How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
Today I introduce you to “Pan-fried garlic chives and egg”, called Nira-Tama in Japanese.
It is a very common homemade dish and takes only 10 minutes to cook.
Garlic chives have a great garlic flavor as it is named. It is also called Chinese chives or Asian chives. In ancient times, garlic chives were used for medicinal purposes in East Asia because it is rich in nutrients.
Here is a tip for storing garlic chives. The chives are easy to wilt in the refrigerator. I highly recommend to froze it. Wash fresh garlic chives, dry them and put in a freezer bag. Use within one month.
This traditional Japanese side dish comes from Buddhist cuisine. The ingredients are tofu and some simmered tender vegetables, and the dish is seasoned with sugar and soy sauce. I have loved it since I was a child because the taste is good and sweet, and the texture is amazingly smooth.
Tofu is always great protein for us, has no strong taste or flavor, and has a soft texture so it doesn’t interfere with any dish’s flavors or textures. Therefore, in regard to nutrition and digestion it is good for people who don’t have an appetite or who are really picky eaters. You can cook any kind of dish with tofu.
Enjoy your new taste and texture side salad!!
The recipe is easy.
{Ingredients (servings 3)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to “How to Cook Simmered Daikon Radish”.
If you are a little bit tired of eating vegetables, you should try this.
It is delicious, flavorful and low in calories. It has a soft and juicy texture. It is way too good, so I can’t stop eating once I dig in!
Daikon is high in vitamins, minerals, fiber and so on. Also it is easy to digest, so we traditionally eat daikon with other green vegetables and rice porridge after new year’s (we eat a lot of big meals around New Years).
This recipe is very easy and the dish can be stored in the refrigerator for a maximum of 3 days.
In my meals, I always have rice, soup and some various side dishes which I make ahead of time. This is an incredibly healthy dish but you need other nutrition as well. This dish can be the main dish for me, but itactually has the nutrition of a side dish.
Here is the cooking video on my YouTube channel:
Peel and cut daikon. Simmer with the seasonings for 20 minutes. That’s it!!
I use a knife to peel daikon. This is because daikon has thick fiber under its peel. The fiber doesn’t cook through easily so if you leave it, the final texture is not as good as if you peel it.
Ingredients (servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to “Japanese-Style Corn Side Dish in Buttery Soy Sauce”. This is a super quick and easy recipe which takes only 15 minutes or so. It is a great side dish for your family and friends during this holiday season! In this recipe I use soy sauce and butter (or margarine) for seasoning so it has a very different taste from a corn dish seasoned with just salt and pepper, but it is incredibly flavorful and delicious!! As an aside, have you ever tried to season a sautee dish with soy sauce and butter/margarine? If not, please try it sometimes!! You can season sautéed meat, seafood, vegetables…almost anything! I love sautéed mushrooms seasoned with soy sauce and margarine, which is totally divine!!
The reason I used frozen corn kernel is I always keep them in the freezer. I buy many fresh ears of corn, steam them for a short time, cut the kernels off and freeze in a plastic bag. This is why I cook over medium-high heat to evaporate the water from the frozen corn. You can use fresh corn kernels for this recipe and cook over medium-low heat.
Ingredients (Servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
3 cups (20~24 oz.) Frozen Corn Kernels
1 Tbsp. plus 1 Tbsp. (to taste) Margarine or Butter If you follow vegan/vegetarian diet, please use your favorite vegan/vegetarian margarine
Today I introduce you to an easy, healthy, delicious and useful vegetable side dish. This is a traditional Japanese side dish which is called “Kinpira”. The seasonings are soy sauce, cooking sake and sugar. It has a great sweet-savory taste and the vegetables have a crunchy texture. Delicious!! If you use gluten free soy sauce, this can be a vegan and gluten free dish.
In Japan we usually use Gobo (Burdock Root) for this recipe but I can’t find that easily near here so I use potato and carrot. It is so tasty and the recipe is very easy!!
Heat sesame oil in a pan and cook the sliced vegetables. Season with sugar, soy sauce and cooking sake and stir-fry. You can store for 3~4 days in the refrigerator.
If you don’t follow a vegetarian diet, you can add thin sliced pork or small pieces of chicken. Also I sometimes add bonito or kelp Dashi powder. These bring a hearty taste to the dish!!
In addition, you can make this dish spicy so you can add some sliced red pepper if you like.
If you don’t like to use alcohol in your cooking, you can use any kind of Dashi stock or broth instead of using cooking Sake.
Ingredients (servings 4) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to “Flaked Salmon”. This has a very fluffy texture and a slightly salty salmon taste. Very yummy!!
With similar uses as a can of tuna, you can sprinkle on your salad or rice, and also toss in boiled spaghetti along with some chopped green onion.
I love flaked salmon more than canned tuna though, so I regularly keep it in the refrigerator. In Japan, we can buy jars of flaked salmon easily at grocery stores, but I can’t find it where I live in the US, so I cook it. It is very quick and easy. You need just salmon, salt and boiled water. It takes only 15 minutes total.
At first boil salmon, shred it, and then stir-fry the shredded salmon. Season with salt. Store in the refrigerator and use within 5 days.
*Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Flaked Salmon
The best tip for cooking this dish is to not overcook the salmon. Overcooking makes the salmon dry and hard. Boil for 5 minutes (It is okay even if the salmon isn’t cooked through yet) and stir-fry for 2~3 minutes.
Ingredients (servings 2 for pasta)
1 fillet Salmon
½ tsp. Salt
Boiled Water for boiling salmon
Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Flaked Salmon
Here is “Flaked Salmon” recipe video on YouTube (I am sorry that there are some little image noises):
Today I introduce you to a Japanese traditional side dish which has a sweet-savory taste. In this recipe, various ingredients are slowly simmered in the sauce so that the ingredients have great flavor and great taste. I can’t stop eating it when I make it because it is so delicious!!
I used shiitake mushrooms and ginger this time.
Shiitake mushrooms are low in calories and also are a nutritious vegetable. They are high in vitamin D, fiber and vitamin B. If grocery stores near you don’t have fresh shiitake mushrooms, you can use dried shiitake mushrooms. Dried shiitake mushrooms have more vitamin D than fresh ones. The day before cooking, soak in water to reconstitute in the refrigerator.
As you know ginger is also very nutritious. It makes our metabolism active and our body warm. The dish has a lot of awesome ginger flavor! If you or your family don’t like ginger’s pungent taste very much, you can cook the dish without ginger.
Here are some tips to store shiitake mushrooms and ginger. I always freeze shiitake mushrooms in a zipper plastic bag. Cut to the proper size for the dish and cook without defrosting. Use within 1 month. I also freeze peeled fresh ginger and wrap it with aluminum foil. I use it within 3 month.
The recipe is very easy and you only need a pan.
Put prepared ingredients together in a pan at same time.
If you like vinegar taste, you can add 1~2 tsp. of rice vinegar as a secret ingredient. Delicious!!
Simmer with aluminum foil cover to cook and macerate evenly.
*Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Shiitake Mushrooms Side Dish
To store, transfer it to a clean container and keep in the refrigerator. Use within 7 days.
This is a traditional Japanese side dish which is called “Goma-Ae” in Japanese. The dish dresses boiled fresh green beans with sweet sesame dressing. The sesame dressing contains ground white sesame, soy sauce and sugar. It is a healthy, delicious, easy and very quick to prepare dish.
In Japan we usually use a traditional Japanese mortar and pestle for grinding white sesame. Ground sesame makes the dish very flavorful and it is easy to eat. If you have a spice grinder, you can use it. If you don’t have either a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle you can put sesame seeds in a zipper bag and beat them with a rolling pin until they are ground.
The basic arrangement for many Japanese meals is called “Ichi-juu, San-sai,” which consists of one bowl of cooked rice, one kind of soup and three vegetables or fish small portion dishes. So this dish is a very common dish in the Japanese diet.
When you want to add a vegetable dish to your meal or in your lunch box, this is a great choice. Also, you can use any kind of vegetable with this dressing, such as boiled spinach, boiled carrot, boiled broccoli and so on.
The recipe is very quick. It takes only 10 minutes.
Mix the sauce ingredients, boil fresh green beans and dress.
You can store this dish in the refrigerator for 3 days. If you want to store longer, please dry the boiled green beans very well before dressing in the sauce and transfer them to a clean container. You can then keep it in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Enjoy this new healthy side dish!!
Ingredients (servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to a traditional Japanese bean side dish “Gomoku-Mame,” which is simmered beans and vegetables. This dish is never served as a main dish, but it is very popular and very important in the Japanese diet.
The basic rule of traditional Japanese diet is called “Ichi-juu, San-sai.” This means basic meals should consist of one bowl of cooked rice, one kind of soup and three vegetable or fish side dishes. Of course we don’t have enough time to cook this many dishes when cooking each meal so we tend to stock simmered vegetable dishes in the refrigerator. Lately there are a lot of pre-made, reasonably fresh, store bought vegetable side dishes in Japan. This is because there are many people who are too busy to cook who, however, care about their health and don’t want to eat fast foods.
Also, the Japanese diet contains many kinds of ingredients. We always think “Eat a balanced diet” which means we can have anything we want such as meat, fish, rice, bread, vegetables, seaweed and so on. But we have to be careful about the balance of the ingredients and eat in moderation. Japanese food is very healthy when we follow these rules.
The recipe is very easy.
Put all ingredients and seasoning in a pan and simmer.
To store, transfer to a container and keep in the refrigerator. Use within 5 days.
{Ingredients (servings 8)} *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to my “Cold Tofu with Okra” recipe. In summer it is very humid in Japan, which makes us tired and lowers our appetite. Therefore, the Japanese traditional summer diet tends to include light foods which have great taste and nutrition, like in this recipe. I hope you add this recipe as a side dish in your meal.
The recipe is very easy and quick.
Cut boiled okra and put on drained tofu. Drizzle with soy sauce to taste.
Tofu contains a lot of water so we drain tofu before cooking to keep the tofu shape and to keep the dish from becoming too watery. If you don’t like tofu aroma very much, I strongly recommend you drain the tofu because it makes the dish have less of a tofu aroma.