In the Photo: Sablefish with Kazu sauce; packaged commercial variety; the mash draining in cotton bags; the dried kazu chips.


KAZU, BLESS YOU

Kazu. It sounds like a sneeze, doesn’t it?

Especially if your Japanese pronunciation is pretty good.

But it’s the name of a seasonal winter food item -- the whitish chips and chunks of a substance that could easily be mistaken for tofu but is actually a by-product of the sake making process. It is in fact, the rice mash (or lees) that gets left behind at the bottom of the tank when the almost clear sake is separated from its suspended solids after fermentation.

Sake-kazu is a fairly common cooking ingredient in Japan and most restaurants feature dishes that incorporate it in some way or another (usually as a marinade). Although restaurants outside of Japan have to contend with an imported version that is packaged in small cellophane bags and sold at Japanese groceries for $5 or $6. Rarely can the restaurants get their hands on the fresh stuff.

That is, unless they live in Vancouver, because with the opening of the Osake Artisan Sake Studio on Granville Island, fresh kazu has suddenly become available. Consequently, chefs both Asian and western, haven’t taken long to jump on it.

Tojo-san of course, was first in line to nab some for one of his traditional marinated sablefish dishes, that in Japan is called Saikyo-yaki. And Chef Karen Barnaby of the Fish House in Stanley Park, has also reportedly been experimenting with it as a marinade for some of her seafood and meat dishes.

But hurrah for Chef Hiro who has been running away with a bucket or two of the stuff and coming back to Osake with fresh baked goods. He’s even made biscotti from the aromatic, sake-scented mash and Sake-Master Masa Shiroki is selling it at the studio.

If you think Shiroki’s BC sake makes good conversation material at your cocktail party, try serving it with the biscotti.

Incidentally, Masa-san has been amazed at the immediate and tremendous success of his artisan quality, locally produced brew.

“I never thought I was going to be able to move the Osake Genshu, which the liquor board was forcing me to retail for $32 a bottle, he said. “But it was the first of the three varieties to sell out!�


Recipes:

SAKE KASU-MARINATED SEA BASS WITH COCONUT GREEN CURRY SAUCE

HALIBUT WITH SAKE KASU