March | 2016 | Your Home for Homemade Japanese Food

March 31, 2016
by fravitch 7 Comments

Homemade Vegetable Sushi Roll (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten Free)

Today I introduce you to “Homemade Sushi Rolls”.

In Japan, many restaurants serve great delicious Sushi, but my mother also often cooked Sushi Rolls, Inari Sushi and Chirashi Sushi by herself. We can change the ingredients and the seasonings as we like so I love homemade Sushi.

In this recipe, I used carrot, Shiitake mushroom and cucumber as the filling. And when I cook the carrot and mushrooms, I used kelp Dashi stock. So this is a meatless and eggless dish.

Of course you can use any kind of ingredients such as shrimp, chicken, beef, ham, cheese, fried egg, canned Tuna, spinach and so on.

In addition, you can make an adjustment for the seasoning of Sushi rice. If you don’t like the taste of vinegary sushi rice, you can reduce the rice vinegar. If you want more seasoning, you can add more sugar and salt.

The recipe is not complicated. It is easy, great to cook with kids, and is a wonderful dish for a potluck party!!

Make some of your own Sushi with this recipe!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

5 pieces Shiitake Mushroom

½ Carrot

½ Cucumber

1 cup Kelp Dashi stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp)Dried Kelp for Dashi stock

3 Tbsp. Yamasa Organic Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

2 Tbsp. Sugar

1 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

1 piece Dried Seaweed for Sushi Roll

1 cup Steamed Rice
(Recommended Sushi Rice)Organic Sushi Rice

[for Sushi Rice Seasoning]

50 ml Rice Vinegar

1 Tbsp. Sugar

1 tsp. Salt

[Tool]

1 Makisu (Bamboo Sushi Mat)

Here is my recipe in PDF: Homemade Vegetable Sushi Roll

Here is “Kelp Dashi Stock Recipe” in PDF: Kelp Dashi stock

March 23, 2016
by fravitch 8 Comments

Tofu Steak with Vegetable Sauce (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten Free)

This is my mother’s original recipe for cooked tofu with a thick tender vegetable sauce seasoned with soy sauce. It is a simple and delicious main dish.

Tofu was brought to Japan from China about 800 years ago. Since then, tofu is one of the main sources of protein in the Japanese diet. Tofu is very nutritious and it is well-absorbed by the body.

You can use any vegetables you want for this sauce. You can also use any kind of Dashi stock so it is a good dish for vegetarians too.

I hope this recipe will be one of your favorite tofu-dish recipes!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

7 oz. (half pack) Firm Tofu

½ Green Bell Pepper

4 Baby Bella Mushrooms

1 clove Garlic

½ cup Kelp Dashi Stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi) Dried Kelp
*You can use any kind of Dashi stock: (Recommended Instant Dashi Stock) Ajinomoto – Hon Dashi

2 Tbsp. Yamasa Organic Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

Salt and Pepper (for seasoning)

1 tsp. Potato Starch (for slurry)

2 tsp. water (for slurry)

Here is my recipe in PDF: Tofu Steak with Vegetable Sauce

Here is “Kelp Dashi Stock recipe” in PDF: Kelp Dashi stock

Here is “Anchovy Dashi Stock Recipe” in PDF: Homemade Anchovy Dashi Stock

March 4, 2016
by fravitch 2 Comments

Seaweed Salad (Oil-Free/Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

I will introduce you to “Seaweed and Cucumber Salad” tossed with vinegar and sugar. It is very healthy and delicious! In Japan, we often eat this dish as a side dish because vinegar improves our appetite. And also dishes which include vinegar keep longer. This dish can keep about 5 days in the refrigerator. This is why Sushi rice is seasoned with vinegar. (Basically in Japan about 800 years ago, Sushi was not an expensive food like nowadays. It was a preservative food for common people. The conception was people put pickled fish on cooked rice and fermented it for a day.)

My book Bento for Beginners: 60 Recipes for Easy Bento Box Lunches

is now available on Amazon!!

You can use some other ingredients for this salad recipe, such as seafood, carrot, Daikon, mushrooms, bean sprouts and so on. But seaweed and cucumber are the most popular ingredients in Japan. Cucumber is high in potassium so it is good for modern humans who tend to eat a high-salt diet. If you want to be healthier, it is good to eat more seaweed because seaweed is high in soluble fiber. Exercising and eating healthy is important to a good diet and the most important thing for improving your digestion and the function of your intestines. So if you want to try to be healthier, at first please think about your digestion. You should eat both insoluble fiber (vegetables, potatoes, mushrooms, beans…) and soluble fiber like seaweed to make your bowels work well. Please add this healthy side dish to your meals!