50 Women Game-Changers (in Food): #42 Harumi Kurihara - Lettuce-Wrapped Fried Chicken

the "Gourmet" prompt...

42. Harumi Kurihara- …who probably hates being incessantly called “the Japanese Martha Stewart.”

This is my introduction to Harumi Kurihara.  And I can see why she is referred to as the Japanese Martha Stewart -- she has a pretty amazing little empire going on.  Yet, she still considers herself a housewife ("shufu").   Born in 1947, she married a TV newscaster in 1973 and had two children.  Often, they had visitors from the television industry in their home and of course Harumi would serve them home cooking.  Harumi was asked to work as an assistant on a cooking show.

Six years after she started working on the cooking show, she published her first cookbook (1989).  In the years that followed, she managed to publish a cookbook a year.  In '92 she published a new style of cookbook, Gociososama ga Kikitakute, in which she featured her family's favorite recipes.  It was based on everyday home cooking and she used her own personal serving dishes, bowls, and utensils in the photographs.  She hit it off big with this one, especially with the housewives and it became a bestseller, as did her follow-up Moichido Godhisosama ga Kikitakute.  More than 10,000 copies of these two books are still reprinted each year with the total printed number of the two books now reaching more than two and a quarter million!  In '96 she began publishing a quarterly recipe magazine entitled Suteki Recipe.  It was the first personal magazine in Japan and it introduced her lifestyle as well as her cooking, gardening, and other creative things (enter the Martha moniker...she even has a book called Everyday Harumi).  Her first English cookbook, Harumi's Japanese Cooking, was published in '05 and was named the best in World Asian Cuisine 2004 and Best Cookbook 2004 in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (the Oscars of Cookbooks).

But that's not all.  She has hosted various television shows, currently "Your Japanese Kitchen" which started in '07 in which she introduces Japanese home-cooked dishes in English as well as a cooking corner called "Harumi Kitchen" every Thursday on a weekday morning program.

But wait!  It doesn't stop there.  In '95 Kurihara began to operate her business "Yutori no Kukan" which manages shops and restaurants.  The shops sell kitchen items, interior goods, aprons, and clothes; there are 55 shops in major department stores across Japan.  The 13 cafes and restaurants feature her original recipes on the menu.

She still considers herself (and likes being) a housewife.  In this manner, she's always tried to introduce her recipes.  Perhaps using leftover food in the fridge or ingredients that everyone has in their kitchen.  But she adds unique twists to her cooking, giving birth to innovative original recipes.  She takes the same approach (that of a housewife) in designing her products and goods, focusing on function and usability.  She has a very popular apron line with more than 600 designs.  She enjoys life and this is reflected in her wide range of products.

The only book I was actually able to get my hands on locally (library) was Harumi's Japanese Cooking.  But that didn't post a problem.  I had numerous sticky tabs popping out to mark things that I wanted to try.  I wound up going for Japanese-style deep-fried chicken pieces.  And am I ever happy that I did.  The whole family loved it!  The flavor that the marinade imparted on the chicken was fabulous.  Wrapping the crispy, flavorful chicken in lettuce with herbs added a cool element.  And I added some dipping sauces for good measure.  It was a meal that will be repeated in our home.

Leaf-Wrapped Fried Chicken w/ Dipping Sauces

by Heather Schmitt-González

Prep Time: 15 mins. + time to marinate

Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

Keywords: fry entree chicken herbs lettuce avocado Japanese

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

• 3 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• ¾ c. potato starch or cornstach
• ½ c. all-purpose flour
• oil, for frying

marinade:

• 3 Tbs. soy sauce
• 1½ Tbs. rice wine vinegar
• 4 fat cloves garlic, minced
• salt

to serve:

• fresh cilantro, mint, and chives
• lettuce (like Romaine or butter), for wrapping

Creamy Tofu & Avocado Dip

• 1 avocado
• ~3 oz. homemade tofu (or use soft/silken store-bought tofu)
• juice of ½ a lemon
• salt
• freshly ground pepper

Spicy Sweet Chile Sauce

• Sriracha
• Honey

Instructions

Cut each chicken thigh into ~6 or 7 pieces and place in a gallon-size resealable baggy. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, minced garlic, and a couple pinches of salt to the bag. Seal and squidge it around so that all the chicken is coated. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to a few hours.

Whisk together flour and potato starch. Dip each piece of chicken into the mixture and shake off the excess.

Heat oil (an 1½-2" deep) until it is around 340° - 350° F. Carefully lower chicken pieces (in batches) into hot oil and fry until crisp, golden, and cooked through; ~4-5 minutes. Transfer cooked chicken to a paper towel-lined tray to drain and repeat until all of the chicken is fried.

Serve the deep-fried chicken with a variety of washed herbs and lettuce leaves. Wrap pieces of chicken in the leaves along with the herbs of your choice. Dip in one or more sauces, using your fingers. Enjoy!

adapted from Harumi's Japanese Cooking

You can choose your favorite dipping sauces to dip these in. I made a sweet and spicy dip and a cool, creamy dip. I think a hot mustard would be fabulous here, as well.

Spicy Sweet Chile Sauce

Combine equal parts Sriracha and honey and stir together. I recommend making a LOT, as this is super addictive.  And tasty.

Creamy Tofu & Avocado Dip

Combine all ingredients and mush together with the back of a spoon and then stir until smooth.

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In May '11, Gourmet posted a list of 50 Women Game-Changers (in Food) that runs the gamut from food writers to cookbook authors to television personalities to restauranteurs to chefs to food bloggers.  Some are a given.  Some are controversial.  Speaking the names of some brings fond childhood memories.  Speaking the names of others will make some readers cringe.  And of course, some of our favorites were not even included.  We food-lovers are a passionate bunch of people and whether we agree or disagree, every woman on this list has earned her place for a reason.  Being a woman who is passionate about food (cooking, eating, talking about, writing about, photographing), when I caught wind of Mary from One Perfect Bite's idea of cooking/blogging her way through each of these 50 women...one per week...I knew I wanted to join her.  Many of these women paved the way for us in culinary school, in the kitchen, in cookbooks, in food writing, and on television and I think it is a fabulous way to pay tribute to their efforts.  Some of the women on the list have been tops with me for years.  Some I have heard of (perhaps even seen, read, or cooked from) before.  And there are even a handful that I am not familiar with at all.  I excited to educate myself on each of these women game-changers and hope you look forward to reading along.  We are going in order from 1 to 50.

Who is cooking along with these 50 Women Game-Changers?

Mary- One Perfect Bite, Val- More Than Burnt Toast, Joanne- Eats Well With Others, Taryn- Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan- The Spice Garden, Heather- girlichef, Miranda- Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette- Jeanette's Healthy Living, Kathy- Bakeaway with Me, Sue- The View from Great Island, Barbara- Moveable Feasts, Linda- There and Back Again, Nancy- Picadillo, Mireya- My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica- My Catholic Kitchen, Annie- Lovely Things, Claudia- Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce- More Time at the Table, Amrita- Beetle's Kitchen Escapades, Jill- Saucy Cooks, Sarah - Everything in the Kitchen Sink

*source: yotori no kukan

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