HASHI: A Japanese Cookery Course – The Cookbook
Posted: June 26, 2011 Filed under: Book, Class, Japanese Cooking, Recipe Leave a comment »To my dear students and Japanese food fans!
My book is finally being published in October 2011, packed full of delicious recipes from all my courses – Beginners, Home Cooking, Gourmet, and a selection of Sushi and Desserts. Below you can see a sneaky preview of the new book. This is a new venture for me which I hope will help you gain a better understanding and appreciation of Japanese cuisine.
Japanese Coleslaw
Posted: March 21, 2009 Filed under: Recipe Leave a comment »
200g Chinese cabbage
2 tsp salt
1 carrot
150g daikon radish
2-3 tsp black sesame seeds
Dressing
½ cup Japanese mayonnaise
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sake
1 tsp Japanese mustard (not wasabi) or 2 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp sesame oil
3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp white pepper
1. Finely slice the cabbage and put in a large bowl. Cut the carrot and daikon into very thin matchsticks. Or use the food processor with the right blade to make thin sticks.
2. Place the daikon and whit part of cabbage in a colander, sprinkle with salt and roughly mix them with a hand, then allow to sit for 5-7 minutes. Rinse with cold water and squeeze out any excess moisture with your hands. Pat them dry with the kitchen paper.
3. Put all the ingredients for the dressing in a mixing bowl and mix until it has all combined and smooth texture. Season to taste with salt & white pepper.
4. Add the daikon, cabbage and carrot in a bowl and mix. Toss the mixture with the black sesame seeds and dressing just before serving.
* This is a perfect side dish for grilled fish or meat
Sushi-Hiro – The most authentic & best quality sushi in London?
Posted: March 21, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment »
Are you looking for a place where you can enjoy the real authentic sushi in London without spending an arm and a leg? There is one place I would highly recommend called Sushi-Hiro which is right opposite to Ealing Common Tube Station on the main road where no night life exist. This place could hardly be the right restaurant for a romantic or a fun night out. However…. as you walk in to the restaurant you will see this little space is packed with people who are thoroughly enjoying the art of food.
People come here for “Sushi” and “Sashimi” only. There is no hidden kitchen in this restaurant. The only space where the food is produced is at the counter on the left where you can see a variety of the freshest looking fish and every preparation the chef is going through. Indeed, the only hot dish they serve is miso soup. And no dessert is served either! In reality, there is no time for a dessert anyway as they close at 9pm sharp. The night I was there the sushi master started to clean up his precious equipment at 8:30pm when I was still wondering what to order next.
It’s extremely basic with minimum décor and plain, almost clinical feel but that doesn’t detract from your food enjoyment. I first ordered the top quality sashimi platter for myself and my friend who is also a great food lover. The platter contained Toro (the marble part of Tuna), Scallops, Sea Bream, Sweet Prawns, Salmon and Pickled Mackerel. Every piece was amazing. We were silent each time we put a piece into our mouth with only a little smile on our face. It was “no need to talk”… I then ordered the top sushi platter as I was curious to see what was in the set. This works out cheaper per piece but may not be the best way to appreciate sushi if you know what you like. For me, the next time I will just order the pieces individually. As I am an expert in Japanese cooking, I can get and prepare a high standard of sashimi platter (with fish from my Japanese fish manger) Nonetheless, I was particularly impressed with the quality of their Unagi Eel, Toro and scallop in this order. Half way through my meal, I ordered miso soup, which made me feel a little homesick. I have never had miso soup with clams in London before but could tell that the basic broth was cooked properly from scratch. This was a real joy.
My friend could not believe that I ate almost as much as he did that evening as he is more than twice as big as me! He always laughs that I eat a bird sized portion ordinarily…. But yet, I didn’t feel heavy or stuffed. This is the good thing about most of the Japanese dishes. You don’t feel heavy afterwards. All in all it was a great evening. Great food at a reasonable cost. But I don’t want too many of you to go there in case I can’t get in the next time!
Yakitori (chicken on skewers)
Posted: March 15, 2009 Filed under: Recipe Leave a comment »
Ingredients
600g Chicken thigh (boneless & skinless ), cut into 1 inch square pieces
5 baby leeks, cut into 1inch length
1 large red pepper, cut into 1 inch square
12-16 bamboo skewers
Seven spice red chili or sansyo pepper, if prefered
TERIYAKI SAUCE ( for marinade and brushing )
200ml soy sauce
100ml SAKE
100ml MIRIN
3-4 table spoon sugar
Instructions
1. Mix all ingredients for the sauce in a bowl, then put half of it in a saucepan and simmer in the lowest heat. Simmer until it reduced to half quantity or thick enough to brush over cooked chicken. This should be about 20 minutes.
2. Marinate the chicken with the other half of sauce mixture for a day, if not at least 2-3 hours (if you only have less than 2 hours to marinate, rub in the sauce into chicken, this will help absorbing the flavor quickly)
3. Turn on the oven to the highest temperature. Lay the large enough tin foil to cover a large baking tray.
4. Tread the chicken first then leek and chicken again then pepper into skewer. Three chickens and two veg in the alternate orders in each skewer. Repeat this until using up all the chicken.
5. Lay the skewers on the foil on the baking tray then cover the bare stick part with the tin foil by folding the foil (this will prevent burning the stick) Cook for about 10 minutes first then turn them over and quickly brush the thick Teriyaki sauce over the chicken and put them back to the oven and cook further 5-7 minutes or until they are thoroughly cooked. The key point is to cook quickly. If you cook slowly chicken will get dried out. So make sure the oven is VERY hot.
6. Assemble skewers in each dish and brush them with Teriyaki sauce. Serve immediately with sansyo pepper or red chilli pepper, if preferred.
My Book
Posted: March 15, 2009 Filed under: Book 1 Comment »Great news! I’ve just agreed my first book deal with a publishing firm called Absolute Press. They are one of the leading publishers of food books and they have published books for people such as The Cinnamon Club and Atul Kocher, the head chef of Benares. We don’t have a name for my book yet but the concept has been approved. I’m going to show people how, for less than £5 per head, they can cook a nourishing and healthy Japanese meal with little or no prior experience of Japanese cooking. I’m really excited about this and I will keep you posted on it’s progress.
Hello world
Posted: March 13, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 5 Comments »
Hi everyone
After some encouragement from my publisher (more about that later) I have decided to set up my own blog so that I can share with you some of my new recipes and keep you posted on what’s new in Japanese cooking.
For those who find Japanese cooking daunting you might be amused to know that I find computers and blogging more mysterious than the Far East!
I am now running up a huge learning curve but hope to get back to you soon with my first proper entry
Bye for now
Reiko
