Japan Days 6+7

OK, on to Japan:

Sous Chefs:

The only things coming off of the steam table today will be the steamed white rice and the Braised beef, You only need to use 1 steam table.

Making Sushi Rice is key. Watch the video and be prepared to start the process as soon as you come in at 7:00 am.
- Rinse and drain rice until water is clear - the more clear the water, the better the rice. Anticipate spending 15 minutes or so washing rice.
- Soak rice for 1 hour in fresh, cool water
- Drain and Air Dry rice on lined sheet tray from 30 minutes
- prepare vinegar solution while rice dries
- Steam rice - while rice is steaming, fill hangiri with cool water, when rice is finished cooking and while it's resting, dump water from hangiri, towel excess water out and then put rested rice into hangiri and add vinegar solution while "cutting" and fanning. Ask me for additional demo on this - I want to bring everyone in on it to watch.

- When rice is cool to the point that it's no longer steaming, stop "cutting" and divide rice into 3 1/3 hotel pans - one pan for each type of sushi. Cover rice with damp towels to keep from forming a crust and hold at room temp - don't refrigerate it.

Once the sushi stations are set up, I'll demo each type of sushi to get you started - if you're set up for demos by 10:00 am you can make all of the sushi slightly ahead of family meal and hold it. It works best to set up all 3 sushi stations on the same table so you can share ingredients. I usually use stations 1 and 2 (because they should be finished their other prep by 10). When the sushi is made and the garnishes (from station 6) are all together, you can plate on small plates and hold for service on the shelves under station 5.

Sushi Plate:

From Japanese Plate Presentations

Sushi Station Set ups

Maki Station:

From Japanese Plate Presentations

Nigiri Station:

From Japanese Plate Presentations

Inari Station:

From Japanese Plate Presentations

Make the Dashi for Miso soup in a stainless steel pot,not a wok, the wok makes it dark and muddy tasting. You should anticipate making about 3 gallons dashi all together so that other stations can draw from it, the exception will be for Station 6 - they need a Vegan dashi and will make their own. Save the solids when you strain the dashi, they can be used on Tuesday to make a "second dashi"

The sunomono salad is supposed to be placed on the sushi sampler plate as a garnish - small pile, about 1 TBSP. per plate. The sunomono can be made early and dressed close to service.

The steamed white rice should be made the same way as the rice for the Chinese menu.

Station 2:
The braise is pretty self explanatory. Choose a small rondo - you don't want too much surface area or your braise will burn. When finished, hold it hot in a deep 1/2 hotel pan in the steam table. See photo in recipe for plate presentation with Toasted sesame seeds, long, thin, bias cut scallions and Miso Pickles (you will share these with Station 4, so read their section as well and communicate with them on preparing these pickles for service)

Station 3:
Pork Cutlet is also self explanatory. You should anticipate plating directly from the fry station, so draw a detailed diagram of how the station will look. You can fry in the fryer, turn around to the table behind you and slice the pork, plate it with the salad and a ramekin of sauce and then pass to the steam table for rice. The sauce should be in 1 oz. ramekins, the cabbage salad should be dressed just before service, and the cutlets fried to order - if they are pounded thin enough they take less than 1 minute to fry. You'll need a cutting board and knife on your station to slice pork before plating - everything in Japanese service is cut to "bite size" before plating because there are typically no knives at the table.

Station 4:
Be ready to produce both the steamed Fish AND the Udon Noodles- these are separate entrees, so you'll need two station diagrams. Watch the video for making the cabbage/spinach rolls and check out the plate presentation for the fish. You may be able to get the fish early - try picking it up around 7:30. I can show you how to fabricate it and set up the plates, you will cook them as needed in a wok steamer and serve them in shallow casserole dishes set on oval plates with white rice and miso pickles - the miso pickles are VERY salty right out of the container, so soak them in cool water for at least 3 hours before service, then drain. Then concentrate on setting up the Udon noodle station. Set up the station using the 4 burners on the right side of the range. The 2 left burners will be for station 5 to saute their vegetables. Have one large pot of boiling water with a china cap in it to refresh your noodles ala minute and then have 3 small pots with lids that you can use to make small 1-2 portion batches as needed throughout service. There should be a video for making the "spinach/cabbage" rolls, that's what you want to use. I prefer to cook this dish a few at a time during service so that everything is fresh. It's best to make a couple of portions starting at 10:30 for family meal, just for practice. When you get back from Family meal, immediately start 2 portions - 1 for demo and one for the first order. When they are done, hold one for the first order and then start another 2. It takes about 7-10 minutes for each batch, so if you fire the portions about 5 minutes apart, no one has to wait more than a few minutes. If you get hit with a lot of orders all at once you can fire 2-3 in the same pot and have the expediter explain that there's a short wait.


Station 5:
Beef Teriyaki - Make sure you watch the demo on cleaning skirt steak. Cut and portion into 5 oz. portions. Marinate steaks and prep vegetables. You will cook and plate from your station, so Draw a detailed diagram of how the grill station will be set up - Grill cloth, oil, grill brush, resting pan with rack, cutting board to slice meat, slicing knife, tongs. Also, you will be sauteing the veg (snow peas, bean sprouts, mushrooms) in small batches on the range. Set your station up so that you are "self contained". Grill set up - saute/veg set up- plates on shelf above saute line- cutting board on end of table closest to grill- chaffing dish set up with two 1/2 hotel pans in it , one for rice and one to hold your veg batches as they cook. Again - if you draw a detailed diagram of your entire station and label all of the items you'll need, setting up will be much easier and you'll look like a rock star. Hint - Beef teriyaki is very popular. You're going to get hit hard as soon as the doors open. Have 5 steaks grilled and resting(not cold,just resting) at 11:30 and have 1/3 of your vegetables already sauteed and in the chaffing dish ready to go. As you get an order for one steak, fire another. Skirt steak should be cooked to medium doneness. Medium rare is too chewy. Attention Team 5 - the Pork Butts for the Vietnamese Menu should have been brined on Day 5. You need to marinate them overnight on Day 6 and roast and cool on Day 7.

Station 6:
Your big job is getting all of the sushi garnishes prepped and collected. Each sushi plate will need, see the photo at the top of this page.
- 1 oz ramekin soy sauce
- 1 shiso leaf
- small amount of drained pickled ginger - house made yesterday.
- wasabi for the plate and wasabi for the sushi production - see below
- sunomono salad - get from sous chefs
- blanched soy beans (make sure you get the ones IN the pods - the store room usually messes up the order and sends the ones out of the pods)

Get all of this stuff together early. The soy sauce in ramekins - about 50 ramekins - and all of the other stuff together on a sheet tray so you can bring it to the sushi production area when they need it (hopefully by 10:00 am). Communication with the other teams and sous is important. You can see a picture of the finished plate with all of the garnishes in the Maki recipe on the Web Page.

When you make the wasabi paste, follow the recipe, but add the water slowly while stirring. When it gets to the consistency of play dough, good for shaping into balls or cubes for garnish, take half out of the bowl and set it aside. Continue adding cool water and stirring until it reaches a smooth, spreadable consistency - like toothpaste. This should go into a brown plastic cup for the sushi production stations. There's a good chance we may get in FRESH wasabi - so double check with me before you open a can of the powdered stuff.

Vegetable harvest is simple. Once all the vegetables are prepped, you can arrange everything EXCEPT the tofu and cucumbers in deep bowls. Talk to me about steaming all of the different vegetables, they all cook differently and it's better for us to do it right early then fix it just before service. Keep a perforated hotel pan in the steamer. When you get an order, ladle dashi over vegetables, place the whole bowl in the steamer to reheat everything for 2 minutes, remove bowl from steamer and finish with Tofu cubes, cucumber slices, miso sauce and scallions. When you make your vegetarian dashi, you can save the kombu seaweed, chiffonade it, and use some of that as garnish as well.