Japanese food express

Nasu Dengaku -- a recipe for Eggplant Broiled in Miso -- from the Closet Cooking blog:

Ingredients:
1 asian eggplant (cut in half lengthwise) - Diane's dish had it with a regular eggplant
1 tablespoon (sesame oil, optional)
4 tablespoons miso
1 teaspoon sake
1 teaspoon mirin
1 teaspoon sugar
1 green onion (sliced, optional)

Directions:
1. Brush the inside sides of the eggplant sides with the sesame oil.
2. Broil the outside of the eggplant sides for about 3 minutes.
3. Broil the inside side of the eggplant sides for about 3 minutes or until tender.
4. Mix the miso, sake, mirin and sugar.
5. Place the miso mixture on the inside side of the eggplant sides and broil until the miso bubbles.
6. Garnish with the green onion slices.

(The waitress came to the table and sliced the inside of the eggplant into a kind of grid for easy "bites".


Link to blog called "No Recipes" that does have a recipe/description for Grilled Nasu Dengaku with Sweet Miso sauce

And, finally, a recipe for
Deep fried Nasu Dengaku

Didn't find a way to do it with roasting the eggplant, phooey.

On About.com, there's a page about gyoza with links to videos for making gyoza, california rolls, and sushi rice.
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/tempuraappetizer/a/aboutgyoza.htm

the pork gyoza recipe from about.com --

Gyoza is a kind of dumplings. Gyoza can be steamed, fried, boiled, and more. About Japanese Gyoza Dumplings
Ingredients:

1/3 cup chopped cabbage (boiled)
2 tbsps chopped green onion
1/2 pound ground pork
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
2 tsps soysauce
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
20 gyoza wrappers
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Preparation:

Combine all ingredients other than oil in a bowl and mix well by hands. Place a teaspoonful of filling in a gyoza wrapper and put water along the edge of the wrapper by fingers. Make a semicircle, gathering the front side of the wrapper and sealing the top. Heat oil in a frying pan. Put gyoza in the pan and fry on high heat until the bottoms become brown. Turn down the heat to low. Add 1/4 cup water in the pan. Cover the pan and steam the gyoza on low heat until the water is gone.
*Makes 4 servings

great photo series on making gyoza here: http://www.gyoza.org/

http://www.gyoza.org/L_151_5147_IMG.jpg

A blog that has a recipe for beef gyoza, including how to make the wrappers yourself

http://dhanggitskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/10/beef-gyoza.html

I love Japanese food. Well, the Japanese food that doesn't involve raw fish and any kind of meat.

My favorite dishes include Age-Dashi Tofu.....



.....And the somewhat similar kabocha agedashi fu - made with mashed pumpkin/squash instead of tofu.

Japenese Beef ans Noodles Big Bowl

Four Servings.

Ingredients
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
8 cups fat-free beef broth
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
8 ounces beef tenderloin, cut into 2 x 1/4-inch slices
1 1/2 cups (1-inch) sliced green onions
4 cups hot cooked soba (buckwheat noodles) or angel hair pasta (about 8 ounces uncooked)
2 cups fresh bean sprouts
Preparation

Beat egg whites and egg at medium speed of a mixer 1 minute; set aside.

Combine broth, soy sauce, sugar, and ginger in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; add beef and onions, and simmer 1 minute. Add egg mixture without stirring; cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat, and gently stir. Place 1 cup of noodles in each of 4 large soup bowls, and add 2 cups of beef mixture and 1/2 cup sprouts.

Oh, good, littleK and Alex, I thought I was talking to myself on this thread.

Have been looking for dashi in the store lately. It's just another reason I have to get to Whole Foods, who probably have it.


Vegetable Yakisoba (the place we went to also has Chicken Yakasoba) - these are stir fried noodle dishes:
(I also see it written as Yaki Soba)

This one is "vegan", from Veganmania.com --

Vegetable Yakisoba
Japanese Stirfried Buckwheat Noodles

1 lb dry buckwheat noodles (soba)
4-6 cups chopped veggies of your choice
(broccoli, mushrooms, green onions, celery, snow peas, garlic, sliced onions,
cauliflower, whatever you have on hand)
sesame oil

Tonkatsu Sauce:
1 cup ketchup
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp (or more) wasabi powder

Boil the soba noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. In a large skillet or wok, heat the sesame oil for a minute, then toss in all the veggies and fry for 3-5 minutes, until they turn bright colours but are tender-crisp. Add the soba noodles and tonkatsu sauce and stir fry over high heat for a few minutes more until everything is mixed together nicely. Serve piping hot.
Serves 4.


From Recipezaar.com, Pork Yakisoba

This is a dish that is popular in Japan and usually sold as street food. This version is made with pork, although you could easily substitute chicken or tofu.
SERVES 4 (change servings and units)

Ingredients
1 lb lean pork loin, sliced thinly (against the grain)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup rice wine
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
12 ounces Chinese wheat noodles (udon noodles may be substituted)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, sliced thin
1 lb napa cabbage or savoy cabbage, sliced very thin
3 carrots, grated
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
2 scallions, thinly sliced (optional)

Directions
1. In a small bowl, mix together soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar, stirring to dissolve.
2. Cook noodles in boiling water about 8 minutes, or until tender.
3. Drain noodles and rinse under cold water.
4. In a large deep skillet or wok, cook onion in oil for about 3 minutes.
5. Add the cabbage, carrot and ginger and cook until cabbage is softened, about 3-5 minutes.
6. Add the pork and cook for 2 minutes more.
7. Cover the mixture with noodles and pour the sauce over all.
8. Cover and cook for 3-5 minutes, the remove the lid and toss the mixture together until it is well combined.
9. Place on a serving platter and garnish with chopped scallions, if desired.


One of the sites I checked out also had how to make your own soba noodles, but I'll skip that right now.

Ay yi yi, I guess I'm going to have to break down and buy a new wok... or maybe not, maybe my big cast iron frying pan would do..

Next up, Veggie Curry Udon (the place we went also has vegan curry udon, and chicken curry udon)

I seem to be channeling the movie Tampopo here.....


LINK -
The best I've found so far is in the Closet Cooking blog again -- That blog has good photos and lots of recipes..

Quoting,
Another popular way to have curry in Japan is kare udon or curry udon soup. Curry udon soup is generally a soup with udon noodles in a thick curry flavoured broth. Sometimes it is as simple as the udon noodles with the curry flavoured broth and sometimes it has the full curry including the beef, carrots and potatoes. I prefer curry udon with the full curry as it makes a nice and filling meal. Curry udon combines the best of both worlds; You get the amazing flavours of the curry along fun of slurping noodles.


Curry Udon from Scratch

You don't always leftover curry lying around and sometimes you just don't feel like making a full curry when a curry craving hits. For those times you can make a quick curry udon from scratch. The Japanese curry roux comes divided like chocolate so you can easily break off a smaller piece to use in a single serving of curry udon. So it is as easy as adding a single servings worth of curry roux to some dashi and pouring it over udon noodles. Of course it would be better if you added some meat like beef or pork or chicken and some vegetables like onions, carrots and potatoes. This is great if you are seriously craving a quick curry fix.

Ingredients:
2 cups dashi
2 ounces beef (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 small onion (sliced)
1 carrot (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 small potato (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 cube curry roux
1 serving udon noodles (cooked)
1 chopped green onion

Directions:
1. Simmer the beef, onion, carrot and potato in the dashi in a covered sauce pan until the meat is cooked and the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
2. Add the curry roux and stir until it thickens.
3. Place the cooked udon noodles in a bowl and pour the curry soup onto the noodles.
4. Garnish with green onions.

My favorite Japanese curry roux is the House Java Curry. You should be able to find it at your local Asian grocery store and I have even seen it in the Asian section of local grocery stores.

Curry Udon with Leftover Curry

When you make a big pot of curry you are going to be eating it for a few days in a row so it is nice to change it up a bit. Curry udon is a great way to enjoy that leftover curry. Making curry udon is as simple as adding some curry to some dashi and pouring it over some udon noodles. (Another way to change up the leftover curry is to try serving the curry on udon noodles instead of rice.)

Ingredients:
1 cup dashi
1 cup curry
1 serving udon noodles (cooked)
1 chopped green onion

Directions:
1. Bring the dashi and curry to a boil in a small sauce pan.
2. Place the cooked udon noodles in a bowl and pour the curry soup onto the noodles.
3. Garnish with green onions.

(I put the curry udon from scratch first when copying the blog entry... osso)



On other websites:
Here's a beef curry udon - http://uk.geocities.com/cafericeball/curry_udon.html

Having trouble finding much in google on veggie curry udon soup -
Here's one where you can just skip the chicken...

Curry Udon Recipe"Japanese Style
Serves 4 people
Ingredients:
1 lb boiled Wan Hua Udon Noodles
7 cups dashi soup
2 chicken thighs
1 small onion
1 carrot
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 chopped green onion
3 oz. Japanese curry roux
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water

To Cook:
Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Slice onion and carrot into thin long pieces. Heat a deep pan and sauté the chicken, onion, and carrot. Salt the ingredients. Add in the pan and simmer until ingredients are soften. Add curry roux in the soup and bring to a boil. Add cornstarch and water mixture in the soup to thicken. Add Udon noodles in the curry soup and heat. Add soy sauce in the Udon soup and sprinkle chopped green onion over it.


And here's one where you could add steamed veggies to the curry udon soup -- http://www.vegan-food.net/recipe/803/Karei-Udon-Japanese-Style-Curry-Udon-Noodles/