Hiroyuki

According to http://olive.zero.ad.jp/~zbd86454/Cooking.html (Japanese only) adding two spoonfuls* of instant potage powder to spicy curry on a plate (not to the pot) makes it mild. *Ambiguous. Tablespoonfuls or teaspoonfuls? It is common practice to add milk to spicy curry to make it mild so that children can eat it.

Sorry about the confusion. I had no idea that such a cheesecake is a Japanese-style one. I am a fan of 'rare cheesecakes'. http://japanesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa032403a.htm http://www.unifiller.com/baking_world_japan.htm I much prefer them to baked ones.

My father comes from Shinshu (Nagano), and is a huge fan of oshibori udon. To make udon soup, he grates a daikon with a very sharp taste called nezumi daikon, squeezes juice from it using a sheet of cloth, and adds miso, ground peanuts or walnuts, and shredded scallions. Nezumi daikon are not available in Tokyo or Chiba, so he grows them in one of his fields. Webpages related to oshibori udon: http://www.karakida.co.jp/seihin/gift3.htm http://www.icon.pref.nagano.jp/usr/kohaku/osiboriudon.htm Both in Japanese only. I'm not a fan of oshiobori udon.

This webpage http://www.pixino.com/diary/zarikopapa/200405/16.html says that salted kelp eliminates the sharpness of daikon like a charm. (Photo 2) Original: この塩昆布が秘訣で、大根の辛味を見事に消してくれる。(Photo2)。 And, how about using only the upper portion of a daikon? According to this page http://www.nhk.or.jp/gatten/archive/2001q4/20011219.html of the TV show, Tameshite Gatten, the amount of the sharp component in the lower portion of a daikon is about ten times larger than that in the upper portion. My father is a huge fan of nezumi daikon, which have a very sharp taste. He uses them to make 'oshibori udon'. I'll post some information about the udon to the Nagano thread later.

Yesterday, I went shopping and bought about 450 grams of sashimi grade tuna that I was going to use for supper - temaki zushi. After I came home, I remembered that I had to attend the shinnekai (new year's party) for the shouboudan (volunteer fire corps) at 7:00 p.m. Thus, I had a rare opportunity for trying the zuke recipe I had learned from the TV show. The zuke sauce is easy to make: Just mix one part soy sauce, one part mirin, and one part sake. Then, put sashimi grade fish in it, and put the container in the fridge. The fish will keep for three days, and you can use the sauce three or four times. Today, I made zuke don for lunch, using leftovers, vinegared rice, tuna, and canned tuna mixed with mayo.

If I am not mistaken cornstarch is the word used in the US and corn flour is used in the UK. ← Thanks, torakris. Learning new things every day! from http://www.wwrecipes.com/convert.htm UK cornflour is the same as US cornstarch. Potato flour, despite its name, is a starch, and cannot be substituted for regular flour. It often can be substituted for corn starch and vice versa. In the US, corn flour means finely ground cornmeal. If in doubt about which type of cornflour is meant in a recipe, ask the person who gave it to you! *** For those who are not familiar with cheese mushi pan, cheese mushi pan was first released by Nichiryo in 1990. http://www.miru.ne.jp/nichiryo/cgis/top.cgi It became so popular that other baking companies followed suit. I was a fan of it, but I always thought that 120 yen was rather high for this small and light sweet bun.

Are we all talking about the same thing - cheese mushi pan? If you want recipes for cheese mushi pan in Japanese, just do a google search with チーズ蒸しパン; you'll get a lot of them. Examples are: http://www.cookpad.com/lovemama/index.cfm?...28144&Mode=full http://www12.plala.or.jp/VanillaBeans/simple_musit.html http://www.city.sendai.jp/kenkou/kodomo/ko...esemusipan.html http://www.zennoh.or.jp/ZENNOH/TOPICS/APRON/9804/03.htm http://www2.odn.ne.jp/~cid52890/recipes/musicm.htm And there's a product called cheese mushi pan mix: http://www.kawakuboseifun.co.jp/products_m...zemushipan.html I can never answer your questions, but corn flour = corn starch? I don't think so.

Oh, come on, torakris, can't you see? 8 minutes vs. 14 to 15 minutes (in the case of boiling)!! That's a great difference!!

I found an interesting way to make hard-boiled eggs with the toaster oven! Wrap an egg in aluminum foil, put it in a toaster oven, and heat for 8 minutes. from here http://mbs.jp/hiden/magic/42.html What do you think?

As for this one http://www.misoya.com/recipe/menu/misocake.html It says that the 30-g miso is somewhat like a hidden flavor (kakushi aji in Japanese). It also says that if you use white miso, you may want to add a little more. ingredients are: 90 g flour 40 g unsalted butter 4 eggs 100 g sugar vanilla 30 g rice miso As for for the castella http://www.aichi-iic.or.jp/co/otaya-jouzou/cook/ck0003.html no mention of the miso flavor. ingredients are 250 g pancake mix 3 eggs 1000 cc milk 2 tbsp white miso 5 tbsp honey 1 tsp white soy sauce Raisins As for this recipe http://www.geocities.jp/aguri_box/cooking/hiroko_1.html it says, "Let it cool before serving, and the miso flavor will be more pronounced. Ingredients are 1.5 cups (i.e. 300 cc) flour 1 cup (200 cc) san'ontou (type of sugar) 4 L or LL eggs 3 tbsp cornstarch 3 tbsp miso 3 tbsp milk 2 tbsp salad oil 3 tbsp raisins Brandy enough to soak raisins 3 tbsp walnuts Margarine I would suggest that you make the all-purpose miso sauce and pour it over the miso cake. Then you can have all the flavor of miso... Don't you think so? Ingredients are 250 g haccho miso (I think you could use other types as well (just my opinion)) 250 cc sake 250 cc mirin 125 cc black sugar Recipe 1. Put sake, mirin, and black sugar in a pan, and simmer to evaporate alcohol. 2. Add miso and simmer for 15 minutes.

Do you add sugar to your natto? I never do, but some Japanese do! To learn more about this topic, visit http://weekend.nikkei.co.jp/kiko/map/soy_sugar/map.html Orange (brown?): Prefecture with 10% or more of its residents adding sugar. Light blue: Prefecture with less than 10% of its residents adding sugar. White (beige?): Prefecture with none of its residents adding sugar. To find the exact percentage of those who do, first click the area containing the prefecture of interest, then the prefecture, and a pie chart appears, the white sector indicating those who don't and the orange one those who do.

I can't be of much help as I'm not much of a cake maker. I did some google searches and found some recipes, but IN JAPANESE. Simple one: http://www.misoya.com/recipe/menu/misocake.html This one uses walnuts: http://www.geocities.jp/aguri_box/cooking/hiroko_1.html Miso castella (sp?) http://www.aichi-iic.or.jp/co/otaya-jouzou/cook/ck0003.html (First recipe) I also found an all-purpose miso sauce using haccho miso http://www.tokai-tv.com/p-can/today/040115...1/05/index.html If any of the recipes interests you, then I can help you with the translation.

I can never be imaginative about the uses of ponzu. Most Japanese seem to be like me. I found this webpage, but no innovative uses of ponzu there. http://www.kingdom.or.jp/nanchie/html/08/06_05.html (Japanese only) The most interesting use of ponzu that I have found so far is to drink it! I'm counting on non-Japanese people to come up with interesting uses of ponzu. By the way, Helen or anyone else who is familiar with Osaka, do you know of this product, Asahi Ponzu? http://8929.jp/ponz/index.html It seems like a very good one. Slightly off topic, the mere words 'yuzu juice' made my mouth water! Very tempting! http://www.orenjiha-to.com/2umaji/

My wife bought kurozato-coated peanuts today. Nothing unusual, but we love them.

I think many of you will describe an izakaya as posh, stylish, and so on, but what I associate with the word izakaya is an old dilapidated building with a red lantern hanging outside. http://www.jekai.org/entries/aa/00/nn/aa00nn20.htm Edit to add I meant to say that such an old dilapidated izakaya is where I would rather be.

I noticed that there is hardly any mention of kiriboshi daikon (shredded and dried daikon) in the Japan Forum. Isn't there anyone here who likes this foodstuff? I think I'll post a picture of simmered kiriboshi daikon when my wife makes it. (She bought a pack of kiroboshi daikon yesterday.) For those who have no idea of what kiriboshi daikon is, here are links to two related webpages: http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~chrkaji/yasuko/recipe/024_e.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daikon

Are you curious to know who is the originator of furikake? Here is an answer. It was known that there were three possible originators of furikake, each in Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Kumamoto. But, at the general assembly of the Zenkoku Furikake Kyokai (National Furikake Association) held in 1994, Suekichi Yoshimaru of Futaba in Kumamoto was unanimously acknowledged as the originator of furikake. From here: http://www.mishima.co.jp/kusunoki/root.html (Japanese only) Scroll down, and you can see photos of the man and Japan's first furikake, Gohan no Tomo (Rice's Friend). Website of Futaba: http://www.gohannotomo.co.jp/index.html (Japanese only) Gohan no Tomo is produced by Futaba even today.

Curry was introduced into Japan not directly from India but through England. That's why Japanese curry is more like Western than Indian. Solid curry roux was first developed by S&B Food Inc. in 1954, and revolutionalized home curry making in Japan. The concept of the development of solid roux was to enable everyone to make curry as easily as they would make miso soup.

Oimawashi means errand runner. In the culinary world, the word is used to refer to someone who does odd jobs around the shop, is rarely allowed to use a knife yet, and learns techniques from his seniors and the master chef by watching them do their jobs. Iki, written as 粋 in this sense, can be translated into something polished, sophisticated, urbane, etc., etc., but there is no exact equivalent for iki in English. To understand iki better, I have to introduce two other words, inase (dashing as in dashing youth) and Edokko (townspeople of Edo). It was important for Edokko to be iki and inase. Some acts considered iki by Edokko sound ridiculous, though. For example, taking a very hot bath, enduring the heat, was considered iki, so was eating soba (buckwheat noodles) by dipping only about the lower one-third of the soba hanging from the chopsticks in the soup bowl and then slurping it up. To learn more about iki, visit related webpages such as: http://smt.blogs.com/tokyo_travel/2004/07/...o_being_st.html http://202.221.217.59/print/features/books...b20040912dr.htm http://cosmoshouse.com/works/papers/aes-every-e.htm

Somehow, the link doesn't work for me. torakris, I can't stand narazuke, either. The smell...

One of the hardest questions to answer I encountered on eGullet!! You can pour ponzu over rice porridge. Photo: http://www.ponzuya.co.jp/recipi/00012.html You can also add ponzu to soup. http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~kinoue/siru.html (Sorry, Japanese only) Just boil vegetables in water, add dashi and fish or meat, put it in a bowl, add shredded scallion, and add ponzu.

I am not a health nut, and I didn't know anything about shiso extract. I found that shiso extract is effective against hay fever (kahun shou (pollen desease) in Japanese), atopic dermatitis, etc. This is from this book on shiso extract: http://www.810.co.jp/mini/4892953431.html (Japanese only) Note that there are two types of shiso, ao (green) jiso and aka (red) jiso. http://www.kikkoman.com/cookbook/glossary/list/gs18.html

but wouldn't the cream taste like jam? The kids that I often baby sat for last year used to love this show so we watched it when they were over. Some of their hints/tricks were interesting, unfortunately I can't remember any of them..... ← No, no need to worry. The flavor of jam is so subtle you wouldn't notice it.

Making onion paste more quickly http://www.ntv.co.jp/ito-ke/new2/urawaza/20041109/01_02.html (Japanese only) 3 onions 1 tsp (= 5 cc) salt Thinly cut onions and put them in a bowl. Add salt and mix well. Pan-fry. This way, you can make onion paste in 15 minutes. Without salt, it takes 38 minutes to make it. I tried this urawaza (trick) once, but I didn't measure the amount of salt and I pan-fried for 5 or 6 minutes only. I made Japanese curry with the onion paste and store-bought curry roux. The resulting curry was rather salty. I should have added the right amount of salt. If you make onion soup, you will find this trick very useful.

Usually, kagami biraki falls on today, January 11. On this day, we eat the kagami mochi that we offered to God before the New Year, usually on December 28 or 30. Detailed description of kagami biraki: http://www.shitoryu.org/heritage/kagami_biraki.htm