Picnic-Perfect Days

When the calendar says winter in Southern California, there are still days that are picnic-perfect. A light, refreshing basket lunch is my choice for these sunny spells punctuated by high clouds, a cool breeze and crunchy leaves underfoot.

I owe the idea for this out-of-the-ordinary picnic to my neighbor Yoko Nishida, who once hosted a birthday party in a park for 30 adults and children and served a dazzling assortment of Japanese foods. Out of plastic containers and foil-wrapped trays came a seemingly endless variety of pickled vegetables and seaweed, dumplings, rice balls, salads and marinated cooked meats. My thinking about picnic food hasn’t been the same since.

This simplified Japanese family picnic centers on a flavorful chicken entree accompanied by rice balls and pickled cucumbers. If you’re going straight from your kitchen to the picnic table, add a potato salad to round out the menu. (If that doesn’t seem in keeping with the theme, trust me: Potato and macaroni salads are popular in homes and restaurants in both Japan and the United States). Fresh fruit in season completes the meal.

Serve Japanese mugee cha (a roast barley iced tea available at Asian markets), if it’s a warm day or traditional green tea if the air is cool. Another option: Japanese beer for the adults and fruit juices for the kids.

Menu

Chicken a la Yoko

Rice Balls (Onigiri)

Cucumber With Sweet Vinegar Dressing

Potato Salad

Fruits in season

Japanese barley tea (Mugee cha)

Staples

Soy sauce

Apple juice

Short-grain white rice

Sake

Rice Vinegar

Sugar

Salt

Shopping List

Mirin

Peanut oil

2 pounds chicken drummettes, skinned

3 ounces fresh salmon

1 sheet nori seaweed

Bonito flakes

2 medium pickled plums

1 pound English or Japanese hothouse cucumbers

Mugee cha (Japanese barley tea)

Game Plan

Day before: Prepare and chill potato salad if serving.

Morning before: Prepare and chill cucumber side dish. Make and chill barley tea according to package directions.

1 1/2 hours ahead: Cook rice.

1 hour before: Cook chicken.

45 minutes before: Prepare rice seasonings.

30 minutes before: Make rice balls.

CHICKEN A LA YOKO

A whole cut-up chicken can be substituted for the drummettes, or pick your favorite pieces. Drummettes are especially easy to eat as picnic finger food, and children seem to love them.

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup mirin

1/3 cup apple juice

1/3 cup peanut oil

1 1/2 to 2 pounds chicken drummettes, skin removed

Combine soy sauce, mirin, apple juice and peanut oil in medium saucepan. Heat on high to boiling, add chicken and lower heat to simmer. Cover. Stir chicken after 30 minutes, heat another 20 minutes, then remove lid. Chicken is ready when sauce is thickened and oil starts to separate from sauce. Remove chicken and store covered until serving. Sauce may be chilled to skim off oil, reheated and poured over chicken.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

329 calories; 1,522 mg sodium; 66 mg cholesterol; 21 grams fat; 13 grams carbohydrates; 20 grams protein; 0.04 gram fiber.

RICE BALLS (Onigiri)

Rice balls of any shape make tasty, portable picnic food. Prepare the fillings while the rice cooks. I like to use a rice cooker to steam the rice, but stove top rice works just as well. If you’d rather prepare just one filling instead of the three described in the recipe, prepare 6 ounces salmon, 1/2 cup loose bonito flakes or 8 to 10 medium pickled plums.

3 ounces fresh salmon

2 teaspoons sake

3 rounded tablespoons loose bonito flakes (hana katsuo)

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 medium pickled plums (umeboshi)

1 sheet nori seaweed

3 1/2 cups cooked short-grained rice (about 2 cups uncooked)

Broil salmon until lightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove bones and skin. Sprinkle with sake, then pull apart into shreds. Set aside.

Moisten bonito flakes with soy sauce. Set aside.

Squeeze out pits from pickled plums.

Toast nori seaweed by passing shiny side over gas stove flame or hot burner several times. Cut into 1x3-inch strips.

To form rice balls, place hot rice out in large bowl but do not pack down. With wooden spoon or rice paddle, scoop up about 1/2 cup unpacked rice and place it in small bowl or coffee cup. Do not pack down. (This cools outer rice enough that it may be handled without difficulty.)

Moisten hands with lightly salted water. (This also seasons rice.) Take 1/2 cup rice (or amount you are comfortable with) in cupped fingers of one hand. Make slight indentation in middle of rice and add 1 filling. (Use about 2 teaspoons salmon per rice ball, 1/2 teaspoon bonito flakes per rice ball or 1 plum per rice ball.) Close rice over filling.

Use fingers of your right hand to shape ball into rough triangle. When necessary, rotate by tossing rice lightly in cupped hands to form corners and edges. Avoid packing rice so hard that it is mashed or so loose that “ball” falls apart. Finished triangle should be about 2 1/2 inches high and 1 inch thick. Wrap sides of triangle with toasted nori seaweed strips, moisten ends and press together.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

418 calories; 429 mg sodium; 27 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 81 grams carbohydrates; 13 grams protein; 0.80 gram fiber.

CUCUMBER WITH SWEET VINEGAR DRESSING

Instead of making the sweet vinegar dressing, many Japanese cooks use Japanese pickled bases (Asazuke no Moto) sold in Asian markets. Available in both powder and liquid forms, these bases can give you a similar salad to the one here with very little preparation time. Try the mild konbu flavor or the lighter-colored bases.

1 pound English or Japanese cucumbers

Salt

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon soy sauce

Peel and seed cucumbers. Cut thin slices crosswise. Sprinkle with salt to draw out moisture; set aside.

Place 3 tablespoons rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon soy sauce and 1/4 teaspoon salt in small bowl and mix together to make dressing.

Squeeze out excess moisture from cucumber by hand (or use cheesecloth). Rinse quickly, then squeeze again. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon rice vinegar.

Combine cucumbers and dressing. Chill until serving time.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

28 calories; 381 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 7 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.68 gram fiber.

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Cook’s Tip

Skinning chicken drummettes, the meatiest portion of the wing, is done most quickly by hand. Grasp the meaty part of the drummette in both hands and work your thumbs under the skin, pushing it down over the bony end and tearing it off. Be careful not to tear off pieces of meat too. A knife can be used to detach skin from the bone end.

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Rice in a Trice

An alternative to shaping Japanese rice balls by hand is to use plastic molds available in Japanese markets such as Yaohan. Place rice in the bottom half of the mold, add the filling, add more rice, press on the top of the mold to shape the rice, then carefully remove it.

Another shortcut is to use prepared Japanese rice seasoning available from Asian markets. The seasoning can simply be mixed with warm rice and pressed into the mold. The smaller cylinder-shaped rice “balls” shown here with the flecks of pink cod roe and green seaweed used Mitsukan’s Omusubiyama-Tarako.