3 Delicious & Healthy Japanese Recipes To Cook This Weekend
By Aya Nishimura
Aya Nishimura is a woman with a mission. She wants people to discover the simplicity, ease and wholesomeness of Japanese home cooking.
The Japanese-born food stylist/home economist/chef (she’s worked for The Guardian, Waitrose and the BBC to name but a few) wants to present an alternative to the difficulties that might prevent Westerners from attempting Japanese cooking. “Some of the Japanese restaurant chefs have exquisite skills that need years of training,” she says. “However, Japanese home cooking is really easy and simple! My inspiration for this book stems from my mum, grandma and dad’s cooking from home. I have adapted the recipes to make these dishes more accessible to prepare, so you can eat Japanese food wherever you are in the world.”
She continues: “My heartfelt hope is that [I can help] you to discover how simple, delicious and healthy Japanese food can be.”
And so Aya released Japanese Food Made Easy, a book showcasing some of her favourite recipes, in the hope that people the world over can find the same comfort and joy in the food she grew up with. Ahead, she shares three recipes to get you started.
Happy cooking.
Yakitori Chicken Skewers
Serves: 4
Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes
There are numerous varieties of yakitori, including chicken offal and skin, but the classic and probably most popular is negima — chicken thigh and spring onion with a sweet soy sauce.
Ingredients
800g skinless chicken thigh fillets, excess fat trimmed and cut into 4cm cubes
8 spring onions, white part only, cut into 4cm pieces
125ml teriyaki sauce
12 bamboo skewers
4 tsp sunflower oil
½ tsp shichimi togarashi
What to do
Soak the bamboo skewers in water for 15 minutes, as this will prevent them from burning during grilling.
Spear the chicken and spring onions onto the soaked skewers — there are no strict rules, but aim for a good mix of both chicken and spring onion.
Heat the oil in a cast-iron frying pan over medium heat. When it starts to sizzle, place the chicken skewers in the pan, cover with the lid and cook for 4 minutes on each side or until cooked through.
Pour the teriyaki sauce into the pan, turn the skewers with tongs and toss them with the sauce. As the sauce thickens, take the pan off the heat.
Arrange the skewers on a serving plate, drizzle with the cooking sauce, sprinkle with the shichimi togarashi and serve.
Homemade Atsuage — Fried Tofu
Serves: 2–4
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes
Although you can buy atsuage (chunky fried tofu) in some supermarkets and health-food stores, I have found that the atsuage from Asian grocery stores is of better quality.
Ingredients
640g firm tofu (also called momen tofu), cut into 8 large cubes
200g cherry tomatoes, quartered
2.5cm piece of fresh ginger, finely grated
750ml sunflower oil, for deep-frying
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp soy sauce
2 large pinches of sea salt
What to do
Wrap the tofu in a clean, thick, cotton tea towel and place it on a baking tray for some of the excess liquid to drain away.
Heat the sunflower oil in a deep saucepan over medium–high heat until it reaches 180°C (350°F).
While the oil is heating, prepare the sauce. Mix the tomatoes, ginger, olive oil, soy sauce and salt together in a small bowl.
Deep-fry two to three tofu cubes at a time for 3 minutes until golden brown.
Turn every few minutes to get an even golden colour on each side. Using a slotted spoon, carefully lift out the tofu and drain on paper towel.
Serve the tofu hot with the tomato and ginger sauce (grated daikon radish and soy sauce also works very well).
Onigiri Rice Balls
Makes: 10 rice balls
Preparation: 20 minutes, plus 5–8 hours standing
Cooking: 30 minutes
This is ideal for a work lunch or for a picnic — the ultimate bento box food! You can try this with different fillings and toppings. Use Pork Miso left-over Smoked Mackerel & Ginger Japanese Pilaf, umeboshi, Furikake or tuna mayonnaise.
Ingredients
160g salmon fillet, skinned and pin-boned
5g shiso (perilla) leaves or 10g chives, finely chopped
2 tsp sea salt flakes
½ tbsp sake
300g Japanese rice
1 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted
10 nori sheets
What to do
Sprinkle a large pinch of sea salt on each side of the salmon. Drizzle the sake over the salmon and spread it over each side. Sprinkle salt over each side and massage it into the salmon. Leave the salmon for 5 hours or ideally overnight.
Cook the rice (see recipe on next slide).
Preheat the grill to medium–high. Pat the salmon dry (it will have released some liquid) and grill for 5 minutes on each side. Flake the cooked salmon.
When the rice is ready, add the flaked salmon, toasted sesame seeds and chopped shiso or chives to the pan. Mix with a moistened rice paddle so that the rice doesn’t stick to it.
Sprinkle a small pinch of salt into your hand. Place about 80g of the rice in your left hand and use your right hand to shape the rice into a pyramid. Wrap each onigiri in a nori sheet as you eat it. They’re good eaten warm or cold.
Tip: If you find the shaping process too messy, you can use plastic wrap to help. Add 1/4 teaspoon sea salt to the rice and mix well. Spread the plastic wrap on your work surface and put 80g rice in the centre. You can either shape it into a pyramid or tightly twist the top to form a round onigiri.
Rice for Onigiri
Serves: 4
Preparation: 5 minutes, plus 30–60 minutes draining
Cooking: 15 minutes
The general rule of rice to water ratio is 15 percent more water than rice by weight. There are so many varieties of Japanese rice available — some types are expensive but worth a try. For example, newly harvested rice has a truly sublime flavour, and if you ever find sinmai, which means ‘new rice’, please try it — you will be surprised at how amazing it is!
Ingredients
300g Japanese rice
What to do
Place the rice in a fine strainer and set over a bowl filled with cold water.
Gently stir and wash the rice with your hands. As soon as the water turns milky, lift the strainer and drain the water. Repeat this process three to four times until the water is less milky.
Leave the rice in the strainer to drain for 30–60 minutes. The rice should turn clear to white during this process.
Place the drained rice in a heavy-based saucepan (ideally cast-iron) with 350ml water. Cover the pan with a heavy, tight-fitting lid.
Bring the rice to the boil over high heat. As soon as you can hear the water boiling vigorously and can see liquid bubbling up from the pan, reduce the heat and cook for 11 minutes. While cooking the rice, do not lift the lid — this is a strict rule!
Remove the pan from the heat and leave to stand, covered, for 10 minutes.
Open the lid and gently fluff the rice with a rice paddle.
Murdoch Books Japanese Food Made Easy by Aya Nishimura, £14.99, available at Amazon.
Originally published at https://www.refinery29.com.
