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 “Sautéed Salmon and Asparagus”.
If you are tired of baked or grilled salmon, you should try this! It is very delicious, flavorful and has a very soft texture because I steam it with cooking Sake in a pan. This is the key to cooking the asparagus and salmon all the way through in such a short time. If you are not comfortable with using alcohol for cooking, you can substitute some broth.
The recipe is very easy.
Cook salmon and asparagus in a pan. Season and steam with cooking sake.
Today I introduce you to “Fried Tofu” which is called “Gan-Modoki” in Japanese.
I am sure this is going to be your new healthy delicious tofu dish!! During the cooking preparation I process the tofu, so it has a very soft and silken texture. The seasonings are soy sauce, ginger and salt so it is incredibly flavorful. Therefore, this tofu dish even makes people who don’t like tofu very much enjoy it because they don’t think it is made from tofu!
The recipe is:
Drain tofu, smooth the tofu with a food processor, mix with vegetables and seasonings, and fry.
You can enjoy the fresh and hot fried tofu itself. Also it is great to simmer it in chicken soup with some vegetables!
To store, place the fried tofu in a plastic bag and keep in the freezer.
Please do not drain the used oil in the sink. Put some kitchen papers in a can or a jar which you don’t need and pour the cooled used oil in. Throw it out as regular garbage.
Ingredients (12 balls) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to “Japanese Fried Chicken with Egg Drop Dashi”.
This is a very delicious dish and is a popular dish in Japan. It is fried chicken breast in an egg-drop Dashi soup. Japanese fried food has very thin batter and a crunchy texture. We add the soup to the chicken right before we eat it so that we can enjoy the flavorful soup and crunchy fried chicken together. Mostly the dish is put on steamed rice so it is called Donburi. It provides carbohydrate and protein in one bowl so we usually have this during the busy lunch time.
The recipe is
(Fried Chicken)
Season a chicken breast with salt and pepper and batter with flour, beaten egg and bread crumbs. (See the picture, I sometimes use a supermarket flyers or newspaper to batter with flour and bread crumbs. This makes easy to cleanup!)
Fry about 5 minutes on each side. Slice and place on a plate.
(Egg-Drop Sauce)
Heat Dashi stock, sugar, cooking Sake, soy sauce and Mirin in a pan and pour beaten egg in the boiled soup.
Pour the egg-drop dashi soup on the fried chicken and sprinkle with green onion (to taste) right before serving.
I used bonito dashi stock but you can use any kind of stock. This is a Japanese style dish so It would be better to use bonito, shiitake mushroom, kelp, or anchovy dashi stock if it’s possible.
If you frequently want to add chopped green onion with a minimum of fuss to your dishes, here is a tip to store the chopped green onion. When you have time, chop some washed green onion, dry with paper towels, put in a plastic zipper bag and keep it in the freezer. Use within a month. You can add some to your dishes without defrosting.
Ingredients (servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to Japanese-style chicken tenderloin hot pot. It is great for dinner on cold nights, and also great for dinner on busy nights because the recipe is very easy. You can just set the ingredients in a skillet and simmer with soup. The soup ingredients are Dashi stock, soy sauce and cooking Sake. You can use any kind of Dashi stock.
The dish is very nutritious because the soup contains a lot of Umami and great vitamins and minerals from all ingredients. And it uses no oil and is gluten-free! Also, chicken tenderloin is high in protein and low in calories. In fact, some Japanese who want to lose weight eat this for dinner everyday. Once they reach their ideal weight, they will go back to their normal diet.
The recipe is very easy. You can cook using one skillet.
Set vegetables in a skillet and add Dashi stock and seasoning.
Once the vegetables get tender, add green onion and chicken tenderloin.
Today I will teach you “How to make Authentic Homemade Miso Soup” with recipe video and detailed PDF direction. It is very easy to cook and has great flavor and wonderful taste, but I am sure you have never tasted authentic miso soup at most of restaurants in the US.
One of tips for cooking miso soup is to use great Dashi stock. I use different Dashi stocks depending on ingredients in my miso soup. I like to use bonito Dashi stock for vegetable miso soup. I tend to use kelp or anchovy Dashi stock for seaweed and seafood miso soup. Sometimes I use blended Dashi stocks which is very flavorful! If you follow a vegan diet, you can use kelp Dashi stock. I have some homemade Dashi stock recipes in my blog.
Here is “Kelp Dashi Stock” recipe post: Homemade Kelp Dashi stock / Salted Kelp (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)
Here is “Anchovy Dashi Stock” recipe post: Homemade Anchovy Dashi Stock (Gluten-Free)
But you can also use instant Dashi stock powder to save time. There are a lot of great ones in many Asian markets and also on Amazon.
I want to tell you one more tip to cook delicious miso soup. Basically I use 2 Tbsp. of miso paste for 2 cups of Dashi stock. But you can use less or more miso paste. I tend to use a little bit more miso paste than 2 Tbsp. for vegetable miso soup. I use less than 2 Tbsp. of miso paste for seafood miso soup because I can enjoy the seafood flavor!
Miso soup is an important dish in the Japanese diet. Miso (Soybean paste) is a traditional fermented food product. It is a very nutritious food, and Japanese say it may help keep the doctor away. In fact, there have been many studies of the beneficial effects of Miso on human health. I like to eat miso soup for breakfast more than anything else because I feel energy, my stomach feels comfortable and my head becomes clear. I think my body gets ready for school or work when I have miso soup in the morning.
In this recipe I use tofu. I like tofu miso soup because it is the quickest and easiest miso soup recipe! You can use any vegetables such as onion, potato, spinach, Daikon radish, mushrooms, carrot, bean sprouts, and so on. You can also use any seafood and seaweed for miso soup such as Wakame seaweed, clam, freshwater clam, oyster, lobster, and so on.
The recipe is very easy.
Boil Dashi stock and cut tofu. Dissolve miso paste.
Ingredients (servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
“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.
Dry tofu and dredge in corn starch.
Cook and season.
Ingredients (servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
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*
There are many different meanings of “HEALTHY” for each person. Having good nutrition, being positive, being powerful, building up muscles, losing some weight… Also there are many ways to be healthy. Exercise, diet, meditation, sleep…
Today’s post is for people struggling with becoming healthier, but it doesn’t recommend a one size fits all solution about what to do and how to do it. The post is based on my study, research and real-life experiences.
My suggestion to all of you who want to lead a healthy life is that
“You can eat anything you want. But it must be WELL-BALANCED!!”
In your meals, you have to include many COLORFUL ingredients, some different COOKING METHODS and some different TASTES in dishes, and the dishes have to be served in SMALL PORTIONS which you can grab with a hand.
[Other suggestions] Only ONE dish of carb (Rice, bread or noodles) in a meal. CHEW well. Not too much fried food.
For example, one day my meals consisted of:
Steamed multigrain rice: Steamed, Carb
Onion miso soup: Fermented, Savory
Simmered Daikon: Simmered, Sweet-savory
Scrambled egg and tomato: Pan-fried, Spicy taste
Boiled green beans with sesame dressing: Boiled, Sour taste
This is what I learned by watching my mother cook so it is easy for me, but I know it is not easy for people who are not used to these sorts of multiple small dishes.
Here are some tips:
*Prepare some dishes ahead of time when you have any spare time. In my recipes, there are a lot of main dishes and side dishes, which can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-5 days or for much longer in the freezer. You don’t need to cook a lot each time.
*If you have to eat one dish as a quick lunch, you can adjust your dinner appropriately.
*If you have to eat out for dinner, you can adjust your breakfast and lunch in advance.
This well-balanced cooking also saves you money in your grocery budget and minimizes wasted food because you know your meal composition in advance so you can buy the minimum foodstuffs.
When I was in Japan, I always followed this well-balanced meal composition for my breakfast and lunch. For dinner I often ate out with my co-workers, which meant dinner was not always well-balanced, but at least 2 out of 3 meals were balanced everyday. In addition, I was too busy to work out so I did Yoga for 30 minutes once a week and I had Taiko (Japanese Drum) lessons for 90 minutes twice a month, and that’s it. I was 5.4ft. and 120lb.
After I moved to the US with my husband, we have always worked out 3 times a week (weights, stretching and cardio), and we always eat healthy (salad, soup, chicken, no flour, no fried food… but its still not like the meal composition in Japan). Before I knew it, I gained 15 lb., which may not have been all fat because I did build some of my muscles up.
Still, it was a lot of weight for my frame. So I started my traditional Japanese cooking for most meals. After a week I stopped between-meal eating. After two weeks, I stopped craving snacks or junk food. After three weeks, I lost 7 lb. naturally. Of course, the meals I ate easily make me full so I am not hungry and constantly craving food. My mother and grandmother always said that our brain doesn’t signal us to eat more when our body absorbs varied and good amounts of nutrition. And it happened to me. It is true!!
In addition, when I have these well-balanced meals, I feel very happy, very powerful and have very positive thinking. When we eat a lot of unhealthy food and don’t work out we lack energy, we crave more food and also we have greater risk for many lifestyle-related diseases.
If you want to have pizza, you can have one piece of pizza as a carb, plus your meat with some small portion side dishes which are cooked with various cooking methods and which have various tastes. Don’t keep eating same-taste-same-cooking method food.
I want to also say that eating raw vegetables does not always lead to good absorption of nutrition. For example, cooked tomatoes and carrots have 1.5 times more absorption factor of beta-carotene and lycopene than raw ones. And cooked vegetables have smaller volume than raw vegetables so that means we can get much more nutrition when we eat cooked vegetables compared to eat raw vegetables. On the other hand, some vegetables lose their benefits when cooked too much. For example, over boiling broccoli breaks down it’s vitamin C. We have to choose the correct cooking method based on each vegetable’s characteristics. In my recipes, there are many cooking methods based on each ingredient’s characteristic. This comes from natural internalized attitudes from watching my mother cook.
Good luck with your happy life!!
{Here is my make-ahead recipes}
*(Make sure that you can transfer dishes to the refrigerator after they cool down to room temperature because the steam from the hot food in the container makes the dish go bad easily.)
Today I will introduce you to “Homemade Chicken Teriyaki”.
This is a main dish I highly recommend. It is a very popular dish all over the world because it is very flavorful and extremely delicious!!
However, in my opinion in the U.S. the taste (from the sauce) is slightly different from Japanese Teriyaki. In the U.S. the Teriyaki sauce is too sweet by Japanese standards.
I want you to be able to taste “Authentic Teriyaki,” which has a great taste and is not greasy. And also I want to show you how to cook juicy chicken using a pan. The tip is pan-frying and steaming. This makes the chicken soft, juicy and perfectly moist.
The recipe is very easy. It takes less than 20 minutes.
Cook chicken and simmer it with seasonings.
Ingredients (servings 2)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to a very popular homemade Japanese dish: “Pan-Fried Udon Noodles,” which is called “Yaki-Udon” in Japanese. The ingredients are cooked Udon noodles, sautéed vegetables and turkey sausage seasoned with soy sauce. It is good for a quick meal because you can get carb, protein and vitamins from one dish. And it is very delicious!!
The recipe is very simple and quick. If you sometimes cook pasta dishes in your house, the cooking process will be familiar to you.
Sauté turkey sausage and vegetables.
Boil Udon noodles.
Dress all with seasonings.
You can use any vegetables and meats. And also you can cut the ingredients however you want. If you like to eat chunky vegetables, you can cut into big pieces. if you or your family don’t like vegetables very much, you can mince well and stir in as a seasoning on the Udon noodles.
Enjoy your-own-“Yaki-Udon”!!
{Ingredients (servings 2)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Your Home for Homemade Japanese Food 