This is a Chinese style stir fry. You can use Chinese soup powder or chicken soup powder for sauce and for the stir fry, Chinese cabbage, carrot, pork, other vegetables, and mix it with katakuriko to thicken. We also have donburi dish called “Chuka don” in which you put Chinese stir fry on a ball of rice.

Yield: 2 servings
Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 0.35lb sliced pork (cut into 2.5” pieces)
• 8 shrimp
• 1/4 Chinese cabbage (cut into 2” pieces)
• 1/2 carrot (cut into 2”pieces)
• 2 tbsp green onion (chopped)
• 1 tsp ginger (5g, thin sliced)
• A pinch of kikurage (Dried Cloud Ear Mushroom, soak in warm water for 10 min)
• 2 dried shiitake (thick sliced, soak in warm water for 10 min and save water)
• 9 ginnan

Spices

• 2 tbps soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sake
• 3 1/4 tablespoons water (from shiitake)
• 1 tsp katakuriko (mixed with 1tbs water)
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Preparation

1. Mix spices in a bowl (chicken soup powder, soy sauce, sake, shiitake water)
2. Heat oil (olive or vegetable oil) in a frying pan and stir green onion and ginger
3. Add pork then cook for 1 minute then add carrot cook for 1 minute over medium heat
4. Add shrimp, shiitake, kikurage, ginnan then sprinkle salt and pepper, cook for 2 minutes
5. Add Chinese cabbage and mixed spices, cover with lid then cook for 3 minutes over medium heat
6. Add katakuriko in a water to make sauce thick and add sesame oil then mix
7. Serve and enjoy!

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We use ground daikon in many ways: with grilled fish, grilled egg, soba, nabe, etc. It makes for a light dish, also has lots of vitamin C, so it’s good for your health! This recipe contains a little bacon, and as you know, everything goes better with bacon, so enjoy!

Yield: 2 servings
Time: 20 minutes

Spices

• 2 tbps soy sauce

Preparation

1. Boil pasta until al dente (save 1/2 cup hot water for the daikon)
2. Mix 1/2 cup hot water with ground daikon and soy sauce
3. Heat oil in a frying pan and cook garlic until fragrant, then add bacon and grill well
4. Add eggplant and mushrooms, cook for 2 minutes
5. Add mixed daikon sauce; turn off the heat and stir
6. Mix with boiled pasta and serve

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Nira (chives), garlic, and beef taste very good together! Many Japanese believe that garlic gives you strength, so I prefer to make this recipe if I’m feeling tired! It is good with steamed rice and also I like to eat it wrapped in lettuce with some chili sauce.

Yield: 2 servings
Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb sliced beef (sukiyaki beef, chopped into 3″ pieces)
• 1/4 lb chives (chopped into 2″ pieces)
• 1/4 lb bean sprouts
• 1 shironegi (thick green onion, or regular green onion if you can’t find it)
• 2 cloves of garlic (sliced thin)
• 1 clove of garlic (minced)

Spices

• 2 tbps soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sake
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 2 tsp chicken soup powder
• dash salt and pepper
• ground sesame (optional)

Preparation

1. Mix spices (soy sauce, sake, mirin, chicken powder and ground garlic) in a bowl
2. Heat the oil and sliced garlic in a frying pan then cook green onion for 2 minutes over medium heat. Add beef, sprinkle salt and pepper, then transfer beef to a dish when it is cooked through
3. Add nira, bean sprouts, and mixed spice in a frying pan. Cook for 3 minutes over medium heat
4. Return beef to the pan, mix and cook for an additional 1 minute
5. Serve with sprinkled ground sesame (optional)

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Takikomigohan is a Japanese rice dish with mushrooms, vegetables, meat, or fish, and seasoned with dashi and soy sauce. For this, I made the soup from pork chop bones and added it to the takikomigohan. It tastes great and makes use of the stuff you’d normally toss out.

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 5 hours

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb pork bones (or as much as you’ve got)
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 green onion, cut into 2″ pieces
• 2 cloves garlic
• ginger (grated) (about 2 tsp)
• 7 mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 lb pork (chopped)
• 3 cups rice

Spices

• 2 tbsp sake
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp salt

Preparation

1. Boil hot water in a big pot, then add pork bones
2. Scoop scum from the top of the soup then add onion, garlic, ginger and green onion
3. Boil on high heat for 3 to 4 hours. (add water when it evaporates)
4. At this point you could have it as pork soup (add salt). Soup will be sweeter if you boil with potato and carrot. If not, continue:
5. Wash rice and put it in a rice steamer
6. Add sake, soy sauce and salt
7. Add pork soup (strain the soup beforehand) up to the 3 cup designation in the rice steamer, then add mushrooms and 1/4 lb pork
8. Cook rice with soup, salt to taste, and enjoy!

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Miso is a staple of Japanese cuisine, typically produced by fermenting soy beans. It is a delicious, salty,seasoning used to make not only miso soup, but a wide variety of Japanese dishes. Misoyaki (the “yaki” means grilled, e.g. “teriyaki”, or “yakitori”) is one of these. Before cooking, the meat is marinated in a mixture of miso, soy sauce, sake, sugar, sesame oil, garlic, and green onion (i.e. the essentials), then fried and paired with bean sprouts and green bean salad. Enjoy!

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 40 minutes (30 mins for marinating)

Ingredients

• 1 lb pork block or pork chops (cut into 1″ slices)
• 1 garlic clove (crushed)
• 1 green onion (chopped into 2″ pieces)

Spices

• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sake
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp miso paste
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp mirin
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Preparation

1. Mix spices together in small bowl (miso, sake, sugar, soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil, garlic, green onion) then marinate the pork for 30 minutes in the refrigerator
2. Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan and grill pork for 5-6 minutes
3. Serve with bean sprouts and green beans

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Nira (Garlic chives) has a peculiar smell and tastes exactly like garlic. Nira is not very well known in the Western world, but it is making some inroads. It is known in Japan for it’s nourishing and invigorating qualities. We often put nira in gyoza.

Yield: 2 servings
Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 bundle Nira, about 1/4 lb (chopped into 2″ pieces)
• 1/2 lb bean sprouts
• 2 eggs (beaten)

Spices

• 1 tsp chicken soup powder
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• Dash of salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Heat the frying pan, and scramble the eggs. Add salt and pepper and transfer to a plate
2. Add bean sprouts to the pan with sesame oil then cook for one minute over medium heat
3. Add nira and cook for one minute over medium heat, then put chicken soup powder and soy sauce and mix. Cook for 1 minute.
4. Add scrambled eggs, mix, and serve!

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Komatsuna is a leafy Asian vegetable, historically only available in the winter months, but these days you can buy it in any season. “Aburaage” is Japanese for deep fried tofu and “nibitashi” means boiled, seasoned, and marinated. If you can not find komatsuna, try spinach—it also compliments this recipe.

Yield: 2 servings
Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 bundle of Komatsuna
• 1/4 lb aburaage (sliced into 1/2″ pieces)

Spices

• 1 tsp hondashi
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp sake
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp mirin

Preparation

1. Mix all spices (sugar, sake, saysauce, mirin and hondashi) and 1 cup of water then boil in a sauce pan
2. When the sauce boils, add komatsuna and aburaage and cook until komatsuna becomes limp and soft
3. Marinate for 10 minutes in the sauce and serve with a small amount of the marinade drizzled on top.

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Hakusai is a common vegetable we use in hot pots. It’s also called “napa”, or Chinese cabbage in English. Chinese cabbage gets very soft and sweet when it is boiled and has dietary fiber and lots of healthy minerals. The Japanese word for soy milk is “tōnyū” ( 豆乳 ) and is a healthy alternative to cream in this recipe.

Yield: 2 servings
Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/4 Chinese cabbage
• 1/2 medium onion
• 2 pieces low fat bacon or sliced ham (1/2″ ham slices)
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 tbsp butter (10g)

Spices

• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• dash pepper
• 1 tsp katakuriko (potato starch, for thickening)

Preparation

1. Heat the butter in a frying pan, then grill onion and cabbage for 3 mins over medium heat
2. Add bacon (or ham) and cook for one more minute
3. Add soy milk, salt, sugar and pepper then cook for 1 min
4. Mix katakuriko in 1tbs of water and add to the pan, stirring while the mixture thickens
5. Serve and enjoy!

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“Nimono” is the word for food that is boiled and seasoned. Kabocha is a Japanese pumpkin. Kansai people call it “kabocha no taitan”. Pumpkins have lots of vitamins and dietary fibers. You can eat many pumpkins this way because it is very soft and sweet.

Yield: 2-4 servings
Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin)
  

Spices

• 2 tsp hondash
• 3 tbsp sugar
  
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp sake
  

Preparation

1. Remove the seeds from the pumpkin with spoon and cut pumpkin into 2″ pieces
2. Round the corners of the pumpkin pieces (so they retain their shape while boiling for a long time) and peel half the skin off (see picture)
3. Boil 2 1/2 cups water in a sauce pan, then add pumpkin and hondashi, and boil, covered, for 10 minutes over medium heat
4. Add sugar, then place a small lid directly on the pumpkin (to be boiled in a pot), then cook for 5 minutes over medium heat
5. Add soy sauce, mirin, and sake, then cover with the small lid and cook for 10 minutes over low heat
6. Remove pan from heat and let pumpkins get cool (for taste), then serve

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