BEGIN Japanology - Soybeans

Oh round golden soybeans packed with protein they have been called the meat of the fields soybeans are full of vitamins and minerals even outside Japan they're in the spotlight as a miracle food the Japanese started eating soybeans around 2,000 years ago people devised many ways of eating soybeans that suited Japan's climate and culture these efforts gave birth to food items such as miso tofu and soy sauce which became staples of the Japanese diet along with rice the people who grow soybeans and the people who process them are the inheritors of finely honed skills handed down from generation to generation in Japan soybeans are believed to have sacred power to ward off evil and of long featured in seasonal rituals on this edition of beginning jabber Knology we look at soybeans a staple of the Japanese diet and also at the ingenuity that gave rise to a remarkable variety of soybean products hello and welcome to begin jabber knology I'm Peter Barragan our theme for today is the humble soybean I'm in Kyoto which is famous for its tour foot which of course is made from soybeans but we'll get into tofu in more detail a little later in the show people all over the world are turning to soybeans these days as a kind of health food but they've been around in Japan for hundreds and hundreds of years and the history actually tells us quite a lot about Japan's culinary traditions let's start off with a look at how soybeans fit into the whole scene of Japanese food soybeans are a superb health food containing beneficial proteins and fats and lots of minerals in the West they have historically been grown mainly for their oil and as livestock feed by contrast in Japan where animal protein was traditionally very scarce the full potential of soy has been exploited open the fridge in a typical Japanese household and it's virtually certain that you will find numerous soy based products inside Japanese supermarkets are chock-full of processed soy foods as you can see I love it I did every morning my body demands it in what forms de SOI beans find their way onto Japanese tables let's take a look first as a seasoning this is soy sauce special bacteria are mixed with steamed soy beans and roasted wheat to make a substance called core G salt water is added to the core G then the mixture is slowly fermented and aged the resulting liquid is soy sauce soy sauce is widely used in all phases of cooking from preliminary preparations to final seasoning it brings out the savoriness of food and adds a distinctive flavour and aroma that is integral to Japanese cuisine next me--some like soy sauce it's a seasoning the Japanese cooking can't do without soy beans are steamed with rice or barley then table salt and Koji are added to the mixture which is left to ferment a broth is made from miso paste together with seasonal vegetables and local delicacies this makes the quintessential Japanese home-cooked soup the ubiquitous miso soup our next example is made by fermenting the beans without altering their shape this is nate'll there are two types this is the salty type the soybeans are fermented using the same special bacteria used for missile then dried and aged it said that in the 8th century Buddhist monks returning from China brought this food to Japan no star this salty type napped all is still made in Buddhist temples here's the other type sticky nettle this is the type widely consumed in Japan sticky soybeans are fermented using the natto bacillus the traditional method of making this napped R is to steam the beans wrap them in rice straw and keep them at a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius left for about a day the microbes on the straw colonized the beans and ferment them to produce a characteristic sticky stringy texture let's take a look at the usual way of eating natto in Japan first you stir the beans thoroughly the trick is to keep stirring until plenty of sticky white strings for this stirring boosts the savory constituents making the beans taste better natto is usually eaten over rice when you lift a mouse natto with chopsticks sticky straddles will hang from if you wind these strands up with the chopsticks you can keep them from sticking around your mouth that lets you eat them neatly finally tofu in Japanese cuisine tofu can be anything from a main dish to an ingredient in soup let's watch the tour food production process in which nothing is wasted the talk will makers day begins very early first the soybeans are soaked in water in making tofu the selection of beans is of critical importance the origin and variety of the beans subtly affects the flavor and firms of the torta beans are living creatures also taught to make a say so the soaking time is adjusted according to the weather and temperature they say that no matter how experienced a tall filmmaker is every batch will come out slightly different the following morning the beans are checked and the day's process is complete first the beans are mechanically matched while adding water next the mashed beans are cooked in a boiler the liquid extracted when boiled soybeans are squeezed is soy milk soy milk sets in to toughen the tool for making process also generates several other food products along the way first or cutter this is what's left after the soy milk is squeezed out Okara is often eaten after being simmered in sweet soup stop when soy milk is heated a skin called Yuba forms on the surface skimmed off Huber can be eaten as a delicacy with soy sauce in order to produce tofu from soy milk a coagulant is used the coagulant comes from the process of evaporating seawater to obtain salt the making of tofu uses all of the beans nutritional potential one popular summertime tofu dish is he iack Oh chil tofu is dressed with condiments and soy sauce to make a tasty treat and in winter the typical tofu dishes you dolphin tofu is warmed in a pot and eaten with a soy sauce based dip in summer or winter soybean based items play a big part in recipes as main dishes or seasonings soybeans are highly nutritious and have been incorporated into the Japanese diet in many forms making a useful contribution to everyday health this part of Kyoto is called free a chaw and it used to be full of shops selling tofu and Yuba there's a shop here that's been in business for many years and still make store for in the traditional way I'm going to go in and take a look hello soy milk coming out of the bottom here what are we seeing here the fiber contained in soybeans mixed with water Jefferson soymilk for that much thank you very much Wow it's a very mild taste it's quite thick it's very pleasant it's also very hot soybeans are an annual crop they're sometimes called the meat of the fields in Japan and gold from the earth in the US in Japan more than 80 varieties of soybean are grown let's observe how soybeans are cultivated seeds are sown between April and June over the summer the pods become plump with green beans at this point they're called edamame by boiling them the beans themselves can be eaten while they're still young that is before they have fully matured if the pods are not harvested as edamame they continue to mature into round fully grown soybeans let's watch how soybeans are harvested areas where there's a wide temperature difference between morning and evening are said to be best suited to the cultivation of soybeans November is the harvest season soybean parts are beaten with sticks to release the beans inside machine is our two forces they bruise the skin and break too many of the things it's important not to damage them easily if we want to supply good beans we want to eat human veins that's why we do it by hand this painstaking labor produces nice round beans that positively love next any damage leads are separated at peak harvest work lasts eight hours a day it takes great patience the sorted soybeans are finally dried on the veranda of the farmers these premium-grade domestically grown soybeans from a grower aspiring to the very best in flavor are now ready for the market you can see they've got quite an array of different kinds of beans corn eat you up these are your regular soybeans here different size packs as you can see there's a whole range of different kinds of beans I was told recently but these are kind of soybeans is that true yes these are soybeans a special variety of soybean that some people call great beans they used for special New Year's dishes when you boil them they look just like grapes in terms of color and of these made locally yes they're cultivated in the Tampa area of Kyoto the reason that beans are eating at ceremonial times is this was various reason so one of them is a kind of play on words the Japanese word for bean is mummy and there's another word which is an adjective Mahmut which means industrious or diligent or conscientious things like that which all qualities which are often applied to Japanese people it makes you wonder whether they become like that because they eat a lot of beans or if there's any kind of connection I don't know soy beans often featuring Japan's ancient customs and rites the New Year is celebrated by eating a meal of dishes traditionally prepared especially for that holiday one of these dishes is made of black soybeans they symbolize a resolution to work diligently and stay healthy in February a festival is held on the day before the first day of spring on the lunar calendar to welcome spring a ritually stage to ward off bad luck in it people throw soybeans to drive away evil spirits this is done because people believe that beans have a sacred power to expel demons after driving away the evil spirits each person eats the number of beans corresponding to his earthen age the aim is to stay free of disease and disaster through the year to come soya beans first appeared in Japan around 2,000 years ago they came from China where they originated by around one thousand three hundred years ago processed soybean foods were being eaten in Japan Japan had extensive interaction with China at the time and products such as miso soy sauce and tofu and the methods of making them had come into the country soybeans began to be more widely cultivated around 700 years ago as Buddhism spread so did its prohibitions against eating meat this spurred the development of vegetarian cooking ascetic monks had a simple diet they typically at meals you spreading the mixture on nori seaweed and frying it in oil in spite of a limited assortment of ingredients this sort of ingenuity led to the creation of many new soybean based dishes from the 18th century onwards soy cuisine spread to the population in general one cookbook published in 1782 presented 100 tall food delicacies this book does in fact contain 100 tofu recipes and was written not by a culinary expert but by a man of letters the tone is whimsy it became a massive bestseller at a time when tour fill was available cheaply to the general public so what are the old recipes like we had a few dishes made for us this is called hailstone tooth to make it drain tofu is chopped into dice sized cubes which are immersed in water and rolled around on a bamboo sieve until they become round these tofu balls are then fried in oil the aroma and sweetness of tofu give this dish a soup lime flavor this one is called ice Talton crumble tofu is sealed in agar and the whole thing is chilled to hug syrup is bought on top to create a refreshing the trick ingenuity brought forth a wide variety of dishes from the single ingredient and it all began with the Buddhist vegetarian meals of the 13th the 18th century saw the flowering of full-fledged tour for quizzing fast-forward to modern time since the Second World War soybean dishes have become even more popular on the outskirts of cities there has been a rapid increase in farmland planted with soybeans to harvest the young beans called edamame fresh edamame as a companion for beer became explosively popular among office workers around the 1960s soy products help to fuel japan's workforce during the country's error of booming economic growth for centuries the soybean has been enjoyed by people in Japan each generation has harnessed ingenuity to prepare soybeans in different ways this is a restaurant that specializes in tofu cuisine as you can see I have a number of dishes laid out here in front of me I'm not quite sure what they are hopefully going to find out now and the chef of this restaurant is here with me konnichiwa hey joy can you please explain to me what these various dishes are first of all this is extra soft creamy tofu called or borrowed or made from white hilum soybeans this one is a steamed egg custard dish which uses soy milk this is a fried tofu fritter made with strained tofu egg and ground fish paste this is or Karis soy bean Lee's wrapped in Yuba tofu skin and grilled and just all of these made out of tofu which is something that I mean people who like 12 will of course become fans of it some people don't see tofu they think it's just tasteless they need to come here and try this I'm sure they will change their minds but going back to that book that was written some 200 years ago a hundred ways to to cook tofu it's that kind of spirit of inventiveness I suppose or invention which still lives on today in cooking like this marvelous okay next we're going to meet a man who actually makes TOEFL this profession like many traditional crafts is suffering from a lack of young people entering the field to take over from the old masters but there are a few people starting up their own businesses we're going to meet one of them in the old days tofu sellers would go around town selling tofu anything they used to be many tofu sellers but the number has declined to 1/5 of what it was 50 years ago why have so many left the business they can't compete with the low prices of supermarket but one young man has bucked this trend by starting his own tofu shop the real doctor district of Tokyo similar ward has been at the heart of traditional Tokyo for centuries Yasuyuki Yokoi built his own tofu shop here from scratch when your COI was in high school he tried a certain kind of tofu and was astounded at how delicious it was he immediately decided he would make tofu for a living after graduating from University he became an apprentice to a tofu maker in Kyoto but the apprenticeship was tough temperature humidity the condition of the beans slight differences in any of these factors would influence the resulting tofu he often made mistakes and wasted soybeans whenever that happened I really felt inept the mistakes were entirely my fault of course during his apprenticeship your boy carried a notebook around with him wherever he went whenever he figured out what he had done wrong or he saw something to remember he would make an vote for future efforts he was determined to create tofu of his own that was so delicious it would astound me so your boy a battle with the temperamental nature of soybeans day after day in the heat and in the core eight years later having survived that grueling apprenticeship your koi finally opened his own little shop he fulfilled his dream of making and selling tour through the old-fashioned way dealing face-to-face with the customer in the neighborhood where he was born and raised the first thing that you learned in his apprenticeship was the importance of selecting soil it's about the flavor balance also the physical firmness of the talkin even the blend has to be adjusted as the seasons change but even when using the same beans the flavor of the tour food varies depending on who makes it a fundamental tool for making is the amount of water soaked into the beans but the moisture content undergoes subtle changes depending on air temperature humidity water temperature and the condition of the beans your koi achieves himself to the voice of the beans each day so as to understand their condition this ability to listen to the beans is the crucial skill with your coy master during his eight years of apprenticeship yoku is very particular about using as little coagulant as possible to set the talk he believes that it detracts from the inherent flame the soybeans however too little of the coagulant and the tofu will not set properly and be running how has today's tour food turned out it seems that Yokoi is satisfied with this batch more and more people in the neighborhood have learned of your quois dedication to the occupation of tour for meeting and he has a growing base of loyal customers his wife Kezia runs the shop we're keeping this place going yeah like a real boss now thank you with the warm support of his old neighborhood your coy continues to explore the tour filmmaking tradition for hundreds of years shops selling traditional foods were a place where the whole community would interact so you had the people making preparing the food dealing directly with their customers and of course you had a relationship of trust which could so easily break down if quality wasn't maintained are the good old days before convenience became a be-all and end-all for just about everything I'll see you again next time you

Channel: Japanology

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Keywords: BEGIN Japanology Soybeans, japanology, begin japanology, japanology 2016, begin japanology 2016

Id: Y_VKQpMtFqY

Length: 27min 27sec (1647 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 24 2016