Hijiki Nimono is another home-cooking Japanese dish for everyday meals. Hijiki has a slender strip or thread-like shape. Typically, dried hijiki is sold in very small clumps, and when soaked in water, it becomes slightly elongated and stretched. It is often seasoned strongly so that it lasts for a few days and is ready to eat at any time. It is often found in bento boxes, and is a great side dish in meals any time of a day. Hijiki Nimono is also one of the healthiest foods among Japanese food.
Chikuzenni (筑前煮) is a mix of vegetables such as Renkon (lotus root) and carrots, Konnyaku and chicken boiled in strongly flavored broth with soy sauce and sugar. The dish is originally from the southern part of Japan, in the Fukuoka region of Kyushu island, however, it has spread all over Japan.
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 it with pork like hers, and it was actually really yummy! Sometimes I’m too stubborn to change certain recipes, but it is good to be open to new ideas. Chicken must work too!
Nikujaga (肉じゃが) is a Japanese dish of stewed beef and potatoes in a savory sauce. The name comes from the Japanese words for meat (niku) and potatoes (jagaimo). It is one of the most beloved home-cooked dishes in modern Japanese cuisine.
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.
