ぎゅどん と もやし - Gyudon to Moyashi - Beef on Rice with Bean Sprouts

Konichiwa! It's the start of the Third Month of the Year of the Tiger and the Gaijin-Gourmet is back with another easy to make recipe for you to enjoy! Rice bowl dishes can make some great lunches and with some added variants can also do well for light dinners. So we thought we would try our hand at one of them that caught our eyes from NHK along with our own added touch by adding a side dish we learned from Soy Sauce Queen. In such we have combined two dishes to make one combined dish that we believe you will find as おいいしい as we did.

So here's what we made: Gyudon- which literally means Beef on Rice is something that looked easy to make. Now that the Shinkendo dojo that we train at has moved right across the street from the Nijiya Market in Little Tokyo, we couldn’t help but take advantage of special beef packages available there. Now we have used the thinly sliced beef before for other dishes such as Shabu-Shabu and other dishes, but we had not used it before but not in a rice bowl dish. Luckily, we came across a rice bowl dish on NHK’s Japanese Kitchen where we could put all these things together. So let’s get started! はじめましょ!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 package of thinly sliced beef – This is best found in Asian Markets.

1 Cup of Cooked Rice

½ package of Bean Sprouts

1 Onion

1 Cup (or two depending on taste) of white wine.

1 Cup of Water

¾ Cup of Japanese Soy Sauce

½ Cup of Mirin

4 Tsp of Sugar

2 Tbsp Sesame Oil

I previously mentioned that the thinly sliced beef is best found in Asian Markets. If you are in Japan or near a Japanese Community. If this is not the case, You can improvise by working with Mexican Shredded Steak commonly used for my native Carne’ Asada. Once you have this little detail worked out, you’ll want to cut them in 5cm or 4 inch slices.

For these dishes, I prefer to use a white onion. Typically, you'll want to cut the top and the bottom off and remove the inner seed portion. From there make thin slices across the board. I recommend using the whole onion. Trust me, you'll thank me later!

Combine your 1 Cup of Water with a Cup of White Wine in a Wok or Skillet. Wok's work best for this. Bring the heat up until boiling point. Depending on how much beef you mat need to add another cup of Wine or Water depending on quantity and taste.  Lower the heat to medium. Add your beef and simmer until browned. You should leave it in there between five and ten minutes. Once browned, skim off any surface broth.

Once your beef is ready, add your Mirin, Soy Sauce, and Sugar. Cover it for a few minutes then add your onions into the mix and continue to simmer. Cook the onions until soft. By now your you should be getting hungry. We sure did!  

While your Beef & Onions simmer you can work on the Moyashi - Bean Sprouts. What you'll want to do is take a good handful of Bean Sprouts and put them into a smaller skillet. Use Sesame Oil and an additional 1/3 cup of Japanese Soy Sauce. Normally for cooking bean sprouts you'll want to use sugar and vinegar. If you are going to combine this with Gyudon this will over power the taste so I reccomend using only Sesame Oil and Soy Sauce to simmer for five minutes.

When everything is ready take your cooked rice and fill have a bowl, Top with the beef & Onions with a little room for your bean sprouts. Depending on your taste you can garnish with a little red sliced ginger. We didn't have any but we enjoyed this dish anyway! おいいしい!

When you have it all together you have what I call  ぎゅどん と もやし - Gyudon to Moyashi -

Beef on Rice with Bean Sprouts!

Enjoy!

おやこ どんぶり Oyako Donburi

Welcome back! Today I present to you an easy Donburi. If you are new to Japanese cooking, Donburi means rice bowl dish. Donburi's can be made with chicken, meats, or fish. For today I offer you an easy chicken donburi made with simple ingredients you can find pretty much anywhere. Now as we have stated in the very beginning of this blog , this is not my original creation or am I trying to deprive anyone of making money. My intention is to show you my cooking experience and how you can easily follow along to make both traditional Japanese meals or easy to make Japanese inspired meals. Wakarimasu ka? Okay then!

Now that I have my usual disclaimer out of the way let’s get cooking. よい? はじめましょお!

So let’s go over what we’ll need:

1/2 lb chicken breast - or more
4 eggs
4 dried Shitake Mushrooms – or more!
1 onion
¼ cup Water
1tsp Sugar
3tsp Mirin
4 tsp of Soy Sauce
Rice
Garnish - みつば - Optional

So the first thing you’ll want to do is unpack those dried shitake mushrooms and soak them in water. Soak them for no less than ten minutes. If there are any stems cut them off.

You’ll later slice the mushrooms in half before you are ready to use them.

Next, take your chicken breasts and slice them diagonally and then into to bite sized pieces. And then return them to the refrigerator until ready to use.
At this early stage you’ll also want to slice up your onion into thin slices. Now don’t be shy! You’ll want those onions in there. Trust me!

Depending on how much food you plan to make you may need to add an additional egg or two.
 
But if it’s just for two then stick with the program and beat four eggs together until they are ready for use.
 
 
 
 
So now if you have your chicken, mushrooms, and oinions sliced, you are almost ready to go. But first you'll need to mix your simmering sauce. I had made this Donburi before from Yukio Moriyama's book Japanese Cuisine. But as I have discovered there is always a slight deviation from her recipie when I am cooking. Sometimes, I stray from the measurements and just eyeball it to my taste. I think many people do this and in most cases it's ok. But if you are not sure of your cooking abilities then for the time being stick with the recipie.
 
So if you are ready to make your simmiring sauce, mix together 1.4 cup of water into a bowl. Do not go over a 1/4 cup as I ususally tend to do or you will end up having to drain the water midway during cooking. This can skew your results so try to avoid this. Mix your water together with the soy sauce, mirin, and no more than that tsp of sugar.
 

Next, pour your simmiring sauce into a good sized skillet and bring to a boil. Once boiling add in your chicken, onions, and mushrooms. Cook them until the chicken appears done and the onions tender.
 
This should take about 2-3 minutes.
 
 
 
 
 

 
If your chicken, onion, mushroom mix appears ready, pour the beaten eggs into the mix and cover for around one minute.
 

The optional part of the recipie calls for a garnish to be added in. The Japanese recipie uses a garnish called mitsuba but if you can not find mitsuba any regular garnish in small amounts will do. This is mostly done for presentation. This is of course entirely optional.
 
 
 
 
 
If you have your rice already cooked then you can serve up the contents of your skillet. Place rice into a bowl then place the chicken & egg mix over the rice. If you have any left over simmering sauce left over you can pour a small amount to sweeten your donburi. This makes for an easy meal suitable for lunch or a light dinner. Not to mention it is relatively inexpensive to make. And you know that's always a plus! So please come again! I hope you enjoy this recipie. Enjoy!
 

Gyūtsukune

Last week we posted our little experiment we got from NHK and it was a big success. Not only did our Sake no Ebi Tsukune came out OIISHII, but people wrote to me directly and loved the recipe! Given the popularity of our take on Salmon Tsukune, we thought we would try our hand at Gyūtsukune which is literally a beef version of what we previously made. Like with Sake no Ebi Tsukune, we rarely follow instructions to the letter for one logistical reason or another but we do our best to show you or at least inspire you to do on your own.

Remember, were not trying to deprive anyone of making a living or claiming credit for something we didn't invent but merely showing you how we did at making some of the best Japanese dishes we can get our hands on. So if you're cool with that and not calling your lawyer...let's get cooking! Hajime!

Gyūtsukune at a glance looks allot like our earlier stab at Sake no Ebi Tsukune. The preparation methodology is the same but the ingredients make this it's own Tsukune. Now earlier this week I had bought a thing of basil leaves and shitake mushrooms. What drove me nuts was that somewhere in the middle of my 101 distractions which are impeding the completion of my Samurai Novel I am writing, I forgot what the hell I bought the basil leaves for! Ok, now that our memory came back to us after a heavy workout in the Shinkendo Dojo, my delayed memory recalled researching recipes at NHK's cooking page. It was there that I was introduced to both the fish and meat Tsukune recipes. As I previously mentioned before, I don't always follow or in some cases understand some of the directions I come across but that never stops me from making a good meal and neither should it stop you. As in my subtitle for my page, I will give you both Japanese and Japanese inspired cooking.

So getting back to our Gyūtsukune.... as with any recipe you'll some ingredients. The original recipe called for ground beef and pork. I have a general distrust of pork in this country so I opted to make my Gyūtsukune without pork otherwise I would have to call it Nikutsukune(Niku=meat / Gyū=beef). So here's what we used:

1lb of Ground Beef


5 Shitake Mushrooms

3 Basil Leaves

1/2 Carrot

1/2 Onion

1 Egg

1/2 Cup of Mirin

1/2 Cup of Soy Sauce

2tsp of Oil ( We use Olive Oil but Vegitable Oil is ok too)

2tsp of Sugar

2tsp Flour

Salt & Pepper (to taste)

3 Basil Leaves

As with our earlier fish based Tsukune, we recommend prepping your main ingredients first and the sauce second.
 

 
So first thing is first.
Take your Shitake Mushrooms and cut the stems off first.
Take a good sized mixing bowl and be ready to throw them in.
Slice and dice your mushrooms into tiny pieces.
 
You will repeat this slice & dice process with the onions and the carrots.
 
 
 
 

 
The original recipe called for six basil leaves.
 
We used three so the basil wouldn't overpower our dish.
If you have ever cut fresh basil leaves then you'll know exatly what I mean!

 
Once you have your basil, mushrooms, carrots, and onions chopped up into little pieces throw them all into the same mixing bowl.
 
By this point this should be smelling pretty good and you haven't thrown in the meat yet!
 
 
 
 
 

When working with raw ground beef, I like to use Lawry's Seasoning Salt. No Japanese recipe I know calls for it but that's what I like to use it and it's never thrown a dish so far so we'll use it here. Throw in your ground beef and use a dash or two or in my case three of the seasoning salt. You'll want to add roughly around the same amount of pepper into your ground beef. If you happen to have a black peppercorn grinder bottle like me then you're in even better shape.I recommend them.
 
Mix your meat with the vegetables into the mixing bowl. Add one raw egg and two tablespoons of flour. Mix everything we've mentioned so far in the mixing bowl until your meat becomes sticky. You'll want it that way to shape them. With the addition of an egg and some flour those of you who tried to make the Sake no Ebi Tsukune will appreciate this. After you have all that mixed return your meat to the refrigerator to keep cool while we move on to our sauce.

Like before, you'll take your 1/2 cup of Mirin, 1/2 cup of Soy Sauce and your 2 tsp of Sugar and pour into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and let simmer for about two minutes. After that you'll want to place your mixture in the refrigerator to cool down and retrieve your meat so you can move onto the next step.

The idea of this next step is to take your ground beef and shape them into a small flat hamburger like shape.


Once you have your meat shaped and ready to go, break out your sauce mixture and turn up that fire.



Add a tablespoon of oil into your sauce and stir it in before you add your meat.

Like with the previous tsukune post you'll want to fry them until evenly browned on both sides. This should take around five to six minutes depending on how big yours comes out.

After your Tsukune is browned and ready, serve it with a good Teriyaki sauce. We recommend Kikkoman Original for this dish and believe me it brings out a zesty flavor you are bound to enjoy. You'll never want to make teriyaki burgers the same way again!


So there I was, standing there with a handful of mixed ground beef when Tina suddenly goes over to Soy Sauce Queen's page and discovers she just happened to post a different variation of the same idea. Hers is called Hakusai Hamburger Steak. I was like oh shit! What's the chance of that happening! Seriously, I didn't see her blog until I was halfway done cooking. Hopefully Misa isn't going to think I'm trying to rip her off! We wouldn't do that to Misa Sensei. She has been very supportive in our endeavors as we are of hers so please visit her page if you'd like to see another way how to cook with hamburger meat the Japanese way.

We sure hope you have enjoyed this recipes and all the recipes we've posted here.
We appreciate all your comments!
Enjoy!
*L*

魚料理 Sake to Ebi Tsukune

Konnichi-wa! Your “Gaijin-Gourmet” has returned with another fun recipe from Japan. Ok, I didn’t actually go to Japan since my last post but thanks to the internet and books, I can share with you my recent cooking experiences with both traditional and Japanese inspired culinary cooking. So let me share with you a seafood dish I learned from an NHK cooking show that we tried this last weekend called Salmon & Prawn Tsukune.

I love seafood and always have since I was a kid. I picked this recipe based on the ease to make and the obtainability to find all the necessary ingredients. I don’t read kanji but I do shop in Japanese markets in Little Tokyo (I like to think of it as my training for shopping in Japan). With this in mind I imagine if you are in Japan and can’t read the kanji labels finding what you need should for this meal will be as easy as pointing at the items you will need.

You can find salmon pretty much anywhere here or in Japan. So scoring a pair of salmon fillets for should be no problem. For the second item in this seafood doubleheader, the recipe calls for prawns. Prawns you say? Not to panic. Let me explain. I live in Los Angeles, so most markets mainly sell shrimp instead of prawns. What’s the difference you might ask? Not much to tell you the truth. Prawns are generally larger than their shrimp cousins. So in other words, you can do this exactly as the original recipe called for using prawns or improvise like me with the more easily obtainable large shrimp available in most American seafood sections at your local markets. Successfully acquiring a pound of each fish we can now move on to what else you’ll need.

1lb Salmon Fillet
1lb Shrimp or Prawns
½ Onion (White onion is good!)
1tsp Sake
3fl oz Mirin
3fl oz Japanese Soy Sauce
4tsp Lemon Juice
4 square inches of Konbu
Salt & Pepper
Thinly Sliced Ginger

This photo is of the konbu kelp we purchased at Nijiya Market in Little Tokyo.
If you are in Japan and can not read Kanji reference this photo!

Preparation!
The first thing you want to do is open all the windows because the place is going to smell fishy! Ok, (if you don’t live in a little box like me) maybe not. But seriously you’ll want to start with the shrimp. Do not buy precooked shrimp. Use shelled shrimp. Like with any meal involving shrimp, you will want to de-shell and de-vein your shrimp before you do anything else. This can prove to be time consuming but necessary to de-vein shrimp.

Your stomach will thank you later.

Once you have your shrimp ready you can bring out your salmon fillets.

Make sure you have all bones and any skin removed before proceeding.

You will then want to slice your fish into tiny bits and mince them.
You do this for both shrimp and salmon.

After you do this place the two fish in a bowl together.

Next you’ll want to take that half onion and chop it into just under a qtr inch bits. If you are familiar with Mexican Civiche’ it’s the same process.

If you happen to have one of those “Slap Chop” slicers then you are in business!

Once diced into tiny bits, throw your onions into the bowl containing the fish.

Add Salt & Pepper (sparingly according to taste) and the sake then mix it all together. Once mixed, cover it and place it back in the refrigerator to stay cool while you move onto the part.


Now in many Japanese recipes they tell you to start with your sauce or Dashi stock first. Of course when working with fish you might want to do that second. It’s really up to you but for practical reasons I always prep my fish or meats first especially on a hot day. Need I say more?

For our mixture well now break out that Mirin. If you are still not sure what Mirin is it’s basically sweet cooking sake. You can find this in any Japanese market or in most major American markets that have an Asian Foods section. If you live in a place where they don’t carry mirin but do carry regular sake then don’t despair. Add a pinch of sugar and stir into sake and there’s your mirin!

Now that we’ve covered mirin, let’s pour your mirin into a pan and bring it to a boil. Once you’ve hit the boiling point turn down your heat and simmer for two minutes. Next, add lemon juice and that konbu kelp. If you can’t find Konbu nearby you can always order it on line from any of the Japanese market sites I have listed here on the side. You’ll only need to buy one package and trust me, you won’t use it that much but it’s good to have for when you need it. Once you have the konbu and lemon juice mixed in with the mirin, add the soy sauce and place it back in the refrigerator to cool.


While that’s cooling bring your fish bowl out and prepare to get busy! If you have ever eaten Scandinavian food you may be familiar with Fiskballar – fish balls. This isn’t the same thing but the concept is the same. Take your fish mixture and shape them into balls. NHK recommends 5cm. If you live where we don’t use metric think about the size of an Italian meatball and you are in business! With our experience we found this to be easier said than done. The fish didn’t hold their shape so easily but with patience you can make this work. Just don’t make them any larger than this or they won’t retain their shape when you deep fry them. Once your fish is shaped into balls you are ready to go.

Final Steps.

Use a good sized pan for your mixture and pan fry the fish balls until they are nicely browned.
Once they are browned you are ready to serve.
Garnish them with thinly sliced ginger or shredded ginger and serve with a dash of Ponzu Sauce

You can find some great ideas and recipes on NHK World’s website. They do a great job showing you on their Japanese Kitchen show how to cook delicious Japanese meals. However, their website’s instructions could prove to be confusing.
As I have explained before, I don’t come up with these recipes. But what I do on here is share with you how I made these dishes and hopefully show you how you can too.

We certainly loved how OIISHII the Tsukune came out and it’s a definite “Gohan mo Ichido” for us. I hope it will be one for you too.
Enjoy!
*L*

Furofuki-Daikon Or What to do with a Daikon Root?

I've always wanted to try a Daikon Root recipe but had no idea once I found one how to follow along in a manner that made sense. Like with any new dish, there is bound to be some level of trial and error. My attempt was no exception.

For Japanese people this is no daunting task but if you are like me who didn't grow up with this stuff there's bound to be some initial confusion. But that's ok. We're here to share how we went about this so you can get an idea of what you can do and should you be in Japan and low on cash this is something you can make for next to nothing on the fly.

At first glance the Daikon Root looks sturdy enough to carve but one quickly finds how easy they are to split apart when you least want them to so proceed with care.

So what we did was slice in 1 1/4 inch cuts.
Next with a small pairing knife you'll need to peel off the outer edge of the Daikon Root.
This is where you find how easy it is to make unintentional cuts so take your time and make it look nice. Remember with any type of cooking presentation is part of the game. Once you have the outer edge of the root peeled away you'll want to make small cross like cuts to help absorb heat and avoid further splitting.

Now many recipes I have came across recommend cooking rice along side this dish. One byproduct of the rice cleaning process is the rice water. You'll actually want to use that water to cook the root slices for around ten minutes in a large sauce pan or cooking wok. On the surface this didn't make too much sense but they say this offers better texture so being I had never cooked with Daikon Root before, who was I to argue with?

Once you've cooked the Daikon Root in the rice water you'll want to drain that out and replace with a simmering sauce comprised of :
1tsp Sugar
1tsp Salt
2tsp of Mirin
3 or more tsp of Soy Sauce - Depending on taste.

Pour the Simmering Sauce in the Daikon and bring to a boil for ten minutes then serve.
If you have access to Japanese Kombu (kelp) you can add this when you serve it.

If you followed along you may do something creative with rice.
I added thinly sliced nori and furikake (roasted Sesame).
This is only a serving suggestion.

So far I have to say mine came out pretty good! That's a do-again at my house!

There are other Japanese ways to cook Daikon but for the simple first time this is one easy way to try.

Enjoy!

Yasai no Fukumeni

Shitake Mushrooms & Cabbage

Here’s an easy side dish we tried over the weekend I am sure you will enjoy.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. 1 pkg. Dried Shitake Mushrooms
2. 1 Cabbage
   1/3 tsp of Mirin
3. 3 tsp of Japanese Soy Sauce

Now I’ve worked with Shitake mushrooms before but never understood which was better to purchase them dried or fresh. With this recipe the use of using dried Shitake becomes all too clear.


Many Japanese meals may contain either a broth or simmering stock I didn’t understand this before until this was explained to me such as I in turn will explain to you the reader of this blog. In this recipe, using dried Shitake Mushrooms ( cut in halves, or quarters depending on the size of the Shitake) soak them in water until soft. Don’t throw out the water just yet because you’ll need that for your simmering sauce. No, that’s not the sauce but that is the prime component of it so this is where buying dried Shitake comes in handy.

While the Shitake is soaking, cut half a cabbage into quarters. Remember that regardless of what ethnic cooking you are doing, presentation is part of the game so make those quarters neat!


Your nest step is to make your simmering sauce.
To do that, take 1 ¼ cup to 1 ½ cup of the water left over from the Shitake Mushrooms.

Next, add 1/3rd tsp Mirin and 3 tsp of Japanese Soy Sauce.




Mix these ingredients together and pour them into a wok or a large simmering pot. Heat to boiling.
Once the sauce is boiling lower to moderate heat and add the Shitake Mushrooms and let simmer for another five minutes.
Add your cabbage squares and cook until soft then serve!
Enjoy!