Japanese Popcorn

Looking for a healthy alternative to chips we have been making a lot of popcorn at home lately. We have tried a variety of toppings, including mattcha jio (mattcha flavored salt) - which did not work out. One of my favorites is sprinkling on some aosa or aonori, flecks of nori and salt on popcorn. The nori adds a minerality and earthiness to the popcorn. A great hit!

Popcorn

Aonori

Sesame Vegetables

I am often asked for tips to help kids eat vegetables. One of my favorite quick and easy recipes is this sesame dressing. Crush some toasted sesame seeds (white or black) in a mortar and pestle. Add a bit of sugar and soy sauce to taste. That's it. This can be used to top any steamed vegetable. Most often I use it for greens like spinach, broccoli, and green beans but it also works for carrots.

When making Shinji's bento I try and incorporate five colors. Red, white, yellow, green, and black. Black can be hard to incorporate if you don't make hijiki. This sesame dressing with black sesame seeds is a good way to include black.

Sesame Dressing

Simmered Kabocha 南瓜の煮物

Kabocha is one of my favorite Japanese vegetables. Much like a pumpkin, but with a denser, sweeter flavor. This dish is a bit labor intensive in prep, but definitely worth the few extra steps. I remember at culinary school, at the French Culinary Institute, chef Jacques Pepin talking about taking the extra steps to make a good dish. I don't remember if he said we do this because we are chefs, or this is what makes chefs different from home cooks, or if we just should not take shortcuts if we know that there is a better dish to be made. Regardless, the dish will be better if you can do full prep.

Cut the kabocha into bite size pieces. Cut the inside of the kabocha, to rid of the soft spot where the seeds were. Then cut the four edges of the skin. This is the key step not to skip. It will soften the edges which may be off-putting when eating later after it is simmered. Finally, score the skin to rid of any rough spots and to create areas to help the kabocha simmer.

1/2 kabocha
3 1/2 cups dashi
1/2 cup sake
1/2 cup mirin
1/4 cup sugar

In a pot combine all of the ingredients. Cook until the kabocha is tender. Will keep for several days.

This dish is often served at room temperature.

Kabocha

Miso 味噌

Miso, the fermented paste made from soybeans, is used in a variety of dishes in our home. The sweet white kome miso, based on rice, is used for salad dressings, with nerigoma (toasted sesame paste), and as a marinade for fish with mirin and sake. We also use miso for miso soup, as well as for a variety of Western style dishes like spaghetti dressing, chili, with ground meat when making tacos, and in salad dressings with vinegar and olive oil. Miso is rich in natural umami so it adds another level of flavor to most dishes.


The following site, of the Japan Federation of Miso Manufacturers Cooperatives, is packed with information about miso.

http://www.miso.or.jp/en/index.html

Miso

One of Japan's Best Sesame Oils - Yamada Seiyu 京都の山田製油

While working at Takashimaya department store I was exposed to a variety of ingredients and producers. It was a treat to be able to meet different purveyors, taste many different products, and develop a palate for Japanese ingredients. This sesame oil made in Kyoto was one of my favorites. Just a tiny bit of this will add aroma and flavor unlike mass produced sesame oil. This is sold at Takashimaya depachika in Tokyo or if you are in Kyoto you can visit the storeroom. This company produces a variety of sesame based products including sesame oil, rayu (chili sesame oil), nerigoma (toasted sesame paste in both black and white), salad dressing, and packets of sesame seeds. I highly recommend any of their products.

Yamada Seiyu
Kyoto-shi, Saikyo-ku, Katsuratatsumi
Phone: 075-394-3276
Monday - Saturday 9:00 - 17:30
closed Sunday and holidays
www.henko.co.jp

Sesame Oil

Hiyashi Chuka Noodles

In the summertime we love to make cold ramen noodles topped with vegetables. Our favorite dressing is based on nerigoma, a paste made from toasted sesame seeds. It is very different from tahini which has a raw taste to it, the nerigoma is actually more similar to peanut butter.

Many different vegetables and toppings will suit this dish. Here we have wakame, nagaimo, cucumbers, tomatoes, ham, and thin sheets of omelet.

Banbanji Sauce

2 Tablespoons nerigoma (toasted sesame paste, do not used tahini, use peanut butter instead)
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon rayu (spicy sesame oil)

The sauce will keep for a few days. We use this dressing also for salad or to dress cooked vegetables for Shinji's bento.

Sun Noodles Tonkotsu Ramen アメリカで豚骨らーめん

From time to time we make ramen at home. Sun Noodles is our favorite brand. The texture and thickness of the ramen noodles is perfect for us, and the seasoned flavor packets included in the packs are delicious. Here is a tonkotsu ramen we made at home recently. Toppings include a hard-boiled egg, spinach, negi (green onions), and yaki nori (toasted nori).

We can find Sun Noodles at Mitsuwa in Edgewater, NJ. What's great about Sun Noodles is that they could not be easier to make. Cook the noodles in hot water and the broth in a separate pot. Add whatever toppings you like.

Here is the link to the Sun Noodle website:

http://www.sunnoodle.com/eng/index.html

Hotate Takikomi Gohan 帆立ご飯 Scallops and Rice

Takikomigohan is rice steamed with different ingredients. It can be as simple as green peas or as complicated as several different ingredients such as a gomokugohan. Gomokugohan would have five different ingredients in the rice pot with the rice like chicken, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, hijiki, and gobo, for example. The rice is steamed with water, sake, mirin, and soy sauce.

As Shinji is a fishmonger we often make our takikomigohan with seafood. If you are working with raw fish like a whole sea bream or a filet of salmon, the fish needs to be salted and grilled before adding it to the rice pot. If the fish is not grilled the rice will be very fishy. I made the mistake once and will never do it again.

This is a very simple recipe. The scallops are pre-cooked. The amount of liquid to rice is still one to one, as when steaming white rice. The only difference is that a bit of sake, mirin, and soy sauce is added to the cup before being topped off with water. Steam as normal.

Takikomigohan

Scallops

Japanese Rice

Zakkokumai 雑穀米

Brown rice was featured in a blog on the New York Times recently. Here is the link:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/eating-brown-rice-to-cut-diabetes-risk/

Whole grains are naturally more nutritious than white rice. I tried eating just brown rice for several months while living in Japan but was often disappointed. A great alternative for me was to add zakkokumai (a variety of grains) to the rice pot when steaming white rice.

In this blog is a photo of Kagayaki 6-Grain Rice, premixed zakkokumai. I just added a Tablespoon of this to one cup of uncooked white rice and steamed it together and the results are in the rice bowl. The six grains are black rice, purple barley, hull-less barley, rye berries, MG red rice, short grain brown rice.

Following is a list of zakkokumai ingredients popular in Japan:

Zakkokumai 雑穀米 are beans, grains and millets that can be added to a pot of rice before it is steamed. The result is colorful flecked and spotted rice, but most importantly, essential vitamins and minerals are added. These grains can be purchased separately or already pre-mixed. Following are some of the popular zakkokumai ingredients:

Amaransu – amaranth
Awa – foxtail millet
Azuki – dried azuki beans
Daizu – dried soybeans
Hadaga mugi - rye
Hato mugi – Job’s tears
Hie– Japanese barnyard millet
Kibi – common millet
Kinia - quinoa
Kuromame – black beans
Maru mugi – uncracked grains of barley
Mochi – sticky rice
Oshi mugi – rolled barley

Japanese Rice

Kaisen Donburi 海鮮丼

It's a good day when Shinji brings home work, literally Japanese seafood. One morning we had kaisen donburi for breakfast. Kaisen can be translated as "fresh seafood" and donburi is any large bowl of rice with toppings.

This kaisen donburi has ikura (salmon roe), katsuo (bonito), and kani (crab).

Ikura

Bonito