五目混ぜご飯 Gomoku-Mazegohan, Boiled Rice Mixed with Five kinds of Food Serves 2
This rice dish is a well-balanced meal and can be enjoyed at home and also outdoors as a picnic lunch.
2 cups rice (Japonica variety short-grain rice, washed, rinsed and cooked with 2.2 cups water)
80g chicken thigh fillet (preferably with skin on, diced into small bits)
40g carrot (shredded)
1/2 age, deep-fried tofu
40g eringi, king trumpet mushrooms (oyster, shitake, or shimeji mushrooms are also nice)
40g chikuwa (fishcake cut into small bits)
10 gingko nuts if available (shells cracked and skin removed)
40ml soy sauce (koikuchi)
20ml mirin
1 tablespoon sake
vegetable oil as needed
1. Stir fry the diced chicken with vegetable oil. Add the rest of the ingredients then add the soy sauce, mirin, and sake. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes.
2. Mix well with the freshly cooked rice. Watch this video of Shuji cooking gomoku-mazegohan with bamboo shoots in a bamboo forest.
Scroll down to find a recipe of Gomoku-Mazegohan with bamboo shoots Shuji cooked in spring.
Watch this video of Shuji cooking gomoku-mazegohan with bamboo shoots in a bamboo forest.
YouTube video
Deep-Fried Eggplant Served with Tempura Dipping Sauce, and Grated Daikon
Serves 2
揚げ出しなす 天つゆ おろし大根 おろし生姜 あさつき
I was introduced to this dish when I began working as an apprentice cook at a Kaiseki Izakaya Kitami in Tokyo in 1981. The regular customers would enjoy it with sake.
Agetashi-tofu, deep-fried tofu and deep-fried fish such as rock cod, flounder, flathead and snapper served with this sauce are also nice.
1 large eggplant
Corn flour or potato starch as needed
Deep frying oil as needed
10g ginger (peeled and grated)
60g daikon (white radish, peeled, grated, drained)
1 green onion stem (cut finely)
To make tempura dipping sauce- 25ml mirin, 25ml usukuchi soy sauce, 100ml ichiban dashi.
Dashi recipe is published in Lesson 11: Bento making.
1 Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and place the pieces skin side up on a cutting board. Poke the eggplant with a fork or metal skewers. Turn the eggplant over and with a knife cut it as Shuji will show you during the lesson.
Apply cornflour over the cut side of eggplants and deep fry in 160 degree Celsius deep-frying oil with skin side up first for about 2-3 minutes and turn the pieces over and deep fry the skin side for 2 minutes. Try skewering the eggplants with a bamboo skewer, and if it goes through with ease, they are done. Take them out of the oil and drain well. Turn off the heat.
2 To make the sauce, pour 25ml mirin into a small saucepan. Bring to boil and tilt the saucepan and flambe to allow the alcohol to evaporate. Add 25ml usukuchi soy sauce and 100ml dashi. Remove from the heat.
3 Peel the daikon then grate and drain it.
4 Place the deep-fried eggplant skin side down in a soup dish. Pour reheated tempura sauce over it and top with grated daikon, grated ginger and finely chopped green onions.
5 Serve with a spoon.
● Usukuchi soy sauce is lighter in colour as compared with koikuchi-all-purpose soy sauce, but it is saltier than koikuchi soy sauce. Usukuchi is used to season the dashi broth and chawan-mushi or steamed egg-dashi savoury and also the sauce like a tempura dipping sauce.
大根の甘酢漬け Daikon no Amuzuzuke, Pickled White Radish in Sweet Vinegar
クチナシの実 と ガーゼに包んだ実 の画像挿入
Sun-dried gardenia seeds are used to serve as natural preservative and colouring when making pickled vegetables. I also use them when making sweets from boiled sweet potatoes and chestnuts.
1kg daikon, white radish
20g salt
60ml rice vinegar (white wine vinegar can be substituted)
80g caster sugar
1 sun-dried gardenia seed wrapped in gauze tied with a string and crushed
A few sun-dried chilis (seeds removed)
1. Peel the white radish and cut into inch-long sticks. Add 20g salt and mix well. Place a weight on the white radish and leave at room temperature for three days and drain water well in a sieve.
2. Add 60ml vinegar, 80g caster sugar, gardenia seeds wrapped in gauze, and chilis.
3. Remove the gardenia seeds when the liquid turns yellow as shown in this photo.
4. Store in a jar in the refrigerator for three days before you eat them.