Small Wafu Plate

Posted April 1st, 2010 in Food No Comments »

Sometimes I suddenly feel like eating these food.  They are some of the ordinal Japanese food that can be seen at normal Japanese houses.  We eat roots vegetables quite often.  They are high in fiber and very healthy.

Clockwise: Spinach ohitashi, kinpira-gobo, simmered egg in a pocket of abura-age (fried bean curd), and chikuzennni (simmered roots vegetables).

I personally like light-seasoned food with no much sauce nor oil. (Especially people from Kyoto side in Japan prefer light-seasoned food.)

Eating these food makes me feel that I am a Japanese. 😀

<Spinach Ohitashi> serves 2~3

  • 1 spinach
  • 3 tbs hot water
  • 1/2 soy sauce
  • 1/4 tsp dashi powder
  • 1.5 tbs soy sauce
  • 1 tsp mirin
  • bonito flake (katsuo-bushi)
  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Branch spinach for about 1 minutes. Remove from the water and immerse in a bowl of iced water. Drain water and squeeze out any excess liquid.
  2. Cut the spinach into 3~5cm. Pour 1/2 tbs of soy sauce, and squeeze out the liquid well. Discard the liquid.
  3. Place dashi powder into water and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and add soy sauce and mirin. Let it cool slightly.
  4. Immerse spinach in the liquid and leave it for 20~30 minutes. You can refrigerate.
  5. Arrange on a plate and garnish with bonito flake.

<Kinpira Gobo>

  • 1.5 cup gobo (burdock root) – frozen
  • 1 carrot – Julienne
  • 1 tbs sesame oil
  • 1 tbs sake (cooking wine)
  • 2 tbs mirin
  • 1 tbs soy sauce
  1.  Heat the oil in a frying pan, and saute gobo and carrot for 2-3 minutes.
  2. Add sauce and cook, stirring, until most of the liquid is evaporated.
  3. Garnish with roasted white sesame seeds.

<Egg in Bean Curd> serves 2

  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 abura-age – frozen
  1. You can cook this in chikuzenni (recipe below) broth to save time.  Just place in the broth and cook together with these root vegetables.
  2. To serve, remove from the broth and cut in half.  Garnish with black sesame seeds.  

<Chikuzenni> serves 2~3

  • 1/2 wafu yasai mix – frozen
  • 1 tsp dashi powder
  • 1.5 cup water
  • 2 tbs soy sauce
  • 1 tbs sake (cooking wine)
  • 1 tbs mirin
  1. Place water, dashi and yasai mix in a sauce pan, and bring to the boil.  Turn down the heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
  2. Add sauce, and simmer for another 8-10 minutes.

** Those frozen vegetables can be found at Asian grocery shops.



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