Your Home for Homemade Japanese Food

How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!


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Agedashi-Tofu (Vegan/Vegetarian)

Agedashi-Tofu, which is a typical Japanese homemade dish, is fried tofu with Dashi sauce.

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Tofu is an important ingredient in Buddhist cuisine. Japanese think this is a macribian food because tofu is high in great-quality-protein. Tofu is made from only soybean. The soybean is called “Meat of a field” because it is rich in nutrients, which are linoleum acid, lecithin, isoflavone, saonin, trypsin inhibitor and so on. And also tofu is low calorie and high in water so it is good as a diet food.

Let’s try  to eat 1/4 pack of tofu every day!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 pack (14 oz.) Firm Tofu

1 ½ cups Kelp Dashi Stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi stock) Dashi Dried Kelp

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

4 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

½ cup Flour

Vegetable oil for frying

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Agedashi-Tofu

“Kelp Dashi stock” recipe in PDF (5 MB): Kelp Dashi stock


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Quick and Healthy! “Ginger and Cucumber Pickles” (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

This is a quick healthy cucumber pickle recipe. It is so simple that you don’t even need to use a knife.

I break a cucumber with a rolling pin and my hands. This is a traditional way. It doesn’t take time to marinate when you follow this way because irregular surfaces can absorb the sauce easily.

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Cucumber is high in potassium and water. Therefore it is effective for our health to eat cucumber.

I add ginger to the pickle sauce. Ginger is very nutritious and healthy. It helps our blood flow, helps speed up our metabolism, and blocks the oxidation process in our bodies.

Enjoy your new pickles!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 Cucumber

1 tsp. grated Ginger

1 Tbsp. Pure Sesame Oil

¼ tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 Tbsp. Rice Vinegar

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Ginger Cucumber Pickles


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Mushroom Rice (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

This is not fried rice, but steamed seasoned rice. In Japan a major part of the diet is RICE. Traditionally we eat white rice with every meal. A long time ago Japanese people ate millet.

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Today, we sometimes mix the rice with other ingredients to make Mushroom Rice, Bamboo Shoot Rice, Chestnut Rice, Greenbean Rice and so on. These are all steamed. If you have a rice cooker, it is very easy to cook!

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Mushroom is low calorie (about 18 kcal per 100 grams). Also high in fiber and high in minerals (especially potassium). I didn’t used dried mushrooms this time, but dried mushrooms are usually high in vitamin D. This dish is cooked in one pot or in a rice cooker so it preserves the nutritions and amazing flavor.

Please enjoy!

{Ingredients (Servings 3)}

2 ¼ cups Premium Rice, Medium Grain

3 oz. Oyster Mushroom

8 oz. Sliced Baby Bella Mushroom

3 pieces of Dried Kelp (5 square inches each)

700 ml Water

5 Tbsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

½ tsp. Salt

Here is my recipe in PDF (8MB): Mushroom Rice


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Healthy Breakfast in 5 Minutes! (Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

If you want a change in your breakfast, please try this recipe, which is egg and cabbage cooked in the microwave. You can cook it in 5 minutes!

Egg is a great ingredient for breakfast as you know. Egg contains well balanced, essential amino-acids. So egg improves our immune system and promotes the elimination of waste products.

Cabbage is also a great ingredient for breakfast. Cabbage is a good natural stomach reliever because it is high in vitamin C and U. Vitamin U is officially called S-methylmethionine, and it is a good ingredient for stomach problems such as indigestion, upper stomach-ache and so on. In Japan we often eat fresh cabbage in salad and as a garnish. We also have many kinds of stomach medicine (over the counter) and most of those use vitamin U as an ingredient.

If you usually don’t eat a healthy breakfast because you don’t have time, you should try this. It is a very good way to start your day!

{Ingredients (serving 1)}

3 pieces Cabbage Leaf

1 Egg

Pinch of Salt (to taste)

Pinch of Black Pepper (to taste)

1 tsp. Gluten-Free Margarine

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Easy Egg and Cabbage Breakfast Delight


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EGG-FREE Healthy Sweet Potato Treats (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

This is an EGG-FREE and MILK-FREE healthy, tasty  Japanese-style sweet treat. Because of its sweet taste, Japanese use it for desert a lot. Examples are baked sweet potato, caramelized fried sweet potato, sweet potato snacks, dried sweet potato, mushed sweet potato and so on.

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Sweet potato is high in fiber, vitamin B, C, E, and potassium. The amount of vitamin C in a sweet potato is 10 times of that in an apple. And the vitamin C in sweet potato does not break easily when heated.

Sweet potatos gain their sweet taste when cooked slowly. So I don’t use the microwave to make them tender so I can get a really sweet taste in the dish.

This recipe uses a small amount of Mirin instead of egg as a brush coat on the dough before baking. So this is also a great sweet for kids!

I hope you will like it!

{Ingredients (15 small balls)}

1 Peeled Sweet Potato

3 cups Water

3 Tbsp. Sugar

2 Tbsp. Gluten-Free Margarine

3 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

Pinch of Organic Black Sesame Seeds

Here is my recipe in PDF (5MB): Japanese Sweet Potato Treats


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Simple Finger Food “Sushi Canapé” (Gluten-Free)

This “Sushi Canapé” recipe is totally original and great for a potluck. The ingredients are easy and it is a simple finger food.

The manner for making a sushi roll for this dish is not traditional. I came up with an easy way to roll which everybody can do without fail. But the taste is totally like regular sushi! You can top it with whatever you want such as smoke salmon, fish row, vegetables and so on. Once you know this recipe, you can serve Japanese sushi to your family and friends!

Enjoy your sushi roll!!

{Ingredients (15~20 canapés)}

2 pints Steamed Rice

3 beaten eggs

¼ lb. Ground Chicken

1 Avocado

¼ tsp. Wasabi Paste or Organic Wasabi Powder(combine with water to make Wasabi paste)

3~4 pieces Dried Seaweed for Sushi

50 ml Rice Vinegar

2 Tbsp. Sugar (total)

1 ¼ tsp. Salt (total)

4 Tbsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic) (total)

1 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

Makisu Bamboo Sushi Mat for rolling sushi

Here is my recipe in PDF (9MB): Sushi Canape

Here is “White rice” recipe in PDF (5MB): White Rice


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Chicken Meatball Soup

 

This very flavorful soup brings you great nutrition because the ingredients are chicken, green onion, ginger, dried shiitake mushroom and kelp. This dish is high in vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin E, vitamin D, minerals, beta-carotene, allicin, calcium, protein and so on. Also it is low calorie and low fat. This dish makes you warm, gives your metabolism a boost, and helps improve your immunity so it is great to help you recover from sickness and get back a good appetite.

(Recommended Dried Kelp) Dashi Dried Kelp
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I highly recommend eating kelp occasionally. Recently, it is easy to get dried kelp at many grocery stores and at most Asian markets in the US. Japanese use kelp for Dashi stock and side dish like pickles. Dashi stock is used as seasoning in Japanese dishes. We use several kinds of Dashi stock such as dried anchovy, dried bonito, dried shiitake, dried kelp and so on. The kelp Dashi stock is great to compliment exquisite tasting ingredients. Kelp helps maintain your body’s alkaline. Also kelp has a good amount of fucoidan and iodine which are essential nutrients (in moderation) for humans.

{Ingredients (servings 2)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

½ lb. Ground Chicken

1 Egg

2 Tbsp. minced Green Onion

½ tsp. grated Ginger

1 tsp. plus ½ separate Tbsp. Soy Sauce

½ tsp. plus ½ separate tsp. Salt

1 ½ Tbsp. plus ½ separate Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 ½ Tbsp. Flour

1 carrot

3 pieces Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

2 cups Kelp Dashi Stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi stock) Dashi Dried Kelp

1 cup Water (leftover from soaking Shiitake)

Here is my recipe in PDF (6MB): Chicken Meatball Soup

Here is “Kelp Dashi Stock” recipe in PDF (5MB): Kelp Dashi stock


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Sweet-Savory Japanese-Style Pumpkin (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

In the Japanese diet, simmered vegetable dishes are very important to fulfill the terms of the Japanese basic meals rule, which is called “Ichi-juu, San-sai.” This basic meals rule means basic meals should consist of one bowl of cooked rice, one kind of soup and three vegetable or fish side dishes.

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Also simmered vegetable dishes are very common in Mahayana Buddhist cuisine for Buddhist monks. These dishes are an important nutritional source for the monks who are forbidden from eating meat and fish.

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In the Japanese dish, C. maxima pumpkin is a common ingredient. It is high in vitamins, potassium, fiber and beta-carotene. The taste is very sweet. We also use this pumpkin for sweets. Interestingly the pumpkin is lower in calories and carbohydrates than bananas!

This recipe is incredibly easy. You can put water, Japanese common seasonings and the pumpkin in a pan at the same time and just simmer. We don’t use Dashi stock because the pumpkin has great flavor itself.

I hope you can add this dish to your dinner.

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

½ Pumpkin

2 cups Water

2 Tbsp. Sugar

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

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

Here is my recipe in PDF: Sweet-Savory Japanese-Style Pumpkin


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Easy Homestyle Japanese Steamed Fish (Gluten-Free)

Steaming is a simple and healthy way to cook. And you can steam in the oven so it is very easy! Steamed dishes are very flavorful, the ingredients are tender, and steaming helps keep all of the ingredient’s nutrition!!

Steamed fish in aluminum foil is a traditional Japanese dish; although Japanese used to use paper instead of aluminum foil. Steaming this way has many practical benefits such as not keeping a fish smell inside the house from cooking, using fewer dishes, great preservation of each ingredient’s nutrition, condensation of amazing flavor and so on. I used Tilapia, onion, carrot and green onion. You can also use a variety of different vegetables, most kinds of fish and shellfish, a variety of meats and so on. You can taste each ingredient’s great flavor, which makes this approach different from other cooking methods.

Tilapia is high in potassium and vitamin D, E and of course omega-3. And also it is bland-tasting so you can cook it in many ways, like frying, steaming, sauté, baking and so on.

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Japanese eat fish a lot so I highly recommend eating fish at least occasionally to stay healthy.

{Ingredients (Servings 2)}

2 Pieces of Tilapia

1 Carrot

1 Onion

2 Tbsp. chopped Green Onion

2 tsp. Gluten-Free Margarine

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake or White Wine

Pinch of Salt (to taste)

Pinch of Black Pepper (to taste)

Here is my recipe in PDF: Japanese Steamed Fish


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Incredibly Flavorful Chicken Meatball TERIYAKI

This chicken meatball dish is incredibly flavorful! I love it!!! The ingredients are chicken, egg, green onion and ginger so it is very healthy (low fat and low calorie!!).

The meatballs themselves have a slightly salty taste so you can use the meatballs for your salad, pasta, soup, sandwiches and so on.

Today I introduce you to chicken meatballs TERIYAKI. It has a sweet-salty taste, which is made from common Japanese seasonings: soy sauce, cooking Sake, sugar and Mirin, so it is not a heavy taste. I am sure you won’t be able to stop eating once you’re first bite!!

Many people have soy sauce in the house in the US. You can also use white wine instead of cooking Sake (The dish tastes little bit different though).

This is Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine I used in this recipe.
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I strongly recommend that buy Mirin and keep it in your home for cooking. It is sweet cooking rice wine and adds great sweetness and Umami to dishes, and importantly Mirin also reduces the fish smell in seafood dishes. You can use Mirin in most Japanese cooking, can use it when you need sweetness in any dish, and you also can brush your sweets with Mirin and beaten egg yolk right before you bake so they turn a nice brown and taste slightly sweet. This sweetness comes from rice saccharifying amylase.

Enjoy these incredibly healthy and flavorful Japanese-style chicken meatball TERIYAKI!!

{Ingredients (20 small balls)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

½ lb. Ground Chicken

1 Egg

2 Tbsp. minced Green Onion

½ tsp. grated Ginger

1 tsp. plus 2 separate Tbsp. Soy Sauce

½ tsp. Salt

1 ½ Tbsp. plus 2 separate Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 ½ Tbsp. Flour

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

2 tsp. Sugar

Here is my recipe in PDF: Chicken Meatballs Teriyaki