Karaage is Japanese fried chicken, and it is usually made with chicken thighs with skin. In this recipe, we use boneless and skinless chicken breasts which are much lighter. Chicken breasts could become bland and dry when cooked, so we marinate them well with the seasoning and freshly grated ginger and garlic. We also cut chicken into smaller bite size pieces. These bite sized fried chicken can be a great appetizer or a perfect main dish to pack in a Bento box.
Tuna Zuke Don (マグロ漬け丼）is a rice bowl dish with marinated Tuna. Fresh Sashimi tuna is flavored in a savory soy sauce-based sauce, and placed on top of Steamed Rice. It is really easy to make, but you can taste this restaurant-quality dish at home.
Warabimochi (Warabi Mochi, わらび餅) is a traditional Japanese dessert (wagashi) made from warabiko, a starch extracted from warabi (bracken) roots. The pure 100% warabi starch is rare today, but you can buy warabiko mixed with various kinds of starch such as sweet potato flour, usually sold as Warabimochiko (Warabi Mochi Ko).
We added more water and a bit more sugar than our original Warabi Mochi recipe and made it softer and sweeter. In addition to kinako (soybean flour) topping, kuromitsu (black sugar syrup) is poured on top. Served with green tea, it’s a fantastic dessert or a snack in the afternoon.
Today’s miso soup is made with kimchi and tofu. This miso soup is inspired by Korean Kimchi soup or Kimchi Jjigae, but it is not the authentic Korean soup. It’s rather a simple Japanese miso soup with kimchi in it. It’s lighter and milder than jigae (Korean stew).
You can have the soup simply as it is, or add some thinly sliced pork, seafood, or eggs to make it heartier.
Mentaiko Potato Salad is Mentaiko (spicy salted cod roe) mixed with mashed potato and seasoned with tangy Japanese mayonnaise. It’s a variation of regular Japanese potato salad, but it has become quite popular in Japan as a side dish in the last decade or so. Mentaiko Potato Salad is a great little dish next to a more substantial entree like Tonkatsu or Hamburger Steak, but also a nice item to fill a corner of a Bento box too.
Udon Carbonara is an Udon noodle dish which is mixed in a scrumptiously eggy and cheesy Carbonara sauce. Spaghetti Carbonara is one of the most popular Italian pasta dishes in Japan, and people there just love the taste of this pasta with savory creamy sauce. This Carbonara sauce may not be authentic Italian, but it is super easy to make for anybody. In fact, it actually takes only 15 minutes from start to finish. The rich Carbonara sauce clings to the chunky, chewy Udon noodles, and it is absolutely delicious. It is certainly not traditional, but it’s a kind of dish Japanese people eat as an everyday meal. Hope you try it!
Today’s miso soup uses Satsumaimo Japanese sweet potato.(さつまいも) Satsumaimo is a great vegetable for sweet dishes and desserts, and it works in miso soup very well too. You can add meat and other vegetables to this, but we wanted it to be simple here so that the taste of sweet potato is accentuated in the dish. Enjoy the flavor combination of Satsumaimo’s mild sweetness and savory miso. Hope you like it!
Nori Bento or Nori Ben is a Bento lunch box filled with Steamed Rice, Nori roasted seaweed, fried fish, and other side dishes. It’s been one of the most widely known and loved Bento for a long time in Japan. Nori Bento is nothing complicated or fancy, but it’s just a comforting kind of Bento any time.
Melon Pan Toast tastes just like Melon Pan, but it’s so much easier to make it with only 5 simple ingredients. Melon Pan (メロンパン) is a popular Japanese sweet bread, and it’s found everywhere in Japan from bakeries to convenience stores. Soft white Japanese milk bread is covered with a thin cookie crust on top, and the signature grid lines on the surface resembles a melon even though the flavor is nothing like melon. Homemade melon pan is very tasty of course, but it’s quite time consuming to make it from scratch. If you have a sudden craving for a melonpan, try this much simpler version! You will have a scrumptious melonpan-like toast ready in 10 minutes!
Today’s miso soup is made with Napa Cabbage, Onion, and Tenkasu Tempura Bits. Thinly sliced nappa cabbage and onion are cooked till soft in the dashi broth and seasoned with the miso paste. Simple vegetable miso soup tastes good as is, but with home-made Tenkasu tempura bits, it becomes hearty and even more delicious. Crunchy tempura bits soak up the tasty broth and adds nice texture.
Tenkasu can be purchased in a bag at Japanese supermarkets, but making it at home is quite easy. You can collect bits of Tempura crust floated in the oil when making Tempura, or you can follow our simple Tenkasu recipe.