Kajitsu

This is the eight post in the Eating the Big Apple series. Other posts include Soba Koh, Sylvia's Restaurant (Gospel Brunch), Torrisi Italian Specialties, Ippudo,Tasty Hand Pulled Noodle, Il Buco Alimentari & Vinera, and Shake Shack.

I've heard of this place so many times.

First, in the thick of Project Food Blog in 2010 (wow, I can't believe that was 2 years ago!) when we were down to the final three contestants, fellow contestant Marc Matsumoto wrote a really creative entry about this place.

About a year later, friends of mine visited and absolutely fell in love with it. Knowing that I love vegetables, they continued to bug me to try it. "Jen, I think you'll really like it."

I definitely tried to go. Not surprisingly, this two star Michelin restaurant was really hard to book.

It wasn't until later that I found out the original chef, Masato Nishihara, had announced he was moving back to Japan in April 2012. People came in droves to experience his food before he left.

This past June (right after Nishihara left) I got the unexpected opportunity to visit New York again, this time to attend the Saveur Food Blog Award Celebration in New York (I still can't believe I won). I called Katjistu immediately and finally landed a seat at the table with the new chef.

I was so curious. What would shojin ryori taste like?

Shojin ryori is a specific type of Japanese cuisine that originates from Zen Buddhism. The cuisine is strictly vegan and emphasizes bringing out the natural flavors of fresh, seasonal ingredients.

Ryota Ueshima, the new chef at the helm, had previously worked at Murasaki no Wakuden, one of the top kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto. Kaiseki is not vegan, but it incorporate a lot of the same philosophies as shojin ryori, most notably the art of creating and presenting fresh, seasonal ingredients in the utmost exquisite way in order to best showcases their natural flavors and colors.

The restaurant includes both normal style seating and "sushi bar" style seating. We sat at the bar, which was great because it gave us a front row view to all the action in the kitchen.

The menu only has tasting menus. You can either order the four-course “Kaze” ($50) or the eight-course “Hana” ($70). The Hana and Kaze share the first four courses, but the Hana includes three additional dishes, including house-made soba noodles, dessert, and matcha.

We decided to go with the Hana, since Bryan always thinks you should try a restaurant's "signature" or flagship offering, especially if it's your first time and you're going to write a blog post about it.

We began with the first dish, Summer Eggplant with White Miso Sauce. I was surprised that the miso paste was actually a bit sweet. The dish had a pretty strong ginger essence. The deep fried (shallot?) strings on top gave the salad a nice crunch, and overall the dish felt simple, clean, and balanced.

The second course came hidden underneath a huge Magnolia leaf. In fact, it was called Shiitake Mushroom Soup with Magnolia Leaf Lid.

Inside there was a clear broth filled with fried shiitake mushrooms, house made fried tofu, syungiku, goma-fu, and choji-fu (the "-fu" being different types of pillowy wheat gluten blocks).

I absolutely loved the two types of fuyu, especially the more chewy one. The soup flavors were subtle yet complex at the same time, with a deep mushroom base supported by white peppery overtones. Although the dish was not very salty, the deep umami from the mushroom stock provided plenty of depth to the entire dish.

This was one of our favorite courses.

The next course was a fun play on chips and dip.  The "chips" were actually leaves from a fire-roasted artichoke, while the "dips" were mashed up versions of lilly rosebud, avocado, and squash with plum. From a distance, the colors of the dips almost resemble a typical sushi plate, with the avocado as wasabi and the pink squash with plum as the ginger.

These "Artichoke Chips with Vegetable Dips" were served with a konnyaku yam with tofu sauce and a brown mustard spring roll. The mustard spring roll, which was rolled as thinly as a pencil, was crunchy with a strong yet vinegary zing from the mustard inside. I loved it. The dips were OK, but didn't especially strike me as that interesting.

The next course, simply yet deceptive called Vinegared Summer Vegetables, was beautiful and exotic at the same time. It consisted of ingredients like tomatoes, junsai, cresson, lotus root, and kaede-fu. Again, I loved the clean, simple, yet very balanced flavors of the various cold components.

"Junsai" is a water plant that is slightly gooey and gelatinous. These plants grown in mud ponds in Japan, the best being from Kyoto. Only when the junsai is grown in its native environment (transplanted ones won't do) will its young shoots develop the highly prized gelatinous covering. It's that stuff he's spooning in the picture up top.

"Cresson" is the green vegetable, which was briefly blanched while kaede-fu are the spongy, wheat-gluten based stars.

The next course, Fried Yuba Wrap with Morel Mushroom and Hijiki, was deeply flavorful. The soup was thick, with a strong essence of seaweed from the hijiki, a deep, black, and fragrant Japanese seaweed. The Yuba wrap consists of layers upon layers of soy sheets wrapped around Morel Mushrooms inside. This dish was extremely flavorful, full of rich umami from the seaweed and Morel mushrooms.

Vegan sushi isn't just about cucumber and avocado rolls. This Burdock Root with Kimipira Sushi was one of the best nigiri sushi "pieces" I'd ever had in the US. On top, thin, delicately julienned clies of burdock, carrots, and celery were marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar.

The rice was incredible - among the best sushi rice I've ever had in the US, rivaling what I've had in Japan. To complete the elegant presentation, this huge "sushi" was topped with microshiso leaves and French breakfast radishes pickled to look like ginger.

This dish was fantastic. The slightly sweet and crunchy vegetables were a perfect accompaniment to the gorgeously chewy rice.

Next we had Somen Noodle with Summer Cypress. The enoki mushrooms on top look sort of like noodles, while the "caviar" you see on top are actually seeds from the Summer Cypress plant. The seeds of this plant, called "tonburi" in Japan, are a delicacy in Japan and have a texture that is similar to caviar. Their preparation is quite labor-intensive, involving soaking and boiling the seeds for a day before hand-rubbing their outer skins off.

For dessert, we had this lovely light Matcha Bean Yokan and Hoji Tea Jelly. Asian desserts tend to be lighter and less sweet than American desserts, which I really like. Yokan is a dense gelatin-based block (made with matcha green tea here), while the jelly is less dense with a rich roasted tea flavor. Tiny tapioca balls on top complete the picture.

We watched Chef Ueshima as he executed the traditional Japanese art of making matcha with a bamboo whisk. Finely ground matcha powder is vigorously stirred with hot water using a bamboo whisk until a fine foam forms, almost like cappuccino.

We drank the matcha with candies by Kyoto Suetomi in Japan.

Two airy, light, sugar wafers were held together by a sweet, chewy filling in the center. The strong, slightly bitter matcha was a good contrast to the sweet sandwich cookies.

We ended the meal with fresh rambutan, a juicy tropical fruit that reminds me quite a bit of lychee.

Thoughts
Our meal at Kajitsu was really fun, although it took awhile for Chef Ueshima to warm up to us. Initially, he would just silently hand us the plates, allowing the server to explain each dish to us. It's quite understandable. After all, he had just come from Japan. We were literally trying the first set menu he had designed for the new restaurant. He felt uncomfortable with English, I think, which is why he stayed reasonably silent.

It wasn't until I tried to speak to him in Japanese that he relaxed and became a lot more friendly. He began trying to describe the dishes to us, using a mix of Japanese and English (after all, Bryan does not speak a lick of Japanese and mine's still pretty elementary!). With the help of smartphone dictionaries, we were able to communicate reasonably well, with much laughter in between.

The food was excellent. It was clear that a lot of thought had been put into designing these dishes. There were several standout dishes (e.g., the Shitake Mushroom Soup, Fried Yuba Wrap, and Burdock Root with Kimipira Sushi), and an occasional one that made me scratch my head (Artichoke Chips with Vegetable Dip).

It's hard for me to gauge how it compares with former Chef Nishihara's work. Although I really enjoyed the meal, I was not as floored with the food as I had expected to be based on everyone's glowing reviews.

Nevertheless, it was still a really, really cool experience and definitely worth trying at least once. If you've never had shojin ryori before, it's really quite an enjoyable and eye opening experience. I sampled so many flavors and textures I had never tried before.

It's pretty incredible that the chef can pull off such an interesting, flavorful, and fascinating progression of flavors - all without any meat products.

Kajitsu
414 E 9th St
 New York, NY 10009

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Lime & Cilantro

I guess I'm still a grill noob, excited by the prospect of trying to grill anything.

We've had tons of fun grilling all sorts of stuff our year in the new home. We've grilled vegetables, like asparagus, zucchini, and eggplant. We've even tried fruit, such as pineapples (Bryan's favorite) and peaches (served with ice cream on top, yum!).  We've done entire salmon filets many times (one of our favorites!) and various steaks on a semi-regular basis.

For some odd reason, one day I thought it might be fun to try grilling potatoes.

Can you even grill a potato? I'd never heard of anyone grilling potatoes. I don't think I'd ever had it at a restaurant.

Perhaps the closest thing I'd had was tin-foil wrapped potatoes (not unlike Bryan's family's famous tin-foil chicken) thrown into a fire during a camping trip.

Thankfully, the internet is full of answers. I found a great, simple Bobby Flay recipe for grilled sweet potatoes, kicked up with lime, cayenne pepper, and cilantro.

Bryan loves cilantro and basically is a huge fan of anything Bobby Flay makes, so I was pretty confident this would be a winner.

Sweet potatoes are a bit tricky to grill. You need to pre-cook the potatoes. Bobby Flay suggests boiling the potatoes until they become soft. To save time, I microwaved mine instead for about 5-6 minutes.  Note - don't forget to poke holes in the sweet potato with a fork before microwaving. Otherwise, the steam created inside will cause the potato to explode! I learned this the hard way in my toaster oven in college!

You don't want to overcook the potatoes. If they become too mushy, they become far too floppy and delicate for the grill.

While microwaving (or boiling), prepare your topping by mixing together fresh lime zest, cayenne pepper, and salt. Chop up some cilantro on the side.
 
Once the potatoes are cooked. Slice them into evenly thick pieces (mine were about half an inch) or cut wedges. Brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Grill for about 1 1/2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. 

Season with the salt mixture and top with chopped cilantro.

Enjoy!


Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Lime & Cilantro
recipe from Bobby Flay, with tweaks in the method by me

Ingredients
3 sweet potatoes, unpeeled
Kosher salt
2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1/4 cup canola oil
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Parcook or microwave sweet potatoes (remember to pierce potato skins with a fork if you plan on microwaving!) for about 5-6 minutes, or until mostly cooked but not yet mushy (it's harder to grill when it becomes too floppy!)

Meanwhile, mix 1 tablespoon of salt, lime zest, and cayenne in a small bowl to make the salt mixture.

Cut the potatoes into nice, thick slices or wedges. Brush all sides with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill for about 1 1/2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Season with the salt mixture and top with chopped cilantro.

Serve!

Yellow chives and 5-spice bean curd

Have you ever heard of the yellow chive?

Or perhaps I should start a bit more basic. Have you heard of Chinese chives in general? You'll often see Chinese chives referred to as "leeks" on Chinese menus (ever heard of the pork and leek dumpling?), when in reality, they are really quite different from those large, super-sized scallions-like things we call leeks in America.

Chinese chives are a member of the allium family, which also includes garlic, scallions, and onions. These chives have a wonderful fragrance, sort of like garlic, but much sweeter and less pungent. In fact, some people call Chinese chives garlic chives. Chinese chives are hardy perennials that grow quite well in home gardens. When I was a kid, our Taiwanese neighbors would always drop by extra "crop" that they couldn't finish.

Yellow chives are unique because they have been kept away from the sun. As a result, they never develop those characteristic dark green, hardy stems. Instead, yellow chives are more tender, milder, and sweeter in flavor - arguably considered a bit more of a delicacy. They cost about twice as much as normal Chinese chives, and are a bit harder to find.

One of my favorite home-cooked Chinese dishes is traditional Chinese chives with 5-spice tofu. As a twist, I decided to try replacing the traditional green chive with its albino cousin, the delicate yellow chive.

What I love about yellow chives, or any Chinese chive in general, is that they are so fragrant on their own, you don't have to add additional aromatics. Being members of the allium family, they provide their own fragrant aromas.

This makes cooking them so so easy.

Heat up a wok (or fry pan) on high with about a tablespoon of oil. Add the chopped chives and cover, letting them cook for a few minutes until soft. You can stir them around a bit if you'd like.If needed, add a dash of water to the hot wok and cover.

5-spice tofu (or pressed bean curd) is also very fragrant, and thus does not need much additional flavoring. After the yellow chives have softened, add the sliced tofu. I like to cut the tofu into strips approximately the same size as the yellow chives.

The pressed tofu is already cooked, so you really just need to heat it up. Stir everything around until well mixed. Add flavoring agents (I like to add white pepper and salt, but you can go ahead and use black pepper or whatever you fancy).

Once it is seasoned to your liking, serve!

I love this dish. It's so simple yet so packed with flavor. Seriously, if I had a Chinese grocery store closer to me, I'd be making this dish every week.

Serve and enjoy!
 

5-Spice Tofu
Serves 2-3 | Prep and Cook time - 15 minutes
 
2 blocks of 5-spice tofu (available in Asian markets), thinly sliced into matchsticks
1 bunch of yellow chives, cut into 2-3 inch pieces
1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp white pepper (or to taste)

Heat wok up to medium high heat with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Add chives and stir fry for about 2-3 minutes, or until chives are softened. Add 5-spice beancurd. Stir until well mixed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 Serve!

Bok Choy Agar Noodles

This post is part of a larger series devoted to a Molecular Gastronomy focused meal I made: Molecular Gastronomy with an Asian Twist. Other posts in this series include Spherification (making "caviar", Pho Inspired Grilled Steak with Mint, Cilantro, and Lime, and Sweet Basil Pesto with Rice Noodles

Playing with molecular gastronomy is fun, although things can get a bit wacky at times.

Like these crazy bok choy "noodles," for example.

Admittedly, making my own "caviar" using spherification was by far the "nerdiest" thing I did this past weekend. Nevertheless, I would give these green noodles a close second.

Here's the back story. As part of my original proposal to Foodbuzz for this Foodbuzz 24, 24 meal, I had promised to make bok choy "noodles" as part of a larger, molecular interpretation of a deconstructed Taiwanese beef noodle soup.

Funny thing is, I really had no idea how I was going to make these. I find that I often like to invent absurd and overly ambitious meals in my head, sometimes promising to deliver them without really thinking things through.

It bites me back sometimes when my fantastic proposals actually get accepted and I have to deliver.

Thankfully, the internet is full of solutions, and my friends had given me a nice, big bag of fun powders to try.

At the end of the day, under the pressure of time, I was actually able to deliver a meal that came surprisingly close to my original proposal.

This "deconstructed Taiwanese beef noodle soup" begins with the baby bok choy, a common vegetable used as the "green" part of a beef noodle soup. I decided to mix up the shapes and flavors, making the bok choy into a noodle instead.

I blended up a couple small stalks of bok choy and a small shallot in some dashi broth in the blender.

Heat up the bok choy "soup" with some agar agar, a red algae based gelatin.

Pour out the solution into appropriately-shaped containers. Since I was trying to make noodles, I tried to put them into square containers. Let set at room temperature or in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Remove from containers, and slice!

Though they look sort of like noodles, the texture is pretty different. It's kind of soft, breaks easily, and (frankly), isn't nearly as good as a real wheat-based noodle.

I think this recipe works better for making interesting vegetable "pates" or "terrines."

Nevertheless, it's a cool way to make some interesting, gluten-free noodles which incorporate any flavor you might want. I'm sure this would work with all sorts of other vegetables, such as arugula, basil, spinach, or maybe even carrots!



Bok Choy Agar "Noodles"
Ingredients
7 oz bok choy
1 small shallot
3.2g agar agar powder
1/4 cup broth (I used dashi)
salt to taste
dash of sugar

Blend together bok choy, shallot and broth together until a fine puree forms. Heat 200g of the bok choy liquid with agar agar until boiling and agar agar is dissolved. It will become much thicker. Pour into a level, square surface up to about 1/2 inch thick and let cool for at least 1 hour.

Slice up into "noodles" and serve.

Sweet Basil Pesto with Rice Noodles

This post is part of a larger series devoted to a Molecular Gastronomy focused meal I made: Molecular Gastronomy with an Asian Twist. Other posts in this series include Spherification (making "caviar" and Pho Inspired Grilled Steak with Mint, Cilantro, and Lime

This Asian pesto recipe I'm about to show you is so ridiculously easy, I was skeptical about whether it would actually taste that good.

It's sort of like normal pesto, but with a few major changes.

First, it's made with sweet basil (also known as Asian basil or Thai basil), which I think is more floral and a bit sweeter than Italian basil.

Second, since it's Asian, there's no pine nuts nor Parmesan cheese. In fact, it's just fresh garlic, sweet basil, oil, and salt.

It's so easy, yet the pungent garlic and the aromatic sweet basil make a fantastic combination. I tossed this with some simple pho noodles and I was hooked.

Sweet basil is a bit harder to find. I don't think I've ever seen it at a local Western supermarket. Asian markets are the best place to find it.

Outside of markets, I see sweet basil most often at Vietnamese restaurants, where they give you a whole pile of it to eat with your pho. Taiwanese people will also use it in dishes like three-cup chicken, and it shows up all over the place in Thai cuisine.

I made this sauce  as part of a larger molecular gastronomy meal this past weekend.

I hate to say this, but since I was in such a hurry when creating this sauce, I didn't measure anything and just threw it all together.

Amazingly, it turned out great! I really think pesto is a very, very forgiving recipe. How can you go wrong when you blend a gorgeous herb with deliciously strong, fresh garlic cloves?

On the side, I boiled some traditional pho noodles, but I think this pesto would work with any sort of noodle.

Toss together with the pesto and serve!

Thai Basil Pesto
1 large bunch of Asian basil leaves (stems removed)
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp salt (or to taste)

Again, this is a very, very flexible recipe. I didn't measure anything, yet it turned out great. I slowly added salt bit by bit until I thought the flavor was about right. Definitely play it by ear, and give yourself the opportunity to add extra elements to adjust the flavor.

Combine basil leaves, garlic, and oil in a food processor and pulse until completely pulverized. Add salt to taste. Toss with pho noodles.

Optionally serve with the other half of my dish, "Pho-inspired Grilled Steak with Mint, Cilantro, and Lime".

Enjoy!

Homemade Soy Milk

As a daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, I grew up loving the taste of fresh soymilk. Fresh soymilk is such a staple in a traditional Taiwanese breakfast, where it is often enjoyed hot with a deep fried culler (you tiao) and a sesame flatbread (shao bing).

When I was a kid, my mom used to make fresh soybean milk at home. The process was laborious. First, you soak soybeans in waer overnight. Then you steam the soy beans, blend them (in small batches), squeeze out the milk with a cheesecloth, and then slowly cook the entire mixture again over low heat.

The process would take all day, but the results were delicious.

More recently, my mom told me that my uncle (who is vegan) now makes soymilk at home using his Vitamix blender. Since I have a Blenctec blender at home, I decided to try it myself.

Wow.

I don’t think I’m ever going to buy soymilk at the market again. Not only is this stuff delicious, it only costs  a few cents to make (even organic soy beans are pretty cheap), and I can make it anytime I crave soy milk.

First of all, I do want to clarify that the soymilk that comes out of the Blendtec tastes like fresh, Asian soymilk. It has the full glory of the soy bean taste, which I love, but which some people may find to be too strong.

This does not taste like Silk vanilla flavored soymilk. Instead, it tastes more like the thick, creamy stuff you can buy in Chinatown.

I think it’s absolutely delicious.

First, it’s crucial that you soak the beans, preferably overnight.
Next, you must cook them. I usually steam the beans for about 45 minutes on the stovetop, which works pretty well.

Once the beans are cooked, fill up your blender (in batches, if necessary), with a ratio of 2:1 (water:beans). I’ve been using the whole juice setting on the Blendtec, which essentially pulverizes the beans and forms this thick, creamy milk that’s chock full of protein and fiber. I think the smoothie setting works fine as well.

Some people are perfectly happy to drink the soymilk in this raw form. The texture is slightly thick and a bit gritty, so it's more of an acquired taste.

If you like a smoother soy milk (like the ones in the supermarkets), as a last step you can filter this thick liquid through a cheese cloth. This removes the thick, fibrous part of the bean and results in a fresh, velvety, silk-like texture.

Optionally add sugar and enjoy!

You can enjoy it hot with you tiao (Chinese fried crullers), or chilled and sweetened as a beverage.


Homemade Soy Milk
1 cup dried soy beans
4-6 cups water
sugar (optional)

Soak the beans in water overnight. Make sure the beans are well covered by the water, since they will expand quite a bit. Drain the water and steam the beans for about 45 minutes. Blend the beans and water (about 2:1 water:bean ratio by volume) on the "whole juice" or "smoothie" setting of the Blendtec (50-90 seconds, or until well pulverized). If a smooth soy milk is desired, filter through a cheesecloth. Optionally add sugar to taste.

Chill or enjoy warm.