Harvest Niseko

More than a cookbook. A culinary journey across Niseko, Japan.

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WINNER, BEST BOOK IN JAPAN at The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2018

WINNER, BEST FIRST COOKBOOK at The Best of the Best 1995-2020, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2020

Best in the World

Harvest Niseko represented Japan on the world stage at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Yantai China is May 2018.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards is recognised as the Oscars of the culinary industry. Founded in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau, the fifth generation of the French liqueur Cointreau family, the annual event gives awards to the best food and wine books, printed or digital, and food television programs from across the globe.

Harvest Niseko was awarded in the following categories:

Best in the World

Harvest Niseko - Award Winning Japanese Cookbook by Tess Stomski

Explore the lives of ten inspiring Niseko farmers and eight creative chefs as they reflect on their culinary journeys. Plus, discover over one hundred recipes celebrating the produce grown in Niseko's famous volcanic ash soils. This book will warm the heart, inspire the mind and bring delicious creativity to your kitchen.

There's often a direct relationship between chef and farmer in Niseko that adds a special significance and quality to the dining experiences on offer here.

When long-time local chef Tess Stomski decided to dig a little deeper and learn more about these connections, she uncovered an incredible world of stories surrounding the lives of local farmers and what goes on behind the scenes of Niseko's now-famous food industry.

In this world a young “natural-cultivation” farmer massages and sings to his tomatoes; an older farmer extracts extra flavour and sweetness from his carrots by storing them under the snow in winter; and a rice farmer introduces ducklings to his paddies in spring to organically control insects, before selling them as ducks to high-end restaurants in autumn.

These stories and many more form the foundation of Tess's four-year labour of love – exquisite new recipe book Harvest Niseko. The book's 100 recipes have been created in collaboration with Chisato Amagai, another local chef and colleague at Tess's catering company Niseko Gourmet.

Dishes are easy-to-cook modern Japanese, with some taking inspiration from French, Italian or Asian cuisine but incorporating local ingredients. If you set yourself up with Tess's suggested pantry it's very easy to go out to your local supermarket wherever you live and cook up an authentic Niseko-inspired Japanese meal.

Kristian Lund, Powderlife Magazine

Available at Amazon Buy The Book

Uncovers an incredible world of local farmers' stories and behind the scenes of Niseko's famous food industry.

Recipes

Cook up an authentic Niseko-inspired Japanese meal

Harvest Niseko features 100 recipes created by Tess Stomski and her colleague Chisato Amagai.

Gyoza

Pork & Cabbage Dumplings

I love a good dumpling and gyoza fall into that category. I make double or triple batches of this recipe and stock them in the freezer for an easy dumpling meal at any time. I find the best way to freeze gyoza is to lay them on a tray and place in the freezer until frozen, then transfer to zip lock bags.

Makes 24

Place the pork mince in a large bowl and knead the meat until tender. The meat will be ready when you can lift a ball of mince up and it remains stuck to your palm when you turn your hand upside down.

Add the cabbage, garlic chives, garlic, ginger, miso, oyster and soy sauce, potato starch, sugar, sake, ½ tablespoon of the sesame oil, chicken stock and season with salt and pepper. Mix by hand until the ingredients are really well combined.

Prepare a small bowl of water to wet your hands with. Take a gyoza skin in one hand and place a tablespoon of the mixture in the centre of the skin. Wet the rim of the wrapper with wet fingers, then fold the wrapper over in half and use your thumb and forefinger to pleat the edge and seal the dumpling. Place on a tray lined with baking paper and repeat the process with the remaining gyoza wrappers.

Prepare the dipping sauce by combining 3 parts soy sauce with 1 part rice wine vinegar. Add chilli oil to taste. Set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a non stick pan over high heat. Place the gyoza bottom side down and fry until the dumplings take on a slight colour. Add 100ml of water and quickly cover with a lid. Reduce the heat to low to medium and cook until there is no water left in the pan. Remove the lid and continue to cook until the bottom side of the gyoza is golden brown. Pour the remaining sesame oil around the edge of the pan and increase the heat to high. Fry until the bottoms are crisp and serve immediately with the soy & vinegar dipping sauce and chilli oil to taste.

    • 200g Pork Mince
    • 150g Cabbage, finely shredded
    • 100g Garlic Cloves (Nira), finely chopped
    • 1 clove Garlic, finely chopped
    • 2cm piece Ginger, finely chopped
    • ¼ teaspoon White Miso
    • 1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
    • 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
    • 1 tablespoon Potato Starch
    • ½ tablespoon White Sugar
    • ½ tablespoon Sake
    • 1½ tablespoons Sesame Oil
    • 1 teaspoon Chicken Stock Powder
    • Salt & Pepper
    • 24 large Gyoza Wrappers
    • 1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
    • Additional Soy Sauce, Rice Wine Vinegar and Rayu (Chilli Oil) to serve

Udon Salad

Udon salad is a modern cold noodle salad, mainly eaten in the summer months in Japan, but it’s one of my favourite dishes to eat at any time of year. The key to making this dish super fresh and delicious is ensuring that both the salad dressing and noodles are completely cool before constructing the salad. I prefer to use dried udon noodles as they can be cooked to your preferred tenderness, whether it be on the firmer or softer side.

Serves 4

Combine the soy sauce, water, mirin, vinegar, lemon juice, konbu stock powder and sesame oil in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Refrigerate.

In a large pot of boiling water cook the udon noodles to al dente as per the packet instructions. Drain the noodles, rinse under cold running water and then place in ice cold water. Once the noodles are completely cool, drain in a colander, shaking to eliminate excess water.

Place the noodles in a deep serving dish. Top with the lettuce, cucumber, tomato, avocado, and tuna. Pour the salad dressing over the salad. Garnish with sesame seeds and shiso.

  • Salad
    • 400g Dry Udon Noodles
    • 220g Canned Tuna (or crab meat, salmon, ham, chicken etc), drained
    • ¼ Iceberg Lettuce, shredded
    • 1 Japanese (or Lebanese) Cucumber, julienned
    • 2 medium sized Tomatoes, cut into eighths
    • 1 Avocado, cubed
    • 5 Shiso Leaves, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced
    • Sesame Seeds to garnish
  • Dressing
    • 5 tablespoons Soy Sauce
    • 5 tablespoons Water
    • 4 tablespoons Mirin
    • 2 tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar
    • 3 tablespoons Lemon Juice
    • 1 tablespoon Konbu Stock Powder
    • 3 tablespoons Sesame Oil
    • Salt amp; Pepper to taste

Interviews

Uncover an incredible world of stories.

A series of interviews dig into the lives of local farmers, dining institutions and what goes on behind the scenes of Niseko's famous food industry.

Toshiko Iwasaki

I have found happiness.

My nickname is ‘kabocha mama’ or Pumpkin Mama. I received that name because my life’s passion has been pumpkins.

Until eight years ago we grew eight thousand pumpkin plants on this farm, and although my husband and I grew many different varieties it is the Ajihei pumpkin that we became well known for. When we first tasted the Ajihei, its intense sweet flavour blew our minds. Not only were other people amazed by its flavour, but we were also able to grow each pumpkin with a perfect shape, meaning each and every one made it to market for sale. For these reasons, our pumpkins became very highly rated. My husband and I were so proud, as together, we had worked really hard to grow such a product.

It was also at that time that our youngest child had just graduated and was beginning his first job. We could begin to focus on our own lives and projects. And then all of sudden my husband passed away, in July, just before the first pumpkin harvest of the season. He was only fifty years old. Following that I found it difficult to eat and sleep, let alone imagine how I could farm pumpkins all on my own, and sustain this large farmland. There was however no choice but to complete the autumn harvest before the snow fell.

I really thought I couldn’t go on to farm another year. And then on Christmas day I received an email from a consultant asking me to be involved in the Niseko Halloween project. The community would assist me to plant pumpkin seedlings and grow pumpkins for Halloween. My husband and I had always wanted to grow giant pumpkins and display them like they do in other cities and towns around the world, but he passed away before this dream came true.

Now you can see my pumpkins at the station plaza, Kira Street in the downtown area, and several accommodation premises including Hilton Hotel, Kanro-no-mori and Yugokorotei. I think my husband would smile to see the pumpkins.

About The Author

In 2007, Harvest Niseko author Tess Stomski moved to Niseko, located on Hokkaido, Japan where she established her catering company, Niseko Gourmet. Niseko Gourmet became the most renowned community of chefs in the area, each chef specialising in their given fields of sushi, soba, tempura, keiseki or Japanese home cooking. From it’s inception, Niseko Gourmet also conducted Japanese home cooking workshops, and in 2017 Tess became it’s lead instructor offering instruction within Niseko and abroad, for Japanese home style recipes based on the produce grown within the Niseko area.

Inspired by the farmers and produce within the region, and the breathtaking landscape, in 2016 Tess published her debut cookbook, Harvest Niseko, featuring both traditional and modern Japanese recipes, as well as inspirational interviews with specialist farmers and chefs. Harvest Niseko has gone on to win several awards at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards including Best Cookbook in Japan, Best First Cookbook in the World and Best Food Photography in the World, for 2018.

In mid 2019 Tess, with her family alongside, relocated to South Australia. Here she is exploring the local food and wine scene, whilst maintaining her close relationship with Japan and it’s food culture through consultancy, events and food writing. To connect with Tess write to tess@tess-stomski.com

Buy the Book

Available now at Amazon.com.au and from the following retailers: