Eggplant and ground beef are a great taste combination. They are good in meat sauce for pasta, and wonderful in curry too! Eggplant gets very tender and becomes a nice melt-in-your-mouth texture. Well-browned beef gives a tasty flavor to the sauce.
Sesame Sauce is a very convenient seasoning for vegetables. It is quick and easy to make. Then just mix with your favorite steamed or boiled veggies. It is also very healthy because there is no added fat or oil in it. When you eat salads, a lot of the time, the dressing is the problem…
Somen is very tasty and a super easy dish, but it is a somewhat light meal by itself. Gomoku means ‘variety of ingredients’ in Japanese. Here I put cucumber, ham, Kinshi Tamago, and Benishoga on Somen, but you can add any of your favorite veggies or protein. With vegetables and meat along with noodles, Gomoku…
Pork Shigureni may not be as popular as beef, but it is as tasty as Beef Shigureni, I think. The way you cut the meat changes the texture as well. Although you can use thinly sliced meat if you want, here I cut pork into thin strips. It is chunkier and gives a more substantial…
I always thought “proper” Nikujaga is made with beef but never with pork. That’s how my mom always made it, so I made it that way too. One day a friend told me that Nikujaga at her home was always with pork. Blasphemy! However, I didn’t have sliced beef on hand today, so I tried…
Summer is a great time to eat fresh corn. Sweet and crispy. Here I made a very simple and easy fresh corn salad with a Japanese twist. Ponzu Sauce is a tangy sauce which is great for meat, tofu, and vegetables. Ponzu Sauce works as a salad dressing without any oil, and that is very…
Donburi is rice with some topping in a bowl. Typical toppings are chicken and egg (Oyakodon), Tempura (Tendon), or beef (Gyudon). It’s a complete meal in a bowl. The topping, however, can be anything you like, really. I had leftover baked salmon from dinner the night before, so it was recycled into this dish. And…
This is a spinach salad with a flavorful sesame sauce (hourensou no goma-ae) that is very similar to our Green Beans with Sesame Sauce, and is a great little side dish. It is super quick to make, but very nutritious and tasty. It’s best to make your own ground sesame using Suribachi (mortar) and Surikogi…
You bought Miso paste, but don’t know what to do with it other than Miso Soup? Here is an idea for a meat dish using Miso. Marinading with Miso makes chicken tender and flavorful. And as usual, it is very easy to make! Just start earlier in the day or the night before to have…
If you want one more little dish for your dinner, this may be it! A quick and easy side dish salad, but with a little kick from Wasabi. Avocado and a Wasabi mayo sauce make an unusual match. If you are not sure about the hotness, go easy on the amount of Wasabi paste. If…