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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Homemade Spring Roll

Spring rolls are a kind of Dim sum, which is Chinese food. As you know, spring rolls are served as appetizers at Chinese restaurants, but in Japanese homemade dishes they are actually a main dish.

Unfortunately, I can’t find spring roll wrappers near my house so I made from scratch with flour and water. Please remember Spring Roll wrappers are not egg roll wrappers (actually egg rolls are not popular in Japan), or rice paper, which is a Vietnamese style roll. Forunately, cooking spring roll wrappers is easy, but if you find spring roll wrappers at the store, it is definitely a time saver.

I used chicken, green cabbage, eggplant and mushroom for the filling. You can use anything you want, such as carrot, asparagus, leaves, potato, tofu, cheese, rice noodle, beef, pork, fish, shellfish and so on. Therefore, I can choose healthy ingredients as much as I want to.

You can make your own original spring rolls!!

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{Ingredients (about 15 rolls)}

[Filling]

½ lb. Ground Chicken

½ American Eggplant

¼ Green Cabbage

4 oz. Baby Bella Mushroom (any kind is okay)

4 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Rice Vinegar

1 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

¼ tsp. Salt

[Wrapper]

1 ½ cups plus 1 separate tsp. Flour

4 ½ cups plus 3 separate tsp. Water

1 tsp. Pure Sesame Oil

Here is my recipe in PDF (7 MB): Homemade Spring Roll

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Fried Wheat Noodles

Fried Wheat Noodles are actually traditional cuisine on the Okinawa islands, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. My mother and father visited Okinawa for their honeymoon 45 years ago and my mother learned about this dish at that time. (Until 1972 Okinawa was part of the united states so they needed to bring their passport. It surprised me!) Okinawa is a beautiful group of islands. Blue ocean, big sky, majestic forests, pure-hearted people, calm weather…I love Okinawa very much.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This recipe is called “Chanpuru” in Okinawa, which means frying mixture of various ingredients. In every age we are busy so traditional Okinawa people made this “Chanpuru” recipe which is quick. We can cook it with any combination of ingredients in the refrigerator, such as egg, vegetables, tofu, fish, meat and so on.

As I said, you don’t need much time for grocery shopping and cooking. Please try it when you are too busy to cook something else for dinner!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

2 bunches (6.2 0z) Organic Somen Noodles

½ lb. Ground Chicken

½ large Onion

1 Carrot

¾ tsp. Salt (total)

½ tsp. Black Pepper (total)

3 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil (total)

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

1 tsp. Pure Sesame Oil

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Fried Wheat Noodles


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Japanese Pan-Fried Dumpling

Japanese Pan-Fried Dumpling (Gyoza) comes from Chinese food. The recipe was slightly adjusted for Japanese tastes. It is a very popular dish in Japan. Therefore, we have a lot of restaurants for dumplings and also we cook homemade dumplings. There are many ways to cook dumplings, such as pan-fry, steam, deep-fry and boil.

Today I introduce you to pan-fried dumpling which is the most popular way to cook dumplings in Japan.

In this recipe I show you how to make a dumpling wrapper, but you can also find prepared dumpling wrappers at Asian markets and they are easy to cook with.

This time I used ground chicken for the filling but you can use pork, beef or shrimp instead of chicken. Also in regard to vegetables for the filling, you can use any vegetables you want, such as cabbage, mushroom, tofu, herbs and so on.

My mother used to cook with just chicken and green onion for the filling because she said we enjoyed the chicken taste, and we did!

Enjoy your homemade dumplings!

{Ingredients (servings 4)}

2 ½ cups Flour

200 ml plus 1 cup Water

½ tsp. plus a pinch of Salt

1 lb. Ground Chicken

½ cup chopped Green Onion

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. Pure Sesame Oil

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

1 tsp. grated Ginger

1 tsp. grated Garlic

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil (for frying)

Here is my recipe in PDF (7 MB): Japanese Pan-Fried Dumpling


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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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Pumpkin Croquette

Today I introduce you to a simple and healthy vegetable croquette recipe. This time I cooked the croquette in the oven so there is no need to worry about hot oil and messing up a  kitchen. The ingredients are pumpkin (C. maxima), onion and carrot.

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The differences between this recipe and the potato croquette recipe I posted earlier are taste and nutrition. I used C. maxima pumpkin (Kabocha), which is common in Japan. C. maxima pumpkins are especially high in vitamins, potassium, fiber and beta-carotene. They have more of a strong sweet taste than butternut squash, are not soggy and taste very good. So this kind of pumpkin is good for simmering dishes, a traditional style in Japanese cooking.

 *Click picture to link to this product on Amazon*

In this recipe I show you my mother’s original batter for fried dishes. Normally fry-batters are made from flour, egg and panko (bread crumbs). My mother’s batters are an egg mixture (egg, flour and white vinegar) and panko  (bread crumbs). The white vinegar makes the croquette batter very fluffy texture. You can use this egg mixture for any fried dishes such as fried chicken. Please try it!

{Ingredients (12 balls)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

½ Pumpkin (Kabocha)

1 Onion

1 Carrot

1 Egg

1 Tbsp. Flour

2 Tbsp. water

1 tsp. Rice Vinegar

1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs Japanese Style

3 Tbsp. Olive Oil

½ tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Black Pepper

Here is my recipe in PDF: Vegetable Croquette


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Simmered Taro and Chicken (Gluten-Free)

Simmered food is a traditional delicious Japanese dish. There are many kinds of vegetable or fish simmered dishes, such as root vegetables, eggplant, lettuce, flounder, anchovy and so on. My mother carefully taught me how to cook simmered dishes because traditionally these dishes are called “Homemade taste,” and in old Japanese traditions women who can cook simmered dishes were considered full-fledged wives, so my mother thought I might want to cook these dishes well for my husband. Of course, we live in a different era today and my husband and I often cook together so we have the great culinary tradition without the sexist overtones.

Basically, the ingredients are root vegetables so the dish includes a lot of fiber which is good for helping digestion. I also used chicken breast which it is low in fat and high in great protein.

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Taro is an important ingredient in homemade taste Japanese dishes. You can get it easily at most grocery stores in the US. Taro is high in potassium and water. Taro also is lower in calories than other kind of potato. When you chew taro, it can feel slightly gooey. This feeling comes from mucin, which is also in our saliva and stomach juice, and it helps the stomach function better.

Enjoy this traditional, nutritious and delicious dish!!

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

0.5 lb. Chicken Breast or Thigh

1 peeled Carrot

1 peeled Onion

4 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

1 cup Water (leftover from soaking Shiitake)

3 Taros

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

5 tablespoons Cooking Sake

4 tablespoons Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

Here is my recipe in PDF: Simmered Taro and Chicken


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Rice Porridge (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Rice porridge is an important dish for Japanese. We have the dish when we are sick, when we have no appetite, or when we want to heal the stomach after overeating such as after new year celebrations.

Rice porridge is easy to cook (just put washed dried rice and water in a pan and cook!) and you can season it however you want. We usually eat it with salt or pickles. You can also put sugar and butter like oatmeal or cereal.

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

・1 cup Premium Rice, Medium Grain

・7 cups water

・1 teaspoon chopped Green Onion (as topping)

・1 Umeboshi (pickled plum) (as topping)

Here is my recipe in PDF: Rice Porridge


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Potato Galette (Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Potato is high in vitamin C. It has about the same amount of vitamin C as spinach or orange. In addition the vitamin C in potato is resistant to heat so we can absorb the vitamin C easily from potato dishes. A raw potato’s calorie count is about the same as pumpkin and lower than sweet potato.

This potato galette recipe is very quick, easy and delicious! My mother always cooked it for a snack. It is also good to bring to potluck parties because the ingredients are just potato and cheese. There is no egg and no flour.

{Ingredients (Serves 2)}

4 Potatoes

¼ teaspoon Salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

4 tablespoons shredded Mexican Cheese (4 cheese mix)

4 tablespoons grated Parmesan Cheese

½ cup vegetable oil

Here is my recipe in PDF: Galette


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Seasoned Rice with Vegetables (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Today I introduce you to Takikomi Gohan which is seasoned rice with vegetables. It has a similar taste to fried rice, but it is steamed so a lot healthier. You can add vegetables (preferably root vegetables), shellfish, and/or chicken, and seasoning to the rice and cook just like cooking white rice.

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. Takikomi Gohan includes rice and some vegetables or fish so it is a fuss-free dish to help arrange Ichi-jiru, San-sai. And, or course, it just plain delicious! Also steamed rice absorbs the Umami of the ingredients so it is very nutritious and delicious!!

We sometimes have Takikomi Gohan as a Bento (boxed lunch) because it is tasty even when it is cold.

This time I use Shiitake mushroom, Daikon, Carrot and Snow pea with Kelp Dashi stock. So it has lots of vitamins, minerals, carotene and fucoidan. Dried Shiitake mushroom has vitamin D so we might want to eat winter time which has short sunshine hours.

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

・2 cups Premium Rice, Medium Grain

・3 pieces Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

・1 cup Water (leftover from soaking Shiitake)

・1 ½ cups Tap Water (Depends on amount of rice being soaked)

・2 inches round, sliced Daikon (Japanese white radish)

・1 Carrot

・10 pieces Snow peas

・4 inches × 4 inches sheet of Dashi Dried Kelp

・4 tablespoons Cooking Sake

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

・4 tablespoons Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

Here is my recipe in PDF: Seasoned Rice