Japanese Recipes | Japanese Cooking Lovers

Curry Bread and Curry Pan

Posted by Yuri on August 31, 2011 2 Comments

I made Curry bread which called Curry pan in Japanese. Occasionaly, I crave to eat this bread. It is very popular, so if you go to any Japanese bakary, you can find it easily (cost about $2 U.S. dollar). If you had Curry and rice with Katsu (in my other page, they have a recipe), you will understand why this bread is so good. I, personaly, think sauce is very good with crunchy texture. And if this is just came from the deep fryer, you would like to eat more than one, I almost garantee it! When I made Curry, usually it doesn’t last long but sometimes I made too much and eat couple of day’s straight. Then I feel tired eating it. Then, I use those left over curry to make this Bread. If I am living in Japan, I won’t make this. However, if you are living somewhere you can not easily buy Japanese bread, you have to make it. For my opinion, it’s worth trouble making this recipe!

What is Curry bread?

Curry bread (カレーパン karē pan), also called curry doughnut, is a popular Japanese food. An amount of Japanese curry is wrapped in a piece of dough, and the dough breaded in panko, and deep fried. On occasion it is baked instead of deep fried, but deep frying is the most common method of cooking. Curry bread is usually found in bakeries and convenience stores. If you want to read more, go to this page.

bread about 12 to 14 of them

Bread flour ————————-400g
Skim milk ————————–8g
Yeast —————————–7g
Sugar —————————–20g
Salt ——————————-7g
Egg ——————————-40g
Water—————————–210cc
Butter —————————-20g

Curry —————————–See my other curry page, when you use curry for the curry bread, you should cook low heat and evaporate water, so it is not so supy curry, or mush the potato and make it thicker curry.

Batter —–See my Tonkatsu page how to make deep fry———7oz
Egg —————————2
Milk ————————-1 1/4cip
Panko———————— amount of cover all pork loin meat (I used about 10 sliced sandwitch bread)

Filed Under: Japanese Recipes | Tagged: Tagged With: asian cuisine, Bread, curry, curry bread, curry donuts, curry pan, japanese bakery, japanese cuisine, japanese curry, pan

Gyoza, Pot sticker, Dumpling Recipe

Posted by Yuri on May 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

Gyoza, pot sticker,dumpling recipe is very popular and famous in Japan. Usually in Chinses restaurant have this food. Gyoza speciality store which sell only Gyoza everywhere in Japan. If you go to Ramen shop, you usually find Gyoza , pot sticker, dumpling is there in the menu.

If you go to restaurant, you will have average 6 Gyoza on the plats. When I make Gyoza in my house, my family member will eat way more than 6. It is almost endless count of Gyoza.. You can not stop eating it! Japanese Gyoza is usually, Yaki Gyoza. You may see deep fry Gyoza in U.S. restaurant a lot. Because, it is easier for the busy restaurant, or not so many cook know how to cook Japanese way. I like Yaki Gyoza whichi is picture above much better than deep fried one. It is more juice inside and crunchy outside. When you bite this, your mouth will full of juice from meat and it is very yammy!!

Gyoza, pot sticker, dumpling typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping. Jiaozi should not be confused with wonton: jiaozi have a thicker, chewier skin and a flatter, more oblate, double-saucer like shape (similar in shape to ravioli), and are usually eaten with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce (and/or hot chili sauce); while wontons have thinner skin, are sphere-shaped, and are usually served in broth. The dough for the jiaozi and wonton wrapper also consist of different ingredients.

Dumplings that use egg rather than dough to wrap the filling are called “egg dumplings” or (蛋餃; pinyin: dànjiǎo).

Common dumpling meat fillings include pork, mutton, beef, chicken, fish, and shrimp which are usually mixed with chopped vegetables. Popular vegetable fillings include cabbage, scallion (spring onions), leek, and garlic chives. Dumplings are eaten with a soy sauce-based dipping sauce that may include vinegar, garlic, ginger, rice wine, hot sauce, and sesame oil.

Jiaozi are one of the major foods eaten during the Chinese New Year and year round in the northern provinces. They look like the golden ingots yuan bao used during the Ming Dynasty for money and the name sounds like the word for the earliest paper money, so serving them brings the promise of wealth, good luck and prosperity. Many families eat these at midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve so they have money at the changing of the years. Some cooks will even hide a clean coin in one for the most lucky to find.

If you want to read more, go to this wiki page and go to this Japanese wiki page to see more pictures.

Ground pork ———————————— 200g (half pound)
Salt ————————————————1tsp
Soy sauce —————————————-2 1/2tbs
Sesame oil —————————————2 tbs
Sugar ———————————————1 ½ tbs

Cabbage or Chinese cabbage —————— half
Chinese onion ————————————2
Ginger ———————————————1/2
Nira, Garlic chives ——————————-1/2 of one package
Dry Shiitake mushrooms ———————–3

Cut vegetables first. I put dry shiitake on the ingredients, but I used raw shiitake this time.

This is the TIP. You put liquid ingredients in the bowl with pork. Mix it together BEFORE you put any vegetables. Mix well, I mean, not just mix together, you have to whip them. This way, you cut the fibers on the meat and it becomes juicier when it finishes cooking. It makes tastier Gyoza!

These pictures are Gyoza skin. I use this company’s one often. You can find other company Gyoza skin. They usually said on the package “Gyoza Skin” so you can find it easily.

The first one is green which I bought this very first time. (I will find out how is taste like this when I use this one next time). The second one is yellow thin skin. I didn’t buy white thick one but they have white one also, similar package. You can find at the frozen section, usually.

Wrapping is a bit tricky. I taught some people but some can do it and some can not do it at all.

Put the meat on the top side of the Gyoza skin. Fold the skin in half. Put wrinkles into the end of the skin. You bring skin from left side to make a wrinkle and keep doing this until the end. You may have 5 to 6 wrinkles.

You see the picture, one side is almost flat and wrinkle side is convex shape.

This picture has white skin; it is thicker than yellow skin. First you put Gyoza in the cold frying pan. Add water in the frying pan about 1 cup or less. Put lid on the frying pan with high heat. Make the water boil and water should disappear like the picture above. Then take off the lid and wait until it is like the last picture above.

Pour oil around the Gyoza about 4 or 5 tbs. Put the lid on the frying pan again. I do almost all of this using high heat. Oil is for frying the Gyoza, so the bottom becomes crunchy. I use high heat but I will watch and check them to make sure I don’t burn them.

Two different Gyoza skins (below). One is thicker white one from a U.S. Asian store. The yellow one is thinner but more likely Japanese skin from a supermarket in Japan. The white thick one holds more juice and it is good with Sui-Gyoza which is cooked in the water or the soup. However it is still good taste to cook Yaki-gyoza.

Gyoza sauce. You can make it or buy it. It is rice vinegar and soy sauce equal amounts and put in a couple drops of hot sesame oil.

Filed Under: Japanese Recipes | Tagged: Tagged With: chinese cuisine, dim sum, dough, dumpling, gyoza, pot stickers, ramen, wonton

Sushi Taro Instant Chirashi and Inari Sushi

Posted by Yuri on May 4, 2011 2 Comments

I use Sushi Taro and instant inari sushi package and make inarisushi. This is an instant version of making chirashi sushi by Sushi Taro. Chirashizushi is a popular Japanese home recipe and it is different than restaurant chirashizushi.　It is very easy to make this sushi using these packages. You can eat chirashizushi itself and you can make inarizushi itself. But this time I used both package together and made great sushi! Yummy!! My friend mom use Hijiki mix with sushi rice and put it in the inarizushi. It’s very easy. You just need to cook Japanese rice. This is great party finger food, too.

Chirashizushi

Chirashizushi (ちらし寿司?, “scattered sushi”) is a bowl of sushi rice topped with a variety of sashimi and garnishes (also refers to barazushi). Edomae chirashizushi (Edo-style scattered sushi) is an uncooked ingredient that is arranged artfully on top of the sushi rice in a bowl. Gomokuzushi (Kansai-style sushi) are cooked or uncooked ingredients mixed in the body of rice in a bowl. There is no set formula for the ingredients and they are either chef’s choice or sometimes specified by the customer. It is commonly eaten because it is filling, fast and easy to make. Chirashizushi often varies regionally. It is eaten annually on Hinamatsuri in March.

Inarizushi

Inarizushi (稲荷寿司?) is a pouch of fried tofu filled with usually just sushi rice. It is named after the Shinto god Inari, who is believed to have a fondness for fried tofu. The pouch is normally fashioned as deep-fried tofu (油揚げ, abura age). Regional variations include pouches made of a thin omelette (帛紗寿司, fukusa-zushi or 茶巾寿司, chakin-zushi). It should not be confused with inari maki, which is a roll filled with flavored fried tofu. A very large version, sweeter than normal and often containing bits of carrot, is popular in Hawaii, where it is called “cone sushi”. If you want to read more, check this page.

This is the Sushi Taro package, you can find in Asian Grocery Store.

This is Sushi Taro inside package.

This is other side of bag, you can read this when you make this Chirashi.

This is Inarizushi no moto package. You may be able to find in Asian grocery store.

This is back side of the package, you can read this instruction.

You don’t need to make this egg crepe. This is optional. I like to put it in so I made this and decided to put the picture here.
It is not very difficult to make this. I mix eggs and put in a hot frying pan (if you have – non stick it would be easier) and quickly move the pan to make the egg spread in a thin layer. When you see the edge of the egg start peeling away from the pan, you flip the egg crepe upside down.

Cut egg crepe in half and lay sheets one on top of another. And cut in half again and lay sheets one on top of another, again. Then, you cut them julienne. Besides the eggs, if you can buy some peas, it would be good to add it to them. It is good color to add green in the chirashizushi no moto and rice.

Cook rice and put in the Sushi Taro package and egg. Mix it all together. You don’t mix rice like you mix dough. You don’t want to smash the individual rice like paste. You will destroy the rice taste and can not make good sushi rice. Mix rice by cutting across it in a slashing motion, and then cool it by fanning. Read this page.

Lastly, Inarizushi package. There are 8 inarizushi in a package. You carefuly open, do not tear them. I use spoon to scoop the rice and carefuly put them in the pocket. Then you put NORI (from Sushi Taro pacage) on the top of Inarizushi. It is pretty to look at!

Filed Under: Easy Japanese Cooking Recipe | Tagged: Tagged With: asian cuisine, chirashi sushi, cook japanese rice, cooking rice, inari, inarizushi, instant, sushi recipe, sushi restaurant, sushi rice

Katsudon, Donburi, Pork Loin Recipe

Posted by Yuri on April 27, 2011 Leave a Comment

A katsudon (カツ丼) is a popular Japanese food, a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried pork cutlet, egg, and condiments. Variations include sauce katsudon (with Worcestershire sauce), demi katsudon (with demi-glace and often green peas, a specialty of Okayama), shio katsudon (with salt, another Okayama variety), shōyu-dare katsudon (with soy sauce, Niigata style), and miso katsudon (a favorite in Nagoya). Beef and chicken can substitute for the pork.

The dish takes its name from the Japanese words tonkatsu (for pork cutlet) and donburi (for rice bowl dish). If you want to know more, read this page.

Served 2 people:
Rice ———————————————–1 bowl (about 7oz)/person
Katsu——————–——————–1 slice
Onion ———————————————-1/2

Sauce

Dashi ———————————————-3/4 cup (Water 3/4 cup and powder dashi 1/2tsp)
Sugar ———————————————-1 TBS
Mirin ———————————————–1 TBS
Soy sauce —————————————–3 TBS
Sake ——————————————-—-1/2TBS
Eggs ———————————————–2

Cut or slice Katsu about 6 or 7 pieces like picture below.
Slice onion like picture below so it will be easy to cook in Dashi and other ingredients.

Make dashi in the frying pan and simmer. Add onions and cook it. If you see the skim it off.
Put in Katsu and cook on the onion until Katsu soakes up the dashi (and if these are leftover cold katsu, you should heat it up before putting in this frying pan).

Beat the eggs but not too much. Some people don’t like uncooked eggs, but this Japanese food has half way done eggs. And to make this successful, you can not beat the eggs well. Put beaten eggs over the Katsu and turn the heat to low and put the lid on. Wait a minuts or two until egg is half way done.

Put it over the rice in the bowl.

Filed Under: Japanese Recipes | Tagged: Tagged With: donburi, Egg, katsu, katsudon, pork loin, pork loin recipe, pork recipe, tonkatsu

Japanese Pork Loin Recipe, Tonkatsu/Katsu

Posted by Yuri on April 18, 2011 1 Comment

Japanese Pork loin recipe, Katsu or Tonkatsu (豚カツ, とんかつ, or トンカツ, pork cutlet) invented in the late 19th century, is a popular dish in Japan. This Japanese Pork Loin recipe consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet (= Katsu, Japanese pronunciation) one to two centimeters thick and sliced into bite-sized pieces, generally served with shredded cabbage and/or miso soup. Either a pork fillet (ヒレ, hire) or pork loin (ロース, rōsu) cut may be used; the meat is usually salted, peppered, dredged lightly in flour, dipped into beaten egg and then coated with panko (breadcrumbs) before being deep fried.[1]

Katsu was originally considered a type of yōshoku—Japanese versions of European cuisine invented in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—and was called katsuretsu (“cutlet”) or simply katsu.[2]

Early katsuretsu was usually beef; the pork version, similar to today’s tonkatsu, is said to have been first served in 1890 in a Western-food restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo.[3] The term “tonkatsu” (“pork katsu”) was coined in the 1930s.

Tonkatsu has Japanized over the years more than other yōshoku and is today usually served with rice, miso soup and tsukemono in the style of washoku (traditional Japanese food) and eaten with chopsticks. Recently, some establishments have taken to serving tonkatsu with the more traditionally Japanese ponzu and grated daikon instead of tonkatsu sauce.

If you want to know more, read this page.

Tonkatsu (Pork Katsu) about 15 slices

Pork loin ——————– 4 of 1/3 inch thick slice
Flour ————————amount of cover all pork loin meat

Batter
Flour ————————7oz
Egg —————————2
Milk ————————-1 1/4cip
Panko———————— amount of cover all pork loin meat (I used about 10 sliced sandwitch bread)
Salt and Pepper

Cut pork loin1/3 inch thickness. Use back side of the knife and pound the meat for the meat sinew.
Salt and pepper on the meat, both side. Make a butter of flour, eggs and milk.

** I supposed to put flour to cover the meat after salt and pepper, I forgot to it. I am sorry for no picture of that.

You should put flour on the meat before dipping in batter. This makes the meat juicy and butter stick on the meat easily. Dredge meat in to the flour and shake off extra flour before puttint into the batter.

Roll pork loin in Panko. When you put meat on the panko, do not pound out panko over the meat. You just need to cover panko over the meat. Do not squish or smash panko over the meat.

You can use dried Panko from store, but I strongly recommend to use panko from fresh bread. If you have food processor, use them to make fresh panko. This way meat have more moisuture and juicy.

Heat the oil 356degreeF. Put meat in the oil for one min.
Take out the meat for a min on the cooling rack. Put meat in the oil again and cook for one min. Put on the cooling rack for 5 min to finish cooking before serving then serve on the plate.

Use cooling rack for Tonkatsu. If you put on the flat plate, the panko will be less crunchy. If you want to make crunchy deep fried food, you should use a cooling rack to drain off extra oil.

This light color one is after one min. cooked in oil.
Dark color one is after one minuets rest on a cooling rack and put in the oil to cook another one minuets.

This Katsu cooking method was on Japanese TV and it will actually cook very good and no mistakes. It you over cook Katsu, meat will be tuff or dry but this way, meat is juicy.

You can see this picture, Pork is is perfectly done!

pork katsu Also, you need a Tonkatsu sauce. The sauce on this Tonkatsu is Tonkatsu sauce. You can buy this in the Asian super market, and you have to have it to eat Tonkatsu. I will paste picture and you can buy them from Amazon.com.

pork katsu

Filed Under: Japanese Recipes | Tagged: Tagged With: deep fried pork, japanese pork loin recipe, katsu, katsuretsu, pork cutlet, pork katsu, tonkatsu, yoshoku

Rusk

Posted by Yuri on April 5, 2011 4 Comments

It is popular sweets in Japan. Recently getting more popular than when I was kid.
It is not popular sweets in U.S. and I can not find any shops and stores. I don’t think American people know about Rusk. So this is the explanation from Wikipedia.

A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a baby teething food. In the UK, the name also refers to a wheat-based food additive.

Germany
German ZwiebackThe zwieback (lit. baked twice) is a form of rusk eaten in Germany.

[edit] GreeceThe term paximadi (Greek: παξιμάδι) covers various forms of Greek rusk, made commonly from barley or chickpea flour, and softened with wine, water or oil before eating. Paximadi form the basis of the Cretan snack dakos (Greek: ντάκος).

[edit] India, Pakistan and South AfricaIn India, Pakistan and South Africa, rusk is a traditional biscuit (also “Khasta” in Hindi, and beskuit in Afrikaans) that is eaten after having been dipped in coffee, tea, or rooibos tea.[1] Historically, rusks evolved (along with biltong) during the latter country’s early pioneering days as a way to preserve bread in the dry climate. It was also extensively used during times of war[2] or when traveling long distances.

Traditionally baked at home, but there are now several mass-market versions available, the most famous probably being Ouma Rusks. Many bakeries, delis and home industries sell them, often using more exotic ingredients than their mass-market counterparts. In addition to plain and buttermilk flavours, there are aniseed, wholewheat, condensed milk, muesli, and lemon poppyseed versions.

If you want to read more, go to this page.

French bread slice 1/3 inch —————————————–12 peaces
Butter ————————————————————-1Tbs
Sugar ————————————————————-1 1/2Tbs

Slice bread and put on the baking pan and 238F heated oven for 8 to 15 min.
While you put bread in the overn, mix butter and sugar together and put in the microwave for 20 second.
Mix well this butter and sugar. Put this butter and sugar on the baked bread – one side – and put back in the oven again for 15 min.

After you take off from oven, put sugar on the top of the rusk bread.

By the way, this is a one of the famous Japanese Rusk shop one.

It is very easy, you can easily make this! Faster than baking cookies!!

Filed Under: Japanese Desseert | Tagged: Tagged With: Bread, popular japanese sweets, rusk, sugar

Daikon and Tuna easy pressure cooking

Posted by Yuri on March 11, 2011 Leave a Comment

My mother makes this food often. She uses pressure cooker and it is very easy to make it. I decided to put this recipe here. She cheats this recipe. It means the recipe is really easy..

Daikon (from Japanese ダイコン (daikon^?) (大根), literally “large root”), Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus, also called White Radish, Japanese radish, Oriental radish, Chinese radish and Mooli (from Hindi/Urdu Muulii),^[2]^[3]^[4] is a mild flavoured, very large, white East Asian radish. Despite being known most commonly by its Japanese name, it did not originate in Japan, but rather in continental Asia. – wikipedia

Daikon —————————— 1
Carrots —————————— 3
Tuna can with oil ——————– 1 can
sake ——————————– 1/2 cup
Soba sauce instant (stock) ———–1/2 cup

Peel and cut Daikon and carrots. If you have Daikon leaves, you should use it. Those are good nutritious food.
Put those ingredients in the pressure cooker and water (2 cups) and cook it. Heat up and when the cooker is start jiggling, turn off the heat and sit it until pressure is off.
Open the lid and dump the water out.
Put whole Canned Tuna.
Put Soba instant sauce stock and sake.
Put lid on and heat the cooker until its jiggle and turn off the heat.
*I know American buy Tuna with water instead of oil. My mom uses Oil. I have never use water one.

Filed Under: Easy Japanese Cooking Recipe, Japanese Recipes | Tagged: Tagged With: Can tuna, Daikon, Easy, Pressure cooker, Tuna, Tuna can

Kinpira Gobo the Japanese vegetable recipe

Posted by Yuri on January 17, 2011 Leave a Comment

Kinpira gobo burdock root is the popular Japanese vegetable recipe. Kinpira is a cooking style involving stir frying and simmering with sugar and soy sauce. Carrots, lortus roots, and celery are also delicious for kimpira.

What is Gobo? - the greater burdock

Gobo the greater burdock was used during the Middle Ages as a vegetable, but now it is rarely used, with the exception of Japan where it is called gobō (牛蒡 or ゴボウ), Taiwan (牛蒡), Korea where it is called ueong (우엉), Italy, Brazil and Portugal, where it is known as bardana. Plants are cultivated for their slender roots, which can grow about 1 meter long and 2 cm across.

Immature flower stalks may also be harvested in late spring, before flowers appear. The taste resembles that of artichoke, to which the burdock is related.

Gobo the greater Burdock is rather tall, reaching as much as 2 metres. It has large, alternating, cordiform leaves that have a long petiole and are pubescent on the underside. If you want to find more, read Wikipedia Greater burdock page.

Kinpira gobo Ingredients:

gobo roots ——————————1 (5 1/4oz9)
carrots ———————————–2 (almost same amount of gobo)
sesame oil ——————————–2tbs

suuce
sugar ————————————2tbs
sake ————————————-1tbs
mirin ————————————-1tbs
soy sauce ——————————–3 oz
sesame seeds —————————-1tsp
dry chili pepper ————————–1 (cut half – if you make small, food tase become hotter)

Wash gobo roots well, and shave coarsely from the skinnier ends. Leave in the water for 10 min. You will see the water become brown and drain them. Rinse briefly with water, and drain.

Heat seame oil in a frying pan with chili pepepr flakes or chili pepper, and stir fry gobo root and carrots over high heat

Add all sauce ingredients, put otoshibuta and cook down until almost all the liquid is evaporated.

Serve in small dishes with toasted sesame seeds and chili pepper flakes sprinkled on top to taste.

Filed Under: Japanese Recipes | Tagged: Tagged With: botany begetable, gobo, greater burdock, japanese cuisine, Japanese vegetable, kinpira, medicinal plants, root vegetable, stir fry, vegetable recipe

Futomaki sushi

Posted by Yuri on January 16, 2011 3 Comments

Futomaki Sushi is popular in Japan. My mother makes this at New Years day or any celebrate occasion. Or when she invites some guests to her house, sometimes she makes this. When I was a child and have school sports day, my mom makes this so we will have lunch together at the school ground. It is almost finger food, easy to pick and eat. It is made by rice and other things together, fill you up. It is usually colorful and pretty, but most of all, it is very tastey!!

Futomaki (太巻?, “thick, large or fat rolls”) is a large cylindrical piece, with nori on the outside. A typical futomaki is three or four centimeters (1.5 in) in diameter. They are often made with two or three fillings that are chosen for their complementary tastes and colors. During the Setsubun festival, it is traditional in Kansai to eat uncut futomaki in its cylindrical form, where it is particularly called ehou-maki (恵方巻, lit. happy direction rolls). Futomaki is often vegetarian, but may include non-vegetarian toppings such as tiny fish roe and chopped tuna.

You can read more from Wikipedia – futomaki.

You can put any other ingredients than what I introduce here, if you have any good idea. This is what I choose this time.

Ingredients: About 4 rolls

Shiitake ———————————————————-15 pieces
Carrots ———————————————————–1
Avocado ———————————————————1
Egg omelettes —————————————————–1 (3 eggs I used)
Tuna can ———————————————————1 can
Mayonnaise ——————————————————-3TBS
Sushi Rice (see this page)————————————–3 cupsof uncooked rice

How to make shiitake:

You will leave dried shiitake in the water until it soften. When it become soft, cut like this picture.

Put Dashi in the pot and sugar, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and salt and shiitake. Put high heat until it boils and turn the heat to low. Cook it until the dashi is gone like picture above.

Julian carrots or I recommend to use this Benriner Japanese Mandoline Slicer
. I use this company and it is very handy for Japanese cooking. You can slice vegetables by this very thin. I will recommend this if you are looking for to buy one for your Japanese cooking. This make Sashimi Tsuma (Daikon) very easy! Of course you can use this for salad.

After you julian carrots, put in the bowl with 1TBS vinegar and 1TSP sugar together. If you have put sesame seeds. leave it about 10 min and mix well. Then dump the vinegar and squeeze the carrots so that there is no remaining vinegar. You don’t use watery carrots.

When you make tuna and mayonnaise, dump the can tuna water well. Then mix with mayonaise. If it is too watery, when you make sushi roll, too much water and whole sushi will be watery. It make easily break Nori.

Make Egg omelettes from this page and cut long and skinny way (picture below).

This time, I use those ingredients below to my Futomaki.

This is how to roll sushi. Put rice ball on the Nori (sea weeds) and spread on the Nori. Front of you and other side of the nori, you should leave the space (not spread rice) about 1/3 inch. When you spread rice, DO NOT tighten the rice. You need spread rice softely with air. Do not pack the rice on Nori.

The middle picture I spread the ingredients so you can see I put them all.
However, when you are ready to roll (Picture on the right), I put all ingredients make a mount (pile up) so I can roll easily.

You need to buy this Helen’s Asian Kitchen Bamboo Sushi Mat with Paddle , it is called sunoko.

1) You roll from your side. Left picture, where my index finger is the end of the Nori which is the edge of the sushi. I am wrapping all ingredients in my palm. The edge of the sushi is almost end of the ingredients line. Roll into the ingredients.

2) You move Sunoko so as roll the sushi the end of the other side.

3) Make whole thing roll and put a little bit pressure to make it round. Do not push too hard.

4) Finish rolling

Tip for cutting the sushi:
Wet and clean your knife each time when you cut the roll sushi. Use very sharp knife – see my knife section. Do not cut slowly. If you cut slowly, you break nori and sushi will be break open. Cut quickly, that is why you really need a sharp good knife.

Tip for Nori:
There are different kind of Nori. Sushi Hane or Sushi Nori is good for sushi. Usually those are cheap kind compare of other kind of Japanese Nori. It is thicker than expensive Nori. I don’t know why less is more (expensive) but thin Nori texture is more easy to eat (it means Nori is not stay in your mouth. thin nori is disolved quickly, easy to swallow. more crunchy than thicker Nori) I think the texture of nori makes price different.

Because wrapping the rice and other ingredients, thicker nori is stronger. For the beginner, it is easy to handle them.

I usually serve this way, sometimes make a pyramid. Use soy sauce and wasabi a side and put them before eat it. However, Futomaki has usually already taste to it so you don’t need to put soy sauce. You can enjoy sweetness of shiitake. Sweet Japanese teriyaki like taste and mayonnaise is very good harmony together. You can enjoy this great Futomaki taste!

Filed Under: Japanese Recipes | Tagged: Tagged With: asian cuisine, finger food, futomaki, japanese cuisine, nori, soy sauce, sushi, sushi rice

Chikuzen Ni, Chicken and Vegetables

Posted by Yuri on January 16, 2011 2 Comments

Chikuzen Ni, Chiken and Vegetables has many roots vegetables in the one tasety meal. I make this Japanese Chicken and Vegetables dish often here in U.S. I can buy Gobo from local Whole Foods store or Asian store, now. Shiitake, I can find local grocery store easily. Well, Konnyaku, rotus roots and bamboo shoots are difficult to find at local store but I can often find in Asian store.

Chikuzen Ni has many roots vegetables and they have very good fiber and nutritous food. Those roots vegetables make your body warm when you eat them. Raw vegetables like you see in regular salad make your body cool. It is very healthy to eat roots vegetables, especially winter time.

Chikuzen Ni is very orthodox Japanese taste food, sugar, sake, soy sauce, and mirin taste. And Chicken, I use thigh is better than breast. Japanese people eat chicken skin often so I would like to use without skin but I cook this time without skin. Still little fat and it makes very good flavor for this food. One of the ingredients you may not know which is Konnyaku. If you don’t know about Konnyaku, read this page. It is very healthy food.

You can see this Chicken and Vegetables Japanese food in 1st of January. Chikuzen is place name in Japan and that is this food origin. Now a days, this is popular Japanese Chicken and Vegetables food. Usually Chikuzen Ni is not main dish but could be a second dish. I think this is very unique food that you don’t see those mixed ingredients, even other asian countries.

Chikuzen ni Ingredients:
Chicken thighs, boned ————————14oz
Carrot —————————————1 (5 1/4 oz)
Burdock root (Gobou root) ——————–1 (3 1/2 oz)
Lotus root ———————————–2 inch (3 1/2 oz)
Konnyaku ———————————- 1/2 cake
Bamboo shoots ——————————-3 1/2 oz
Shiitake mushroom —————————5 (I didn’t put it on this picture)
Vegitable oil———————————-2tbs

Sauce
Dashi ——————————————2 1/2 cups
Sugar —————————————–2tbs
Mirin ——————————————2 tbs
Soy sauce ————————————-5 tbs
Sake ——————————————1 tbs

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces.
Cut carrot, gobou, bamboo shoot and rotus root like picture below. If you put Shiitake mushroom, cut half and take off the stem.

Tear connyaku into bite sized pieces by hand. parboil briefly. But before you tear connyaku, put salt on konnyaku and rub it. This way, salt makes water in konnyaku out of itself. Put oil in the skillet, and fry connyaku first. Again, this way, takes off the water inside of konnyaku. This way, when you cook konnyaku, dashi and all flavor go into the konnyaku. Tear the konnyaku by hand is also the effect that flavor easily goes into the konnyaku than you use knife to cut it.