A Japanese American Thanksgiving: Part 5 of AACP's Comfort Food Series

By Florence Makita Hongo

We Asians in America celebrate holidays in so many different ways. Our celebrations are a true blend of our cultures. I thought it might be interesting to tell how the Makita family celebrated our holidays. Our family is Japanese Methodist. So we celebrated all of the Christian and American holidays including Thanksgiving. We are a mixture of Japanese ways and American ways.

Our family lived on a small ranch (18 acres) and house in Delhi, California. There were nine of us in the family, which grew by leaps and bounds with marriages, and the ensuing grandchildren. Mother was always in pursuit of family gatherings. She sent out invitations early so we would not forget. These get-togethers consisted of about forty people. Family gatherings were principally about food – tons of good food. The food was Asian American – huge turkeys with stuffing, “nishime,” Chinese chicken salad, Chinese noodles, and of course my mother’s fabulous sushi – many kinds including maki sushi, inari, and nigiri sushi. She did the sushi until she was 95 years old and also made manju for dessert. As time went on I learned how to make “Grandma’s inari sushi” (as I called it with my kids).

It might be of interest to you to try making the Makita inari sushi. It’s done in the old fashioned way, so it takes a lot of time. And it is different from any inari sushi you might find at a sushi bar. Be aware that this version is special and delicious. You can take short cuts like using a rice cooker or other things, but this is the way I learned it and the way that I will pass on to you.

I will list the ingredients first because it might be difficult to find them unless you live in an urban area where there is a market that carries Japanese food.

Preparing the Age (ah-gae also spelled as abura-age or aburaage)

You can cook the age the night before.

Ingredients for dashi sauce:

1 tablespoon dashi (powder form)

2 cups water

¼ cup sugar

2 ½ teaspoons salt

½ cup sake

5 dried shiitake mushrooms

36 age squares

Directions:

Put dashi, water, sugar, salt and shiitake into a large pot, because you will need to add the age later. Boil the sauce at medium for about 15 minutes.

Cut the age in half and put them in a large sieve and make sure there is a slot in the age (cut side of each age half which can be gently opened with your fingers) to stuff the rice later.

In the meanwhile, boil a whole kettle of water. When all the age is cut, pour the boiling water in the sieve with the age. This is to get some of the excess oil out of the age. Press the age gently to get the water out.

Now you add the age into the sauce, mix it gently to keep from poking holes in the age, keep the heat on medium. Turn in a few minutes.

Cook for fifteen total minutes.

Making the Sushi Rice

This part needs to be done on the day you are going to dine on it.

Ingredients for sushi rice sauce:

¾ cup vinegar (Japanese vinegar preferred)

¾ cup sugar

2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sake

3 cups Kokuho Rice (When I specify the rice, I am saying use very good Japanese rice.)

Directions:

Wash the rice and let it soak in water for one hour (no need to measure the water).

Boil the vinegar, sugar, and salt in a medium pot. Add the sake. Set aside to let it cool.

Drain rice after one hour and put the well-drained rice in a large pot with a tight cover.

Boil some water in a separate pot, add three cups of the boiling water to the pot of rice, and put on high heat with the cover on. Watch very closely until it begins to boil. Then put stove heat on the very lowest heat for exactly ten minutes.

Empty the pot of cooked rice into a big shallow container. I use a special wooden container used especially for sushi. Gently fold in the sushi rice sauce to cover all kernels of rice. My mother use to pour it in little by little and stir at the same time. Fan above the rice to cool it and give the rice a sheen.

Then there is the rest of the stuff that goes into the rice.

Our biggest secret is that we add about one inch of fresh ginger (cut into tiny pieces as small as you can get it).

Finely cut up the shiitake from the age cooking liquid.

Boil about ½ a cup of finely cut carrots and frozen peas, and add a dash of salt and dashi for flavoring (or you can use finely cut cooked green beans).

Mix the ginger, shiitake, carrots, and peas with the finished rice.

When it cools you can stuff the rice mixture into the age pockets you made earlier.