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Wakame and Cucumber Salad in a Japanese vinaigrette Here's a Japanese recipe to put the humble but healthy cucumber on top of the taste chart - Wakame and Cucumber salad in a Japanese vinaigrette. The key to the dish is the lightness of the marinade and the thinly sliced cucumber which absorbs the delicate sweet rice vinegar - this together with the delicate flavour of the wakame seaweed creates a very pleasant tasting experience. In Japan, this dish is traditionally served in small portions as part of a high class dinner as a palate cleanser but it's so tasty (not to mention healthy) that it really deserves its own billing. (Cucumber is rich in vitamins K, A and C as well as folate and magnesium while wakame contains copper, calcium manganese and iron, so they should be a regular part of everybody's diet.) You can eat this salad as a starter or as a side dish and it takes only minutes to prepare. You can find my recipe below and the youtube tutorial by clicking Wakame and Cucumber Salad or scroll down to the bottom of the page. Happy marinading! Kurumi XXXX. Wakame and Cucumber Salad ingredients: (serves 4 as a side dish) 1 medium cucumber, thinly sliced 2 tbsp dried wakame seaweed 2.5 tbsp japanese rice vinegar 1.5 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp roasted sesame seeds how to: to make the marinade, mix the sugar with vinegar until the sugar has dissolved soak the dried wakame in a water for 5 minutes in a bowl, then drain and squeeze any excess water from the seaweed sprinkle the salt over the cucumber in a bowl and mix it well using your hand. leave it for 15 minutes, then squeeze any excess water from the cucumber mix the cucumber and wakame in the bowl and add the vinegar mixture garnish with the sesame seeds. Wakame and Cucumber Salad in a Japanese vinaigrette

Japanese Tuna and Red Onion Salad My elder son is living and working in Tokyo at the moment and he sent me this recipe which has become his "go to" regular salad. It's easy to make - only 5 ingredients - tomato, onion, canned tuna, celery and a sheet of nori. The seasoning is equally simple - soy sauce and mirin. The only minor "faff" is taking a little time to steep the raw onion in water, which you change once or twice during the process , to remove the onion's sharpness. A little slicing, a little mixing and hey presto, your simple Japanese salad is ready! 5 ingredients and ready in 15 mins - you have no excuse! Oh, I forgot the part about it being healthy and nourishing too! If you'd like to put this salad to work on your kitchen table, the recipe is below or you can find the youtube tutorial by clicking Japanese Tuna and Red Onion Salad or scroll down to the bottom of the page. happy Cooking!! kurumi xxx Japanese tuna and red onion salad ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 1/2 red onion 1 stalk celery 1 tuna tin (in oil, 140g net) 1 tomato 1.5 tbsp soy sauce 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar 1/2 sheet of nori, shredded how to thinly slice the red onion, soak in water for 5 mins in a bowl, change the water a couple of times, so the onion doesn’t taste bitter and squeeze out the excess water before adding to the salad thinly slice the celery & tomato cut the nori sheet into strips drain the excess oil from the tuna tin, put it in a bowl and break into pieces, add the sliced celery & onion and mix well in a bowl add the rice vinegar and soy sauce to taste and mix again arrange the sliced tomato on a plate, then pile the tuna mixture on top your salad is ready to serve - just garnish with the shredded nori Japanese Tuna and Red Onion Salad

Three Mushroom Spirali with Ishiri Sauce If you saw my blog recipes using "Ishiri sauce" earlier this year, you'll know, it's one of those "sounds awful but tastes great" flavourings - in this case made of squid. It's only made in one small region of Japan so it's something which is really quite unique. Flavour-wise, I think of Ishiri sauce as a "super-umami" taste enhancer. I really like combining it with olive oil or butter and pasta. I made another pasta dish with it the other day - this time I used spirali pasta with shiitake, shimeji & enoki mushrooms for B vitamins and trace elements along with some ramiro pepper for your daily dose of vitamins A& C and some vibrant red colour. You can rustle this dish up in 15-20 mins so it's great for a quick lunch or late supper. Whenever I make this I usually make it in "bulk" and stash a couple of servings in the fridge as the flavour of the ishiri sauce matures over a few days. If you like the sound of this, you can find the Youtube video by clicking 3 Mushroom Spirali with Ishiri Sauce or scroll to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. The Japanese love their pasta. Why not check out another of my "Japitalian" fusion dishes - Miso Tuna spaghetti recipe? Three Mushroom Spirali with Ishiri sauce. ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 150g spirali pasta 70g shiitake mushrooms 1 sweet pointed ramiro pepper* 70g shimeji mushrooms 100g enoki mushrooms 1/2 onion 3 cloves garlic 1 tbsp vegetable oil 1/2 tsp japanese stock granules a pinch of pepper 2 tbsp ishiri sauce** 25g butter 1 sheet of nori how to: rinse all the vegetables remove the bottoms of the enoki & shimeji mushrooms and separate the stems remove the stem ends of the shiitake mushrooms and cut the caps into slices thinly slice the garlic & onion halve the pepper lengthways, remove the stalk, seeds & the white flesh, then cut into slices diagonally halve & cut the nori 3 times, then use scissor to cut into strips prepare the spirali pasta according to the instructions on the packet heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan, add the onion & garlic and stir for 1 min add the enoki & shimeji mushrooms and stir for 2 mins add the shiitake mushrooms, ramiro pepper, black pepper, butter, stock granules and stir for 2 mins add the ishiri sauce and stir everything together well add the spirali pasta and mix again your 3 mushroom spirali is now ready. sprinkle over the nori just before serving Three Mushroom Spirali with Ishiri Sauce

S&B Golden Japanese curry Medium Hot version The Japanese love a curry. Or to be specific, the Japanese love a Japanese curry. In fact, the average Japanese gets through 70 dishes of curry a year - so it is quite a love affair - and curry rice is regarded, alongside ramen, as the country's national dish (beating even the mighty sushi). Not that the Japanese only pair curry with rice - curry udon, curry pan (essentially a curried doughnut - no, honestly!) and curried "katsu" cutlets are all very popular dishes in Japan. Like other things the Japanese have imported and made their own over the years, the Japanese have adjusted the flavour of curry to suit their own tastes (Japanese curry tends to be milder and fruity than what you might be used to). Having adjusted the taste, the process is then stripped down to one bare essential - the curry "roux" pack. This comes in the form of a block normally with 8 - 10 large cubes which you break off depending on how much curry you want to make - many Japanese "mix and match" segments from different curry blocks to create their own favourite blend. a typical Japanese curry starts by frying potato, onion and carrot with pork/chicken/beef though the meat is optional) in a pan. Then, water is added and then in goes the curry roux - this JAVA curry by house Foods melts, the sauce thickens and your curry is ready - you can taste at this stage and pop in another segment or two of curry roux if you want to adjust the strength. The curry roux makes a home made curry simple and quick. In Japan, two companies dominate the market in curry sauces, S&B and House Foods. S&B does sell other food products such as wasabi pastes and powders but curry sauces are the corporate mainstay. Their two main brands are Golden and Torukeru (which means "tasty") with each brand having mild, medium and hot variants (actually Golden curry offers extra hot as well). S&B's big competitor is House Foods which sells a much wider range of food and drink products but still has curry sauces as its flagship. House's two big brands are Vermont and Java (House also has some smaller curry lines, Kokumaru, The Curry and Hotel Curry but I'm guessing there's only so much you want to know about Japanese curries!). Like S&B, House sells mild, medium and hot variants of its curry sauces. Both companies started out in the same way, selling curry powders in the 1920s. The 1950s brought the first curry roux cubes to the market and the Japanese have been consuming them in their millions ever since. S&B Golden Curry Nowadays, you can buy curry cubes from many shops online. So what to cook? Chicken? Vegetables? I've got a dedicated Japanese curry section on my website with lots of different curry idea for your to choose from. You can find these curry recipes at the link below: https://www.kurumicooks.co.uk/recipes-3 So why not try a Japanese curry today?

Japanese Pork stuffed rolled Cabbage Stuffed rolled cabbage leaves probably aren't the first thing that come to mind when you think about Japanese food - you're more likely to thing Greek or Turkish. But in fact, this dish has quite an interesting history in Japan, having first been introduced as a yoshoku (which means, Western) food back in the late 19th century. Even cabbage itself was only grown in Japan from the same period, which is why the Japanese use the English name, cabbage, pronounced "kabetsu". Nowadays, "kabetsu" is one of the country's most popular vegetables. In my home, one of the favourite ways to eat these stuffed leaves is with a pork and onion filling. I find that adding some vegetables, in this case, carrot and turnip, to the stock in which they are cooked adds more flavour and makes for a more interesting (not to mention more healthy) meal. If you want to put this recipe through its paces, you can find the written recipe just below and for the Youtube tutorial just click Rolled Cabbage with Pork or scroll to the bottom of the page. Happy stuffing! Kurumi XXXX. Why not pair this with another vegetable dish for a really healthy meal? You could try my Edamame Salad here . Japanese Pork stuffed rolled cabbage ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 6 sweetheart cabbage leaves 250g minced pork 120g onion 1/2 large egg, beaten a pinch of salt & pepper 90g carrot 90g turnip 1.5 tsp bouillon powder 400ml water 6 toothpicks how to: fince chop and mince the onion slice off the thick parts of the cabbage stalks and fincely mince them (the thick parts not the cabbage leaves!) put the minced pork, onion, minced stalk, egg, salt & pepper in a bowl and mix well peel and cut the carrot into chunks and do the same with the turnip blanch the cabbage leaves in boiling water for 1 min divide the meat mixture into 6 portions place one portion onto a cabbage leaf, then roll & wrap, securing the little parcel with a toothpick place the 6 cabbage rolls in a frying pan, add the water & the bouillon powder bring to the boil and simmer over a medium heat for 30 mins with the lid on your stuffed rolled cabbage leaves are now ready to serve Japanese Pork stuffed rolled Cabbage

Yakitori Nowadays, ramen is the food every visitor seems to want to eat on a visit to Japan but not so long ago, the "must have" Japanese food was yakitori , fried chicken. This is a dish which has a long history, going back to the days when the eating of livestock was banned and people sourced meat, in part, from the hunting of wild birds. So the first yakitori that appeared was likely to have used duck or pheasant, not chicken. But in modern times, yakitori has come to mean, almost exclusively, chicken. In this recipe, I use chicken momo, meaning chicken thigh, but in Japan, you'll find yakitori made from minced chicken meat balls, heart, wing and other parts. Eating yakitori doesn't require chopsticks and it's quick to make, so it's origin was very much as a street food. Today, people still buy yakitori from stalls and small specialist outlets at festival time or to bring home for dinner, but it is also very easy to make it yourself. The ingredients in my recipe are simple, chicken and leek. The yakitori sauce I use can be ready to go in 10 minutes, (why buy it in a bottle when it is so easy to make for a fraction of the cost?) so this really is still a fast food even when you make it at home. Best of all, it is authentic and very tasty. You can find the written recipe for Yakitori and Yakitori sauce just below. For the Youtube tutorial click Yakitori or scroll to the bottom of the page for both Youtube tutorials. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. If you'd like to try a non-meat variant of this dish, why not try my Tofu kebabs in Miso Tahini sauce. You can find that recipe here . Classic Yakitori. ingredients: for the yakitori: (makes 8 skewers) 8 x 18cm skewers* 300g boneless chicken thigh 3 small leeks (you only use the white part of the leek in this recipe) a sheet of aluminium foil for the yakitori sauce: (makes approx. 250ml) 180ml soy sauce 6 tbsp sugar 90ml mirin 1 small chicken skin 1 spring onion *i use steel skewers. if you use bamboo skewers, you need to soak them in water first how to: to make the yakitori: cut the leek stems into 16 x 2 cm pieces cut the chicken into 24 bite size pieces push 3 chicken pieces and 2 leek pieces alternatively onto each skewer to make the sauce: combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to the boil with a lid on and simmer for 7-8 mins, adjusting the heat as you simmer to preventing from boiling to cook under the grill: cover a tray with foil, place the yakitori on the try and brush with yakitori sauce grill on a high setting for 3 mins, then remove the yakitori from the oven, turn over and brush with more sauce. grill for a further 3 mins your yakitori are now ready to eat Yakitori Yakitori sauce

Okonomiyaki with Chicken My family are big fans of Japanese savoury pancakes (AKA Okonomiyaki) so it's a regular on our table at lunch and dinner. I usually put whatever vegetables I have to hand into mine, so for this recipe, on top of the mainstay green cabbage leaves, I used a leftover leek. I always find it interesting to compare these European vegetables with their Asian cousins. Leeks in japan (they're called Naganegi, meaning "long onion") look much the same and are similar in size but the Japanese Naganegi tastes more like a spring onion than its European cousin. When it comes to cabbage, a Japanese cabbage (they're called kabetsu) is usually a lot softer than a European one and doesn't need as much frying. Most Japanese garnish their Okonomiyaki with Bulldog brown sauce and mayo, then pile bonito flakes and "aonori" seaweed flakes on top. (You can buy these ingredients on-line and in most Asian food shops but they are optional and your okonomiyaki will still taste great without them). You can turn out this okonomiyaki recipe in under 30 mins, so it's a fast food as well. You can find the written recipe just below and for the youtube tutorial click Okonomiyaki with Chicken or scroll to the bottom of the page. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. If you'd like to try out a Korean savoury pancake, you can find a recipe here Korean Savoury Pancake . Okonomiyaki with Chicken ingredients: (makes 2 portions) 140g sweet pointed cabbage, rinsed 100g leek 190g chicken breast, finely sliced 50g frozen sweetcorn 130g self raising flour 1 egg 150ml Japanese dashi stock* 2 tbsp bonito fish flake (optional) 2 tbsp aonori (optional) Bull-Dog sauce mayonnaise 2.5tbsp of veg oil for frying * i used dashi instant granules to make the stock but you can make your own stock - i have several Japanese stock recipes to choose from in the Recipes section) how to: rinse the cabbage leaves, halve lengthways and cut out the stalk shred the cabbage roughly ( strips about 1cm width) cut the leek in half in lengthways, then shred heat 1/2tbsp of oil in a frying pan, fry the chicken for 2-3 minutes over a medium heat now put the cabbage, leek & chicken in a large bowl in a separate bowl, put the beaten egg, dashi stock & flour and mix well into a batter add the batter mixture to the chicken, leek and cabbage and mix well heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan & pour in half of the okonomiyaki mixture. cook for 3 - 4 mins over a medium heat with the lid on when the bottom is cooked, flip the okonomiyaki and cook again for 3 - 4, then slide out onto a serving plate repeat to make your second okonomiyaki serve & drizzle over with the Bull-Dog sauce & mayonnaise. sprinkle with the bonito & aonori flakes Okonomiyaki with Chicken

Miso Soup with Egg Tomato and Enoki This is quite a modern recipe in Japan - I came across it on my last trip back home earlier this year. The recipe contains tomatoes, which you might be surprised to learn are not a traditional Japanese cooking ingredient. Like the humble potato, the tomato was introduced into Japan by Portugese and Dutch during the 17th century. When I looked into this, what surprised me was that tomatoes were not originally considered a food source. The plants were first imported and cultivated for ornamental gardens. It took about a hundred years before the tomato began to make it into Japanese cooking and then about another hundred years before people began eating tomatoes in their raw form. Today, the tomato is used in salads and pastas but still not so much in more traditional Japanese dishes. So, this miso soup (unusually) contains tomatoes. It also features enoki mushrooms, beaten egg, some chopped spring onions and of course, a tablespoon and a half of miso. You can use any miso you might have to hand - just remember the simple rule about miso - the darker it is the saltier the taste. I used a lighter miso here so if you use a dark miso, you might want to adjust the amount accordingly. I also used a few baby tomatoes in this soup but by all means use a couple of chopped tomatoes instead if that's what you have available. This is an easy soup that you can make in not much more than 10 minutes. It's tasty, healthy and nutricious - I can't say much more than that! I serve this soup in a charming chalky white Mino-ware soup bowl provided to me by the Mino ware Soup Bowl by UTSUWABI Japanese company Utsuwabi. Utsuwabi has a 75-year history of selling beautiful Japanese tableware made in Japan by the artisan potteries for which the country is famous. Utsuwabi has an English language website and can deliver worldwide. If you are interested in fine Japanese tableware, you can go to their website by clicking the following link: https://utsuwabi.com If you would like to try out this recipe, you can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Miso Soup with Egg Tomato and Enoki or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 40g /1.5oz enoki mushrooms, rinsed 1 spring onion, rinsed 500ml / 17fl oz water 1 heaped tsp Japanese instant dashi stock granules* 1.5 tbsp miso 1 medium egg 8 baby tomatoes *you can substitute a Japanese dashi bag for dashi stock granules if you prefer. how to: Cut off the bottoms of the enoki mushrooms and gently separate the mushrooms into individual strands. Finely slice the spring onion and set aside for your garnish. Pour the water into a small saucepan. Add the dashi stock granules and enoki mushrooms. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Next, add and dissolve the miso into the broth. Break the egg in a small bowl and give it a quick whisk. Pour the whisked egg into the saucepan and gently stir the egg into the soup. Add the tomatoes. Simmer for 30 seconds and turn off the heat. Pour the miso soup into serving bowls. Top with the sliced spring onion. Miso Soup with Egg Tomato and Enoki

Chinese style Seafood Chukadon I posted a recipe for Chinese style chicken chukadon earlier in the year and as it was well received, I thought I'd create another chukadon, this time using seafood. (BTW a "chukadon" in Japanese means a Chinese style meal on a bed of rice. Anyway, i bought some squid rings (I know squid isn't everyone's proverbial cup of tea but I love it - sorry!) and got some king prawns out of the freezer. I added four vegetabless: pak choi, babycorn, red bell pepper and mushrooms and got cooking. The sauce for this recipe is a fusion of Japanese and Chinese flavours and uses soy sauce, sake, oyster sauce, ginger and garlic. It creates a lovely fresh tasting sauce perfect for the fresh stir fried flavours of the seafood and veggies. 20 mins later, I had a great summer stir fry ready for the table (I admit, I pre-cooked my rice!). If squid isn't your thing, you could use some shellfish instead or perhaps some white fish - just make sure the seafood is cooked through - the sauce should be cooked until it is a little thickened but don't overdo it - the sauce should have a loose syrupy consistency. If you'd like to try this out, you can find the youtube tutorial by clicking Chinese style Seafood Chukadon or scroll to the bottom of the page. the written recipe is just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. Chinese style Seafood Chukadon ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 250g pak choi, rinsed 4 button mushrooms, cleaned 4 baby corn, rinsed 1/2 red bell pepper 2 tbsp veg oil 1/2 garlic paste 1/2 ginger paste 12 uncooked king prawns 100g squid rings for the sauce: 100ml water 1 tbsp japanese cooking sake 1 tsp sugar 1 tbsp oyster sauce 2 tbsp soy sauce 2-3 tsp potato flour 2 portion of cooked rice how to: cut off the bottoms of the pak choi stems, then slice into bite size pieces remove the ends of the babycorn, slice lengthways and halve trim the ends of the mushroom stalks and slice remove the bell pepper seeds and cut into bite size pieces add the sake, sugar, oyster sauce, soy sauce & potato flour to the water and mix well heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic & ginger for 30 secs add the pepper, mushrooms & babycorn and stir fry for 2 mins add the pak choi and stir for 1 min then add the prawns & squid and stir fry for 2-3 mins stir in the soy sauce & oyster sauce mixture and stir fry until the sauce thickens a little plate up 2 servings of rice and spoon the seafood and veggies over the top along with some sauce Chinese style Seafood Chukadon

Vegetable Tempura Well, Halloween is just around the corner and the shops are full of pumpkins. Personally, I think pumpkin is such a delicious vegetable, it's too good to only eat at Halloween. Here's a recipe for some vegetarian tempura including pumpkin (or kabocha as it is called in Japan) along with shiso leaves, carrot and aubergine. The keys to this recipe are: A/. cut the vegetables thin to get crisp tempura and, B/. get the temperature of the oil right and keep it there (check by dropping in a little bit of batter - if it rises bubbling to the surface, the oil is hot enough to start. C/. don't crowd out the oil with too many pieces of tempura at one time and last, D/. remember that the shiso leaves will be ready in under a minute but the thicker veg will take longer. That apart, vegetable tempura is easy to prepare and makes for a very healthy lunch or dinner. Take a look at some of my other recipes to get ideas about combining this tempura with some other dishes for a real Japanese feast! You can find the written recipe by clicking Vegetable Tempura and the Youtube video tutorial by clicking Vegetable Tempura . Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (2 portions) 4 thin slices, aubergine 4 shiso (oba) leaves 60 g carrot, cut into sticks 100g japanese pumpkin, thinly sliced for the tempura batter: 70g self raising flour 40g cornflour 1/2 egg, beaten 140ml water oil for deep frying how to: fill 1/4 of a sauce pan with veg oil and heat to 180’C to make the tempura batter, put the self raising flour, cornflour, egg & water in a bowl and mix well to check the temperature of the oil, drop a small piece of batter in the oil and if it floats, you’re ready to go dip the shiso in the batter and deep fry quickly in the oil, turning once or twice for about 1 min,　remove and drain on a piece of kitchen paper repeat with the rest of the vegetables the pumpkin will take longer to cook - test it with a fork to be ensure the flesh has softened (2-3 mins) Vegetable Tempura

Beetroot and Daikon Salad Being Japanese, I am a big advocate of eating lots of vegetables in your diet. Surprise, surprise,, one of the best ways to eat fresh veg is in a salad. This Beetroot and Daikon Salad recipe features three vegetables, beetroot, daikon and green beans. Daikon, which you might know as white radish or mooli, is a much under-appreciated vegetable in my opinion. Daikon is very low in calories and is a super source of various nutrients, including calcium, magnesium, potassium, and copper. It’s also suprisingly high in vitamin C and folate. (You can find out more about the health benefits of daikon by clicking here.) Daikon is mostly cooked in Japanese cuising but I also enjoy it raw. Some people complain that daikon eaten raw has a bitter flavour but there's an easy trick to avoid this (as i do in this recipe) which is to add a little salt to the daikon after you've cut it up. Just leave for 10 - 15 minutes and then give the daikon a good squeeze with your hand. You'll find you squeeze out some liquid and with it, you'll be squeezing out the bitter flavour. What's more, you'll be left with nice, crunchy pieces of daikon to eat in your salad! I buy the beetroot I use in this recipe pre-cooked. Like daikon, I think beetroot is an under-rated vegetable. It provides great nutrition, including folate, manganese, potassium, iron, and vitamin C. It's also a leading source of fibre. (You can find out more about the health benefits of daikon by clicking here.) There is little prep involved, the beetroots just get cut in half and then into slices. If you are a real lover of crunchy salads, you could even try raw beetroot, very finely sliced, in this recipe. The dressing I make for my Beetroot and Daikon Salad is pretty straightforward - it's just a simple mix of French mustard, honey, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. You've probably already guessed that your Beetroot and Daikon Salad can be ready in about 15 minutes and requires very little effort. For the great taste and the health benefits, it's well worth the time spent in the kitchen! If you would like to try out my Beetroot and Daikon Salad, you can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Beetroot and Daikon Salad or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 140g / 5oz daikon (white radish / mooli) 1 tsp salt 80g / 3oz green beans 2 cooked beetroots for the dressing: 1/2 tbsp French mustard 1/2 tbsp honey 1 lemon 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil how to: peel the daikon, then cutin half longways. slice finely put the slices of daikon in a bowl. sprinkle with the salt and stir together. set aside for about 10 minutes to allow the salt to remove some of the water content from the daikon. (this will make the daikon crisper when eaten.) top and tail the rinsed green beans, then cut them in half. bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. add the green beans and simmer for 3 minutes before draining next, cut the 2 cooked beetroots in half, then slice for the dressing: combine the mustard and honey in a jar or small bowl. squeeze the juice from the lemon and add to the jar/bowl along with the olive oil. mix well now return to the daikon slices. take u a handful of the slices and give them a good squeeze to drain out the liquid. drain the liquid. repeat this step once more add the green beans and sliced beetroot to the daikon slice. pour over the dressing and mix well garnish with a few leaves of mint or coriander Beetroot and Daikon Salad

Onigiri with Bacon Egg and Peas Japanee savoury rice balls, locally known as onigiri or o-musubi could lay claim to the title of the world's oldest convenience food. History shows that the practice of shaping rice into balls and wrapping it in dried nori seaweed goes back over a thousand years. The fact that onigiri have stood the test of time and are still one of the most popular foods in Japan today shows what a clever little invention they truly are. Think about it for a moment and you'll understand how ingenious it is - take your national staple, ie Japanese rice. Combine that with smaller amounts of vegetable and maybe protein (in this recipe's case, scrambled egg, bacon and peas.) Then, wrap everything in a mineral rick layer of dried seaweed. And voila, you have a take anywhere, eat anywhere little ball of goodness. No wonder the idea has stuck! There are several ways to produce an onigiri rice ball. Traditionally, onigiri were moulded by hand and this technique is still handed down today. If moulding an onigiri rice ball with your hands sounds a bit messy, then you can also (as I do here) use an onigiri mould. There are very easy to find online and one of the cheapest and handiest aids if you are into your Japanese recipes and cooking on a regular basis. When it comes to what to put into your musubi rice ball, the sky is, as they say, the limit. Look online and you'll find lots of great ideas. In this recipe, I use three fillings - scrambled egg seasoned with soy sauce, some salty streaky bacon, fried until its nice and crispy and some garden peas. I find that makes for a nice combination of flavours, some useful nutritional value and a nice, colourful effect as well! From start to finish, you can have these ready in about 15 - 20 minutes. As they are wrapped in dried nori sheet, they are best eaten straight from the counter but they will also last well enough to make a nice lunch or picnic item. If this has got you in an onigiri rice ball frame of mind, you can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Onigiri with Bacon Eggs and Peas or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes 5 - 6 onigiri) 150g / 5.3oz Japanese rice 2 rashers streaky bacon 1 medium egg a dash of soy sauce 3 tbsp frozen green peas a little salt to taste 2 sheets of nori seaweed 1 onigiri mould how to: rinse your Japanese rice a few times until the water clear. cook either in a rice cooker or in a saucepan. next, prepare your fillings: fry the bacon rashers until crispy, then transfer to a plate break the egg into a small bowl. add a dash of soy sauce and mix. pour into a same hot frying pan you used for the bacon. swirl the egg around in the frying pan using chopsticks or a spatula and produce a rough scrambled egg. transfer to a large bowl. bring a small pan of water to the boil. add a little salt and the peas. cook for 3 minutes. drain and add to the bowl. slice the rashers of bacon finely and add them to the bowl too add your cooked rice. sprinkle generously with salt. gently mix everything together using spatula or a large spoon in a slicing motion to avoid mashing the rice cut the 2 sheets of nori into 6 strips now, use the rice ball mould to make your onigiri. dip the mould in water before you start. this will stop the rice sticking to the mould fill the mould up with your rice mixture with a dessert spoon. when the mould is full, gently press the lid into the mould remove the onigiri mould lid. invert the mould, then give the bottom a firm tap or two. the onigiri should pop out onto your plate wrap each onigiri in a strip of nori repeat until you have 5 or 6 onigiri onigiri are best eaten soon after making them but they also make a great lunch box or picnic treat too Onigiri with Bacon Egg and Peas