Chawan mushi

Ingredients:eggs, dashi, salt, usukuchi, soy sauce, sasami chicken meat, shrimps, shimeji mushrooms, kamaboko

Preparation:First break eggs in a large ball. Draw the letter Z on the bottom with the tip of the chopsticks, do not foam. Second little by little, add cooled dashi and then salt, soy sauce. Third to improve texture, strain egg through a net.

Fillings

First remove white sinewy tissue from sasami chicken meat. Cut into bite size pieces. Sprinkle with soy sauce. Second remove black vein from shrimps. Devine except for tail. Third remove roots of shimeji mushrooms, tear into easy to eat pieces.

How to cook:First prepare Chawan mushi serving cups. If serving cups with lids are not available, use tea cup covered with aluminum foil. Second divide fillings into 4 except for mitsuba and yuzu strips, neatly place filling and kamaboko slices in individual cups. Pour in egg mixture. Use a double-boiler pan (mushiki) half full with water and boil cups. Heat about 15minutes.

Chawanmushi is one of the traditional Japanese food. Please enjoy it.

Tenpura

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I don't have have any class on Wednesday, so I tried to make Tenpura.

Ingredients: shrimps, kisu (white sillago fish), squid, pumpkin, small eggplants (nasu), gobou (burdock root), shiitake, shishito (spicy green peppers), small lotus root (renkon), oba (beefsteak leaves). Batter; egg, cold water, flour, tuyu (sauce of Japanese)

Preparation: Pumpkin: remove seed, peel skin, cut into bite size peices.

Eggplant: without removing the skin, cut tip off, cut lengthwise. Cut halves into strips.

Gobou: Clean well. Remove skin with the back of a knife. Cut in strips. Soak in water to remove aku.

Shitake: Remove stem, Score a X on the inner side.

Shishito: To prevent them from exploding, cut hole.

Wash beefsteak leaves and dry.

Shrimp: remove shell, head, spine.

Kisu: Remove skin and bones.

Squid remove skin, score back a few times cut into 4 to 5 cm pieces.

How to cook: First, mix egg add ice water to insure crippiness. Use 1:5 ratio, egg to water. Mix in sifted flour light but not completely with chopsticks. Make batter immedietly before cooking.

Second, in a heavy pan, fill pan to about 75% capacity with oil.

Third, heat oil 160 to 180C .

Then, fry harder vegtables first. Avoid using too much batter. Only fry the inner side of shitake and shiso. Fry all other items on both sides. Fry 3-5 strips of gobou together.

Next, when the outer edges look cooked, turn over. Remove completed tempra and place on rack to drain oil.

Cook vegatables first, then seafood. Before dipping fish in batter, dust with flour. Hold shrimp and fish by the tail when dipping. Turn over as each piece floats to the top.

Remove to rack and eat.

Sukiyaki

image from: item.rakuten.co.jp/car-ni-val/029-001/

Ingredients: thinly sliced beef , onion, green onion, fresh shiitake mushrooms, itokonyaku, yaki-tofu, bag of fu, Beef lard, sake, sugar, soy sauce, konbu dashi, eggs

Preparation: 1. Cut beef into 5-6 cm strips. 2. Cut onion in half. 3. Cut green onion. 4. Remove stems from shiitake. 5. Boil itokonyaku and cut into an easy to eat size. 6. Cut yaki-tofu. 7. Soak fu in water.

How to cook: First heat pan or skillet. Second, briefly cook beef evenly on both sides. Third, add sake, sugar then soy sauce. Then add 1/2 of the ingredients except for the fu. When water level increases, add fu. If desired, put raw egg in small bowl. Dip sukiyaki in it. And eat it.

Yakitori

image from www.okaimonogekijo.com/item/1430071/index.html

Ingredients; chicken thigh, long green onions, sauce, Bamboo skewers.

Preparation; mix soy sauce, sake, ginger juice. And cut chicken into bite size pieces, marinate in sauce. Cut green onions into 2-3cm pieces.

How to cook; First remove chiken from sauce allow excess sauce to drain. Second alternately skew pieces of chicken then onion. Third boil remaining sauce. If desired, add a dash of sugar and crushed red pepper. Then grill on a low fire. Make sure it does not burn and the inside of the meat is well done before serving. Brush on sauce frequently while grilling.

Buri no Teriyaki

Ingredients:Pieces of buri, Marinating sauce (tare): 1/2 cup soy sauce,1/2 cup mirin, 1/2 cup daikon oroshi (grated raddish).

Preparation:Wash fish. Pat dry. Mix Soy sauce and mirin. Marinate buri for 1 hour. Make tare sauce. Mix ingredients, boil, turn off heat.

How to make:First remove buri, drain excess liquid. Second place fish skin side up on cutting board to keep flat. Third skew sticks lengthwise into both sides of fish. Next pre-heat broiling net to prevent sticking. Then grill skin side down 1 minute on a medium fire.when cooked, turn over using skewers. Cook other side Brush on tare sauce about 3 times each side. Remove skewers. Place buri skin side down on plates.

It is little bit difficult and dangerous to skewing buri. So be careful to cook.

Oyako donburi

Today I have to make a dinner because there are noone in my house. I don't know why. So I used some ingredients refrigerator.

Ingredients:cups cooked rice, chicken wings, onions, eggs, tsuyu (1 cup dashi , 2 Tablespoons of sugar, 4 Tablespoons of mirin , 6 Tablespoons of soy sauce)

Preparation:Leave skin on chicken wings, carve into bite size pieces. Peel onions, cut in half and into thin slices. Break eggs into a bowl with the tips of chopsticks, draw the letters Z on the bottom so that eggs don't foam. Make tsuyu mix.

How to make:First divide topping into four servings, make one by one. Second in a shallow pan put the soup for one person, heat up. Third spread the onions over the soup. On top of that, put the chicken meat. Cover the pan and simmer. When the chicken is cooked, pour the eggs slowly and evenly over a pair of chopsticks. With chopsticks, gently break up eggs further in order to absorb. Shake the pan so that it will not burn. Then put rice into bowls. When the mixture is 80% cooked spread mitsuba on top. Turn off the fire soon, so that mixture is not overcooked. And then put mixture on top of rice, gently. Done!!

I think it is easy to cook more than reading.

Tonkatsu

It's my favorite dish.

Ingredient: pork meat, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, egg, flou, cabbage.

Preparation: First, chop cabbage, soak in water. For tonkatsu, it must be cut extremely thin. It is better to chop a whole section of cabbage at once. If using individual leaves, they should be rolled tightly together and then choppped.

How to make: First, make incisions on fiber using tip of knife. Second, pound meat with meat mallet of with the back of the knife. Do not pound meat too thinly. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the meat. Put egg, flour, bread crumbs in 3 separate shallow trays. Dredge flour on both sides of the meat. Pat off excess flour then dip into beaten egg. Spread meat onto bread crumbs. Cover top of meat with crumbs and press. Repeat this processs on all slices. Then start frying when oil temperature reaches 180C. When meat starts to brown, reduce oil tempurature to 160C. Continue to fry slowly. When small bubbles form on top of the oil, increase oil temperature back to 180C. This insures crispiness. Drain oil on net and Cut into bite size slices. Move meat to plates by holding a knife underneath.

Miso soup

Miso soup is traditional Japanese soup. It's consist of dashi and miso paste and many other ingredients. And today's soup is not instant.

Ingredients:7 g dried kelp (Hoshi wakame), 1/2 block tofu, 4 cups dashi (niboshi dashi), 80-90 g miso. (These are for 4 servings)

How to make:First soak kelp (wakame) in warm water, remove hard stems and rinse with water, strain with net and cut into bite size pieces. Next heat dashi without bringing it to a boil. Then smash miso through a net ladel into dashi, when it is about to boil remove foam rising on the top. Add wakame and then place tofu on palm, cut lengthwise and then into small pieces and slide into soup. When tofu floats to the top turn off heat.

Okonomiyaki

Today's dish is a traditional especially in Kansai area. It is consisted of a pan-fried batter cake and various ingredients. I think toppings and batters tend to vary according to region but I just make a my home's basic one.

Ingredients:flour, egg, dashi, grated yamaimo, cabbage mirin, salt, sliced pork, squid, small shrimp, oil.

Preparation:Make batter...First in a bowl mix egg add yamaimo. Next add salt, a little mirin, then flour. Mirin removes the powdery taste. (Okonomiyaki mix can also be used. Just add egg and water.) Dice cabbage to 1-1.5 mm pieces. Cut pork about into 3 cm. pieces. Remove skin of squid and cut into small pieces. And also wash shrimp.

How to cook:First of all add cabbage and filling to batter. Pre-heat hot plate or fry pan. Second cover surface completely with oil. Then pour batter into a circle about 15-20 cm in diameter. Cook for about 5 minutes or until golden brown. Turn over with a spatula. Cook for about 5 min until completely cooked. Be careful not to overcook or burn and do not press down on it. Before eating you should put okonomiyaki sauce and mayonaisse on it.

Rolled egg

On saturday morning I made a rolled egg(Japanese: Tamagoyaki).

Ingredients:eggs, dashi , sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce, 1/3 teaspoon salt, salad oil.

Preparation: Break eggs into a bowl with the tips of chopsticks draw the letters Z on the bottom so that eggs don't foam. Next cool dashi, mix sugar, soy sauce, salt. Little by little add dashi to egg, mix it without making foam. With net ladel strain, make the eggs smooth.

How to cook: First heat egg pan, spread oil thinly with cotton or a paper towel.

Then dip the tip of chopsticks into the egg mixture to test the pan tempurature. When the pan is slightly hot, pour 1/3 of the egg mixture in. If the surface is almost cooked, slowly roll from front to back. Reoil pan, pull rolled egg forward, re-oil other side. Put 1/2 of the remaining egg into pan. Lift completed roll to allow egg under. When the surface is almost cooked, slowly roll from front to back again. Repeat rolling egg a few times. Cool slightly, cut into 2 cm slices, put on a dish.

Beef & Potato (Niku jyaga)

Today I made a very popular, simple and traditional food Nikujyaga. Someone says it is littel difficult to make, but I don't think so. Cooking is simple and fun.

Ingredients: thinly sliced beef, potatos, carrot, onion, itokonyaku (noodle style konyaku), 3 cups dashi (niban-dashi), 1 tablespoon sugar, 3 tablespoons mirin, 1 tablespoon sake, 5 tablespoons soysauce, peas and oil.

Preparation:Peel potatos and cut in half and then into 6-8 pieces. After that soak them in water. Cut carrots into pieces smaller than the potatos. Cut itokonyaku into a easy to eat size. Cut peeled onions in half. Slice halves. Cut beef into approximate 3 cm pieces.

How to make:First heat oil in pan and lightly brown meat(do not cook meat completely). And then add onions, carrots, konyaku, potatoes. Continue to fry.
After frying for awhile, add dashi. Skim the scum (aku) that may foam to the top. Reduce heat and simmer and add sugar, sake and mirin. Place otoshibuta in pan. (otoshjibuta means a small lid that resting directly on the something in a pot or pan.) After 5 minutes, add soy sauce and cook slowly until vegatables are cooked. After the flavor has steeped in, add peas. That's all.

Curry rice

Today I made a Japanese popular food "Curry and rice". My parents are working till late so I had to serve a dinner.

Preparation; At first make rice with rice cooker. Next cut meat into bite size pieces and shake salt and pepper. Cut onion vertically cut halves into rough slices. And then peel potatos and carrots,cut in half and into triangular pieces.

How to make;Put oil and butter in to Frying-pan, turn on fire. Then add meat and fry it till surface is browned. Add onion, fry it till light-brown. Add carrots and potatos, fry. Then add water. Remove foam from surface while boiling. Boil till vegetables are soft. Turn off heat, put in breaked pastes. Again turn on fire and boil on a low fire till curry paste completly melt. Finaly put rice on dishes put curry on rice.

The Purpose of This Blog

The porpose of this bolg is to introduse the food that is eaten in present day by Japanese or what kind of food Japanese people like make and eat. So sometimes it's traditional and sometimes it's modern or unique. And it is includ my dishes or some restaurant information. And I want you to know how to make and eat. I hope that you enjoy interested in this blog.