Photo: Japanese shaved ice from Kome Hachi Soba in Okinawa, Japan. photo credit
Australian summer stereotypes always involve a trip to the beach, fish and chips, and an ice cream. Within the realm of ice cream, we have quite a lot of choice. Cheap McDonald’s soft serves; a Paddlepop, Golden Gaytime, or Maxibon from the servo; or if you’re really feeling it, a 1kg tub of Messina. Either way, all of these dessert choices are quite creamy and dairy based which in the heat can sometimes make you feel sick, not to mention excludes the entire lactose intolerant population. Japan has a solution for you!
Japanese shaved ice, kakigori, isn’t just your regular 7eleven slurpee or school fete snow cone. Kakigori is more like very thin shards of ice than crushed ice like a snow cone, the texture is something you have to try before you can really understand a description of it. Thanks to the structure of the ice and the method of shaving, it can be made into gravity defying structures.
Toppings are varied as well – the standard is just a simple sugar syrup with a fruity flavour like strawberry or peach, but there’s also the ever popular matcha green tea, served with mochi and azuki red bean paste (called ujikintoki, this is a variety easy to find in Kyoto). Stores that specialise in kakigori will use different coloured syrups to make different designs, and there are some that are really outstanding.
Kakigori hasn’t totally taken off in Sydney, but 2015’s restaurant of the year Sepia head chef Martin Benn has been experimenting with this Hatsuyuki shaved ice machine for an updated menu. The machine is a bit of an investment, but it’ll make a great addition to your kitchen, and will last a lifetime or more. Otherwise, grab a cute pink ice shaver from Amazon for $17.99.
Photo: kakigori variations from my trip to Kyoto, 2014
Now that you’ve acquired a shaved ice machine, here’s some recipes for sugar syrups and other topping ideas!
Basic Sugar Syrup
Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 1/3 cups granulated sugar
For fruit flavouring, cut up about half a kilo of a single fruit into small chunks. Use only one fruit to start with so that the flavour doesn’t become unidentifiable. Citrus fruits, berries, and pineapples are some great flavours to start with.
For matcha, just add a matcha powder. Any that you can find will do the job. Add only small amounts of the powder, and taste as you go. Everyone enjoys matcha at different strengths, so customise it to your own tastes.
Method:
Add the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium to high heat. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved, and you have a thick, translucent syrup.
Once you’ve completely dissolved the sugar, add your fruit of choice and cook until the syrup becomes fragrant and the fruit pieces are soft and mushy.
Let cool for a few minutes, then strain the fruit from the syrup and further let both cool down before storing in an airtight container (sterilize a glass jar if you want to store for future use, as it will keep for a long time).
NOTE: Strawberries are a great choice for this, you can serve your pile of shaved ice with the stewed strawberries as a topping, the sugar syrup, and then pour sweetened condensed milk over the top of the whole thing.
Another great topping, especially if you want to try ujikintoki is green tea ice cream. This 3-ingredient recipe is from Eugenie Kitchen and although it’s not traditional Japanese style ice cream, the ease of the recipe will win you over.
Ingredients:
4.5 teaspoons green tea powder
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream
Method:
Melt the green tea powder in 3 tablespoons of hot water and let cool.
Whip the cream until stiff peaks form.
Mix the green tea mixture with the condensed milk, then fold it through the whipped cream. Transfer to a container or baking dish and freeze for 6 hours or overnight.
Don’t forget we have a mochi event coming up at the end of January. Tickets for day 2 have already sold out, but tickets are still available for day 1, so check it out!
WashokuLovers
