2014.02.06
Ingredients: 柚子皮・唐辛子 (red and green, very small ones), ratio around 10:1, not sure, need to taste to see -.-

Wash well before head, wipe water off with paper towel. Zest the yuzu skin only (save lots of time when blending), we had 50-60 this time. White part will make it bitter, don’t want that. Cut chillies to small pieces, blend well with yuzu zest.

* It ends up bitter somehow, not sure whether it was because we zest it first.

Pantry skin taste better than Life skin, flour makes taste quite different, even handmade skin with Japanese flour are whiter and more chewy than Chinese ones. The machine made skin are very thin and quite chewy, if cook too much at once, they would blow up like balloons and stick together.

2014.02.02 (prepare fillings)
Filling – 500g バラ豚ブローグ・200gもも豚肉・200g若鶏 chicken mince
half Chinese cabbage, few pieces of cabbage, one block of ginger (darling loves ginger in fillings), salt, sesame oil, soy sauce a bit, しそ (optional for Japanese preference)
Steam Chinese cabbage first and cut to small, squeeze out water.
* Too much meat and not enough vegetable. Cabbage didn’t get boiled beforehead, sa bit hard after cooked.
* Need more salt for flavor, but filling get tastier the next day.

2014.02.03 (cook)
Skin – 250g – 300g flour makes 3 x 20 dumpling, roughly 3 big plates. Should make it harder so it turns more chewy, and add a bit of salt at the beginning.

Pan fry – Telflon pan is easy to kook. But still need a little bit of oil, add dumpling before it gets too hot, cook for a bit, and add water (1 cup of water + 1 spoon of flour), enough for 60 pieces, add top with sesame oil at the end.

Tomato Onion – Onion, garlic, tomato can, salt, pepper
Thin slice onion into pan, coat with olive oil, add some salt so it get softer quicker. Panfry until golden brown, thin slice garlic and add in, low fire for a long time. Add tomato can, and some catchup maybe, and salt and pepper. Simmer for a long time until it’s ready. Serve with any pasta.

蒸し野菜 – Probably only in winter when ねぎ is very good. “Boil” ねぎ and 人参 carrot in pot with 豆腐 in small pot, and simmer without water. ねぎ is very juicy and sweet, so would make lots of juice after. Serve with sea salt and ポン酢 ponzu.

蒸し野菜 – Zucchini, carrot, かぶ, ピーマン, 里芋, じゃがいも, 玉ねぎ, 紅芯大根. All steam on fire first and leave in small pot with 昆布 underneath on small fire. Serve with sea salt.

こんにゃく Konnyaku (350g/320JPY)we get from Vege庵おうみ is hand made, and taste totally different from supermarket packed ones 😉

こんにゃく・にんじん・ピーマン

1. Break Konnyaku into small pieces by hand, boil Konnyaku in salt water until boiled, then soak in cold water. Cut carrot and capsaicin, in general, should keep Konnyaku, carrot and capsaicin similar size, all big or all small.

2. Prepare pan with sesame oil, pan fry Konnyaku with small chillies to take water out from Konnuaku. Add carrot, and water that is enough to cover. Add 1 bag of だし, mirin quite a bit, quite a bit of sugar, soy sauce briefly go around, salt a little bit maybe? to boil and simmer until cooked. Add capsaicin a few minutes before ready since it gets soft easily.

Soak 高野豆腐 in warm water, then cut into 6 pieces
だし:　だし、lots of sugar, little bit of mirin and sake, and few drops of soy sauce.
Add 高野豆腐 to だし and boil for little bit until flavored.

大根・黄金あげ
だし: Water, だし, soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, salt, chillies (optional)
*黄金あげ we don’t usually get it overseas, it is a little bit thicker than the usual fried tofu we get, with little bit of tofu still left in the middle, use more in japan for 煮物 and noodle soup.
Same だし could be used for 白菜・黄金あげ, なすび

白菜・黄金あげ
1 tbsp sake, 1 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp salt and sugar, add 1 handful 揚げ豆腐 to make flavor, don’t need to add water since chinese cabbage is very watery.
Cut chinese cabbage and だし, leave on small fire until soft.
Add little bit salt and sugar if needed.

なすび – small ones cut to half, than into two/three blocks, make a few cuts on the skin so the flavor get absorbed easily.

I like the name of Steamed Egg Custard, sound very sweet =)

This is just a notes from my diary, not a precise recipe, and it’s quite vegetarian since no prawn or crab was added.
Add mirin and a little bit sake, still taste like mirin, add good and a bit strong だし so it taste good even egg is not that good, and some ゆず yuzu for flavor.
Mix egg well, and filter until smooth, add to above だし and take any bubbles out. Distribute into small bowls, wrap it and simmer for 30-40min.
*bowls can not touch the side of pot, so it doesn’t get heated too much on the side and fail eventually.
Decorate with ゆず yuzu and 水菜 mizuna pieces.

ほうれん草/春菊のごま和え Spinich/shungiku sesame salad
* Key point for ほうれん草/春菊 is not to add any salt, it would take out the flavor from the leaves. The root is hard, but sweet. Cut into 4 vertically to make it small and easy to get boiled.
Boil briefly for 30 seconds, squeeze water out and cut to small, and add little bit sugar, soy sauce, 焼きいりごま, かつお is optional.

ほうれん草かつお醤油
Boil, dry, and cut ほうれん草 to small, and season with かつお kazuo flake and soy sauce

水茄子ときゅうりの酢物
水茄子 is water eggplant, suppose to be a bit oval, and very watery that could squeeze water out.
Cut both to straight half and then thin slices. Soak 水茄子 to water, and squeeze out later.
Add vinegar 2tbsp, mirin 1tbsp, sesame oil 2tsp, soy sauce 1tsp, roasted and crashed sesame 2tbsp at the end. Measures are rough, double the amount if needed.

Cabbage salad
There are spring cabbage and usual cabbage(older or winter cabbage), spring ones are very juicy and sweet that can be served as raw, here we are talking about not that raw ones. Steam cabbage to soft and cooked, cut to slices and squeeze out water.
Sauce 1: mayonnaise and lemon salt.
Sauce 2: miso, vinegar, lots of sugar, roasted and crashed sesame (white sesame is better, more oily and tasty)

Bottom of daikon near the leaves is the best, sweet. Front near the root is not nice and spicy.

大根きんぴら Stir fry daikon?
Slice 大根 and にんじん into thin strings, pan fry with oil, add soy sauce, mirin, dry chilli (cutted) and 焼きいりごま

柚子大根 Yuzu daikon

Cut daikon into 1cm x1cm x 4cm (3 fingers wide/long) sticks, leave it in salt (use finger to try the flavour, a bit salty is fine) for 1-2 days.

Discard the water came out from daikon when it turn soft, add vinegar about 1/4 of daikon enough to flavor, a bit of sugar and thin slices of yuzu skin. Amount of sugar and yuzu changes with different daikon.

* this is last year note somehow, mom doesn’t remember she had done such thing. (Make だし – sugar, (milin and sake maybe), yuzu skin cut to small pieces, boil well and add to daikon and leftover yuzu skin.)

紫大根のおろし

Mash daikon and add かつお、ちりめんじゃこ、ポン酢や醤油

粕汁

Boil water with 昆布 on small fire, while grilling salted salmon. Slice daikon and carrot, cut ちくわ to half and then slice.

Break 酒粕, mix with だし by sift and make paste.

Peel salmon, take small bones out and put big bone in as だし source. Add meat daikon carrot and ちくわ.

Mix miso(?) by sift, serve with 水菜 in red bowl.