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.