Famous Sakes& Shochus introduced at a Sake event recently ...

Recently I was honoured to assist a delegation of Presidents and owners of Sake & Shochu Brewers in introducing exclusive sakes and shochus at Wasabi restaurant, Taj Mahal Hotel. It was really nice interpreting for them and getting introduced to sake brewing process.

Mr. Hideharu Ohta (Pres. DAISHICHI Brewery, Fukushima-established in 1752), Mr. Ryuichiro Masuda (Masuizumi Junmai Daiginjo), Mr. Sudo (Pres. Sudohonke) & Mr. Watanabe (Pres. Kyoya Shochu Distillery founded in 1834) introduced their best sakes and shochus in India at the hotel and the Japanese Embassy Matsuri (festival). It was a great honour and pleasure to meet them.
I am looking forward to learning more about sakes and sharing my knowledge with you in the coming days. So I have decided to have a separate section that will talk about sakes and how best we can absorb it in our daily lifestyle and cooking. My mother has been using sake in Indian cooking since the 80s when she published a book on healthy Indian cooking in Tokyo which catered to Japanese tastes. Inspired by her, I would like to share some tips to acquaint you with Sake so that you could welcome it in your house too. Sakes complement a lot of Indian dishes too.

SHOCHU

Shochu is Japan's traditional distilled hard liquor. Authentic shochu is distilled once unlike beer. It is mainly made from sweet potatoes but it is also made from barley, rice, buckwheat, brown sugar, dates, sesame’s seeds and various vegetables.
It derives it's characteristics from sake and koji. Shochu is on par with Scotch/Whisky. Shochu can also be used for marinating and seasoning. It enhances the taste of ingredients and softens the smells of meat and seafood.
Shochu can be served chilled, warm, hot, and straight on the rocks .It can be added to cocktails. Sweet potato Shochu can be served tea ceremony style.

SAKE

Lately I have been reading a lot about how Sake (Sa-ke) is made. Sake is a Japanese alcoholic drink made from fermented rice. Sake is known as Japanese rice wine around the world. There is so much of information available on the internet regarding sake brewing. It was interesting to sharpen my knowledge about Sake.

In honorific Japanese it is referred to as O-sake. Actually sake refers to alcoholic drinks in general. In Japan, Japanese rice wine is known as 'nihonshu'.

It can be served cold, lukewarm or hot. Sake is usually drunk in small porcelain cups or wooden box like cups but now there are different ways of serving it. It can be served straight or can be used in cocktails now.

There are pasteurized sakes and those that are not.  Sake can also be used in cooking, sauces and marinades.There are various varieties of sake. For instance Junmai Diginjo-shu, Junmai Ginjo-shu, Junmai-shu etc. Junmai Daiginjo-shu is a very special brew of pure rice with rice polishing ratio of below 50 %.  Junmai Ginjo-shu's rice polishing ratio is below 60% and Junmai-shu's is below 70%.

 Sake is produced by a brewing process which may be similar to that of beer yet very different. Rice is used in case of sake instead of barley which is fermented to make beer.  Sake is called rice wine and is compared to beer at times. But Sake is a unique type of fermented alcohol. Sake would be the only beverage in the world using koji. Koji is one of the key ingredients in sake brewing.  Basically there are five elementsinvolved in brewing Sake-

Water, Rice, Yeast, Land, Weather and Technical Skill

I would like to talk about the Sake brewing process at length sometime. To summarize Sake is a result of brewing process that uses lots of water and rice-

1. Polished Rice is washed, soaked and steam cooked without water. Steam is brought through the bottom of the rice. The steaming method is called 'koshiki'.

2. Then the rice is mixed with yeast and 'koji' (rice cultivated with a mold).

3. The whole mix is allowed to ferment with more rice/koji/water added in 3 batches over 4 days.

Fermentation occurs in a large tank (the process is called 'shikomi'...the quality of rice, the degree to which koji mold has propagated, temperature variations and other factors are different for each shikomi) .There are different methods of fermentation.  

4. This mash ('moromi') is allowed to sit from 18-32 days after which it is pressed ('joso'), filtered ('roka') and blended.

[ SAKE BREWING PROCESS :  POLISHING  RICE (Seimai)-->  WASHING & SOAKING--> STEAMING (koshiki) & COOLING--> KOJI MAKING(seigiku)--> YEAST STARTER (moto)--> MASH (moromi)-rice/water/koji added in 3 stages over 4days --> PRESSING(joso)--> FILTRATION(roka)--> PASTEURIZATION--> AGING/MATURING ]