This picture is my garden covering the snow. 

My daughter is coming back tonight for Christmas.

But my son still in Japan,,, Fukushima's mountain side. Already everything is white!!

We are going to my brother-in-low's family Christmas dinner this year.

We had the lovely Christmas dinner at our home last year. A huge BBQ turkey!!!

Where we going to next year??? Maybe our friend's home?

Have a nice time!!!!! 

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Christmas is around the corner, isn't it? 
Are you ready for the big day? We're going to my brother-in-low's family Christmas dinner this year. We had one last year and I cooed a huge turkey for 12 people. 
This year it'll be 10 people all together. I don't need to do the cooking this year!!

Not sure yet at the moment, but I'm thinking making a starter. It'll be definitely Japanese food,,,, a kind of sushi "Chirashi-zushi" (Upside down, squashed sushi)
So, I'm going to show you how to make it.

Chirashi-zushi, which is very entertaining at your dinner party as a starter or a main dish.

What do you need are;

Chirashi-zushi

- Vinegary rice --- you can buy a bottle of sushi-vinegar in a supermarket.

- cooked shrimps

- shredded egg sheet, 1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg, mixed with 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp corn or potate starch. Cook like a crape. If you don't bother to cook it, just use a couple of boiled eggs and break them into pieces.

- sliced and shredded cucumber

- peas and sweet corns

Options;

- Ikura, a small jar of salmon eggs. You can find it  at Waitrose, if you 're lucky.

- Carrot and Shiitake mushrooms, simmering in 1 C water with 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp each sake and sugar and 1 tbsp mirin (if you have) for 15 minutes or until both well cooked.

You can use other ingredients, such as sliced ham or shredded cooked chicken some colourful vegetables.

As you see the picture, decorated beautifully. Use your imagination!

This picture is a set of "Temaki-zushi", but you can use those ingredients for your Chirashi-zushi, if you like.

Vinegary beetroots, tamayagoyaki egg, gari ginger, avocado, tuna mayonnaise and natto.

I'll give you some more recipes next issue! 

For other type of sushi "Temaki-zushi, nigiriz-zushi etc, go into Your Sushi web site.

http://www.yoursushi.co.uk/

You can learn more sushi Your Sushi School, if you live in the UK.

Have a nice Merry Christmas!!!      Masuyo. xxxxx

I introduced the Japanese Curry last time, usually it's called Curry Rice (pronounced as Caley-lice in Japanese) .「カレーライス」
This dish is a very popular dish for children. Some Japanese mothers cooks curry a couple times a week.  Most kids' birthday party of main menu are Jap. curry!
So easy to cook. 








I'm going to show how to cook Jap. curry.
What do you need;

A half pack of Japanese curry paste (4 to 6 saving). 
Pork, chicken or beef. I prefer not to use the lamb. Japanese don't eat lamb much as here in the UK. 
500g meat would be enough for a family of 4.
Boiled ggs are ideal, if your son or daughter don't like the meat.
1 onion, roughly sliced. 
2, 3 potatoes, cut in cube  ------- size doesn't mutter.
1 carrot, cut in cube

Other vegetables as spinach etc, can be added, if you like.

If your children are so fussy about vegetables, can be shredded then add in the end of the cooking.
Water as it's said on the packet. But I prefer to use the water a little less than the instruction. 

Shall I cook?


- Heat the oil in a deep pan and fry the onion then the meat. And add the potatoes and carrot. Fly until their surfaces absorb the oil. 
- Add the water to the pan, bring to the boil over high heat. Or use the low heat for the tender meat. Keep your eyes on the pan first 10 minutes!
Then reduce the heat and simmer until the meat was tender.
Do not boil too much, otherwise the meet will get hard. 
I prefer to use the low to medium heat through the cooking. 

- The meat got tender, off the pan from the heat and put the curry paste in to the pan and stair very gently and well. The paste should be resolve completely.
-Put the pan back on the stove, the heat should be low. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
You can add the soft vegetable like spinach at this point. 
- Salt and pepper if you wish to add.

That's it!!!  No hassle, though.
Your children would love it. Itadaki mass いただきます！！！

If you are not particularly Japanese food lover, it's really worth to buy a big bottle of Shoyu 醤油 or しょうゆ (pic left; soy sauce) at a oriental shop. I usually buy a 1 litre of Kikkoman cost me around £5 to 6. But for you, it lasts for ages.

pic right is Mirin みりん (sweet cooking alcohol/sake/wine). I fortunately say that you cannot replace this by anything. However, probably you are able to manage to make close taste by using honey,,,,, but,,,,,  or just omit it. Cost would be  £5 to 6 for 600ml?

Both are very important ingredients for Japanese cuisine.

Other ingredients are sugar and sake. Using those basic four ingredients, and ad some more, you can make many many different tastes.

My mother really amazed me that she made many different dishes using those basic ingredients +. She didn't use any measuring spoons or cups!!! Now I do the same as my mother did!!

Miso paste 味噌 or みそ (pic left; soy bean paste). Japanese cuisine uses variety of miso, as light, dark etc. THis made by soy beens like shoyu. In Japan, your morning doesn't start without miso. Miso-shiru みそ汁 (miso soup with tofu {pic; right} and wakame is very popular). The price is from £ 3 to 5, depends on the size. 

Nowadays, you can buy a pack of Tofu (pic) at a big british supermarket (pic; as below). This Marinaga Tofu is very easy to handle. I think it's £ 1,10 to 1,30.

Sainsbury's oriental corner. They are not all Japan-made products, but if you cook Japanese dish very occasionally, it would be enough quantity. For me as Japanese, they are too small for my daily cooking.
If you really are a Japanese food lover, surf chinese or oriental shops in your town.
If you live in a big city or the capital city, like London, you can find many Japanese food shops. Means you can get some proper Japanese products. In addition, Korean products are quite similar to Japanese ones. 
But for me, sometimes the levels are all Korean language. No clue at all!!!

This picture is an instant Japanese curry packet. カレー. In a British supermarket, they have only small ones there. If you want to have a bigger size, go to the oriental shop and buy a 12 servings, 340g. There're even a instant stew packet too. Maybe the cost will over £ 3 to 5. Not too cheap, but 12 serves!!
I don't think this is healthy food, but it's so easy to cook. It's one of the popular dishes for the kids in Japan. A kind  of national dishes, though.







P.S I have to say sorry to everybody reading "Touch of Japan" regularly, because I didn't up dated for a couple of month. My Macbook, which my son gave to me 3 years ago, had been working so funny. I struggled to fix this machine and managed it in the end. However, I think I have to buy a new Macbook very soon. I changed the OS X Leopard to Lion, this time it worked OK, but when I bought the new Macbook (would be MC Air?), I will degrade Lion to Leopard again. My old Macbook is still workable. I wouldn't buy a Window PC, even the Window 8 is fine. My very very old Toshiba MC, which is still W-XP, is finely working. My husband uses Windows7,,,,, I don't think it's good machine. Anyway, I really enjoy my Apple machine.

Up dated my Facebook page "masuyo" 。よろしく！！！xxxxxxx

GARI ginger 「ガリ」

If you called yourself a Sushi love, you surely know what Gari is?

Gari is a pickled ginger as you know, usually be eaten with Sushi and Sashimi. 

You cannot think when you eat Sushi or Sashimi without Gari, oh don't forget Wasabi too!!!

Ginger has antiseptic properties and to stimulate digestion. Wasabi has the same property as ginger.

And vinegar, is cooling and antiseptic. So, all protect your tammy (body) from Sushi or Sashimi to counter the ill effects of bad fish.

However, some people still reluctant to eat row fish, don't they? 

But if you know why Sushi or Sashimi can be eaten in row with vinegar, gari and wasabi, now it makes sense, isn't it?  

Recipe of GARI ginger 「ガリ」

140g     very very thinly sliced ginger (younger the better, It's not easy find good young one)

100cc     vinegar, I used the cider vinegar this time

60 - 100g     sugar

½ tsp    salt

- Peel the ginger and slice very very thinly. Pour the boiling water onto the sliced ginger. 

  Set aside for 1 hour. But if you luckily found the very young ginger, you might cut this process.

- Meanwhile, making the sweet vinegar (amasu, 甘酢). Put the water, vinegar and sugar in to a pan and bring to the boil. 

  Reduce the heat and simmer a couple of minutes. Set aside but no need to cool it.

- Put the ginger into the boiling water in a pan and simmering for 3 to  5 minutes. Old ginger should be boiled much longer.

  Rinse the ginger roughly with the water and squeeze out the excess liquid.

- Put the ginger into a jar and pour the amasu over the ginger. The ginger should be covered with amasu vinegar.

- The ginger will be pinkish colour, meaning you can eat it. 

- Leave the jar in the fridge for 3 to 4 days, it will be nicer. 

  But don't leave it too long. Because there's any preservatives in it. 

 

But in this picture, colour didn't change at all. So I think the ginger I bought was too old. Taste was .... just OK.

It was quite hard to cut thinly. I think the ginger is not young enough for gari.

If you're lucky, you might find a very young ginger in a oriental shop. 

I try to make another Gari using the much younger ginger soon.

Summer is nearly end. (Who is saying "Where is the summer in England?)
Somen (pronounce 'soh-men') is a popular summer noodle in Japan. It's like a vermicelli or capellini, which made from wheat flour like Udon noodle. But, much thinner than udon noodle.

It'e very easy to cook. Boil in the water without salt (never!!) for a couple of minutes.  Drain and rinse well with cold water. See instructions. 
Place in a big bowl with the cold water, sometimes with ice cubes, for serving. 
Cut some fresh veggies and ham or shredded egg sheet (Pic →)
You need a small bowl for the dipping sauce. 

For the sauce; each one part of soy sauce & mirin and 5 part of dashi-stock (if you don't have a dashi-stock, the weak vegetarian stock would be replaced). Need to be boiled a bit. Then, make it cool. Everything should be cool.

This picture was taken at Sainsbury's in Bristol.

You can find some Japanese ingredients at the big superstore.  For native Japanese or Japanese food lovers, the quantity of those products would be so small. If you need more big stuff, you should go to the oriental shop.

For instance, I always buy a 10Kg bag of rice and at least a 1l soy sauce at one time. 

I created my "facebook-page" the other day. All the information of my activities will be in the page. Still constructing my portfolio etc.,
Please have go on to the site.
http://www.facebook.com/ids.masnewman or search "masuyo"

If you're a sushi-lover and live in Bristol or UK, this page is for you.
http://www.facebook.com/SushiClass or http://www.yoursushi.co.uk/

Tonkatsu (pork cutlets) とんかつ

Tonkatsu ⒸGoogle

You need;
fillets of pork, 1 peace each person
flour, bread crumbs and an egg for the coating


soft cabbage, shredded very thinly


for sauce; just mix well
ketchup, soy sauce and worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper, chilli powder if you like

- Salt and pepper the pork fillets and leave a little while.
- Coat them with ①flour, ②egg, ③bread crnmbs 
- Deep fry the coated fillets in a pan or frying pan  at the medium heat until cooked. Turn over the fillets occasionally. 
Keep them warm until serving.
- before or after or meanwhile cooking the fillets, cut the cabbage leaves, a handful of it per person.

You can use any meat such as the beef or chicken. With a ¼ lemon, a parsley, or cherry tomatoes, if you like. Ah, don't forget some Karashi, Japanese mustard!
Serve with a miso-soup and a rice.








Next, I'll show you how to cook the Japanese curry which is so easy to cook and one of the national dish in Japan, especially for the kids. You'll love it!