Shellfish

I found these big, hunky clams at the farmers market this weekend, each at least 2 inches across. But how to prepare them? My wife Momo found a bunch of recipes online, but we decided to go as simple as possible -- steam them with sake.

Here's an example of the spontaneity of Japanese cooking: My mother-in-law Nobuko is here to visit our baby (not us, but the baby :) ), and yesterday we took her to our local farmer's market here in Brooklyn.

Here are more videos Tadashi and I shot for last week's Japan Society presentation of our book, The Japanese Grill. Check out how to turn out amazing steaks, scallops, chicken, veggies, using marinades and rubs with garlic-soy sauce, miso, yuzu kosho, sansho and more... So don't delay: Fire up the Weber and get grilling right away!

I love mixed rice dishes in Japanese cooking. In this one, Nobuko prepared rice with freshly shucked oysters, delicious.

In these two videos Chef Abe demonstrates two great techniques for clams, both easy and delicious. For the clam soup he uses Little Neck clams, and for the sake-steamed technique (sakamushi) he uses smaller Manila clams.

When I worked on a story on dashi last fall, I searched mightily for all the English-language information I could find on kombu and katsuobushi (dried kelp and dried, shaved bonito), the elements that make up a classic Japanese stock. I wish "Dashi and Umami" was available when I was writing my article.

One of the many things I love about Nakahigashi Restaurant is how Mr. Nakahigashi can bring out the sublime natural flavors of ingredients even though he does very little to them. Atsushi expressed this idea in a simple clam soup with just three ingredients: Clams, water and umami-rich konbu. Actually, when he explained what he was about to cook, I suggested he add a little yuzu citrus peel to give the soup another layer of flavor. Atsushi politely demurred -- that's not the Nakahigashi way, he explained. Clams and konbu are all you need. No accents or garnishes necessary.