Teppanyaki is well known in the US because of famous chain restaurants

Teppanyaki is grilled meat and vegetables prepared on a flat Teppanyaki iron grill.  The meat used in this dish is usually beef although not exclusively, and it is similar to or sometimes interchangeable with Yakiniku, grilled beef often cooked on a slotted grill. Most often Teppanyaki is eaten with a garlicky spicy dipping sauce or simple salt.  Teppanyaki can be enjoyed as a regular dinner for a family but it’s also great as a party food for bigger crowds.

Teppanyaki is well known in the US because of famous chain restaurants, which were more popular in 70s and 80s.  Cooks at the restaurants cook meat and vegetables and even rice on a large iron grill in front of customers.  The customers can enjoy watching the cooking process with chefs’ fun performance as an entertainment show along with dinner.  Teppanyaki restaurants in Japan, though have a quite different feel from those in the US.  Food is still cooked in front of customers but in a more elegant way.  Cooks try to show the smooth and skillful movement of preparing and serving food to customers.  Teppanyaki restaurants in Japan are generally pricier and nicer restaurants compared to their American counterparts due to the price of beef there.  While restaurants both in the US and Japan serve mainly larger steak cuts of beef, beef slices are used when cooking at home using a portable electric grill.  You cook meat as you eat, at the speed you eat.  (Or sometimes the Mom of a family may have to turn meat over for the whole family instead of her eating.)

If there are Japanese grocery stores near you, it is easy to find sliced beef for Teppanyaki or Yakiniku. It is thicker than the paper-thin sliced meat for Sukiyaki, such as 1/6-1/8″ (or 3-4mm). Even if there is not a Japanese supermarket near you, you can slice your own beef from a lump of chuck eye roll or boneless short ribs.  There is the dipping sauce you can buy in a bottle at the stores, but it is very easy to make at home.  The sweet, not overly, and salty, garlicky flavor sauce goes perfectly with grilled beef.  The vegetables for the dish could be your favorite ones, but we used the usual suspects such as Kabocha pumpkin, brown onions, peppers, and Shiitake mushrooms.  Sweet potatoes, carrots, and zucchini also work well.  If you don’t have a portable electric or gas grill to use at the table, cooking in a frying pan can also work.

Teppanyaki can be great for special occasions as well as regular dinner.  Get all the ingredients ready and start cooking at the dinner table.  It truly is a fun meal!

Teppanyaki Recipe

Ingredients :

1lb beef, sliced for Yakiniku

1 onion

1 pepper

1 zucchini

1/4 Kabocha pumpkin

8 Shiitake Mushrooms

oil

Yakiniku Sauce :

2 dried chilli peppers

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp Mirin

1 tsp ginger, grated

1 tsp garlic, grated

1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds

1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds, grounded

1/2 Tbsp sesame oil

Instructions :

Make Yakiniku Sauce. Slice dried chilli pepper to thin small rounds. Add all the ingredients for the sauce except sesame oil in a pot. Stir and cook until it starts to boil. Add sesame oil and stir.

Cut Onions in a half, then slice 1/2" thick. Cut pepper into 1/2" width. Slice zucchini and Kabocha pumpkin into 1/2" thick. Cut the stems out from Shiitake mushrooms.

Heat the electric grill at high heat with cooking oil. Start grilling vegetables that takes longer than meat. Then cook sliced meat as you eat along with the dipping sauce.

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Kakigori is shaved ice with flavored syrup

Kakigori is shaved ice with flavored syrup.  It is very popular during the hot and humid summer in Japan, and there are a lot of pop up Kakigori stores appearing in the season.

Although you can get shaved ice here too, usually as a snow cone in the US, Kakigori is very different from that.  Snow cones often use crushed ice or ice shaved in thicker pieces.  Japanese shaved ice is very soft and fluffy, and melts in your mouth like newly fallen snow.  It doesn’t have much crunchy texture at all. Hawaii also has a version called “shave ice” that is becoming popular in other states as well. It’s based on and very similar to Japanese Kakigori, but some of the flavorings are different.

Kakigori has many kinds of flavored syrups poured on the ice, like strawberry, lemon, melon, and simple syrup (sugar syrup).  A lot of the time, Kakigori is a pretty simple affair, ice and syrup of your choice, maybe with condensed milk on top.  That’s what you get from street vendors, food courts in shopping malls, and some restaurants like Udon shops and Okonomiyaki restaurants where they serve Kakigori during summer temporarily.  On the other hand, it gets more fancy with a lot of toppings when you go to traditional Japanese sweet shops.  Matcha syrup and Anko, sweet red beans, are the basic toppings there (called Ujikintoki), but also small mochi, sweet chestnuts, and even Matcha ice cream could be on your Kakigori.

The hardest part to make this dessert is finding a Kakigori machine.  If you are lucky to find it at Japanese stores or online, get it, and make this!  Kakigori is a fun and cool dessert to please your friends and family in summer!

Kakigori Recipe

Ingredients :

2 Tbsp Matcha green tea powder

1/2 cup (100g) sugar

150ml boiling water

ice

Anko

Dango

Instructions :

Put Matcha powder and sugar in a mixing bowl, pour in boiling water, and stir well until dissolved. Let syrup cool.

Shave ice into a bowl to make a tall mound of shaved ice, according to the instructions of Kakigori machine.

Pour 3-4 Tbsp of the Matcha syrup over the ice, put Anko and Dango on top. Serve immediately.

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Kakitamajiru is a kind of Sumashijiru

Kakitamajiru is a kind of Sumashijiru, a Japanese clear soup, but with an egg. It looks similar to the famous Chinese egg drop soup, but the flavor is totally different.  Kakitamajiru is made from Dashi (or Ichiban Dashi), and it has a subtle but nice Umami (savory flavor).  The soft yellow egg and green Mitsuba, Japanese herb, look very pretty, too, giving a splash of color to a meal.

When a beaten egg is added to a hot soup, the egg poofs up.  If you add a little potato starch slurry (or corn starch) to thicken the soup, the egg floats in the soup better. Though the amount of starch is very small, it’s enough to make at  difference for the egg but you don’t even notice the thickness of the soup.  Another important tip to make a nice “flowering” egg is to add the beaten egg slowly in a circling motion into the soup.  Don’t drop the egg in one spot all at once.  The soup should be very hot, almost boiling, but not rolling before adding the egg.  We used Mitsuba for an accent of refreshing flavor and color, but you can use spinach or green onion if you can’t find Mitsuba.

Kakitamajiru is easy to make with simple ingredients.  If you want something other than Miso soup, try this one!

Kakitamajiru Recipe

Ingredients :

3 cups Dashi or Ichiban Dashi

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp Sake

1/4-1/2 tsp salt

1/2 bunch Mitsuba

1 tsp Katakuriko potato starch or cornstarch

1 Tbsp water

1 egg

Instructions :

Put Dashi in a pot and heat at medium heat until just before boiling. Season Dashi broth with Soy Sauce, Sake, and salt.

Chop the Mitsuba and dissolve Katakuriko in 1Tbsp of water, add to the soup, and stir very well.

Beat an egg in a small bowl. Slowly pour the egg into the soup in circling motion starting from the center, spiraling outward.

Pour the soup into a bowl and sprinkle with Mitsuba.

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Tororo Soba is a Soba noodle dish with gooey grated Nagaimo

Tororo Soba is a Soba noodle dish with gooey grated Nagaimo.  It could be hot or cold although the recipe here is a cold version. Zaru Soba is the very basic and most popular soba dish, but Tororo Soba is also found on the menu at any Soba restaurant in Japan.  Cold Tororo Soba is a great dish during summer for Nagaimo’s rich nutrition and coolness of Soba when you don’t have much appetite from heat outside.

Soba is a popular Japanese food in the US, and dried Soba noodles can be found at most supermarkets here.  One of the reasons why Soba is popular here is because Soba is much healthier than other noodles made from refined flours.  Soba has fewer calories and more nutrients such as Vitamin B, various minerals, and fiber.  Another reason is that Soba doesn’t contain any gluten.  Recent interest in gluten free diets may also be contributing to the popularity of Soba noodles.

Nagaimo is one of a very few potatoes that can be eaten raw.  It is slimey when the skin is peeled, and it has a crispy texture when it is eaten cut; however, it has totally a different texture when grated.  It is gooey and slimey, and you may not like the mouth feel at first if you’re not use to that kind of vegetables.  Nagaimo contains a lot of nutrients such as potassium, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that helps digestion too. All in all, Tororo Soba is very good for you on top of being tasty.

Tororo Soba is often topped with a quail egg; however, it can be hard to find quail eggs here in the US.  We used a regular egg yolk here. Even though using organic eggs, there is a risk to eat raw eggs.  If you’re worried, just omit yolks from the recipe.

If you’re too hot to eat anything in summer, Tororo Soba is a quick and easy and nutritious food to make.  Try it!

Tororo Soba Recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients :

150-200g dried Soba

5 Shiso leaves or 2 green onions

300g Nagaimo

2 egg yolks

Mentsuyu

Wasabi

Instructions :

Cook dried Soba according to the package. Rinse under running water and strain well.

While cooking Soba, slice Shiso leaves thin and finely. Grate Nagaimo with fine grater. Separate egg yolks and whites.

Place cooked Soba in a deep bowl, add grated Nagaimo, a yolk, and Shiso. Pour Mentsuyu (diluted by the equal amount of water).

 Add a little Wasabi if you like.

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Eggplant and ground beef are a great taste combination

Eggplant and ground beef are a great taste combination.  They are good in meat sauce for pasta, and wonderful in curry too!  Eggplant gets very tender and becomes a nice melt-in-your-mouth texture.  Well-browned beef gives a tasty flavor to the sauce.

Using ground beef, you don’t have to cook this curry as long.  It is very easy and quick, but has the same great taste as our regular curry. Perfect for everyday dinner!

If you would like to know more about how to make curry, please watch our Curry and Rice video.

Eggplant and Ground Beef Curry

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Yield: 5-6 servings

Ingredients :

1 tsp oil

1 tsp ginger, minced

1 tsp garlic, minced

1lb ground beef

1 onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped (optional)

1 large egg plant (or 4-5 Japanese eggplants), 1" cubed

4 cups water

4 oz curry sauce mix (120g)

Optional Seasonings :

1 Tbsp ketchup

1 Tbsp Worcester sauce

1 Tbsp apricot jam

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp curry powder

Steamed Rice

Instructions :

Heat oil, ginger, and garlic in a large pot. Add meat and cook until browned, then add onion (and carrot if using) and cook until soft. Finally add cubed eggplant and stir.

Add water to the pot. After it boils, skim any fat, and reduce heat to medium low. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and add curry sauce mix. Stir well so the pieces of the mix dissolve.

If you'd like to use the optional seasonings above, now add the ketchup, Worcester sauce, apricot jam, and soy sauce. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes (cook longer if you'd like it thicker).

If you'd like to add the optional curry powder, stir it in just before serving.

Serve the curry poured over rice.

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Mabo Tofu is so popular that it is found at all Chinese restaurants in Japan

Mabo Tofu (or Mapo Tofu) is one of the very popular Chinese dishes in Japan.  Tofu in a garlicky, spicy meat sauce is vey tasty, and it goes very well with Steamed Rice.  That may be the reason why Japanese people love the dish so much. 

Mabo Tofu is so popular that it is found at all Chinese restaurants in Japan, but it is also a staple dinner entree at home.  Some people make it from scratch, but a lot of others buy instant sauce packets from the supermarket.  With the instant sauce, you only need to add Tofu.  It is not only easy to use the instant sauce, but also you don’t need to keep Chinese seasonings around in the kitchen, which may not be used too often.  Even though it is instant, the flavor is surprisingly not bad at all.  So why make it at home?  That’s because you could make it from ingredients of a Japanese pantry!  And many people don’t know that.  The main seasoning for Mabo Tofu is Miso.  Real Mabo Tofu uses fermented black bean paste; however, you can substitute with red Miso or just regular Miso like we did here.  Another important ingredient is chili paste.  We used Takanotsume dried chili pepper instead. You can adjust the amount of chili depending on how hot you want the dish to be.  If you are making for your family with kids, use just a couple of them, but if you want it hot, use as much as you like. Besides, it is quick and easy, and delicious!  So why not make it at home?

We have to warn you, though we may already have above, that this is not authentic Chinese Mabo Tofu and not quite the same as what you would find in a Chinese restaurant in the US (or China!).  This is a kind of Mabo Tofu that Japanese people enjoy at home.  Japanese Mabo Tofu has evolved to become its own dish, like Ramen and Gyoza did.  If you never tried Japanese Mabo Tofu, try this, and you will like it!

Mabo Tofu

Ingredients

1 block Tofu (about 400g)

3 green onions

1 Tbsp oil

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, minced

Japanese dried red pepper, remove seeds and cut thinly

1/2 lb (225g) ground pork

1 Tbsp sesame oil

Seasonings

2 Tbsp Miso

2 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp Sake

1 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp Katakuriko or cornstarch

1 cup (240ml) water

Instructions

Cut Tofu into 1" cubes. Slice green onions thinly. Set aside.

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the seasonings until Miso dissolves. Set aside.

Heat oil in a wok at medium heat, add garlic, ginger, and red pepper, and stir. Add ground pork and cook until browned. Add the seasonings and let it boil. Add cut Tofu and stir gently.

When Tofu is cooked through, stir in green onions and sesame oil.

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Dashimaki Tamago is rolled pan fried eggs just like Tamagoyaki (rolled omelette)

Dashimaki Tamago is rolled pan fried eggs just like Tamagoyaki (rolled omelette).  The cooking and rolling technique to make Dashimaki is exactly the same as Tamagoyaki, but the ingredients and flavor are a little different.  Like Tamagoyaki, it is another staple dish for breakfast and Bento lunch boxes.

The main difference between Tamagoyaki and Dashimaki is that, as you may suspect from the name, Dashimaki has Dashi mixed with the eggs.  Dashimaki Tamago is moister because of the extra liquid, and so it has a softer texture.  The flavor is also a little milder for the same reason.   One other difference is that often people will shape Dashimaki with a sushi mat.  Wrap the rolled egg up in the mat and let it cool. After the egg has cooled, unwrap the map and you’ll get nice lines on the surface of egg.  Other than that, it is purely up to your taste whether you make Tamagoyaki or Dashimaki.  They are pretty much interchangeable, so choose whichever you like.

It can be harder to roll Dashimaki because of the extra moisture. The egg mixture tends to stick to the pan more, so it is a good idea to oil the pan often during cooking.

If you’ve never had Dashimaki (or Tamagoyaki), try it (or both) and find out your favorite!

Dashimaki Tamago Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 2-3 servings

Ingredients :

4 eggs

1/4 cup Dashi or Ichiban Dashi (60ml)

1 tsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp Mirin

oil for pan

Instructions :

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Heat a pan at medium high temperature and add oil. (A rectangular Tamagoyaki pan is best, but a round pan can work as well.)

Pour a thin layer of egg mixture in the pan, tilting to cover the bottom of the pan. After the thin egg has set a little, gently roll into a log. Start to roll when the bottom of the egg has set and there is still liquid on top. If you let the egg cook too much, it will not stick as you roll the log. Now you have a log at one end of the pan. Pour some more egg mixture to again cover the bottom of the pan, with the roll of egg at the end. After the new layer has set, roll the log back onto the the cooked thin egg and roll to the other end of the pan. (You can also keep rolling in one direction by sliding the rolled egg back to the same end of the pan before adding more egg.)

Repeat adding egg to the pan and rolling until the egg mixture is used up.

Remove the egg log from the pan onto a sushi mat, roll up lightly, and let it cool for 10 minutes.

Unwrap the sushi mat and slice the log into 1/2" thick pieces. You should see a wavy pattern along the edge of the cross section of the egg from the mat.

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