Japanese Special Rice (Taki komi gohan)

Japanese Special Rice (Taki Komi Gohan)

Japanese Special Rice- used here as a bed to serve lobster tails on

Taki komi gohan is easy, quick and healthy. All ingredients are put into the rice cooker and cooked together. It has the flavours of all the ingredients cooked in and absorbed by the rice, somewhat like a risotto. However, unlike risotto or fried rice there is no fat content.

4 cups rice (rice cooker cups)
1/4 cup dried sliced shiitake mushrooms (or 1/2 cup fresh shiitake, or any mushrooms, sliced)
1 carrot, peeled and diced
6 spring onions, trimmed and sliced finely (or use 1/4 onions diced)
1 teaspoon powdered dashi (or chicken stock)
1/2 cup soy sauce  (rice cooker cup)
3.5 cups water (rice cooker cups)

1. If using dried shiitake soak them in a cup of water, for 30 minutes or so before hand. Drain reserving liquid. Use this to replace some of the 3.5 cups water.
2. Place rice in cooker and rinse 3 times.
3. Add all other ingredients. Give it a stir, put the lid on and turn on rice cooker.
4. Serve as a simple meal on its own, a side dish, or use as a bed for seafood such as lobster, crabs and prawns.
I recommend this dipping sauce for seafood:

Sanbaizu dipping sauce

Sanbaizu Japanese dipping sauce for seafood

Serves 2
3 tablespoons white vinegar (can be rice vinegar, but doesn't have to be)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Mix ingredients and leave for 30 minutes or so for the sugar to dissolve.
Serve with crab, prawns, or lobster

Okonomiyaki (Japanese-style Pancakes)

Okonomiyaki

This recipe is for the simpler, easier to make type of okonomiyaki found in the Kanto (Eastern) area of Japan. However Hiroshima is the home of okonomiyaki in Kansai (western Japan) and I recommend visiting an okonomiyaki restaurant in Hiroshima city if you get the chance.  It's a memorable experience full of local colour and flavour. You sit at a bar which is a huge teppan (BBQ) plate, and watch as the cook makes your pancake to your liking. "Okonomi" means "as you like it" and "yaki" means "cooked". Many different fillings are possible and the sauce is delicious. In Hiroshima a fried egg and udon or soba noodles are also added to one side of the pancake making it very filling.

To make this recipe as easily as possible use frozen seafood marinara mix and chop it finely while still half frozen.

1 cup plain (all-purpose) flour
¾ cup milk (water can be used instead)
3 eggs
120g (4 oz, about 1 cup) diced seafood; squid, octopus, prawns etc OR pork or chicken
500-600g cabbage finely chopped (5- 6 cups)
1 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil

to serve:

1 cup “okonomi” sauce*

4 tablespoons whole egg mayonnaise

powdered nori (or nori snipped from a large sheet)

katsuobushi flakes

1.       Place flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and mix in the eggs and milk with a wooden spoon working from the centre until all the flour is incorporated.

2.       Stir the cabbage and seafood into the batter until well mixed.

3.       Heat a little of the oil on a hot BBQ plate, or in a large frypan. Pour ¼ of the mixture onto the hot surface and shape into a round “pancake” about 15cm (6in) across and flatten the top so that it is about 2cm (1/2 in) thick.

4.       Cook both sides for about 5 minutes each on medium-low heat until golden brown. Repeat until 4 pancakes are made.

5.       Place cooked pancake on serving plate. Spread with some mayonnaise and liberally pour over the okonomi sauce. Sprinkle with nori and katsuobushi.

Serves 4

Okonomi sauce

*okonomi sauce is available from Asian food stores. It tastes like a mixture of fruit relish, BBQ sauce and soy sauce, and has a very smooth and easy to pour texture. 

 

Oyako Domburi

Oyako Domburi

This chicken and egg domburi is a very popular dish in Japan. It is made at home and easily found in restaurants. Oya means parent and ko means child, which is the relationship between the chicken and egg. It is made it in four batches as described below, in Japan, which isn’t really as tricky as it may sound. To do that you need to find a small frypan that is a similar width to the domburi or other large individual serving bowl, so that it will fit when placed over the rice. However I prefer to make it in a large frypan all at once, see the note below.

Serves 4

2 chicken thighs (400g to 500g, 1/2 pound), skinless and boneless, sliced and chopped
1 ½ cups Japanese stock (bonito dashi)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Japanese soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin (or white sugar)

1 small onion, halved and sliced lengthways
4 eggs, lightly beaten
8 sprigs trefoil (mitsuba), or substitute Italian parsley, cut into 1 inch (3cm) pieces.

6 – 8 cups hot cooked rice

1.       Divide the rice evenly into four domburi or other large individual serving bowls.

2.       In a large saucepan gently heat together the stock, salt, soy sauce and mirin. Add the chicken and onions and gently boil until cooked.

3.       Ladle a quarter of the chicken and stock mixture into a small frypan, then pour a quarter of the eggs into the mixture, add the trefoil (or parsley) and cover the pan, simmering until just set.

4.       Slide the egg mixture onto the rice in the domburi. Repeat for 3 remaining serves. Eat at once.

Note: If step 2 and 3 sound too fiddly, or you don’t have the right sized frypan, just use a large frypan. Tip, to make it easier, ladle all of the chicken and onion into the large frypan but reserve about ¾ cup liquid (half of it). The egg will set easier this way. Then cut the oyako into 4 quarters, and slide each onto a different domburi bowl of rice. Pour over the reserved liquid and sprinkle with the trefoil or parsley.

Variations:

Beef and Egg; Tanin domburi uses beef instead of chicken. Tanin means people who are unrelated. Cows (beef) and eggs are not related.
Oysters and Egg domburi; Subsitute oysters for the chicken, I once ate this at Miyajima Island, the oysters there are famous and very good, being fat and mild in flavour, they were excellent in this dish.
Mushroom and Egg domburi; Subsitute mushrooms for the chicken, I once I ate this at Nikko, near the famous red bridge. It was delicious and very reasonably priced. I can’t remember what type of mushrooms it had but I think any would work well.
Vegetable domburi;  English spinach or peas can also be added, to the egg mixture with or without the chicken.
Chicken only domburi; omit the egg. Peas can be added to the chicken mixture.

Eggplant (Nasu ) with Miso or Ginger Soy

Eggplant with 2 dressings, miso and ginger soy

I fondly remember eating eggplant in a rustic restaurant in the countryside (inaka) in Japan with an Australian friend.  The restaurant was called “Ai”, which means “indigo”, the blue used to dye traditional Japanese clothing worn by the working class in Edo Japan. Coincidentally another meaning of “ai” in Japanese is love.
The restaurant had large roughly hewn wooden beams typical of farmhouses in traditional Japan. The food was served on rustic plates on solid wooden tables. Among the local dishes that we ate was an excellent eggplant one. My friend and I discussed the ways that eggplant is cooked in Japan and the flavors that it is combined with. Our favourites are eggplant with soy sauce and ginger and eggplant with miso dressing. See the recipes below.  

Eggplant with a Miso dressing

Eggplant with a Miso dressing
Serves 4

4 small (Japanese) eggplants OR 1 or 2 large western ones , remove tops and sliced lengthways for small eggplants and diagonally for larger ones, then cut in half lengthways

1/4  cup vegetable oil
For the miso dressing:
3 tablespoons white miso (soy bean paste), it is a light brown colour

1 tablespoons mirin  (Japanese cooking sake)1 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup water or bonito dashi

Soy sauce to serve

1.     Heat the  water/stock, miso, mirin and sugar together in a small saucepan.   
2.  Heat half of the vegetable oil in a frypan add half of the eggplants and sauté the eggplant till browned and soft. Set aside on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining oil and eggplant.

3. Spread the miso mixture thinly on the eggplants to serve, or serve on the side. 

Variation: For sesame miso dressing: Omit water/stock and mix in a few tablespoons of ground sesame seeds  Eggplant with Ginger Soy
Serves 4
4 small (Japanese) eggplants OR 1 or 2 large western ones , remove tops and sliced lengthways for small eggplants and diagonally for larger ones, then cut in half lengthways

1/3 cup vegetable oil

½ teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon root ginger, freshly grated

¼ cup bonito flakes

Soy sauce to serve

1.       Heat half of the vegetable and sesame oils in a fry pan, add half of the ginger and eggplants and sauté the eggplant till browned and soft.

2.       Repeat with the remaining oils, ginger and eggplant.

3.       Sprinkle on bonito flakes and pour over a little soy sauce to serve. 

 

 

Green Beans with a Sesame dressing and Spinach Rolls

Beans with goma-ae

Green beans with a sesame dressing (Ingen goma-ae)

handful (about 200g) fresh green beans, trimmed

30g sesame seeds (1 to 2 tablespoons), toasted and ground
10-20g (2 to 4 teaspoons) sugar
a little soy sauce (1/4 to ½ teaspoon)

1.       Boil, microwave or steam the beans until just cooked.

2.       Refresh under running cold water in sieve so that the cooking process is halted and the lovely green colour is retained. Set aside

3.       Mix the sesame and sugar in a small bowl. Add the soy sauce little by little to just wet the dry ingredients and make them come together. This mixture is called “goma-ae”.

4.       Toss the beans in the goma- ae or sprinkle with beans with the goma-ae. Serve heaped up in “mountain” shaped piles on plates.

Variations: goma-ae can be used with other cooked green vegetables such as cabbage and asparagus



spinach rolls

Spinach rolls handful fresh English spinach (about 200g)
To Serve:
sesame seeds, toasted
katsuo bushi (dried bonito flakes)
soy sauce

1.       Boil, microwave or steam the spinach until just cooked.
2.       Refresh under running cold water in sieve so that the cooking process is halted and the lovely green colour is retained. Drain.
3.       Place spinach on a chopping board and roughly form into a log shape. Then using a sushi rolling mat, roll it tightly to remove excess moisture. Cut log of spinach into shorter lengths.  
4.       Serve heaped up on little dishes, with sesame seeds, katsuo bushi and soy sauce as desired.
Variations: other vegetable rolls can be made the same way, eg cabbage with carrot and spinach inside. 

 

Yakitori Chicken



Yakitori chicken

 

Yakitori is chicken (tori), cooked in a teriyaki sauce. Add the ginger if you like that flavour, otherwise omit.

4 boneless chicken thighs (about 500g), skin on
2 tablespoons oil
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger, optional
spring onions (naga-negi), finely sliced to serve

1.       Heat oil in fry pan. Add chicken, skin side down, and cook until skin is browned.

2.       Mix together the soy sauce, mirin and ginger (if using) to make the teriyaki sauce, and pour over the chicken pieces. Turn heat to medium low and cook chicken on both sides.

3.       When cooked, remove from pan and cut into thick slices with a sharp knife, so that it can be easily eaten with chopsticks.  Serve with rice, miso soup and a salad or vegetables.

Cooked yakitori on a chopping board ready to be sliced into thin strips before serving

Variation 1: Add a handful of sliced mushrooms (western or shiitake) to the pan in step two.

Variation 2: The yakitori can be served over a large bowl of rice "domburi" style.
Variation 3: Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and thread onto skewers, marinate with the sauce and grill or BBQ.  This kind of yakitori is often sold at street stalls and fairs.

 

 

Nabe (Japanese Hot Pot) and Udon noodles

Nabe ingredients are cooked at the table over gas burners

A nabe in Japan is a pot used for cooking a meal which is also called a nabe. The pots can be ceramic or cast iron. The origin of this cooking process goes back to cooking over a hearth "irori" style, of Japan of the old days. This simple shared meal is cooked as you eat it, with each diner cooking their own. It is popular in the cold winter months. I remember eating one once in  Nagano in a ski lodge surrounded by deep snow, when it was -17 C degrees outside. There would be 100's of variations of nabe. The first recipe given here would classify as a "yose" nabe, or all thrown in mixed nabe.

Serves 6 to 8

1 piece piece kelp (konbu), about 10cm x 10cm, or 2 teas kelp (konbu) dashi, or bonito dashi

500g chicken thighs (skinless and boneless)

500g firm white fish fillets (such as hoki)

8 large prawns

8-10 scallops (optional)

250g tofu, cut into cubes

¼ Chinese cabbage (hakusai), chopped into bite size pieces

2 long onions (naga-negi), or use leeks or spring onions, cut into 5cm (2in) lengths

1 carrot, peeled and sliced

100g fresh shiitake mushrooms

50g shimeji mushrooms

50g enoki mushrooms (if available)

50ml soy sauce

1 lemon, quartered

Small piece daikon (Japanese radish), finely grated

800g pre-cooked udon noodles, or cooked rice

nabe platter ready to be cooked

 

1.       Prepare the nabe ingredients and arrange on a platter. Set aside.

2.       Place cold water in the nabe pot, filling to about 2/3’s full.

3.       Add the kelp and bring to a gentle boil, to just a simmer.

4.       Remove the kelp (or add dashi powder if using that instead).

5.       Add some of each of the nabe ingredients, to begin cooking them.

Cooked nabe ingredients

6.      Place a little grated daikon, soy sauce and lemon juice in dinners bowls, and add some broth from the nabe pot, to use as a dipping sauce for the nabe ingredients.

7.      Diners can take what they like from the nabe pot, using the other end of their chopsticks, and dip it into their individual dipping bowl before eating it.

Cooked nabe ingredients in a small dipping bowl

8.     Refill the nabe pot with the nabe ingredients and keep cooking and eating, until little is left. 

9.  At this stage rice or udon noodles can be added to the broth to finish off the meal.

Note: Any recipe for udon noodles in a broth is a variation on a nabe (hot-pot) style meal, in terms of ingredients. It does not have to be cooked at the table little by little.

Udon noodles, broth and vegetables