Gyoza is Chinese dumplings that ground pork and vegetables wrapped in round (pasta like) flour skins and pan-fried. Isn’t Gyoza Chinese food then? What is it doing in Japanese cooking 101? Yes, gyoza is originally from Chinese fried dumplings, but it is so popular and rooted well in Japanese cooking today. It is crispy outside and juicy inside dipped in tangy sauce….mmm, it’s so good that you would not care where it is actually from.
Oyakodon is chicken and egg in seasoned broth over rice in a bowl. Oyako means parents and children, like chicken and egg, and don (donburi) means a bowl. It’s a whole meal in one bowl. It is a healthy dish since everything is boiled with no added oil. Besides being healthy, it is very quick to make and, of course, yummy! Rice absorbs flavorful dashi along with fluffy eggs — it is just delicious!
Somen are Japanese dried vermicelli noodles that are usually eaten cold during summer. Japanese summer is so hot and humid that you often loose your appetite by the end of the day. When you don’t want to eat anything, cold Somen is very nice and easy to eat. We adults like it, but our kids like it even more because not only is it tasty but also because it’s fun to eat… noodles in ice water… they like that kind of thing.
Mentsuyu (noodle sauce) is a very versatile sauce that gives many dishes a great Japanese flavor. This is perfect for dipping cold Soba or Somen noodles, tempura and more. It is so easy to make and keeps well in the refrigerator (at least a couple weeks, stays for a month in my fridge), and comes in handy in a crunch time for dinner. I actually make a lot of it at once so that I don’t have to make it frequently (oh, lazy me). You can cook meat and vegetables with this sauce as seasoning, like a quick teriyaki sauce, or just drizzle over steamed vegetables or tofu.
Green Beans with sesame sauce (ingen no goma-ae, 胡麻和え) make a very nice small dish when you need a little something more for dinner. It’s extremely easy and quick to make, but is full of the flavor of sesame seeds.
Rice balls don’t really need a recipe to make. Anybody, including someone who has never cooked before, can start making it right away if you have cooked rice. It’s just like making a mud ball when you were a kid. You press rice firmly in your hands and make it into a ball or some other kind of shape. The difference is, you actually can eat Onigiri.
Japanese Hamburger Steak, called Hambāgu (ハンバーグ), is not exactly traditional Japanese food but rather a Western-style dish, similar to Tonkatsu. It is an extremely popular home-cooked meal and a staple dinner dish in many households. The pan-fried, tender steak served with a rich brown sauce is loved by Japanese people of all ages, especially young children.
You might not have had Miso marinaded Salmon before. Yes, we use Miso paste for something other than Miso soup. Ordinary Japanese restaurants in the US don’t often seem to have this kind of dish on the menu. But it is quite popular dish in Japan because it’s tasty and very simple to make.
When fish or meat is marinaded in Miso paste, Miso gives it flavor, and also makes it tender. A famous kind of grilled fish marinaded in Miso is Saikyoyaki. Saikyoyaki uses Saikyo Miso, a kind of white Miso made in Kyoto. Saikyo Miso has a very nice, sophisticated sweetness that is perfect for a marinade. However, it is hard to get Saikyo Miso in the US, so we substituted with white Miso which is easily found at many American supermarkets.
Spinach is such a super nutritious vegetable, you want to eat it as often as you can. Spinach Ohitashi, cooked spinach salad, is a very popular, healthy, and of course tasty small side dish in Japan.
Nimono is usually seasoned with combinations of soy sauce, sugar, Sake or Mirin that give vegetables sweet and salty flavors. The seasoned broth in Nimono is not soup to drink, but only to give vegetables flavoring. It gives mild flavorings to vegetables and enhances the taste of the vegetables.
Japanese pumpkin, Kabocha, is very dense and sweet, different from pumpkin in the US. In Japan, Kabocha is in season in winter, and this dish reminds me of winter time there. When Kabocha is cooked, the inside becomes bright orange. Kabocha’s thick and dense texture is closer to sweet potatoes than squash. Kabocha no Nimono usually has a sweeter broth than some other kinds of Nimono. But you can change to your liking.
Kabocha is very hard to cut when it’s raw, so please be careful. First stab it with knife, then cut down. Trim the sharp edges of the rind from the cut pieces of Kabocha. That’s supposed to help Kabocha from dissolving, according to my mother.
If you like yam on Thanksgiving, you’d like this dish, just not as sweet. It could be a side dish to an American main dish such as roast chicken or meatloaf. Or with any kind of Japanese main dish, of course.
Kabocha is available at many supermarkets in the US.
