Easy Tuna Chahan(Japanese Fried Rice) Recipe

Chahan or Japanese fried rice is simple, quick, and adaptable. I often make this tasty dish for the kids. My general rule is to use three different vegetables, different colors. You can use carrots, onion, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, or green peppers, whatever you have on hand. For meat, you can use sausage, shrimp, or other meat. I usually use ground beef, but today I used tuna. Sesame oil is the secret ingredient. It gives the chahan such a nice aroma. Unlike most recipes, I usually put my egg at the end. Just dump the whole raw egg in as the fried rice is cooking and stir everything together, hence the "easy" way. It gives the chahan a nice texture and helps it stick together. 

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of rice, cooked
• 1 large carrot
• 3-4 leaves of Chinese cabbage
• 1/2  large stalk leeks(big green onion)
• 1 can tuna
• 1 egg
• soy sauce
• salt
• sesame oil

Directions:

1. Cook the white rice.
2. Finely chop all the vegetables and stir fry on medium heat with a little sesame oil and 2 pinches of salt.
3. Add the can of tuna, mix thoroughly and cook together. 
4. Reduce heat, add the cooked white rice and mix together.
5. Add 4-5 Tblsp. soy sauce, or to taste, mix and cook.
6. Add 1 raw egg, mix and cook together.

Oishii!

Toshikoshi Soba年越しそば

And of course, there's traditional soba noodles. These are eaten on New Year's Eve, for good luck. this is called Toshikoshi Soba年越しそば. Simple and delicious.

Ingredients:

• raw soba(buckwheat) noodles..........................10oz.
• mentsuyu(dashi broth)..........................................6 cups
• mirin(cooking sake)..................................................3 Tblsp.
• sugar................................................................................2tsp.
• nori(seaweed)
• katsuobushi(bonito fish flakes)

Directions:

1. Add salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and add soba to pot and cook for a few minutes until tender. Drain noodles.
3. Combine dashi, mirin, and sugar in a seperate saucepan and heat on medium heat. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.
4. Serve soba noodles in bowls and add broth. Sprinkle crumpled nori and katsuobushi on top.

Chikuzenni 筑前煮 (Sauted Chicken with Root Vegetables)

There is chikuzenni 筑前煮, a stew with chicken, renkon(lotus root), carrots, mushrooms, and takenoko(bamboo shoots).　Chikuzenni is especially popular in late fall or winter. The steaming root vegetables and meat and savory broth keep a body warm in the cold winter months.

Time, about 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• chicken thigh or other white cut ..................300 grams/10 oz.
• dried shittake mushrooms ................................8
• gobo(burdock root).................................................100g/half a stick
• carrot.............................................................................1
• rennkon(lotus root).................................................100g/ about 1
• mirin(cooking sake....................................................5 Tblsp.
• Soy sauce.....................................................................5 Tblsp.
• dashi stock...................................................................200ml
• cooking oil

Directions:

1. Cut chicken into small chunks, season with salt and mirin.
2. Cut vegetables into bite sized wedges. Cut burdock root at an angle. Soak burdock and lotus root in vinegared water.
3. Put 1 Tblsp. cooking oil in a pan and saute the chicken. Add the vegetables and cook everything together.
4. Add the dashi stock and mirin and soy sauce. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce to low heat and simmer until everything is tender.
5. Seve with steamed snow peas if desired.

Curry Face

Here's a great face my girls made when we had curry and rice. Press the cooked rice into a small round bowl. Cut a fish sausage or ham for the rosy cheeks, carrot smile, potato nose, and ground beef eyes. Put the face at the bottom of the big bowl, then pour curry on the top part for hair. Awesome!

そうめん, Easy Soumen noodles Recipe

そうめん, Soumen noodles are a common dish in Japan, especially in the summer. Soumen is a thin, white noodle. It's much thinner when compared to udon, ramen, or soba. Unlike ramen, which is served hot and with a strong tasting soup, soumen is often served cold and in a thin, light broth. We ate a lot of soumen this summer. Here's dinner the other night. Besides the broth, it's served with tuna, cucumber, egg, and a little nori (seaweed). My wife has a great artistic sense of food. She said it wasn't special. She's so modest. One popular way to eat it is "nagashi soumen". This is soumen served sliding down a bamboo half-pipe. You have to catch it with your chopsticks and then dip in your soup and eat. I did this once this summer at my school's Mt. Daisen camp. Great fun. They put a bucket at the end to catch anything you missed. Beat the heat with soumen!


Ingredients:

• somen noodles
• tuna
• eggs
• cucumber
• nori seaweed
• mentsuyu dipping sauce base

Directions:

1. Hard boil eggs. Peel and cut in half. (about 1 per person)
2. Thinly slice cucumber.
3. Raw somen comes in taped rolls. Unroll and boil for 1 minute.
4. Drain and rinse with cold water.
5. Mix about 1/4 cup dipping sauce base and half a cup of water.
6. Serve noodles in a dish with toppings placed artistically.
7. Place dipping sauce in a separate cup for dipping, or simply pour sauce over noodles.
8. Replace noodles, sauce, and toppings as necessary.

Simple Pumpkin Croquette Recipe

Dinner tonight was Hiyasi Chuka, egg noodles served cold with sliced tomato, cucumber and ham and with a white sesame sauce. It's tangy and has a great sesame taste. It's a favorite dish in the summer. Also Junko made croquette with leftover pumpkin and potato salad. It tasted great served with a little okonomiyaki sauce(like Worcester sauce).







Pumpkin Croquette

Ingredients:

• about 1/2 Japanese pumpkin
• mayonnaise
• salt
• flour
• egg
• breadcrumbs
• cooking oil

Directions:

Pumpkin Salad

1. Japanese pumpkins are green very hard. You can peel if you like, but the peel is quite good in pumpkin salad. Wash and cut about half the pumpkin into small chunks and boil in a pan for about 10-15 minutes.
2. Drain pumpkin and mash pumpkin.
3. Add some mayonnaise and a pinch of salt and mix well.
4. Serve pumpkin salad or use for croquettes
5. Shape pumpkin salad into little rolls or patties.
6. Dip patties first in flour, then beaten egg, an finally breadcrumbs.
7. Fry in oil at 350°F(180ºC)until golden brown. Drip off or towel off excess oil.
8. Serve with tonkatsu , okonomiyaki, or Worcester sauce, shredded cabbage and rice.

Easy Hiyashi Chuka Recipe(Cold Ramen Noodles)

Dinner tonight was Hiyasi Chuka, egg noodles served cold with sliced tomato, cucumber and ham and with a white sesame sauce. It's tangy and has a great sesame taste. It's a favorite dish in the summer. Also Junko made croquette with leftover pumpkin and potato salad. It tasted great served with a little okonomiyaki sauce(like Worcester sauce). A road to a man's heart is through his stomach.






Hiyashi Chuka Recipe

Ingredients:

hiyashi chuka noodles(cold ramen egg-noodles)

sauce(tare)
You can buy pre-packaged sauce at Asian grocers or simply make your own. The recipe below is just a guideline, adjust to taste:

• 1/3 cup water
• 3 Tbsp. rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. sesame oil

You could also use a white sesame sauce for salads

Toppings:

• 
  
• ham
• tomatoes
• cucumbe
• egg
• 
  

Directions:

1. Cook the noodles, rinse with cold water and serve in a dish with the sauce.
2. Cook a thin omelet sheet and julienne all toppings and place artistically on top of noodles.
3. Add more noodles an toppings as necessary. Enjoy