Currently viewing the tag: "Japanese"
For this recipe you will need to find a Japanese market or a good fish market. In the Santa Cruz/Watsonville area you can find what you need at Yamashita Market in Watsonville. As the tuna is served raw, be careful in your selection. This recipe is a contrast of crunches and a synthesis of flavors. The tobiko pop, the cucumber crunches, and the tuna sort of melts and has a little chew to it at the same time. The clean wet taste of cucumber harmonizes with the briny roe while acting as a foil to the saltiness. The sweet, slightly oily, and umami flavors of the tuna are set off by the other elements. The dressing is used sparingly, as a surprise accent that pops up as a little jolt of bass-line to the rest of the salads higher notes of flavor. This is an appetizer, or part of a string of dishes. The recipe is written as a small appetizer-just a few bites, as in 3-4. If you wish a bit more, double the volume.
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Westernized variations of traditional Japanese dips and sauces. For the Tuna Tobiko Cucumber dish, use sparingly. You can use this for sashimi, as a noodle dip, or on a salad.
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This is a simpler version of a sauce from my sushi bar that was known as Venus sauce. Its origins lie in an old traditional Japanese fair dish known as “dengaku”, where it was painted onto tofu and vegetables and grilled over coals. Use this in a similar fashion, but use the broiler as it is less messy. Try it on marinated firm tofu, blanched vegetables, and fish.
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A bit of a fusion combing some Western technique and Japanese, and pretty much all traditional Japanese flavors.
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Tagged with: green onions • Japanese • mizuna • mushrooms • shiitake mushrooms • Tokyo turnips • turnips
The sauce is based on traditional teriyaki sauce, and is a little less sweet that what many are used to. See the recipe for ideas about that. This is a quick and easy recipe, especially if you have the sauce in the refrigerator, which I highly recommend. Use carrots that are nice and sweet for this. Some carrots are earthier and can have a slight bitter edge, which the soy sauce can amplify.
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This is a dish you want a Ben-Riner or mandolin. If you have a sharp grater that produces almost matchstick thick results, that could work also. This dish uses mirin and shiro-shoyu, a.k.a. white soy sauce. This is a very light colored soy with a lighter body and flavor than regular soy sauce. It adds a light umami quality dishes as well as a little salinity, so you can ease up on salting a dish, and helps bring out the nuances of vegetable flavors. It is great when you want the effect of soy sauce without wanting to taste it or have it stand out in a dish. This dish is beautiful when made with multi-colored carrots, but mature chantenay carrots work really well also.
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Soba is a Japanese buckwheat noodle that is like a squared off perciatelli noodle. Although it is served hot, it is probably best known as a cold preparation. Here is a twist on that dish with summer squash and carrots replacing the noodles. Soba is typically dipped into a soy-based sauce that is seasoned based on the weather. Sweeter when it is cold, ginger grated into it when it is hot out. Green onions and sesame seeds almost always. Here the dish is a little different than the traditional. It is dressed lightly with a variant of a Japanese dressing that is used with vegetable salads, and then has the dipping sauce that is traditional with soba as well. Both sauces keep well and have a myriad of uses. You want to use the middle comb of a Ben-Riner for this dish.
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This does not use as much oil as a standard vinaigrette nor the Japanese Style Sesame Dressing v.1, and is closer to a traditional sanbaizu (three-taste) dressing. This version was concocted for a “soba” made with threads of summer squash standing in for soba noodles. It is quite good on cucumbers or a “slaw” of savoy cabbage with grated carrots and slivered mei-quin choi. For sesame oil, I favor Kadoya brand for its pure clean flavor and aroma. If you can find it, try the Black Sesame seed oil for a deeper flavor. Using a blender for this dressing makes it a snap, although shaking it up in a quart jar with a tight fitting lid is good too.
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This does not use as much oil as a standard vinaigrette, so is much lighter. Excellent on cucumbers or a “slaw” of savoy or nappa cabbage with grated carrots. For sesame oil, I favor Kadoya brand for its pure clean flavor and aroma. If you can find it, try the Black Sesame seed oil for a deeper flavor. Using a blender for this dressing makes it a snap, although shaking it up in a quart jar with a tight fitting lid is good too.
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This does not use as much oil as a standard vinaigrette, so is much lighter. Excellent on cucumbers or a “slaw” of savoy or nappa cabbage with grated carrots. For sesame oil, I favor Kadoya brand for its pure clean flavor and aroma. If you can find it, try the Black Sesame seed oil for a deeper flavor. Using a blender for this dressing makes it a snap, although shaking it up in a quart jar with a tight fitting lid is good too.
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While chicken teriyaki applies to any cut of chicken cooked with the sauce, yakitori refers specifically to small bits of chicken that have been threaded onto skewers and grilled. Typically there are pieces of scallion as well, and chicken liver skewers would come with on a separate skewer. The sansho mentioned as garnish is worth seeking out. It has a lovely bright citrusy flavor with a scent to match. It is a perfect foil to soy based sauces, and is great on omelets and grilled fish.
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This dish is a starter, or you can place it into a salad for a larger dish. Tobiko is the bright orange or red flying fish roe most often seen on the outside of California rolls. You can get it at Japanese markets and better fish mongers. If it is frozen, that’s fine as that is usually how it is shipped. This recipe only uses a little, so freeze what you won’t use within a few days. Chervil is an herb not used so much in the US, but is loved in France. Think of basil, tarragon, fennel, or anise, only much more delicate and subtle. Here, it brings a nice contrast to the brininess of the tuna and tobiko. A sharp knife is important to the success of this dish, and if you wish, you can freeze the tuna for 10-15 minutes to firm it up before cutting.
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This is loosely based around a traditional Japanese treatment of greens. The stems of shiitakes are frequently too tough to eat, but still contain plenty of flavor. Using the stems for a “stock” base keeps them from going to waste and boosts the flavor of the dish. See Chef’s Notes for more about this.
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A colorful combination of textures and flavors, this is a quick and healthful salad. Made with daikon radish, it is quite traditional. The use of watermelon radishes would be novel, but quite colorful. A mixture of daikon and watermelon radishes would make this dish arresting to the eye. This is one of those dishes where a Ben-Riner or other fixed-blade slicer is really handy.
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Peeling the squash before cutting makes it easier. Don’t worry about getting all the peel off; a little left on is fine and looks nice. Save the seeds to roast; just wash well and dry, then oil and sprinkle with salt and bake 10-15 minutes at 350°F or until done. Eat as is or save and use as garnish for this dish.
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This is a basic for any Japanese kitchen. In fact, dashi plus miso and some shreds of vegetable equals “miso-shiru”, or miso soup. There are various styles of hana-katsuo (dried bonito flakes)-some are smoked or dried over wood fires, others are not. I especially like using the smokey ones for miso soup as the year turns cool. Look for these flakes in Japanese or oriental markets, some “health-food” stores, and better groceries. In Watsonville, look for them at Yamashita Market. You can find them online as well.
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This is the recipe for traditional miso soup. It includes the recipe for “dashi” (which is the starting point of many Japanese recipes), which is the base of miso soup. There are instant dashi packets out there, but they never taste as good as home made, and are frequently laden with additives such as MSG. Dashi may be frozen for “instant” soup, so do not be put off by the idea of having more than enough dashi if you only want a bowl or two.
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INGREDIENTS:
6 cups braising greens, washed and chopped or torn into 1 inch bits
½ pound oyster mushrooms, torn into strips
1 leek, white and some of pale green part, split and cut into 2 inch lengths, then cut lengthwise into 1/8th inch shreds
6 cups braising greens, washed and chopped or torn into 1 inch bits
½ pound oyster mushrooms, torn into strips
1 leek, white and some of pale green part, split and cut into 2 inch lengths, then cut lengthwise into 1/8th inch shreds
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1 pound Kabocha squash, seeded
2 cups dashi* or water
1 tablespoon sake
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sugar (or less, to taste. This will be based on how sweet the squash is and how sweet you like this dish.)
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This is the slaw from the Harvest Fair, and it is quite popular, even with youngsters who normally run away from cabbage. Easy to do, it is light and crunchy, and the colors brighten any table. The dressing on this salad is a loose vinaigrette, using less oil than usual for a salad dressing.
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With the sweet and nutty tasting dressing, this is a cole slaw even kids love. My kids are always happy to see this salad, and I took it to a couple different school potlucks and discovered it was a hit there, both with the parents and the kids. Again, this is so easy with a fixed-blade slicer. Use the medium comb for the carrots, and just the blade for the cabbage, and slice it thinly.
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This is a very basic Japanese “pickle” or salad that you might find in a home-style restaurant or in a bento box. This dish is ridiculously simple, but it keeps well and has a nice flavor and some crunch. No dressing makes it lower calorie, also. This is another of those dishes where I can not recommend a Ben-Riner (Japanese fixed blade slicer) enough. It makes doing this dish a snap. Oh, it is pronounced “skee-moan-oh”.
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