Tag Archives: japanese cooking

Sukiyaki

Leave a reply

ingredients:

½ pound spinach
8 leeks, white parts only
2 onions
½ cup mushrooms
celery stalks
10 ounces bamboo shoots
1 pound 5 ounces slightly marbled beefsteak
3 Tablespoons peanut oil
4 eggs
For the sauce:
½ cup beef bouillon
½ cup soy sauce
4 teaspoons sake (Japanese rice wine)

instructions:

  1. Peel and wash all the vegetables. Chop the onions, mushrooms, celery, and bamboo shoots. Cut the meat into very thin slices.
  2. Prepare the sauce: Mix the bouillon, soy sauce, sake and sugar.
  3. At the table: Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onions and meat. Stir. Add the celery and mushrooms. Sprinkle with ⅓ of the sauce. Add the bamboo shoots and other vegetables, then another ⅓ of the sauce. Cook for 10 minutes and add the rest of the sauce. Cook for 5 more minutes and serve.
  4. Give each person a bowl containing a beaten egg yolk to be sued as a sauce to dip each morsel of meat or vegetable.

All preliminary steps of preparing the vegetables and sauce are done in the kitchen. The final cooking is done at the table in a chafing dish. In Japan, the frying pan is shallow and very large; the sukiyaki ingredients vary according to the season. Vermicelli is sometimes added.

©️ Shufunotomo Co., Ltd., Japan, 1971. Published in the United States and Canada by BOBLEY PUBLISHING, a division of Illustrated World Encyclopedia, Inc. Printed in Japan.

Okara with Chicken and Vegetables

Leave a reply

Okara is the soy bean residue from making tofu (bean cake). It is usually available at tofu shops. Okara itself is an excellent ingredient used as an extender for making meat loves or hamburger patties. Highly nutritious and uses what might ordinarily be wasted.

2 cups okara (soy bean residue)
⅓ cup boneless chicken meat, chopped
2 dried mushrooms (shiitake, stems removed, soaked in ½ cup warm water for 15 minutes, squeezed dry and chopped
¼ cup fresh string beans, diced
1 medium size carrot, cut short like matchsticks
1 Tablespoon soy sauce (Japanese shoyu)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
dashes MSG (optional)
1 Tablespoon oil for frying
2 green onions, chopped

Save mushrooms soaking water and add it to saucepans along with ingredients. Cook over low heat for 8 minutes. Stir occasionally so contents will not scorch. Set aside. Heat a frying pan and add oil. Add okara. Stir so it will not burn. Add cooked mixture. Cook about 4 minutes more on low heat until well heated throughout. Stir constantly to prevent bringing. Taste and adjust seasonings, if desired. Add chopped green onions just before removing from heat. Mix together.

Serves 6

©️ Shufunotomo Co., Ltd. Japan 1974

Gleaming Jewels

1 Reply

Top of stove

This glistening “gelatin-type” dessert is light, tasty and a different approach from the usual Japanese sweets. It sets at room temperature and is entirely unusual in texture from Western style jelled desserts. There is an extra bonus in this creation. Agar agar is seaweed and tasteless by itself. Highly nutritious and has advantage of “holding up” even on a moderately warm day where regular gelatin would melt.

2 long sticks red agar agar (Japanese kanten) this amount equal to ½ ounce agar agar
3 cups water
1 ⅓ cups sugar
dash salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup crushed canned pineapple packed in heavy sweet syrup or canned mandarin oranges, juice combined with fruit and measured together.

Wash and squeeze agar agar in a bowl with lots of cold water to remove any sediment. Rinse and remove all water by squeezing agar agar. Some red coloring will be lost in this rinsing process. Place agar agar in sauce pan. Add 3 cups water. Soak 30 minutes. Then cook over medium heat. Stir until agar agar is dissolved. Add sugar and salt. Stir again. Strain through a fine sieve into a 9 inch square pan. Add lemon juice. Stir again. After 15 minutes add fruit. When set, cut into desired shapes.

©Shufunotomo Co., Ltd. Japan 1974