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Shiso Miso The Japanese love to have a selection of fermented and pickled foods to eat with their rice at dinner and today, I'm looking at one of the best - shiso-miso. It's a great way to give your miso a sweeter flavour. Shisomiso hails from Tohoku prefecture in northern Japan. The original version (where miso is mixed with sugar, sesame and/or crushed walnuts and wrapped in a shiso leaf, then fried) is quite salty but as it has become more popular in Japan, the flavours ha

Simmered Hijiki Here's a very traditional Japanese side dish that uses a seaweed common in East Asia but (as far as I know) nowhere else - it's called hijiki. You can buy hijiki in most Japanese and Chinese food stores, as well as health food shops, in its dried form. As with other seaweeds, there's a lot to like about hijiki nutritionally - it's high in magnesium, iron, calcium and iodine and is full of dietary fibre. I should point out that it does also contain traces of ar

Kombu Tsukudani OK, first things first. What is tsukudani? Answer: Tsukudani is a cooking technique that involves simmering ingredients in a soy & mirin solution until the liquor has almost evaporated. Tskudani is a great way of creating a very concentrated umami flavour. But originally, tsukudani was used as a method of preserving foods in the days before refridgeration. Nowadays, kombu is the most common form of tsukudani but you can also use the technique with other ingred

Japanese simmered Burdock and Carrot - Kinpira Gobo Here's another dish to give your body a nutritional boost - simmered burdock and carrot, which in Japan, is called "kinpira gobo." Kinpira can be translated as the cooking technique of "saute + simmer". Gobo is the Japanese name for burdock root, which in the UK is best known as one half of the cordial, dandelion & burdock. Burdock is native to northern Europe and East Asia so it's no surprise that it has a long history in t

Marinated Turnip and Choy sum I don't think there can be any doubt that the Japanese love their veggies - it's not uncommon for a Japanese dinner to include 2 or 3 separate marinated or pickled vegetable side dishes for the diners to consume. In the uk, the government advise a 5 - a - day regime for eating vegetables and fruit - in Japan, that's a whopping 13 - a - day and that's only the vegetables! One vegetable that is really commonplace on a Japanese table is the kabu

Here's my recipe for Kakiage Tempura Soba - this combines tempura battered vegetables and shrimps and buckwheat soba noodles all served in a bowl of soba noodle broth

Aubergine / Eggplant recipe.

Daigaku Imo means Caramelised Sweet Potato and this is popular side dish in Japan.

The Japanese love their eggplant/aubergine (or nasu as it's called locally). It's far more a part of Japanese cookery than it is here in the UK, which is a shame for the Brits because aubergine is very good for you. Traditionally, aubergine was thought to have a cooling effect on the body (because of its high water content) but modern science shows it's also high in vitamin B6 and C as well as minerals like potasium and manganese. Eggplant /Aubergine and Pepper Nabe Shigi N

This is a quick easy Japanese vegetable side dish.

Lotus Root crisps I am sure you're all aware that American potato chips become crisps when you set foot in the UK and it probably doesn't come as a surprise that Japan sits in the American camp using the term chips as well. What might be more surprising is that the Japanese use other vegetables to make their chips (sorry, UK readers, I mean "crisps"). One of the most visually appealing alternative chips, I think you will agree, is the lotus root. This root vegetable is quit

How to make Japanese Cold soba with summer vegetables.

Simmered Turnip with Fried Tofu) My latest post is another recipe designed to help you recover from the excesses of Christmas and New Year. This dish is called Simmered Turnip with fried Tofu. Turnip is a much under-rated vegetable here in the UK (in fact, more of it is fed to cattle here than humans which is crazy!) In Japan, turnip (known as kabu) is widely eaten in raw, cooked and also pickled forms. It's very good for you, containing high levels of vitamins a, c and k a

We're approaching the end of January and for anyone out there on a diet or a detox, here's another healthy, light dish for you to try -...

Broccoli with black Sesame Here's another simple vegetable side dish - Broccoli with black Sesame /Goma Ae- that's packed with nutricious uber-goodness and top scoring in the flavour chart too. What's more, it's ready for the table in a matter of minutes. I ground my own toasted sesame but you can make this even more quickly by using ready ground sesame instead, if you prefer. I used the whole broccoli head in this recipe including the stalk, which I cut into small chunks. If

Aubergine (Eggplant) with a spicy Soy sauce marinade Here's my latest recipe - fried aubergine (Eggplant) in a spicy soy sauce marinade. I know aubergine (or you might know it as eggplant, melanzana, brinjal, patlican or berenjena depending on where you come from!) isn't a very popular vegetable choice here in the UK but it is used a lot more in Japanese cooking and Asian cooking generally. (In Japan, aubergine is known as Nasu). Aubergine is a good source of fibre and the m

Japanese Aubergine Katsu Curry Aubergine is one of my favourite vegetables and I think there is no better way to serve it than as a katsu - that is, deep fried in panko breadcrumbs. IMHO, deep frying aubergine in panko lifts it to another level - you get the lovely soft flesh on the inside but a nice crunchy coating on the outside - yum -nothing more, nothing less. While aubergine katsu is great by itself, it also goes brilliantly with a curry sauce. I used the S&B brand Gol

Turnip & Smoked Salmon Have you ever come across the Japanese term, "sappari suru"? It means "refreshing" or "cleansing" as in when you come home after a hot day and you take a shower and then maybe enjoy a cold beer. "Sappari suru" describes this dish of salted turnip, onion and smoked salmon perfectly - it has a lovely combination of salty and smoky flavours and the crunch of raw turnip and onion. The onion is pre-soaked in water to extract any bitterness. In Japan, I'd us

Daikon in Miso sauce The daikon (AKA white radish or mooli) is a much beloved vegetable in Japan - you'll find it featured in many classic Japanese woodblock prints and today, people even make daikon into very cute food sculptures! Daikon isn't so popular here in the UK and that's a shame as it is considered a very healthy thing to eat (lots of fibre, high vitamin C and phosphorus and potassium.) It can also be made into many delicious dishes - daikon is especially good for s

Soy Butter Vegetable stir fry It seems difficult to believe now, but time was when butter was almost unknown in Japan. I admit I'm going back a few years but even in my childhood in the 1960s, butter was regarded as something of an out of reach luxury. Like many Western things, butter (known as "bata" in Japanese) began to be assimilated into Japanese cooking during the post-war years of the US military occupation. At that time, butter was still so rare in Japanese food cultu