Hiroyuki

We had a humble dinner on Christmas eve: 2 big pizzas for four of us Roast chicken for my wife and son Spicy chicken fries for my daughter and me Yuzu juice for my kids and yuzu shochu for my wife and me (both made from fresh yuzu! ) Christmas strawberry sponge cake made by my kids Miso soup Potato chips

Thanks for your wonderful blog this week. Just for clarification, joshinko is flour made from regular, non-glutinous rice. Judging from its package, the koshi an (an with adzuki bean skins removed) looks like a domestic product. Is koshi an your favorite type? I prefer tsubu an (skins not removed).

Your udon and oden both look yummy. Mentaiko (spicy cod roe) is good with spaghetti, too! As for oden, I like tsumire (round, gray one, which is usually made from sardines) and gobo maki (brown, cylindrical one with a stick of burdock at the center). But the next time you make oden, be sure to include boiled eggs and daikon! (my favorites, of course)

With your high level of obsession with Japanese food, I'm tempted to ask, "So, what do you eat all those dishes with?" All of the wonderful Japanese dishes you have presented here so far are "okazu", in other words, mere accompaniments to rice and soup (often miso soup), except okonomiyaki and takoyaki (although many Kansai (Western Japan) people can eat okonomiyaki and takoyaki as okazu with rice, to the surprise of Kanto (Eastern Japan) people). Another question: What are your favorite alcoholic drinks? Do you ever drink sake and shochu?

I don't have an "otoshi buta" either. I use paper towels instead. Was it just a coincidence or did you make kabocha dishes deliberately? I mean, yesterday (Dec. 22) was the winter solstice, and it is quite customary in Japan to have a kabocha dish on this day and put a yuzu in your bathtub. We say, "If you eat kabocha on the winter solstice, you won't catch a cold." (Of course, it's just a superstition.) My family did them both, like millions of other households in Japan.

I used my chopsticks for mixing batter (the thick ones shown upthread). I never thought of turning the shrimp while putting droplets of batter. Come to think of it, you are right. I should have done that. But the instructions that I found on the Internet didn't say to turn it... Next time, I will try to make better-looking shrimp tempura, with better skills.

I have no idea, but suppose it's a product of Japan, and the product name contains the word yuzu (柚子 in Chinese characters or ゆず in Japanese phonetic characters), then it must have a certain percentage of real yuzu juice. (Otherwise it's illegal.) I checked the label of my store-bought ponzu; it only says "citrus juice" (かんきつ果汁 in Japanese). Generally speaking, the Japanese word "juice" (ジュース, loan word from English) is quite ambigous. It may mean just "drink". The word "kajuu" (果汁) is less ambigous; it probably means 100% juice or a high percentage of juice plus some other ingredients such as sugar and honey.

Good going, but do me a favor: Show us your takoyaki grill!

I made tendon for supper tonight, with one major change in the initial plan - not kuruma ebi but black tiger shrimp, which were on sale (one pack of 16 pieces for 880 yen) yesterday. Sorry guys, but I'm not made of money. First, I made tendon sauce: 100 ml water 1/2 tbsp instant dashi powder 50 ml soy sauce 50 ml mirin 1 tbsp sugar Dashi/soy sauce/mirin/sugar ratio = 2:1:1:0.1, which is quite a typical ratio for tendon sauce. When preparing shrimp, don't forget to cut the tail end and remove water from the tail. Everything's ready. 8 shrimp Sweet potato Kabocha Asparagus My first attempt to produce flowers on shrimp tempura: Total failure! I used a tenkasu skimmer to imitate a shallow bottom, but the tempura stuck on the net. I should have known better. For my second attempt, I thought of placing a cooking sheet on the net, but I changed my mind and decided to see what would happen if I just put droplets of batter on the tempura. There is much room for improvement. I somehow managed to produce flowers on the upper side only. Asparagus: I wanted to include shishito (a type of green pepper), but because my children don't like them, I used asparagus instead. Kabocha: I like kabocha tempura best next to sweet potato tempura. Sweet potato: My absolute favorite. Sweet potato tempura has to be thickly coated (with thick batter) and deep-fried at low to medium temperature for a long time (four minutes or longer) to bring out the sweetness. Pieces of tempura assembled into tendon: First, sprinkle some sauce on rice in the bowl, put pieces of tempura one by one in the pot of sauce, and place them on top of the rice. Sprinkle additional sauce on the tempura. I believe that tendon with its thick "amakara" (literally sweet and salty but actually soy sauce + mirin (and sugar) flavored sauce is one of the tastiest dish that Japanese cuisine has to offer.

I got 20 yuzu (with bruises all over) from my father the other day, and I successfully got about 200-ml juice from 17 and a half of them.

Like Bryan has just clarified, just normal "cabbage" (I don't know what else to call it). Putting tenkasu and beni shoga in the batter before frying should be the norm (I'm talking about Osaka-style Okonomiyaki), but I prefer using them as toppings. This way, I can stand them out. Beside, my children hate beni shoga, and I have to make sure that every family member can eat it the way they like. As you described, okonomi + yaki = Just as you like + grilled. Note that Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is quite different from the Osaka-style.

Good job, jkonick! I have one question: Your cabbage looks like Chinese cabbage to me. Is it really cabbage? I hate mayo on okonomiyaki, too. I like a combination of ketchup and okonomiyaki sauce, katsuo bushi, ao nori, and above all beni shoga (pickled red ginger). Also, if you sprinkle tenkasu (tempura batter balls) on it, it will be more delicious!

That's exactly what I was going to explain in a future post! It's achieved by using a special technique described as "hana o sakaseru" (producing flowers). For this technique, you need to use a fryer with a shallow portion in it. You first coat a shrimp with batter, place it on the shallow portion of the fryer, and put drops of batter on it using a pair of chopsticks, a spoon, or your hand. When the batter hardens enough, move the shrimp to the deeper portion of the fryer. In my tendon session, I will try to use this technique by some means or other. I will also change the ingredients of my batter to 80% flour, 20% potato starch, an egg (or egg yolk) and 1 tbsp baking powder, trying to get a hard and crumchy texture rather than a light and crispy texture. Edited to make some additions.

I'm pretty sure that yellow (mature) yuzu have juice in them. I have made chu-hai (yuzu juice + shochu) and an instant ponzu-like dressing from fresh yuzu before. Some inferior citrus fruits are almost juiceless, right?

Thanks for the recipe. I'm wondering though, that is a lot of liquid and very little simmering time. Some moistness/juiciness is great, but isn't your rice drowning? Do you got any insights, directions or recipes regarding butadon / 豚丼? I've already did some research, but there are so many variations: some recipes are gyudon with pork instead of beef, other recipes are pretty much BBQ'd or pan-fried pork slices on a bed of rice. You're input would be most welcome! ← Sorry, I should have been more specific. 8 + 2 = 10 minutes is a minimum required amount of simmering time. I usually simmer it for around 15 minutes. Drowning? I prefer more broth than usual. Do you know the word "tsuyudaku", which is used at Yoshinoya and other donburi restaurants? It roughly means "extra sauce". I did some googling and found that "tsuyudaku" is called "dip" in English. (I wonder if that's true.) http://shinoken.tea-nifty.com/xxx/2004/01/post_4.html As for buta/ton don: Quite frankly, I have never made it before. I promise to post a recipe when I have made it for the first time.

Thanks for your compliment, ChryZ. *** Today, I went to the supermarket, hoping to get some kuruma ebi (Penaeus Japonicus) cheap, but they were much more expensive than I had hoped for, around 200 yen per piece. So, no tendon for supper tonight. Instead, I took some photos of the tempura sold there. You can see most of the pieces of tempura are thickly coated, especially the shrimp. Close-up of the shrimp tempura: At many soba (buckwheat noodle) restaurants, they serve more thickly coated shrimp tempura. Now you know that thinly coated tempura is not necessarily what to strive for.

Then, make it! I submitted a recipe here on RecipeGullet.

Gyudon (Japanese Beef Bowl) Gyudon is quite popular in Japan. I used to make it with a complicated recipe for years, but I have come to realize that a complicated recipe is not necessary for gyudon. Here is a simple recipe that yields surprisingly delicious gyudon. 300 g beef, thinly sliced 1 onions Ginger juice Garlic 1 tsp instant dashi powder 50 ml soy sauce 50 ml mirin 50 ml sake 600 ml water Bowl of cooked rice Beni shoga (pickled red ginger) 1. Thinly cut onions. 2. Cut beef into bite size pieces. 3. Put water, instant dashi powder, soy sauce, mirin, and sake in a pot. Put it on stove and turn on heat. 4. Add onions. Bring to a boil. 5. Simmer for 8 minutes. 6. Add beef and simmer for another 2 minutes. Turn off heat. 7. Put it on top of rice. Top it with beni shoga. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Beef, Rice, Japanese ( RG1902 )

As for me, I've never had it with shichimi.

What's your gyudon recipe, everyone? Today, I made gyudon for supper. I no longer make it with a meticulous recipe. Today's recipe: 600 ml dashi (600 ml water plus 1 tbsp instant dashi powder) 50 ml soy sauce 50 ml mirin 50 ml sake (Dashi/soy sauce/mirin ratio = 12:1:1) Grated ginger Garlic slices 2 big onions, sliced (I like onions in gyudon ) 300 g beef Just simmer onions for 5 min., add beef, and simmer for another 5 min. Results: YUM! Of course, I topped it with beni shoga. So, what's yours?

My wife and I often make burgers because our children like them. I *believe* (but am not sure) they are much healthier than commercial ones. Besides, the Japanese-style sauce (meat juice plus 1:1:1 mixture of soy sauce, mirin, and sake) contains much less fat. (Photo posted previously in the Japan Forum)

Don't tell me it was teflon-coated! Looking forward to your okonomiyaki!

Obsession... I can see that because you were the one who made akashiyaki "from scratch"! Looking forward to reading your blog.

Apparently this site (in English) is run by the same company.

Cola qun? Is it a snack, a sweet bun, or what?