Japanese Cooking at Home

[MoGa]

I certainly agree with donburi being a good choice for dinner, I don't eat any other meat except fish which prevented me from exploiting this option fully, but scrambling eggs with some seasonings, scallion and, well, anything you like (chicken and egg - mother & child - is a very popular option) was certainly a fixture in my own weekly menu.

But then, not being fond of washing up, most of what I ate ended up looking like donburi. I convinced myself that all those little side dishes looked just as cute and appetising arranged directly on top of the rice.

If only I'd cracked the secret then of maze gohan - unveiled here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1563794

(The takikomi gohan thread as a whole is a very good one for anyone serious about cooking at home)

So is the okonomiyaki thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=19221

Which is a great food to have by yourself and to serve to guests.

(helenjp posted the same thing as I wrote this)

EDIT TO ADD

and I forgot to add that other student stalwart - curry rice

(Which reminded me of English school dinners). Not my cup of tea, but it is incredibly popular and as typical a 'home cooked meal' in Japan as anything.

Edited May 13, 2008 by MoGa (log)

[helenjp]

I used to work in a Chinese grocery when I was a student - Chinese tofu was firmer than any Japanese-style tofu I've eaten.

But as Hiroyuki says, people in Japan do use either silk or cotton tofu for ma-po dofu, and some drain or parboil cotton tofu to make it even firmer - defintely a matter of personal taste.

[nakji]

Anyone have any recipes for converting tofu haters?

Mapo tofu.

Well, I finally got around to making mapo-dofu this weekend. Unfortunately, the board was down, so I couldn't use the recipe linked to upthread, so I just googled it, and found a simple recipe. (Which I then proceeded to freestyle on. Mainly I just use recipes as guidelines )

I used firm tofu, which I further drained in my pickle press for 30 minutes, and used sanrensho instead of sichuan peppercorns and gochujang in place of chili paste, since that's what I had on hand. Verdict? My husband loved it so much, I got a thumbs up text message when he got it in his lunch thermos the next day, along with a "better than chili!"

It's going into the rotation. Incidentally, can anyone tell me if toubanjan differs from gochujang substantially? My fridge is so small, I hate to add another little bottle in there.

[helenjp]

At least as they are made in Japan...

Kochujang: Rice-based miso, chilis, heaps of sugar or rice barley malt. Mildly hot.

Toubanjan: Bean-based miso, chillis. Hot.

I think the toubanjan is more versatile (I put it in chilli, curries, and hot soups too), because you can add miso and sugar/honey if wanted, but kochujang is so very useful for lunch making that I have no difficulty in keeping both in my fridge.

[nakji]

Really? There's rice in gochujang? I guess that's what I get for never bothering to read the ingredients. I always use the Korean-made stuff in the red tub, I have to go read the label now......

What do you use your gochujang for in lunches, I'm intrigued?

[helenjp]

Korean made - that could be different - it will have some type of miso in it, but I don't know if it will definitely be rice miso. Probably less sweet. I have been meaning to try a Korean brand if I spot one.

Kochujang in lunch boxes...usually as a variation of flavoring stir-fried things in miso, sometimes a tiny, tiny bit plus some grated onion in beaten eggs for omelet...sometimes instead of soy sauce in sesame dressing for spinach.

[OnigiriFB]

Is toubanjan popular in Japan? I thought Japanese prefer less hot items.

[helenjp]

Japanese food is rarely hot, but Japanese people these days enjoy quite a few hot dishes and condiments from other cultures...similar situation to European food, probably.

[Hiroyuki]

Young people. You never know what they do. Geki kara (super hot?, violently hot?). They want to deviate from the norm... Many of them will return to where they belong in their 30s or 40s. I know that because I was also once young.

[dabestspooner]

Its one of my favorite tofus as well.

I'm glad otokomae is pretty easy to find in NY.

[nakji]

Well, it's that time of year again - the cool weather puts me in the mood for (beef) nikkujyaga.

We had this with an enoki takikomi gohan, kabocha salad, and tsukemono and sake from my Takayama trip. I couldn't taste a speck of it, since I had a particularly crappy head cold, but my husband pronounced it "best nikkujyaga ever". I didn't tell him I added instant dashi powder, which he says he hates. I keep sneaking it into things so he'll gradually get used to the taste. Does that make me a bad person?

[Hiroyuki]

I can't say whether you are a bad person or not; all I can say is that you are practical. You simply can't make dashi from scratch every day.

I'm curious about your enoki takikomi gohan. Does it contain other mushrooms or only enoki?

[melonpan]

but my husband pronounced it "best nikkujyaga ever". I didn't tell him I added instant dashi powder, which he says he hates. I keep sneaking it into things so he'll gradually get used to the taste. Does that make me a bad person?

←

id have to agree with your husband! it looks so comfy and homey! go ahead and use the dashi powder, but just dont overdo it!

hope you feel better soon!

[nakji]

Haha! Don't worry - I wasn't feeling bad about using the dashi powder - just about not telling my husband it was in there. But I broke down and told him anyway, when he asked me what I did different this time.

I only used enoki mushrooms in my takikomi gohan, since those were all I had on hand. They were wilting sadly in the crisper, so I made the dish just to use them up.

[nakedsushi]

We had a heat wave last week, so I wanted something refreshing and quick for dinner.

Enter: neba neba soba.

The topping is grated nagaimo, natto mixed with finely chopped kimchi, blanched okra and green onions. The BF is vegan, so the dipping sauce was just the soba cooking water, soy sauce, mirin, and a bit of s&b mustard powder.

Edited October 9, 2008 by nakedsushi (log)

[Hassouni]

Hm how come this thread has been dormant for three years while the Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican, Chinese, etc ones are still active?

Here are some things I cooked for future consumption:

Kombu tsukudani made from spent dashi kombu (ichiban and niban dashi in the freezer)

Konnyaku no tosani, as posted on Just Bento

Kabocha no nimono made with the ichiban dashi from yesterday

Shiozake/shiojake (salted samon, also from a technique posted on Just Bento) - I left this in the fridge for 48 hours and it has a really nice, firm, almost hardened gel-like texture.

[Genkinaonna]

Beautiful, Hassouni! Is the kabocha sweet, or does the dashi take over and make it more savory? There's something about Japanese seasonings that just work with squash. I hadn't thought about any Japanese type preparations for Thanksgiving, but now you've got my mind going....

[Hassouni]

The kabocha flavors the dashi, mirin, shoyu, etc, and in turn takes on some of those flavors; it's a really cool blending of tastes. I should have scooped out the flesh around the seeds a bit better, because in some areas I got lazy and the flesh next to the seeds gets mushy REALLY quick...

[Hassouni]

And here we have some of yesterday's preparations cooked - the shiozake was gently seared, and it got the crispiest skin I've ever eaten on a fish, like, kettle chips-crunchy. kabocha as prepared above, straight out of the fridge and warmed up to room temperature, and the new stuff: enoki and hakusai misoshiru, horenso no gomae ae, and kinpira gobo and carrot. God I love gobo.....

[Hassouni]

It's cold and crappy so it's nabe time.

Ishikari nabe from a few nights ago:

Sukiyaki tonight with my Japanese-American friend:

Man those both hit the spot!

[threestars]

I miss Sakuyaki! Hope to try that again this week...

[mkayahara]

I've been loving your meals, Hassouni. Not too long ago, I made teriyaki salmon (not a usual dish for me, but I had some teriyaki sauce to use up), soy-simmered kiriboshi daikon with abura-age from Andoh's Washoku, and chawan-mushi with ginkgo nuts and shrimp,topped with a little yuzu zest. I steamed the chawan-mushi a little too hard (hence the bubbles), but not to the point of curdling it. It was still pretty tasty.

[Hassouni]

Been making a few Japanese meals, most of which I haven't documented.

Last week made my first ever real Japanese-style teriyaki, in this case with some super-fresh mackerel and homemade tare. It was beautiful and exquisitely delicious. Made some green beans and carrots in shira ae, some quick cucumber pickles, and a fresh corn, spinach, and tomato misoshiru.

I then picked up a Made in Japan Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker, and a bag of Kagayaki California Koshihikari...Today made this:

the koshihikari rice (which cooked up way softer than I expected on the "regular" setting in the Zojirushi), daikon and tomato misoshiru, gobo tataki (which was delicious, only tataki-ing the gobo with a surikogi sent gobo bits flying across the kitchen), and some chicken negimaki - I didn't have time to go to a good grocery store, so was unable to get good quality suitable red meat for it. I think red meat would have been better though, the chicken totally fell apart. Gratuitous closeup:

[Hassouni]

No pics but tonight was:

Kagayaki genmai from the Zojirushi (awesome!)

firm tofu, maitake, and negi misoshiru

Eggplant dengaku

Aster (Bugigangie in Korean) no goma ae

Renkon no nimono with strips of konbu

Very nice vegetarian ichiju sansai!

[Anna N]

For lunch today I followed Hiroyuki's instructions (see post #18 in this topic) for oyoko donburi.