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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Sesame Tofu (vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free)

“Sesame Tofu” is not a traditional Japanese dish. I have never had “Sesame Tofu” in Japan. When I had “Sesame Tofu” at a Chinese restaurant in the U.S., I was amazed at how delicious it was! So I tried to cook it myself.

This sesame tofu recipe is perfect! It is not too sweet and not too greasy, so it is in keeping with my dishes. It is a gluten-free and vegan dish! Delicious!! In addition, tofu has a lot of nutrition. As you know, tofu is high in great protein so it is often used as a meat substitute for vegans and vegetarians. Also tofu itself is low calorie (33 kcal / 2 oz.) so it is good food for people who care about their diet.

In this recipe 7 ounces (1/2 pack) of tofu can serve 2 people. You may think it is too small an amount compared to many Chinese restaurants in the U.S. In Japan, people traditionally eat many dishes containing soy beans. For a balanced-diet, which I highly recommend on the post You can Eat Anything You Want! But…, I suggest eating 1/4 pack of tofu every day depending on your other protein sources. If you make this recipe as a main dish, you might want to add some small side dishes to your meal.

The recipe is easy. We can cook with one pan.

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Dry tofu and dredge in corn starch.

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Cook and season.

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Ingredients (servings 2)
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7 oz. (½ pack) Firm Tofu

¼ cup Corn Starch

1 Tbsp. Pure Sesame Oil

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Sugar

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

1 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

1 Tbsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

Some Chopped Green Onion (to taste)

 

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF:Sesame-Tofu

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Green Beans with Sweet Sesame Dressing (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

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.

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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.

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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.

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Mix the sauce ingredients, boil fresh green beans and dress.

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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.

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Enjoy this new healthy side dish!!

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

¾~1 pound Fresh Green Beans

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

2 Tbsp. Sugar

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

4 Tbsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

Water for boiling green beans

1 Tbsp. Salt for boiling green beans

{Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF}: green-beans-with-sweet-sesame-dressing

{Recipe Video on YouTube}


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Non-Spicy “Mapo-Tofu”(Gluten-Free)

Mapo-Tofu is a popular Chinese dish. This recipe is totally my mother’s creation based on Mapo-Tofu. My mother came up with this recipe because the original dish is so spicy and I couldn’t handle it. This dish is very healthy because it has great protein, which comes from a combination of meat and tofu, so we always had this Non-Spicy Mapo-Tofu in our house.

The recipe is so easy to cook. It basically involves cooking ground chicken and tofu in chicken broth and then seasoning it in the same pan.

You can also use any kind of ground meat and any kind of broth in this recipe.

I recommend you enjoy tasting everything on the plate, the meat, the tofu, and the soup flavor! Because of the finished presentation you may think of it is a soup dish, but we eat it as a main dish with steamed rice.

Enjoy your new healthy and yummy dish!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

7 oz. (half pack) firm Tofu

½ lb. ground Chicken

1 tsp. minced Garlic (about 1 clove)

1 tsp. minced Ginger

2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

1 cup low-sodium Chicken Broth
(Recommended Gluten-Free Chicken Broth)Reduced Sodium Chicken Flavor Broth

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

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Potato Starch or Corn Starch (for slurry)

2 Tbsp. water (for slurry)

1 tsp. Pure Sesame Oil

Here is my recipe in PDF (6 MB): Non-Spicy Mapo-Tofu


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Rice-cake Soup (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Ozouni (Rice-cake soup) is a celebratory dish, and one of the dishes we eat on New Year’s day.

When we eat this, traditionally we give thanks for last year’s harvest and wish for a good harvest in the coming year and for the safety of our family.

Interestingly, the ingredients are different depending on the region. Some people dissolve White Miso (Soy bean paste) in the broth. Some people use sweet rice cake which has sweet bean paste in it.

Today I introduce my mother’s Ozouni. I use normal rice cake, Daikon (Japanese white radish) and carrots. This makes the dish more celebratory because in Japan we usually use red and white color combinations in celebratory situations.

In Japan, New Year’s day is the most important day of the year and many Japanese spend New Year’s day with family, feeling grateful for everything and wishing for a good year for everyone.

Have a happy New Year!!

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

2 pieces of Rice Cake (JAPAN IMPORT)

½ carrots

1 inch cut daikon (Japanese white radish)

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

2 tablespoons Cooking Sake

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

¼ teaspoon salt

Here is my recipe in PDF: Rice-cake soup

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


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Homemade Kelp Dashi stock / Salted Kelp (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Today I will show you how to cook “Kelp Dashi stock”.

Kelp is very nutritious and delicious when prepared correctly. It is low calorie, high in iodine, minerals, and fucoidan. It is good for making your skin smooth, hair and nails strong, and also helps to treat constipation. It is also a great food for people on diets. It is good for our health.

Significantly, while Kelp is gooey and chewy, because of its nutritional elements and fucoidan, Kelp dashi stock is not gooey and doesn’t have a strong smell so you can use it for many dishes.

I introduced “Anchovy Dashi stock” before. These two dashi stocks differ in taste and flavor. We use Anchovy Dashi stock when we want a stronger fish taste in dishes. On the other hand Kelp Dashi stock is usually used for dishes which we want to enjoy the individual tastes of ingredients such as vegetables, fish and so on. Of course, it is good for vegetarians and people who don’t like Anchovy Dashi stock smell.

We usually use the kelp for other dishes after we cook Dashi stock. This time I will use the leftover kelp to introduce a side dish which we call “Shio Konbu (Salted Kelp)”. Japanese usually eat it with cooked white rice. Shio Konbu is also great in your salad. It makes your salad more nutritious, healthy and delicious!!

{Ingredients (for Dashi Stock)}
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2 pieces (4 inches×4 inches) Dried kelp
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi stock) Dashi Dried Kelp

5 cups water

{Ingredients (for side dish Salted Kelp)}

1/2 cup Water

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

1 tsp. Rice Vinegar

Here is my recipe in PDF: Kelp Dashi stock/ Salted Kelp


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Miso soup (Gluten-Free)

Miso soup is also an important dish in the Japanese diet. Miso (Soybean paste) is a traditional fermented food product. It is a very nutritious food and may help keep the doctor away. In fact there have been many studies of the effects of Miso on human health.

The basic arrangement for many Japanese meals is called “Ichi-juu, San-sai”, and consists of one bowl of cooked rice, one kind of soup and three vegetable or fish side dishes, so most people have miso soup during  every meal.

Here I will introduce onion and shiitake miso soup. You can cook many other kinds of miso soup such as tofu and seaweed, Japanese radish and deep fried tofu, potato and onion, clam and green onion, and so on. Depending on the ingredients you want to use you may need to slightly change the amount of miso and the amount of cooking Sake based on taste.

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

2 tablespoons ORGANIC Miso Paste

½ onion

2 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

1 cup Anchovy Dashi stock

1 cup water (leftover from soaking Shiitake)

1 tablespoon Cooking Sake

Here is my recipe in PDF: Miso soup


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Homemade Anchovy Dashi Stock (Gluten-Free)

Stock (Dashi) is the most important ingredient for almost all Japanese dishes. If we didn’t use Dashi stock, the dishes would taste totally different.

In this post I will introduce you to Anchovy Dashi stock, which has a good fish smell and a slightly fish flavor, and helps you make many delicious Japanese recipes such as miso-soup, simmered vegetables, Donburi and so on. I want to tell you that this type of Dashi stock has lots of Calcium and DHA.

We use many kinds of Dashi stock such as kelp, bonito, shiitake and so on. Anchovy Dashi stock is usually used for home cooking.

*Click picture or BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
(Recommended Dried Anchovy for Dashi stock) Anchovy Dried Iwashi Fish

Here is my recipe in PDF: Homemade Anchovy Dashi Stock


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Gomoku-Chirashi (Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Gomoku-Chirashi is a traditional Japanese home dish which is delicious and nutritious, and a kind of Chirashi-sushi. We enjoy it at parties with family at home, such as on New Year and Girl’s day (March 3rd).

The recipe here does not use fish or fish roe, but rather vegetables. We think dishes should have colorful ingredients such as red, green, yellow, brown and white so you can use any colorful vegetables you want.

Before the Japanese had refrigerators they used this recipe to preserve food.

{Ingredients for Sushi-Rice (For 2 people)}
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・2 ½ cups Cooked rice

・75 ml Rice Vinegar

・2 tablespoons Sugar

・1 ½ teaspoons Salt

{Ingredients for Gomoku-Chirashi}

・4 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

・150ml Water (leftover from soaking Shiitake)

・1 Carrot

・2 Eggs

・2 tablespoons White Roasted Sesame Seeds

・1 tablespoon Dried Seaweed Flakes

・2 tablespoons Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

・2 tablespoons Sugar

・1 tablespoon Cooking Sake

・1/2 teaspoon Salt

Here is my recipe in PDF: Gomoku-Chirashi


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Making Japanese Rice at Home (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

I decided to do my first post on one of the most important ingredients in many Japanese dishes, Japanese rice. If you have a very good rice cooker you can skip this post and move onto the next recipe, but for anyone without a very good rice cooker this recipe should be helpful. Click on the link below for the illustrated recipe in PDF format.

{Ingredients}

Short Grain Dried Rice

Water

Here is my recipe in PDF: White Rice


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Benefits of a Japanese Diet

Welcome to my website! This website is devoted to Japanese cooking and nutrition. Many Japanese restaurants in the United States do not serve traditional Japanese food other than Sushi. Yet, traditional Japanese food is incredibly healthy and delicious! On this website I will tell you about, and give you instructions to make, traditional Japanese dishes. Why learn to make traditional Japanese food?

  • Japan has the world’s highest longevity rate. People live longer & diet is an important reason why.
  • Japanese food uses natural, seasonal ingredients, has many low fat dishes, and uses a variety of cooking styles.
  • Rice is a staple of the Japanese diet, and it is high in fiber, folic acid, magnesium, potassium, iron, and other healthy nutrients.
  • Several studies have suggested that Japanese food can be effective in improving blood sugar levels and preventing Type II diabetes.
  • Japanese food has been named as an intangible cultural treasure by UNESCO.
  • And of course, Japanese food is delicious!!!!