Yakisoba BBQ Noodles

Yakisoba Japanese style BBQ noodles and vegetables

 Serves 3

1 packet 480g (16.9 oz) yakisoba noodles and sauce*
250g (8 oz) meat, cut into strips for stir-frying (pork is traditional, but chicken also works well)
3 cups stir-fry vegetables, chopped (onions, garlic, cabbage, carrots, capsicum (peppers), broccoli, cauliflower)  
2 tablespoons vegetable oil



 yakisoba

       1.       Heat oil in a frypan or on a BBQ to medium high. Add meat and vegetables and stir-fry until cooked.

       2.       Add the noodles and separate as they cook, sprinkling over a tablespoon or two of water, taking care to avoid oil splattering when water is added.

       3.       Add sauce and mix to combine, noodles, sauce, meat and vegetables. Serve hot.




Ready to go

* Yakisoba noodles are available at Asian food stores. Try using Hokkien noodles if they are not available. Japanese Yakisoba noodles are suitable to BBQ. They are ideal for cooking for a crowd, such as on school camps. I have used them for “Japanese Days” at my schools and for fundraising activities. 



available frozen in these packets

* Yakisoba sauce (a Japanese BBQ sauce) is also available from Asian food stores. To make your own try mixing, regular BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce.

 

 

 
 


Tonjiru (Hearty Miso Soup)

delicious tonjiru

 

Tonjiru is a hearty miso soup made from pork and vegetables. Ton is pork and jiru soup. It is a great soup for wintery cold days and a good example of country-style Japanese home cooking.
Mrs Yoko Nakano from Kashiwa City kindly gave me this recipe. Serves 5

200g pork meat, finely sliced or in strips

beautiful lacquer ware bowls

1 tablespoon vegetable oil, such as sunflower oil

4 cups water

2 teaspoons Japanese stock dashi granules (powdered dashi)

1 large or two small potatoes (jagaimo, western style potato), peeled and diced

1 thick 4 cm (1.5in) slice of large white radish (daikon), cut into rectangular slices, cut off round sides so that you have a "block, cut in half and slice. (omit if not available, or substitute parsnip)

1 carrot, peeled and diced (cut in halves lengthways, then in half again lengthways and sliced)

1 small onion, sliced finely or diced OR 2 spring onions finely chopped

3 to 4 tablespoons white miso paste, or to taste

1.  Heat oil in the base of a large saucepan. Saute the meat and onions until cooked.

2.   Add the water and dashi stock and the remaining vegetables. Bring to the boil, and then simmer until potatoes are soft.
Remove from heat and stir in the miso paste until it is dissolved. Serve hot.

Variations: Add root vegetables as desired. For a vegetarian option, use tofu instead of pork.  
In Japan a similar soup called “Satsuma Jiru” is made using Satsuma potatoes (a type of Japanese potato) to which pork, burdock (gobo, substitute parsnip), white radish (daikon), carrots (ninjin), and spring onions (negi), are added. I came across Satsuma Jiru in a Home Economics classroom in a Japanese Middle School in Matsudo City, where it is taught to teach the students how to prepare and chop a variety of vegetables. The teacher, Mrs Honda, kindly showed me how to make it.

 

Wafu Steeki (Japanese-Style Steak)

 

Wafu Steeki and dipping sauce

Serves 4

A teppanyaki chef would cook this on a teppan (a thick iron plate, like a BBQ plate), and cut directly onto the iron plate. At home you can use a large frypan and chopping board instead, or a BBQ. So as to live up to the name of this blog, “easy and relaxed Japanese food”, I have given you the easiest dipping sauce recipe for steak that I know, using only two ingredients, soy sauce and grated onion. Other ingredients that can be used in Japanese steak dipping sauces are, spring onions, grated fresh ginger, crushed garlic, grated  daikon (white radish), vinegar and sake, in quantities to taste.

4 good quality steaks (Wagyu, Angus, rib-eye fillet, porterhouse, rump, scotch fillet)

1-2 tablespoons butter

salt and pepper

½ onion, grated

½ cup soy sauce

1.       Make dipping sauce by pouring soy sauce over the onion, set aside.

2.       Heat butter in frypan until hot. Season steaks with the salt and pepper and add to the pan. Sear steaks on both sides, then cut into strips. Place the cut sides down and cook, turning until both sides are browned. Remove from heat and cut into cubes. Serve right away with the dipping sauce.  


Cut the seared steak into strips

Brown the cut sides

Cut strips into cubes

 Serve with a green vegetable such as boiled green beans, broccoli, or sauted green capsicums (peppers), or beansprouts.

 #WafuSteeki #JapaneseStyleSteak #JapaneseSteak #Wagyu

 

Nikujaga (Japanese-Style Meat and Potatoes)

Nikujaga

Hearty and flavoursome, this is ideal winter food. Japanese comfort food. In a word, yum. Nikujaga is a very popular home-cooking dish in Japan. Niku means meat and jaga is from jagaimo, potatoes.

500g (1 lb) beef stir-fry strips or finely sliced

1 tablespoon, sunflower oil

300g (2/3 lb) yam cake noodles (shirataki)* (available at Asian food stores)

2 onions, quartered and sliced
4 large potatoes, cut into chunks
½ cup sake (rice wine), or use mirin (available at supermarkets)
1/3 cup soy sauce
4 or 5 tablespoons sugar

1.      Heat oil in pan to medium high, add meat and stir until browned. Remove meat from pan, set aside.

2.      Add the onions, yam cake noodles and potatoes. Stir-fry for a few minutes, or cover and shake the pan (this the Japanese way to do it). Add the sake, soy sauce and sugar, stir well to combine. Return meat to the pan, bring to boil then simmer with lid on for 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked, and cooking liquid is reduced. Shake the pan, from time to time to “toss” the ingredients around in the cooking liquid. Avoid stirring the potatoes, so that they don’t break up.

3.      Serve immediately.


*Yam cake noodles (shirataki しらたき) are a type of yam cakes (konnyakuこんにゃく). The shirataki noodles that I purchased were tied into cute little bundles. You can leave them that way (easier to eat with chopsticks or a fork) or cut into 7cm (3in) lengths. 



Shirataki noodles come packaged like this



Little bundles of Shirataki noodles in the pack

  


 
 

A serve of Nikujaga

 

#EasyAndRelaxedJapaneseFood #Nikujaga

Tsukemono (Japanese Pickles)



Japanese-Style lightly pickled vegetables; cucumbers on the left, carrots, parsnip and cucumber on the right

 

Japanese pink pickled radishes, this variety of radish is naturally this colour

Tsukemono are Japanese pickles and there are many, many different ones. Unlike some Western-Style pickles Japanese pickles are not boiled in a vinegared liquid, nor do they have a thick sauce. Rather the fresh vegetables are soaked in the pickling liquid, so they retain a fresh crunchiness. In this recipe, I show you how to make some lightly pickled vegetables that can be served on the side of any Japanese meal.

Japanese-Style Lightly Pickled Vegetables



Japanese-Style pickled vegetables including parsnip

Pickling liquid:
6 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Vegetables:
1/4 cucumber, cut into slices
7cm (2.5 in) cucumber, cut into sticks
7cm (2.5 in) carrot, peeled, cut into sticks
7cm (2.5 in) length of celery, cut into sticks


Mix the vinegar, sugar and salt together, and set aside to dissolve. 
Meanwhile prepare the vegetables.
Add the vegetables to the liquid and place in the fridge for 1/2 or more before serving.
To serve, drain from liquid and pat excess moisture from vegetables using a paper towel. Place in small dishes and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. In Japan a serving of pickles is usually placed in the centre of the table for dinners to share.





A selection of pickles casually presented

Purple carrots, orange carrots and cucumber pickles

Variations: Try other vegetables such as parsnip, beetroot or purple carrots. Note: Rice wine vinegar is traditional in the this recipe but white vinegar can be used instead.