helenjp

That soup looks good! What is it about autumn I wonder, we've been having lots of multi-ingredient miso soups recently too. I like to add Chinese cabbage too. Rest of our menus have not been "purely" Japanese recently, so no photos!

Thanks for that. Small...I will have to check pomegranates growing in local Japanese gardens! They are small, and I know they are not usually eaten. Can you make the pickle with dried sour pomegranate seeds?

Where did I see that lunches are typically charged at around GBP1.10??? Was that right? If so, it's very similar to costs here, though the amount of subsidy provided by local governments varies quite a lot. At elementary level here (up to age 12), costs are kept down by having only one menu offered, and by charging all students (making it easier to estimate income). I don't think that schools pursue non-payers aggressively if they think there is hardship though. Chip vans at the school gates ! That would certainly be hard for school lunch providers to compete with! I think you might be right about the lowest common denominator factor though - it might be more effective to build kids' pride in their good eating habits. I see that menus do seem to feature rely pretty heavily on the battered and the crumbed, with broccoli or peas and mash - how simlar do you think these menus are to what kids are eating at home these days? Are they maybe falling between two stools by being "too healthy" for the kids with really poor habits, and "too trashy" for kids who are used to eating better at home? Mind you, my kids would set off for the UK in a rubber dinghy if they thought there was gravy at the end of the trip! Living in Japan, gravy is regarded as a treat when it appears on the table. Guardian comments section on school lunch issue comparisons of school lunch menus

My local Japanese newspaper had an article this morning about the much-touted "new" school lunches in the UK. Comments were that the new menus were not popular, and had prompted further declines in the number of kids opting to eat school lunch, and that kids were bringing in "forbidden snacks" in larger numbers. I'm curious to know whether most children in the UK take lunch or eat school lunch at each level of school. I'd also love to see some sample menus for those of you with children in school!

Very popular in Japan, where they are made with minced/ground pork, though I sometimes make it with minced/ground chicken. Recipes vary quite a lot, but for 4 smallish hen eggs or 10 quail eggs, roughly: 1/2 onion (or 1/4 leek/asian long onion) to 200g ground pork (minced pork), plus about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (dry the bread in the air a little first if breadcrumbs are not available. Left-over rice is a possible substitute too). to bind - EITHER 1/2 egg beaten, OR 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (Kewpie type), yogurt, or milk. Salt and pepper (or soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, ketchup, nutmeg etc) parsley to taste. Small amounts of finely chopped funghi such as those long thread-like things we call enoki in Japan are good too. Or grated apple, a little cheese... Knead well (a key point!), flour the peeled boiled eggs, and press the meat mixture around them. I don't season them too heavily, because I cook them like this. I find the deep-fried version can be dry and unappetizing in lunchboxes. Instead of deep frying, pan-fry to brown, then add about 2 tablespoons each of ketchup and worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons of vinegar or white wine/Chinese or Japanese rice wine, and about 1/4 c water, depending on the size of your pan. Put a lid on loosely, and cook, shaking pan occasionally, till sauce reduced and clinging to scotch eggs. In Asia, minced chicken meat, flavored with Szechuan pepper and ginger, is also a good bet. If you prefer to deep-fry scotch eggs, flour the meat-covered eggs, dip in egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk (works better than straight egg), and then dip in finely crushed dry breadcrumbs. You can do the flour/egg routine twice if you really want a firm coating.

You mention sour pomegranates - do you mean under-ripe ones, or is there a particular variety that is best for this purpose? Pomegranates have been grown in Japan for a long time, but they are mostly ornamental - they have quite small fruit compared to the type sold for eating. I haven't ever compared the taste.

Poor, innocent, watermelon. I hope somebody starts a "reclamation" project on it.

?? There is some reason why watermelon is a bad food?? I mean, I know that it's popular in the southern states, but I didn't know it had any more or less baggage than other southern foods? Why watermelon and not okra, peaches, or corn?? Culturally illiterate, I am, and as long as anybody's not eating their share of watermelon, they can send it to me! P.S. Sorry if I'm being insensitve, just massively curious!

I see that the two on the center and right of your photo are "junsui dashi" which has sake but no salt or MSG in it. What were they like? I like these teabag-style dashi products a lot.

Making sauerkraut - scroll right down to the bottom of the page.

I like Hiroyuki's 1:1 soy sauce: mirin ratio - easy to remember! I've been fiddling with a "master list" for about a year, but it's too detailed to memorize, strictly a fridge-magnet version. This is the soy sauce section, for comparison with Hiroyuki's excellent method. Abbreviations: * optional D: dashi SY soy sauce/shoyu ST salt SG sugar MR mirin SK sake V vinegar Mine (Happou dashi versions) Lazy All-purpose Base 2 SY, 1 MR 1 c SY, 1/2 c MR (or SK), bring to boil with 2 katsuo dashi packs, pour over several lengths of konbu in a jar, use as finshing seasoning for panfried dishes (add SK or SG plus ginger for teriyaki), 3D: 1 base for noodle dip, 8~10 D: 1 base for noodle soup, 10~15 D: 1 base for nimono. Savory A-P Base 10 SY, 2 SG, 1 MR Bring SG and MR to boil, add SY, cool, pack. Tosa Shoyu: add 10 parts by volume (equal to shoyu) of katsuo-bushi (shaved bonito) and boil with other ingredients. Does not keep as well, but excellent with sashimi and adds flavor without significant sweetness. (Purpose-made Nimono ratios) Tohoku Grandma nimono for fish: 10D, 1.5 SY, 1 SG, 1 MR, 3+ SK Modern nimono for fish: 10D, 1 SY, 0.5 SG, 0.5 SK Kyoto Grandma nimono for vegetables, tofu: 10D, *0.2~0.3 ST, 0.5 SY, *0.5 SG, 1.5 MR or SK Light Kansai modern nimono:10D, 0.3SY, 1 MR Light Kanto modern nimono: 10D, 0.5 SY, 0.3 MR Diabetic: 1 tsp SY and 1 tsp SK per 100g vegetables, 1 additional pinch sugar also acceptable, dashi as needed (estimated 100ml per 100g ingredients). Mine: 10D, 0.5 SY, 0.5 SG, 0.5 SK Standard: 10D 1+SY, 1-SK (niboshi/katsuo dashi) Very light: 12D, 1 SY 0.15 MR Mine Favorite light: 10D, 1+SY, 0.25 ST, 1 SG, 1 SK, 1 MR Rich: 10 beef or chkn stock, 1.5 SY. 0.5 SG, 1 MR, 1 SK Miscellaneous Mine Ponzu dressing/dip: 3 SY, 2 citrus juice or citrus/mirin mix. Add 1 part D for milder flavor. Nibaizu version: 1 SY, 1~1.5 V, chili flakes or grated citrus peel. Use as yaki-zuke dressing (lighter than traditional nanban-zuke dressing). Mne: 2 p SY, 3 V, 0.5 sesame oil Mine 2 SY, 1 SG or MR, 10 sesame P.S. Why is this whole post blue, I don't know??

The mirin that I use at present is Takara's Hon-mirin Junryou (junryou means something like "honest goodness!). Ingredients: glutinous rice, rice kouji, foodgrade alcohol, "sugars" (what that hides is anybody's guess). I picked this because it was the only 1 liter bottle of hon-mirin in the supermarket. If I want a bigger bottle, I have to go to the discount store, and the quality will definitely not be better than this. It's not that I think Takara is definitely the best, it just happens to be easy to buy. For New Year's cooking, I buy Takara's organic mirin, because it's one of the few not made with "foodgrade alcohol" (white spirits???). White spirits is not as complex in taste as shochu. The issue really is price - I would use mirin instead of sugar or sake most of the time, if I had a nice, fat income! I use the best mirin I can when making kinton (and yes, I use only boiled mirin and a little of the syrup the chestnuts come packed in - so my kinton is not very sweet, and it's not gluey with mizu-ame like bought kinton either). I used to make it the normal way with sugar etc, but started "improving" the recipe when I realized that my family eat a lot of home-made kinton but don't like shop-bought kinton at all, and I started wondering about the exact differences between them. Boiled mirin mixed with good vinegar and salt, and allowed to infuse with some konbu, makes very good, light sushi vinegar too. I'm sorry, I forget the exact ratio, pretty much to taste.

Well, I'll be waiting with bated breath for your report! I could easily make this preserve here in Japan. By the way, do you add vinegar before covering with oil to prevent botulism, or do you keep the preserves in the fridge?

Anybody like to make sauerkraut? We're having cool weather here in Japan, and once the thermometer hits 16-17 deg.C (60-ish F), I'll be sharpening my cabbage-slicing knife!

I have a collection of stainless steel bowls which started out in graduated sizes...but then I found it more convenient to have several small and medium bowls the same size rather than more in-between sizes. Stainless steel measuring cups get good use too, because I can hang them up and grab one quickly. One thing I started using when I came to Japan is stainless steel trays (about an inch deep), with drop-in wire trays. I use these extensively for lining up prepped vegetables, marinading or flouring meat, draining fried food or cooling boiled food...they stack flat, and being rectangular, they make it super-easy to keep items in rows, easy to pick up for the next step.

I thought I'd try first with flours and products that can be easily found in local shops in most of Japan. My son's friend has grown out of the worst of her allergies, so it's actually another small child's cake I'm working on now! Raw soy flour isn't all that readily available in Japan! From memory, it tends to taste raw even when baked, so I'm keen to try kinako. I think flax seed would work well, much like dried yama-imo. The photos weren't beautiful, because I was just slopping stuff into little containers, but the rice flour/banana, and the rice/buckwheat/banana/yamaimo versions worked very well. I'll make some "properly" and take photos of texture!

I asked my husband if he'd ever eaten "kaihimo" of dried awabi, since kaihimo (the dried outer "frill" of shellfish" is quite a popular drinking snack in the north, but he said no, always scallop, maybe other shellfish, but never awabi. If Japanese were going to eat it, I bet it would be dropped into a flask of sake, but as it is, I've never heard of it used dried in Japanese dishes. I think the reason Japanese abalone is popular is that it's the same species as that used in China. Taiwanese abalone is also mostly the preferred species, I think, but maybe the warmer water product is not as popular? Abalone from the rest of the world is from slightly different species.

I'm not so much fussed about brands....but I would choose a hon-mirin made with shochu first (if I could find one in the supermarket - very rare so if I find one I hoard it), one made with food-grade alcohol for everyday use, and leave those which feature mizu-ame as the first ingredient on the shelf. Some mirin-fuu products fall into this last category, but some are excellent, such as "Aji no Haha". Mirin-fuu products also contain a little salt usually, and I prefer to add salt separately. As long as you are using it with equal quantities of shoyu, I don't honestly think it matters too much. I use mirin for lightly-seasoned dishes tooo, where the choice does show up more. For that kind of dish, mirin made with shochu is wonderful. Kuri kinton made with mirin is very good, and not as sickly and sweet as making it with sugar. Gautam, these days there are some granulated dried instant dashi products which don't contain additives. I don't like the metallic taste of the old-style instant dashi, but the new ones are very handy for cooking packed lunches early in the morning!

That tempura udon looks good! I was trying to figure out why it looked so good, then I realized it was because the soup was not as dark as it is in Tokyo (lighter-coloured soy sauce)! I've never seen that herring soba made with green-tea soba before - this could be worth trying... Tepee, have a great trip! I live about a 30 minute train trip from Disneyland, but have never been there...

So which day and which restaurant are we meeting you at, again?!

Wow, I never thought of doing THAT to egg tofu! Looks good.

Sorry, I didn't bother to even out the stiff purple batter, so these are very unphotogenic. However, if I served these up, you would think "cake" and not "what on earth is this stuff?!". I doubt if a wheat flour - yama-imo combination would have worked as well as the yama-imo/low gluten specialty flours combinations did. All the yama-imo versions had a more open texture than the banana versions. With the buckwheat version, a little miso and some shreds of yuzu would work well. Using fresh yama-imo created more color and texture than the powdered dry yama-imo, which when combined with white rice flour, made an extremely white cake (good with a salted cherry blossom on top probably). TOP L>R all banana/rice flour all banana/ rice & buckwheat all banana/ rice & imo MIDDLE L>R banana & imo/ rice flour banana & imo/ rice & buckwheat banana &l imo/ rice & imo BOTTOM L > R all imo/ rice flour all imo/ rice & buckwheat all imo/ rice & imo The banana/buckwheat combo was too wet, though pretty tasty! Banana killed the metallic aftertaste of buckwheat. Just needs more flour etc. These photos show equal parts of rice flour and purple sweet potato flour - but reducing purple sweet potato flour to 1/3 is a better color. With the dark banana, it looked dark enough to be chocolate! The visual cue is so strong you might even think it WAS a cocoa cake. On the other hand, using half each of purple sweet potato flour and rice was effective with the all imo version - the purple flour needs a LOT of moisture, so it prevented the imo batter from developing a slimy texture even when baked. The bottom row (all imo) shows clearly that the imo texture is "weaker" than when banana is used. The banana/imo makes for a good texture in most cases. The all-rice flour (middle row, left) actually had a bit too much flour in, it would have been softer I think (measurement error). Ingedients react to create surprising colors sometimes! Banana and buckwheat both have a purplish tinge, and combining pure banana with buckwheat creates quite an odd blackish purple. One reason why I didn't list combination in that in my first post. For some reason, rice flour and pure yama-imo develops tiny flecks of green!

Various combinations of flours and leaveners, with no added liquid... Cutting out the soy milk and using only banana or yama-imo removed the "mochi-like" texture problem Rice flour (riz farine alone): Eliminating the soy milk also eliminated the "mochi-like" texture. Banana alone gives a fine cake texture and good rise; fresh yama-imo gives a very fluffy but even texture, faint buit acceptable yama-imo texture still present Buckwheat flour/Rice flour equal parts: equal parts of banana and yama-imo gave the best texture while avoiding excessive "slipperiness" from the yama-imo". 1/3 Purple sweet potato flour/ 2/3rice flour: Yama-imo alone gave the prettiest color and the most cake-like texture, no "slippery" texture. Wa-Wa Cupcakes Makes 3 large or 6 small cupcakes 80g rice flour (riz de farine alone or combination of other flours) 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 2 tab sugar, add 1 more tab if using yama-imo alone 3 tab oil 200g banana OR 200g finely grated fresh yama-imo, OR 100g each of banana and yama-imo Preheat oven to 180deg, Bake 15-20 minutes depending on size

Thanks Mom of Little Foodies! I think the riz farine may be finer than western rice flour - certainly finer than what I used to buy outside Japan. I'm interested that you felt a mix of flours worked best. I think it probably would too, but scratch my head looking for a suitable flour - cornstarch seems an unwise choice in this case, the child whose case spurred me to actually get on and sort this recipe out is allergic to potato/tomato/eggplant, and tapioca flour is rare here. Kinako (toasted soy flour) is an option, but in my experience soy flours are rather heavy in baked goods. I do have some tapioca flour, so I plan to do one batch with part tapioca flour, one with part sweet potato flour, and another with part buckwheat flour. And another version with a higher proportion of fresh, grated yama-imo. Can't think of any other traditionally available Japanese flours! The result of yesterday's test was a unanimous vote for the taste and texture of the banana version, and thumbs-up for the texture of the yama-imo version (didn't taste bad, but being a test version I had flavored all batches the same, and so the banana had the fullest flavor.) Personally, I thought the yama-imo version was the winner for texture, and taste can be easily manipulated!. Banana and yama-imo won hands down over apple puree as an egg substitite - because they can be beaten till they hold air.

Dinner...sanma (saury) grilled with salt, served with grated daikon and soy sauce, spinach and enoki hitashi topped with yellow chrysanthemum petals in amasu Miso soup with sweet potato and green pepper, rice. The "circular" grilled saury means the fat along the spine drips off instead of lying on top of the fish, but the shape also makes it harder than usual to remove small bones! P.S. cell-phone photo sorry, still haven't figured out where son put digital camera cable...