Kitchen Counsel

We love Japanese food. Soon we’ll be able to love cooking it for ourselves

You are going to want to remember the name Sachie Nomura. By the end of the year, she’ll most likely be making an appearance in your living room.
Like the Alyson Goftons and Aunt Daisys that have gone before her, Sachie will soon be gracing the small screen bringing her tips and tricks of perfect Japanese cooking to keen Kiwi cooks.
Sachie’s home-grown knowledge of Japanese food has come at the perfect time. When it comes to eating out, it appears Kiwis just can't get enough of Japanese cuisine. As more and more people are reaching for sushi packs over cheeseburgers, Japanese food’s popularity is constantly speeding up. In Auckland alone, there are more than 300 Japanese restaurants, sushi bars and takeaway outlets. Compare that to the 160 McDonalds restaurants nationwide and you can see where our loyalties lie. But with the appearance of meticulously assembled morsels, the inner ‘Kiwi can do’ for many is being kept at bay. Now, thanks to Sachie, the impossible is being made entirely possible.
Sachie's Kitchen was established in May this year in the Axis building in Parnell, Auckland, offering classes teaching students how to make Japanese food. As host and teacher, Sachie is positive and bubbly, with a sly sense of humour that immediately puts all at ease, allowing her to show students that Japanese food doesn't need to be difficult. Single classes or whole courses are available. But before you get too excited – she’s booked out for the next couple of months. And it’s not hard to see why. Sushi has long been the preferred lunch option for the health conscious urbanite on the go and to make this and other seemingly difficult Japanese dishes achievable in an average kitchen is a goldmine.
Now, with a major television company eyeing her up for her own cooking show, Sachie is set to take over.
“When I came here, I found that people really loved Japanese food,” says the Japan native. “They went out to Japanese restaurants, they bought sushi packs for lunch but no one really made it at home themselves. They didn’t know what ingredients to get, where to get them or how to put them together. The mentality was that it was too hard.”
Comedian and Auckland food blogger, Jesse Mulligan gave one of her classes a go and described Sachie as “one of those impossibly perfect Japanese women, who mixes charming faux-befuddlement with sharp wit and style” but she disagrees – about the perfection poke that is.
“I don’t expect people to be perfect. People I teach often have a fear of cooking foods from different countries. When they walk into my kitchen, I tell them to leave that fear at the door. I don’t tell them they have to do everything my way because that limits their creativity. I help out a lot with presentation and give tips on how to make things look perfect but, of course, if they go home and don’t want to make it like that, I won’t be offended.”
Sachie’s eye for perfection was inherited through several years learning from, living with and being schooled by a number of top Japanese chefs in Auckland. But it was her mother and aunt that instilled in her the importance of taste.
Sachie, now 32, first came to New Zealand 13 years ago leaving her life and family in the Aichi prefecture; a region between Tokyo and Osaka made famous by the Toyota brand. Like many of the 13,447 Japanese living in New Zealand, Sachie endured a nervous wait after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami hit, killing over 15,000 people. Thankfully, her family, who are based five hours south of the epicentre were not hurt but were shaken slightly more than the usual tremors to which the region is prone.
“We have earthquakes every year so we get used to them,” says Sachie. “We know what’s OK and when we need to get out of the house and run. They usually happen around midnight or early in the morning. You feel the ‘boom’ under the house and it jolts you awake. You sit up but it soon passes and you go back to sleep.”
Many Christchurch residents would empathise if this unnerving way of life was the cause of her exodus but Sachie assures that “natural disasters happen wherever you go”.
It was her dream to perfect the English language and travel the world that brought her to New Zealand. The determined young woman decided from an early age she wouldn’t settle for joining her peers on the Toyota assembly line. “In Japan we learn English as a compulsory subject but only reading and writing – not so much talking” – and Sachie sure loves to talk. Soon enough, she was on her way to mastering the Queen’s tongue thanks to the Crown Language School and Auckland University where she enrolled to study linguistics and Chinese.
She bought a little, multi-coloured Toyota Corona with a good strong motor and made a goal to become a permanent resident of the country she had grown to love.
“The car doors were different colours from the rest of the car! I’d never seen anything like it until I got here. In Japan, registrations cost more the older your car is so people change their cars every three years and, maintenance-wise, it makes sense to keep your car current.”
Sachie has stayed loyal to the Toyota Corona brand, although her model has upgraded significantly thanks to the success of her ever-growing business. What’s more, she bagged a self-announced “mighty fine” husband, Nick, who loyally serves as business partner, dishwasher and concierge to his wife’s growing food empire.
“I was all set to go on the Breakfast show to make Easy Peasy Sushi when I realised I didn’t have any seaweed,” Sachie recalls. “It was 30 minutes before I went live – it was a nightmare. Luckily, Nick came to my rescue seconds before I went on the air – he’s good like that. He does help me a lot. He is the backbone of the business. He is the foundation. He’s good at negotiating with people, researching, finances, paperwork, leasing – pretty much all the things I don’t like. Being a former lawyer, he is good at that sort of thing. We work really well as a team.”
Nick firmly believes Sachie would have been able to achieve the success she has had, by herself; he has simply accelerated some of the processes.
“Her time is better spent in the front of the operation,” Nick says. “All I really did was transcribe everything that was in her head.
So, what exactly is it about Sachie that has made her so popular? Nick puts it down to two things.
“Timing. Accessibility to travel has become a lot easier and, because of the media and internet, Japan isn’t seen as quite a scary place whereas, in the past, all people really knew about the Japanese was that they invade. Cooking shows are very much in vogue. They’re the new rock stars. Musicians are famous because everyone has the capacity to play a musical instrument so it’s something we all aspire to.
“Secondly, the proliferation of Sushi in New Zealand. It’s the most popular lunchtime meal these days. Because of that, I think people are more open to the idea that there is more to Japanese food than just sushi. They’ve started exploring things like tempura and soba noodles whereas in the past they thought it was all about raw fish and didn’t want to try that.
“A lot of people in the food industry here are set in their ways and aren’t bringing anything new to the table. It’s nothing fresh and relevant. We realise our target market is the 25 to 49-year-old urban professional; people who generally travel and like to try new things. Sachie has been able to come in at the right time.”
Japanese food is Sachie’s life. In fact, when she’s not in her kitchen you’ll probably find her in some other kitchen.
“I love Chef Gusteau’s motto from Ratatouille that ‘Anyone can cook!’ and I’m passionate to teach Kiwis so they can have the opportunity to learn how to cook healthy and fun dishes from my home country.”

Nakita Ardern
www.sachieskitchen.com




Sachie’s Special Hotpot

Servings: 4-5
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
Soup:
1200ml water
30g butter
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp ginger, finely chopped
4 Tbsp Miso paste
2 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp Yamasa soy sauce
2 Tbsp Mirin Sauce
1 Tbsp Kocyujan paste (hot chilli paste) or 1 hot chilli, chopped

1/6 cabbage, cut into pieces 
1/6 chinese cabbage, cut into pieces
5 shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 tofu block, sliced
1 sprout
500g sliced pork or chicken mince alternative
1 bunch spring onion
1 clay pot

Turn to high heat, heat the clay pot and add butter. When melted, add finely chopped garlic, ginger, chilli or Kocyujan paste. Stir fry in the clay pot until aroma is present. Add water, bring to boil and add other soup ingredients (miso paste, sugar, soy sauce, mirin sauce). Stir, and once all condiments are dissolved, add other ingredients – vegetables and meat.
Put the lid on the top of the pot, cook for 15 minutes or until meat is cooked.
Serve in small bowls or with rice.


Teriyaki Salmon Don

Servings:  4
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
4 fillets of NZ King Salmon
50g butter
1 tsp Wasabi Paste
⅓ cup Flour
3 Tbsp Yamasa Soy Sauce
Cooking oil

Handful of green beans
4 bowls of cooked rice

Put frying pan on high heat, cover the salmon with flour.
Add cooking oil to pan and pan fry salmon on both sides. Once the salmon is cooked, put aside on a plate.
Using the same pan, add the Yamasa soy sauce, butter and wasabi paste. Caramelise.
Return the salmon to the pan and swirl it in the sauce and then add the salmon to the donburi.
Serve with boiled green beans.


Japanese Pancake

Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
Batter:
1½ cups of flour
3 cups water
1 sachet of dashi (bonito flavoured seasoning)
½ tsp of soy sauce
¼ cabbage, finely chopped
1 bunch spring onion, finely chopped
4 eggs
Fillings:
Pork, chicken or bacon, cut into small pieces
Raw shrimp
Optional: squid, cheese, sausage, cut into small pieces
Garnish - any of the below:
Okonomiyaki sauce
Mayonnaise
Katuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
Aonori (seaweed flakes)

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, water, dashi and soy sauce together until smooth.
In a separate small bowl, put a handful of cabbage, two tablespoons of spring onion, one egg, any preferred ingredients from ‘fillings’ and one scoop of batter. Mix well with chopsticks or a spoon.
Place a medium frying pan over high heat and add oil. Use a spoon to spread the mix on the frying pan and spread it into a round shape between about 1.2 and 1.5 cm thick.
When air bubbles start to rise in the middle of the pancake, turn it over with a spatula and cook for another three minutes.
Remove to the plate. Spread the okonomiyaki sauce and drizzle mayonnaise and sprinkle with aonori and katsuobushi to serve. Enjoy!