favourite Japanese recipes

[scotty7]

as I stand here watching over my eda mame and my latest batch of dashi stock, I wondered about people's favourite Japanese recipes... I found a great Japanese cookbook in the States (written by a Japanese cook) but those of you with Japanese spousi may even have some age-old family recipes to share...

[scotty7]

and there was me thinking I might discover some secret family recipes...

[foxy49]

Hey scotty7. I can come up with tons of recipe. Are you interested in vegetarian, meat or seafood or any?.

foxy49

[scotty7]

anything, except offal and icky stuff : )

I use dashi stock for a lot of cooking, it's so easy to make and healthy compared to meat stocks, but I would love recipes for some of those scrumptious dipping sauces - I experiment with hon mirin, shoyu, sake etc, but I haven't managed to come up with anything quite as good as some I have tasted when out...

have you ever made your own tofu? a Japanese colleague of my fellah's was describing the process - is is worth the time and effort?

basically anything you think might be an eye-opener into the combination of tastes... I use a lot of fresh herbs and spices in my cooking, so I'm trying to learn to go with the seasons here, try new vegetables as they appear...

I'm wondering about juicing kaki as well... now that peaches and melons are dwindling...

[MJA]

funny you should mention that. my bf and i were just debating on tuesday if you could juice kakis. i say yes. ne says no.

[scotty7]

well I know I can - just stick them whole into the blender - tho i suspect they would be better peeled first after 10 seconds in boiling water, but some fruit lends itself better to this than others in terms of the rsulting texture... melon is great it's light and fluffy and mixes well with citrus and ginger... did you try it, why does youir bf say nay ?

[eku]

in korea i had these great frozen kaki
i dunno how they did it but i suspect they were ripe to the point of mushiness before they froze them...
the top was cut off and the inside was like sherbet...eaten with a spoon
was truly good to eat after spicy stuff.

[scotty7]

now there's an idea - must have been the later variety not the fuku or whatever they are called, can't remember the other name off the top of my head

[MJA]

havent juiced yet. i think that my boyfriend says nay for a couple of reasons. but when i was in australia i use to drink fresh juice by the ton. here people dont seem to drink it so much though so i guess its harder for him to envisage that it is for me. i think it would be yummy, especially with ginger.

[eigonosenseisan]

buta no kakuni (japanese braised pork belly)

4 eggs
600 g pork belly (skin off)or pork spareribs
4 cups water
1 5cm chunk of ginger, peeled and cut in half
2 leeks, cut into thirds or 1/2 a bunch of scallions, cut in half
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sake
2 Tblsp sugar(or to taste)
hot mustard paste

1. in a small pot, add eggs and cover with water. bring the pot to a boil, then turn off the heat, leaving the eggs inside. set the pot aside for the next two hours to cool.

2. in another small pot, add pork belly and 4 cups of water, the ginger and the leeks (or scallions). bring everything to a boil, then simmer for 1hour. the stock should reduce to about 2/3rds to 1/2 of the original level.(You can alternatively lightly stir fry the pork before adding the water & other ingredients)

after the pork has simmered, fish out the ginger and leeks (or scallions) and discard them. peel the cooled hard boiled eggs and place them in the pot with the pork. add 1/4 of a cup of soy sauce and 1/2 cup of sake.

3. simmer 20 minutes. add another 1/4 cup of soy sauce and 2 tablespoons sugar. simmer for another 20 minutes. serve hot or cold as a side dish. top with a bit of mustard paste.

[foxy49]

Sorry it took forever to come up with recipes........
Here, I found few healthy and deliciouse recipes.

Celery and red onion salad with ume and katsuo-bushi (セロリと赤玉ねぎの梅かつおあえ）

4-5 stalks of celery thinly and diagonally sliced
about 1/4 medium size red onion thinly sliced
4 lightly salted imeboshi,pitted, chopped and made into paste (you can use ready made umeboshi paste)
1/4 cup of katsuo-bushi (dried bonito fish flakes)
1/2 teasppon soy sauce, 1/2 tablspoon each veg.oil and rice vinegar. Mix the sliced vegetable with ume-paste and let it sit for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the seasonings and mix well.

Grilled tofu with assorted mushroom toppings.

1 block firm (momen goshi) tofu, pressed(ridding of excess water).
Shiitake, shimeji, enoki mushrooms (as much as you like) rinced. Slice shiitake into strips. 1 clove of garlic minced.
Grill tofu on a frying pan until brown on both sides.
Sautee garlic with oil (use sesame oil if you wanted to make it Chinese flavor) then mushrooms until they are tender. Add 1/4 cup of soy sauce and mix. Add tiny bit of butter(optional), arrange on top of grilled tofu. Top with shopped scallions and serve. Chopped cilantro is great with it too. Bon appetit!!.

[scotty7]

thanks, Foxy, both those sound great... well worth waiting for : )

[foxy49]

I forgot to add. Don't forget to add some course ground black pepper to sauteed mushroom.