torakris

How do you make fresh tofu? Is it hard?? ← It's not hard at all. it's sort of like making cheese, but easier. I recall Tokrakris did an egullet program on making tofu. If I'm mistaken I would be more than glad to get into the specifics here. Just let me know. ← eGCI class on soy In this class I taught tofu making from scratch as well as giving recipes for various types of Japanese tofu. tofu... I too am a huge mapodofu fan, but nothing can beat hiyayakko a block of cold tofu topped with whatever your heart desires.

2/24: You will often see dojo referred to as dozeu どぜう, especially when talking about particular dishes. for example the dozeu nabe (hot pot), this consits of large amounts of both dojo and negi (Japanese scallions). dozeu nabe you may not want to look if you are sqeamish.... it isn't pretty..

my latest hi-chew find! It is a seasonal product of 3 flavors sakuranbo (Japanese cherry) momo (Japanese white peach) ume (pickled plum) I don't care for the peach, but I have never found a peach flavored product that I like. The ume and sakuranbo and great and they should make them regular flavors!!

February is ume blossom season!! All around my house are the beautiful ume trees in full bloom　and the Ume Matsuri(festival) in Atami is in full swing. We have gone a couple times in the past but I don't think we are going to make it this year.... I recently picked ip these wonderul shiso maki umeboshi (pickled plums with their seeds removed and individually wrapped in a shiso leaf

a previous thread on oils used for deep frying

I remember watching on tv quite a while back about how some tempura shops used 100% sesame oil for the tempura. I started cooking tempura and other fried foods by adding just a couple tablespoons, it is too expensive to use 100%. I have slowly fallen out of that practice though.....

I made a kinpira with celery last night..... though that is more of a western food with a Japanese technique, it tastes great though!

sanrensho, welcome to eGullet! lemon juice in natto? interesting I may have to try that one..... I have been wanting to post in this thread, I know that I do some odd things with Japanese foods sometimes but for the life of me I just can't think of any.....

I just picked up some buckwheat cookies at my local 100 yen ($1) store.....they were quite good.

for those who may have missed the first MOS burger thread, here it is!

I just ran across this cute blog in Japanese, mostly fast food but if you look at the categories on the right there is a separate category for ryouri.

Taco soba???? Almost didn't believe you until I pulled up this! though you can't see it well, there is soba in the bottom of the cup.....

I made a kabocha and pasta gratin last night! I suateed some bacon and onions then added the cubed kabocha to soften it just a bit, I then made a white sacue (bechamel) with butter, flour and milk. I combined all of this with some boiled pasta into a large casserole, grated some fresh mozarella on top and baked it until nice and bubbly. I could have cooked it a bit more to brown the cheese on top but I was really hungry....

2/22: ドジョウ　鰌 dojou (doe-joe) loach, weather loach, dojo loach they look like tiny eels, but with whiskers, and are a delicacy in Japan dojou picture

Darnit, Kris. You can't go through life having had nothing from Louisiana but blackened chicken! ← I'm trying!! I really want to smoke my own sausage, but it has been raining the past two weekends..... and I ate that blackened chicken in the summer of 1990......in Savannah, Georgia.......and I think I thought it was odd.......

unfortunately not....., but they do have the Gyukaku special with kuromitsu and kinako powder. It is $2.95 in the US and it was only 180 yen here (about $1.70), that's a first....

oops Hide just had vanilla... all decked out from head to toe in his Deka-ranger outfit that my in-laws bought for him, he was VERY popular in the kid's playroom at Gyukaku.

I posted some pictures of my recent visit to a Gyukaku here in Japan, over here

Since we saved so much money by ordering mostly the cheap items I decided to splurge and go for dessert. Mia had the Kyoho grape sherbet my husband and Julia had the Gyukaku special, vanilla ice cream with kuromitsu (dark brown sugar sryup) and kinako (toasted soy bean powder) I had the kinako ice cream with a kuromitsu sauce and shiratama (rice flour dumplings) the final cost of the meal for 5 was 7400 yen (about $70) and my husband also had a beer....

Had a great meal at Gyukaku last night! started with 3 of their "specials" chicken (plate show 2 person serving), pork with a salt and onion sauce (2 servings) and harami with the soy based sauce (5 servings). on the grill a side of various kimchis we also ordered some thick cut bacon, this was great! and my favorite the chicken cartilage (nankotsu) with a miso sauce web also ordered a couple more orders of beef as well as a couple bowls of rice and a lovely bowl of komtang (beef stock) soup)

2/21: Anago, much more than unagi , finds its way in western style dishes in Japan as well. Here are some examples, these are not necessarily common dishes and may be pictures/recipes of one of a kind creations. Anago grilled with a mustard sauce on a bed of seaweed risotto Anago and bitter gourd with a mushroom and red wine sauce Deep fried anago with a pesto sauce

Japanese microwave cooking from Sachiko Murakami (in English as well as Japanese). In Japan her name is synonomous with microwave cooking and I actually have one of her bread books, the one with something like proofing the bread in the microwave in 10 minutes....

2/20: Anago can be eaten in many of the same ways as unagi, here are some examples of Japanese style dishes. I was watching a show last night about various sushi restaurants and they showed one place that was serving raw anago nigiri, it looked great but a search on the internet seems to show that it isn't very popular. I will have to keep my eye out for it.

Unlike many other beverages, shochu is made from one of several raw materials. These include sweet potato, and shochu made from these is called "imo-jochu." Other materials commonly used include from rice, soba (buckwheat), and barley. There is even one island where there a few places that make shochu from brown sugar. It can also be made from more obscure things like chestnuts and other grains. And, each of these raw materials gives a very, very distinct flavor and aroma profile to the final sake. These profiles run the gamut from smooth and light (rice) to peaty, earthy and strong (potato). Indeed, each of these raw materials lends a unique flavor in much the same way that the peat and barley of each region in Scotland determine the character of the final scotch whiskey. from the shochu thread

I am getting hungrier and hungrier... Those pictures are incredible! my gumbo day keeps getting pushed back and back....