Agedashi Tofu

Agedashi tofu is a simple Japanese way to serve hot tofu. Soft or firm tofu is cut into cubes, is lightly dusted with potato starch or cornstarch and then deep fried until golden brown. It's then served in a hot tentsuyu broth made of dashi, mirin, and shoyu (Japanese soy sauce), and topped with finely chopped green onions and bonito flakes.

Ingredients:

1 block soft tofu
Some potato starch
Some cut green onions
Some bonito flakes

Chicken and Green Onion Yakitori

Yakitori in Japan can be refer to skewered food in general, traditionally serve at small restaurant or stands that grill them to order over charcoal and to be consumed alongside alcoholic beverages in the evening. These skewers will be grill to perfections and then basting it with homemade yakitori sauce. I made my own basting sauce as I find them tastier than the store bought stuff. You can use this sauce for basting any meat or vegetable.

Kabocha Korokke/Pumpkin Croquette

Korokke (croquette) is a popular snack in Japan. Korokke is usually made with mashed potatoes and ground beef. Korokke comes in different sizes and varieties. I’ve tasted one that is made from pumpkin and with a whole hardboiled egg on the inside. The crispy outer crust, the sweetness of the kabocha with their special spicy mayo sauce is seriously good.

 

For the AFF - Japan event I am trying to recreates this dish again. I prefer the korokke to be smaller in size so instead of using the usual chicken egg like how the restaurant serves it, I used quail eggs but I did made one using the regular egg.

Fish in Fermented Black Bean Sauce

My mom and grandma hardly cook anything with fermented black beans so I am not familiar with this ingredient at all. We only used bean paste/tau cheong in our cooking. I only start using it after seeing some of my friend here cooking with it. They will use it to cook pork, fish or vegetable. As for me I like to cook fish with it. I just love how the fish soak up all the wonderful flavor of the fermented black beans. I will steam the fish if I can get them real fresh but since this tilapia came frozen I decided to pan fried it first before cooking it in the sauce.

Nasu Dengaku/Grilled Eggplant with Miso Glaze

I will order this particular appetizer whenever they have it in the menu. It is light, silky texture and the savory miso glaze at the top. I just can’t get enough of it. Actually it is not difficult to prepare it at home. You can either grill it or just bake and broil it in the oven like I did. I used the Japanese egg plant from my garden but I’ve tried it with the Italian eggplant and they were just as good but it takes a bit longer time to cook though.

Ingredients:

3 medium size eggplants (I used 5 tiny ones)
Some vegetable oil – for brushing
Toasted sesame seeds – for garnish
Some sliced spring onions – for garnish
Some seaweed – for garnish

Assortment of Sushi

Carlos and I am a huge fan of sushi. Well, basically all types of Japanese food. We can eat them every day. Eating Japanese food at the restaurant is pretty costly so I will try to prepare them at home once a while if time permits. One of the things I like to make is sushi. I will make assortment Nigiri sushi, California rolls and maki rolls.

Good sushi starts with perfectly cooked rice. Soft and mushy rice is a big no no. I know some people like brown rice for health reasons but white rice has the requisite stickiness that holds together and they are great to make sushi.