Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

2012-01-31

Cooking 03: Temakizushi 手巻き寿司


Temakizushi (手巻き寿司) is a hand rolled sushi, contains of rice and strips of ingredients wrapped in a half sheet of Nori. It is tasty and easy to make, and the most, it is purely fun to make it by yourself. I enjoyed Temakizushi for dinner, so I will teach you how to make it.

Sushi rice was prepared separately; mixed with sushi vinegar. Temperature of the rice must be cool down a bit, otherwise it does not match with sashimi’s warmness.

Hijiki

Hijiki is a healthy kind of seaweed. It looks strange if you have never seen it, but it is very healthy and good nutrition for your hair.

Osuimono

Osuimono is a Japanese soup, served with Shiitake, Fu and Mitsuba. Miso soup is also popular soup in Japanese food, but osuimono is match more with sushi.

Ingredients

Let’s take a look at ingredients. You can prepare all kinds of sashimi and veggie you like for Temakizushi, but this day, we ate Shrimp (Ebi: えび), crab meat (毛がに), salmon roe (いくら), and Yellowtail (ぶり). Don’t forget to add Shiso leaves (green perilla: シソ). Shrimp was simply boiled with water, no MSG or anything, but shrimp must be fresh.

Let’s make one with me.

Prepare a sheet of Nori, and add Shiso on the top of seaweed if you like.

Take a little bit of rice. Not too much.


Then, add ingredients you like. I sometimes dip into soy sauce first, but of course, you can wrap first then dip into soy sauce. If you go to sushi bar, you see more beautiful shaped hand roll sushi, but for us, simply wrap and eat it. Simple and easy, but the most importantly, all ingredients must be fresh. (^^)




2011-11-23

Cooking #02: Beef Stew and Izushi

I couldn’t wait to eat my mother’s cooking! That night, she prepared me delicious beef stew and a traditional Japanese dish, Izushi.

I do not think people reading my blog know about Izushi, so let me introduce this delicious dish to you. Izushi (飯寿司) is one of local foods usually in cold, snowing part of Japan, such as in Hokkaido or Tohoku. Rice, fish, vegetable, and Kouji (麹) are used, categorized as a sushi, called “cooked rice sushi”. Because raw fish are used during a process of marinated, Izushi is usually cooked in cold season, and need to be sure that the fish is salted well, otherwise easily get food poisoned.

Each family has different receipt for ingredients. My family’s is from my father’s family: salmon, carrot, cucumber, ginger, rice, red pepper, Japanese radish (Daikon), and salmon roe.

p.s. Rimmed Bowl: Wedgwood Samurai, Small Plate: Tachikichi (Kyoto, Japan)

2011-06-30

Cooking #01: Omi Beef Stake, Sapporo

Everytime I go back to my home, my mother prepared delicious foods for me. She is a great chef, and also she is lucky to have a chance to use fresh, delicious materials which are grown in Hokkaido. Let me share some dishes from my kitchen table!

Omi Beef Stake

Simple medium cooked stake, with salt and pepper. Beef was…tender!!! Once I bit, it melted in my mouth. It was amazing. Usually, this level of quality of beef was not easy to buy, but my mother luckily bought this Omi beef in Daimaru department store. Today was a lucky day… I wish I could eat this quality of steak outside… in reasonable price.

Fried Tofu & Bok Choy

This is also a simple dish. Fresh Boc Choy, sprout and special tofu from Niseko area. When I go back to my home, my family visits Niseko. Niseko is blessed with pure water from Mt. Yotei, and many travelers from all over Hokkaido bring empty bottles to pull spring water. There are several small stores where visitors can buy fresh vegetables. One Tofu store called “Wakimizu no Sato” became famous because their tofu was made with natural spring water of Niseko. Not only pure simple tofu, but also their original items, festinate me! We only bought spicy tofu this time, but I personally liked their Grounded soybean curd donuts. It was a bit sweet, and healthy as you can imagine. I definitely want to go back there again and buy more various tofu.

Bonito Sashimi

You can enjoy these gorgeous bonito sashimi ONLY in Hokkaido! No fishy smell, because it was so fresh. Don’t forget to eat with Wakame as well. Slices of green perilla (Shiso: しそ) was enjoyable, but doesn’t kill the fresh taste of sashimi. It was purely fresh.

Hmm… Always, mother’s food is the best in the world, right?