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Cold Ochaduke

Cold Ochazuke

Ochazuke is an easy and quick Japanese dish with cooked rice topped with various ingredients, over which hot green tea is poured. When you don’t have time to cook or lack appetite, Ochazuke is a popular choice for many people in Japan. Here, I’ve made a summer version for when you don’t want to eat hot food. Cool all the ingredients and pour ice-cold green tea over them. Is this refreshing or what?! Toppings can include typical Ochazuke ingredients like salmon flakes and pickled vegetables, or you can use any vegetables or meat you like. However, the toppings need to be a little saltier than you might think because the green tea will dilute the taste quite a bit. So, choose strongly flavored toppings. When you don’t feel like cooking in a hot kitchen, try this simple and soothing Cold Ochazuke. It’ll make you feel good. Hope you give it a try soon!

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Grilled Eggplant Recipe

Grilled Eggplant

Grilled Eggplant, or Yakinasu, is a traditional Japanese summer dish where eggplants are charred over direct flame or on a fish grill, then peeled. Chilled grilled eggplant is so refreshingly soothing in hot, humid weather that it’s a staple side dish in summer. Its smoky flavor is the ultimate taste of summer that everybody knows and loves in Japan.

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Corn Tempura

Corn Tempura

Corn Tempura is made from fresh sweet corn kernels mixed with tempura batter and deep-fried. It’s sweet, salty, and makes for a great summer appetizer. This kakiage-style Tempura (small pieces of vegetables in Tempura batter) is easy to make and best eaten hot and fresh. On a hot summer night, you might enjoy Corn Tempura with cold beer or other cold drinks. It’s so delicious that you may find yourself eating it straight from the kitchen, never making it to the dining table. The only thing to remember when making this dish is that corn kernels may pop in the hot oil. To avoid this, prepare the corn accordingly: slash the surface of the kernels with a knife and remove excess moisture before adding flour. Other than that, it’s quite easy and quick to make. Hope you give it a try!”

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California Spring Rolls Recipe

California Spring Rolls

Spring rolls with rice paper, also known as summer rolls, are a popular appetizer or light meal in Vietnamese cuisine. They use a translucent rice paper wrapper, softened by briefly dipping in water. Our version of spring rolls has a Japanese twist. We take the filling of California rolls, minus the rice and nori seaweed, and use it in the spring rolls. The result is interesting and delightful! Instead of Vietnamese vermicelli noodles, we use cooked somen noodles. Our dipping sauce is a simple but tasty combination of soy sauce and wasabi, rather than a complicated peanut sauce. California Spring Rolls are light, refreshing, and healthy affairs, and appeal to many just like California rolls.

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Pork and Cabbage Curry

Pork and Cabbage Curry

Pork and Cabbage Curry is a simple variation of Curry and Rice using Japanese curry sauce mix. Typical Japanese curry requires some time to stew beef, potatoes, and carrots. This curry features thinly sliced pork and cabbage, which takes significantly less time to cook. The flavor combination of pork, ginger, and cabbage resembles Pork Shogayaki, another popular Japanese dish for lunch and dinner. If you feel like having curry, but you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, try Pork and Cabbage Curry. You can also substitute thinly sliced pork with any other protein of choice such as thinly sliced chicken, beef, or tofu. This is a great dish to make on a busy weekday.

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Azuki Bar Recipe

Azuki Bar

Azuki Bar is a popular frozen popsicle in Japan made from sweet Azuki red bean paste. This cool treat has been enjoyed for its nutty flavor and grainy bean texture for decades. Azuki Bar contains nothing complicated or artificial, but it’s pleasantly sweet and full of flavor. It looks just like any popsicle with a stick. It’s a wonderful cold dessert during Japan’s brutally hot and humid summers, but it also can be eaten all year round.

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Miso Soup with Shabu Shabu Pork

Miso Soup with Shabu Shabu Pork

Today’s miso soup features Shabu Shabu pork and leafy green lettuce. Shabu Shabu pork is paper-thin pork loin (or even pork belly), cooked by swishing it in the miso soup. Because the pork is very thin, it cooks through quickly. Rich umami flavor from the pork enriches the soup, giving it a wonderful taste. Lettuce adds a nice crunchy texture to the dish, so try not to cook it too long. Although this is another super easy miso soup, you still get a hearty and delicious result that pairs well with any meal or stands strong on its own with steamed rice. Hope you give it a try!

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