Parsnip is a vegetable that I first tasted in Australia more than 20 years ago and instantly became one of my favourite vegetables. And for a long time I have believed that the best way of cooking parsnip is roasting. But… I have recently discovered that Tempura is also good. If you like parsnip, you’ve …
On the other day, when I was just about to make ‘Kakiage’, a type of Tempura, I wanted to use some vegetables that I have never used for this dish. I almost always use Carrot and Onion, then I tried to find something that would replace them. Carrot is an orange coloured rood vegetable. ‘Are …
Some say Enoki can be eaten raw, but I always cook. Even for the salad, I cook them to give enough heat to kill bacteria. Using Sesame Oil to fry them give a nice flavour and I like this method better than microwave or blanching. Makes 4 Servings Ingredients Enoki 200gSesame Oil 1 tablespoonSalt 1 …
This is everyone’s favourite side dish. I cook it especially when we have roast dinner. Cauliflower, such a delicious vegetable, is so tasty when mixed with creamy cheesy sauce. If you don’t have time, just pour the sauce over the cooked cauliflower and serve. This dish is good enough without being baked. Makes 4 Servings …
This is a very popular stir-fry dish in Japan. It’s a dish consisting of vegetables, pork, prawns, squid, etc. stir-fried and thickened with potato starch. The dish is called ‘Happō-sai’ in Japanese and that means ‘Eight Treasure Ingredients’ as the number eight is the lucky number in our culture. This is my family’s recipe which …
This dish used to look like this dish. I used to always cut Daikon and Pork Belly into large chunky pieces. It takes quite long time to cook until those chunky pieces get tender. Pressure cooker method is good, but I really didn’t want to bother on the other day. What I did was slicing …
This is a lovely red coleslaw. You can add any red or orange colour vegetables, but the essential ingredients are Red Cabbage and Fresh Beetroot. If you want to keep the orange colour of Carrot, rinse the beetroot slices before placing in the bowl. Otherwise the beetroot will make everything red. Makes 4 Servings Ingredients …
My very first cooking class was in the fifth grade. We cooked ‘Sautéed Spinach’ and ‘Boiled Eggs’. ‘Scrambled Eggs’ is actually easier than ‘Boiled Eggs’. To keep the colour of the scrambled eggs, cook Eggs and Spinach separately. After they are combined gently and placed on a plate, drizzle the sauce over instead of mixing …
Here is the recipe written for my son and daughter to make their mother’s ‘Pumpkin Soup’. I never use Oil for this soup. Just like cooking Japanese soup, I simply cook vegetables in stock. I always use ‘Massel’ chicken stock or vegetable stock. It’s a very simple fuss-free recipe and any novice cooks can make …
One of Japanese iconic dishes of Spinach is ‘Ohitashi’, marinated in dashi-base sauce. I particularly like Wasabi flavoured ‘Ohitashi’. If you don’t like Wasabi, forget this dish. My daughter enjoys most of the food on this planet, but Wasabi is one of the few things that she doesn’t enjoy. I usually stock a bottle of …
When I found a bunch of Garlic Chives getting wilted in the fridge, I decided to add them to Okonomiyaki. To make Okonomiyaki more colourful and nutritious, I also added Carrot. And the result was unsatisfying. It didn’t taste good with ‘Okonomiyaki Sauce’ and Japanese mayonnaise. Why? I tried the ‘Okonomiyaki with Garlic Chives’ with …
My ‘Goma-ae Sauce’ goes so well with many vegetables. I have tried even with Cucumbers, which was quite nice. This time, I was more ambitious. I made Tomatoes into ‘Goma-ae’ and my family was suspicious about this dish. I used Black Sesame Seeds to make the colour striking, and that was discouraging for them but …