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Sweet Potato Mochi with Mozzarella You've probably heard of Japanese mochi - you know, the rice that has been pounded and pounded until it turns into a thick, white gooey paste. Mochi is a big part of Japanese food culture. It is traditionally eaten on New year's day - typically in a soup called Ozoni - to bring people strength and good health through the months of winter. But mochi doesn't have to be just about rice. This recipe shows you how to make mochi with sweet potato. There's no pounding necessary to make this - just a couple of minutes of mashing and then a couple of minutes of stirring and your sweet potatoes will have turned into a nice, smooth mochi paste. Like rice mochi, you don't eat sweet potato mochi by itself. In this recipe, i give my sweet potato mochi a sweet soy sauce. To make them extra rich, I put a little nugget of mozarella chesse inside when I form them into patties. If you prefer not to include cheese, by all means don't, these will taste very good without it - it's just - well, I love eating them with cheese! Once I've made my patties, I fry them for about two minutes on each side. The sweet potato is already cooked, so the frying is just about colour and creating a thin, firmer skin on the outside and melting the mozarella into a stringy goo on the inside. Once the sweet potato mochi are fried, I turn them out onto a plate and spoon the sauce into the hot pan to get it bubbling and nice and thick. This only takes a few seconds. Then the sweet potato mochi go back into the pan with the sauce and your dish is ready to serve. These mochi make a great starter or you can put them onto the dinner table with some other courses. However you serve them, I know you will get nods and smiles of appreciation and questions, like "are there any more?" If you'd like to sample the joys of sweet potato mochi, the written recipe is just below. If you'd like to take a look at the Youtube tutorial, you can find it by clicking Sweet Potato Mochi or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX ingredients: (makes 6 Sweet Potato Mochi for 2 - 3 servings) 300g / 10 oz sweet potato half a small mozzarella cheese (approx. 60g / 2 oz) 1.5 tbsp sugar 4 tbsp potato flour for the sauce; 2 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp soy sauce 30ml / 1 fl oz cold water 1/2 tsp potato flour 1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying how to: peel and cut the sweet potato into small chunks put the chunks into a saucepan and cover with cold water. bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins or until cooked meanwhile, to make the sauce, put 2 tbsp of sugar, 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 30ml / 1 fl oz of cold water and 1/2 tsp of potato flour in a small bowl. mix well, then set aside cut the mozzarella into 6 equal slices drain the sweet potato chunks well and mash into a smooth paste with no bits add the sugar and the potato flour. mix well until you have a smooth, thick paste. divide into 6 pieces now wet your hands, so that the sweet potato won't stick to your fingers. put 1/6 of the sweet potato paste into the palm of your hand. flatten it a little and put a piece of mozzarella into the middle. fold the sweet potato over the mozzarella to form a mochi. repeat until you have 6 sweet potato mochi patties heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan. fry your mochi for about 2 mins before turning over and frying for another 1-2 minutes until lightly browned remove the sweet potato mochi onto a plate put the sauce mixture into a frying pan and stir - it will thicken quickly. return the sweet potato mochi back to the pan and your dish is ready to serve transfer the sweet potato mochi to a plate and spoon over the sauce Sweet potato Mochi

Tenmaru Japanese Ramen My latest Japanese restaurant review took me to pastures new - Finsbury Park in London N4 to be exact. This is the home of a one site Japanese ramen shop - Tenmaru. I have to admit Finsbury Park is not somewhere I have visited very often but I came across Tenmaru Japanese ramen on the internet and while I was browsing their website, something told me that this was a place where I had to eat. What was that something? Well, it was the Basil Ramen. Yes, that's right - Basil Ramen. Now, I love to try out new things and I have to admit, I had never come across Basil Ramen before. The Tenmaru website describes it as "Basil pesto, tofu, baby corn, tenderstem broccoli, bean sprout, black fungus and spring onion." Pesto with ramen, I thought. What a nifty idea. I was hooked. Finding Tenmaru Japanese Ramen is quite easy - if you come by bus or train. In fact, it's only moments from Finsbury Park underground and the Finsbury Park bus terminal. Unfortunately, I came by car and parking anywhere near Tenmaru - if you can find parking as a non-resident - costs a hefty £8 for 2 hours. Anyway, that gripe aside, I did manage to park about 5 minutes away and it wasn't difficult to find Tenmaru. Inside of Tenmaru Tenmaru opened its doors in November 2019, not the best time to open a new restaurant with the Covid pandemic just around the corner. But the place has survived, thank goodness. Tenmaru looked attractive in an understated Japanese sort of way from the outside. Inside, I found myself thinking it was the kind of modern ramen shop I might walk into in downtown Tokyo - I liked the decor, Japanese but not in an "in your face" kind of way. Clearly, a good deal of thought had gone into how to make this place look "right". Tenmaru has seating for around 50 diners, mostly at tables but also some seats at the counter at the front of the shop. We were shown to a table at the rear of the shop. The table was a simple wooden affair but spotlessly clean. Kitchen in Tenmaru I took the liberty of peeking into the kitchen at the rear of the shop - it looked clean, well laid out and there were 4 busy chefs beavering away inside. There was one waiter and one waitress running the tables and although it was fairly busy inside, they had everything under control and organised. In place of a menu, we got a keycode for sourcing the menu on our phones and about a minute later a large pitcher of water with glasses without even asking for it. I'm not really a fan of ordering over my phone and I can imagine it would be a real turn off for people of a certain age and outlook. The odd thing was that you could only browse the menu online - you couldn't order it - that had to be done the old school way via the waitress - which sort of defated the object of handing out a key code in my opinion - why not just go for an old fashioned menu? I'm not sure if Tenmaru has written menus in the shop - I didn't go as far as to ask for one. There were Japanese style wooden menu "kanban" on the walls but these were in Japanese, so not much help to a non-Japanese speaker. Anyway, the waitress was very friendly and efficient and in a few minutes, we had our order sort and were looking forward to our food. What did we eat? We ordered the following: Cheese mochi potato Cheese Mochi Potato Chicken Karaage Yasai (Vegetable) Gyoza Lemon Ramen Tan Tan Men Basil Ramen How did the food score? Cheese Mochi Potato (photo above) 8.5/10 I've never seen Cheese Mochi Potato on the menu of a Japanese restuarant in London (although they are a new, popular snack dish in Japan) so I and my fellow diners were keen to try them out. I am happy to say they didn't disappoint. The cheese component wasn't too obvious (maybe a strong cheddar would be better in the recipe) but the flavour was still very good and texture was absolutely spot on. Lovely Chicken Karaage 9.0/10 Chicken karaage Tenmaru's chicken karaage were close to perfect - nice and large, very well deep fried in lots of crumb - served with mayonnaise and lemon. I didn't ask whether Tenmaru make their own karage but given the size, I think they probably do. These got a big thumbs up! Yasai Gyoza 5.0/10 Yasai gyoza I am sure every restaurant has an Achille's heel and for Tenmari, it is their vegetable gyoza. The wrapper were fine but the contents was a squidgy, tasteless mush - sorry! Having said that, getting a vegetable gyoza right is quite an art and the filing is key. Back to the drawing board, I'm afraid. Lemon Ramen 8.5/10 Lemon ramen I'd never eaten Lemon Ramen until my visit to Tenmaru. I had eaten lemon with cold soba noodles and I thought that worked. But would lemon work with ramen and a ramen broth? I am happy to say it did, it really did. The balance between the rich, slightly oily broth and the lemon was just right. The dish came with a seasoned boiled egg, some very nicely slow cooked chicken breast, spring onion and seaweed. (The menu advertises the dish coming with "black fungus" but I am retty certain mine came with kelp.) I was so busy enjoy the great contrast in this dish between the lemon and the broth that I almost forgot about the noodles! Well, they were ok. Not great but OK - perhaps a little overcooked. But honestly, the rest of the dish was so good, it didn't bother me one bit. Basil Ramen 8.5/10 Basil ramen The Basil Ramen was another first for me. It came served as a vegetarian dish with slices of fried tofu, brocolli, baby corn, bean sprouts and some kelp seaweed. My co-diner's first reaction was that the serving was quite small. I have to admit, it did look a little small. But there was a reason for that. This dish is really very filling. The basil pesto combined with the ramen broth was very rich. We all took a taste and decided that we really liked it, You would struggle to eat a larger bowl of this but the portion presented was just right. The Basil Ramen was a big hit! Tan Tan Men 8.0/10 Tantan men The third dish in our ramen trilogy was Tan Tan Men. This is a dish I rarely order as I find it a bit too heavy and spicy for my liking. Tenmaru's Tan Tan Men looked pretty dark and stormy when it arrived but to my co-diner's surprise it was spicy but not too spicy. After a few mouthfuls, I agreed with him - this was a good dish of Tan Tan Men that doesn't threaten to give you indigestion. The minced pork and sesame flavours were front and centre and the chilli complemented rather than dominated the dish. Another thumbs up! The Bill. Menu Cheese Mochi Potato £ 5.80 Chicken Karaage £ 6.50 Yasai Gyoza £ 6.00 Lemon Ramen £11.80 Basil Ramen £13.80 Tan Tan Men £13.80 Calpis Soda £ 3.00 Total £68.29 including VAT & Service charges Summary: I have a suspicion that if Tenmaru was located in Soho, there might be queues outside. As it is, it is located in Finsbury Park, so there probably aren't any queues and it represents something of a little gem of a ramen shop waiting to be discovered by a wider audience. Not that all the food was outstanding - the gyoza were a little disappointing but there again, vegetable gyoza are a difficult dish to pull off well. The cheese mochi potato, lemon ramen and basil ramen were great examples of what a London ramen shop can do if it thinks just a little "outside the box." Purists might turn up their noses but we loved it. From the appreciative sounds of some of our fellow diners, they loved it too! Food: ★★★★☆ Ambience: ★★★★☆ Value for Money: ★★★★★ You can find Tenmaru at 8 Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London, N4 3JP. Tenmaru doesn't currently accept reservations. Deliveries: Just Eat, Uber, Deliveroo. (PS: the restaurants I review are unaware that I am reviewing their fare and service. I pay for what I eat. My opinions are honest and unbiased....) And how about making it yourself? We all love to dine out and you certainly won't be disappointed by Tenmaru''s offering. But don't forget you can make Japanese food at home which will not only taste good but for a fraction of the price too! I've listed two recipes below for items I ordered during my review. Why not give them a try? Just follow the links to the written recipes and Youtube tutorials. Recipe #1 Sweet Potato & Cheese Mochi Sweet potato mochi Tenmaru's Cheese Mochi Potato made a great starter. And the good news is, they aren't difficult to make at home. My recipe uses sweet potato instead of regular potato but IMO they are every bit as good as what you"ll get at Tenmaru. Why don't you try them and see for yourself? If you would like to take a closer look at this dish, simply click Sweet Potato Mochi to go to the recipe page. Recipe #2 Vegetable Gyoza Vegetable gyoza If you enjoy Vegetable Gyoza, you don't have to only eat them at a restaurant as an occasional treat - they are not difficult to make at home and if you follow my recipe, you will have some Vegetable Gyoza ready for the table in 30 minutes - I promise that once you've eaten these, you might not want to order them at a restaurant ever again! If you want to try these out, just click on Vegetable Gyoza to go to the recipe. About the reviewer: Hi, I'm Kurumi, a cooking writer and blogger. I'm Japanese but I have lived in London for the last Kurumi Hayter 30 thirty years. Back in the days before the internet (and Youtube), I was a food writer. My first book published in English was called Japanese Cooking for Two which I wrote in 1994. It has become the 9th best selling Japanese cookbook ever… yippee! My other books were ‘The Noodle Cookbook”, “The Soy for Health Cookbook” and “Healthy Noodles.” I also published a book in Japanese “English Home Cooking”. Then I had children and my life changed! By the time my children had grown up, the world had changed quite a lot too! Internet, Youtube, Insta etc. So, these days, instead of books, I publish recipe and articles on my website and on my Youtube channel. I hope you'll check out my recipes - they are all tried and tested (some more times than I care to mention!) until I think you will get them right first time when you make them and enjoy eating them. If you’d like to read more about me or my books, then follow the link here: https://www.kurumicooks.co.uk/about

Butternut Squash Gratin On cold nights, what better seasonal ingredient is there to warm empty tummies than a squash - or pumpkin, or kabocha - depending on what word you use to describe this beautiful gourd vegetable. I think it is safe to say that the Japanese are in love with their variety - the kabocha - in Japan you can eat it in many ways and they are all delicious. Most Japanese think of the kabocha as an indigenous Japanese vegetable but in fact, it is an import, introduced by the Portugese in the 16th century from South America. The giveaway is in the name - kabocha in Japanese was adopted from the Portugese name for the vegetable - camboja. I thought I would use the last butternut pumpkin from my garden in a recipe that is also something the Japanese regard as their own but is, of course, French in origin, ie the gratin. You'll find gratin dishes in restaurants all over Japan and a gratin is a part of most Japanese mums' kitchen repertoires as well. The gratin is a great dish in which to use a squash - it is perfect for those evenings when the nights have closed in and chilly people need something warming inside them. The kabocha is probably the sweetest of all the squash varieties. Because kabocha can be hard to come by outside of Japan, in this recipe, I use the next best thing in terms of sweetness - the butternut squash - which may be more easily available to you. I add in a little sugar just to make the recipe like it would be if it was made "back home" in Japan using a kabocha. If you can get a kabocha where you live, by all means use it - you'll be able to dispense with the added sugar . You may also need to cook the kabocha variety a little longer - amongst the squash varieties, its flesh is one of the firmest you'll find. You may be tempted to leave the skin on your squash - I know some people really like the skin. That's fine if you are roasting your squash but it doesn't really work in this recipe - the point here is to have a soft, creamy sweet mouthful of squash in every spoonful, so do leave the skin out. Along with the butternut squash, I use some chicken in this recipe. If you prefer to go meat free, then by all means do so - you can just replace the chicken with more butternut and maybe some more onion. It will still be a rich, warming dish that friends and family will give the thumbs up. I make this dish quite a lot and there is rarely any left in the dish when everyone has finished. If you're in the mood for some winter warming food, then look no further than this Butternut Pumpkin Gratin. You can watch the Youtube tutorial by clicking Butternut Squash Gratin or scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 700g / 25 oz butternut squash or kabocha 1/2 medium onion 180g / 6.5 oz boneless chicken thigh or breast 1 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp vegetable oil 40g / 1.5 oz unsalted butter 40g / 1/5 oz plain flour 400ml / 14 fl oz whole or semi skimmed milk 80g / 3 oz fresh or frozen green peas 1 tsp French mustard 1/2 chicken stock cube 1/2 - 3/4 tsp salt a little pepper 60g / 2 oz cheddar cheese how to: cut the butternut in half. deseed, peel and cut into bite sized pieces slice & dice the onion slice the chicken thigh or breast into bite size pieces put the butternut pieces into a medium sauce pan. cover with cold water and add the sugar. (remember, if you are using a kabocha variety, you don't need to add the sugar). bring to the boil and cook for 10 - 12 minutes until softened heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in another sauce pan. add & fry the onion and chicken for 3 minutes next, add the butter and stir. once melted, add the plain flour and stir again into a roux add the milk a little at a time. mix to incorporate it into the roux. keep adding and mixing until you have a smooth thick white sauce add the green peas, French mustard, chicken stock cubes, salt & pepper and stir well last, add the squash and mix together into your gratin base heat your oven to 200C / 425 F (fan), gas mark 7 pour the butternut mixture into an oven proof dish,. sprinkle over the grated cheese and bake for about 20 mins or until the top is nicely browned serve piping hot and enjoy! Butternut Squash Gratin

Miso baked Salmon If you are struggling with a new way to serve a celebration salmon dish, then here's the answer! Miso baked salmon is easy to make and as long as you leave the salmon to marinate for at least an hour or two , then success is all but guaranteed. The marinade is a mixture of miso, sugar, soy sauce, mirin and garlic so you get a sweet and salty rich flavour to infuse the salmon. Once you've created your marinade and spread it over the salmon, just leave for at least an hour but preferably longer. It's one of those dishes where the prep can be done early morning and then left until just before lunch to cook. Once you're ready to bake your salmon, just get your oven up to 200 C / 390 F (fan) and cook for 20 minutes. That's all there is to it - Miso baked Salmon is a simple, quick and utterly delicious recipe for when you want to wow family or friends without too much effort! As you can see from the picture I garnish my Miso baked Salmon with some rocket leaves and cress but I leave that part up to your personal preference. If this is a new twist on salmon that you would like to try, then you can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Miso baked Salmon or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. ingredients: a half salmon (boneless), rinsed 2 - 3 cloves of garlic 6 tbsp miso 3 tbsp sugar 4 tbsp mirin 2 tbsp soy sauce a sheet of aluminium foil (about 50 cm X 50 cm / 20 in X 20 in) 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil for oiling the foil some rocket and cress for garnishing how to: to prepare the marinade: chop & mince the garlic and put it in a small bowl add the miso, sugar, mirin and soy sauce and mix well into a smooth, glossy marinade cover the salmon with the marinade and marinate for at least an hour in the fridge but preferably longer. (I usually marinade the salmon for 3 -4 hours.) heat the oven to 200 C / 390 F (fan) . line a large baking tray with the aluminium foil and brush the foil with the vegetable oil place the salmon onto the foil and shape the foil around the salmon, so that the miso marinade won’t leak while cooking. add any leftover marinade before you pop the tray in the oven bake in the oven at 200 C / 390 F (fan) for 20 minutes. carefully transfer to a serving platter. garnish with salad leaves and serve Miso baked Salmon

Potato Mochi with Nori If you read my restaurant review for the ramen bar, Tenmaru, you'll know that I was very impressed with their potato mochi. So, I thought, I would provide a recipe for everyone to be able to enjoy these gooey Japanese treats. As you'll know, mochi is more normally associated with rice, or more specifically, mochi rice. Mochi rice is a short grained , very glutinous rice variety, which, when it is pounded, becomes very sticky and dough like and can be formed into balls and patties. These are usually eaten with nori seawood and soy sauce for a savoury snack or sweetened and presented as a sweet treat. But you can also create a similar chewy, gooey and very tasty result using potato in place of rice. Potato mochi are quite a new thing even in Japan. In the same way as you need a short grained rice to make mochi, you need a waxy potato variety to make your Potato Mochi. If you were to try making mochi rice from a long grained rice, it simply wouldn't work. In the same way, if you were to try to make Potato Mochi from a floury (IE not waxy) potato, you wouldn't get a good result. There's a little bit of science here - although rice and potato are very different foods - one is a grain and the other a tuber - they do share a key ingredient - starch. Starch comes in two forms - amylose and amylopectin, Basically, a short grain rice and a waxy potato share common high levels of amylopectin (as opposed to amylose) and it is the amylopectin that gives both the rice and the waxy potato the characteristic sticky, chewyiness when you pound them. So, to make your Potato Mochi, you will need a waxy potato variety, like a Charlotte or a Desiree. I used the Charlotte variety for this recipe. As I said above, don't use a floury variety - they may be great for making mash but not for successful Potato Mochi. Apart from a waxy potato variety, there isn't really much more that you will need - just some potato flour and some sugar and a little milk. Once they are ready, I season my mochi with soy sauce straight from the bottle and some squares of mochi seaweed. All in, you can prepare these in about 25 minutes, including boiling the potatoes - mashing the potato takes only a minute or two unlike the time it takes to create mochi from rice. These Potato Mochi are great served as a snack or as a side dish. They are quite filling - one or two will be enough for most eaters. Interested in pounding out your own Potato Mochi? You can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Potato Mochi or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. If following a written recipe is more your thing, you can find that just below. Happy mashing! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes about 5 - 6 mochi) 300g waxy potatoes 1 tbsp sugar 1-2 tbsp milk 4 tbsp potato flour 1 tbsp vegetable oil soy sauce 1/2 a nori sheet how to: peel and cut the potato into chunks cover the potato with water in a saucepan. bring to the boil and cook for 10-12 mins or until softened drain the potato and mash well in the saucepan add the sugar, milk, potato flour. mix together well wet your hands to avoid the potato sticking to your fingers. scoop up 1 dessert spoon of the potato mixture and put it in your palm. form into a round flat mochi shape repeat until all the potato mixture is used up - this should make 5 -6 mochi heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a frying pan. carefully put the potato mochi into the pan. fry for 3 minutes until lightly browned. turn over and fry for another 2 minutes cut the nori sheet into 10 - 12 small squares (depending on whether you have made 5 or 6 mochi) while the potato mochi are still in the pan, season with a good splash of soy sauce. turn off the heat immediately place a square of nori on the top of each mochi. flip out onto a serving dish and place another square of nori onto the flipped side Potato Mochi with Nori

Oyster mushroom and Sugar snap Miso soup They say that true love is hard to find. But when it comes to food, it isn't really so hard, is it? Take, for example, the time when you taste your first mouthful of "real" miso soup - that time when the soup hits your taste buds and you start thinking, "how can a soup taste this good?" (That's probably the mysterious "fifth taste", AKA umami.) When I say "real" miso soup, I don't mean the lame excuse for this wonderful dish that you find in a lot of low and middle end Japanese restaurants (read miso paste and water) or some of the truly awful preparations you find on supermarket shelves (which shouldn't be labelled as miso soup at all) No, I mean miso soup that has been prepared with some good quality dashi stock, a couple or three fresh vegetables in small amounts and some good quality miso. If you ever read my restaurant reviews, you'll know that one of my acid tests for a good Japanese eatery is the quality of the miso soup. But it isn't really a dark art to get miso soup right - just good ingredients, a little time and a little focus, that's about all. The quality of the dashi and the miso are key - those ingredients will make your life easy and do the flavour creating work for you with minimum fuss. There are a number of ways to get a good dashi stock - first, you can make your own. I have a recipe on the site that you can use to do this - just click on Premium Dashi Stock to find it. But if you don't have the time to make it yourself, you can find some very good instant stock granules and dashi stock bags available online. For this recipe, I used Kayanoya brand dashi stock bags. You can find these on Amazon in the US or, if you ever find yourself in Tokyo (lucky you), you could visit Kayanoya's wonderful store and buy some there - they would make a wonderful present for the miso soup lover in your life! If you can't find stock bags, then buy yourself a bag of dashi stock granules. IMO, these won't taste quite as good as stock made from a dashi stock bag but they will certainly produce a well flavored soup. Of course, we mustn't forget the miso. I used a Hanamaruki brand white miso but any "Made in Japan" miso should work well. If you are wondering, you can also use a darker, "red" miso for this recipe - it will just taste a little saltier, so you might wish to use a little less depending on your taste. Last but not least, the veggies. I used some sugar snaps for their slightly sweet flavour and the crunchy texture. I also used some mushrooms to enrich the flavour of the soup a little and for their lovely, soft, silky texture on the tongue. Obviously, you can use other vegetables as the mood takes you. So, have I got you drooling for your own bowl of umami rich miso soup? If I have, you can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Oyster mushroom and Sugar snap Miso Soup or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 60g / 2oz oyster mushrooms, rinsed 12 - 14 sugar snaps, rinsed 500ml /17fl oz water 1 Kayanoya dashi stock bag* 2 tbsp of miso *(if you are using dashi stock granules instead, 1 heaped teaspoon will be adequate as a substitute. if you have decided to be extra virtuous and make your own dashi stock, simply use 500ml of that instead of water.) how to: slice the oyster mushrooms lengthways and cut into large bite size pieces prepare the sugarsnaps by removing the stems and strings pour the water into a saucepan. add the dashi bag and bring to the boil. simmer for 2 - 3 minutes, before removing the dashi bag add the mushrooms and sugarsnaps and simmer for 2 - 3 minutes last, add the miso to the saucepan. stir until the miso is dissolved. bring back to the boil, then turn off the heat off immediately Oyster mushroom and Sugar snap Miso Soup

Stir Fried Sweetcorn, Sugar snaps and Shiitake This Stir Fried Sweetcorn, Sugar snaps and shiitake dish is deceptively simple. Three vegetables in a stir fry..yes, so far, so simple. Okay, so you get three of your five-a-day and...? Well, think about the combination. Sweetcorn for sweet flavours, sugarsnaps for a crunchy texture, shiitake for a lovely fleshy texture and that woody, nutty flavour. And then there are some simple extra tastes - butter for a little richness, salt and pepper seasoning and a little parsley. Yes, it's simple and it's quick to prepare but taste-wise this dish ends up as much more than the sum of its parts. You can eat it as the Japanese do as a vegetable side dish or as a main course when you want to eat some warming, satisfying, healthy vegetable goodness. The ingredients below are for two side servings, so if you want to make this as a main with rice, just double up on the amounts. I don't think I need say anything more except, try it out and see for yourself. You can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Stir Fried Sweetcorn, Sugar snaps and Shiitake or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. Happy frying! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes 2 servings as a side dish) 100g / 4oz fresh shiitake mushrooms* 20g /1 oz unsalted butter or sunflower oil for vegans 120g / 6 oz frozen sweetcorn* 150g / 7.5 oz sugarsnaps or mangetouts 1/2 tsp + a little salt a little black pepper some chopped parsley for garnishing (optional) * at a pinch, you can use button mushrooms if you can’t find shiitake *tinned sweetcorn works as well how to: remove the stalk ends from the shiitake. cut each shiitake into 3-4 slices depending on the size melt the butter in a frying pan or wok. add the sweetcorn and stir fry for 30 seconds. add the sugarsnaps and stir fry another 30 seconds add the shiitake and stir for 2 minutes next. add the salt and pepper to taste and stir for another 2 minutes or so by which tim the dish will be ready take a taste and more seasoning if you wish serve either as a main or side dish Stir Fried Sweetcorn, Sugar snaps and Shiitake

Easy Chicken Teriyaki This has to be one of the simplest and tastiest chicken dishes ever. Five minutes of prep plus ten minutes of cooking and you have a guaranteed dinner (or lunch or supper for that matter) winner on your hands. You'll find teriyaki sauce on the shelves of most supermarkets these days but they tend too be oversweetened and the real thing is an absolute cinch to make yourself. What makes a good teriyaki sauce? In a word, balance. Yes, a teriyaki sauce should be sweet but it should also be a little salty and have a depth of umami flavour bubbling away under the surface. How to ahcieve this? Well, it's really very simple - just four ingredients, one and a half tablespoons of sugar plus two tablespoons each of soy sauce, mirin and cooking sake. A thorough mix and there you are, you've nailed it - a classic teriyaki sauce with all the flavour, richness and depth that you could want in no time at all. Moving onto the chicken itself, you'll find a lot of teriyaki chicken recipes which use chicken thigh. Personally, I prefer to use chicken breast. I cut the breasts laterally into two thin fillets. This has the advantage of making the cooking time very short. Ah, you might be thinking, a chicken thigh would be more succulent but really you want the teriyaki sauce flavours going into the meat not the meat giving up its juices into the sauce. My hack to keep the chicken breast succulent is to dust the fillets on both sides with some plain flour. This keeps the moisture in the breast and out of the teriyaki sauce. And that's your prep pretty much done. On to the cooking and things stay pretty simple. A tablespoon of vegetable oil in a medium pan and then in with the chicken fillets. Fry for a couple of minutes, turn and fry again. Once the fillets have turned a little bit brown, in goes the teriyaki sauce. The chicken by this time is just about done so the focus turns to thickening the sauce and enriching the flavours. Ideally, you want to reduce the sauce by about half which should take about 3 - 4 minutes over medium - high heat. Keep moving the pan during this phase and turn the chicken fillets again to prevent them from overcooking and to maximise the absorbtion of the sauce flavours. Once the sauce has thickened, you're ready to serve. I usually serve my teriyaki chicken on a big bed of salad. This works for lunch dinner or supper. For dinner, I often pair this with a serving of french fries - fries? Trust me, it just works...really! But that part is wholly up to you... If you'd would like to try out my version of this classic Japanese dish, just click on Chicken Teriyaki for the Youtube tutorial or scroll to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 2 chicken breasts 1.5 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp mirin 2 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp Japanese cooking sake or sake 2 tbsp plain flour for dusting 1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying serve with a big green salad, fries or rice how to: first, make your teriyaki sauce by combining the add the sugar, mirin, cooking sake and soy sauce in a small bowl. mix thoroughly until the sugar has dissolved. set aside cut each chicken breast laterally into two thin fillets sprinkle the flour onto a plate, lightly coat the chicken with the flour, so that the chicken will retain some moisture while it's cooking heat the vegetable oil in a medium/large frying pan. fry the chicken fillets for 2 minutes until lightly browned. turnand fry another 2 minutes with the pan lid on pour the teriyaki sauce into the frying pan. continue to cook over a medium/high heat until the sauce has reduce by about half. this should take about 3 - 4 minutes. turn the fillets once or twice while the sauce is reducing once the sauce has reduced and darkened, your dish is ready. serve with some salad, vegetables, fries or rice as you wish Easy Chicken Teriyaki

Tonkatsu Sando As you probably know, the venerable sandwich was invented a couple of centuries ago by an English aristocrat, the Earl of Sandwich. He charged his cook with creating a satisfying meal that he could eat at the table while gambling his money away. And voila, the original sandwich - slices of meat between two slices of bread - was born. The "sandwich" has never looked back and has gone down in history as probably the most convenient and versatile fast food ever invented. I like to think that if the Earl of Sandwich was alive and kicking today, he would rank the Japanese "sando" (that's the way the Japanese say "sandwich") up there with the best variations on his original idea. So what makes the Japanese katsu sando great? Well, first there is your "katsu", a cutlet of pork, seasoned with salt and pepper and coated with Japanese panko breadcrumbs which turn a beautiful golden colour when deep fried. Your pork cutlet - I use pork loin - should be quite thin cut. This means it will fry quickly without the risk of burning your golden breaded coating. It also means the cutlet will be slender enough to make a nicely proportioned "sando." Once you've created your "katsu", you should prepare your bread. Now I am not a true stickler for tradition so I will happily make a katsu sando using brown bread but if you want true authenticity, you have to go with white bread. You should also remove the crusts - but again, if you like crusty bread, feel free to leave the crusts intact. As well as salt and pepper, a self respecting katsu sando will be further seasoned with a spread of mustard on one of the bread slices and a generous squeeze of brown sauce (Japanese bulldog sauce, of course!) over the katsu. It only remains then to add some lettuce leaves and a little cucumber and to close your sando with its second slice of bread. And there you have it, one of the best sandwiches you will ever experience. There are a couple of other things I should mention however. First - to butter or not to butter? This again is a personal preference. In my opinion, a true katsu sando doesn't need the additional richness of buttered bread so I dispense with it. On the other hand, I know other people who think buttered bread is a must and if you are one of them, then feel free to butter your slices of bread. Second - to toast or not to toast. You'll find a lot of katsu sando recipes these days which are toasted. But IMO, they aren't truly katsu sando, they are toasted katsu sando, which is as different as a cheese toastie is to a cheese sandwich. I'm not sure when the toasted katsu sando entered the food lexicon - I did hear that a rather sly sandwich maker devised it as a way of using stale bread in his sando - but, as I am not a cynical type, I choose to believe that it was simply that someone thought - well, why not? - and in the wonderful, democratic world of cooking, I am 100% for that! Anyway, if you would like to try your hand at making a delicious katsu sando, you can find my Youtube tutorial by clicking Katsu Sando or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. You can find the written recipe just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. PS. If you're just starting your Japanese cooking journey, you can find all the ingredients you need at Morueats (UK only) ingredients:(makes 2 katsu sando) 1 medium egg 40-50 g / 1.75 oz panko breadcrumbs 40g / 1.5 oz plain flour 3cm/ 1.5 inch of cucumber 1 small gem lettuce 2 boneless pork loin steak salt & pepper 4 thin slice of white or brown bread some mustard brown sauce (preferably Japanese Bull-dog brand) some vegetable oil for frying a sheet of cling film how to: crack the egg into a bowl and give it a rough whisk cut the cucumber into 10 - 12 thin slices break of 4 - 6 small lettuce leaves lay your pork steaks on a cutting board. season generously with salt & pepper on both sides. next, cover the steaks with a sheet of cling film, using the back of a kitchen knife, tenderise the steaks for 15 - 20 seconds. this will prevent the steaks curling up when you deep fry them put the plain flour into a tupperward or a plate. give each steak a good coating of flour. then, dip the steak into the beaten egg, making sure the meat is covered in the egg. next dip the steaks in the panko breadcrumbs. you can use your fingers here to press the breadcrumbs onto the steaks to make sure you get a uniform coating to deep fry, heat about 2cm / 1 inch of vegetable oil in a saucepan to 170 C / 340 F fry your first tonkatsu for about 2 - 3 minutes until the breadcrumbs have turned golden brown using chopsticks or kitchen tongs, turn the tonkatsu. adjust the heat if the oil is getting too feisty. fry for another 2 - 3 minutes by which time your steak should be cooked remove the steak and rest on a rack. repeat for your second tonkatsu once your tonkatsu are both ready, take 4 slices of bread, removing the crust (if you prefer) spread a generous knifeful of English mustard onto two slices of the bread. place the tonkatsu onto the mustard. next, squeeze out some Japanese Bull-dog sauce over the tonkatsu dress with the sliced cucumber and some lettuce leaves and, finally, top with the two other slices of bread to create your katsu sando! Tonkatsu Sando

Kinoko Donburi - Mushroom Rice Bowl I went to a restaurant not long ago - Machiya - in London's West End. One of the items on Machiya's menu was Kinokodon, which translates into English as a Mushroom Rice Bowl. One of my co-diners ordered it and said after a few mouthfuls, "this could be so much better." Of course, that planted a little seed in my brain and here is the result. Kinokodon (Kinoko Donburi - Mushroom Rice Bowl) makes a great vegetarian / vegan option (and it's a gimme if you happen, like me, to be a mushroom lover.). It's quick and simple to make and has only a few ingredients. My recipe uses three different kinds of mushrooms: shiitake, king oysters and large buttons but any mushrooms will work in this dish although I happen to like shiitake because they have a slightly strong flavor than buttons and oysters. Together with the mushrooms, I use some sliced spring onion and a few slices of fresh chilli pepper. The spring onions give some crunch and flavour and the chilli pepper adds a little heat depending on how much chilli you use to throw in. Oh, and of course, you'll need a couple of servings of freshly cooked rice. (This dish is also a greatway to use up some leftover rice too!) The key to this dish is how to flavour it as the mushrooms themselves don't have a lot of flavour. My solution is to use a combination of sugar, soy sauce and mirin to give the mushrooms and delicious sweet / umami flavour. I add a tbsp of potato starch to thicken the sauce as the mushrooms will give up a lot of liquid when yout stir fry them in the next stage. The cooking takes no time at all. Just heat a tbsp of sesame oil in a medium pnd and pile in the mushrooms. Stir frying for 4 - 5 minutes will shrink the mushrooms as they surrender their water content. At this stage, you simply pour in the sauce and stir everything together for around 30 seconds and the mushrooms are ready. Now, it is simply a matter of assembling your dish and you are ready to serve. Pile your fresh rice into serving bowls and ladle the mushrooms over the rice. Sprinkle with a generous garnish of spring onions and a few slices of chilli..or more if you like more heat. As I said above, if you like mushrooms, you are going to like this dish - it's ready in a jiffy and a tasty little treat for lunch or supper. What more can I say? If this is something you like the sound of, you can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Kinoko Donburi (Mushroom Rice Bowl) or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below. Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes 2 servings) 150g / 5 oz button mushrooms 100g / 3.5 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms 130g / 4.5 ozking oyster or oyster mushrooms 2 spring onions, rinsed a little chilli for the sauce: 1 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp mirin 1tsp potato flour 1 tbsp sesame oil 2 portions of cooked rice * you can use any varieties of mushroom for this recipe * I used a piece of fresh chilli pepper but you can use fried chilli or chilli powder if you wish * if you need a “how to” see my recipe on how to cook Japanese rice in a saucepan how to: clean the mushrooms, trim the bottoms and slice into 1cm / 1/2 in pieces thinly slice the spring onion diagonally and slice some chilli for your topping combine the sugar, soy sauce, mirin & potato flour in a bowl and stir well heat the sesame oil in a frying pan. add all the mushrooms and stir fry for 4-5 minutes when the juice from the mushrooms begins to ooze out, stir the sauce once more and then add to the frying pan stir again for around 30 seconds until the sauce and mushroom juice thickens a little pile the cooked rice into serving bowls. ladle over the mushrooms before sprinkling the spring onion & some chilli on top enjoy! Kinoko Donburi - Mushroom Rice Bowl

Onigiri - Tuna Mayo Riceballs "Onigiri" - the humble riceball - is as old as rice cultivation itself in Japan and may just lay claim to being the world's original fast food. Onigiri riceballs are simplicity itself to prepare although according to a recent survey, most people buy them prepared from convenience stores these days rather than making them. Whenever you have made some rice and there is some leftover, just think "onigiri" as a way to use up that leftover for today's supper or tomorrow's lunch. The original onigiri riceball would have been a humble affair - perhaps just a ball of rice itself or rice sprinkled with a little salt for flavour and as a short term preservative. (Remember in olden times, salt was a very precious commodity.) At some point, someone had the idea of concealing another food within the onigiri - perhaps a piece of sour pickled plum or a small nugget of dried fish flakes. Nowadays, of course, imagination is in the only limit to what people can put in their onigiri riceball - fried spam onigiri, anyone? (Actually, I quite like the sound of that!) These days, there are five uber-popular onigiri fillings that everyone in Japan seems to love - salmon, tuna mayo, cod roe, kombu (kelp) and pickled plum. In this recipe, I show you how to make my personal favourite - onigiri with tuna mayo. Now, when it comes to making a rice ball, there are a number of ways you can go about it. First, there is the original method - bare hands. This involves wetting your hands (to prevent the rice sticking), taking about 2 large dessertspoons to rice in your hands and molding into a rough ball shape. Next, you use your thumb to make a hole in your onigiri . With your other hand, you spoon in your filling of choice and then close over the hole. Finally, you use both hands again to mold your rice ball into the classic triangular onigiri shape. And voila! You have made an onigiri rice ball! The second method, which I am going to show you below, involves the use of a square of clingfilm instead of wetting your hands. Put the clingfilm (about 25cm / 10 in square) on a plate and spoon your rice into the centre. Then place your filling in the centre of the rice. Next, carefully take up the clingfilm in the palm of one hand and use the other hand to fold the clingfilm and the rice over the filling. Once that is done, use both hands to form the rice into a ball. You can used the clingfilm like a muslin clother here to tighten the rice grains into a nce firm ball. Last, as with the traditional method, use your hands to form the triangular "onigiri" shape. You can use the same piece of clingfilm a number of times to produce any number of onigiri. You don't even need to dispose of it - just a light rinse under the tap and you can re-use it a second time. The third way to make onigiri rice balls, which you can find in one of my other posts, is to use an onigiri mold. Some people think using a mold is a bit of a cheat but I have to admit, it is a quick method to produce really neat, uniform onigiri - great if you are making a large batch for a party, for example and want a nice look for presentation. A basic mold consists of an onigiri shaped mold with a little plastic lid. All you do is wet the mold and lid with a little water. Then, you put in half your rice, then our filling, then more rice. Place the lid on the rice and press down to form your onigiri. Hey presto, one onigiri! It really is that easy. You can buy cheap onigiri molds online - not only are they convenient but you can use them time and time again. The downside of using a mold is that you can't change the size of the onigiri - dinky little onigiri made with a mold are fine but sometimes, I like to make some nice big onigiri like the ones here. When you have made your onigiri, it only remains to dress it with some nori. Why nori? Well, it is good for you - think of all those nice trace elements you get from this mighty weed - and it stops your fingers getting sticky when you eat. (It is de rigeur to eatan onigiri with your hands - no chopsticks or forks, thank you!) You can either cut a 1/2 sheet of nori into strips and sit the onigiri into the strip as I do here. Or, you can use 2 1/2 sheets and wrap the nori completely in a parcel. Eat your onigiri as soon as possible after making. Although these are almost a meal in themselves, they also ake a great pairing with miso soup or a leaf salad. So, have I put you in an onigiri frame of mind? If I have you can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Onigiri Tuna Mayo or just scroll to the bottom of the page. You can find the written recipe just below. Happy molding! Kurumi XXXX. ingredients: (makes 2 large onigiri tuna mayo rice balls) 250g / 9 oz cooked Japanese rice 2 heap tsps of canned tuna flakes (either tuna in brine or oil is fine) 2 tsp mayonnaise 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 nori sheet cut into 2 X 3cm / 1.5 in wide strips some cling film how to: to make the tuna mayo. mix 2 heaped teaspoons of tuna flakess and 2 tsp of mayonnaise in a bowl, then set aside cut your 25cm / 10 in square of nori cling film spoon out 125g / 4.5 oz of cooked rice onto the clingfilm. sprinkle 1/4 tsp of salt over the rice next, place 1/2 of the tuna mayo into the centre of the rice now lift the rice in the cling film and place in the palm of one hand. used your other hand to pull the rice over the tuna mayo and form into a rought ball. use your hands to firm the rice ball and mold it into a triangular shape. remove the finished onigiri from the clingfilm repeat for onigiri #2 just before eating, wrap each onigiri with a strip of nori Onigiri - Tuna Mayo Riceballs

Machiya Japanese Restaurant My latest Japanese restaurant review took me to a place I've visited a couple of times before with friends - Machiya near London's Soho - I don't know why I haven't reviewed it previously but as I was town with my family, I thought I would visit again and get their opinion. There must be more Japanese restaurants in and around Soho than any other part of London, so Machiya has quite a lot of competition. The place is owned by the people who brought us Kanada-Ya, which in my humble opinion serves up some of the best, most authentic ramen you can get in the UK. So, that in itself is a good start. In fact, there is a small Kanada-Ya outlet just a couple of shops up the street from Machiya. Whereas Kanada-Ya is very much ramen focussed, Machiya's offering is a little bit like a Japanese Cooking 101 course - the menu offers what I would call "the basics" of Japanese cooking - there's no ramen but there are a few udon noodle dishes along with classics such as Gyudon, Unaju and Katsu Curry. Machiya is quite a small place - no more than 30 seats at tables and a small bar - so booking is advised. While I was there I noticed that walk-in diners were being turned away because the place was fully booked. Finding Machiya isn't at all difficult - it's in Panton St. just a few minutes walk south from either Leicester Sq or Piccadilly undergrounds stations or a couple of minutes north from Charing Cross station. Machiya Machiya has been plying its trade since 2017. Inside, it is basic, clean and functional. It is also quite cramped - as I said before, no more than 30 seats - there is a basement area but that seems to be more oriented towards drinks and bar food rather than any kind of serious eating. There were three people waiting the tables and welcoming diners and as it was an early Sunday afternoon, business was really quite brisk. Nonetheless, the table service was efficient, polite and friendly. You choose your food from an online menu after uploading it from a barcode on the table. The odd thing is that having decided what you want to eat, you then order in the old fashioned way via the waiter/waitress - maybe the plan is to automate ordering which I am sure would win the approval of the busy table staff! What did we eat? We ordered the following: Nikujyaga Niku Jaga Chicken Karaage Gyudon Oyakodon Kinokodon How did the food score? Nikujaga (photo above) 6.5/10 Nikujaga is usually served as a main course, but Machiya offer it as a starter. The dish was perhaps a little bit "too much soup, too little contents" but then again, it was a starter. Tastewise, we all thought it was a little underflavoured but that apart, it was a decent enough dish. Chicken Karaage 8.5/10 Chicken Karaage Machiya''s chicken karaage were very good. close to perfect - quite large, very well deep fried in lots of crumb - served with a soy based sauce and lemon. The texture was excellent, cruncy on the outside, soft and juicy on the inside. I couldn't tell whether these were shop made or bought in but either way, they made for a great starter dish. Gyudon 7.0/10 gyudon Machiya's gyudon was substantial but it stopped there. The beef was wafer thin - as it should be and very lean. I asked the waiter how it was prepared and he explained that Machiya's chefs prepare and marinade the beef before freezing it. (Having a solid chunk of beef that can be "shaved" is the way you get the thin wafers of meat.) I've had Gyudon before at Machiya and it tasted better than this - maybe the chef was having an off day. The soft pouched egg was a nice touch but we all though the dish lacked flavour and richness and was light on onions. What it wasn't light on was rice - I couldn't complain about the amount of rice in the dish. Pork Katsudon 6.0/10 Pork Katsudon Like the Gyudon, Machiya's Pork Katsudon was certainly substantial. Taste -wise, things were a bit of disappointment. The egg in this dish should be oozy and shiny, Machiya's effort was fully set and lacked ny kind of sheen. The egg and onion should be cooked with a mixture of Japanese dashi, soy sauce and a little sake for a rich flavour - the egg then goes in and gets cooked with the stock - that's what gives this dish its flavour. Machiya's offering came up short although like the Gyudon, the serving of rice was very generous. Kinokodon 7.0/10 Kinokodon While most of Machiya's menu items are very much standard Japanese fare, their mushroom donburi - Kinokodon - was a little different which was good to see. I guess it is on the menu to offer a vegetarian option. How did it taste? Again, Machiya's Kinokodon was a little disappointing. The dish was substantial enough, nicely dressed with some spring onion and a little chilli. There was also a soft boiled egg (which Machiya should point out on the menu so vegan's have the opportunity to order the dish without the egg.) The mushrooms - I could see button mushroom and some kinoko - were nicely flavoured but there just wasn't enough of the cooking juices in the bowl to make it a really tasty dish. Like the other dishes, there was a lot of rice in the bowl but once you've worked your way through the topping, you are left with a bowl of rice without any juices having oozed into it to give it any flavour. The Bill. Nikujaga £ 6.50 Chicken Karaage £ 8.00 Pork Katsudon £13.00 Gyudon £13.00 Kinokodon £13.00 Total £60.20 including VAT & Service charges Summary: Being part of the Kanada-Ya set up, you might be forgiven for expecting a little more from Machiya. Don't get me wrong - the food is decent enough and they certainly don't skimp on the main course portions. But whereas Kanada-Ya's ramen is really quite outstanding, Machiya is a little too run of the mill for me to get excited about. I put it on par with Taro in terms of quality - you'll end your meal satisfied but perhaps wondering if there's something better out there. Taro offers a full menu of Japanese cooking including noodle dishes and sushi/sashimi. Machiya's menu is much more limited - they really should be able to offer a better eating experience, similar to Kanada- Ya's ramen, in my opinion. As I said above, Machiya is near Soho, so it has plenty of competition to contend with and there are, I'm afraid, better places than Machiya to enjoy a Japanese meal all within a few minutes walk. BTW: I normally don't mention WCs in my restaurant reviews - i simply assume they are going to be up to stratch. Unfortunately, Machiya's gents loos were tatty and in sore need of a face lift - come on, Machiya - up your game, please! Food: ★★★☆☆ Ambience: ★★★☆☆ Value for Money: ★★★☆☆ You can find Machiya at 5 Panton St., London, SW1Y 4DL . Deliveries: Supper, Deliveroo. (PS: the restaurants I review are unaware that I am reviewing their fare and service. I pay for what I eat. My opinions are honest and unbiased....) And how about making it yourself? We all love to dine out. But don't forget you can make Japanese food at home which will not only taste good but will be fun and cost you a fraction of the price too! I've listed two recipes below for items I ordered during my review. Why not give them a try? Just follow the links to the written recipes and Youtube tutorials. Recipe #1 Gyudon Guidon by kurumicooks The Gyudon served at Machiya didn't really do it for us. It isn't difficult to make a good, hearty Gyudon - just try my home made version and see if I'm not right! If you would like to tke a closer look at this dish, simply click Gyudon to go to the recipe page. Recipe #2 Kinokodon Kinokodon by kurumicooks Machiya's offering got me thinking about making my own recipe for Kinokodon. Try this out and I think you'll agree it's a great way to enjoy Japanese food vegetarian / vegan style. This dish is simple to make but it packs a delicious punch - more so if you like your chillis and want to add another to the mix! If you want to try these out, just click Kinokodon to go to the recipe. About the reviewer: Hi, I'm Kurumi, a cooking writer and blogger. I'm Japanese but I have lived in London for the last Kurumi 30 thirty years. Back in the days before the internet (and Youtube), I was a food writer. My first book published in English was called Japanese Cooking for Two which I wrote in 1994. It has become the 9th best selling Japanese cookbook ever… yippee! My other books were ‘The Noodle Cookbook”, “The Soy for Health Cookbook” and “Healthy Noodles.” I also published a book in Japanese “English Home Cooking”. Then I had children and my life changed! By the time my children had grown up, the world had changed quite a lot too! Internet, Youtube, Insta etc. So, these days, instead of books, I publish recipe and articles on my website and on my Youtube channel. I hope you'll check out my recipes - they are all tried and tested (some more times than I care to mention!) until I think you will get them right first time when you make them and enjoy eating them. If you’d like to read more about me or my books, then follow the link here: https://www.kurumicooks.co.uk/about