Posted October 23rd, 2010 in Food | 5 Comments »
One of my favorite side dish. The aroma of roasted sesame seeds are so tempting.
If you have a suribachi (a Japanese grinding-bowl) it’s best to grind the sesame seeds. I used normal mortar and pestle. Or, you can simply use a blender to do the job 
Mix with other sauce together. The oil from the sesame seeds has the distinctive nutty smell.
When you blanch the beans, make sure you don’t overcook them. Leave the crunchy texture to the beans and you can enjoy the juicy crisp beans in sesame dressing.
<Ingen Goma Ae> serves 4 as an entree
- 200g green beans
- 30g white sesame seeds
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs sugar
- 1 tsp miso paste
- 1/2 tsp sake (cooking wine)
a
- Heat a clean dry frying pan over medium heat. Add sesame seeds and shake the pan so that they spread to form a even layer.
- Cook until they become light brown color and produce the nutty smell. Shake the pan or stir with a wooden spoon to avoid them from burning as you cook. Remove from the heat, and place the seeds in a mortar.
- While the seeds are hot, grind to form a paste. You don’t need to grind finely if you want to enjoy the texture of the seeds.
- Add miso, sugar, soy sauce and sake, and mix together.
- Boil a medium pan of water to a boil. Blanch beans for 30 seconds, or until just cooked but still crunchy.
- Drain, and add to the sesame sauce. Combine together.
You can also use other vegetables such as spinach, asparagus and broccoli.
a
Posted October 20th, 2010 in Food | No Comments »
When you want something to add to your main meal when you are having Japanese food, this broccoli aemono is an option. Aemono simply means “mixed with seasoning”, and it is usually served as a side dish.
This is simply dressed with bonito flakes and soy sauce. You can of course use other vegetables, such as spinach, green beans, bean shoots, and okura.
<Broccoli Aemono> serves 4 as a side
- 8~10 florets broccoli
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 5g katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
- 1 tbs roasted white sesame seeds
a
- Trim stems from the broccoli. Cut the florets into small uniform pieces.
- Bring a medium saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with ice and water.
- Blanch the broccoli florets for 30 seconds, or until just tender but still crunchy. Quickly transfer to the ice water to refresh. Once they are cooled, remove from the water and drain well.
- Place broccoli in a bowl and add soy sauce, bonito flakes and sesame seeds. Mix through.
- Evenly divide the dressed broccoli into 4 small plates.
aa
Posted October 14th, 2010 in Food | 2 Comments »
Grilled vegetables, boiled eggs, and fresh silken tofu topped with miso jam with chicken mince.
It is a great party item or as a accompaniment to any alcohol! It also goes with hot steamed rice. 
Today I used zucchini, boiled eggs and tofu, but you can basically use any vegetables, such as broccoli, daikon radish, or even Chinese cabbage leaves. Anything goes with this tori-miso jam.
<Torimiso with Vegetables and Tofu> serves 2~4
- 100g chicken mince
- 50g red miso paste
- 30g sugar
- 1.5 tbs sake (cooking wine)
- zucchini
- 2 eggs
- 1 pack silken tofu (around 300~500g)
- sesame seeds and spring onion to garnish
aa
- Place chicken mince and sake in a small sauce pan, and turn on the heat. Over low heat, cook chicken while stirling with silicon spatula. Add sugar and miso paste, and stir until the miso mixture starts to look shiny and smooth. Be careful, miso easily gets burned. Turn off the heat and set aside.
- Make boiled eggs. Slice into half, or quoter.
- Slice zucchini, and grill until just cooked through.
- Cut tofu into bite size.
- Arrange zucchini, eggs and tofu on a serving plate. Top with miso mixture, and garnish with chopped spring onion or sesame seeds.
Posted September 29th, 2010 in Food | 1 Comment »
This dish is one of the Japanese new year food, but it is so easy to make and can be eaten as side dish and a bento item as well. A great hashiyasume (“chopstick rester”).
With very simple ingredients, you can make this marinade in less than 5 minutes. Namasu can be made with any ingredients – uncooked (“nama”) vegetables and/or seafood. I also like cucumber namasu, but this daikon and carrot namasu is the very standard namasu eaten in Japan.
<Daikon and Carrot Namasu> makes a bowlful
- 1/3 daikon radish (around 300g)
- 1/2 carrot
- 1 tsp lemon rind, very thinly sliced
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbs vinegar
- 2 tbs sugar
- 1 tsp roasted white sesame seeds
aa
- Slice carrot and daikon very thinly. You can use the slicer if you have.
- Place daikon, carrot and lemon rinds in a bowl, and sprinkle with salt. Let it stand for 5 minutes.
- Mix vinegar and sugar in another bowl.
- Squeeze out the liquid from daikon mixture, and marinate in the vinegar mixture. Sprinkle sesame seeds.
aa
* You can eat them straight away, but it tastes better if you marinate little longer in the fridge.
aa
Posted September 25th, 2010 in Food | 7 Comments »
I sometimes get a craving for tempura soba. The combination of crispy tempura and freshly boiled soba noodle in warm, sweet, soysauce-based dark soup.
In the area around my house (Shiga), we don’t eat soba much. We eat udon more often. In Japan, the type of food people eat is different depends on where you live. For example, Western people (eg Kyoto) use white miso for miso soup, but Eastern people (eg Nagoya) use red miso. Western people eat udon, but Eastern people eat soba. It’s not always black and white, some Western people eat red miso and soba noodle too, of course, but it’s what we say in Japan. In fact, my mum never cooked soba at home. It was always udon.
But, in the New Year’s Eve, I sometimes felt like eating soba. As we eat toshikoshi-soba (people in Japan eat soba noodle at midnight between New Years Eve and New Years Day), I sometimes asked my mum to prepare instant soba noodle.
I love this cup noodle soup… It’s so shame that Australia doesn’t allow these noodle to be imported. I just have to eat it in Japan.
Anyway, I made tempura soba the other day and it was really nice.
You can follow the recipe for crispy tempura here.
I made kakiage – tempura of mixed shredded vegetables. It’s so easy to make!
Thinly slice onion and carrot (and chopped spring onion or shredded burdock roots if you want). Coat with tempura batter, and drop into hot oil using two spoon to make a round shape. Make it flat, so that the tempura get cooked through and crispy.
To see how to cook soba noodle, refer here.
<Soup>
- 1.5cup water
- 1 handful bonito flakes (about 10g)
- 1 tbs mirin
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- how to make -
- Place water and bonito flakes in a small sauce pan. Bring to the gentle simmer, and turn down the heat to low. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Drain the bonito flake and keep the soup. Return the soup to the pan, and add mirin and soy sauce. Bring to the gentle simmer and simmer for 5 minutes.
The oil from the crispy tempura gives the nice flavor to the soup (^-^).
Email: me@umeboss.com
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