Tofu and Miso （豆腐と味噌）


It is said that the Japanese cuisine is one of the most healthy cuisine in the world.
And everybody knows about Sushi （寿司 or すし）nowadays. Sushi is so popular in the UK, isn't it?
And you can buy a sushi pack at the supermarket for your lunch or snack.
My friend Manu (Your Sushi in Bristol) and Kyoko teach how to make a proper sushi in many cities in the UK.
If you're interested in Your Sushi, go to www.yoursushi.co.uk/ . Find out more details.





How about Tofu and Miso (pic. top)? Many people know these products, maybe only the name?
OK, shall I explain how to cook Tofu and Miso?
I use both for making Miso shiru（Tofu miso soup/豆腐とワカメのみそ汁）

3 to 4 serves 
500ml           water
2 - 3 tbsp       Miso paste
cut wakame   small quantity, the volume will be the double.
Tofu              a half pack, 1cm cubed
- Pour the water into a pan and bring to the boil. 
- Add the wakame and tofu. Turn down the heat to low.
Simmer, but not too much.
- Add the miso paste, using a sieve and spatula.
Don't boil after miso has dissolved, otherwise the flavour will be spoiled.
(my measurement is always rough so checking the taste occasionally would be essential.) 



You can put anything you want to for miso shiru.
Tofu and spinach, onion, leaks. etc., etc.,. Literally  any veggies, even meat can be used. Miso paste always add the last and don't boil it.

Tofu is so good for your health. You can eat it row and just add the shoyu (soy sauce).  I'll show you some variations of tofu cooking in the next issue.

This picture is a Sushi/Sashimi pack corner 

in a ordinary supermarket in Japan.

Maybe 10 to 15 meters of its length?

All packs of sushi and Sashimi are 

contained very very fresh row fish.   

Including Gari-ginger and Wasabi inside a pack.

You also can buy some hot food in the other counter.

Just pop in the supermarket after your hectic work,

and get your supper for tonight.

One more Teriyaki chicken, served with fried rice, beans and radish leaves from the garden,
of course, the fresh green salad mustn't be forgotten. Serve 3 (My husband and our daughter and me)


I just cooked this Teriyaki Chicken last night.
I used the Nabe-teriyaki sauce that I introduced last blog.                              
2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp and 2 tbsp mirin (if you don't have a mirin, you can use 1 tbsp honey and 1 more tbsp cider. The taste will be a bit different but it worth to try)
This time I unboned 3 chicken thighs from the half frozen.
I really prefer the thigh, instead the fillet.

Marinate the thigh with 1 tbsp each cider and soy sauce for 10 minutes. If you have a bottle of Sake, use it!! Or sherry would be good. But all dry the better.

 

Fry the thighs with a little oil, firstly high heat.

When the thigh, both sides were browned, reduce the heat . 

Pour the sauce and continue to fry gently until well cooked.

If the chicken were thick, cover the pan during the cooking.

Basting occasionally.

We cannot live without the green veggies at the meal time. Even the winter time, our dinner should be

served with some greens. Japanese food uses so many green veggies all the time. This is the tip that Japanese people are not fat in general. And the fish, lots of fishes on the dinning table in Japan.

Sushi and Sashimi are very popular here in the UK nowadays. But it's difficult to a find good quality fish for Sushi or Sashimi,,,,. 

Actually, I'm not a sashimi person. I rather like the cooked fish but I cook Sushi, many different types of Sushi for our dinner with friends and family. They always love my cooking.

By the way, we put our house on the market for sale last week. But,,, very quiet! No viewer.

Anyone has interested in viewing our house?      www.debbiefortune.co.uk/

Teriyaki, teriyaki and more teriyaki sauces!! 「照り焼きソース」

Teriyaki means BBQ the meat or fish coating with thick soy based sauce on the charcoal.  You can marinated the meat or fish in advance, but you can spread the sauce during the cooking a couple of times.

If you cook the small peaces of chicken fillet, liver and some vegetable such as leak, peppers, skewered them.
It called Yakitori (焼き鳥).  It's just like a Tandori chicken!!

Yakitori sauce; (proper sauce)
- 100cc Soy sauce 
- 40cc Sake (if you don't have sake, use dry sherry or dry cider. I use cider usually, because sake is too expensive for the daily cooking)
- 60cc Mirin (unfortunately, there's no alternative)
= mix all the liquid in a small pan and simmer very gently until the liquid will be in ⅓.


For the fillet of fish; Nabe teriyaki (鍋照り焼き）Serve 4
- per-soak the fish with Sake and soy sauce for 10 minutes.
- heat the oil in a frying pan, and fry the fish. Skin-saide up.
- When browned, turn over. Cover the pan and fry a little bit more.
- Remove the excess oil and put the sauce onto the fish. Simmer and baste the fish sometimes until the fish well coated with sauce.
For the sauce;
- 2 tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Sake
- 2 tbsp Mirin     plus grated fresh ginger, if you like. 

BBQ Chicken (6 to 8 chicken thighs)

3 tbsp shoyu

5 tbsp sake.sherry/cider

2 tbsp water

1½ tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp tomato pure/ketchup

ginger if you like

- mix all the ingredient in a bowl. 

- bake the chicken with the sauce in the oven at 200℃ until the chicken is cooked.  

 (if you do the slow cook, at 160 - 180℃ for a couple of hours.)

- I recommend you cook the chicken with sliced onion for 30 minutes, but without sauce. You need a little oil. 

Our dinner; Teriyaki chicken.

I cooked the fillet of chicken, but it got dried a bit.

I prefer to use the thigh, instead fillet.

Rice and miso-shiru (miso soup)

Natto and salad.

Japanese dinner with our friends from Luxembourg

Did you know the difference between  Japanese rice and Chinese rice? Easy way to understand is that Chinese rice cannot be replaced to Japanese one. 

No way to use Chinese rice for Sushi, no, never!!!

JAPANESE RICE; 

Japanese rice is a short-grain variety rice, called Japonica, which is characterised by its unique stickiness and texture. It is cultivated throughout Japan.  Rice is eaten in several ways in Japan as plain rice "go-han", lit. cooked rice. Japanese rice sold in a Japanese shop and an Asian (mainly Chinese/Korean) shop in the big city. Korean and, possibly, Italian rice would be replaced with Japonica. (Wiki)

     

Cooking the basic rice

(not only for Sushi but all the rice for Japanese cuisine)

1 cup of rice = 1 cup of water (no salt please)

plus some water, depends on the hardness of rice you like.

- Rince the rice with water many times as you wish. But do not use

  any washing up liquid (sometimes happened, even in Japan!!!)

- Cook the rice until boiling point.

- Reduce the heat to the middle or low, simmer for 10-15 minutes.

- Stop simmering and stir the rice.

- Leave and steam the cooked rice for at least 10 minutes. 

 This is very important, otherwise in the middle of rice would be hard) 

Ingredients;

2 eggs

1 - 2½ tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

option:

sesame seeds

Hijiki seaweed

anything you wish to add

Very basic ingredients for Japanese cooking;

Shoyu - soy sauce    

Again, Japanese shoyu and Chinese one is quite different. So if you use some shoyu for sushi or normal Japanese cooking, it's better to use Japanese shoyu. 

Miso - Soy bean paste

Making soup called Miso-shiru (miso soup) and cooking

Sugar  - no need to explain, but very important 

Mirin - sweet cooking sake

There's no replacement to this. You can buy in the oriental food shops.

Su - vinegar

addition;

Tofu - no need to explain!!

Wasabi - green mustard   

etc., etc., etc.,

If you have any question about the Japanese cuisine and as well as the culture, please e-mail me.

If you live in Bristol area, I can tell you about more details directly, though!

If you speak, study or understand Japanese language, go to my blog, please. It's fun to read, I think.

http://ids-mnewman.blogspot.com 

Hello, my friends,

Our dinner with our friends; Temaki-zushi.

Welcome to Masuyo's blog. 

I’m not the professional cook. But my carrier of cooking is more than 20 years, since my daughter diagnosed the atopic dermatitis when she was one year old. (She was born in June, 1993) We lived in Luxembourg. (it's very small country, one of the countries of Benelux. However, not many people know Luxembourg is a dependent country, it doesn't belong to France or Germany!! Many people think Luxembourg is a part of France or Germany.) 
We really enjoy for living there. So much in such a small country, though. 

So I had to cook the special meals for her, because her condition. But I didn’t cook only for her, but cook the same meals for all my family, using the ingredients for her condition. No daily products, no processed food, etc., However, there're not many options for a organic food and it wasn’t easy to get the Japanese food in those days neither. 

Then my cooking technique has developed consequently. After we came back to the UK, Bristol in October 1997, surprisingly and dramatically, her condition had improved. She still has a dry skin, but much much better than the time we lived in Luxembourg. As I‘m a Buddhist priest, I believe that this area is the ancestors’ land (a half for her) I can explain why some day. Spiritually!!

Chirashi-zushi

Actually, I cook anything from Japanese food to British food, Thai food to African food. I can say that my technique is totally “Cooking from Scratch”. I published a small e-book named "Cooking From Scratch" already, but in Japanese. Maybe I'm going to publish the same books in English in the future. It's one of my dreams.   

I named this blog a "Touch of Japan", because I'm going to introduce Japanese cuisine in general and the dishes with a little touch of Japan using some Japanese ingredients into the other cuisines.
Japanese cuisine is one of the most healthiest cuisines in the world. We don't use much oil and use so many vegetables and greens. 

Those pictures in this page are all my recipes.
I'll show you how to make a beautiful and healthy Japanese dishes, starts from the next issue.
I also give you a tip, how to use some Japanese ingredients, such as soy sauce, miso paste, tofu, etc., etc., into your daily meals.

Oshi-zushi (Up side down, squashed sushi) 

My friend Manu and James offer the sushi making classes for the sushi lovers in London, Bristol and other cities in the UK.
You can learn how to make sushi directly from Manu, Kyoko and other sushi chefs. 

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

There are two classes, one for the basic sushi making and others is a little more professional. 
Please check it yourself. Have a fun!!!!


If you have any question, doesn't mutter about food or culture, even spiritual stuff, please.