Tomato Jiru

Post date: May 17, 2010 12:02:48 AM

1/4 C. oil

2-3 yellow onions, chopped into 1-1/2" chunks

1 lb. ground turkey (white meat)

1 lb. ground turkey (dark meat)

1 lb. bacon, sliced cross-wise into 1/2" pieces

8 large tomatoes, core removed (See notes about using frozen tomatoes!)

4 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-1/2" chunks

2 medium carrots, peeled ad cut into  1-1/2" chunks (triangular shape looks best)

1 yellow bell pepper, cored, seeds removed, cut into  1-1/2" pieces (triangles look best)

1/4 C. tomato paste

salt

pepper

1/3 C.  sugar

1/4-1/2 C. Ikari sauce

Turn stove burner to high and heat oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot.  Add chopped onions and sautée/stir-fry for a few minutes until onions start to soften.  Add ground turkey (or ground pork or ground beef).  Sautée until turkey starts to turn from pink to white.  Add sliced bacon and continue cooking until bacon is cooked but still soft (do not allow to crisp). 

Add tomatoes--whole is fine because they will break down.  (Just cut out the tough cores before adding to pot.)  Scoop the onion-meat-bacon mixture and try to surround tomatoes with the mixture to hasten cooking of tomatoes.  As tomatoes breakdown, the tomato skins will peel off.  Remove tomato skins as they loosen from tomatoes.  When tomatoes are about halfway cooked down (about 15-20 minutes?), add potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, and tomato paste.  Continue removing tomato skins as they peel off.  Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste.  Once tomatoes have broken down completely (about 20 minutes or longer), add sugar and Ikari sauce.  Taste and adjust seasoning. 

If desired, pass Ikari sauce at the table so folks can add more, if they wish. 

Notes:

(1) Given its history, this should be called Sakakura-Ito Tomato Jiru.  I learned to make Tomato Jiru from my mother, Suzuka (Sakakura) Ito, who first tasted Tomato Jiru made by her father, Tokutaro Sakakura, during the 1930s in Mt. Eden, California.  After marrying my dad, Kensaku Ito, in Post WWII Japan and moving in with the extended Ito-Ando clan in Southern California, Lucy's mom then cooked Tomato Jiru in "Santana" during the late 1950s-early 1960s with her mother-in-law/my obaachan (Mine Ito), and her sisters-in-law/my obachans (Tomiko (Ito) Ando, Tsuyako Ito, & Chizuko Ito) when the extended Ito-Ando Clan all lived together.

(2) In the 1960s-70s while raising us on the Ito farm in Ventura, my mom made Tomato Jiru in the summer and then again in the winter from tomatoes she froze from the summer bounty.  We had so many tomatoes, she would just wash them and stick them directly into the freezer wherever they would fit.  My mom's freezer was always dotted with red orbs here and there.  Once frozen, the tomatoes were like bocce balls.  When my mom made Winter Tomato Jiru, she would send me out to the garage to "pick" tomatoes from the freezer!  She would just have me plop the "bocce balls" right into the pot. 

(3) Tomato Jiru freezes extremely well.  Double the recipe and you will have plenty to freeze so you can have Tomato Jiru when you are too tired to cook and just want some comfort food!