Hayashi Rice

1 lb. beef
4 onions
1 tbsp. butter
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 carrot, sliced into disks
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup red wine or beef broth optionally.
2 bay leaves
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp. tomato paste
2 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. all purpose flour
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 cup frozen peas
Aonori
8 servings cooked Japanese rice

Cut beef into bite sized pieces. Place beef in large pot over medium heat. Cook until browned on all sides, then remove from the pot. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and onions to the pot, then cook onions until translucent, about 15 minutes.
Add the mushrooms, carrot, garlic, wine or beef broth, bay leaves, tomatoes, tomato paste, and beef stock to the pot. Let cook uncovered until the liquid has reduced by half, then remove the bay leaves.
While the pot is simmering, prepare the roux. In a small pan, place 2 tablespoons of butter in a small pan over medium heat. Once melted, add the flour and immediately stir. Contintuously stir until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble. Pour a small about of broth from the pot into the roux mixture. Stir until combined, then mix another ladleful in. Do this several times until the mixture has a gravy-like texture, then add the mixture to the pot.
Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and cook another 30 minutes.
Once ready to eat, serve with rice. Garnish with parsley or aonori if desired.

Chankonabe

This is a Japanese nabe or simmered dish. This is also a good reason to haul out and actually use that electric skillet you have sadly collecting dust in the kitchen cabinet. While this is not a strictly traditional chankonabe, the term is more appropriate, because of the vegetables used, and because of its improvisational manner. This is a simplified, accessible, yet flavor and nutrient packed iteration and variation of the traditional dish.

Nabe dishes are traditionally cooked in iron or earthenware pots. In Japan, nabe dishes are cooked at home over portable butane stoves right on the dinner table in iron or more commonly, ceramic nabe pots, although many Japanese use electric skillets, now.
I had a nice electric skillet that worked for many years until the heating element finally stopped working.

I have been doing a bit of comparison shopping, and one electric skillet seems to be universally popular for this particular sort of application, and that is the Zojirushi model.
The pot insert with it is capable of being put over a direct heat source such as a gas flame, it is super easy to clean and reliable according to reviews. This particular model seems to be very popular with the Japanese for making nabe at the table.

If you haven't dined this way, I highly recommend it. On a cold evening it makes for a very satisfying and relatively healthy way to dine.

Nabe is a relatively easy and foolproof way to cook. Most of it consists in prepping your ingredients. From there you heat up your broth - chicken, beef, vegetable or dashi in the pot and plunk in the ingredients, and let them simmer, and then you fish them out to put in your individual bowl, and you eat and repeat until you are stuffed.

Usually there are some dipping sauces. At the end of the meal, you can add noodles to the well flavored broth and have it as a soup/noodle course or strain the stock, and refrigerate it for use on another night as stock for another nabe or as a soup base for noodles. This of course is an excellent thing to do.

Again, this is a recipe for a veggie based chankonabe - traditionally, a sumo-wrestler-style chankonabe has all sorts of proteins like chicken (chicken meatballs are traditional), fish, shellfish, eggs etc. All of those can be added to the nabe, and cooked, but to be honest it is pretty good either way.
You could use Napa cabbage instead of bok choy, but the bok choy is more tender and cooks faster than Napa cabbage. This is to give you a base recipe to learn, and expand upon. From here, you can branch out and make other nabe dishes such as sukiyaki, shabu-shabu, nabeyaki udon, oden.

As far as broth, the two best broths for nabe in my opinion are dashi, dashi-miso and chicken broth - homemade Japanese-style chicken broth for this preferably.

Nabe is all about the broth. I will put a recipe for a Japanese-style chicken broth at the end of this recipe. For beginners or those new to nabe, I suggest using a chicken or vegetable broth to start with. You can of course add a bit of hon-dashi or "instant dashi" to it, to create more complex flavor. As you get the hang of it, one can use ingredients or condiments such as miso paste for more complex flavors.

Ingredients -

2-3" long piece of ginger, peeled & minced
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
2 onions, cut into large slices
7-8 large crimini or button mushrooms, sliced
3 cups green beans, chopped into 1” pieces
3 cups carrots, sliced
3 bunches bok choy, washed & sliced
1 quart broth of choice - veggie, chicken, dashi etc. If you are new to nabe, and even if you aren't, I strongly suggest making the well flavored Japanese-style chicken broth below for this particular recipe unless you are vegetarian.

Mince up your garlic and ginger together. Heat up a large stock pot or electric skillet with a little bit of vegetable oil, or butter on medium heat. You do not need much oil at all, especially with a non-stick electric skillet. Once the oil starts to glisten, add in your ginger/garlic and stir around for about 1 minute until they start to lighten in color and become fragrant.

Note, wash your bok choy well if using – The root end tends to hold a lot of dirt. Peel away each leaf and rinse; cut the base off before chopping.

Add in all the vegetables except for the bok choy, as well as 1/2 cup of the broth for some moisture. Adding in broth also allows many of the nutrients in the vegetables to be absorbed by the broth. Stir around to coat the vegetables in the melted oil mixture and broth. Reduce the heat to just under medium and let the vegetables cook and soften up, about 6-7 minutes.
If you want your veggies more tender, simply let them simmer longer.

After most of the carrots and green beans have become tender, add in the bok choy and stir around for another 3 minutes, letting the bok choy get tender.

After mixing and stirring everything together, let the broth temperature heat up to a simmer about, 4-6 minutes. Allow the stew to simmer for about 5 minutes to let all of the spices and flavors blend and for the broth to soak into the vegetables. If you are planning to add in rice noodles, now is the time to add them in so they cook in the broth for the 5 minutes. Otherwise, you can add them to the broth at the end of the meal, and cook them in the broth separately.

Turn off or lower the heat, and then you start fishing out veggies and noodles out to add to your own individual bowl. The noodles can be tricky to fish out if you have never done so, and especially so with chopsticks if you aren't practiced at it - and you can use some tongs or a slotted spoon or even a plain old fork to do so - so as not to make a mess. Sometimes hot rice is eaten with nabe instead of noodles, but you will almost never see both together as it would be two starches.

The basic idea from here - is to eat it pretty much how you like - you can make a little bed of rice noodles and fish the cooked veggies out of the pot and put them on top, or you can just add them to a bowl by themselves or to a bowl of rice and nibble away.

Another thing you can do is to top the vegetable chankonabe with already cooked meat such as brisket, chicken, poached shrimp, butaniku, etc. for a more substantial dish with more proteins.

Add - ins and condiments are numerous, from more chopped green onions, mung bean sprouts, chiles, Sriracha, sansho pepper, Shichi-mi togarashi or Japanese seven spice, karashi mustard, wasabi, tosajoyu dipping sauce, sesame seed or peanut sauce dipping sauces, shoyu or tamari.


Japanese Chicken Stock - Tori-gara.
This is a very simple version of "tori-gara". You can of course add more optional flavors which I will note below depending on what you have or if you want a more complex flavor. You can also roast the chicken bones prior to simmering them in the broth.

8 cups water
2 (6-inch) pieces kombu
1 1/2 ounces dried, shaved bonito, about 3 cups, packed
1 pound chicken bones and wings, roughly chop the ribcage, if using
12 cups water, plus more for boiling the bones

Optional add-ins:
Long leeks or green onion
Garlic, one clove will suffice
Fresh ginger, a small chunk.
1 or 2 bay laurel leaves
Black pepper - coarsely ground, just a twist or two.
Japanese sake or white wine will suffice. Not much, 1/4 to 1/2 cup.
Fruit - apples are best, you needn't peel the apple, just cut it in chunks.
Soy sauce or organic tamari for me, a few tablespoons don't come amiss.

Add 8 cups of water and the kombu to a large stockpot and let it steep for 30 minutes. Place the stockpot over medium heat and bring it to a boil. Remove the kombu. Add the bonito and stir it once to mix in. As soon as the liquid boils again, decrease the heat to low
and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove any crap that appears on the surface; it can affect the flavor.

Pop the bones into the pot. Add the 12 cups of water and bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Add any optional add-ins from above to the broth at this point. Decrease the heat the medium and simmer until the stick reduces to approximately 8 cups, about 30 minutes to a couple of hours. As it cooks, check the stock at regular intervals to remove any scum and any excess fat that appears on the surface.

Carefully, strain the liquid and discard any solids and bones making sure to get all the small bones out. Let cool and use immediately or refrigerate or freeze stock for future use. I recommend refrigerating this so you can remove the excess fat prior to using it.

Incidentally, if the tori-gara is too much trouble and time consuming, there are a few decent commercial chicken broths available at the store. You would simply use it as is, or instead I would recommend flavoring it up, with some of the optional add-ins. The "cheater's method" here is to use a commercial broth, and add in a few chicken wings, and simmer it until the meat is falling off the bone, along with some green onions, some shoyu, a chunk of ginger, and a clove of garlic and a few black peppercorns. Just simmer that, you might have to add a bit of water, and when the chicken wings are done - strain the lot, and you have a decent flavored broth.


One ingredient that is commonly used in traditional Japanese and Chinese stocks and broths especially ones that feature ginger and chicken, that I omitted is wolfberry. This is also known as goji berries or the fruit of 'Lycium barbarum' and 'Lycium chinense' respectively and more technically. Within traditional Asian medicine, wolfberry is considered a tonic. Goji berries are considered a "yin" substance, within traditional Chinese medicine particularly used in the winter months to strengthen the kidneys, liver and lungs.

Tsukimi Udon

"Moon viewing noodles".Traditionally, Tsukimi Udon are served at the mid-autumn full moon, and date back to observances and festivals of the Heian era. A whole special cuisine is focused upon the moon, and moon viewing festivities, called "tsukimi ryōri". The name for the winter moon is "fuyutsuki". This recipe uses a konbu-shiitake dashi or broth as its base.
You could use a regular dashi broth, or even water.

Kombu dashi:
7 cups water
1 piece kombu (approximately 12-square inches in size)
1 ounce dried shiitake mushrooms
Soup broth:
Shiitake kombu dashi
1/4 cup dark soy sauce and/or tamari - I happen to really like tamari with this
2 tbsp. mirin
1/4 tsp. salt, plus more if needed

One package of udon noodles, prepared according to the instructions indicated on the package
4 large eggs
2 tbsp. thinly sliced green onion
Shichimi togarashi, Japanese seven spice, to garnish

Make the shiitake kombu dashi: Place the kombu and dried shiitake mushrooms in a pot with the water. Bring the water almost to a boil and then turn down the heat to maintain a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let the stock stand for 3 minutes. Squeeze the mushrooms to release the stock they have soaked up, then strain the stock through a fine-mesh strainer and set aside.
Make the soup broth: Mix the dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and salt together in a pot and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Divide the prepared udon noodles into four bowls. Ladle the simmering soup broth over the noodles. Crack an egg on top of the noodles in each bowl, and then garnish each bowl with the thinly sliced scallions. If you prefer, you can poach your eggs separately before adding them to the soup.

Kyuuri to Wakame no Amasuzuke

These are probably one of my favorite pickles or tsukemono. This is a classic sanbaizu preparation, of course. The marinade is enough for one large English-style or "hothouse" cucumber - the long, relatively thin kind that often comes shrink-wrapped in plastic. If you're using other cucumbers, aim for about 4 to 5 cups cut up. Other than just cucumbers you try sliced turnips, carrots, daikon radish, regular radish, etc.
If you have made this before and it was missing "something" try using the Hon Dashi granules, and you will likely find the flavor other recipes miss with this. If you don't want to use a whole cucumber you can half the sanbaizu dressing recipe.

8 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. Hon Dashi dashi soup stock granules, or one 4 inch square of kombu seaweed
1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. sea salt
4 tbsp. boiling water
1 whole dried red chili pepper - optional
1 large English-style cucumber
2 tbsp. dried pre-cut wakame seaweed the "fueru" type that just requires soaking.
A drop of shoyu for serving - optional, but I like it.
Sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds - optional.

Combine and mix until the sugar is melted to prepare the vinegar dressing. De-seed and cut up 1 English-style or hot house cucumber or equivalent other kind of cucumber into thin coins.
Put the marinade in a small glass, ceramic or plastic bowl - but not metal or a ziplock plastic bag. Put the cucumber and wakame seaweed in. Stir or shake around, seal well and let marinade in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours or overnight. Drain off the marinade and serve in small bowls. This should be eaten within 2-3 days.

Supearibu no Nikomi

The compound word means "sparerib" and nikomi means to "stew" or braise.This one is easier than the other recipe posted where the ribs are wrapped in parchment, but is equally as good and the resulting ribs are falling off the bone tender and juicy cooked this way. There are a couple of ways to make the nikomi braising broth, depending on your preference.
Both take about the same amount of time. As far as braising time I would recommend a hour or so for smaller baby back ribs, and two hours for larger sparerib portions at least.
Burosu or broth one is more bold and spicy in flavor with the red miso and tobanjan, whereas broth two is a bit more subtle with the use of dashi and a bit more citrus-flavored and sweeter.

What you will need to start is:
2 racks baby back or spareribs about 5 to 6 pounds.
If this is a bit expensive you could go with one rack of spareribs. Cut the slabs in half, but not individual ribs. Remove the silverskin, and any excess fat or gristly bits. Take a fork and poke it up and down the meat between the bones.

Burosu no Supearibu (broth) #1
1 whole unpeeled bulb garlic, halved horizontally across the middle
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup tomato puree
1 cup sake
2 tbsp. rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari
3 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. red miso
1 tbsp. tobanjan - chile bean paste or sauce. Lee Kum Kee brand is one of the easiest to find.
1 tsp. whole black peppercorns

To a large stockpot, add the ribs, 6 cups water, garlic, onion, carrot, tomato puree, sake, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, miso, tobanjan, and peppercorns and bring to a boil over high heat.
Decrease the heat so the liquid gently simmers. Remove any scum or oil that floats to the surface. Cover the pot and cook until the ribs become tender, about 1 or 2 hours.

Dashijiru no Supearibu (dashi-based broth) #2
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tbsp. oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. instant dashi, hon-dashi
3 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. soy sauce or ponzu soy sauce
1 tbsp. mirin
1 tablespoon sake
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
A few slices of lemon, optional.

Cut ribs in half so they will fit into the pot. Add ingredients into a large pot and add enough water to just cover the ribs. Add ribs to the pot and cover. Simmer 1 to 2 hours until the liquid has reduced.

Either way you go, pour or reserve some of the braising liquid into a smaller saucepan, by pouring it through a fine mesh strainer to remove any solids. You will want to bring it to a boil, and then reduce it down until it thickens to make the finishing glaze for the ribs.

As an alternate and easier idea, you might use a homemade or bottled teriyaki glaze, or a tosajoyu sauce as a glaze and baste. To finish them you can either broil or grill them.

To broil:
Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Cut between bones to separate ribs. Transfer ribs to a foil-lined baking sheet and broil, turning occasionally, brushing with the glaze until until they begin to brown and crisp, about 8 to 10 minutes depending on your broiler. Keep an eye on them if you use the broiler, and leave the door of the oven cracked open a bit.
Remove from oven and give them a final finishing brush of glaze.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds, green onions and optional shichimi togarashi and serve.

To grill:
Preheat a grill to hot. You can use a gas grill or a charcoal grill. If you use charcoal, you won't need to prepare many coals for this. You can leave them in half slabs, or cut into separate ribs.
Grill the ribs for about 4 minutes, flipping once. When the ribs are browned and sizzling, brush the marinade on top. Grill for about 2 more minutes, flipping 2 or 3 times, and brushing on more marinade after each turn. Let the ribs rest for 2 minutes.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds, green onions and optional shichimi togarashi and serve.

Oshinko 'Zauākurauto'

Oshinko is a collective, generic name for Japanese pickles made from various vegetables pickled using salt - shio-zuke. Korean kimchi, is the same thing, but is pickled longer than shio-zuke,
with chiles, garlic and green onion. The prime characteristic is they are both fermented, the most common type being cabbage. Fermented vegetables are probiotic, that is to say they are foods that stimulate the growth of microorganisms, especially those with beneficial properties, such as those of the intestinal flora. Although some research suggests they have a benefitial effect on the immune system, etc. these claims are not backed with widespread scientific evidence. Nevertheless, such pickled fermented vegetables have been eaten for millenia across the globe.

Now, what is with the word above - zauākurauto? It is the Japanese word for "sauerkraut".

Sauerkraut of course is a fermented, probiotic vegetable salt pickle, made in almost the same way as oshinko and kimchi. Now some varieties of sauerkraut contain other flavorings such as fennel seed, or caraway seeds with the "Bavarian-style" varieties, but basic sauerkraut is pretty much cabbage, salt that has been fermented in crocks or tanks. Kimchi and oshinko are fermented in large crocks and tanks in almost the same way.
The point of this is many refrigerators have a glass jar of sauerkraut in them, that is about half used and has been setting there for a while. This is a way to be thrifty and give an interesting flavor "repurpose" to that sauerkraut with an Asian flavor. It may sound odd, but it works quite well actually, surprisingly well flavor-wise.
The good thing about this method, is not only is it fast, but the cabbage has already been fermented, so you don't have to wait on that and you get the probiotic plus. You can also make as much or little of quantity as you want without doing a lot of prep work. The only downside to it, is that sauerkraut is finely shredded, whereas oshinko and kimchi tend to be larger pieces of cabbage, so there is some variation in texture.
You could use leftover sauerkraut from a jar in the fridge, or you could get some to make this and of course use for other dishes that use traditional sauerkraut. I do suggest, getting the kind in glass jars or the bagged kraut in the refrigerated section. For this, read the label and make sure it doesn't have other flavors or spices such as fennel or caraway, which are good but won't work for this flavor-wise. Needs to be just cabbage, salt and water. You could even get a can of cheap sauerkraut, but the jarred variety tastes better and is a bit crisper.
There are lots of ways to proceed here as far as flavors. The first step is dealing with the sauerkraut.
Start with a cup or two of sauerkraut, and put it in a fine mesh strainer particularly if it is the canned variety and rinse it well, shoveling it around a few times. If its the jarred or bagged variety, just drain the excess liquid. Let it set in the strainer to exude any excess water and liquid. You can hasten this by putting a saucer on top of it and putting a big can or some weight on top of it. Fermented cabbage like this is like a little sponge.
You squeeze out as much of the liquid from it, so when you add other flavors and liquids to it it will soak them up and flavor the cabbage.

1 cup or 2 of rinsed and drained sauerkraut
Various flavorings - again, you can make it simple or you can make a spicier kimchi style out of it. Japanese oshinko or tsukemono are generally less spicy than Korean kimchi, but you can make it taste how ever you prefer here.
2 to 3 tbsp. sambal oelek or Sriracha Hot Sauce
1 tbsp. gochujang or 1 to 2 tsp. dried Korean red chile powder
1 garlic clove, minced or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. fresh ginger, peeled and minced or 1/2 tsp. ginger powder
1 green onion, green parts sliced
Shredded carrot
1 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari
A chunk of soaked konbu, chopped up or cut into shreds.
A drop of sesame seed oil
A shot of rice vinegar


Just select and mix a combination of the above ingredients, with the rinsed and drained sauerkraut. Mix it together well. You could eat it right away, but I would recommend letting it set for 30 minutes to an hour, for the flavors to meld a bit.
If you were using half a glass jar of sauerkraut, you could rinse and drain it, and then wash out the jar and simply pack the oshinko zauākurauto right back in the same glass jar.
Serve just like a normal tsukemono pickle or kimchi.

Takuan

This is fermented daikon radish. It is a form of tsukemono, which are served as side dishes or snacks. Takuan in particular is often served at the end of meal to help digestion. The name “Takuan” is often attributed to Takuan Soho, a 17th century Zen Buddhist figure. Korean cuisine has a similar pickled daikon radish dish, called Danmuji. The daikon radish itself made its way to Japan from China about 2,000 years ago. Today, more land in Japan is used to grow daikon than any other vegetable. Takuan sold in many stores today is dyed yellow with food coloring, you can achieve the same thing by using a touch of turmeric while pickling the radishes.

2 large daikon radishes, approx 2 lbs.
3 cups water
1/4 cup sea salt
1/4 cup organic raw sugar
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 tsp ground turmeric

Boil one cup of the water, then mix in the salt, sugar, and turmeric. Stir together until dissolved, then add the rest of the water and let it cool to room temperature. If the turmeric doesn't completely dissolve don't worry about it.
As the water cools, peel your radishes and cut them into half-moons, about 1/4 inch thick.
Fill up a half-gallon jar or two quart-sized jars with the sliced veggies.
Once the water is cool, add the rice vinegar and pour everything into the jar. Add additional water if needed, until there’s about 1/2 inch of air at the top of the jar. Seal and leave in a dark part of your house for four or five days. You may want to release the seal after a few
days to let the pressurized air escape. Gently mix the jar every couple days to make sure the turmeric colors everything evenly. Place in the fridge and enjoy within a month.