Yasai Itame (Sauteed vegetable)

Yasai itame is a reasonable and helthy dish.
It is populay home made dish which is made by sauteeing various vagetables and a few meat.
Especially it is good for the familly who have little children.
I remenber I often had it, when I was child.

( Typical ingredients )

pork ( sometime ham or fish sausage insted of pork)
carrot
onion
cabbage
soy bean sprout
green pepper
mush room

soy sauce ( sometime, worcester sauce insted of soy sauce )
salt
pepper
salad oil

Mitarashi Dango

Dango are small balls which are made by kneading rice flour and water, and steaming or boiling them.

As for Mitarashi Dango.

We usually, fix some dango (three to five) on a bamboo skewer.

Grill it lightly.

And cover it with soy sause and sugar besed sauce.

The sauce is made by mixing soy sauce, mirin(sweet sake), sugar, Kuzuko or potato starch, and water, and so on, and simmering them.

Shio Ramen

"Shio" means salt.
Shio ramen is a ramen which ramen noodles are in salt flavored hot soup.

Usually the soup stock is not so oily to stand out the taste of salt.
And we can also enjoy the taste of the stock.

I think shio ramen have light taste.
But it doesn't mean thin taste.
And it has a good finish taste.

Maguro no Sashimi

This is Akami( lean) of Maguro.
Maguro means tuna.
It is a typical Sashimi dish, and rich in protein.

I introduce some species of Maguro, which is good for Sashimi in Japan.

Kuro Maguro ( Pacific blue fin tuna )
It is also called "Hon Maguro".
It is the Maguro which is only called "Maguro" in narrow sense.
It is the most popular Maguro in Japan.

Minami Maguro ( Southern blue fin tuna )
It is also called "Indo Maguro".
The figure of it is similar to Kuromaguro.
It is popular Maguro after Kuro Maguro.

Mebachi ( bigeye tuna )
It is also called " Bach".
It is popular Maguro after Kuro Maguro, Minami Maguro.
Especialiy it is popular in estern part of Japan.
Sashimi in photo above is Mebachi Maguro.

Kihada ( yellow fin tuna )
It is not so oily.
It is popular in western part of Japan.

Hiyashi Chuka

It is also called "Hiyashi ramen" or "Remen".

Boilled ramen noodle is rinsed well in cold water to cool it.

Drain off the water, and served on the dish.

Poured soy sauce and vinegur based cold soup.

Topping is various, thinly sliced grilled pork, shreded steamed chicken, shreded ham, shreded Tamagoyaki, shreded cucumber, tomato, Beni-syoga(pickled ginger), Wakame(sea weed) and so on.

We serve those topping on the ramen to become it good colouring like these photo.

The vinegar gives good taste for summer.

Generally Hiyashi chuka is served during summer.

Yariika no Nigiri-zushi

These are Nigiri-zushi of spear squid.

"Nigiri-zushi" is a typical sushi dish.
Sushi rice is formed into an oblong shape by hand.
Usually place thinly sliced seafood on it.

"Yariika" means spear squid.
It is good for Sushi and Sashimi.
Yariika in this photo is small Yariika which is befor grow up.

Mori Soba

Mori Soba is the simplest cold type soba dish.
Boiled soba is rinsed in cold water.
And drained off the water, and searved on such a squarish plate.

We put some Wasabi and choped green onion into the cold broth which is made by adding Kaeshi(made from soy sauce, sweet sake, and so on) to Dashi ( stock made from dried bonito ).
We take a bite full of soba with chopsticks and dip it in the broth slightly and eat.

Mori soba is really simple soba dish.
So we can enjoy the taste of Soba.

Katsuo no Tataki

This is sometime called "Tosa-zukuri".
Because it is regional dish of "Tosa".
"Tosa" means Kochi-prefecture.
Oridinally it is a fisherman's dish.
"Katsuo" means bonito. It is a typical early summer fish in Japan.

Filleted bonito is grilled lightly.
Just surface of filleted bonito was grilled.
But inside is still raw.
And put into water with ice.
And sliced thicker than sashimi.

Usually we pour Tare(sauce) on it.
and seavr some vegetables(sliced onion, Shiso leaf ,grated ginger , sliced garlic and so on ) on it.


Photo above is "Katsuo no tataki" which is before sliced.
It is on the fresh fish counter in the supermarket.

Unagi no kabayaki (grilled eel)

"Unagi" is a kind of eel.
"Kabayaki is a dish of fish which is filleted, and took out bones and grilled with sweet soy based sause.
the sauce is important.
Because Unagi has no taste.
So how to make the sauce is top secret of Unagi shops.

Grilled eel is popular in Japan.
In the Kanto rigion(Ttokyo and Surround ), eel is steamed befor grilled.
So, mature and fat eel is selected.
Because unnecessary oil is droped out when eel is steamed.
In Kansai rigion( Osaka and surround ), eel is grilled without steamed.
Not so fat eel is selected.

Unagi is highly nutritious.
It is rich in vitamin A,B1,B2,D,E.
And it is also rich in DHA, EPA, iron, zinc, calcium.
Especialy , it is highly rich in vitamin A.

Aji no Tatsuta-age

Aji" means Japanese horse mackerel.
"Tatsuta-age" is a type of Japanese deep-fried dish.
Tatsuta-age is nealy same to Karaage.
But in case of Tatsuta-age, Ingredient is put in a sause, before coated by potato starch.

We usually clean the Aji.
Fillet it.
Take out the small bones from it.
Cut it into bite size.
And put it into the sauce which is mixed Sake(rice wine), soy sause, grated ginger.
Leave it around 10 min.
Dry it with paper towels, and coat it slightly with potato starcy.
And then deep-fry it untill browned.

Photo below is Aji in the fresh fish counter of the supermarket.
Aji is one of blue back fish.
It is rich in DHA and EPA.

Tori no Karaage

This is a Japanese deep-frid chicken.
"tori" means chicken.
"karaage" is a type of Japanese deep-fried dish made by deep-frying ingredient ( chicken or some fish) coated sligtly with potato starch or wheat flour.

We usually cut chicken leg into bite size and put chicken pieces into bowl with Sake(rice wine), grated ginger, grated garlic, soy sause, and salt.
Knead them by hand.

Add egg to the bowl, and knead again.
And coat chickin pieces with weat flour ( or potato starcy).
Then, deep-fry chicken pieces in oil.

Boiled Edamame

We usually boil Edamame (green soy beans) in a salted water, and drain water off it.
And cool it with air. ( If we cool it in water, it will loose rich taste.)
And push beans out of pods with finger to mouth.

Nowaday's, we can buy frozen Edamame all season.
But I like to Eat it with beer in summer.

Phto above is frozen Edamame ( alredy boiled) in supermarket.

Photo above is Edamame fresh from farm.