I finally found a great Asian grocery within half an hour's drive, and went a bit boonta buying a lot of tasty things, and a lot of things I've always wanted to try!
I found natto in the freezer, which has been on my 'to try' list, and I'm busting to try it, but do you eat it warm or cold? I can't read the directions on the packet (haha!), and from googling, I've been able to discover that I should thaw it in the fridge overnight, and eat it on rice with tomato sauce and mustard, but do I heat the beans first?

Advice appreciated!

When I had seen "Spirited Away" (many times) I always wondered if a particular food item seen onscreen was the same thing I had once eaten in my high school Japanese class. It's been over a decade since I had the food, and I've since then forgotten what it is called. I know it's made from rice-flour (no surprise), it's very sticky, and it came in a block shape. It had a kind of sweet savory sauce, too, which I think is mitarashi or something similar. It might have been a zenzai, but it's been so long my memory's a little fuzzy. I don't remember it being served in bowls, so...

( Pictures and more behind cut... )

Hello everyone,

Somewhere recently I ran across the word tsukemono, and read a little about how Japanese pickles are made by pressing veggies in just a little salt so that they pickle in their own juice pulled out by the salt. These Japanese pickled vegetables as a complete side dish all their own seems like a neat idea. Fascinated, I picked up a cute little [3 litre] Japanese pickle press on ebay.

All of it's instructions are in Japanese, but that's ok, it's easy to see how to use it. However, whatever nifty recipe suggestions it has in the booklet are lost for me. :(

Does anyone know of any recipes for putting veggies into a pickle press? Recipes are harder to find online than I thought they'd be. I found one for cabbage, carrots, and herb leaves together, but I'd like to find some simple suggestions for just carrots, just daikon, just cucumber, etc, and how much salt to use per X amount of these. (Carrots are what I have in the fridge now, and I'm dying to pickle them.. Daikon and other things I could pick up some time later.)

I saw a Tsukemono cookbook on Amazon.com while I was browsing for pickle press prices. Is anyone familiar with any cookbooks for this that they would recommend?

This is my first post! I made some Unatama Don ( Japanese BBQ eel rice) for Boxing Day's dinner.


Ingredients were pretty simple:
Unagi (bbq eel) or subsitube Chicken (my brothers hate eel)
Onions,
Eggs
and this packet of sauce I use. There had instructions behind the box.



( Step by Step pics - its really easy!! )

Hello, I am new here. My name is Merushi, but people who have a hard time remembering it just call me Ru.
I am a hopeless moron with bad ADD that has completely knocked off any of my motivation. But for some reason, I can understand cooking and baking easily.
I am 17 years of age. The way I gained familiarity with Japanese baking and cuisines was traditionally gained, me being half Spanish and half Asian (although i may no longer look it due to a 2 litter bottle accident harming my left eye, thus getting both lids lifted for reasons)
I will not post pictures of what I cook and when, since I don't usually cook or bake something and take pictures. I will however use very nice and helpful reference pics.
Most of my cooking instructions or given recipes are quite difficult to understand, so you should be at a moderate level, and able to understand how to run a stove or oven, measurements, and ingredients.

My first post will involve Ichigo Daifuki, a Japanese sweet cakes with Ichigo(strawberry) and anko fillings.

( LET'S GET STARTED!! )

If you have any questions, or need help in general, comment, and I will reply A.S.A.P

Hello!

This is my first post here, and besides simple things like fried rice I've mostly been making japanese deserts.

I made my first dango tonight, and I was just wondering what everyone's take is on it here? Things like what is your perfered flour, portions, and most importanty what you think the ideal final product is. I know mine were extremely sticky and gooey and other such adjectives, but they were still pretty good. What are some tips and tricks, etc, that you may have? And are there any other tasty dishes you recomend I try?

This is a very broad post I suppose... But I am very curious, so feel free to comment as much as you want!

I used this recipe first (yes, ignore the sailor moon stuff... lol) http://sailormoon.takeuchi-naoko.com/fan/shrines/dango/edible/index.html
And I plan on using this one next time. http://www.justhungry.com/mitarashi-dango-rice-dough-dumplings-sweet-salty-sauce

Hey guys, Long time member, first entry, but I have sourced some lifelike Sushi models from Japan that are used by all the top restaurants in Japan and thought I'd let you all know about it. Very lifelike and extremely high quality models, made in Japan. Please check it out at:

http://stores.ebay.com.au/Japan-and-i

mata ne.

Jam
Japan &i

Your Japanese Connection.

I made my first batch of onigiri today, using the moulds that my Mum's friend Yoko brought back from Japan for me. It was easier than I expected, although I haven't done any with fillings, just furikake. I had vegetable furikake and bonito furikake. I'd like to experiment with all the different types, though.
They're yummy, too! I may have to make them more often.

When I get some more pocket money, I'm going to hunt down some umeboshi. I can't talk my husband into buying this stuff with the grocery money!

What else is nice as onigiri filling?

( Good enough to eat! )

こんばんは！~

Yesterday I made sushi, because we had a Christmas party @ my university. It was also s.th. like a goodbye party, because we won´t see each other very often now that we all graduated. (In Germany there´s usually not a graduation ceremony, although it depends @ which uni you´re studying and WHAT you´re studying)
Anyway everyone brought s.th. yummie to eat - and because I just came back from Japan, of course I made sushi (^^'')

My prof. wanted me to tell s.th. about Japan, so I did. She was actually in Japan 2 times as well (for work) and she totally fell in love with Japan + the Japanese food - just like me.
So we really talked a LOT about Japan while a lot of the others were listening to us ^^; .... aaahhh~ yappari ... I really love that country and I wanna go back (~____~) .....
If you´re interested in what we were talking about, read the full entry here.


Ahhhhm~ ... anyway here are photos of the sushi I made ^^;

(sushi photos ahead! ~only look if you´re not hungry right now ;P)



Question (just because I´m curious): Do you prefer to eat your sushi "fresh" (when the rice is still warm and the sushi was just made) or cooled (when it was left in the refrigerator for a while)? ^____^


(Bento 21+22)




My first tamagoyaki. Well ... it´s not perfect yet (plus I don´t have a rectangular pan, but ... oh well~ ^^ .. it was yummie!)

(煎茶　が　大好き！　♪♪)

Hey there!

Here is a new icon batch with tons of Japanese bento (=lunchboxes), sushi, tea and cat icons. I really love bento ^^

That said, I hope you´ll like them.
Enjoy~


Preview:



Icons in this post: [134]

[113] x Bento
[015] x Tea
[003] x Sushi
[003] x Cats


(Obentou daisuki！♪)

x-posted

Hello, everyone! I'm afraid I just don't have the time nor the interest to be the admin for this community anymore. Is there anyone out there who might have some LJ admin experience and might be interested in taking over this community. If you're interested, please email me at redtudorrose@gmail.com. Thank you!

Christina Rose
Owner/Admin

Hi new here. Made some jumbo inari sushi last night. Took less than 45mins (includes cooking the rice in a microwave). They are filled with sweet scrambled eggs and pickled cucumber. I wish I didn't get rid of the cucumber skin, the colours look abit bland. The pickled cucumber goes really well... a hint of sour and salty with the sweet inari.

Hey there,

I went to Japan for 3 weeks and have now made a huge picspam concerning the Japanese food @ my journal.
I thought it might be interesting for others as well :)

We also went to a sushi restaurant of course ^^



(~ 140 more pics ahead)

WARNINGS:
- Do NOT look at it when you´re hungry right now XD
- Image heavy, not dial-up friendly!

Hi Japanese speakers/readers:

I don't know how many of you know of this, but the popular magazine Kyou no Ryouri has a website where they feature the recipes seen in their magazine

http://www.kyounoryouri.jp/index.php

Unfortunately it is japanese only, but i'm sure someone (not me, i'm too busy heh) could translate some of the recipes.

Hey there,

I´ve made my very first bento. I´ve made sushi again and I´ve bought a lot of stuff in Japan + in an Asian shop near my home.



(more photos and some questions)

Last night my housemates and I had a Japanese food fest:

( Yummy! )
Potato croquettes, chicken katsu, riceballs, rice omelet, california rolls, cucumber sushi, various sauces, and daifuku and homemade green tea ice cream for dessert. About 7 hours of cooking in all, and quite delicious.

Someone just posted, looking for some recipes, but they deleted their post before I could reply. I've decided to post it as an entry here, just in case anyone else is interested. :)

Measurements are given in both metric and imperial.

( Okonomiyaki, from 'A Taste of Japan' by Masaki Ko )

So my mochi-making skills are a little lack-lustre. Thanks to some of you on this comm, I've got some very good and trusted recipes, which I've tested and found to be wonderful. However, the part that gets me? D: Rolling them into the balls.
Easy, you say! Yes, it is. My real trouble is getting them to look nice. They have a tendency to get like...little folds of themselves that, even though they make the ball shape, don't seem to meld completely into the rest of the thing, so they look kind of wrinkly!
I've been using pan-cooked mochiko as my flour. Using the potato starch (flour??) as I'm meant to would alleviate this problem or is it just a skill I need to develop?

One more thing! I'm having a mess of trouble finding hoshigaki. Any reputable online sources? Preferably some that don't sell for 39289843 USD/ounce, but ANY source would be very much appreciated. I'm considering possibly making my own this fall, as I love persimmons. Unfortunately, the kinds we get in this area are not the fuyu type. They seem to be a squat, American version that haven't even been bletted properly and thus require a little bit of fighting and me threatening them with a cauldron of vinegar-water. Sigh.

Anyhow, thanks, ladies and gentlemen!

I bought some umeboshi this past weekend and I was wondering how long they will keep. They came in a jar, filled with water. I'm storing them in my cupboard for now and planning to make onigiri with them next week. The thing is, I probably won't use all the umeboshi at once. How long will they keep after I open the jar? Should I refridgerate them afterwards or is it fine to just keep them in the cupboard?

[x-posted to jfood]

Hi everyone!

I've just joined, mostly because I'm looking for a particular recipe, but also because I'd like to introduce more Japanese-style foods into my cooking repertoire, for both health reasons, and because it always looks so wonderful!

A year or so ago, I was given a recipe for little jelly sweets made from kanten and umeshu, in shaped ice-cube trays. Unfortunately, in the year it's taken for me to get my hands on a carton of umeshu (I live in Brisbane, Australia), I've lost the recipe. Does anybody here know the sweet I mean, and have a recipe to share? I'd be most grateful.

In any case, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing all the interesting recipes and food ideas here!