Stuffed Shiitake Mushroom (椎茸の肉詰め), Shiitake Nikuzume, is Shiitake mushrooms stuffed with ground meat and cooked with Teriyaki sauce. It is just like Renkon Hasamiyaki, and the harmony of vegetable and meat is enjoyed with a tasty sweet and salty sauce. Stuffed Shiitake Mushroom is great as a dinner entree and also good for a Bento lunch dish.
Tempura Donburi (天ぷら丼) is a Tempura bowl, fried vegetables and seafood over rice with sauce. It is also called Tendon for short. It is one of the favorite rice bowl dishes in Japan, and very easily found in many stores and restaurants there.
Tamago Zosui (卵雑炊) is rice porridge or risotto cooked with eggs. This mild tasting simple food is great at any time, but especially good when having no appetite or trying to avoid heavy foods.
Tanuki Soba (たぬき蕎麦) is hot Soba noodles in soup with Tenkasu fried Tempura batter bits. It is a Soba dish with a pretty simple topping, but that addition gives the dish richer flavor.
“Tanuki” literally means raccoon dog which is an animal found in Japan and a popular character in stories and culture there. One theory is that Tanuki Soba was named as a counterpart for another noodle dish – Kitsune noodle dishes. “Kitsune” means fox, but we don’t quite know why somebody wanted to give symmetrical animal names to noodle dishes. Another idea is that “tanuki (tane-nuki)” sounds kind of like “ingredients removed” in Japanese. Since Tenkasu doesn’t have any vegetables or shrimp like regular Tempura but is only crumbs, the dish may have been named this way.
Shiitake Nimono (椎茸の煮物) is dried Shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated, cooked, and seasoned with a sweet and salty flavor. Shiitake Nimono can be eaten as is for everyday meals or used as one part of Osechi Ryori, the New Year’s feast.
Nikudango Amazuan (肉団子甘酢餡) are meatballs coated with sweet and sour sauce. Nikudango literally means meatball and Amazuan means sweet and sour sauce in Japanese. This is another Chinese dish that has been adapted into Japanese cuisine. It can of course be found at Chinese restaurants in Japan, but a lot of people make the dish at home as a dinner entree.
Dashi, broth of fish or vegetables, is an important component when cooking Japanese food. Dashi is the base flavor of a lot of Japanese dishes, and it is hard to omit. Whether you make it from scratch or use more convenient instant granules or packets, Dashi will be needed if you’re cooking Japanese food. We’ll show you how to make 4 kinds of Dashi here, and they will be used in different dishes.
Dashi ingredients are found at Japanese or Asian markets, but you can also buy them online today. Check out our Dashi recommendations on Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)
Steamed Rice is an essential part of Japanese cuisine. Before getting to the fancy dishes 😉, let’s refresh our memories so that we will be able to have the most important component of Japanese meals.
Shio Koji (塩麹) is Salty Koji seasoning that can be used to season various food and marinate meat. Koji is white rice with edible fungus, and it is used to ferment food such as Miso and Soy Sauce. When Koji is fermented with salt and water, it develops a salty but mellow flavor with a touch of sweetness. Originally Shio Koji was a very old traditional seasoning in Japan, and hadn’t gotten much attention for a long time until about a decade ago. Somehow it was picked up in the 2010s again, and it became a mainstream seasoning for many modern Japanese dishes.