This bell pepper tsukemono is something between pickles and salad. Rice vinegar and sugar adds just enough sourness and sweetness to the red and yellow bell peppers. Ginger root and sesame seeds are great accent in flavor. Eat as is or pour a little bit of soy sauce over if you like. Bell pepper tsukemono can be a great appetizer or a little side dish next to a bowl of steamed rice.
Today’s miso soup is with kabocha squash and shimeji mushroom. Kabocha is naturally sweet, and it tastes wonderful when it’s cooked in savory Dashi broth. Cut in thin bite size pieces for the soup, and it takes much less time than making a simmered kabocha dish (kabocha no nimono).
Beef Katsu (ビーフカツ), also called Bifu Katsu or Gyukatsu (ビフカツ、牛カツ), is steak (cut beef) coated with Panko bread crumbs and deep-fried. Beef Katsu is very similar to Tonkatsu fried pork, but it is less known outside Japan. The richly flavored Beef Katsu is a little bit more expensive to make at home for everyday dinner, so it may be served more often for more special occasions.
You like instant Ramen, but you don’t want to eat hot noodle soup during summer? What to do? Make the Ramen into a salad! Cut up your favorite vegetables, make a salad dressing using powder sauce base from the instant Ramen, and put on top of cooked and chilled Ramen noodles. It’s easy, healthy (well, healthier), and cools you down well. Hope you try it, it’s yummy!
Today’s miso soup is made with milk as its liquid. It sounds a little strange, but the soup is creamy, mild-flavored, and super yummy! Though vegetables used here are potato, carrot and cabbage along with sausages, you can use leftover ingredients in your fridge.
Kanpyo Sushi Roll is a skinny Sushi roll which has Kanpyo, cooked gourd, inside and Nori, roasted seaweed, outside. The strips of dried gourd are cooked in a sweet and salty sauce until very tender. The sweet taste of cooked Kanpyo matches very well with tangy Sushi rice. Kanpyo Roll is more well known inside Japan, especially the Tokyo area, but it is not as common in the US. Kanpyo Roll may be hard to find on the menu at Japanese restaurants outside Japan, but they might be able to fix it if you ask. This casual Sushi is a great appetizer and good light lunch.
Have you tried Japanese Coffee Jelly before? You might have seen an anime character eating it on TV, or if you have been to Japan, you might have seen it next to Purin at convenience stores. Coffee Jelly is a chilled coffee with gelatin, and it’s been a popular dessert in Japan for decades. It’s usually served with heavy cream, but in this recipe, we are serving it with ice cream. The jelly is made much softer and less sweet than our original Coffee Jelly recipe, so you can simply spoon the soft and cold jelly into a glass. Top with vanilla ice cream, it melts in your mouth! Bitterness from black coffee and sweetness and creaminess from ice cream are a perfect match. You can adjust the amount of gelatin and sugar to your liking. If you like ice coffee, you should definitely give this a try!
Today’s miso soup is made with broccoli, onion, and eggs. We can use the whole broccoli including the stems, and onion slices add the sweetness to the broth. This is a perfect soup for breakfast or lunch.
Beef Shogayaki (Ginger Beef, 牛肉の生姜焼き) is braised thin beef in a ginger and soy sauce. The ginger-flavored sauce has just the right amount of spiciness balanced with saltiness and sweetness from soy sauce and Mirin. It is a version of Pork Shogayaki, ginger pork, and it may not be as well-known and popular as the pork dish, but it tastes great nonetheless.
Happosai (八宝菜) is another Japanese Chinese dish similar to Yasaiitame stir-fry vegetables. Various vegetables, seafood, and pork are braised in a gooey savory sauce. It is a wonderful entree for dinner or a hearty lunch over rice.