Japanese Food (mostly) and Recipes
It’s been a long time since I published anything. Last year was pretty crazy and I hope to be more active with this site in the coming months.
Here’s a simple, yet delicious idea for smoked duck with udon noodle in a traditional Japanese soup broth.
Happy 4th of July!
An easy recipe for refrigerator pickles. This recipe works best if you can find smaller cucumbers. These are the kind sold at farmers markets and grocery stores for making dill pickles.
Ingredients
cucumbers – smaller, young cucumbers are best
salt
Pickling Sauce
Chili garlic sauce….. 1/4 teaspoon
Sesame Oil……. 2 tablespoons
Soy Sauce ….. 3 tablespoons
Sugar ….. 1/2 teaspoon
Sake …… 3 tablespoons
cucumbers for pickling
1. Wash cucumbers.
cutting cucumbers
2. Cut cucumbers. In this recipe, the pickles are quickly cut into small wedge shapes by cutting the cucumber at angle and then straight across and then repeat.
3. Lightly sprinkle with salt and then apply pressure for several hours to draw water out of the cucumbers. I used a plastic pickling container with a screw top that will apply pressure to your vegetables. If you don’t have that, place the pickles in a plastic bag, lightly salt and then place a weight, like a heavy plate, on the bag.
make sauce
4. Mix together ingredients for the sauce. You can find Chinese chili garlic, tobanjiang, sauce in any Asian food stores. This is what I used in this recipe to add a little heat.
5. Rinse cucumbers with water to remove excess salt and then gently squeeze your cut cucumber to remove excess water.
6. Add sauce to pickles and let sit for a few hours before serving. Quick pickles like these are best eaten withing a week.
If you have some leftover rice and are looking to make a quick snack, try making some onigiri. It’s a very popular food in Japan that is found in almost every convenience store. It’s basically a ball of rice with a filling in the center that is usually wrapped in nori. The filling is most often a preserved food like salted fish or pickled vegetables.
In the version above, crushed bonito flakes are mixed with soy sauce and then this is mixed together with hot rice. There is no center filling, so it’s a little easier to make. However, the hard part is getting the proper shape. You’ll need to form a nice lightly packed triangle with your hands. Be sure to wet your hands first, otherwise you’ll just have hot rice stuck all over your fingers. Gombatte!
Here’s a recipe for a lemon tart with fresh fruit. I usually garnish this with either blueberries, strawberries or raspberries. It all depends on whatever is in season or looks the best at the store.
There are really two parts to making a tart. One is the dough and shell. The other is the filling – in this case it’s lemon curd. For the dough, I stumbled upon a good, simple recipe on the Martha Stewart Show. I wish I could remember who was the guest that day, but I just happened write down the recipe and it works great. Thank you.
I initially started with a basic lemon curd recipe but in this version we will add some agar to thicken it. Agar is made from kelp and is sort of a vegetarian gelatin with a few special properties. It is a common ingredient in Japanese confections. I got the idea to use agar in lemon curd from an online cookbook edited by Norwegian gastro-food blogger Martin Lersch. Thank you.
Ingredients (makes about 8 , 3 1/8 inch tartlets)
Dough:
flour……. 1 1/2 cups
confectioner’s sugar……. 1/3 cup
butter …….. 13 tablespoons
egg yolk…… 1
heavy cream……. 1 tablespoon
Lemon Curd:
fresh lemon juice ….. 3/4 cup
sugar …… 1/2 cup
confectioners sugar ….. 1/4 cup
eggs…….. 3 medium sized
butter …… 6 tablespoons
agar …. 4 grams
Directions
1. Make the dough. Combine flour and confectioners sugar in a mixing bowl. Cut butter into small cubes and add gradually to flour-sugar mixture while mixing with a pastry cutter or fork until butter, flour and sugar are evenly mixed.
2. Add cream and egg yolk and lightly knead dough. When the dough reaches an even consistency, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
line tart shell with dough
3. Remove dough from the refrigerator and roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Lightly press dough into a lightly oiled tart pan and place back in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. You can also freeze the shell at this point for use on a later date. Doughs freeze very well.
bake tart shells
4. Now place shells on a baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes at 350 F or until golden brown. For best results, I recomend using pie weights like the ones shown above. This will help maintain the shape of the tart shell while baking.
5. Remove shells from the oven and set aside to cool for several minutes and then remove shells from tart pans.
5. Make the lemon curd using a double boiler. If you don’t have one, don’t buy one, just use a metal bowl over a sauce pan filled with water. Heat lemon juice and sugar until sugar is dissolved.
6. Lightly beat egg yolks and confectioners sugar together.
7. Bring lemon juice to a near boil and add agar powder, stir until dissolved.
8. Slowly add egg yolks while mixing. Cook lemon over medium heat for several minutes until mixture is near boiling.
9. Slowly add butter and stir.
10. Remove from heat and cool over ice and then chill in the refrigerator.
11. Once the lemon curd chilled, fill tart shells and garnish with fruit and enjoy.
This recipe is an adaptation from the book, Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook (amazon link). It is a good book. It is organized around several Izakaya restaurants in Japan the author writes about and showcases a few of their recipes. Each Izakaya is a little bit different – some are more modern and others more traditional – and that is reflected by the owners, the food being served and the atmosphere of the restaurant. After all, cooking is really about the people making it and the people who are eating it.
The recipe in the book only called for a cooking time of 30 minutes. This is going to produce some tough ribs. Meat near the bones that has connective tissues and collagen will benefit from a longer cooking time at a lower temperature. So I changed the cooking time, added caramelized onions and some extra sesame oil for more flavor. One could also add orange zest for more citrus flavors. Orange and sesame are a good pairing.
Ingredients
Marinade:
Soy Sauce…… 3 tablespoons
Sake…… 2 tablespoons
Mirin…….2 tablespoons
Sesame Oil….. 2 tablespoons
Caramelized Onion…… 1/2 large yellow onion
Garlic…… 1 glove, crushed and chopped
Directions
1. In a medium sauce pan add about 1 tablespoons oil plus 1/2 of a sliced, large yellow onion. Cook at low heat while stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes until caramelized.
marinate ribs
2. Mix the ingredients for the marinade together in shallow pan. Add the ribs and marinate ribs in the refrigerate overnight (minimum of 6 hours).
Bake
3. Remove ribs from refrigerator about 30 minutes before you plan to bake them. Pre-heat oven to 225 F and place ribs back side up (the more white side) on a baking tray lined with foil. Bake in oven for about 2 hours at 225 F. Be sure to save the marinade to finish the ribs.
4. Flip ribs and turn the temperature up to 325 F. Bake for another another 45 minutes.
5. Take out the ribs out of the oven and pour/brush ribs with about 1/2 cup of the remaining marinade and bake for another 15 – 2o minutes.
6. Remove from oven and arrange on a serving plate. For extra presentation, garnish with parsley and/or orange slice.
A delicious twist on a creme caramel with sesame paste or tahini. The most difficult part is taking it out of the oven at the correct time. Don’t forget to set your timer! I’ve made this recipe many many times. If you have any troubles, just post a comment below.
Ingredients
White Sugar…… 1 cup
Cream………1/2 cup
Milk (2% organic)…….1.5 cups + 2 tablespoons
Eggs (lightly beaten)…….. 3/4 cup
Brown Sugar………1/2 cup
Organic Tahini…….2 tablespoons
Vanilla…… 1/2 teaspoon
– Makes about 5-6 with 4 oz baking dish (ramekin) –
Directions
caramelize sugar
1. Slowly caramelize white sugar in pan over medium heat. It may help to add sugar slowly as it starts to caramelize. This can be a little time consuming as it requires constant attention (or it can burn up).
divide caramel among ramekins
2. Lightly oil ramekins with a neutral oil like canola oil. Pour hot caramel evenly into ramekins and allow to cool.
blend eggs and tahini
3. Blend eggs, vanilla, brown sugar and tahini in a large bowl.
4. Heat milk in a medium sauce pan on stove. Add hot milk while stirring to the blended eggs, brown sugar and tahini. Add the creme, mix and strain. Note: don’t forget to strain your custard or it will not be silky and smooth.
bake in water bath
5. Bake covered with foil in a water bath at 325 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. To check, wiggle the pan. The center should just barely move, if so, then it is done. Remove from oven and allow to cool then refrigerate until well chilled.
6. To serve, unmold custards onto plate by inserting a thin knife between custard and ramekin and inverting onto a plate. If it sticks, lightly tap the sides and bottom of the ramekin.
Sushi rolls are normally created with the nori on the outside of the roll. There are two basic types, futomaki (thick) roll and hosomaki (thin) roll. Futomaki are made using a whole sheet of nori and hosomaki are made using 1/2 sheet. Making thin rolls can be a challenge with 1/2 sheet of nori. If the rice is spread too thick or you’ve put down too much filling, it can get too thick. The final product often will often fall apart. If you are new to making sushi, you can try this method to get warmed up. In this recipe, a full sheet is used, so there is a little extra nori wrapped up within the sushi roll. However, it stays together well, and is a good way to practice rolling traditional sushi rolls.
Recipe:
1. Cook and prepare sushi rice. Cut cucumbers.
2. Place full shett of nori, rough side up, on sushi mat. Moisten hands and grab a small handful of sushi rice. Press it down to form an long ellispe and place rice on nori.
3. Spread rice evenly over sheet of nori. Place the filling just below the center of the rice. In this case, cucumber and advocado.
4. Use both hands to press the filling in while rolling the sushi mat. Cover the roll with the mat and press down slightly to help shape the sushi roll. Cut in half and then cut each half into thirds (you’ll have 6 pieces when finished). Garnish with pickled ginger and wasabi and enjoy
Here’s the recipe for making a California roll – probably the most popular inside-out roll in America.
1. Prepare and cook sushi rice. Gather up all of your ingredients: nori, sliced cucumber, avocado and crab mix. For the crab mix, the easiest way to prepare this is to buy some high-quality canned crab, rinse and drain well, and then mix with mayonnaise.
2. Tightly wrap your makisu (bamboo) mat with food film wrap and then place half sheet of nori, rough side up, on your bamboo mat. Wet hands and place a small handful of rice on mat as shown. You can also do this directly on the cutting board if you prefer.
3. Spread rice evenly across nori.
4. Turn over so rice side is now facing down. It may help to slightly moisten your mat to prevent the rice from sticking. Place cucumber, avocado and crab mix on nori, about 1/3 up from the edge of the nori (nearest the table).
4. Press in the filling while rolling the mat. Do this with two hands.
5. Cover the roll with the mat and press down slightly to help shape the sushi roll. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cut in half and then cut each half into thirds (you’ll have 6 pieces when finished). Garnish with pickled ginger and wasabi and enjoy.
Ok, the rice has been washed and is done cooking and now it’s time make sumeshi – or vinegared rice. Remove the lid from the rice cooker and test a small amount of rice. If it seems too hard, let it sit in the rice cooker a few more minutes.
A wooden sushi-oke and a shamoji are the basic tools used to mix the cooked rice with your sushi vinegar. A sushi-oke is made of cypress wood and helps absorb excess moisture. However, this is not necessary. A large bowl and spoon will do the job.
1. If you are using a wooden sushi-oke, fill it up with water and let it sit for about 30 minutes, and then drain.
2. Empty your rice into your bowl or sushi-oke.
3. Pour the sushi vinegar slowly and evenly over the rice. If you are cooking 3 cups of sushi rice, add 1/4 cup of the sushi vinegar. Warm the sushi vinegar in the microwave before using.
4. Cut the rice. At this point, you want to spread the rice around with a cutting motion to help cool it down and break-up any clumps of rice. Do this several times from side to side of the sushi-oke while fanning the rice. Cooling the rice down quickly will give the rice a more polish look and will also help the rice absorb the sushi vinegar. Gather the rice to one side of your container, cover with a clean, damp cloth until it is cool enough to use (slightly wamer than room temperature).
Seam Bream or Tai is light white fish that is used for sashimi and grilling. In this recipe, the fish is thinly sliced and garnished with lemon, thinly cut green onion and a sauce made from wasabi, soy sauce, olive oil, rice vineager, and white wine.
