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How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!

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Healthy Fish Nabe (Gluten-Free)

Today I introduce you to Nabe which is a traditional Japanese simmering dish. Nabe is a very easy recipe that you can prepare with many kinds of ingredients. You can make Nabe with sea food, meat, various vegetables and various kinds of stock!

Nabe has a variety of great nutrients that come from the ingredients and the soup, and Nabe makes our bodies warm so Japanese usually have Nabe in winter time. Also, Nabe is a low-calorie dish if you choose the ingredients carefully.

Today, I used Tilapia. Tilapia is high in vitamin D, vitamin B12 and potassium. Also, Tilapia has a soft texture and light taste so it is good for many kinds of dishes. Just be careful not to cook it too much. Overcooking Tilapia makes the texture hard.

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This is the Tofu Shirataki I used. It is a firm tofu noodle and common ingredient for Nabe in Japan. It is very easy for kids to eat. In this recipe you can substitute normal Tofu for this.

Enjoy this healthy and easy dinner!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 fillet Tilapia

10 leaves Napa Cabbage

4 Shiitake mushrooms

3 Green Onions

1 pack Tofu Shirataki

1 piece (5 square inches) Dried Kelp

¼ cup Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

¼ cup Cooking Sake

2 ½ cups Water

Here is my recipe in PDF: Healthy Fish Nabe

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Braised Fish (Gluten-Free)

Braising is one common Japanese cooking method for fish. The taste is a typical Japanese “sweet-salty” taste, similar to Teriyaki or Sukiyaki seasoning. We use Cooking Sake, Soy Sauce, Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine and sugar when braising.

We usually braise sardine, flounder, alfonsino, mackerel, cutlass fish, yellowtail and so on. I can’t always get many of these fish where I live in the U.S. so I chose Tilapia this time. Tilapia meat is good because it stays good after 15 minutes of braising and it soaks in the delicious sauce well.

When you braise fish, please add some slices of ginger. This kills the fishy smell and warms up your body because of the Gingerol action.

Enjoy your new fish recipe with steamed rice or with  Japanese Sake!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 Tilapia fillet

½ cup Cooking Sake

¼ cup Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

2 Tbsp. Sugar

1 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

3 slices Ginger

2 Green Onions

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Braised Fish


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Extremely Healthy “Sautéed Sardine” (Gluten-Free)

Have you ever eaten canned sardines!? It is a great pantry food, which is very useful and delicious! Today I introduce you to “Sautéed Sardines”. This is a canned sardines recipe that is very flavorful, nutritious, and quick!

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I often use canned sardines as a salad topping, sauté dish, pasta ingredient, pizza topping, on rice bowls, and so on.

As you know sardines are very substantial. They are high in protein, calcium, vitamin D, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), vitamin Bs, coenzyme Q10, minerals, and so on. DHA works to activate the brain and EPA works for decreasing LDL cholesterol concentration in the blood and for boosting HDL cholesterol levels. http://nurse-web.jp/kouka/sardine/   http://www.wakasanohimitsu.jp/seibun/sardine/  I highly recommend eating sardines (including canned sardines, dried anchovy, or canned anchovy) everyday.

This time I used skinless and boneless canned sardines, but many canned sardines have skin. Even if your canned sardines have skin or bone, you can follow this recipe (You can eat the skin and bones which are high in calcium).

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In addition, minced green onion is an essential ingredient in the Japanese diet so I always keep minced green onion in the freezer. I add the frozen minced green onion to the dish during the very last part of cooking process. To store, put minced green onions in a freezer bag and place in the freezer. Please use within a month.

{Ingredients (1 serving)}

1 can of Sardines

1 tsp. minced Garlic

1 tsp. minced Ginger

A pinch of Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

1 Tbsp. minced Green Onion

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Sauteed Sardines


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Salmon Chirashi (Gluten-Free)

This is seasoned steamed rice with salmon, egg, dried seaweed and sesame. It is very delicious and looks beautiful with a colorful presentation. Japanese eat steamed rice in at least 2 meals every day. But children tend to leave over steamed rice, which has only a slightly sweet taste, so Japanese mothers cook seasoned steamed rice to help get their children to eat a bowl of rice. This recipe is just mixing steamed rice and other ingredients, so there is no need for special equipment. Buy steamed rice at a Chinese restaurant and you can cook this at home in 30 minutes.

Salmon is rich in nutrients as I wrote in https://japanese-food.org/2015/05/16/creamy-salmon-soup/

However, recently there are many concerns about farmed salmon’s effect on human health. Salmon has worms so farmed salmon is said to become contaminated from drugs to rid salmon farms of worms. People say this has contaminated farmed salmon and may effect our health, such as immune compromise, hypometabolism, deterioration in brain function and so on. Please choose wild salmon or a good untreated farmed salmon. By the way, wild salmon can have worms so we do not eat it raw. The worms disappear when Salmon is heated to over 140F for some minutes or frozen at under -4F for 48 hours.

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

½ lb. Salmon

2 Eggs

1 tsp. Dried Seaweed Flakes

1 tsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

½ tsp. Salt

1 pint Steamed Rice

Boiled Water (for boiling salmon)

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Salmon Chirashi


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Creamy Salmon Soup (Gluten-Free)

Today I introduce you to the creamy salmon soup made with soy milk, bite size salmon and mushrooms. You can use regular milk instead of soy milk if you prefer. You can also use any kind of mushrooms for this recipe.

Salmon is high in protein which is good for digestion and absorption. Also it is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). DHA activates brain cells and EPA improves blood flow and reduces fat and bad cholesterol. In addition, salmon is high in minerals, vitamin Bs, and vitamin D. I can’t say strongly enough that salmon has great antioxidant effects, which are caused by astaxanthin and dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE), and this is very good for you. Salmon’s red color is carotenoid, a natural colorant which is called astaxanthin. Removing active oxygen inside the body is one of best ways to be healthy. Recently, however, we see mostly farm-raised salmon in stores and the salmon may be controlled to make their color brighter. So you should choose wild salmon if you can. Astaxanthin in salmon is not breakable under heat and also improves absorption  when we eat with healthy oil so I highly recommend cooking salmon with olive oil or butter.

Enjoy the healthy delicious salmon soup!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

½ lb. Salmon

8 oz. Sliced Baby Bella Mushrooms (any kind of mushrooms can be used)

1 cup Gluten Free Chicken Flavor Broth

2 cups Soy Milk

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

1 Tbsp. Gluten-Free Margarine

¾ tsp. Salt (total)

A pinch of Black Pepper

Here is my recipe in PDF (6 MB): Creamy Salmon Soup


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Chicken Meatball Soup

 

This very flavorful soup brings you great nutrition because the ingredients are chicken, green onion, ginger, dried shiitake mushroom and kelp. This dish is high in vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin E, vitamin D, minerals, beta-carotene, allicin, calcium, protein and so on. Also it is low calorie and low fat. This dish makes you warm, gives your metabolism a boost, and helps improve your immunity so it is great to help you recover from sickness and get back a good appetite.

(Recommended Dried Kelp) Dashi Dried Kelp
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I highly recommend eating kelp occasionally. Recently, it is easy to get dried kelp at many grocery stores and at most Asian markets in the US. Japanese use kelp for Dashi stock and side dish like pickles. Dashi stock is used as seasoning in Japanese dishes. We use several kinds of Dashi stock such as dried anchovy, dried bonito, dried shiitake, dried kelp and so on. The kelp Dashi stock is great to compliment exquisite tasting ingredients. Kelp helps maintain your body’s alkaline. Also kelp has a good amount of fucoidan and iodine which are essential nutrients (in moderation) for humans.

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

½ lb. Ground Chicken

1 Egg

2 Tbsp. minced Green Onion

½ tsp. grated Ginger

1 tsp. plus ½ separate Tbsp. Soy Sauce

½ tsp. plus ½ separate tsp. Salt

1 ½ Tbsp. plus ½ separate Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 ½ Tbsp. Flour

1 carrot

3 pieces Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

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

1 cup Water (leftover from soaking Shiitake)

Here is my recipe in PDF (6MB): Chicken Meatball Soup

Here is “Kelp Dashi Stock” recipe in PDF (5MB): Kelp Dashi stock


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Easy Homestyle Japanese Steamed Fish (Gluten-Free)

Steaming is a simple and healthy way to cook. And you can steam in the oven so it is very easy! Steamed dishes are very flavorful, the ingredients are tender, and steaming helps keep all of the ingredient’s nutrition!!

Steamed fish in aluminum foil is a traditional Japanese dish; although Japanese used to use paper instead of aluminum foil. Steaming this way has many practical benefits such as not keeping a fish smell inside the house from cooking, using fewer dishes, great preservation of each ingredient’s nutrition, condensation of amazing flavor and so on. I used Tilapia, onion, carrot and green onion. You can also use a variety of different vegetables, most kinds of fish and shellfish, a variety of meats and so on. You can taste each ingredient’s great flavor, which makes this approach different from other cooking methods.

Tilapia is high in potassium and vitamin D, E and of course omega-3. And also it is bland-tasting so you can cook it in many ways, like frying, steaming, sauté, baking and so on.

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Japanese eat fish a lot so I highly recommend eating fish at least occasionally to stay healthy.

{Ingredients (Servings 2)}

2 Pieces of Tilapia

1 Carrot

1 Onion

2 Tbsp. chopped Green Onion

2 tsp. Gluten-Free Margarine

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake or White Wine

Pinch of Salt (to taste)

Pinch of Black Pepper (to taste)

Here is my recipe in PDF: Japanese Steamed Fish