Ingredients:

4 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon water
2 x 6 oz (180 grams) salmon fillets
3½ oz (100 grams) soba noodles
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 bunch bok choy (or other Asian greens)—cut into thirds on diagonal
1 carrot—peeled and thinly sliced on diagonal
1 scallion (spring onion)—thinly sliced on diagonal

Procedure:

Mix the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, ginger and water together and marinate the salmon fillets in the mixture, covered in the fridge, for at least 1 hour. Bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the soba noodles for 4 minutes, then rinse under cold water and drain. Heat 1 tablespoon of canola oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the salmon fillets (reserving the marinade) and cook for around 3-4 minutes each side until tender. While the salmon cooks, heat a wok or large skillet over a high heat, add the remaining tablespoon of canola oil and stir fry the bok choy and carrot for 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the reserved marinade liquid, cover with a lid and cook for 3 minutes. Add the scallions and soba noodles and stir to mix well and heat through. Serve on a bed of the noodle-vegetable mixture with a salmon fillet on top.

Ingredients:

8 frozen mochi squares
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 sheet nori (dry seaweed)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (275 degrees C). Dip mochi into soy sauce, then place on a baking sheet. Let bake for about 5 minutes, or until heated through. While mochi is cooking, cut the dried seaweed into 8 strips. Place these strips in a large frying pan over medium heat. When they are warmed, after approximately 1 to 2 minutes, remove them from the heat. Wrap each mochi cake in seaweed; serve warm.

This nourishing Japanese soup takes only minutes to prepare and can be served for breakfast, lunch, or as part of a main meal. Miso, fermented soy bean paste, adds a rich flavor and is highly valued in Japan for its health-giving properties.

Ingredients:

3 cups dashi stock
2 thinly sliced fresh mushrooms (shiitake or white button)
1½ tablespoons miso paste
1 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce
1½ oz (45 grams) silken tofu—cut into cubes
1/2 scallion—thinly sliced on the diagonal

Procedure:

Bring the stock to a gentle boil in a saucepan, add the mushrooms and simmer for 3 minutes. Mix together the miso and soy sauce in a small bowl, then add to the hot dashi stock. Add the tofu. Heat the soup and, just before it comes to the boil, remove from the heat. Pour the soup into bowls and garnish with the sliced scallions on top to serve.

Variations: you can add various other ingredients to make a more substantial soup, such as cooked shrimp, snow pea sprouts, cooked rice noodles, or paper-thin slices of fresh ginger.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon curry powder
2 onion
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups water
2 cubes soup bouillon
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon grated garlic
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoons butter

Procedure:

Heat water in a pan and add soup bouillon to make soup. Slice onion thinly. Heat butter in a pan and saute onion slices slowly until they are brown for 15-20 minutes. Add garlic and ginger in the pan and saute well. Add flour and curry powder and saute over low heat. Pour soup in the pan little by little, stirring quickly. Simmer the curry roux until thickened, and add garam masala at last.

Ingredients:

3 cups sushi rice
8 dried shiitake mushrooms
1/2 large carrot
1 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. mirin
2 eggs and 1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp. sakura denbu (seasoned fish powder)
2 tbsp. white sesame seeds
a half bunch of nabana (rape flowers) or green vegetables

Procedure:

Soak dried shiitake mushrooms in 3/4 cup of warm water. Cut carrots into thin flower-shaped pieces. Remove shiitake mushrooms from the water and slice them thinly. Put the water in a pan and heat on low heat. Simmer shiitake slices and carrot pieces in the pan. Add soy sauce, mirin, and sugar in the pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Whisk eggs with 1 tsp. of sugar. Make fine scrambled eggs. Boil nabana in a pan and cool in cold water. Chop nabana finely. Prepare sushi rice and mix sesame seeds in the rice. Serve the rice on a large plate. Sprinkle simmered shiitake mushrooms over the rice. Sprinkle scrambled eggs, carrots, boiled nabana, and sakura denbu over the rice.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound pork liver
1 bunch nira chives
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. grated ginger
1 tbsp. sake
katakuriko/corn starch for dusting liver
1 tbsp. water and 1 tsp katakuriko/corn starch
vegetable oil for frying

Procedure:

Cut pork liver into bite-size pieces. Marinate liver in soysauce, sake, and ginger for 20 minutes. Take out liver from the sauce and cover with katakuriko or corn starch. ( Keep the sauce.) Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the liver pieces. Cut nira into 2 inch pieces. Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan and saute nira on high heat. Add deep fried liver in the pan and saute with nira. Add the sauce used to marinate liver in the frying pan and stir-fry liver and nira. Pour the mixture of water and potato starch over nira and livers. Stir quickly and stop the heat. Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

8 hard shell clams
8 raw shrimp (deveined and shelled)
1/3 lb. salmon fillet
1 lb. sea bass fillets, (cut into 1/2 x 2 inch slices)
1 lb. yellowtail or mackerel fillets (cut into 1/2 x 2 inch slices)
1 block tofu (cut into 8 equal sized cubes)
8 fresh shiitake mushrooms
1 large carrot (cut into diagonal slices)
1/4 lb. enoki mushrooms (tough stems removed)
8 leaves Chinese cabbage, (parboil leaves, drain, pare away thick center vein, roll into a tight roll, a bamboo sushi mat helps, then cut into 1 inch lengths)
1 handfull of fresh snow peas
2 fresh green onions (cut into 1/2 inch lengths)
Large handful of fresh spinach or watercress (cut off stems)

Stock
2 quarts dashi
1/2 cup of shoyu
7 tablespoons mirin.

Condiments
3/4 cup finely chopped green onion
2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
4 lemon wedges
1 small bowl of shoyu.

Procedure:

Place the fire resistant donabe pot on the stove (or upon the table skillet), and fill with the dashi, bring to a boil. First add the shellfish, then the fish, the vegetables with a longer cooking time like carrots, then finally the delicate leaf vegetables. When cooked through, let each diner choose food from the pot. Continue adding ingredients until everything is cooked and eaten.

Ingredients:

500 grams potatoes, peeled
100 grams bacon
1/2 a continental cucumber
1 cup good quality egg mayonnaise
100 ml. mirin
2 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. mustard
4 spring onions, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

Cook the potatoes in boiling water until just tender. Drain and leave to cool. Cut the bacon into thin strips and cook on a paper towel in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes or until just cooked. Peel alternate strips off the cucumber skin, then cut into small dice. Combine the mayonnaise, mirin, sesame oil and mustard in a jar and shake until well combined. Cut the potatoes into large dice. Put the potatoes, bacon, cucumbers and spring onions into a bowl. Pour the dressing and toss gently. This can be made well beforehand and refrigerated ­– bring to room temperature before serving. Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

2 squid
1 broccoli
1/2 clove ginger
2/3 cup chicken soup stock
1 tbsp. sake
1 tsp. soy sauce
1/3 tsp. sugar
2/3 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tsp. water
2 tsp. katakuriko starch

Procedure:

Prepare squid for cooking and cut them into bite-sized pieces, including legs. Cut broccoli into bite-sized pieces and boil them. Mince fresh ginger. Mix sugar, salt, sake, and soy sauce in chicken soup stock and set aside. Heat vegetable oil in a wok and saute ginger. Add broccoli in the pan and stir-fry them. Add squid and soup in the pan and bring to boil. Pour mixture of water and katakuriko starch over the ingredients and stir quickly. Stop the heat. Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. gobo (burdock root)
1/4 lb. carrot
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. mirin
1/2 tbsp. sake
1 tsp. sesame seeds
2 tsp. vegetable oil

Procedure:

Peel gobo and shred it into very thin strips. Soak the gobo strips in water for a while and drain well. Peel the carrot and cut it into short and thin strips. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan, and fry gobo strips for a couple minutes. Add carrot strips in the pan and stir-fry them. Add all seasonings in the pan and stir-fry well. Turn off the heat. Sprinkle sesame seeds. Makes 4 servings