as their Japanese heritage.
Jennifer loves to cook and her aunt gives her cookbooks with little notes on them about specific recipes she might like to try or ones they’ve eaten together.
We had a long talk about how some aspects of Japanese American cooking have been influenced by new surroundings and environments. Depending on region, say Hawaii for example, food like Spam has found its way into Japanese recipes or hot dogs sautéed in soy sauce and scrambled eggs show up in Japanese American cookbooks.
Jennifer told me about this great meal she and her family prepared the last time she was in San Francisco. It started with a family shopping trip to a huge Asian Market.
Then the ingredients…
I’ll let Jennifer and her Auntie explain what happens next….
I love that the cooking takes place on the table and that you dig in together. What a cozy feeling of togetherness and engaging way to share a meal.
I was so inspired by Jennifer’s Sukiyaki tradition that I decided to try it myself. We did not have an electric hot-pot for the table and we did substitute chicken and shrimp for beef, but it was still fun and yummy. Here is our family’s version.
I had no idea my dad knew how to use chopsticks!
Then we played cards and had brown sugar crumb cake. I’m not sure if Jennifer’s family did that, but they might have.
Jennifer’s Recipe:
Sukiyaki
Serves 4-6
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup mirin
2 cups dashi (Japanese stock)
Cooking oil
1-1/2 pounds top sirloin, very thinly sliced
1 can bamboo shoots, drained and sliced
4 cups spinach, washed
2 cups renkon
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, washed
1 block medium tofu, pressed and sliced
1 package rice noodles, prepared as directed
Mix together soy sauce, sugar, dashi and mirin in an electric hot-pot or electric frying pan. When the dashi mixture comes to a boil, add a portion of the sukiyaki ingredients and cook for a few minutes. Each diner can remove ingredients from the pot and enjoy over hot rice. Refill the pot as needed and repeat.
cool, steph. i’ve heard about jennifer’s auntie for years. nice to have a face and voice to put with the stories. doesn’t all this cooking and entertaining wear you out? oh,yeah. you’re young.
as a faithful follower, how about a blog that gives you tips for keeping your strength up during the holiday entertaining marathon.
oh, i made some brown sugar scrub yesterday if you ever want me to share that. it’s not cooking, but it is something you make in the kitchen, with kitchen ingredients, and it’s made to share.
let me know. not that i’m trying to get a guest spot or anything.
[…] Two years ago I learned how to cook sukiyaki from my friend Jennifer. I made it for a Sunday Night Dinner and since the whole fam lived here, we all got to experience it for the first time together (you can check it out at https://thepiesthatbind.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/jennifer-gathering-round/) […]