title . introduction . about ikuno . journal . photos . recipes . links . email sabine Japanese Cooking with Sabine basic ingredients . all recipes Okay - you are halfway there! You opened up this part of the website, so you must be interested in making some Japanese food! Bravo! It`s really not that tough, provided that you have some basic ingredients. I am including recipes that I like - some of them are considered pretty fancy - made for special occasions, while others you could find on the dinner tables of Japanese families on normal nights. Basic Japanese cooking is not as complicated as what you would get at a Japanese restaurant back home. Often, you will find things like fried rice or noodles, fried fish, some boiled vegetables (like spinach or seaweed) and tsukemono (Japanese pickles). You will almost always find a bowl of plain, white rice, and a bowl of soup sitting there beside your plate. At tleast this is what my research has turned up! So put on your aprons and ganbatte (good luck)! Okay! You should be good to go for the basics! Are you ready to try your hand at being the "Iron Chef?" Sunday, March 17, 2002   Tempura For this recipe, you can use whatever you want to tempura! Try different vegetables and seafood. Here, they even tempura small sheets of toasted seaweed (nori)! Batter: 1 egg 2 cups ice cold water 2 cups flour Mix together the batter ingredients - using cold water ensures a fluffier batter. Heat a wok which is filled to 1/3 with oil. The oil is done when you drop a bit of batter in it and the batter floats to the top. Dip each piece into the batter before frying it. Fry the hardest vegetables first. Only do a few pieces at a time - keep those which are don in the oven (turned on to the minimum level) to prevent cooling. Before you dip any fish in the batter, lightly shake it in flour - this will help the batter to stick to it! Tempura Dipping Sauce 1 cup dashi 1/4 cup mirin 1/4 cup soy sauce OPTIONAL a bit of grated daikon (giant radish) or a bit of grated ginger Mix all the ingredients together and serve at room temperature in individual serving bowls. 3/17/2002 10:34:00 PM   Steak Marinade 5 parts soy sauce 4 parts sake 1 part vegetable oil grated ginger and grated garlic (about 1 tsp) (OPTIONAL) a splash of mirin This is awfully close to a teriyaki sauce, but the addition of a little oil makes it an excellent marinade! 3/17/2002 04:54:00 PM   Tonkatsu Sauce This sauce is what they pour over Tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is basically a breaded and fried pork cutlet. Don`t know how tomake a breaded and fried pork cutlet? Basically dip a cutlet into a mixed raw egg and then put it into a siploc containing salt, pepper and breadcrumbs. Shake away and fry! - 1 tsp worcestershire sauce - 1/2 cup ketchup Mix together and pour over pork cutlet. EASY, huh? 3/17/2002 04:50:00 PM   Sunomono (a chilled, vinagered noodle salad) This is served in alittle bowl - it looks a bit like a chilled noodle soup. You eat what is in the bowl, and leave the vinager broth behind. This is best served cold. The Sauce one cup of vinegar (rice vinegar is best) one Tbsp mirin 1/2 tsp sugar a dash of salt The Ingredients cucumbers cut into matchsticks (about 5 matchsticks per bowl) carrots cut into matchsticks (about 5 matchsticks per bowl) cooked shrimp or tako (purple-ish squid, finely sliced) - 2 per bowl cooked and chilled noodles: vermicelli or somen Add salt to cucumbers and rub it in. Add sugar to the liquid ingredients and mix well. Marinate the vegetables for about 30 minutes to an hour. Place the cooked noodles and shrimp/tako into small bowls and pour the liquid/vegetable mix on top. Serve chilled 3/17/2002 10:20:00 AM   Goma Ae (Spinach "Salad" with sesame sauce) one bunch of spinach, washed, cooked, drained, and cooled to room temperature. Dont forget to cut off the hard stalks! The Sauce "Goma" means sesame, so this, understandably, uses different forms of sesame seeds. 4 Tbsp sesame paste (tahini, or in Japan, neri-goma). This will make a creamier sauce - if you want something more liquidy then use 4 Tbsp ground, toasted sesame seeds, and 4 Tbsp sesame oil. 1/2 tsp sugar 1 Tbsp soy sauce a little sake to taste. Note that Mirin is a form of sweet cooking sake, so you could also omit the sugar and sake and use a splash of mirin instead! Arrange the prepared spinach on a small, flat plate and pout the sauce over top. You can toss it a little, or let your guests do that themselves (it looks prettier, I think, with the sauce just drizzled over top) 3/17/2002 10:18:00 AM   Yosenabe (Nabe) Nabe is a favourite stew - type meal that many Japanese eat in the winter time. It is usually cooked at the table in a deep electric frying pan, or in a special Nabe pot on a burner (think clay fondue pot). What goes into the pot is not as important as the order that things go into the pot. When things are finished cooking, people just use their chopsticks to take out what they want to eat. There is usually a vinegar/soy sauce/ sugar mixture to dip the food into. Then you hold it lightly over your bowl of rice, to let it cool and to let the yummy juices drip off a bit - which make the rice taste delicious. If you can get it, my favourite thing to put into nabe is crab legs: a favourite and plentiful food in these parts in the winter! The Stock 2 quarts of dashi 1/2 cup soya sauce 7 Tbsp of mirin The Ingredients Use whaever is fresh. Here, they use fish, leeks, bok choy, onions, tofu, daikon radish, and shiitake and other kinds of mushrooms. The most important thing is the order in which the ingredients are cooked - this ensures that they will all be done at a similar time. After the initial cooking of most of the ingredients, they just add more of whatever they want to keep the pot full and people are careful to only take what is cooked. 1st: put in the fish 2nd: put in the mushrooms and other root vegetables 3rd: put in the cabbage and onions Last: put in the tofu and delicate food items (don`t forget to press the tofu between two cutting boaards to drain!) It is easiest if the items are cut to a relatively large size: too big or too small and they are hard to grab with chopsticks! 3/17/2002 10:15:00 AM   Thai Noodle Salad This is a favourite of mine - although it isn`t Japanese. It is one of the easier-to-prepare foreign foods - kind of a fusion food. The best part is that the peanut sauce dressing makes a great peanut sauce for dipping spring rolls into, or for satay! The Peanut sauce: 1/2 cup peanut butter 1/2 cup milk, soy milk, or coconut milk 1tsp grated ginger 1 clove of garlic, minced 3 Tbsp rice vinegar 3 Tbsp soy sauce 1 Tbsp sesame oil 1/8 tsp crushed red chili peppers (or cayenne pepper) Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. The Salad 8 oz udon noodles (big fresh ones kept by the tofu - in Canada) one medium cucumber (in Japan: 2 tiny ones), cut into matchsticks 2 cups mung bean sprouts, washed and rinsed 1 carrot, grated 6-8 green onions, sliced finely OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup chopped mint 1 cup raw peanuts, chopped finely and toasted- for sprinkling on top romaine lettuce leaves for serving Cook and chill the udon noodles. combine every thing together and toss lightly in the sauce (until everything is coated). Serve individually on a lettuce leaf bed, or on a platter of lettuce leaves. Sprinkle the toasted peanuts on top. 3/17/2002 10:11:00 AM This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?