Notes about Recipes in this book

• The best miso soup

  • Yildiz100 on August 22, 2018

    This uses more miso than some recipes, and I enjoyed the richness, but it was too salty. I was, however, using dashi powder, so next time I will try his homemade dashi and that should fix the salt issue. Mirin in miso soup was also new for me, and I liked the balance it brought. The only change I made to the recipe was to add the miso after cooking and never boil it, as I have read that it ruins the flavor. I haven't tested this myself, but saw no reason to risk it.

  • Frenchfoodie on August 04, 2018

    Quick and easy. Nice even with white miso.

• Japanese quick pickles (Asazuke)

  • Frenchfoodie on August 06, 2018

    Decent basic pickle we served with miso cod. Preferred carrot to radish - the french breakfast radishes I used ended up a little wrinkly.

  • Yildiz100 on August 23, 2018

    I was disappointed in these. Boring and bland.

  • clcorbi on December 20, 2018

    I didn't find these bland at all--actually, for the amount of effort they require, I thought they were excellent. I did up the dashi powder slightly. I made these with cucumbers which were very flavorful after only a half-hour or so, but I'd love to try them with carrots or radishes and let them cure a little longer.

• Simmered green vegetables with sesame dressing

  • JLDuck on November 17, 2017

    The dressing is delicious and goes very well with grilled vegetables. I tried asparagus and it worked a treat.

  • Lesliehauser on January 27, 2018

    Perfect on steamed spinach or broccoli

• Mixed salad with sweet onion and ginger dressing

  • lizbot2000 on September 16, 2018

    This dressing is no joke!

  • Yildiz100 on April 21, 2018

    Really delicious on spring mix but a tiny bit salty. Might be worth swapping out half of the soy for low sodium or just go easy on the amount of dressing used on the greens. Makes a lot and time will tell how well it keeps (onion can get funky) so next time make a half batch.

  • Yildiz100 on June 03, 2018

    Update: This kept in the fridge very well for over a week, and the onion didn't get that funky unpleasant taste it sometimes does in certain preparations. Still, I didn't manage to finish the dressing, so make a half recipe next time.

• Japanese potato salad

  • JLDuck on November 17, 2017

    It is not easier than my usual potato salad. However it is rather nice. Would not add the carrot and cucumber in future. Quail eggs are fabulous and I will consider using them in standard potato salad.

• Cabbage with sweet ginger vinegar

  • Yildiz100 on March 15, 2018

    Subbed okonomiyaki sauce for the tonkatsu sauce since they are very similar. This was fine but not quite as exciting as the author promised. More like something you'd use as a garnish. I have lots of leftover dressing so I will be making it again. Next time I might try adding another vegetable (shredded carrots? Scallions? ) to add interest.

• Candied sweet potato wedges (Daigaku imo)

  • Yildiz100 on January 01, 2019

    We felt this was too sweet also, actually that there was too much glaze. I also didn't care for the lime zest here. It reminded me of fruit loops!

  • KarinaFrancis on January 03, 2018

    A really great side dish, we made it to go with some Kara-age chicken. Made the recipe as written but should have read Foodycat's note, I think baking them would be simpler with no loss of flavour.

  • Foodycat on November 02, 2017

    I baked the sweet potato wedges instead of shallow frying, and they were excellent.

  • Lesliehauser on January 27, 2018

    We found these too sweet.

• Tomato salad with spicy ponzu

  • Yildiz100 on March 15, 2018

    I enjoyed the way the dressing tasted on its own but somehow thought it clashed with the tomatoes. It was like I became unpleasantly aware of the sesame oil everytime I bit into tomato and I love sesame so that shouldn't have happened. I also didn't think it was at all spicy (sriracha was my hot sauce of choice.) Maybe a bit more of a kick would have balanced it out. Double sriracha next time.

  • Foodycat on November 02, 2017

    The dressing for this salad is so good I could drink it. I will make this again and a again.

• Multigrain rice (Zakkoku-0mai)

  • lizbot2000 on March 22, 2018

    I looked all over for a recipe for this style of rice, and I've finally found one that's doable! The proportions of the different grains to rice and water were perfect, and the cooking time was right on. I make up a large batch of this to have on hand, and we now use it instead of white rice for pretty much everything. It's a bit of a pain to locate everything, but we eat this so much that ordering the different grains from Amazon ended up being totally worth it.

• Pan-roasted mushrooms with soy-garlic butter

  • Sandiegolemons on March 12, 2018

    This is a good mushroom dish but holy cow, one stick of butter for 1 pound of mushrooms. This is one of those once a year dishes. Instead of truffle oil, I used ground truffle shavings and they worked out great. I also used regular button mushrooms as well. Next time will half the butter to see the results so I don’t stress about the cholesterol.

  • Yildiz100 on March 15, 2018

    I treated this more like a cooking technique than a recipe since I wasn't up for using 1 stick of butter. Pretty good. I am sure it is great if you go all out with the butter. I might like to try roasting the mushrooms for a different texture (Small victories roasting technique maybe) while I make the garlic soy butter stove top.

  • Foodycat on October 09, 2017

    SO delicious! I think I will be making these mushrooms a lot. I used a mixture of oyster, king oyster, enoki and shimejii mushrooms and it was absolutely wonderful. We had it as a side with steak, but I think tossed through some noodles would be a wonderful meal too.

• Sweet miso-glazed aubergine (Nasu dengaku)

  • Foodycat on October 23, 2017

    I only had white miso, which wouldn't have been my choice for this but it was still really luscious and deep-flavoured. One of the easier recipes for this dish that I have tried but with no loss of flavour. I thought I had sesame seeds but I didn't so they went by the wayside.

  • JLDuck on December 16, 2017

    I found this recipe very tasty but rather rich. Also I BBQed the aubergine rather than fried. It worked a treat.

  • Indio32 on December 06, 2018

    Had this last night. I think the combo just doesn't do it for me as it was a bit meh. No doubt others will like it though.

• Japanese fried chicken (Chicken karaage)

  • JLDuck on November 17, 2017

    Stunningly gorgeous. I did a 48 hour marinade.

• Crab cream croquettes (Kani kurimu korokke)

  • Rinshin on August 04, 2018

    I make a version of this periodically. You need to put the cooked bechamel sauce mixture with crab or any seafood in a shallow, preferably metal pan which cools down quickly in the refrigerator. I normally use (I don't own metal ones) square baking glass or long glass casserole pan to spread out the mixture rather thinly and placed in refrigerator. Just putting the mixture in a bowl to cool down may cause the mixture to cool down too slowly which may cause spoilage issues. You also don't need to use crab only either. Can use shrimp, fish or scallop paste (by pounding with knife into small pieces) which are popular in Hokkaido area.

  • Sandiegolemons on February 04, 2018

    Warning! Do not do this recipe. I just wasted 7oz of crab and two hours during the Super Bowl for a choleric artery bomb. No need to elaborate.

• Chicken patty yakitori (Tsukune)

  • JLDuck on December 16, 2017

    Again I was unable to get the meat to stay on the skewers so we had large flat patties instead. It was delicious. I minced my own chicken fillets so was happy with the texture.

• Sweet miso-grilled cod

  • Sandiegolemons on January 06, 2018

    Well, I can’t say I would do this again and definitely wouldn’t plan a dinner party around it. I did grill the fish on a bbq grill, which was a mistake. It needs to bathe in the sweet miso while it cooks up. I just hate the idea of broiling anything in aluminum foil and still hesitant to put my good pans under a broiler for eight minutes or so. I did marinate it with white miso for 8 hours, but still wasn't really wow’d. Easy? - yes, Japanese? - yes. Worth it?...with regular cod? - no....black cod? - maybe. I also did an Ono filet with it and the Ono turned out better with the sweet miso than the cod. Ono loves miso though.

  • Foodycat on November 02, 2017

    Would have been better with red miso - the white miso I used wasn't oomphy enough. But very simple and good.

  • Frenchfoodie on August 04, 2018

    A simple and relatively tasty addition to a set of Japanese dishes but lacked oomph on its own (at least with white miso). Looked attractive with the caramelisation.

• Stir-fried pork with ginger sauce (Buta shogayaki)

  • Frenchfoodie on August 05, 2018

    Lovely, fast and easily adaptable to other protein and veg (though Savoy/Chinese cabbage holds the sauce nicely). A keeper.

  • clcorbi on June 15, 2018

    Really nice flavor and very fast. The cabbage retains a nice bite when cooked with this method.

• Japanese steak haché (Hambagu)

  • JLDuck on December 16, 2017

    A delicious Japanese style hamburger. An excellent use of that mince languishing in the freezer.

• Japanese carbonara

  • clcorbi on May 23, 2018

    Excellent fusion dish; the flavor is awesome and so umami-rich. The garnishes really make this one; the parmesan goes so well with all the Japanese flavors, and the scallions add an extra bright crunch. I will be making this dish again. Also, I almost omitted the few tablespoons of sake, but I'm glad I didn't; the flavor really came through.

  • Yildiz100 on June 26, 2018

    Really delicious. Just be aware the portion size is quite large, which is often the case with this book. We nearly halved the recipe (9 ounces/255 grams spaghetti, halved the sauce ingredients ) and found it made a nice main dish portion for three with a light side salad. Will try this with bacon in the future.

  • lizbot2000 on September 16, 2018

    I thought this was a little bland, but that might be because the dried shiitakes I ordered online turned out to be super crappy. On the bright side, my 7 year old daughter who loves buttery pasta but is super suspicious of anything "weird" (her words of course) loooooooved it and had no idea she was eating miso, dashi, etc. I will try again with decent shiitakes, which I'm sure will make it much better.

• Katsu curry (Katsu kare)

  • Frenchfoodie on August 06, 2018

    This was delicious, compared well to restaurant katsu and was really quick and easy - add most of ingredients together, process to paste, fry, add stock then ketchup and soy. Blend. The recipe made enough for 6 good sized portions. Was cooking after work so just fried chicken breast strips and added sauce and cooked veg. Great hidden veg dish if you have fussy eaters that like curry.

• Chicken and egg rice bowl (Oyakodon)

  • clcorbi on March 19, 2018

    This is a very nice, comforting dish that I really enjoyed. However--the recipe makes WAY more than four servings! Which is certainly not a bad thing, but you really need to have quite a large skillet or wok in order to stir-fry this much food. Next time I'd probably halve the recipe since my skillet isn't large enough. Also, I found the amount of liquid added to be too high--I had to allow everything to reduce for around 15 minutes before I could add in the eggs. Other than adjusting the liquid, I'd definitely repeat this dish.

  • JLDuck on July 05, 2018

    Very easy and delicious. The Shichimi Togarashi gave the dish a lift and worth adding. I halved the recipe. Found it was ok for two people. Maybe we were hungry (see previous comments).

• Beef, onion and sweet soy rice bowl (Gyudon)

  • clcorbi on July 03, 2018

    Really delicious comfort food. Once the sweet soy sauce is ready, the dish itself comes together very quickly. I would never use four onions with this amount of beef, though--that's way too many! I used one large onion and thought it was the perfect amount.

• Soy-braised turkey mince rice (Shichimencho kashiwa meshi)

  • clcorbi on December 20, 2018

    Really nice flavor, and despite involving multiple components, very fast and easy to throw together. I'd definitely repeat.

  • Yildiz100 on April 21, 2018

    The author noted this was more traditionally made with shredded chicken so I decided to go with that, since I prefer it to mince anyway. Used a rotisserie and just added the chicken after adding the sauce ingredients, then cook to heat through. Quite good, would repeat.

  • Frenchfoodie on August 02, 2018

    Delicious and pretty quick to come together. Made with roughly chopped turkey escalope rather than mince which is hard to find here.

• Japanese rice gratin of shellfish (Kairui no doria)

  • Foodycat on November 20, 2017

    Rich as anything but absolutely gorgeous. The miso and wine give the sauce an incredible rich flavour. I didn't have any chives, and I just used gruyere rather than gruyere, cheddar and parmesan. Of course, it looks like hell as soon as you dunk a spoon into it, so I think if I were making it for a special occasion I'd do individual portions.

• Hot udon or soba

  • clcorbi on June 10, 2018

    Really nice! I didn't bother frying the tofu; instead I just sliced it and simmered it in the broth for a few minutes before serving. I also added a sliced leek that I had laying around. The addition of a vegetable was welcome here, and I'd plan on adding some next time I make this, too. The broth is super flavorful and this dish comes together quickly, so it's very doable on a weeknight.

• Curry udon (Kare udon)

  • joyosity on November 09, 2017

    I tried this recipe today, but the curry sauce ended up being almost inedible because of the massive amount of curry powder (45 g!). It may be a typo, but looking at the color in the picture, it might not be. It's very rare for me to say this, but I will not be making this again.

• Cold udon or soba with hot dipping sauce

  • Yildiz100 on May 21, 2018

    The dipping broth was tasty and easy. It is the first recipe of its kind I have tried, however so I can't say if it is any better or easier than other recipes. I really didn't care for the cold/hot combo though, as the cold noodles made the dipping sauce cold after a few bites. (This is just a personal preference though.)

• Stir-fried chicken thigh

  • JLDuck on February 05, 2018

    I agree that this recipe works brilliantly with Ramen noodles etc. Toasted sesame seeds add a tasty crunch which finishes the dish.

  • Lesliehauser on January 27, 2018

    So easy, served with ramen noodles, broccoli and sesame dressing. Would be equally good broiled or on the grill

• Surprisingly awesome one-hour spicy miso ramen

  • Frenchfoodie on July 29, 2018

    Seriously good, deep umami hits, even with plain old chicken stock. Prep can be done in stages so final assembly is quick, spicy pork mix is fine chilling for the day for e.g. (I am pretty sure overnight would be fine too).

  • lena_london on December 28, 2017

    Really lovely, surprising depth of flavour. A little fiddly but worth it

• Ramen salad with sesame dressing (Hiyashi chuka)

  • Yildiz100 on July 24, 2018

    Very good. This makes large portions. I can easily eat a packet of ramen but once you bulk it out with veggies and a rich sauce it becomes very filling. I would say three packs serves 4 people. Add sauce to taste, he calls for a lot. Any extra can be reserved for salads or steamed veggies. It is delicious!

  • clcorbi on August 13, 2018

    I think this is going to be a new favorite lunch recipe of mine. I went all-out and made the soy sauce eggs, and between the eggs, all the delicious veggies, and the amazing sesame sauce, I seriously could not get enough of this salad. You could substitute any number of in-season vegetables to great effect. As long as you leave the dressing separate, leftovers keep well for several days, too. This is going into regular rotation and, suffice to say, I am now obsessed.

• Sweet miso sauce

  • Foodycat on October 23, 2017

    Very good (made it for the nasu dengaku) and very easy. And, unlike some of the recipes for similar sauces that I have made before, is vegan.

• Shichimi togarashi

  • JLDuck on July 05, 2018

    Easy to do and worth it.

• Sesame sauce

  • Yildiz100 on July 24, 2018

    Made for the hiyashi chuka. Really delicious, especially just to dunk some salad greens into. Used 1 tbs Colmans mustard mixed with a few drops of water for the "hot mustard" in the recipe. Makes a large portion so plan to use it for a couple of recipes.

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