[SamuelBRoberts]

So I was browsing the latest threads on the forum, and God damn is it dark. Depression this, suicide that, elites taking control of this, Google is manipulating that... These are important subjects, and I don't mean to demean anybody who's been participating in those threads, but it feels like the forum's turning into something out of a cyber-dystopia.

So how about something that's completely non-political and doesn't involve repeatedly posting the number to the national suicide hotline? How about we make some Japanese food?

I'll focus on recipes that contain stuff that's not too obscure. You might have to hit up a local Asian grocery for these ingredients, but if you live in a big city they shouldn't be too hard to find. Honestly all of it should be available at wal-mart.

Here's a recipe from the big Japanese cooking site, Cookpad, that I just made tonight...

Ramen-Style Shirataki With Bean Sprouts:


You all know ramen, right? It's a noodle dish that's one of the staples of Japanese cooking. Every poor college kid has eaten ramen in its cheap, pre-packaged form, and if you've ever been to a real Japanese restaurant, you might have had the real thing. If you've only ever had the 39 cents a pack ramen, you're missing out. The real ramen is delicious. It's got this thick, rich soup, and it's incredibly filling. One bowl will fill you up for a whole day. The only problem? The noodles and oils make it incredibly unhealthy. Enter Shirataki.

Shirataki is amazing stuff. It's an ultra-low calorie noodle, made from a type of yam. By itself, it's got no flavor, so it absorbs the flavor of whatever's around it. I could give it to you as spaghetti, or ramen noodles, and unless you were paying attention, you'd never notice. A half cup of Shirataki has only five calories, so to get your daily calorie allowance just from it, you would need to eat a thousand cups. It's basically calorie free. There's no weird aftertaste, no weird digestive problems... It's the ultimate diet food. Add in some bean sprouts and you have a delicious dinner that's less than 100 calories.

Here are the ingredients to make one big bowl, or two small bowls, of Shirataki Ramen:

Soup Ingredients:

2 cups Shirataki: http://www.walmart.com/tp/shirataki-noodles
2 cups Bean Sprouts: http://www.walmart.com/ip/La-Choy-Bean-S...z/10292194

Soup Base:
2 Teaspoons (1 large cube, or two small cubes) Chicken bouillon
1 Teaspoon Oyster Sauce: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dynasty-Oyster...6/17768838
350 milliliters Water.
1 Tablespoon Cooking Sake: This stuff might be a little harder to find. You're looking for cooking sake, which isn't mirin. If you can't find it, just leave it out. Here's what it looks like on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Kikkoman-Ryorishi...B0046H3ABY
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

Other ingredients:
3 Tablespoons Potato Starch or Corn Starch Mixed with Water
Salt and Pepper to Tastes
A Little Less than One Teaspoon Sesame Oil
Some Green Onions for Topping.

Step 1: Prepare the Shirataki.
If your Shirataki smells a little odd when you open the bag, you need to dump it in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then drain it. Otherwise, just drain and rinse it. Once it's drained, cut it into 2-3 inch pieces.


Step 2: Mix all the ingredients under "Soup Base" together in a bowl.


Step 3: Put the shirataki into a frying pan to get rid of the remaining excess moisture.


Step 4: Once the excess water's gone, throw in the bean sprouts, sesame oil, and salt and pepper. You're not aiming to wilt the bean sprouts, so don't fry for very long. Just stir everything long enough so that the oil spreads around. (The original recipe doesn't give a heat setting, so I just used medium heat and it turned out fine.)


Step 5: Add the soup to the frying pan and wait for it to boil. Once it boils, stir in the thickener.


Step 6: Move to the bowl(s) and top with the green onion. Cutting a green onion is annoying, so here's a good tutorial.

And you're done! My dinner was just this, and a beer, and it filled me up.


If people are interested in this, I can translate other recipes. Sushi? Sukiyaki? Gyuudon? Anything you're curious about how to make, I can tell you.

[Seadog]

Good thread, I had actually thought of a similar thread ages ago, but had forgot it....

Anyways like you I've experimented with ramen soup, and making my own sushi on a bamboo mat. It always comes out ok, but never great. Not even at the level of stuff from grocery store let alone a proper sushi restaurant.

So generally it ends up being a bunch of basic tuna/salmon rolls with a bunch of sashimi. I researched a little in it, but can't make nigiri rice sections for the life of me, pretty sure my rice is sub-par, and with the sashimi, it's closer to "chunks of fish" then properly sliced stuff, in my limited reading they were talking about knives and having to cut sushi on a certain grain angle and certain flicks you need to get in.

Do you have any good resources to share? Where do you get your ingredients, and where did you learn sushi making? I would love to further my skills here, but am really at a bit of a loss as reading things on the internet do not compare to actually having someone show you. At least if you know what your supposed to do you can try and work towards it, but right now I follow random internet recipes as best I can.

[JoaquinMim]

Do you have any recipes for pork or seafood, OP?

[Phoenix]

Not that dark at the moment, OP . See avatar!

I've been meaning to try chankonabe. This is apparently what the sumos eat to bulk up. Looks pretty good.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chankonabe

[komatiite]

Great thread, I love trying out Japanese food ideas, except sushi, no point in even trying with that for someone with low kitchen talents like me!

Samuel for your broth you should try out doing a Dashi broth, Umami overload. I used to do all that pre packaged chicken stock bullshit but once I started Making Dashi I'll never go back for my home made white man wannabe ramen. Just heat a pot on the stove and add Kombu sea kelp and Bonito fish flakes, I never let it boil, just steep in the hot water for like twenty mins. Add in my noodles, veg and some chicken or beef and it's unreal. It is also the base for Miso soup, tastes fine in a pinch but not as good as doing something like THIS if you can find a shit load of pig feet. I read somewhere that Kombu packs the biggest punch of any food that exists for Umami flavor, beating out the heavyweights like Marine, Soy Sauce, Parmesan, Shitake mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, San Marzano tomatoes, aka all shit that tastes good. The Japanese researched the hell out of it and nothing has more Umami than kombu... I use it in all sorts of marinades and also use it as a powder rub on steaks and stuff.

Here is a cool ghetto trick I found that makes for great grilled chicken or beef, Hibachi style.

So what I do is cook up a basic teriyaki sauce, I just add two parts low sodium soy or Tamari sauce if I'm cooking for family (my mums side is all Celiac disease aka the Irish disease so gotta be gluten free!) then add one parts each Mirin and Sake. I let it simmer for an hour to burn off the alcohol and add brown sugar/honey, garlic and ginger for taste. Strain it out and rub a bit on skewers of chopped chicken thigh, with some green onions on the stick as well. Grill it in the urban hibachi from the video with smoking hot big green egg briquettes, boom, yakitori. Works well with beef too. Obviously cooking on a real hibachi is better but I think this is a cool technique if you only have a regular propane bbq with cast iron grill, just use the grill from that bbq and put on the bricks. Kind of fun way to improvise too when you are camping or just to impress at a backyard bbq where nobody knows how to cook anything besides burgers.

Another thing I saw in that Jiro dreams of sushi documentary is adding seasoned rice wine vinegar at the end when I fluff the rice, always takes it to the next level.

[SamuelBRoberts]

@Seadog

I'm using Cookpad, which is the huge Japanese recipe site that everybody uses. If you can speak Japanese it's an amazing site. If not, well, let me know and I can translate for you.
I'm working on mastering some sushi to the point where I feel comfortable giving you the recipe. I thought I had it down but when I went to make it again, it got squished and mashed and didn't turn out looking right. Tasted great, though.
Some things to consider: What are you using to make the vinegar rice? As far as I know you need A.) a good rice cooker, and B.) some actual rice wine vinegar, not a substitute. I also add some sugar to it.

@JoaquinMim

I will translate a basic, but solid and good-tasting, pork recipe for you tomorrow.

@komatite
Dashi is a great idea. It would taste a lot better with that. I'm just trying to, where I can, avoid recipes that require things that aren't easily found outside of a Japanese market. I have a really legit recipe for the broth somewhere that I've never tried myself, but I know is delicious. Want me to see if I can drag it out?

@Phoenix
Good point!

[Phoenix]

So I tried that chankonabe. Jesus that is a quality feed. Really recommend, especially if you're looking to bulk. Delicious but stupidly huge. They throw everything in there. Definitely eat with a hefty side of draft beer. After the Moet Chandon, this has been an acceptable end to my brexit weekend.

[komatiite]

For sure see if you can drag it out Samuel. I've been obsessed with good broths after seeing the RVF bone broth thread a year ago

[Kona]

(06-26-2016 03:29 AM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

I'm working on mastering some sushi to the point where I feel comfortable giving you the recipe. I thought I had it down but when I went to make it again, it got squished and mashed and didn't turn out looking right. Tasted great, though.

I think you put too much water in. Maybe you used a metal spoon?

Feel your rice first, because it can have moistoure in it before you even start. Add some salt, too.

What kind fish are you using? Where'd you get it?

Aloha!

[MMX2010]

I haven't made this steak recipe in ages, because I'm stupid.

Its ingredients are very easy to find in any respectable suburban chain supermarket. However, buying mirin from a supermarket is super expensive, compared to buying it in an Asian grocery store. (We're talking like a 6x difference in price.)

The recipe says to use cheesecloth, but you can just drop the steak in the marinade. However, if you use a direct contact marinade, you had better get every piece of marinade off the steak before cooking: If you get dark brown/black marks on your steak while cooking, you have failed. Those spots will be bitter as fuck.

[RIslander]

delete

[Laner]

My favorite show on Netflix has been Samurai Gourmet.

Its probably one of the most 'red pill' shows with the added bonus of being all about the love and respect for food that is such a major part of Japanese culture.

[CaptainChardonnay]

This youtube channel is great for learning how to make sushi. It's called How To Make Sushi.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosny7d...-GWR1RKxsg

[Veloce]

Not sure how I missed this thread...Japanese food is easily one of my favorite things to eat these days.

For anyone looking to cook Japanese at home, I highly recommend these two books:

https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Cooking-...se+cooking

https://www.amazon.com/Donabe-Classic-Mo...e+cookbook

That second book was co-authored by one of my culinary instructors, a famous chef in his own right.

In my opinion you won't find a more healthful cuisine, centered around protein, vegetables, seafood, sea vegetables, pickles, broth, and rice.

Unless you're in a major metro area, it's unlikely you'll get to eat really high quality Japanese food. Sushi rolls don't really qualify as Japanese food...obviously in Japan they do eat maki but it's typically much more austere and you don't see all these fucking dynamite rolls with 3 different kinds of sauce/mayo/syrupy soy glaze. That shit is disgusting. Anyway point being, if you really want to see what Japanese food is about and don't live near a Little Tokyo those two books are a great starting point.

[Andreas]

Do Japanese people base their diet on vegetables mostly or do they include almost as much fish as vegetables as well if they do so? Basically is it any good to eat fish multiple times per week or should I look up mostly for the vegetarian recipes for my daily nutrition plan?

[SamuelBRoberts]

I would say it goes
Rice > Vegetables > Fish / Meat if I had to say.

Remember that Japanese vegetables actually taste good unlike the shit we've got here, so they have an advantage there.

[debeguiled]

This is related. I came across a video about Japanese charcoal and found it fascinating.

Not only the dying art of producing it, but the charcoal it produces is said to be flavorless and smokeless, so you could use it in a hibachi in your living room.

It is called Binchotan (White Charcoal).





There is something quasi-mystical about it, and if you bang two sticks of binchotan together, it gives off an eerie metallic ring (At 5:33 in video above):

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_techniqu...rcoal.html

Quote:

Binchotan is a traditional charcoal made from ubame oak in Japan and Vietnam and is called "white charcoal" because it is shiny. Typically it comes in the form of slender brittle branches, 1 to 2" in diameter and 6" or so long and makes a metallic ring when the sticks are banged together. Japanese restaurants often import it at great expense and market the fact that they use it. They promote the fact that it is flavorless.

Also, in the video, they say there is something special about the infra red waves of the heat, that keeps the interior of what it cooks from heating too fast. It also produces no steam, subtly changing the flavor of meat. If you see smoke, it isn't coming from the charcoal, but from the juices of the meat, which hit the charcoal, vaporize, and then float up and infuse the meat with flavor.

You can get this stuff on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8...e%3D553760

Not cheap, but pretty cool. Being a Binchotan wrangler.

Anyone ever used it?

[Laner]

Family friends have a summer home on land in Nagano, and their neighbors make charcoal. Last time I was there a documentary film crew was up from Kyoto filming them. They were in their 80s or 90s but recently a young divorced mom from Tokyo started working for them to learn the craft. They used earth/clay mounds to do the dehydrating. Primitive, but with Japanese attention to craft and detail.

It goes without saying that we used the hibachi every night out in the garden. Their charcoal was also in all the toilets and even corners of the lesser used bedrooms. Some people would stir their water with little sticks of it.

There was barely any smoke, if any, it was easy to regulate the temperature with a hand fan and grilled exceptional fish and vegetables.

[debeguiled]

(06-14-2017 01:04 PM)Laner Wrote:  

Family friends have a summer home on land in Nagano, and their neighbors make charcoal. Last time I was there a documentary film crew was up from Kyoto filming them. They were in their 80s or 90s but recently a young divorced mom from Tokyo started working for them to learn the craft. They used earth/clay mounds to do the dehydrating. Primitive, but with Japanese attention to craft and detail.

It goes without saying that we used the hibachi every night out in the garden. Their charcoal was also in all the toilets and even corners of the lesser used bedrooms. Some people would stir their water with little sticks of it.

There was barely any smoke, if any, it was easy to regulate the temperature with a hand fan and grilled exceptional fish and vegetables.

You are almost perfectly describing the video I posted. The clay mounds, and the whole thing worked because the craftsmen knew when to block them up, and when to let in air. It was all about the skills, not the materials.

They also packed their walls with this stuff, as it is good insulation. I would also imagine it sucks up and releases moisture as is necessary for good interior air quality.

[Veloce]

I've cooked pretty extensively with bincho. Everything above is true. Sounds like metal pipes hitting each other. Burns very, very hot. Produces almost zero flare ups.

Only thing about it is you definitely need a charcoal chimney to get them started. Yes they are more expensive but they stay hot for much longer than conventional charcoal.

For all of your Japanese cooking needs I would direct you here:
http://korin.com/site/home.html
http://korin.com/Grillware_2/binchotan_accessories_2
http://korin.com/Grillware_2/konro_grills_3

Korin is far from cheap. I'd say this is an investment that's only worthwhile if you're really passionate about Japanese cooking at home. But Korin carries the real deal. I do all of this type of cooking at work but not at home.

This was a pot of rice cooked in a clay pot (donabe) over hot coals with fava leaves, wild ramps, and chicken stock: