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!!

Tag Archives: Japan


by 15 Comments

Very Popular “Rice-Omelet”(Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

This is an original Japanese omelet style dish. We call “Om-rice” in Japanese. About a hundred years ago, a Japanese restaurant made this recipe as a meal for the restaurant’s employees to have quickly and get enough nutrition to work from one plate. Nowadays, this is one of Japanese kids’ favorite dishes because it is so delicious!!

The ingredients are rice, vegetables and egg. We always season with salt, pepper and ketchup but if you don’t like using ketchup, season with just salt and pepper which also would be great!

I use onion, carrot and fresh shiitake mushrooms as my vegetable ingredients. You can use any kind of mushrooms if you can’t find shiitake mushrooms. In Japan, shiitake mushrooms are the most common mushroom. We use fresh shiitake mushrooms, and also dried ones. I use the two kinds of shiitake mushroom quite differently because the flavors are totally different; when I want to add much more shiitake flavor to my dish such as simmered dishes, I use the dried ones. When I cook Japanese dishes for which I want to add just fresh mushrooms, I use the fresh one.

You can add any kind of vegetables to the Om-rice that you like, as long as they are chopped to the same size as the other vegetables.

Enjoy your new omelet!!

{Ingredients (servings 4)}

1 Onion

1 Carrot

3 Shiitake Mushrooms

1 clove Garlic

1 tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Black Pepper

3 cups (1.5 pint) Steamed Rice

¾ cup Gluten-Free Ketchup

8 eggs (total)

2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil (total)

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Rice Omelet


by 3 Comments

Chicken Tenderloin with Delicious Plum Sauce! (Gluten-Free)

This is a very easy and tasty traditional side dish. Mainly we eat it in the summer time because it is cold and contains pickled plum.

_MG_8799-thumb-285x285-5

Pickled plum (Umeboshi) is a Japanese traditional healthy food. The recipe for pickled plum is to salt fresh plums and then dry them under the sun. Pickled plum has protein, calcium, iron, vitamins and so on. We eat it very often, but especially when we feel tired, we have a sore throat, and most importantly when we want to prevent heat stroke while outside in summer time. Pickled plum also has antibacterial effect so we sometimes put it on rice in our lunch box to keep the rice from going bad.

This plum sauce contains sesame seeds so it is a very nutritious and flavorful sauce. You can use this sauce for other meat or fish dishes. And if you add olive oil to the sauce, you can use it as a dressing for your salads.

Chicken tenderloin has great taste and nutrition. It doesn’t take much time to cook but if you over cook it, the meat will be hard. In this recipe, I show how to get tender chicken tenderloin. If you use this method, you can always get good tender chicken for any of your  dishes.

Enjoy this divine chicken dish!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

3 pieces Chicken Tenderloin

3 Pickled Plums

2 tsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

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

1 tsp. Cooking Sake

Boiled Water (for boiling tenderloin)

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Chicken Tenderloin with Plum Sauce


by 6 Comments

The easiest TOFU dish! (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

This is the quickest, easiest, healthiest summer time side dish. It’s just cold Tofu with green onion and ginger.

This is a dish you might have when you want to add one more nutritious dish to your meal; when you don’t have any time to cook in the morning; when you don’t have a big appetite; or when you want to eat late at night…

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 vegetarians. Also tofu is low calorie (33 kcal / 2 oz.) so it is good food for people who care about their’ diet.

Ginger is used as a medicine (we call it Kampo) in Eastern Medicine. It may improve our immune system  and also has antibacterial and antioxidant properties.

Green onion is high in vitamins and carotene. It also has antibacterial properties. So These two vegetables are great to make you more energetic and healthy.

Serving: 1

Total Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Total Calorie: 49 kcal

[Ingredients]

・1/6 pack(2~3 oz.) of firm Tofu (33 kcal)

・1 Tbsp. of minced Green Onion (5 kcal)

・1/2 tsp. of grated Ginger (1 kcal)

・1 Tbsp. of Soy Sauce (10 kcal)
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

Cut washed tofu into small size and transfer to a plate.

IMG_7177

Add green onion and ginger on the tofu.

IMG_7178IMG_7179

Drizzle with soy sauce.

IMG_7182


by 2 Comments

Tasty and Healthy Japanese-Style Omelet! (Gluten-Free)

Japanese homemade omelets are slightly different from American omelets. We wrap egg around sautéd meat and vegetables. We also have American omelets in Japan which are called “plane omelets”. But when my mother made an omelet for lunch or dinner, it was always the omelet from this recipe.

The ingredients are ground meat, onion, carrot, mushroom and egg. You can use any kind of meat such as chicken, beef, pork and so on. The seasoning is so simple. It is just salt and pepper. You can also add  ketchup to taste. It is delicious!! I am sure you will like it.

This simple recipe is lower in calories than American cheese and meat omelets. But we have to be careful about the oil and butter that we use when we cook because the amount of oil and butter often used in American omelets is much higher in calories than we think. If you care about calories, I highly recommend choosing the right products and using a measuring spoon for oil when you cook.

Just in case, I am going to include normal product’s calories. If you use “light” or “reduced fat” products, please check the package.

1 Tbsp. of oil: 111kcal

1 Tbsp. of margarine: 91kcal

1 Tbsp. of butter: 89kcal

However, you can’t tell if an oil is healthy or not just by looking at the calories. It is important that we also think about the ingredients, nutrition, glycemic index and so on.

Enjoy your new, great tasting and healthy omelet!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

½ lb. Ground Chicken

1 Carrot

1 small Onion

4 oz. Baby Bella Mushroom

4 Eggs (total)

¼ tsp. of Salt

⅛ tsp. of Black Pepper

2 Tbsp. of Vegetable Oil (total)

Here is my recipe in PDF(5 MB): Omelet


by Leave a comment

Grated Japanese Yam (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

This recipe is just grated Japanese yam. Japanese sometimes eat grated yam by itself, pour it on steamed rice, or put it on noodles, and so on.

Japanese yam is a very nutritious vegetable as I told at https://japanese-food.org/2015/05/12/japanese-yam-salad/

The yam has a sticky texture because of Mucin, one of it’s ingredients. Especially when the yam is grated, the texture become more smooth and sticky, and this sticky texture gives our bodies some great benefits, such as protecting our mucous membranes in the stomach, protecting our body from some viruses and so on. Mucin is a soluble fiber and helps keep water in our cells.

Traditionally, people say the grated Japanese yam loosened phlegm, so I used to eat it when I caught a cough. Additionally, the yam is easy to digest so it is good food when you are sick.

It is easy, simple and quick. Nothing difficult. Just grate the yam and mix with some Japanese Dashi stock.

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

5-inch length Japanese Yam

¼ cup Kelp Dashi Stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi stock) Dashi Dried Kelp

A splash of Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

⅛ tsp. Japanese Wasabi Paste
(Recommended Gluten-Free Wasabi Powder)Organic Seasoning Wasabi Powder

Here is my recipe in PDF (3 MB): Japanese Yam

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


by 7 Comments

Japanese Yam Salad (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Have you ever had Japanese yam?

yam

It is a kind of potato that grows straight into the ground so it has a long shape. (It sometimes grows to more than 3 feet).

b43f7533-s

In Japan, people have eaten the yam for about 3000 years. Therefore, the yam is very important to the Japanese diet.

We can eat this yam raw because it has a gelatinized starch and some of the nutrition in this type of yam are breaks under heat. The Japanese yam is rich in diastase, a digestive enzyme which helps our digestion and absorption of nutrition into the body. Also the yam is high in vitamin B1, vitamin C, calcium, potassium and mucin.

Mucin is soluble fiber and helps keep water in our cells. Therefore, it protects our mucous membranesin the stomach, and protects our body from some viruses. Some studies say the yam also prevents dry eyes because mucin is an ingredient in tears. Mucin gives the yam a great smooth, sticky texture, especially when it is grated. This is great for our body. It heals our tiredness and helps our digestion, so the yam is great for your diet when you are recovering from being sick, when you have no appetite, and so on.

(The yam has Calcium oxalate, so it can sometimes make you feel itchy on your hands or around your lips when you touch it, but you feel better as soon as you wash the itchy part with acid water (a mixture of vinegar and water). In rare case some people are allergic to the yam, so if it gives you a weird feeling inside your mouth, you have to stop eating it and call a doctor.)

Today, I introduce you to Japanese yam salad. It is very simple and easy. I always use pickled plum sauce because it is extremely healthy and is a fermented food. But you can use any dressing you want, because the yam doesn’t have strong flavor so it won’t change the taste of your favorite dressing taste!

Enjoy your new nutritious salad!!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

4-inch length Japanese Yam

½ Cucumber

1 Pickled Plum

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

2 Tbsp. Rice Vinegar (total)

2 cups Water

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Japanese Yam Salad


by 2 Comments

Vegetable Mix Tempura (Vegan/Vegetarian)

“Vegetable Mix Tempura”, which is called “Kakiage” in Japanese, is a traditional Japanese recipe. We enjoy this tempura on steamed rice, on Japanese Soba noodle, on Japanese Udon noodle, or just the tempura itself.

In Japan, people always try to make the tempura with a great crunchy texture. With this recipe, you can cook crunchy tempura easily. The seasoning is only salt, the vegetables are tender and the batter is crunchy so you can really enjoy more vegetables. Also, the recipe is very simple. I just use 1 skillet, 1 bowl, a cutting board and a knife. So If you have kids who don’t like vegetables very much, you might want to try to cook this recipe!

Enjoy!!

{Ingredients (servings 4)}

1 large Onion

4 oz. Shiitake Mushrooms

1 Carrot

½ American Eggplant

½ cup Flour

5 Tbsp. Cold Ice Water

Vegetable Oil for Frying

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Vegetable Mix Tempura


by Leave a comment

Japanese Wheat Noodle (Vegan/Vegetarian)

Somen is a Japanese wheat noodle. In Japan, people traditionally eat cold Somen with cold broth in the summer. At some summer events, Somen noodles are placed in a long flume of bamboo with ice cold water. As the somen pass by, people pick them up with chopsticks and dip them in the broth. Somen has been eaten at ceremonial occasions since about 700 years ago.

This is Organic Somen Noodles (3.1 oz.) I used in this recipe.
61f-UiwBKaL._SY606_

201307100909065968942052_af3dd42102_z-1

Today I introduce you to Japanese wheat noodle with delicious hot Dashi broth. It is very quick and easy!

Enjoy your new noodle recipe!

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

A bunch of Organic Somen Noodles (3.1 oz.)

3 Cups Kelp Dashi Stock or Anchovy Dashi Stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi stock) Dashi Dried Kelp
(Recommended Dried Anchovy for Dashi stock)Anchovy Dried Iwashi Fish

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

½ Tbsp. Cooking Sake

½ tsp. Salt

2 Tbsp. minced Green Onion (total)

Boiled Water, for boiling dried Somen noodle

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Japanese Wheat Noodle

“Anchovy Dashi Stock” recipe in PDF: Homemade Anchovy Dashi Stock

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


by Leave a comment

Agedashi-Tofu (Vegan/Vegetarian)

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

itemimg

pro_11_pct

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


by 1 Comment

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.

木なりきゅうり

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