Tag

Brown Rice Vinegar

Autumn Food, Blog, Spring Food, Summer Food, Winter Food

Kabu Gyoza

I decided to make gyoza for lunar new year, but instead of using the normal gyoza wrappers I used slices of turnip.
You will need a medium sized peeled turnip or daikon radish thinly sliced into rounds.
Make your filling, I used soy mince the kind you reconstitute in hot water. I used around a cup of this in a bowl with a little hot water, do not add to much water or it will make it too wet.
Then add to a frying pan some thinly chopped veggies. I used a mix of hakusai  (Chinese cabbage), carrot and green onion, you could also add some diced shiitake. Just as a note I found slicing the carrot thinly into strips with a potato peeler then chopping it helps not to make the carrot to thick or it won’t cook properly. When the veggies are sautéed add this to your soy mince in the bowl.
Add a splash of tamari and mirin and a teaspoon of ginger juice. Then add a teaspoon of kuzu to a bowl and mix in a little water to make a slurry and add this to your mixture, this will help to thicken it. Add some salt and pepper and put everything back in your frying pan and sauté it all for a little while to thicken it and cook your filling.

Put your slices of Kabu or daikon into a steamer and steam until they are translucent.
Wipe some oil onto the surface of a frying pan with some kitchen towl.

Start to fill your Kabu wrappers, with your filling by putting the filling to one side and folding the other side over to make a half moon shape.

Keeping adding them to your frying pan until they are all done.

Fry on both sides until the Kabu is browned. If you want cook the filling a little more you can place them in the oven.

Now make a dipping sauce.

Add equal amounts of tamari (soy sauce), sesame oil and brown rice vinegar and a little ginger. Give it all a mix.

To serve you can sprinkle the gyoza with sesame seeds and a sprinkle of togarashi ( chilli spice ). You can also add some chilli threads and chopped green onion.

Blog, Winter Food

Pickled Lotus Root (Su Renkon) 酢れんこん With Yuzu

A few days to go before new year in Japan it’s time to start preparing what food to make for Osechi. The new year Osechi Ryori is considered the most important meal of the year, and lots of time and care is taken to prepare it. It starts a few days before with deciding what will be made and collecting any ingredients needed.
Here is a shopping list of things you might need to buy.

kombu and dried shiitake for making dashi stock

mirin and tamari to add flavour to broths and marinades

Brown rice vinegar for making tsukemono (pickles)

konnyaku for adding to simmered vegetables

soba noodles for New Year’s Eve plus aburaage

Mochi rice cakes for ozoni New Year’s Day soup along with white miso paste.

Kuri Kanroni ( sweet candied chestnuts for making Kuri Kinton

Kuro-mame black soybeans

Vegetables lotus root, carrot, daikon radish, mongetout, taro potato, Kabocha, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, Japanese sweet potato,gobo,green onion, komatsuna or mizuna.

Yuzu and Yuzu juice

Sake and amazake

I like to start by making any tsukemono Japanese pickles so they can stay in the fridge a few days to be ready on the day. This year I am making Su-Renkon. Lotus root (renkon) is an imported food over the new year, the holes symbolises an unobstructed view to the future.

You can use fresh or boiled vacuum sealed lotus root depending on what you can find.

It is popular to make Hana-renkon flower cut lotus root for decoration. Which is easy to do. Cut your piece of lotus root in half and cut down in between the holes and take out the slices like this.

When you have done this you can cut the lotus root into slices.

Use a cup of water and a piece of kombu and let it soak with the lotus root for 30 minutes in a pan.


In another pan add two tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon of mirin, a few slices of Yuzu rind and half a cup of brown rice vinegar and a little salt. Heat up the vinegar until the sugar dissolves then pour it into the pan with the kombu and renkon.
Start to heat the pan and then just as it starts to boil take out the kombu, then simmer down for about 15 minutes.

Pour your lotus root and liquid into a container, add a few slices of sliced red chilli pepper and a drizzle of fresh Yuzu juice over the lotus root. Let it cool then seal and refrigerate. Serve as part of your Osechi on New Year’s Day.

 

 

 

 

 

Blog, Winter Food

Kabu & Yuzu Tsukemono

I managed to get some Japanese turnips ( Kabu ) they are delicious raw in salads and cooked in soups.


I especially like to make pickles with them and around the winter solstice they are  nice with Yuzu. Pickles are a must to serve with any Japanese style meal and these ones are ready basically the next day though the longer you leave them the softer they get. These pickles remind me of the kind you can get in the pickle shops in Kyoto

I hope you will enjoy making these easy pickles at home.

You will need a zip lock type bag.

Around three Kabu washed and with the tops and bottoms sliced off. If you have leaves still on your Kabu keep those wash them and chop them to pickle also ( I didn’t have leaves with mine so I chopped up a few komatsuna leaves to add)

Half a chopped red chilli pepper

A tablespoon of sliced fresh Yuzu rind

Two tablespoons of fresh Yuzu juice

A tablespoon each of mirin and brown rice vinegar

Two teaspoons of salt ( I used freshly ground Himalayan pink salt )

One tablespoon of finely sliced kombu kelp that has been soaked in water which will make it easier to cut. I had been given a bag of sliced kombu and I used that.

Slice you Kabu into rounds and add everything into your ziplock bag. Then massage the Kabu so everything coats the Kabu well, close the bag and place in your fridge.


Every few hours I massaged the Kabu just on the outside of the bag. The next day it will be ready to eat but it’s even better after a few more days.

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Oroshi-Soba And Hanami Meal

This year many of us will not be able to have hanami parties outside with friends and will be celebrating at home . Just as the Sakura blooms and falls let’s hope that the world situation will pass in time . I decided to make a spring meal although the weather turned today from warm to windy and quite chilly, however I’m lucky enough to have a cherry tree in my garden and do not have to go outside for hanami and the warmth of the last few days had started to open the blooms.
My meal consisted of vinegared cucumber and vegan crab salad, Temari sushi with vegan sashimi, Oroshi soba and sake sakura kanten jelly.

I prepared the cucumber by salting first, after I had washed the salt off after about 15 mins I  then added this to a bowl with jackfruit, lime juice, brown rice vinegar, chopped red chilli and sesame seeds. You can also see the vegan crab meat recipe on my recipe for Vegan crab sushi salad. Having vinegared cucumber always reminds me of a child when I would go round to my grandmothers house for Sunday tea. It would take her all afternoon to prepare a massive Sunday spread for the family. My mother would help my grandmother while my father and grandfather would go for a drink at the local pub. I would play outside in my grand parents garden often sneaking in to their greenhouse to pick a ripe tomato directly off the vine (nothing better).

I also made bite sized sushi balls known as Temari sushi. With seasoned sushi rice and mock tuna sashimi. You can find Temari sushi recipes on my recipe page plus how to make the vegan tuna on my recipe for tekka don ( tuna rice bowl ).

Oroshi Soba is a chilled minimalist dish, ideal for summer. It consists of chilled soba noodles in a dashi broth. Oroshi refers to the grated daikon. By adding this and a few simple ingredients like chopped green onion it makes a refreshing filling meal.

This was the last of my daikon I had brought back from London a few weeks ago when I went to see the kimono exhibition at the V&A.

Now we are all confined to our homes and getting ingredients is becoming increasingly harder, so for me not only was this meal special because of the daikon but the soba noodles had been sent to me from Japan . I’m already running low on Japanese food supplies as I was expecting to be in Japan in a few weeks but now that’s not the case and on line ordering is mostly sold out. Each meal is going to be precious as I use up the last of my ingredients. When all this is over I’m going to seriously stock up ! Probably taking empty suitcases to bring back food from Japan. I’m also really going to appreciate all the more my next trip to Japan and I think any of us will appreciate our travels and holidays a lot more from now on. For me even something so simple as going to the supermarket which was something I actually enjoyed is now full of anxiety.
It was with great joy I managed to add a veg box into my basket in my online delivery which had been out of stock all week. So many things we take for granted.
With the last of the sake in the fridge I added it to a pan with a little fruit tea ( you could use fruit juice ) and made a jelly with kanten flakes. Adding a salted Sakura into the jelly mould .

As I sit safe at home, I give thanks to all the hospital staff, doctors, nurses and people in the community, police, delivery drivers, super market workers and online shops, that are helping us all get through these trying times. Thank you to you all . I wish you all now more than ever health and safety, we can get through this in time. It’s going to be hard but we must remain strong. Now is the time to maybe start up a new hobby or rekindle an old one. Cherish loved ones and turn to simpler times. Hopefully as we go through the year things will get easier and more back to normal, but let’s not forget this and how we may often take things for granted. Like the Sakura life is fleeting.

Autumn Food, Blog, Spring Food, Summer Food

Kyuri Itame

Cucumber is an ingredient that everyone uses in their salad making. It’s cooling in the summer and has a high water content so is hydrating. In Japan they even serve it at summer festivals resting on ice they are chilled on a stick . However in Japan they also cook cucumber and this was something I was intrigued to try out. We cook zucchini which is similar so let’s try cucumber.

This dish is so easy but so flavourful that after I made it I thought I really wanted to share it with you. Just simply serve on rice maybe with a miso soup and you have a wonderful meal.

I like to use a peeler and peel the skin into stripes it makes the dish more appealing but you don’t have to do that . I used ridge cucumber but you can use any cucumber you like. Depending on how many people your making this for I used half a large cucumber per person.

Cut the cumber at an angle into thick slices and then half the slices.

Put your slices into a pan. Mix together equal parts of  mirin,tamari or soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, brown rice vinegar, a little salt and sesame paste . I use Japanese sesame paste if you can’t get it then use tahini. If you live in the UK you can buy it mail order from sous chef the link to their website is either at the bottom or at the side of the page depending on your browser.

Mix together adding a little water. I used one tablespoon of each for each half a cucumber also add a teaspoon of grated peeled ginger.

You could also add a little miso as an alternative to the sesame paste for a different flavour .

Heat your pan and pour in the mixture and sprinkle in some sesame seeds. I also added some radish for colour. Stir fry until browned slightly and the sauce has thickened. Spoon out onto warm freshly cooked rice.

Blog, Spring Food

Pickled Myoga Ginger & Jackfruit Avocado

On my last trip to Japan I was lucky enough to find some fresh Myoga ginger. It’s not something I have ever seen back home so I bought some. I decided to pickle it by slicing it and blanching in boiling water then adding it to a jar with brown rice vinegar and a few pieces of Yuzu peel. Five month later I decided to open the jar and use some.

Myoga is from the ginger family but the part eaten is actually the edible flower bud  and shoots of the plant and not the root. First you will need to prepare your jackfruit. I used tinned jackfruit and after simmering it in boiling water and draining it  I pulled apart the jackfruit into shreds discarding any seeds . You only need to use around a quarter of the tinned jackfruit so you can use the rest for something else like in a curry or with a bbq sauce for instance. Add your jackfruit to a bowl about two tablespoons full then to this add half a sliced bud of pickled Myoga and a half teaspoon of the pickling vinegar it was in, a tablespoon of vegan kewpie mayonnaise, some sliced cucumber and a half teaspoon of wasabi powder. Give it all a good mix. Half an avocado and take out the stone. Add the jackfruit filling on top of the avocado. This makes a really nice refreshing starter to a meal. If you live in the UK you may not be able to get myoga ginger. You could maybe substitute with pickled red onion and use a vegan mayonnaise.

Blog, Summer Food

Marine Day Vegan Crab Cakes

Marine Day ,Umi no Hi also known as Sea day or Ocean day. A Japanese national holiday which is celebrated on the 3rd Monday in July. I was lucky enough to visit Enoshima island for Marine day one year ( see travel posts Enoshima & Kamakura) . This day is to give thanks for the ocean . Many people flock to the beaches on this day. I thought it would be nice to make an ocean inspired meal and decided to make crab cakes . Now if you see my recipe for crab salad you will see I used jackfruit so I decided to do the same for the crab cakes .

Cook and shred your jackfruit like in the crab salad recipe.

Then mash 1/2 block of firm tofu in a bowl,add a splash of brown rice vinegar,a teaspoon of fresh chopped red chilli,1/2 teaspoon of onion granules,1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast,one chopped green onion,1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard,1 tablespoon of vegan mayonnaise,1 tablespoon of ao-nori,the juice of 1/4 lemon,salt and pepper to taste and a tablespoon of chopped pickled gherkin. Stir this altogether and then add to your prepared jackfruit. Now you have your mixture,create your cakes by putting an amount of mixture into some plastic wrap depending on how large you want your crab cakes. Press and form into balls and then flatten slightly. Do this until you have no mixture left. Then take a shallow dish and coat the bottom with panko breadcrumbs.

Press your cakes lightly into the crumbs. At this point you can either bake your crab cakes or add them to a slightly oiled skillet pan . Cook until warm and golden. Top with tartar sauce, chopped chives and a sprinkle of Japanese shichimi pepper.

Makes a great alternative to fish and chips .

Happy marine Day . We do not need to eat the living creatures of the ocean.

Autumn Food, Blog, Spring Food, Summer Food, Winter Food

Tofu Dengaku (In A Miso Umeboshi Glaze)

Dengaku, a miso glaze traditionally used on tofu,daikon or eggplant ( see Nasu Dengaku for a further recipe.) This one has lots of umami flavour as I used Umeboshi plum giving it that sweet,salty and sour taste. To make the glaze mash one tablespoon of Umeboshi plum with one tablespoon of white miso paste or any other miso you prefer like red or hatcho. Add one teaspoon of maple syrup or malted brown rice syrup,a teaspoon of mirin and a teaspoon of brown rice vinegar and mix together. Now you can use this to glaze your tofu. Cut your tofu into cube or steaks if you like and spread on the glaze. Bake in the oven until the tofu is golden. Top onto warm rice to make Tofu Dengaku Donburi. Add a sprinkle of sesame seeds and chopped green onion.

You can use the glaze for eggplant either cut into rounds or lengthways and score a cross hatch pattern into the flesh. This is called kakushi-bocho,this will help the eggplant absorb the flavours while baking. Bake in the oven until tender,again adding some sesame seeds and green onion before serving.

Finally Daikon Dengaku this one is particularly nice in winter. Peel and cut your daikon into at least one inch rounds and simmer until tender in some kombu dashi,do not throw away the water after as it makes nice broth for miso soup. When tender you can serve your daikon as is with some of your miso paste on top .

or why not pan sear first to give your daikon a crispy outer coating. I also like to add a little dashi broth with a dash of tamari when serving my daikon in the bottom of the bowl. Makes for a comforting dish. In this particular paste I added a splash of yuzu citrus ,if you have any paste left over just add it to a jar with a little water put on the lid and give it a little shake for the perfect salad dressing.

Blog, Summer Food

Vegan Crab Sushi Salad

I have been seeing people use artichoke or hearts of palm for a fake crab meat but I have decided to use jackfruit. It makes a great filling for sushi rolls or like I have done here an open sushi salad.

First you need to drain a tin of jackfruit make sure you use the young green kind in water and not the one in syrup.

Emty in a pan of boiling water and simmer until the pieces push apart between your thumb and finger when pressed. This normally takes about 20 mins. Then drain your jackfruit. This part is a little time consuming but it’s very worth the effort. Take each piece of jackfruit and squeeze between your thumb and finger,discarding any seeds that may pop out. The jackfruit breaks up into shreds. Place in a bowl until you have done them all. That was the hard part. Now mix in two tablespoons of brown rice vinegar,the juice of half a lime,some salt and pepper to taste,some chopped coriander and finely diced red chilli. I like to also add a tablespoon of aonori. Aonori as it’s known in japan is green laver,a type of edible seaweed. Rich in minerals it is used dried in many dishes like Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki . If you would like to make these non vegan dishes I have made them vegan for you so just search for them and the recipe is there.

Mix everything together. And chill in the fridge.Place some crispy toasted nori in a bowl I actually like to use the sea crispies by Clearspring but any nori will do. Then spoon on top some cooled sushi rice with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds,and then add your fake crabmeat add on some chopped chives if you wish to garnish.

A healthy vegan dish without costing the life of a sea creature . What could be better than that.

Blog, Summer Food

Yuzu Battered Tofu & Sticky Orange Sauce

After seeing Marc Matsumoto create an orange chicken on Instagram I was inspired to go out and make a vegan version of my own.

Before starting make up some rice in your rice cooker and leave it on warm ready for later.

First I decided to use my yuzu battered tofu for this but you could just as easily use baked tofu or just plain if you prefer.

To make my yuzu battered tofu all you need is a block of tofu that has been drained and cut into large cubes. Then in a bowl add three tablespoons of plain or rice flour one tablespoon of yuzu juice and eight tablespoons of water. Mix together to form a thick batter. Coat your cubes in the batter then heat some coconut butter and shallow fry the coated tofu . Then drain on kitchen paper.
To make the sauce is as follows:
Use a zester to zest the peel off an orange and put the peel in a pan then slice the orange in half and juice the orange and add the juice to the pan with the zest. Next add one tablespoon of brown rice vinegar,one teaspoon of tamari,one teaspoon of coconut palm sugar,one tablespoon of grated ginger using a Japanese ginger grater if possible,half a teaspoon of chilli flakes and one tablespoon of orange marmalade give it a stir and start to heat up the sauce. Make a slurry of kuzu starch by adding one teaspoon of kuzu and half a teaspoon of water to a small bowl and mix then add this to your sauce. Turn up the heat a little and let it simmer until the sauce is all nice and sticky and thick. Then drop in your battered tofu and give it all a good coating.
Serve with rice and maybe add some chopped red chilli or green onion to garnish and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

(I also think maybe adding some sliced bell peppers to this would also be nice just cook them up in the sauce before adding the tofu)

Blog, Summer Food

Tofu cheese

This cheese is totally nut free and made from soy milk. I adapted this from my friend in Japan cotokimiki on Instagram so I would like to thank her for the inspiration on this recipe.
This cheese has a crumbly texture very similar I think to ricotta so it’s a good one to add to pasta like on the top of spaghetti. I also think it’s a nice one for breakfast maybe with some refreshing marmalade.

All you need is to add 300ml of soy milk to a pan with three tablespoons of brown rice vinegar and one heaped tablespoon of nutritional yeast and a 1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan pink salt heat it gently but do not let it boil. As the soy milk starts to heat you will see it start to turn into cheese. Gently give it a stir then pour out the liquid into a cheese bag or muslin cloth and give it some gentle squeezes to drain off excess liquid all you are left with in the bag is a soft cheese and hang it over night at room temperature. The next day turn out your cheese into a bowl. At this point if you wish roll your cheese in some fresh chopped chives or chopped cranberries and refrigerate for 24 hours and it’s ready.

Blog

Somen Inari

Somen are very thin noodles and I always think these delicate noodles are at their best served cold.
Instead of stuffing my Inari pouches with rice I decided to stuff them with somen noodles and add a light no oil dressing .
The dressing was really simple just yuzu juice,mirin and brown rice vinegar.
This makes a really refreshing summer dish
Why not give it a try.

Blog, Summer Food

Japanese potato salad


A nice side dish for summer is a Japanese potato salad .

You will need

two small potatoes

about 6 rounds of thinly cut cucumber then cut into quarters

about a tablespoon of finely diced red onion

1 teaspoon of brown rice vinegar +1/2 teaspoon for the Mayo

salt

unrefined granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon for the potatoes and 1/2 teaspoon for the Mayo

2 tablespoons of vegan mayonnaise

1/4 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

First boil or steam two small peeled potatoes until tender and mash with a fork when done . Add to the potatoes brown rice vinegar and sugar mix and add salt and pepper to taste.

combine quartered cucumber and onion with salt and mix leave for ten  mins then rinse.

Add to the potato the onion and cucumber .

Now to make a kewpie style mayonnaise

kewpie Mayo is pretty famous in Japan it has a picture of a baby on the front . However it contains egg , so we are going to make one of our own.

mix 1/4 teaspoon of Dijon mustard with the mayonnaise then mix in 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of brown rice vinegar lemon juice and salt to taste .

Mix the mayonnaise with the potato and serve with watercress on the side .