Foods at my friend’s BD party

Here are the recipes of the food my friends and I made for birthday dinner.  I thought I should write it down here in case someone is planning to have a Japanese food party 😉  

< Chirashi-Sushi>

You can decorate this rice with shredded egg crepes (kinshi-tamago), some salmon roes (ikura), shredded nori sheet (kizami nori), blanched prawns etc…  if you want to serve to some guests.  (like Salmon Chirashi Sushi)  We didn’t decorate this rice on this birthday dinner as we were so hungry and wanted to dig in :p  

• 3 cups short grain rice
• 100 ml sushi vinegar 
• 1 small carrot
• 4 dried shiitake mushroom
• 4 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp mirin
• 1 tsp sugar

1. Wash rice and cook.
2. Slice shiitake mushroom and carrot thinly (jullienne)  
3. Place shiitake and carrot in a sauce pan.  Add soy sauce, mirin, sugar and the shiitake-soaked water until shiitake and carrot are completely covered with liquid.  Bring to boil, and simmer for 15 min ~20 min.  Set aside.
4. Once rice is cooked, spread on a wide bowl or plate and mix sushi vinegar using a spatula.  Try not to move the spatula around too much as it will break and crush each rice.  Let rice cool down.
5. Mix seasoned shiitake & carrot with rice.

  

* You can use “chirashi-sushi mix” which is available at Asian grocery shops and some supermarkets like Woolworth.  Using this packet is much easier, you’ll just need rice to make chirashi-sushi.

* Sushi vinegar is a seasoned vinegar.  It already contains salt and sugar so you can just mix with cooked rice to make sushi rice.  

* Decorate this rice with kinshi tamago.

1.  Beat one egg with few drops of water and a sprinkle of salt.  
2. Heat up a frying pan and pour the egg mixture.  Move around the pan so that the egg mixture spread.  Make a thin omelet.
3. Thinly slice the omelet.

  

<Asian Style Moyashi Salad>

• bean shoots 
• cucumber 
• ham or bacon
• boiled eggs
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs white vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1 tsp minced garlic

1. Blanch bean shoots.  Slice up cucumber and ham (or cooked bacon)
2. Mix sauces, ginger and garlic in a bowl.  Add 1 and mix well.
3. Arrange on a plate, and top with boiled eggs.  

   

<Tempura>

You can use Tempura flour which is available at grocery shops and supermarkets.

Just mix the Tempura flour with water.  Make sure the oil is at the right temperature, 180 ℃ = drop a tiny amount of tempura mixture into oil, and if the drop floats up to the surface within 2 seconds, then it’s the perfect timing to start frying tempura.

We made tempura with Japanese pumpkins, sweet potatoes, onions, snake beans and prawns.  You need to slice pumpkins and sweet potatoes quite thin as it doesn’t get cooked through easily.  For snake beans, don’t cook in the oil too long as we want crispy texture. 🙂

       

<Oven Grilled Karaage>

… well it’s not “karaage” if it’s not deep-fried (as “age” means deep-fry in Japanese) :p, so it’s more like grilled teriyaki flavored chicken.

• 1 chicken thigh
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1/2 tbs sake
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic

  

1. Cut chicken into cubes.  Marinate in sauces overnight.
2. Cook in oven at 180 ~ 200 ℃.

  

If you want to add some texture, you can coat with bread crumbs and them cook in the oven.