Good things come to those who wait: Yubeshi part 2

 

So, from the ingredients for Yubeshi, you may think “Hmmmmm … it’s vegetable protein and fat, isn’t it?” Right. The main ingredients of miso paste is soy. Nuts are for unsaturated fatty acid. For yuzu peel, here is 2015 data from Ministry of Education of Japan:

For 100g of yuzu peel, the main nutrients are

59 kcal
Protein 1.2g
Fat 0.5g
Carbohydrate 14.2g
Vitamin E 3.4mg
Vitamin C 160mg


As reference, 100g of yuzu juice contains

21 kcal
Protein 0.5g
Fat 0.1g
Carbohydrate 7.0g
Vitamin E 0.2mg
Vitamin C 40mg

It’s obvious yuzu peel is more nutritious than its juice. I guess that’s why ancient warriors carried them as ration. Now we’ve completed mise en place. Let’s start cooking.

First, we mix well Miso paste, Sugar, and Flour of your choice. You can skip flour if you prefer. The taste of Yubeshi will be stronger, i.e., saltier.

Next, add nuts and sesame. Mix well.

Finally, add sake and mirin. Fold them thoroughly to make a sticky dough. Or, you could skip adding such liquid in the dough. Again, the taste of Yubeshi will be stronger and saltier without these ingredients.

Put the miso mixture in a cup of yuzu peel. I think this is the most important part of cooking Yubeshi. If you economize the mixture, when you cook the peel, it could collapse and Yubeshi won’t be a shape of power ball. When you add too much of miso and nuts paste, the dough will expand during the cooking and overflow from the cup at best, or tear the cup and no ball will come out. The key is just nice amount of miso mixture in a cup. It would be like 70% of a cup, which could be …

like these. For this amount of dough, when you put the lid on a cup, it sunks in the cup. Don’t worry this dropped-in. It will turn out a nice Yubeshi ball.

Steam Yubeshi balls for 60 minutes, or …

until the fat of the peel and sugar covers the ball thoroughly and turns the balls shiny like these. Could you see the peel cups also have color of miso paste? That’s pretty much OK.

The miso oozed out and turned the color of the peel. No problem.

Next, wrap each cooked yuzu balls with a parchment paper and fasten it with a rubber band. It’s like making heads of dolls. Frankly, it’s fun! Now we reach to the last process for preparing Yubeshi balls. Let’s hung them somewhere to dry. I used old laundry nets for economizing the space (;hey, we’re in Japan!). Add one ball in a net, fasten the net at the top of the ball with a twine, then add another ball. Continue this until all the space of a net is full. I then hung them from a hanger. Very luckily when I steamed Yubeshi balls, it was a damned fine January weekend so that I started my drying outside. But letting balls to be wet by rain is HUGE no-no. The place to dry Yubeshi balls are somewhere with nice air circulation, and dry. If you care, you can check the form of the ball while the cup is still wet. You massage them to make them rounder, just like making a snowball.

It depends on the dryness of the climate of your place. In normally very dry Yokohama’s January, Yubeshi balls will be hardened within 7 days or so. I’m not sure when it is OK for the cooked Yubeshi balls are still soft after 7 days … I guess in such a case there is a danger the cooked yuze cups are getting moldy and started to rotten, i.e. the failure of the cooking. That’s the reason people say cooking Yubeshi balls must be completed by the end of January in Kanto region, Yokohama included ... Metropolis Tokyo in December to January has very dry but not so harsh winter. Having said that, as long as the air is dry enough it won’t be a problem, I surmise. Traditionally, this Yubeshi balls are made not only in Nara Prefecture but also in Ishikawa Prefecture where they have huge amount of snow fall in winter. Heavy snow does not mean wet weather, you see?

The next step of this recipe is, W-A-I-T. Once the Yubeshi balls are hardened in the net, let them keep drying for at least one more month in a place of good air circulation. It means when you’ve completed cooking yuzu cups at the end of January, Yubeshi balls will become power balls in the first or second week of March. After the long waiting, the wrapped Yubeshi cups shrink in the paper to become like these.

Inside the paper wrap is completely dried Yubeshi balls. Once the Yubeshi reaches to this stage, it can be stored in room temperature.

To eat Yubeshi, the standard is to slice them. A ball Yubeshi is very hard, but cutting them is not hard. Come to think of it the inside of the cup was the mixture of miso paste that was once creamy. The taste of Yubeshi is salty (because of miso) and sweet (thanks to sugar). It has flavor of yuzu fruits, nuts, and sesame. As they have been folded by miso which is fermented by yeast, these peels and nuts are also matured in a cup and create complex harmony of savor. I tell you they are D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!! No wonder one Yubeshi ball could cost 10 USD when we search them in stores. They can be very good tapas by themselves. People say combining the slice of Yubeshi with cheese goes superbly with wine. Naomi is enjoying them occasionally as luxurious afternoon snack with tea. Cherry blossoms are in full swing now …😊

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016 

FAX: 045-316-8420