Inari Zushi ( Cooked Fried Tofu Stuffed With Sushi Rice)

Hello,
Do you like INARI sushi?


We have various types of sushi or rolls in Japan, thick with seaweed outside roll is called FUTO-MAKI, square shaped using cured mackerel is called HAKO-ZUSHI, all different fish and other ingredients on the bed of sushi rice is called CHIRASHI-ZUSHI.


This sweet simmered tofu pocket sushi is a popular picnic dish and lunch box favorite. It is cooked with sugar or mirin, dashi, and soy sauce.


There are cooked packages available in Japanese markets, and I sometimes buy and keep in the freezer.


Inside is sushi rice, you can mix with sesame seeds, shiso leaf, pickled ginger... any thing you think is good.


The other day, I put shiso leaves and cheese in it. Some Japanese people might think that I am crazy, but when I first eat it, ( that was over 20 years ago!) that wasn't too bad.

That was one of the classes when I was taking in my junior collage year. I think that the cheese was called "processed cheese"( which two or more different kind of cheeses are mixed and reshaped into a semi hard type cheese, this is the most popular cheese in Japan back then and the only one I knew.) That idea blew my mind, I thought that it is weird combination, but the taste wasn't as bad as I imagined.

What do you think? Would you like to try it?



Talking about cheese, I have never tried any other kind of natural cheeses until I learned in one of the classes I was taking. Gouda, Cheddar, Brie, Emmenthar...That was my first encounter with the world of cheese for me.

Anyway, I cut a nice Cheddar into tiny cubes and mixed with sushi rice. The rich Cheddar and stickier short grain rice both have kind a similar texture and shiso gives a fresh accent.

Shiso Leaf

Hello,

This are SHISO-LEAVES, a wonderfully fragrant, clean minty flavored Japanese herb.

I purchased a little plant last summer. However, some Caterpillars have munched all the leaves within a couple of weeks and left only a few leaves and stems :( However, I left the pot on our porch and totally forgot about it for a long time...

Last December, after it had stormed continuously for a week, I noticed the leaves were growing again and they really looked nice and healthy, like it supposed to the past summer the way I wanted them to be.

So, during all of January I was able to enjoy the Shiso, using a fresh summer herb in the middle of winter time was great.

In the U.S., SHISO is called "Japanese mint leaf", or "Beefsteak Leaf", but correctly it is "Perilla" in English and it has nothing to do with plants of any mint family.

In a sushi restaurant, this is always placed along with shredded daikon raddish for sashimi dish. These leaves are also great with white fish, tuna. I like tuna rolls with chopped shiso with a lot a wasabi in it, gives the roll a very refreshing taste.

Now it's February and they are still alive, I don't know how long I can enjoy this unexpected wonderful moment and what's going to happen to them, but it's lovely to see these leaves at this time of year, freshly picked.

Gyoza (Japanese Dumpling)

Happy New Year!

How are you?

I have been trying to develop a Gyoza recipe since late November, for next cooking class coming in February at local cooking school.

I'd love to have all students make Gyoza skin too, but it wouldn't allow to finish with other dishes during the class time if we make the Gyoza skin :(
That would be great if I can do a class like, "all about Gyoza class", with a lots of different kind of ingredients and hand made skin.

And this class's main theme is "UMAMI", so I want to introduce a lot of umami ingredients while in the class too.

For Gyoza recipe that I am trying to develop, I want to use ground pork, dried shiitake mushroom, bamboo shoot, mung beans thread, and a lot of fresh ginger and garlic. This is the photo I made the other day with those ingredients.

Gyoza is one of Japanese favorite, and great with rice, ramen noodle, and beer (my father loves to have Gyoza with his favorite beer!)

I am going to talk and teach about how to wrap it, and how to cook Gyoza for nice crispy looking and some tasty tips.

I hope people are excited as I am and like it.

Stew in Bread Cup

Hello,

When I want to make a quick dinner, I sometimes use a can of cream of mushroom and make a stew with chicken, a lot of vegetables, and short pasta in it. This dish helps me a lot especially when I don't have much time to cook.

For a chenge, I put puff pastry on each bowl with the stew in it and make a pot pie, sometimes put whole stew in a caselol and sprinkle some cheese and bake it. With one can, I can make a pretty good amount of stew for two of us, so it appeares on our table on the next day, too.

The other day, I made cup with bread and put some left over stew in it.

It turned out very pretty :)

I used some sliced bread that I bought from the local grocery store, lay it in a muffin tin with little butter. The size was perfect, and the soft crum easily fitted in the tin and the top of the bread set like flower petal around nicely.


Left over stew turned out nice brunch next day!

Kanten Jelly With Kinako (Roasted Soy Flour) and Maple Syrup

Hello,

Time really flies!  It's the end of the year now, and there are only a couple of weeks left for 2010!

I was happy that I could get the opportunity to be able to teach some cooking classes this year.

I still need to learn and improve more and I'd love to continue to challenge next year too.

Lately, my favorite OYATSU (おやつ) is Kanten jelly with KINAKO powder and maple syrup or honey.

Kanten is made without any sweetness or flavor just as it is, and I sprinkled KINAKO powder and drizzled maple syrup from the top, that's it. And it's made in 30 min.(easy!)

KINAKO (黄粉) is a Japanese soy flour. It is very yellowish flour, but it gets brownish color once it gets wet. I have once bought soy flour in the market, I meant to buy KINAKO, but that was totally different. KINAKO is flour of roasted Japanese soy beans.

You should try once, the smell is SO different, it has very roastie flavor.

KINAKO also have a great nutrient, Fiber.

By the way, I used GOLDMINE brand Kanten flakes a few times in the past, including the dish in the photos above. Their directions says to use, 1 tbsp. of Kanten flakes with 1 cup (240cc) of water, but 300cc is OK for me, because it takes about 5 min. or so to melt all the flakes in simmering water. Still, the flakes don't melt completely, but it molds nicely and properly. There are some flakes left in the bottom of jello, which looks like little patterns (can you see the milky color spot from the image?) and gives a little texture :)

I have no idea how many people have read my blog this year, but Thank You So Much for reading, and I hope you have a happy and delicious holiday season!

Sunomono - 3 ways to enjoy

Hello,

Sunomono (Marinated Vegetable-Cucumber is mainly used in this sweetened vinegar dish) makes a nice side dish not a main course, but it is a great dish which gives a pleasant, wonderful accent to a meal.

Also it's always been said that vinegar is good for you with a lot of great effects to your body.
And acidity=sourness is one of the basic taste that human tongue can detect.

For me, a little dish with a vinegar-ish taste is great side dish, I prefer along with a rice dish.

Rice, Miso soup, a couple of nice Okazu (side dishes) , and little Sunomono, this is what i would consider to be a perfect meal.

And the greatest thing is you can make everything very easily with any vegetable you like, vinegar, sugar, and little bit of salt.

I will introduce to you - 3 different ideas to flavor up your Sumomono.

This is Japanese eggplant, daikon radish, Persian cucumber, and shiso leaves.

Shiso leaves are very popular here now, they can give a great flavor and a clean taste to any dish. I would say this is the most used and favored herb among Japanese people.

I love to add Shiso leaves to Sumomono, but at the very end, right before you eat. If you want to use Shiso leaves for vinegared and hot (temperature) dish,
please add at the end in order to keep their nice green and purple color.

For this one, Kohlrabi, Zucchini, and carrots, sliced with peeler.
I used a unfamiliar ingredient for Japanese Sunomono - Kohlrabi and Zucchini.
But both have a great taste as Sunomono. It's sliced very thin with a peeler so you can eat it fresh and the vinegar is soaked up and marinated quickly.

To use these unfamiliar ingredients this dish worked out pretty good.

This one, cucumber, wakame seaweed, tomato, sakura-ebi (dried-shrimp), and shio-kombu (salted, shredded-kelp).

Shio-kombu contains enough salt and UMAMI (tastiness), so I prepared each ingredient and tossed together with little rice vinegar and then chilled in the fridge for an hour. Dried-shrimp has a great UMAMI flavor too, so it gets tastier when marinated in the fridge. There is no sugar or salt added.


AMAZU (sweetened vinegar)

Rice Vinegar                     1/3 cup
Cane Sugar                       5 tbsp.

Vegetables(sliced or cut)    about 2 cups
Salt                                1/2 tsp.

1) Mix vinegar and sugar well until sugar is dissolved.(you can heat the vinegar, but just a little, never boiled!)
2) Slice or cut vegetables and sprinkle salt and toss. Let it sit for 30 min.
3) Squeeze water from the vegetables and add the vinegar mixture to marinate.
4) Keep marinated it inside of the fridge at least 2-3 hours.
*You can keep it in an air-tight container for few days. 

Strawberry and Peach Crumbles

Hello,

I don't write about baking so often, but I love baking. However, I am not good at it as much as I love it, even though I do know my oven's habits pretty good by now. As often as I have baked and used not just this oven, but other ovens as well, I am still not as happy with my level of baking compared to what I think it should be.

I always try to create my own version with a healthier twist; using canola oil instead of butter, wheat flour or other milled-grains instead of breached all-purpose flour...It comes out great sometimes, but not all the time. Some ingredients are supposed to be prepared a certain way, but I try to omit or add those steps and this causes a huge mess sometimes.

Anyway, I made a strawberry and peach crumbles as my husband's request the other day. I made from scratch; panko, brown sugar, Cinnamon, graham cracker, and butter. All ingredients are left-over or always in the pantry as staples. This is a typical pattern of failure, making things like this...

But, it came out pretty well this time!

The sweetness was not too heavy, lighter crumbles, and juicy tender strawberries and yellow peaches were cooked just right.

BUT, I didn't save the memo on how much of each ingredient I used, and I can't remember the recipe of it! I sometimes do that!