Japanese Food Project Day 12 meant LOTS of dishes because I was slacking throughout the week for numerous reasons. Today I ended up making 5 dishes before 1pm- don't mess with this determined girl!
Dish 10. Veggie Curry from scratch (not cubes)- I was determined to make curry without the cubes sold in stores, so this was trial #1. I thought I had all the spices for the "make your own garam masala" mix but it turned out I didn't... but it was okay despite that! I put onions, potatoes, and carrots into my curry and thickened it with a roux (which I messed up a little so it didn't thicken as much). I also wanted to add some grated apple for added depth of flavor but I clearly didn't plan well enough to follow the recipe to a tee. I started the curry yesterday and finished it today- don't try to squeeze in cooking when you have to be somewhere for dinner that night! Overall, Jeremy had seconds so that must mean it wasn't too bland!
Dish 11. Baked Chicken Katsu- I know it is never going to taste as good as fried chicken katsu but it was worth a try. I needed to pre-season it a little better also since it would have tasted better if it were flavored more ahead of time. Since it went in for katsu curry though, it wasn't so bad! If we were to eat it alone, I would've made some tonkatsu sauce for it too, so either way, I guess it's not so bad! It wasn't as crispy as it would have been fried, so lesson learned!
Dish 12. Rolled Cabbage (dashi style)- The usual rolled cabbage I have made many times before is a tomato sauce type, which I didn't think was super Japanese so I tried the simple dashi type. The cabbage didn't stay together for the rolling as much as I had hoped, so there were 4
fully rolled cabbage pieces and the remainder were meatballs with cabbage pieces on top. For some reason there was a bit of a buttery flavor to it (there was no butter added), but it was simple and good. I still think I personally prefer the tomato version but again, this project is a learning experience!
Dish 13. Braised Hijiki- Hijiki is dried seaweed that needs to be soaked in water for about 15-20 minutes to return it to cooking shape. I added carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and a few sugar snap peas for color. I braised it in dashi, soy sauce, mirin, brown sugar, and sake until the liquid was practically gone. That would be the one dish today that I think turned out just as I hoped! My Mom's is still better, but for my first time, it was pretty close!
Dish 14. Mixed Hijiki Rice- I cheated a little by combining the hijiki I was braising and the hijiki I was going to mix into the rice, because the braising liquid was only slightly different. After making so many other dishes, I thought "not worth the minor change, combine it!" I cooked them together, then mixed it in to the freshly cooked white rice. This is the first time I made mixed rice, not to be confused with takikomi rice, because mixed rice is adding flavors after the rice is cooked. Takikomi rice cooks the flavor in during the rice cooking process. I would say this rice was fairly successful too!
I'm going to a 4 year old's birthday party tonight so pizza and cake doesn't allow for more Japanese cooking. I'm still well within reach of the 30 dishes in 30 days!
Dish 29. Shira-ae- This is one of my favorite light side dishes that my Mom makes so I needed to give it a whirl. It is basically vegetables cooked in a soy sauce, then mixed with ground sesame and "smashed" tofu. It all mixes together to almost make a vegetable dish with a creamy tofu sauce. I know it probably doesn't sound very good and the picture doesn't help its cause either (I forgot to take a picture before I took some on my plate), but if done well, it really does taste awesome! I guess you have to like the taste of tofu though... either way, my version was fine but definitely way below the level of my Mom's shira-ae. Next time I go home I'll have to study up on what my Mom does!
Dish 30. Yaki Onigiri aka Crispy Rice Balls with Salmon- What I did was use the toaster oven to crisp up the rice balls that I had molded with a little soy sauce on the outside. I tried a low heat and cooked it for quite a while, but maybe the best way is to broil it in a short period of time so it really crisps up. In the end, it wasn't too crispy, and the bottom side stuck to the foil when I tried to flip the rice balls. It still tasted good with the salmon and green onions placed on top, but it just was not the same as, say a Gochi, crispy rice ball! I'll definitely have to experiment on that some more to see how I can create it without a nice grill or some special tools.
Bonus Dish: Mitarashi Dango aka little mochi balls with a sweet sauce- This is one of my favorite street food items when I'm in Japan. Little grilled mochi balls on a stick covered with a sweet sauce. I used a mix of mochi flour and shiratama flour to make the little mochi balls. The texture didn't come out perfectly the way I had hoped, but they were still quite tasty. It was actually better when it cooled off rather than right away. I made the sweet soy sauce, but added a little sesame and it made it even better!
Overall, I think the project was great and I can't really believe it is finished. It was a bit anti-climactic tonight since I didn't share it with anyone and the food wasn't fantastic but I did it! Now I'll have to go back through the items that I was good at or that I think would be good items to further experiment on! Wish me luck as I continue on this journey of trying to figure out what would be potential future business opportunities!
Dish 19. Kabocha Croquettes- I had prepared the inside of the croquettes a few days ago but never got around to finishing the product, but today I did! I had basically mushed together the kabocha squash, with carrots and onions. I took that mixture, put some cheese in the middle, floured it, and fried it. I would have breaded it like a regular croquette, but I didn't realize I had so little Panko bread crumbs. It didn't come out as crispy as breaded croquettes, but I thought they tasted really good!
This was also my first time with the Fry Daddy, so it was fun! The inside was already cooked, so I just needed to fry it for a little bit to get the outside golden brown and cook the flour. Jeremy only ate a bite because he wasn't hungry but he liked it. He especially liked the cheesy parts! Maybe I should've added more cheese!
Dish 17. Oyaki- I made this thin pancake (which didn't really turn out like a pancake) with bean sprouts, garlic chives, and carrots. I mixed them together with a little batter and tried to pan fry it... but any crispy parts stuck to the pan while everything else just stayed mushy and fell apart. I was expecting something similar to the pancakes you order at a korean restaurant but it definitely did not come out like that. It also tasted bland without adding sauce... so mushy and bland... very NOT awesome!
Dish 18. Hiyashi Chuuka aka cold sesame (?) noodles- I think I actually cheated on this one so I'm not sure if I can call this a dish I made, since I didn't make the sauce. It was a packet sauce that I had from when I bought a Hiyashi Chuuka sauce before. Jeremy isn't a big sauce person, nor am I for that matter, so we never use all the sauce that comes with packaged food. For the noodles, I actually prepared correctly the noodles I previously used for the yakisoba. This time I boiled them in enough water so they didn't become gobbly goo as I called it before. The noodles came out great, I added wakama/seaweed, bean sprouts, carrots, and sugar snap peas. I just boiled them and added the sauce and sesame noodles so yes I may have cheated, but it was a work day!
Dish 15. Braised Kabocha- I love kabocha squash, which is Japanese pumpkin, but similar to butternut squash. I braised it with onions, carrots, yam noodles, and shiitake mushrooms in the usual sweet soy sauce and dashi flavoring. Japanese food really isn't that complicated when a lot of the flavors are consistent. This is one of my favorites and go to dishes so I think it turned out good. The only issue that I encounter is if I don't pick a good kabocha and it's not very tasty to begin with. This one wasn't the best, but I think it turned out fine!
Dish 16. Amy style Mabo Tofu- We had ground beef that I needed to use up, so I decided to make mabo tofu even though I didn't have the "tobanjan" chili paste but I added some red chili pepper to add a little spice to it. I flavored it wth miso, soy sauce, a little sugar, and simmered it all together. It actually turned out great! I had never made mabo tofu from scratch before, but I really liked my first attempt... this is my first awesome dish on the first try!
