Tonkatsu/Pork Cutlets

Non Halal

Tonkatsu is one of the most beloved “western style” Japanese foods in Japan. It is thinly pound pork chop breaded with flour, egg, and Panko (bread crumbs), then deep fried. Tonkatsu is almost always accompanied by thinly shredded cabbage, curry sauce or with thick brown Worcester-based sauce.

 

I’ve been craving for this cutlet since I came home from my month long vacation in Japan. So I decided to make some for our dinner a few weeks ago. I serve it with rice and broccoli instead of curry sauce or tonkatsu sauce. It’s not the healthiest food but rather comfort food for me.

Salmon Onigiri/Japanese Salmon Rice Balls

Onigiri is Japanese rice balls. In Japan you’ll find onigiri in supermarkets and convenience stores. Usually shape in round or triangle with finely chopped pickles, fish, meat, vegetables in it. Packed into a lunch bag, they are filling, nourishing and easy to eat on the go, whether you're on the road headed out of town or packing for a picnic. I usually make this when I have leftover sushi rice or fish or whatever I have in hand. You can basically put anything in it…. The sky’s the limit.

Chicken Teriyaki

The pictures of this dish have been sitting in my file for a long time and it is time to post it out. I made this chicken dish for the AFF – Japan event but I just can’t find the time to post it during that time because of work commitment. This is a simple recipe yet very satisfying. I cooked this in a skillet instead of grilling it but you can always do so.

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.

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.

Miso Maple Glazed Salmon Rice Bowl

We were having some pretty hot summer here in Northern CA and during days like this I like to prepare meals that are quick and easy so I don’t have to spend too much time at the hot stove. This particular meal is one of our favorite and I will prepare it at least once a week. It tasted so light and substantial at the same time and it was a wonderful meal in a bowl!

Chicken Yakisoba

Yakisoba, literally fried noodles, is considered a Japanese dish but originally derived from the Chinese chow mein. While chow mein uses soy sauce, the Japanese season this noodle with a sweeten Worcestershire like sauce. Although soba means buckwheat, typically suggesting noodles made from that flour in mainland Japan, yakisoba noodles are made from wheat flour similar to ramen. Yakisoba is very easy to make and you can add almost any ingredients to make it your own. Popular yakisoba varieties include vegetarian, seafood, chicken, beef or classic with pork belly.

Honey Castella Cake II

I know you have seen a lot of Castella ( Kasutera) cake in blogosphere for the past one month. I was hit by the bugs too and I baked this in March and only get to post it now. The first time I baked this Castella cake was in 2009 and pretty please with the outcome but that recipe uses oil and all purpose flour. For the recipe shared by Roti n Rice and Yummy Workshop uses bread flour and with no oil in it. So which cake i like better? I always prefer spongy cake compare to butter cake so I like both of them. The 1st recipe gives a softer and denser texture and this one is bouncier or should I say springier and lighter. I think it’s the used of bread flour which has more gluten in it. The next Kasutera I am going to try out will be from Nasi Lemak Lover .

I am going to re-post the recipe here for my own record when I want to bake it again. Since I don’t have a smaller pan, I used an 8” x 8” square pan so the cake is not as tall as I wanted it to be.

Ginger Miso Glazed Salmon with Mango Salsa

I am able to get very fresh salmon from Ranch 99 here in CA and I will serve it for dinner at least once a week. Carlos loves this fish and I usually serve it with some light salad and savory rice. With a few minutes under the broiler the miso gives the salmon a nice browning but remains juicy and succulent beneath. Miso is a fermented soybean product and you can read more about it here .

Ingredients:

2 pieces of salmon fillet – about 6 ounces each

Marinate:

2 tbsp light miso
1 tsp grated ginger
1 1/2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar

Bok Choy Gyoza/Bok Choy Dumplings

I like making dumplings and I will normally make a big batch and freeze them up and we can have it whenever we want to. They are not difficult to make as now you can get the ready made gyoza/dumpling wrappers from the Asian Supermarket. Over the years I made lots of it and each time I will try using different type of meat and vegetables. You can basically put any type of fillings you like in it. Instead the usual napa cabbage I replace it with baby bok choy for this batch of dumplings.

Omurice/オムライス/ Rice Wrap in Omelet - Day 13

I feel like making something simple today without taking much effort. The easiest has to be fried rice with some leftover rice from two days ago. And how can I incorporate the Jelly Mould into this dish? Wrap the rice up with a cone shape omelet of course. There come the Omurice. Omurice is a Japanese word for "omelet and rice. The dish mainly consists of fried rice with whatever other ingredients you wish, wrapped in a thin sheet of fried omelets. Many restaurants serve the dish with white sauce, tomato based sauce or ketchup. Malaysia has a version of this rice too and it is called Nasi Goreng Pattaya .

Kakiage/Japanese Vegetable Fritters

I always like this type of vegetable fritters. I remember I used to buy them from Jaya Jusco back in Malaysia. I am not sure if they are still selling this fritters at the Japanese food section. Anyway, Kakiage is a member of the tempura family, though these mixed vegetable fritters are less complicated to make than is usual for tempura. Kakiage is great to make when you need to use up the vegetables remaining in your fridge, like onions, carrots, bean sprouts, zucchini, sweet potato and etc. You can eat them on their own with your favorite dipping sauce or simple serve them with rice or a simple bowl of soba or udon noodles.

Melon Pan

Melon pan, a soft, sweet roll encased in crispy cookie dough and scored into a cross-hatch pattern to resemble the look of melon skin captured my interest as soon as I tasted it at Narita’s Airport two years ago. It tastes so good, with the mixture of soft bread texture combined with sweet cookie on the top. I knew I would like to learn to make this adorable bread in my own kitchen. I used the recipe from MyFoodGeek. The bread turns out ok but not as soft as I wanted it to be. The next time I make this I will use the Tangzhong sweet bread dough and maybe put some filling inside the buns.

From Wikipedia

Melonpan (メロンパン meronpan?), also known as Melon pan, Melon buns or Melon bread, are sweet bakery products from Japan, but also popular in Taiwan and China. They are made from enriched dough covered in a thin layer of crisp cookie dough. Their appearance resembles a melon, such as a rock melon (cantaloupe). They are not traditionally melon flavored, [1] but in recent times it has become popular for manufacturers to add melon to melon bread. Variations exist, including some with a few chocolate chips between the cookie layer and the enriched dough layer, and non-melon versions flavored with caramel, maple syrup, chocolate, or other flavors, sometimes with syrup, whipped or flavored cream, or custard as a filling. In the case of such variations, the name may drop the word "melon" ("maple pan") or may keep it despite the lack of melon flavor ("chocolate melon pan")

Unagi and Tamagoyaki Sushi Rice Bowl

This is my youngest nephew Eu-Xin absolutely favorite thing to eat. Each time he steps into a Sushi place of Japanese restaurant he will order this. He will be very happy if he get to eat this. I have to make it a point to prepare this for him when I go home. Making this rice bowl is so easy. You can find vacuumed packed pre-cooked unagi at the Asian store frozen section. All you have to do is take it out, bake or broil and serve it with some sushi rice. We will usually have this with some avocado or steamed broccoli but since I don’t have any in hand I just made some Tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelet) to go with it.

Fried Udon Noodles

I love udon noodles. It can be in soup or quick stir-fry. I will always have a few packets of it in my fridge so I can have it anytime I want. Making this noodles dish is easy. You can pretty much use any type of proteins or vegetables you have in your fridge.

Ingredients:

1 packet fresh Udon noodles (400 gram)
1 piece chicken breast – removes skin and sliced thinly
10 shrimps – peel and deveined
3 cloves garlic – chopped
2 shallots – sliced
1 carrot – peels and sliced thinly
5 button mushrooms – sliced
1 yellow pepper – sliced thinly
A handful of sugar snap pea – cut small
1 green chili – sliced thinly

Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu is so popular in Japan that there are even restaurants that only serve tonkatsu and similar items such as kushikatsu (bite-sized fried bits of pork and other things on a skewer). Tonkatsu - ton is pig or pork, and katsu derives from the word cutlet. While Tonkatsu is typically served with a sweet brown sauce, we like ours drizzle with mayo.

Since Tonkatsu is a simple dish that requires very few ingredients, the quality of the ingredients are important. In this case it’s crucial that you use a good piece of pork, otherwise you may end up with a tough leathery meat. I like using  boneless center-cut pork chop. Another key ingredient for tonkatsu is panko. You can buy panko at the Asian store of any supermarket. Just look at the international section.

Chicken Karaage

I always have a fondness for karaage, Japanese take on fried chicken. It’s crisp, juicy and has an Asian flavor to it. This is a very simple and tasty way of fried chicken. And best of all, they are pan-fried which is much more convenient than deep fried. I used breast meat to make Karaage but I think it will taste even better if you use dark thigh meat.

Ingredients:

3 pieces chicken breast – cut into 1” cubes
3 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tbsp of sake (optional)
2 cloves of garlic – grated
1 tbsp ginger juice
salt and pepper to taste
A small onion (optional)
5 curry leaves (optional)

For Coating:

3 tbsp sesame seeds
Cornstarch or sweet potato starch

1. First of all, mix all the ingredients to marinate the chicken together for an hour.
2. In a plate mix the sesame seeds and cornstarch. Coat the chicken with the flour mixture.
3. In a frying pan, heat up some oil. Pan fried the chicken in small batches until golden brown on both sides. Drain the oil on paper towels.
4. You can serve the chicken with some sweet chili sauce or some mayonnaise.

Note: I added some red onions and curry leaves half way through the frying as I always like the taste of them in my fried meat.