Sushi Gohan

(Japanese seasoned rice)

Contrary to the belief of many, the word “sushi” actually refers to the seasoned rice itself, not the rolls and such made with it. It serves as the base for chirashi, inari, maki, nigiri, oshi and temaki zushi.
Ingredients:

Makes about 3 cups

* Sushi rice — 2 cups
* Water — 1 3/4 cups
* Unseasoned rice vinegar, unseasoned — 3 tablespoons
* Sugar — 2 tablespoons
* Salt — 1/2 teaspoons

Method

1. Place rice in a large bowl and fill the bowl with cold water and swish the rice with your hands. Pour off water and repeat the process 3-4 times. Fill the bowl with water one last time set the rice aside to soak for 30 minutes. Drain.
2. Bring 1 3/4 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. Drain the rice and stir it into the boiling water. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly and simmer 10-12 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to rest for another 15 minutes.
3. Mix the rice vinegar, sugar and salt together in a small bowl. Remove the cooked rice to a large bowl. Pour the vinegar mix over the rice and gently fold it in with a wooden spoon or paddle.
4. Cool rice to lukewarm and cover with a damp towel. Use for making maki zushi or other sushi dishes.

Kabocha Nimono

Ingredients:

(Japanese simmered pumpkin)

Kabocha nimono is an easy, quick and nourishing way to prepare kabocha squash. Simmered pumpkin is particularly popular in the fall as kabocha comes into season.
4-6 servings

* Kabocha squash — 1, about 2 pounds
* Dashi stock — 2 cups
* Mirin — 4-5 tablespoons
* Soy sauce or shoyu — 2 tablespoons
* Sugar — 1 tablespoon
* Salt — to taste

Method

1. Wash the kabocha well, then cut in half and scoop out the seeds. Using a vegetable peeler, peel off some of the outer skin to make attractive stripes of orange and green. Cut the squash into roughly 2×2-inch pieces.
2. In a bowl, mix together the dashi, mirin, soy sauce or shoyu, sugar and salt. Adjust seasoning to taste.
3. Place the squash, skin side down, in a large saucepan or pot. Pour in enough of the dashi liquid to cover the squash by two-thirds. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low, cover tightly, and simmer 10-15 minutes, or until the squash is easily pierced by a sharp knife. Do not overcook or it will become mushy.
4. Serve neatly arranged in individual bowls with a little of the liquid spooned over.

Variations

* Kabocha Age-Ni: deep fry the pieces of squash until lightly browned before poaching them in the dashi liquid.
* Try using other types of pumpkin or hard winter squash.

Chazuke

Ingredients:

* 1/2 salmon steak
* salt to taste
* 1 1/2 cups hot water
* 1 1/2 tsp sencha, bancha, or hojicha [green tea]
* 1 bowl warm cooked rice
* 2-3 trefoil (mitsuba), cut into 1 1/2-inch (4-cm) lengths
* 1 tbsp croutons or any crunchy cereal
* Japanese horseradish (wasabi), optional

serves 1

Directions

1. Season the salmon with salt and leave for 10 minutes. Broil or grill 5-6 minutes, until slightly brown. Remove the skin and bones, if any, and break up the flesh into flakes.

2. Make the tea broth by adding hot water to the tea leaves.

3. Place the rice in a large bowl and sprinkle salmon flakes over the rice. Add the trefoil, croutons, and, if you wish, a dab of horseradish.

4. Pour as much hot tea as you want onto the rice and eat immediately.

Note: Ochazuke tastes even better when accompanied by good-quality Japanese salted pickled vegetables or any Western-style pickles. Cold ochazuke is recommended for summer. For this, use iced sencha, mizudashi-sencha, or any type of green tea that has been cooled down.

Serving Size : 6
Ingredients

* 1 Whole Napa Cabbage — Trimmed/Shredded
* 3 Whole Green Onions — Trimmed/Thinly Slice
* 1/2 C Cilantro — Chipped
* 3 Whole Red Jalapenos Stemmed/Seeded — Minced
* 3 Oz Package Oriental Flavor Ramen Noodle Soup — Mix
* 1/2 C Vegetable Oil
* 2 Tsp Sesame Oil
* 1/4 C Rice Vinegar
* 1/2 Tsp Sugar
* 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds — Toasted
* Coarse Salt And Ground Black Pepper

Directions
In large bowl, combine cabbage, green onions, cilantro, and jalapenos.

Remove noodles from soup mix and break into small bite sized pieces. Add to cabbage mixture.

In a small bowl, whisk oils with vinegar, sugar and contents of seasoning packet from soup mix. Pour over salad and toss thoroughly.

Add sesame seeds and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to mix.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Butajiru

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 30g carrot
• 30g gobou
• 50g radish
• 200g belly of pork
• 50g ito-konnyaku
• 3 siitake
• 2 Welsh onion
• 900cc dashi
• 80g miso

Preparation

1. Slice the gobou thinly as if you were sharpening
a pencil and dip it in water. Then, slice the siitake,
and cut the carrot and the radish into 4cm. @
2. Boil the ito-konnyaku, and cut into bite sized pieces.
3. Cut the pork into bite sized pieces.

Kinpira-gobo

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 150g burdock root (“gobo”)
• 50g carrot
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil (or salad oil)
• 1 red pepper
• a little roasted sesame
• 2 tablespoon soy
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon mirin(sweetened sake)
• 2 teaspoon sake

Preparation

1. Peel and cut the burdock into 5cm lengths, and then cut into small strips. Soak them in water to remove the harshness. Peel and cut the carrot into the same size as the burdock.
2. Put burdock in the bamboo basket to drain.

Hijiki no nimono

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 30g hijiki
• 1 aburaage
• 1/2 konnyaku
• salt
• carrot (1/2)
• 1and 1/2 tables spoon oil
• 2 cups stock(dashi)
• 2 and 1/2 table spoons sugar
• 2 and 1/2 table spoons soy
• 1 table spoon mirin

Preparation

1. Wash the hijiki and leave it in a full bowl of water until it is soft.
After that, remove water from and cut it into about 4~5cm pieces.
2. Pour hot water on the aburaage to remove the oil from it. Cut it into 1 cm. slices.

Dashimaki tamago

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 4 Eggs, 1/4 cups stock (dashi),
• Mixture: (1/2 table spoons soy, salt, 1/2 tablespoons mirin),
• Oil

Preparation

1. Put 1/4 cups stock into a bowl add the mixture soy-salt-mirin mixture and stir.
2. Beat 4 eggs in another bowl then add (1) to (2).
3. Thinly coat a square frying pan with oil. Wipe out the surplus oil with a cloth or paper towel. Pour 1/3 of the mixture into the frying pan, and spread it evenly by jiggling the pan.
4. After the surface of (3) hardens slightly, roll it up to one end of the frying pan.
5. Move the rolled egg to the opposite side and oil the bottom surface. Add another 1/3 of (2) into the pan, and roll it up after the surface of (3) comes has hardened.
Repeat (5) with the last 1/3 of the mixture.
6. Pick (6) up and let it cool and cut.

Toriniku to satoimo no nikomi

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 8 chicken wings (1 tablespoons sake and 1 tablespoons soy sauce)
• 400g satoimo
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons sake
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoons sugar

Preparation

1. Scatter sake and soy sauce on chickens.(for 20~30 minutes)
@
2. Peel off satoimo and wash.

Kinoko burg

Ingredients (15 ohagi)

• 300g chicken minced meat
• 1/2 or 1 tofu
• mushrooms
• 1/2 or 1 onion
• 1/2 or 1 egg
• seasoning A (2 tablespoons soy, 1 teaspoon salt, pinch of pepper, 2 tablespoons starch)
• 1 table spoon starch
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 2 tablespoons oil

Recipe

1.  Remove water well from the tofu and mash it.
2. Mince the mushrooms and onions, and heat butter in a fryingpan and fry them. Let it cool to room temperature.
3. Mix well the tofu(1), the fried mushrooms and onions, chicken minced meat and seasoning A. Divide it for the number of people.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a fryingpan. Add put (3) into the fryingpan, and fry the meat enhancesits flavor. Add another tablespoon oil and steam them with cover.

How to make a sauce

1. After remove (4) from the fryingpan, add 3 tablespoons soy, 3 tablespoons mirin, 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 tablespoons sake. Boil it.
2. Finally, put 1 tablespoon starch into it.
3. Pour (2) on the hamburgs.