Hiroyuki

Your post reminded me of another important rule of tempura making: Order of frying. The general order is: Vegetables first, seafood last. Start with perilla leaves (often coated with batter on one side only) at a low temperature (around 165C) to keep them green, followed by vegetables (such as sweet potatoes ) and kakiage, and finally seafood. (Some people say "kakiage last", but I don't know why they say so.) I think the tempura'ed items sold at supermarkets contain more katakuriko (potato starch) in their batter to keep them crunchy even when cool. But too much potato starch will make the coating hard rather than crunchy.

I found two: Curry omuraisu Mushroom version There will be more. Your first omuraisu looks yummy. Who ate it? Only you? Am I the only one who thinks that making an omuraisu is an art?

The basic rules are: Seafood requires higher temperature (around 180 C) and shorter time. Vegetables require lower temperature (around 170 C) and longer time. I found this info: Squid: 185C, 1 min. Shrimp, kisu (sand borer): 180C, 1-2 min. Anago: 180C, 3-4 min. Shiitake: 175C, 1 min. Sweet potato: 170C, 3-4 min. Carrot, green bean: 170C, 2 min. from here (Japanese only) The minimum depth is about 5-6 cm (2 inches), 4 to 5 times greater than the ingredient height. The last question I really can't answer. You can't remove excess batter after you dip the leaves in the batter?? If you can't, why don't you finely chop them and mix with other ingredients to make kakiage? Finally, many Japanese people recommend "Kotsu no iranai tempura ko" (tempura flour that does not require any skills), the right one in the second row.

Thanks for the link, GlorifiedRice, especially the first one. I can see a big difference between the Japanese and Americans in the perception of ketchup. The Japanese think that ketchup is healthy! Anyone who tends to abhor rice mixed with ketchup should consider that it's just another type of vinegared rice. If you like sushi (vinegared rice + topping), then you can like omuraisu!

I know. My mother used to say so, and that's why it's so silly to throw away the leaves. Our recent dishes from another thread: That's why grated daikon is often served with tempura. Unfortunately, the effect of the enzyme is lost when the daikon is heated.

Ketchup on eggs is a favorite among most of the kids I knew growing up... when you had scrambled eggs, you put ketchup on them. This was in the middle of the LA area, not Japan. As an adult, I can't stand the combination of those too. Heck, I won't even put ketchup on hash browns either. ← Amakara refers to *that* flavor of the combination of soy sauce and mirin (and sugar), not the flavor of a combination of any sweet and salty foods. MomOfLittleFoodies, so, are you implying that omuraisu can be a favoriate of many children in the United States?

Don't worry. There are no traditional ways of preparing or eating natto. I can eat two packs (90 g) of natto with half a bowl of rice. My children usually have one pack (45 g) with one bowl of rice. Some families make a bonburi of natto and share it among the family members. BUT, I think that there are few people who stir it into rice. Different people prepare natto differently. I, for one, put natto in a bowl, add the supplied tare and mustard, and stir a minimum required number of times, say, 20 to 30 times. Rosanjin suggested that natto should be prepared this way: 1. Use a tall container called mukouzuke. The natto should be of a kotsubu (small grain) type. 2. Stir natto 305 times. 3. Add soy sauce, a few drops at a time, and stir another 119 times, for a total of 424 times, until you see don't see any threads. 4. Add negi and Japanease mustard. Here is a story (Japanese only) of a silly person who stired natto 10,000 times. She says that after stirred 10,000 times, natto tastes like kani miso (crab innards). It took her one hour and 40 minutes to do so.

I would suggest chilling a pack of natto well in the fridge, add some men tsuyu concentrate and Japanese mustard, mix well, and eat it with or without rice. If you hate it, then there is nothing you can do. It's an acquired taste for you. Do you have any particular reasons why you want to learn to love natto? Because of its health benefits? By the way, judging from your photo, I think you had hikiwari natto, not regular, whole bean natto. Am I right?

Funny, my mother used to say the same thing about the water level. So, it's universal, regardless of the rice type (long or short grain)? I think (without any confirmation) that it's a good rule of thumb, but is only workable under certain conditions (the shape of the pot, the amount of rice, etc.).

Thanks for the photo. Report on how you have had your Korean mochi, cod roe spaghetti sauce, and barley tea in appropriate threads, please! P.S. I can't find Korean mochi around here.

I got a lot of satoimo from my wife's father, it was time to make "satoimo no nikkorogashi" again. I used a meticulous recipe this time: 1. After peeling satoimo, rub them with some salt (1 tablespoon for 500-600 g of satoimo) to remove slime. 2. Put them in boiling water, salt and all, and boil them for 10 minutes. 3. Drain and wash with cold water. 4. Put them in 500-ml boiling water again. Add 1 tsp instant dashi powder and 62.5-ml mirin. Keep boiling on low heat for 10 minutes. 5. Add 62.5-ml soy sauce. Boil for another 10 minutes. 6. Turn the heat high and boil for 5-6 minutes until the broth reduced to one-third. Result: Any noticeable differences from the ones made with a much simpler recipe (no rubbing with salt and single boiling)? No. But they were really yummy. My children kiked them too. Note that the dashi, soy sauce, and mirin ratio was 8:1:1.

You can easily find such recipes by googling オムライス 作り方. I found some for you: http://form.allabout.co.jp/M/cookingabc/050518/mt02904/ http://plus1.ctv.co.jp/bangumi/02tue/2004/02/18/01.html Other good keywords: タンポポ　(tampopo) たいめいけん (taimeiken, the name of the restaurant that first invented this type of omuraisu). Good luck! Are you having a problem with making an omelet??

Have you ever considered golden ratios for seasoning? Years ago, I provided a link to this webpage, titled "Golden Ratio for Seasoning". (I carelessly translated the title into "Golden Ratio for Taste". Come to think of it, "Golden Ratio for Seasoning should be more appropriate.) This webpage discusses that the golden ratio of soy sauce to mirin is 1 to 1. It also lists different golden ratios for different dishes: Dashi:Light soy sauce:Mirin 14:1:1 -> Broth for takikomi gohan 12:1:1 -> Broth for udon and soba, broth for udon suki and seafood nabe 8:1:1 -> Suitable for kabocha, small satoimo (taro potatoes), daikon & aburaage, and other dishes, with some sugar added to taste. Use this for almost all vegetables. 4:1:1 -> Tempura sauce 5:1:1 -> Dipping sauce for soumen (thin noodles) * With some sugar added to taste, can be used for oyako (chicken and egg) don, tempura don, gyu (beef) don, etc. 3.5:1:1 -> Dipping sauce for soba and cool udon, dipping sauce for yu dofu (hot tofu). 1:1:1 -> Good when poured over hiyayakko (cold tofu). (Note that this person is a chef in Kyoto and uses light soy sauce.) Here is another interesting page on simmered dishes from Hanamaru Market (famous morning TV show). It divides nimono (simmered dishes) into three categories and gives the golden ratio for each: 1. Fukumeni: Simmered daikon, simmered leaf vegetable (nibitashi) Golden ratio for dashi:sweetness (such as sugar and mirin):saltiness (i.e., soy sauce): 10:1:1 2. Umani: Simmered satoimo (taro potatoes), niku jaga (potato and meat stew), and simmered beans Goden ratio: 8:1:1 3. Itameni: Chikuzen ni, kinpira, and simmered hijiki Golden ratio: 6:1:1 I think those ratios can be a good starting point for anyone trying to pursue Japanese cuisine, but you don't have to follow them exactly. I think the most important thing is to find your own golden ratios. So, what do you think?

You can find some information about umeshu from this Wikipedia page. This one is also interesting, even to me: What people thought about umeshu. My umeshu is almost gone. I'm thinking of which brand to buy next.

Other amakara-flavored dishes: Hamburgers, with a Japanese-style sauce of soy sauce, mirin, and sake with a ratio of 1:1:1. Daikon simmered with aburaage, in a broth of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin with a ratio of 8:1:1. So, you may ask, "Don't you ever get tired of amakara?? " Answer: NO!! I can never get tired of amakara-flavored dishes, miso soup, or plain cooked rice.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I got eight shougoin (聖護院) daikon from a neighbor. These are the last ones. I googled yesterday and learned that this variety was suitable for simmering. I found this recipe, and made this dish today. First you have to simmer them to remove aku, with "togi jiru" (milky water resulting from washing rice) or a handful of rice. I used the latter. Then transfer them to another pot and simmer again, with a 8:1:1 mixture of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin, and add aburaage. Results: Right: Simmered dish Left: Rice used to remove aku Shougoin is one of the vegetables called kyou yasai (京野菜), mainly grown and used in Kyoto. The dish was so good that I had two bowls.

Since you ask, package 1: Contains catechin. Package 2: Uses Uji macha. Uji is a city in Kyoto. ← thanks, Hiroyuki~! is the kanji for "ocha/tea" the one on the lower right, i.e., the one that looks like a cross and two blobs with a roof and two birds above it?* *most clumsily-phrased description of a kanji--ever. ← Oh, yes. 茶. The upper part is written irregularly as two crosses + +. It took me one minute to understand what your question was.

I don't think there are any particular "kotteri regions", but the youth tend to prefer kotteri dishes like tonkotsu ramen, as well as gekikara (super hot) dishes. But most of them will eventually return to "normal" as they get older. Soy sauce is pervasive. It can be used for almost everything ranging from fish, meat, vegetables, soy products, and seeweeds. It's more than ketchup in the United States and olive oil in Italy. And it's often combined with mirin and/or sugar (and sake) to create an amakara (lit. sweet and salty) flavor. The Japanese can never get tired of amakara. Just think of gyudon, sukiyaki, teriyaki, oyakodon, and what have you. ← Just wanted to post a photo of my family's shusai (main dish) for today's supper, which is a typical amaraka-flavored one. Chicken thigh chunks dusted with flour and pan-fried with negi, simmered with a 1:1:1 mixture of soy sauce, mirin, and sake. The Japanese are addicted to amakara flavor. We sometimes deviate from it, especially young people, but return to this same old flavor sooner or later.

Interesting! a whole page of wikipedia on tamago kake gohan. Maybe I should I have my husband read it because he makes his wrong if that is the proper way. He cracks the egg open right on top of the rice and then pours on the soy sauce and then mixes it. He also adds mayo and sometimes butter as well... ← That is the proper way!! And I think that step 4 is the most important:

Since you ask, package 1: Contains catechin. Package 2: Uses Uji macha. Uji is a city in Kyoto.

Just curious, how did your dish come out? Because of the use of white miso, your dish may be popular in Kansai, especially Kyoto, but I still have no clues. I'm a Kanto man!

I can't find any dish that exactly matches your description. I did find a recipe for scallop shiro miso yaki: http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~hiroko/recipe_j/j_m19.html Ingredients of white miso sauce: 6 tbsp white miso 1 tsp sesame seed paste 2 tsp sugar Adequate amount of dashi 1 tsp mayonnaise Small amount of yuzu peelings Put white miso, sesame seed paste, and sugar in a pan (and put it on stove?), mix well, add dashi little by little, and mix well until soft like mayonnaise. Turn off heat and add mayonnaise and yuzu peelings. Put the sauce on scallops and grill in an oven (toaster oven?) for 5 to 6 min. *** Maybe you can replace the mayo with butter to get the desired result. Sorry, I must go to bed now.

Sorry, I can't think of any Japanese salmon dish that matches your description. Was it a meuniere by any chance? Which of the following resembles your favoriate dish?: http://gourmet.goo.ne.jp/recipes/258.html http://www1.fbs.co.jp/cgi-bin/mentai_recip...de=show&no=1763 http://kodawari.lin.go.jp/ryori/karada/mm2136.htm

When I first came across this page on tamago kake gohan, I just laughed. Come to think of it, it's a great topic!! Check out this page and learn the authentic way of making tamago kake gohan!!

OK, OK, but the exact causes of stomach cancer have not been identified. Doctors say the causes include salty foods, partially scorched foods (such as grilled fish), too hot (i.e. high-temperature) foods, overeating, eating fast, alcohol, and cigarettes. ← But thats America right there, more so then Japan... We have BBQ several times a month where the beef and chicken is burnt.... Bracken is PROVEN to cause cancer in animals stomachs..Why not ours too? ← Didn't I say that? Aku-nuki (harshness removal)! And not eating too much of it.