Japanese fusion food with ‘little ninja’ ingredients is a cook’s twist on Western dishes

When Sonoko Sakai’s mother sneaked a little miso into her lasagne, she was not thinking of the kind of Japanese fusion that became an American dining craze in the 1980s. Rather, she was doing what Japanese cooks had been doing for centuries: adapting to outside influences. Many dishes now thought of as quintessentially Japanese are fusions once considered foreign to the country. Gyoza dumplings arrived from China only about a hundred years ago. Tonkatsu, a fried pork cutlet, came from French chefs cooking in the imperial court after Japan opened to the West during the Meiji period of the late 1800s. And curry arrived when the English brought spice mixes from their Indian colonies. Each dish was adapted to be more, well, Japanese, said Sakai, a Japanese-American cooking instructor who explores this combination of influences in her new book, Wafu Cooking. Wafu means “Japanese in style”. That could mean blending Western and Japanese flavours or even adjusting a dish’s presentation or sensibility to Japanese tastes. Take tonkatsu as an example. Imperial chefs wafu-ed the pork cutlets by chopping them into bite-size pieces so the meat could be picked up with chopsticks. The dish also comes with shredded cabbage to balance its richness, and with tonkatsu sauce, itself an international mash-up that includes soy, Worcestershire and tomato sauces. Sakai routinely wafu-s Western dishes – she is pushing the use of wafu as a verb – such as a white-bean chilli in her book made extra savoury from soy sauce. She adds miso to her apple pie and, like her mother, to her bolognese sauce. “I find that it enhances the flavour,” she said. “It doesn’t make it alien or foreign. You just wonder why it tastes better.” Slipping in an ingredient on the sly is also a Japanese tradition, one called kakushiaji. It means “secret flavour” but Japanese cooks think of them more like secret agents, Sakai said. “I call them little ninjas.” She sneaks sake, soy sauce and ginger into her Italian Wedding Soup, a dish she learned from relatives on her grandmother’s side, who are from the Italian part of Switzerland. The soup’s pork meatballs are similar to the filling she makes for her gyoza, using potato starch as a binding agent instead of the egg in Italian meatballs. “I didn’t have to reinvent this recipe,” Sakai said. “I’m just doing what I do. I have these seasonings. Sometimes I think it needs a little bit of this, a splash of that. And if you have these Japanese ingredients, give it a try.” Sonoko Sakai’s Japanese Italian Wedding Soup from Wafu Cooking Ingredients For the meatballs: 1lb (450g) ground pork 1 yellow onion, grated 1 garlic clove, minced 1 egg 1 tablespoon sake or white wine 1 tablespoon soy sauce 2 tablespoons potato starch or cornflour, diluted in 2 tablespoons water ½ teaspoon sea salt ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper ¼ cup (15g) minced fresh parsley 1½ teaspoons oregano ½ cup (45g) grated Parmesan cheese For the soup 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil ½ yellow onion, diced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 large carrot, peeled and diced 8 cups chicken broth ¼ cup (60ml) sake 1 tablespoon soy sauce ½ head escarole, coarsely chopped ½ cup (100g) acini de pepe or other small pasta (such as orzo) 1 teaspoon lemon zest Grated Parmesan cheese, to serve Crusty bread, to serve (optional) Method 1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius (425 degrees Fahrenheit). 2. To make the meatballs, combine the pork, grated onion, garlic, egg, sake, soy sauce, diluted starch, salt, pepper, parsley, oregano and Parmesan in a medium bowl. Mix the ingredients with your hands until just combined. Form meatballs about one tablespoon in size and set them on a parchment-lined sheet pan. You will get about 40 meatballs. Bake on the middle rack for 20 minutes, until they are lightly browned and nearly cooked. 3. To make the soup, set a large pot over medium heat, add the oil, and sauté the onions and garlic until softened, about three minutes. Add the carrots and sauté for another two to three minutes. Then add the broth, sake and soy sauce to the pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and add the meatballs, one at a time. Simmer until the meatballs are cooked through, about five to seven minutes. Add the escarole, cover with the lid, and simmer for another 10 minutes. 4. In the meantime, bring a small saucepan of water to boil over high heat. Add a pinch of salt and the pasta. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until al dente. Rinse with cold water, drain and set aside. 5. Just before serving the soup, add the cooked pasta to the pot. Season with salt, pepper and lemon zest. Serve with grated Parmesan and crusty bread, if desired.

Japanese fusion food with ‘little ninja’ ingredients is a cook’s twist on Western dishes

A Japanese-American cooking instructor routinely adds items like sake, soy sauce and ginger to Western dishes to cater to Japanese tastes