Daigaku Imo - Sweet Potato Sweets (they're a snap to make!)

This very easy recipe was on the morning t.v. program, "Hanamaru Cafe", to which I am addicted. These have become Shinji-san's favorite "oyatsu" or snack. And while it is sweet, it is still a healthful snack as the sweet potatoes are rich in nutrients and it is topped with sesame seeds.

It takes less than 10 minutes to make.

250-300 grams sweet potato (washed, dried and cut into bite size pieces)

4 Tablespoons sugar (wasanbon if you have it, if not, regular sugar or try brown sugar)

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon vinegar (this helps the sugar from hardening when it cools down)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons salad oil

a bit of water

toasted black sesame seeds

Put the sweet potatoes, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, salad oil and water in a fry pan and put over medium high heat. Place a lid over it and after two minutes stir the mixture. After another two minutes stir again, and start to watch (and smell) that the sugar does not burn. After six minutes, check to see if the sweet potatoes are cooked, and then move to a plate to serve. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds and allow for the sugar to cool a bit before serving.

You too may become addicted to these "daigaku imo" sweet potatoes.

Grilled Salmon Breakfast

A hearty Japanese breakfast of grilled, salted salmon filet, scallop Tsukudani, apples, cucumbers in a Korean-style dressing, chawan mushi (savory egg custard), Korean nori, salad with tofu, wakame and a creamy sesame dressing, miso soup and rice. Starting our day like this we get a well-balanced, nutritional and low-fat meal. And, delicious to boot!

Seasonal Fish - Kamasu Barracuda

From Tsukiji Market, this "kamasu" (barracuda) does not look as scary as it sounds. Shinji-san slit it open on its back and then took out the guts. He sprinkled it with salt to draw out the water and bring out the umami. We grilled it in the fish grill and enjoyed this meaty and flakey barracuda.

The Japanese Fish Grill

Most Japanese homes have a fish grill under their burners on their stove (in lieu of a large oven). Our home does not have that so we went out and purchased this electric fish grill. We have had great results and will think about getting one of these when we go back to NYC. There are burners on both the top and bottom so the fish is cooked on both sides. It is easy to grill it to a nice color. We put a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan to help with cleaning as fatty fish will give off a lot of oil as it grills.

Grilled Tsubodai

This fatty and meaty tsubodai was harvested around Hawaii. It is "himono" or salted and then air-dried. These fish simply need to be heated in the fish grill. We also had tsubodai on the BBQ and because the skin is very thick, it is a great fish to put over the strong heat of sumi charcoal.

Yokan

Yokan is a traditional Japanese sweet.
It is a sweet jellied red beans paste.
Usually it is made of red beans, agar-agar, and sugar.
Usually it is sold in block form, so we slice it and serve.
I like have it with green tea,

Bento 101

Iwashi misoni, hijiki nimono, koyadofu tatsuta-age, renkon namasu, daikon and carrot kinpira.

Green pepper stuffed with ground pork, hijiki and mame nimono, scallops Tsukudani, shiitake amani, Satsuma-age.

While putting together my bentos, I try to incorporate a variety of colors and cooking styles. Shinji-san doesn't like fried things so most of the contents tend to be simmered, braised or grilled. I also look for a balance of protein, vegetables and sea vegetables. One of the trays is for rice and even that gets switched around during the week for variety. Zakkokumai (grain-filled rice), mazegohan (gohan mixed with seafood and vegetables) and takikomigohan (rice cooked with vegetables and if you like, seafood or chicken).

The bento is wrapped up in a bandana with chopsticks that he carries with him to work everyday. The bento box and chopsticks are washed and ready to use for the next day.

Part of the fun of making bento is planning what to put in each day's bento by looking at what is in the fridge.

Japanese Lunch Box Bentos

Grilled sanma, omelets with shirasu, renkon kinpira, broccoli, sauteed liver and nira.

Zakkokumai gohan, grilled sanma, gobo stuffed kombu maki, kiriboshi daikon, shishito with katsuobushi, daikon and umeboshi.

Lunch boxes for my husband, Shinji!

Love-Filled Bentos for Shinji

Zakkokumai gohan, soy-marinated sanma, chikuwa, renkon kinpira, shishito peppers with katsuobushi, Kyoto pickles and kabocha nimono

Salmon and takana mazegohan, broccoli stems, komatsuna ohitashi, daikon and ninjin kinpira, daikon and persimmons namasu, renkon stuffed with ground chicken.

These are just some of the bentos that I send my husband off to work with every day. It is a lot of fun to be creative in the kitchen to create these.

Shinji's Aisai Bento

My husband's bento made with lots of love!

rice with homemade furikake, green pepper stuffed with ground pork, broccoli stems simmered in dashi, daikon and carrots kinpira, kombu maki Tsukudani, koya dofu nimono

gomoku gohan, eggplant misoni, enoki and kombu Tsukudani, shiitake amani, daikon and umeboshi, kabocha salad

Celebrating our Wedding with Guys from Tsukiji

Some of the guys that Shinji works with at Tsukiji took us out to celebrate our wedding. This was the main course, the sushi course. My favorites was the anago, kohada and uni. One great benefit of being married to a Tsukiji guy is the great seafood we are exposed to. And, the guys from the market are very down to earth and passionate about fish.

Dangerous Drink

The house drink at this sushi shop is a green tea shochu. It was like drinking iced green tea, no sense at all of the shochu. The staff would increase the amount of green tea (strong or weak). Then again, maybe they were referring to the amount of shochu they were putting in the drink. Regardless, it was a nice match with the sushi and the other courses.

Courses at the Sushi Restaurant

The top photo is grilled scallops served with yakinori to wrap it with. The makizushi rolls are uni and toro. The last photo is one of the best dishes of the evening, slow simmered anago eel served with a side salad if thinly sliced cucumbers sprinkled with sesame seeds. This is one of the signature dishes of the restaurant.

The Sashimi Course

A gorgeous plate including tuna, chutoro, ootoro, hamachi, scallops, shrimp and more.

The Sushi Chefs

Beaujolais Nouveau 2008 - Wine in a Plastic Bottle?

From 6 a.m. this morning, the news has been covering the arrival of the 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau in Tokyo. As usual, comments like "fruity" and "this year is really good" are being made, but the big news this year is that some of the wine is coming in plastic PET bottles.

As the wine is brought in by air, and with the strong yen, some vintners in Beaujolais put their wines in plastic bottles. Commenters said as long as the wine is consumed young, which Beaujolais is meant to be, that the condition of the wine should be good.

Shochu Tasting at the Kagoshima Shop in Yurakucho

At a shochu tasting I fell upon in Yurakucho I met a guy who has a blog about shochu and I have ended up on it. At the end of his blog he says that while I am trained as a chef, I am only cooking for my husband now.

Beaujolais Nouveau Season in Japan again

It's that time of year again when Beaujolais Nouveau wine hits the market in Japan. When I was working at Takashimaya we would start taking orders for these wines more than a month out. According to this article in The Japan Times it states that sales are on the decrease in Japan. I was surprised to see though that 46% of the Beaujolais Nouveau wines are imported to Japan. Then again, seeing how much of it we sold, I should not be surprised.

Edible Postcards Made from Squid

This is a great idea. I would love to receive one of these postcards for New Year's.

False Labeling of Eels

I am surprised to see that this problem still exists, especially after all of the problems in the past with false labeling. In this story reported in The Japan Times, unagi eel was mislabeled as domestic even though it was imported from China.

Chikuwa no Isobe-age

chikuwa is a kind of Surimi.
This is a deep-fried chikuwa flavored with green laver.
The batter is made by mixing wheat flour, green laver, and water.
Cut chikuwa is covered with the batter and deep-fried in salada oil.

It is good for Bento and also good with beer.

Kintoki-mame no Nimame

" Kintoki-mame" is a kind of bean.
It has nice colour and excellent taste.
"taisho-kintoki" is most popular species in kintoki-mame.

"Nimame" is a simmered beans dish which is made by soaking dried beans in water, and simmer it in sweet.

It has sweet taste, and soft texture.
I think it is also good for bento.

Kitsune Udon

This is a kind of hot type udon dish.
I have already posted about hot type udon dish, Please check Kake udon.

"Kitsune" means literally "fox", but in this case, it means aburaage.
We simmer aburaage mildly sweet, and put it on kake udon.

It is popular in Osaka.
In Osaka, they call it just "Kitsune".

Sanma no Sashimi

"Sanma" means pacific saury.
I have already introduced you Sanma no Shioyaki.
It is most popular sanma dish.
But it is also good to eat sanma as sashimi, if it is so fresh.
In these days, sanma for sashimi are sold in supermarket.
In my case, I put grated ginger and soy sauce on it, and eat it.

Horenso no Shiraae

"horenso" means spinach.
"shiraae, 白和え" means a style of Japanese dish dress some ingredient such as konnyaku, and vegetable with mashed tofu, white sesame seed, and sweet white miso (optionally).

In this photo, boiled spinach is dressed with mashed tofu, white sesame seed paste, soy sauce, sugar and salt.

Tako Yaki

This is fried octopus dumpling (ball).
Usually the batter is made from wheat flour, egg, and water or dashi-stock.
Ingredients in the ball are chopped octopus, beni-shoga(pickled ginger), tenkasu(crunchy bits of deep-fried tempura batter) and so on.

Those are fried on takoyaki mold (plate).
After fried, thoes balls are put takoyaki sauce, and splinkled shreded dried bonito and green laver.