The other white meat
You have might have gleaned from previous posts that I love a good eggplant recipe. Their spongey flesh is perfect for absorbing sauces and strong flavours and they make a great, filling meal when you don’t feel so much like meat – or even if you do!
This eggplant recipe has a few more steps than some of my other dishes but is still incredibly easy to make and is so delicious. If you’re a fan of eggplant cooked using Japanese flavours, check out these two incredibly simple and very tasty eggplant recipes.
Using mushrooms and greens as well as eggplant, this dish is great served with rice and makes a hearty meal for two.
Image by Moira, Flickr.
Miso, greens and eggplant recipe
Ingredients
- 3 eggplants
- Greens – ½ chinese cabbage, bok choi, choi sum – chop evenly
- 100g mushrooms – chestnut or white – slice
- 130g miso paste
- 3 tbsp. mirin
- 3 tbsp. sake
- 1 ½ tbsp. caster sugar
- 1 tsp. wasabi
- 4 tbsp. tamari/soy sauce/shoyu
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
- Toasted sesame seeds – garnish
- Coriander – garnish (optional)
Method
- Preheat oven to 200C. De-stalk eggplants and cut length ways. Cut each half into half-moons around 2cm thick. Brush with vegetable oil, griddle each side until they are nicely marked and then pop into oven for about 15 minutes or until they are soft.
- In a small saucepan combine sugar and sake and stir until sugar melts. Add miso, mirin and wasabi and stir. Remove eggplant from oven, brush with miso mixture and put under grill for a few minutes.
- During this time, heat sesame oil in a wok and fry mushrooms for a couple of minutes before throwing in the greens. If you have greens with larger stalks, you will need to cut this section more finely so they cook at the same rate as the soft leaves. This will only take a minute. Turn greens and mushroom using a spatula and add a little water or soy sauce if extra liquid is needed.
- Lay greens on a serving plate and strew with toasted sesame seeds. Top greens with eggplant, then a few more sesame seeds and a little chopped coriander if using
This miso and eggplant recipe is a flexible one. You can use a variety of greens, mushrooms or miso varieties or add a little tofu during cooking or a dried seaweed garnish at the end.
Slightly different soba noodles
Like most people, I love eating the kind of food I grew up with and that means Japanese dishes! There’s something so satisfying about cooking and eating food you’ve had a million times before and know you’ll be happy to eat again and again. Along with traditional dishes, I also love to experiment with combining Japanese ingredients with culinary inspiration from other parts of the globe.
A good example of this is My South-east Asian Soba Noodles. Using classic South-east Asian flavours such as zingy lime, fish sauce and coriander, this recipe makes a lovely lunch or side dish served along with other things.
If you want to try for classic soba noodles recipes check out my post for Soba Zaru – an excellent one to start with. Another great recipe is this delicious and healthy soba noodles and vegetable miso soup.
Fresh soba noodles. Image by Naotakem, Flickr.
East Asian Soba Noodles Recipe
Ingredients
- 150g soba noodles
- 1 cucumber – finely sliced
- 25g coriander – chopped
- 25g mint – chopped
- 1 carrot – julienned
Dressing
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
- ½ tbsp. lime juice
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1tsp. palm sugar – normal sugar can also be used
- 1-2 chillis – finely chopped
- Fish sauce – seasoning to taste
- Toasted sesame seeds or crushed peanuts – for garnish
Method
Cook soba noodles as instructed. Prepare raw vegies and herbs. Combine dressing ingredients in a small pan on a low heat to melt down the palm sugar. Add a tiny splash of fish sauce to taste. Wait for dressing to cool down a little before carefully pouring over soba noodles. You may not to use all of it – just make sure the soba noodles are coated. Toss through vegies and herbs. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds or crushed peanuts. Serve at room temperature.
Miso as a meal
You know the expression chicken soup cures almost anything – that’s how I feel about today’s vegetables and miso soup recipe. This comforting, healthy and delicious miso soup is one I turn to whenever I feel run down, need to detox a little from eating less healthy foods and want something that is an easy, pleasure to cook.
Normally miso soup is served in a small bowl, with a few small pieces of tofu in it and not much else. It is one component of a larger Japanese meal. By contrast, this miso recipe is a filling meal. I’m sharing with you the vegetarian version which includes some soba noodles and a range of vegetables and it is so delicious I don’t miss meat at all. However, for those of you who need some meat based protein in their meal, finely sliced grilled chicken breast works beautifully in this miso soup meal too. Marinate the chicken briefly in some soy and perhaps a little grated ginger before cooking for extra flavour.
Miso soup with chicken and toasted sesame seeds. Image by mahiro1322, Flickr.
Vegetables and Miso Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- Miso soup
- Carrot
- Zucchini
- Mushroom (finely slice)
- Corn (shave off cob or jarred kernels)
- Spring onion (finely slice)
- Soba noodles
- Vegetable oil
- Sesame oil
- Toasted sesame seeds (optional)
Method
Prepare miso following my miso soup post. Put a saucepan of water on to boil for the soba noodles. Dice or julienne the carrot and zucchini. Make it a small dice if this is how you’re preparing them. Pour a tiny amount of vegetable oil in a saucepan, along with an even tinier drop of sesame oil. Start by frying the carrots and zucchini for a few minutes, then add corn. Stir and around for fry for another minute. You want them to retain some crunch. Meanwhile cook and drain soba in pot following their packet instructions. Drain in sieve. Distribute soba noodles evenly into bowls and top with cooked diced vegetables. Lay finely sliced raw mushroom on top and pour over miso soup. Garnish with spring onion and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
The Latest Trend in Sushi Inspired Non-Sushi
I’ve posted before about sushi doughnuts, and now there’s a new trend in sushi inspired edibles. Sushi cupcakes have emerged as a popular alternative to give us another excuse to eat something that highly resembles sushi. These small, indulgent treats have taken the world by storm in the past few years with thousands of food blogs dedicated to these personalised cakes, tv shows that focus exclusively on cupcakes, and bright cupcake shops popping up in every major city.
Certain food forecasters claim that the cupcake trend is finally slowing, but others argue the portability and portion-control can’t be beat. Cupcakes are simply changing their style to stay strong and relevant by embracing the creative outlet cupcakes have through decorating the delectable treats in new and interesting ways. Even if this means changing the fundamental appearance to something that resembles raw fish.
Sushi and Cupcakes. Sushi image by avlxyz, Flickr. Cupcake image by Happy Krissy, Flickr.
Sweet Sushi Cupcakes
Enter the sushi inspired cupcake. It’s sweet and cute treat that’s cooked in sushi cupcake cups to resemble the nori, while white sprinkles can replace the sushi rice. It’s then covered in ‘raw fish’ or ‘seared tuna’ and served with ‘wasabi’ and ‘ginger’ to embody your favourite sushi roll. Cupcake shops are churning out batches of these sushi inspired cupcakes for customers who are bored of the plain vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing and would rather eat cupcakes that border on the extreme.
According to the philosophy that we’d all rather be eating sushi, the sushi inspired cupcake trend carries on the thought by letting us have our sushi for dessert with nigiri and maki cupcakes. Cupcakes are far from going away anytime soon, so enjoy the latest trend in cupcake art by tucking into a sweet piece of sushi or try making some yourself!
Nabemono
Since we are in the midst of Autumn it seems timely to share a Japanese recipe that is popular when the weather turns cold in my home country: Nabemono. This is a heart and belly warming one-pot dish that is traditionally made in the middle of the dining table using a donabe pot. A large earthenware pot, the donabe sits on top of an electric skillet – much like a steam boat – and you add whatever ingredients take your fancy. Starting with the stock, you then add meat or seafood and vegetables in the order they cook before spooning into serving bowls and topping with a variety of condiments.
Oysters were traditionally used in this Japanese recipe but you can really use whatever you like. The point is to have fun cooking in a communal fashion and get warmed up from a steaming bowl of savoury goodness. With this in mind I have decided to share a list of possible ingredients you can use in this flexible Japanese recipe so you can tweak your Nabemono to suit yourself!
Making Nabemono at home. Image by jmurawski, Flickr.
One pot Japanese recipe aka Nabemono
Ingredients – quantities depend on how many you want to feed!
Stock – for around 4 people
- 2 litres or so dashi – see how to make it on my miso soup post
- ½ cup soy sauce / shoyu / tamari
- ¼ mirin or sake with 2 tsp. of sugar
Feature ingredients
- Prawns
- Fish such as salmon, sea bass or mackerel – it needs to have firm flesh
- Beef – cut into thin strips
- Tofu – cut into cubes
- Shiitake mushrooms (soak in tepid water to clean and hydrate first if dried)
- Carrot
- Snow peas
- White mushrooms
- Beanshoots
- Watercress
- Baby spinach leaves
- White pointed cabbage
- Udon noodles - not traditional but filling and tasty
Condiments
- Grated ginger
- Fresh spring onions
- Toasted sesame seeds
- Shredded nori sheets
- Dried sea lettuce
Glazed Sweet Potatoes Japanese Style
Whenever I make simple Japanese recipes using vegetables for friends they are always surprised by how tasty a dish using only a few ingredients can be. Much like my carrot and seaweed salad or spinach side dish, this Japanese recipe is one I like to make when I need a range of little dishes for a Japanese style home picnic. But, unlike these Japanese recipes, this one has a sweet rather than savoury flavour produced by the winning combination of sesame, sugar or honey dressed sweet potato. It carries well so you can pop it into a zip-lock bag or Tupperware box and eat it on the run. It also makes a nice change from standard deserts and tastes unbelievably good with some vanilla ice-cream or gelato.
Known as Daigaku Imo in Japan, this casual little dish consists of fried cubes of sweet potato that we call satsuma imo – these are the Japanese variety with red skins and yellow-orange flesh – but you can use the purple skinned variety too.
Super easy caramelised sweet potato with sesame. Image by taylorandayumi, Flickr.
Japanese Recipe: Daigaki Imo
Ingredients
- 3-4 medium sweet potatoes
- 70g sugar (or runny honey if you need to)
- 50ml water
- 2 tsp. soy sauce
- Toasted sesame seeds – black if possible but white is fine!
- Plain vegetable oil for frying
Method
Scrub the sweet potatoes well, cut into chunky cubes and pop into a bowl of cold water. Heat oil. Dry sweet potato carefully – away from the oil or it will spit! Fry potatoes on medium heat, ensuring they cook through and do not burn. In a small saucepan, melt sugar into water and when it starts to thicken (caramelise) add the soy sauce. Drain sweet potato on kitchen paper towel and then gently stir into sugar mix, ensuring each cube is covered. If you want to avoid sugar, you can use runny honey instead (with no water). Just drizzle over sweet potato in a new bowl. This will produce a stickier dish with a different but still very pleasant flavour. The last step with this addictive vegetarian Japanese recipe is to toss the cubes in sesame seeds – if they are toasted that’s even better!
Another omelette recipe
Omelettes are a simple but much loved dish celebrated all around the world by many cultures and cuisines. A fairly straight forward affair, a beaten egg fried in a pan might sound boring when you describe it but like so many recipes, it the simplicity of an omelette that makes this dish the perfect quick snack and addition to more involved meals.
In Japan, we make our omelettes differently and they are often intended as one component of a larger meal like a bento box or Chirashi sushi. This Japanese omelette recipe is very thin and rather plain – as opposed to Okonomiyaki – a big ‘pancake style’ omelette with loads of ingredients and toppings.
When following an authentic Japanese omelette recipe we traditionally use a rectangular shaped skillet called a tamago yaki nabe but you can easily make them with a standard round Western-style pan. The omelette recipe I am sharing today includes nori sheets in the cooking process. This adds extra flavour and looks great but if you’re using this omelette recipe in a hand roll you needn’t bother unless you like the double-nori sheet effect!
Thin Japanese omelette rolled up with a nori ribbon. Image by rick, Flickr.
Japanese Omelette Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup dashi (recipe here)
- ½ tbsp. shoyu
- ½ tbsp. mirin
- 1 sheet nori cut into strips
- Sunflower oil
Method
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, dashi, shoyu and mirin. Heat your pan and pour a large coin sized drop of oil on it, dispersing evenly using a piece of kitchen paper towel. Pour 1/3 of the omelette mix into the pan and move it around so it covers the base evenly. When you notice the edges start to curl up and dry, use a spatula to lift one end and roll into a scroll so it ends up in a log shape at the other end of the pan. Rub more oil on pan base and pour in another 1/3 mix. On top of this, add nori strips. Again, watched the edges and then taking the rolled up scroll, roll this over the new omelette, rolling this up with it to the other side of the pan. Repeat with oil and final 1/3 egg mix, wait until cooked, roll back on itself and remove from pan. Now you should have an impressive omelette roll with green nori flecks in it that you can cut up for a decorative effective and add to many other Japanese meals or serve alongside other dishes on the table.
The reason I love this ramen recipe is that it makes a lovely, stocky and filling soup without the time commitment of making an authentic ramen recipe. To make ramen properly, you should simmer the pork bones for at least 5, but more like 10 hours. Like most people I don’t usually have the time, or more to the point – foresight! A cheap meal to eat out in Japan, ramen is a staple for hungry students and much loved one-dish meal that is useful to know how to make at home for when a craving strikes.
Express pork ramen recipe. Image by Naotakem, Flickr.
Soup for the soul
Originating in China, there are now many ramen recipes to choose from with differences in both the broth and the toppings. As with my express ramen recipe, pork is most commonly used for the soup base, although many people add some chicken stock. Additions such as kombu, ginger, bonito flakes and shitake are also used in ramen recipes too – mine is a simplified version that does without these ingredients. One delicious addition you could consider is adding some slices of tonkatsu on top when you’re done, especially if your pork bones don’t come with much meat.
Express Pork Ramen Recipe
Ingredients – Serves 2
- 300g pork bones – if they have some meat on them – all the better!
- 6-8 cups water
- Soy sauce
- Knob of ginger (optional)
- 3 tbsp. miso paste
- 4-6 spring onions, thinly sliced length ways
- 2 heads of bok choy, seperated
- Egg noodles (optional)
Method
Rinse your bones and cover with water. You want a flavourful stock so don’t put too much water in – it should just cover them. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat immediately and simmer for 25 minutes – skimming the scum off the top during this time. Skim fat off again and add a small piece of peeled ginger if you feel like it. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Strain and remove bones. Remove any meat off bones and set aside. Rinse out pot and put soup back on heat. Add miso paste, stir through to dissolve. You can now tweak this ramen recipe as you see fit. I now add the meat, spring onions, bok choy, noodles (if you want a heartier meal) and season with soy sauce to taste. Simmer for a further 3 minutes or however long the noodles take to cook. Serve in big bowls with soy sauce close at hand.
I’ve just returned from a break at the beach and in honour of some seriously delicious seafood I ate while away, I thought I’d share my favourite scallop recipe. As anyone who has cooked scallops before knows, the trick to a succulent scallop is to not overcook them. The inside should be almost raw and the outside have a bit of colour from frying. With this scallop recipe, as with most, it is better to have the insides a little under-done rather than too cooked because this will make them tough.
A scallop recipe with a twist
Although it’s not a traditional or even purely Japanese dish, I’ve seen variations of my miso scallop recipe in a few cookbooks and online so it’s clearly a winning combination! Using miso paste as the main ingredient in the dressing works because it brings a soft note of sweetness to the dish. I like to serve this scallop recipe with peppery green (rocket or watercress) or small mixed salad leaves as an entrée or on sushi rice with sliced avocado and something crunchy like a little shredded cabbage or pickled Japanese salad as a main.
Easy miso scallop recipe. Image by adactio, Flickr.
Miso Scallop Recipe
Ingredients
- 240g scallops (coral removed)
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Plain flour
- Sunflower oil
- Butter
- 2 tbsp. white miso
- 2 tbsp. sake or white wine
- 1 tbsp. mirin
- 1 tsp. soy sauce
- Water
Method
Season the salt with salt and pepper – ensuring your grinder produces quite fine pepper or it will be too strong for the delicate scallop flavour. Dust lightly with flour. In a large saucepan or skillet, heat oil with a knob of butter and quickly sear scallops on both sides. They should be golden in no time and removed from heat onto a plate. Turn heat down a little, add sake or wine and let alcohol burn off. Add miso paste and stir – scraping any scallop remains off the bottom of the pan. Add mirin, soy sauce/tamari/shoyu and a tbsp. or two of water. Taste dressing and if you like it, pour over scallops.
**If you prefer this scallop recipe a little sweeter, add a teaspoon of caster sugar to the dressing or tarter, add a half tablespoon or so if balsamic vinegar.
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Guest post by Rachel Yamamoto
The very first time I heard something existed called wasabi ice cream, I was instantly intrigued and made it my mission to try it. As a lifelong lover of both wasabi and ice cream, I was excited by the possibility of having both together. As soon as I finally tried it, I fell in love. While not a traditional Japanese dessert, wasabi ice cream has been appearing on the menus of modern Japanese and fusion restaurants for the past few years. The Japanese embrace adding their own twist to Western favourites.
I decided to take on the challenge of making wasabi ice cream at home. After much research, trial and error, I have perfected my recipe for making wasabi ice cream. I have made green tea ice cream many times before, and I found that making wasabi ice cream wasn’t that much different.
wasabi ice cream
How To Make Wasabi Ice Cream
Ingredients:
15 cl whole milk
20 cl crème fraîche
2 egg yolks
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp wasabi paste (a bit more or less to taste)
pinch of salt
To make wasabi ice cream, bring the milk and crème fraîche to a boil in a deep pan. Mix the egg yolks together vigourously with the sugar in a separate bowl. Temper in the hot milk and crème fraîche slowly while continuing to mix the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Add it slowly so as not to curdle the eggs. Add the wasabi and the salt while still mixing. If you do this by hand, beat the mixture very quickly. Alternatively, using an electronic mixer will be easier on you and is my favourite way to go, but it’s not essential. Put mixture in freezer until firm.
The ice cream should be creamy, soft, slightly sweet and with a detectable wasabi flavour. The wasabi flavour should come through but shouldn’t burn like it can when eating it in it’s natural state with sushi, for example. Making wasabi ice cream is great because you can use traditional ingredients in refreshingly new ways.
Make Wasabi Ice Cream In A Variety Of Ways
There are so many directions to take wasabi ice cream. I’ve seen some Japanese restaurants make wasabi ice cream in a more savoury way, and serve it with tuna tartare and a soy or miso glaze as an appetizer. They will add less sugar or even omit it altogether, or add cayenne pepper or more salt. My favourite way to make wasabi ice cream is as a slightly sweet dessert, served plain or with a mandarin orange or a drizzle of honey as a garnish. The sweet and spicy combination is unusual, exciting and delicious -and perfect for summer.
Image by stu_spivack
