Rice and Mushrooms

Wednesday, 7th May 2014

My first vegetarian meal for longer than I can remember. Steamed rice, miso broth, spring onions and sliced shiitake mushrooms fried with a little salt and lemon juice. Very enjoyable.

Ebi Ten-Don

Thursday, 11th April 2013

Tempura (Ten) Prawns (Ebi) on a bowl of rice (Don) = Ebi Ten-Don.
My tempura batter didn't really work (too liquid), and I think I cooked the prawns too long, waiting for the batter to brown, so these didn't come out quite as intended. Still it was a very nice TV dinner.

Tuna Steak

Thursdy, March 14th 2013

Repeating a mid-week standby. Must find a way to stop the tuna going so dry.

Teriyaki-style Swordfish

Monday, 8th October 2012

I was surprised to find swordfish in my local supermarket, for whom tuna is a bit adventurous. But happy to take advantage of it.
This is a recipe I do all the time. Marinade the fish in a homemade teriyaki-style sauce for a while, then fry it quickly to blacken on both sides. For the sauce, boil mirin, soy and sake until it thickens. Keep it in the freezer.
Rice with toasted sesame. On the side, spring onions, shitake mushrooms and peppers (from the balcony!) fried quickly and garnished with ponzu sauce.

Grilled Tuna and Rice

Wednesday, 1st August 2012

An old favourite for a quick evening meal.
In this case, I had prepared some Japanese grill sauce by reducing a mix or soya, sake, mirin and sugar to a thickish black sauce. This was used to coat the tuna before frying it hot for a few minutes on each side, so it was still a little pink in the middle.
The spring onions are just fried in sesame oil and served with a little ponzu sauce and some pickles. Delicious.

Fish and rice

Thursday, 12th July 2012

A chunk of white fish pan fried in some soy, mirin and sake, with rice, spring onions and sesame. TV Dinner.

Gyuudon

Thursday, 21st June 2012

In celebration of the longest day, I decided to have another crack at Gyuudon (beef bowl) this time following the Cooking with Dog recipe as closely as I could.
Didn't manage to get the beef thin enough of course, but it was a nice quality piece of meat, to it came out flavoursome and tender.
The white in my egg was maybe a little softer than it should have been but the waterfall effect across the beef looks cool!
I'm not usually a fan of eggs, but the flavours here combined really well. And I did manage to get a good balance of sweet and spicy. Very tasty indeed!

Japanese style shrimps and salmon

Thursday, 19th April 2012

Not really an authentic Japanese meal by any means, but still very good. This was a piece of lightly smoked salmon, sliced and with a little sesame oil. The prawns were quickly stir-fried with soy, sake and mirin. With them some sliced ginger, spring onions and mushrooms also quickly cooked with some sake. Rice with freshly ground sanshou pepper. Really quite easy to do, but looks pretty and tasted great.

Southern-Style Duck

Saturday, 7th April 2012

I've made this several times before with varying degrees of success. This time it was pretty good. Slice through the skin of a duck breast lengthwise in parallel cuts a few millimetres apart. Fry the duck breast skin side down for a few minutes until the skin is browned, then flip it and fry on the other side. Remove it from the pan (the centre will still be raw). In the duck fat fry some spring onions sliced into 1 inch pieces. Remove those too. Mix soup stock, soy and mirin and bring to a simmer. Slice the duck breast across into thin slices and then add it and the onions to the stock. Let it heat through for a minute or two only, enough to change the colour of the meat.
Cook some noodles (the recipe says Soba, but I like the fatter Udon noodles), drain and put the meat and onions of top, with some of the stock and top with sanshou pepper.

Mahi Mahi and Vegetable stew

Sunday, 14th August

Japanese style stew with no particular recipe. I fried some shallots and ginger and added potato cut into small pieces, then sake, mirin, water and a little soy sauce. Then, at various points, diced pumpkin, tiny aubergines halfed, yellow courgette sliced, spring onions, bok choi, the mahi mahi and shitake mushrooms.
When the fish was done I finished it off with a little more soy, ponzu sauce and sansho pepper. I used a wide shallow pan and kept the veggies separate, so the various colours and shapes looked fantastic when it was done. But I messed up the photo, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Tasted good too, although the spring onions and aubergines should have gone in later.

Tuna with Spring Onions

Monday, 25th July

Not a very good photo, which is a shame as this is the signature dish of this blog. Even the weather helped out with the rain on the window. As expected, delicious and very easy to prepare, Fry everything in a little oil and the mix of soy, sake and mirin, for less time than you might think, and serve with plain rice.

Swordfish

Sunday, 26th June

Marinated the swordfish steak in sake, soy and mirin for a while, fried it with the marinade for 2 mins each side then put it in the oven for 5 minutes with the spring onions. Served with boiled rice, wakame and lightly sauteed shitake with lemon juice and ponzu sauce.
The steak looks well seared but inside it was perfectly cooked, juicy and tender. I don't think I have ever cooked a swordfish steak better. The trick with finishing in the oven seems to work for everything!
Belgian beer to accompany the japanese-y meal.

Buta no Kakuni

Sunday, 1st May

Japanese Braised Pork, Traditional Japanese Recipe Book p94.
Another recipe I have made several attempts at but have yet to get right. The pork should cook slowly for a long time and come out juicy and very tender.  Mine cooks slowly for a long time and comes out tough and dry. The sauce tasted good although, again, it was much too dark.
As a side vegetable I sliced yellow courgette and stir fried it in sunflower oil with a dash of sesame oil and finished with a little ponzu shoyu (a citrus and soy sauce) and toasted sesame seeds (too many).

Gyuudon

Tuesday 22.03.2011

Gyuudon (Beef Bowl) is a nice simple and tasty Japanese dish. How to Make Gyudon. I left out the egg from this recipe, partially because I don't usually like eggs but mostly because I didn't have any.  My beef was not nearly thin enough and came out a little chewy.  But, as the dog says, the secret is getting the balance of salty and sweet right, which I did manage, so the flavour was very good.

Teriyaki Tuna

Monday, 21st February

Teriyaki Tuna with shitake mushrooms, spring onions, steamed rice and pickled cucumber.  This is largely made up on the spot based on what I have done before.  Teriyaki sauce is made from Soy, Mirin and Sake typically in a 1:1:1 ratio, although I use a little more Mirin. When you heat it it boils down rapidly to a sticky caramelized goo, ideal for coating meat or fish.  The Shitake were quickly fried at a moderate temperature and then added to another sake/soy/mirin mix, this time with more sake and a dash of lime juice. The spring onions should have been quickly fried, but I overcooked them.  Still tasty but no bite left.

Pan Fried Tuna

Monday, 3rd January

Pan Fried Tuna cooked with 1/1/1 soy, mirin and sake marinade. Spring onions with Ponsu, mushrooms with Genmai Su, rice with Tekka.  Another favourite quick evening meal. All worked very well, although the Tekka was a first time use and not as nice a seasoning as I had hoped.

Southern-Style Duck

Sunday, 2nd January

Southern-Style Duck - Traditional Japanese Recipe Book p 30.  One of my favourites as a quick evening meal, pressed into service because Adolph's Brauhaus was closed.  Used a barbary duck breast with fattier and more yellow skin than normal.  The skin came out rather chewy.  Somen noodles were good although maybe a touch overcooked.