How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
I am sure many people think Japanese food = Tempura and Sushi.
Today I will teach you how to make Tempura with eggplant.
Once you see this recipe, you can make any kind of Tempura, such as shrimp, squid, fish and many kinds of vegetables, whatever you want.
I chose eggplant this time because it is my favorite Tempura. I like the juicy texture, light sweet taste and low calories!! Eggplant also has polyphenol which works as an antioxident. So it is a good food to eat to help you stay healthy.
Japanese don’t eat Tempura so often because it is deep-fried, and not very healthy if we eat it every day.
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*
Today’s dish is called “Snow peas and Egg,” which is actually my mother’s original recipe. It uses sweet egg and snow peas that are a little bit salty. This dish is very easy to cook and popular with children because of the sweet and soft scrambled egg.
Snow peas have a lot of vitamins and carotene so it is good food for beauty. Egg is, needless to say, high quality protein and high in vitamins and minerals. So my mother knew it is good for children because it is easy, nutritious and delicious!!
{Ingredients (For 2 people)}
About 20 pieces of snow pea (according to your taste)
Japanese use Daikon (Japanese white radish) for many dishes. Daikon is high in water, vitamin C and vitamin A, and is a low calorie ingredient. Daikon helps digestion so we sometimes eat fish or meat with grated daikon.
Today I will introduce “Simmered Daikon”. This dish is really easy to cook and delicious! It is one of the best dishes in my mother’s recipes. It is called “Daikon no taitan” just in the Kyoto area (Kansai region) of Japan, so this dish is one representative of Kyoto.
{Ingredients (For 2 people)} *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Daikon (Japanese white radish)
2 ½ cups Kelp Dashi stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi stock) Dashi Dried Kelp
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*
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)} *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
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)} *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
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.
Your Home for Homemade Japanese Food 