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East meets 'ess'
New Providence cookbook author offers a feast of Japanese cuisine for the kosher kitchen
Sidebars:
About the book
Recipes
According to New Jerseyan Kinue Imai Weinstein, "visiting different cultures and remote places and then writing about them has always fascinated me." With her recently published cookbook, Japanese Kosher Cooking: Sushi, Sushi and More (Ktav), Weinstein has combined her two passions.
Weinstein's interest in creating kosher Japanese cuisine dates back to the 1970s, when she was living in Jerusalem with her husband, Steve. The two had met in Kyoto — near her birthplace of Chiba — where he was teaching English and she was living while working in the British consalate in Osaka. They married in the United States and moved to Jerusalem, where he studied modern Jewish thought at Hebrew University and she continued her studies and worked as a freelance writer for Japanese newspapers and as a reporter for The Jerusalem Post. Although happy in Israel, Weinstein found herself missing the foods of her homeland.
She explained, "This was almost four decades ago; there was no Japanese food available in Israel at the time. So a friend and I wrote a Far Eastern cookbook based on ingredients available in Israel." Substituting turkey for pork, sherry and sugar for mirin (a Japanese cooking wine), and so on, Weinstein wrote Far Eastern Cook Book, which was published in Hebrew in 1980.
After seven years in Israel, Weinstein and her family (the couple now had a son) returned to the United States, settling in New Jersey. Living in Union County — the family has lived in New Providence since 1980 — she was 45 minutes away from the nearest Japanese supermarket. Once again, she adapted by improvising with locally available ingredients.
Creating a kosher Japanese cookbook was far easier the second time around, due to the dramatic increase in the number of kosher Japanese products found on supermarket shelves in recent years. In her book's Preface, Weinstein marvels at the availability of kosher soba (buckwheat noodles) as well as the more exotic wakame, kombu, and hiziki (all dried sea vegetables).
With its glossy photos and concise instructions, Japanese Kosher Cooking appears to be the creation of a professional chef. Weinstein demurs with a laugh, however: "I'm no chef. I'm just a busy professional woman sharing my recipes with other busy professionals who keep kosher."
Busy indeed: In addition to her culinary endeavors, Weinstein works full-time at Alcatel-Lucent, conducting market research. "I started working at Bell Labs in 1986, in competitive intelligence," she said. "I'm actually at the same company, now, just with a different name after two mergers."
Weinstein and her husband, an attorney, have two children: Daniel, 31 and a CPA/MBA working in New York City, lives with his wife and son in Millburn. Daughter Naomi, 23, in her first year at New York Law School, spent a year teaching English in Japan.
Weinstein herself has, in her own family, created a cultural merger: "My husband and I have belonged to Temple Sinai in Summit for over 25 years; our son and daughter were bar and bat mitzva'd and confirmed there. My mother still lives in Japan. I love the idea of introducing one culture to another."
JAPANESE KOSHER COOKING: Sushi, Sushi and More contains 107 recipes for, among other dishes, tofu, custard, dumplings, miso soup, grilled salmon, teriyaki, tempura, sashimi, noodles in casserole, desserts — and, of course, sushi. Over 100 full-color photographs — taken by the author — accompany the recipes.
The author points out that the book is ideal for vegetarians as well, since about 60 percent of the recipes are meat-free and most of the others can be adapted using alternative ingredients. Subtitled With Ingredients From Your Refrigerator, the book provides recipes that can be made using products available at local grocery stores that take the place of more exotic Japanese items. The book was published by Ktav in Jersey City; it costs $29.50 and can be purchased at the publisher's Web site, Amazon.com, and other outlets.
Recipes from Japanese Kosher Cooking: Sushi, Sushi and More
by Kinue Weinstein
FRIED MATZO JAPANESE STYLE
SKEWERED BARBECUED CHICKEN (YAKI-TORI)
CHICKEN AND EGG-TOPPED RICE (OYAKO-DONBURI)
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