Thanks for the Meal

Tag: onion

  • Japanese Dry Curry – Pilaf Style

    Japanese Dry Curry – Pilaf Style

    japanese dry curry pilaf recipe

    We all know about saucy liquidy stew-like Japanese traditional curries—so many variations to choose from and try and make….but what about Japanese Dry Curry-Pilaf Style?

    Have you ever made it? Quick, easy and tasty, and a wonderful way to use up all those bits and pieces lingering in your refrigerator.

    I don’t know about you, but I have been on the lookout for delicious and fast dishes that don’t take me hours in the kitchen, which is hot at the moment and seems to have become my first home in recent months of sheltering in place here in the Bay area.

    Hot Weather is Curry Weather

    I also find anything with curry stimulates the appetite, always a good thing in hot weather. There is a hint of sweetness in the use of raisins, but those can be optional, but it is a nice balance to the savory flavors of this dish.

    dry curry japanese recipe

    This is a very forgiving dish and it is fun to create your own and new combination of ingredients. Use my recipe first as your guide, then go wild, and let me know what you came up with! It is also the perfect dish for a bento lunch and or served at room temperature.

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    japanese dry curry pilaf

    Japanese Dry Curry – Pilaf Style

    Lucy Seligman
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    Course lunch dish, Side Dish
    Cuisine Japanese
    Servings 4

    Ingredients
      

    • 3 to 4 cups cooked Japanese rice
    • 7 to 8 ounces meat: such as ground beef, thick bacon, ham, chicken or seafood, such as small shrimp or scallops, chopped
    • 3-1/2 ounces carrots, finely chopped
    • 3-1/2 ounces green peppers, finely chopped
    • 3-1/2 ounces onion, finely chopped
    • 3 ounces green beans, thinly sliced
    • Salad oil as needed
    • 2 tbsps curry powder (Japanese-style), or to taste and desired hotness
    • 2 to 3 tbsps raisins (soaked in warm water to soften), drained, optional
    • Salt and pepper to taste

    Garnish:

    • 3 ounces cooked green peas*

    Instructions
     

    • Chop all vegetables and meat (if necessary) into roughly the same size. Sauté vegetables in a little oil, until soft. Add desired protein. Continue cooking until done, adding curry powder and raisins.
    • Add the cooked rice, chopping it up (use the back of your wooden spoon), and combining with the rest of the ingredients. Cook until the rice is heated through.
    • Just before serving, add in the green peas and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

    Notes

    Other garnishes you could use: Minced parsley or some boiled Broccoli florets, or you could do a garnish of Japanese pickles, such as crunchy Rakkyo (pickled Japanese scallions), the traditional garnish for Japanese curry.  You can also garnish the plate with avocado and red onion slices in a light vinaigrette to make a more complete meal.
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Leave a note in the comments section and let me know if you made this recipe and how it turned out!

  • Nanbanzuke: Marinated Fried Fish from Nagasaki

    Nanbanzuke: Marinated Fried Fish from Nagasaki

    NanbanzukePortuguese and Spanish missionaries started trickling into Japan to spread the teachings of Christianity near the end of the Muromachi era (1392-1567), and their first foothold in Japan was Nagasaki. The Japanese took to referring to all Europeans as Nanbanjin or “Southern barbarians,” and gradually the term “nanban” came to mean anything related to European civilization; even the ship that brought the missionaries to the shores of Japan was referred to as nanbansen.

    In addition to importing a different religion and culture, the priests also sparked a culinary revolution of sorts. Nanban ryori (“Southern barbarian cuisine”) was a style of cooking characterized by deep-frying and the use of dried hot red peppers and onions, both of which the newcomers employed liberally in their cuisine. However, since the onion didn’t come to Japan until the seventeenth century and wasn’t popular until the Meiji era (1868-1912), Western cooks took to using Japanese leeks instead. The Japanese liked what they tasted and began creating dishes that used these two ingredients.

    One example is kamo nanban – soba with wild duck and leeks. By the Edo era (1603-1867) many cookbooks referred to any dish using leeks as nanban-style cooking. The preferred method of cooking in this Nagasaki regional cuisine was deep-frying. The frying of food, including tempura, can be traced back to the meatless Fridays the devoutly Catholic Europeans observed for religious reasons.

    Nanbanzuke (aka Nanban-zuke) is one facet of Nagasaki’s regional cooking style, and among its most enduring variations is Aji no Nanbanzuke. To make this dish, small horse mackerel are deep-fried and then marinated in a vinegar-based sauce that includes red peppers and leeks. Summer is considered the best season for horse mackerel, which is often served as sashimi, salt-grilled, boiled, or deep-fried. Many people think the latter is the best of all.

    During a recent trip back to Japan this summer, I not only enjoyed Aji no Nanbanzuke, but I helped cook a home-style version of this style of cooking using chicken and assorted vegetables. (I will post that recipe in the future.) What I like is that this is a pretty forgiving dish; an easy and delectable way to eat a lot of vegetables during hot and humid summer days, not to mention succulent fish and or chicken, and surprisingly light despite it being a fried dish!

    Leave a note in the comments section (see below) if you make this dish!

    Nanbanzuke

    Aji no Nanbanzuke

    Lucy Seligman
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    Course Main Course
    Cuisine Japanese
    Servings 4

    Ingredients
      

    • 8 small whole fresh aji (horse mackerel or sardines), cleaned, scaled, gutted, and deboned
    • 1 ½ teaspoons coarse sea salt
    • All-purpose white flour as needed
    • Vegetable oil for deep-frying

    Nanbansu (vinegar sauce)

    • 7 tablespoons cold water
    • 1 ½ tablespoons white sugar
    • 3 tablespoons sake
    • 2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
    • 1 or 2 small dried red peppers, seeded & sliced thinly
    • 3 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar, or to taste
    • ½ Japanese leek, white part only, charred & quartered or replace with 1 small onion, peeled & thinly sliced

    Garnish

    • Minced green onion to taste

    Optional Additional Vegetables if desired:

    • 1 or 2 piman (Japanese green pepper), seeded, cored and thinly sliced into strips
    • 1 small carrot, peeled and thinly sliced into strips

    Instructions
     

    • Wash the cleaned fish and sprinkle them with the sea salt. Let sit for 15 to 20 minutes, then wash the salt off in cold water and dry the fish well with paper towels. Dredge in flour. Deep-fry in the vegetable oil until the fish start to float and turn golden-brown. Drain quickly on paper towels, then place the still-hot fish in a shallow, nonaluminum container.
    • While the fish are being salted, make the sauce. Bring the water, sugar, sake, soy sauce, and red peppers to a boil. Turn the heat off and add the vinegar, leeks, and any other vegetables if using. Pour the sauce over the fish, let cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to two days, turning occasionally.
    • To server: Drain the fish and vegetables, and place on a serving plate. Sprinkle the fish generously with the minced green onions and drizzle a little of the sauce over them. Serve cold.
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Photo copyright: kandki / 123RF Stock Photo

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  • Yakisoba: The Noodle That Came In From The Cold

    Yakisoba: The Noodle That Came In From The Cold

    YakisobaLast year, my daughter’s Japanese teacher at the local high school asked me to teach about 40 kids how to make yakisoba. So one early morning, we crammed into the very small ‘parent’s’ kitchen, set up a number of different stations with electric frying pans, and cooked away. There wasn’t a leftover in sight, and it was a lot of fun. Not only is this a deliciously seductive recipe, but it is very easy to make and a great way to get kids to eat a lot of vegetables painlessly!

    Like any country, Japan has its traditional snack foods. Some of the tastiest can be sampled in the mobile food stalls known as yatai, found at public events, traditional theater, festivals, and fairs – especially at evening cherry blossom-viewing parties in April – and on many a street corner at night.

    The origins of yatai with prop-up roofs and plastic sheeting “walls” against the worst of the weather can be traced back to the early 1700s. A more primitive version, called a suburi yatai, which sold not only foodstuffs but also basic goods and fuel, dates from 1613, in the early Edo period (1603-1867). After a major earthquake in Edo (Tokyo) in 1700, these stalls started to sell dengaku (grilled tofu topped with sweetened miso), a cheap dish popular with traveling samurai as well as locals. Particularly in the aftermath of natural disasters and during other times of famine, yatai came into their own; the government regularly attempted to ban them, claiming that they caused too many fires or disturbed the peace, but by the eighteenth century they were all the rage, reaching a heyday in the 1780s. While early yatai had sold only dried, grilled, or boiled fish, vegetables, and a variety of desserts, by the 1780s they were offering everything from candy to tenpura.

    One of the most popular types of yatai food since the 1700s has been late-night soba (buckwheat noodle) snacks, known in those days as yotaka soba. A yotaka is a nighthawk, but it can also refer to a prostitute, and ladies of the night often ate soba at yatai after a hard evening’s work. The food being cheap but delicious, it was not uncommon for yotaka women to meet some of their customers also enjoying a restorative bowl of noodles before strolling home. Even now, office workers and students studying late into the night drop in at a yatai for midnight feasts of ramen (Chinese noodles).

    Yakisoba (Japanese-style chow mein) is another typical yatai recipe. Although Chinese noodles are used, the dish is entirely Japanese in origin, and has been sold at yatai in Tokyo since the late 1930s. It is thought to have developed as a variation on okonomiyaki, a pancake topped with vegetables and meat or fish and slathered with a sweet, thick sauce, which has been served at yatai since the Edo period. (See my Okonomiyaki recipe: www.thanksforthemeal.net/okonomiyaki)

    Addictive and filling, like many other yatai foods, yakisoba is very easy to make at home. For an informal party, use a large electric frying pan and cook at the dining table.

    This post may include affiliate links, so without costing you anything extra, I’ll earn a small percentage of the sales if you purchase these items through these links. Thank you for your support!

    Yakisoba

    JAPANESE-STYLE YAKISOBA

    Lucy Seligman
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    Course Main Course
    Cuisine Japanese
    Servings 4

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 medium-sized onion, peeled and chopped
    • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
    • 7 oz ground lean beef (200g)
    • Black pepper to taste
    • 7 oz chopped cabbage (200g)
    • 1 ¼ lb steamed Chinese noodles (550g )
    • 4 tablespoons water
    • 8 fl oz ready-made yakisoba or okonomiyaki sauce (if unavailable, use equal parts of Worcestershire sauce and ketchup) (240 ml)

    Garnish:

    • Aonori: seaweed flakes to taste
    • Beni shoga: red pickled ginger to taste

    Instructions
     

    • In a wok, deep frying pan, or large electric pan, sauté the onion and cabbage in the oil over medium heat until slightly soft. Add the ground beef and black pepper to taste. Cook, stirring constantly, until the beef begins to change color. Then add the noodles, separating the strands a little with your fingers as you put them in the pan. Continue to cook, stirring, for a few moments.
    • Finally pour in the water, then the yakisoba sauce, and mix well.
    • Serve on individual plates, passing the seaweed and pickled ginger separately to sprinkle over the noodles.
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
    yakisoba

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  • The Art of Ramen: Basic Chicken Stock For Ramen

    The Art of Ramen: Basic Chicken Stock For Ramen

    This is a simple yet delicious stock base to make for any of your Ramen recipes. If you want to try other bases for the stock you can use cracked pork bones (for a richer stock) and even shelled short-necked clams. You can also quickly sauté the clams in sesame oil for a lighter stock or mix these with the chicken to create a different tasting stock.

    This is one of five recipes in the “Art of Ramen” series.

    Ramen chicken stock

    The Art of Ramen: Basic Chicken Stock For Ramen

    Lucy Seligman
    4.50 from 2 votes
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    Ingredients
      

    • 1 chicken carcass or 7 ounces chicken wings cleaned**
    • 1 Japanese leek negi, cut in half
    • 1 medium-sized onion peeled and halved
    • 1 medium-sized carrot peeled and halved
    • 1 large knob ginger peeled and halved
    • 3 to 4 egg shells***
    • 7-1/2 cups water

    Instructions
     

    • Place all ingredients in a soup pot. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a high simmer, and cook, covered, for two to three hours, skimming of the scum occasionally. Strain the stock using a cheesecloth-lined colander; pressing down on the remaining ingredients with the back of a large wooden spoon to release all the flavor. If not used immediately, cool and freeze the stock until needed.

    Notes

    *This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled to yield enough stock for 10 to 15 servings. The stock can be frozen for later use. One serving is 1-1/4 cups.
    **Cracked pork bones (for a richer stock) and even shelled short-necked clams, quickly sautéed in sesame oil (for a lighter stock) can replace or be mixed with the chicken to create a different tasting stock.
    ***The egg shells help to kill the smell of the carcass and/or bones, and to absorb some of the scum.
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
    Basic Chicken Stock For Ramen
     

    Want More Ramen Recipes?

    Check out the Art of Ramen post with the history or ramen, ramen cooking tips, and all 5 reciepes in the Art of Ramen series:

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  • The Art of Ramen: Sapporo-Style Spicy Miso Flavoring for Ramen Soup

    The Art of Ramen: Sapporo-Style Spicy Miso Flavoring for Ramen Soup

    This is part of the “Art of Ramen” series.

    Spicy Miso Flavoring for Ramen Soup

    Sapporo-Style Spicy Miso Flavoring for Ramen Soup

    Lucy Seligman
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    Ingredients
      

    • 1 medium-sized onion peeled
    • 2 large garlic cloves peeled
    • 1 tablespoon lard*
    • 2 tablespoons raiyu spicy Chinese oil
    • ½ cup red miso
    • ½ cup white miso
    • ¼ cup soy sauce
    • 1 tablespoon sesame oil

    Instructions
     

    • Mash the onion and garlic together. Melt the lard in a frying pan and add the raiyu. Put in the onion/garlic mixture and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. In a small bowl, combine the misos, soy sauce and sesame oil. Add to the frying pan and cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened and bubbly. Set aside to cool. If refrigerated, it will keep for a few days.
    • When ready to serve, mix Miso flavoring into hot stock and stir to combine (about 2 tablespoons per serving). If refrigerated, it will keep for a few days.

    Notes

    *Lard may be replaced by oil in all the recipes, but, the flavor will change.
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Sapporo Style Spicy Miso Flavoring

    Want More Ramen Recipes?

    Check out the Art of Ramen post with the history or ramen, ramen cooking tips, and all 5 reciepes in the Art of Ramen series:

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