The new Japanese Cooking Thread: Now With 72% Less Pocky and Instant Ramen.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > The new Japanese Cooking Thread: Now With 72% Less Pocky and Instant Ramen.

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Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Calrose or Botan are good choices. I use Botan myself.

POOL IS CLOSED posted:

It's generally regular cabbage in my experience. Sometimes it's dressed in whatever sauce is served with the meal, or in mayonnaise, or with soy sauce. Dress it how you like.

coyo7e posted:

Usually the cheap stuff in restaurants. It's sturdier so it won't wilt under a pile of gyoza or other hot foods like lettuce, and it keeps forever.

I mostly see it just raw and used as an edible bed in most take out, but you can make a pretty good salad w shredded cabbage and carrots, w maybe some green onion and mustard greens, with whatever cheap asian dressing u find at Wal-Mart.

Huh, so it's basically a garnish. Maybe that salad idea can help spruce it up a bit, it'll taste well alongside heavier, more oily dishes (fried poo poo).

# ¿ Aug 2, 2017 23:48

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# ¿ May 19, 2024 06:08

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

poo poo, I could make cha shu in my Instant Pot if I wanted. :aaa:

# ¿ Aug 14, 2017 19:48

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Japanese curry is awesome and I will fight you over a plate of Go! Go! Curry. :colbert:

# ¿ Aug 21, 2017 12:34

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

One of the reasons I stopped making bentos is because the food went stale rather quickly IMO, especially tamagoyaki. I would have to wake up early each day to prepare fresh food and that's not so easy when there isn't another family member who occupies a role dedicated entirely to domestic work. Which is another discussion entirely, but it is a factor.

(Other reasons were that I had trouble finding Japanese ingredients to match the ones in the recipes I used, and that the food I made back then was bland as hell so I got sick of it. I decided to focus on learning to cook well first.)

# ¿ Sep 5, 2017 15:03

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

district 12 posted:

I recently went to Osaka and took a cooking class through Airbnb and it was awesome. I learned to make oshitaki, dashimaki, miso soup, and nikujaga. Everything was easy and delicious and I want to recreate this meal forever and ever. Are there any other stupid simple meals along these lines that anyone would like to recommend? Especially side dishes bc the oshitaki was fantastic

Oh holy gently caress, taking a cooking class in Japan would be incredibly baller. I totally need to make these dishes now.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2017 19:52

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

district 12 posted:

update on my home cooking desires: some kind of mustard greens side i bought at the grocery store was the perfect crisp bitterness to accompany baked miso salmon. i let the salmon sit in the marinade for a few hours and it seemed to have absorbed 90% of it, i didn't know salmon did that. but luckily it didn't turn out overly salty or anything. i roughly followed the miso salmon recipe on justonecookbook: https://www.justonecookbook.com/miso-salmon/

i'm so glad to be cooking again!
it's a holiday week in korea so i plan on making nikujaga at some point too since i have loads of free time. maybe tomorrow.

You mentioned going to a cooking class through Airbnb - how did you find this? My family might be doing a trip to Japan sometime next year, and I'd love to take a class like this. Do I need to be conversational in Japanese to attend?

Stringent posted:

If you can get pork belly and daikon, pork kakuni is probably my favorite easy homecooked meal.

Does that work with sliced pork belly, or does it need to be whole?

# ¿ Oct 12, 2017 03:11

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

So exactly how thin is Japanese curry supposed to be? I made some for dinner and uh, I think it's not quite right:

I'm reducing the unused portion right now and it's closer to the consistency I like, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing the point. It's S&B Golden Curry, if that helps.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2017 00:01

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

kirtar posted:

Almost certainly not that thin since that looks barely thickened or even colored. I seem to remember S&B Golden Curry to be pretty thick when made at the right strength (Vermont is also pretty thick). It should be the consistency of a pretty hearty stew.

Hrmmm. How many blocks am I supposed to use per cups of water? I'm beginning to think I didn't put in enough.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2017 00:17

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Feenix posted:

Vegetarian. Sounds like S.&B will work...

My friend shared her vegetarian curry recipe with me, actually:

quote:

we generally go w/ Golden Curry(hot) because that's what's available around here, and on its own its generally kinda bland.

but what I ususally do is (because I'm a vegitarian, you can do this w/ meat/chicken):
- 1 whole yellow(sweet) onion, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 - 2 bell peppers, finely chopped
- 1 brick super firm tofu (we get ours from trader joes, its packaged with almost no water and is firm like mock-meat), cubed
- half block tempeh, minced

In a pan, sautee the onions on medium/medium high heat make adjustments as nescesary) with a little sesame/coconut oil. when they're about 1/2way cooked, add the peppers, and after cooking for about 2-3 minutes, add the tofu/tempeh. I ususally throw a dash of Tamari and stir it all together because tamari is LIFE!!! and adds some extra umami to everything.

transfer the veg/tofu to a medium/large pot, and add 3 cups water, 1 can coconut milk (lacking oconut milk, 1 & 1/4th cup almond milk works too) & bring to a boil, stiring occasionally.

Closely monitor it because you don't want to boil for too long, just once it hits boiling, reduce to medium simmer and add your curry roux bricks. stir until fully disolved.

once that happens, immediately add:
- roughly 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (We use extra sharp because it adds extra umami)
- 1 bar hershey's chocolate, alternately 1/2 a king size if that's all you can find. (note: We've used other things like trader joes milk chocolate, which is admittedly better, hershey's is just more readibly available)

stir constantly until disolved, the curry will take on a darker brown hue due to the chocolate, and will add considerable depth to the flavor, and the cheese/chocolate with thicken the sauce considerably. If you prefer your curry sweeter, you can add one tablespoon of honey, but instead I add a pinch of salt and about a rough teaspoon of garam-masala powder for extra flavor/spice.

What I will be doing on the side here is in a medium tupperware, add 2 cups brocoli florets & a little water, cover, and then flash-steam via the microwave for 5:25. you can do this in advance but

I tend to add this at the last second just based on personal preference. once the brocoli is to your textural likeness(might require more flash-steaming), add it into the curry. I tend to not cook brocco w/ the other stuff in the pot because if you add it at the end, it doesn't absob all the flavor & you still get the brocco flavor which rules because LET IT BE KNOWN that I love broccoli

Stir the mixture and let it simmer until it starts to form a shimmery 'crust' on the surface layer. that's how you know its done. give it a good stir and remove from heat.

I serve it with sticky brown rice, and if you wanna be fancy you can chiffanade some spinach/arugula sprinkle on top.

for a single person, this will make enough curry to last for probably 7-8 servings, but between the two of us, it makes enough so that we can both have curry for at least 2-3 meals, which is great if you're a really lazy person. also, w/ the inclusion of tofu/tempeh, this dish is a protein powerhouse. if you were to add say, steamed edamame & meat/chicken, the protein content increases exponentially.

its generally even better on day two, like all curry, as the sauce coagulates together and the flavor matures.

Adding a Hershey's chocolate bar and extra sharp cheddar sounds bizarre, but apparently it works wonders.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2017 19:00

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

How do the Japanese do beef stew? I make it by sauteeing the poo poo out of chopped onion and a little garlic, deglazing+cooking off with red wine and stock, dumping in sliced/cubed vegetables (e.g. carrot, celery, onion) and beef shank, then simmer for a long time.

Does it deviate significantly from that formula? I actually noticed that シチュー often has some sort of cream in it, so that got me wondering.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2017 03:59

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Did it maybe confuse nori with konbu?

# ¿ Dec 14, 2017 22:28

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

I did the most marginal of Google searches and apparently chocolate and cheese in curry might actually be a thing:

https://macaro-ni.jp/41255

https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q14179687204?__ysp=44Kr44Os44O8IOODgeODvOOCug%3D%3D

It's not unheard of, as far as I can tell. Chocolate is already used in things like beef stews, so that makes sense...still don't know what's up with the cheese though.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2018 03:59

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Oh, trust me, I've had good experiences with chococheese in curry.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2018 04:49

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Cthulhu Dreams posted:

Not strictly a cooking question but we tried the Choyua matured Nigori Umeshu on the weekend and thought it was excellent, but availability seems very limited in Australia. Any recommendations for a similar taste that I could pick up?

I haven't tried nigori umeshu (though I want to), but I wanted to +1 the fact that umeshu is loving great. I want to try and use it in a cocktail, but I have no idea what to use it with...the fact that it's a good balance of tart and sweet and is fairly light on the alcohol content suggests that it's best on its own, too.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2018 01:30

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Guess I�m eating curry this week ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

# ¿ Feb 11, 2018 19:52

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Pressure cooker curry chat: cheese and chocolate trip report leaves me questioning the point of the cheese, but the chocolate makes it taste quite good. Pro choice, IMO. I also tried to use sweet potato in the curry but it practically liquifies. Though it does add a good bit of body...that might not be so bad.

I've had good success with using seared beef shank as the meat - if you find some out there cheap, I'd recommend it!

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 01:57

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

I'm gonna be starting a new job soon, and I want to get back into the swing of bringing my own lunch. I've got a perfectly good bento box I want to start using again, any suggestions on what bento staples I should learn using ingredients I can easily source in the United States? Stuff that tastes good cold and is easy to make ahead would be best, and I'm not afraid of just microwaving some sausages or shumai if I'm lazy. EDIT: Doesn't have to specifically be Japanese! Any cuisine works.

POOL IS CLOSED posted:

Yeah I'd add sweet potato late in cooking curry. It doesn't hold up to pressure cooking ime. Maybe if the time was super short...?

I'm considering just roasting it independently and adding it during the simmering/reducing process, or serving rounds as a side.

Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Feb 28, 2018

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 03:07

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

I'd worry about the curry itself making it too soggy, so I'd go with what Fleta suggested. Some well-chopped beef and vegetables strained from the curry would be fuckin' choice as a filling.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2018 18:49

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Gonna start bringing a bento to work again, but I never actually developed a good repertoire of dishes to include. I�m used to making big dishes that I can do in advance like stews, curries, pulled pork, etc., but in my experience that doesn�t work too well with a typical 2-tier box. I don�t wanna stick to strictly Japanese dishes either, just anything that tastes good cold/room temp and I can make batches of.

Stuff that comes to mind includes:

- Potato salad
- Salad
- Pickles
- Tuna-mayo onigiri

...and I don�t really have any other ideas. What�s a good set of small bits of food that can be made in advance, keeps well, and can be made with ingredients commonly found in American supermarkets?

I�m also probably going to avoid rice or at least reducing the amount I eat, so there�s that concern as well.

# ¿ May 21, 2018 17:21

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Suspect Bucket posted:

Chilli. Pasta sauces. Fried foods. Potstickers. Quesadillas. All can be batch made and reheated in a microwave or toaster oven. You can fry up a couple of chicken thighs, freeze, and pull them out individually to have with potato salad and Mac n cheese for southern US bento.

Potstickers and chicken thighs work, but my experience with sloppy stuff like chili and pasta sauce in bento is that it doesn�t...make a whole lot of sense? I�d expect that to be in jars or thermoses instead of a bento, which I associate more with drier foods.

paraquat posted:

I usually take a tiny bento-ish box to work (and two cheese sandwiched), and fill the box with a sliced apple (I slice it before work and it's still fine when it's time for lunch), some cherry tomatoes, some almonds and a medjool date.

Instead of rice, you could use couscous with chickpeas (make a salad out of those, with orange zest, scallions, raisins, sweet pepper, onions, whatever you like :-) )

Salad definitely works, sandwiches I�d wonder why not just bring a plastic baggie. Snacks sound good tho. Hrmmmm...

# ¿ May 23, 2018 21:57

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Snacks might not be a bad idea. I�m thinking ez finger foods n poo poo.

- mozzarella+marinated mushroom kebabs
- roasted cocktail weenies
- tiny meatballs in sauce
- bologna/salami/pepperoni and cheese wheels
- random-rear end tamagoyaki
- onigiri filled with tunamayo or leftover curry meat
- deviled eggs, natch
- those �muffin omelette� things
- grapes
- sliced apples
- meatloaf slices? hrm

Maybe I�ll pick up some nori.

If I can even put this stuff in the box and pull the box out in the morning that could work too :o is there a reason I wouldn�t want to do that?

Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 22:06 on May 25, 2018

# ¿ May 25, 2018 22:03

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Getting back into bento:

Not sure if I like the kanikama/cabbage salad...either it needs more seasoning, or I just don�t like the taste of kanikama.

Working on applying principles in my boxes. Color balance I�m starting to get a hang of, even though what I put together is rarely harmonious in taste and everything is still brown as gently caress and not very vibrant, but I don�t know if I�ve got space/cramming down yet - there�s often some spaces that still need to be filled, but even if I fight full then the box is a little weird to close sometimes. Also, I�m practically cooking for hours every evening to build up a backlog of stuff to fill with :gonk:

I�ve also been filling it with both hot and cold food at night, then sticking it in the fridge and pulling it out before I leave. The food is always cold at lunch

it takes time to heat stuff and put it all together, so I hoped to save some time in the morning, but it�s kind of dissatisfying...maybe I should just microwave stuff in the morning?

Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Jun 13, 2018

# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 17:17

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Uhhhh poo poo. Okay, I guess I should be worried about that. The box is definitely not microwaveable, but that handwarmer idea is a good one. I�ll see what else I can make.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2018 16:43

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Not for me. I have hosed those up every time I tried, and sweetened eggs taste very strange.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2018 14:49

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

In episode 4 of Today's Menu for the Emiya Family, they make a sandwich out of crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, blanched sansai, and a mustard spread. I want to make this, but I'm not sure what common USA greens are analogous to sansai. Broccoli rabe and fiddleheads, maybe? Is there a closer alternative?

EDIT: It looks like they're specifically using nanohana in the sandwich, if that helps.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2018 16:55

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

So I ended up making that sandwich (more or less - I hosed up the egg part thinking I could just cheat with egg salad) and used yu choy as the greens. The taste was great, but unfortunately, I don't really like how the greens came out. The bacon and the egg are crispy and distinct and separate very easily when you take a bite, but the stalks of the greens don't and come out whole along with the rest of the bite, causing the rest of the sandwich to collapse. Am I just using the wrong kind of green? Should I be using something crunchier/that breaks more easily? Or is this expected?

# ¿ Oct 7, 2018 17:23

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

How the hell am I supposed to use onigiri molds properly? I have the kind that makes two at a time and has an optional divot for making small holes, but I have no idea what that's for besides maybe sticking a little filling in. Am I supposed to put rice -> filling -> rice then press? I tried that and I ended up making a hilariously big rice/tuna-mayo sandwich.

If I bought this thing I'm drat well going to actually use it, so I might as well learn how.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2019 00:39

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Tendales posted:

You can ignore the removable divot. It's for making a dent in the outside of your onigiri that you can put a bit of umeboshi or pickle or something for those pretty instagram-worthy onigiri.

Step one: Splash some water around inside the mold, then shake it back out again. Sprinkle a little seasoning into the barely damp mold. Just a bit of salt is fine, or maybe some furikake if you want. I use Johnny's seasoning, what of it

Step two: Put some rice in there. Warm or hot rice will cohere better. Fill it up about 2/3 of the way, then use your finger to push a well into the rice. Spoon your filling into the hole, then put more rice on top. Digging that little well should help keep your filling from trying to escape out the sides. Also, you don't need a lot of filling. Like maybe half as much as you think.

Step three: Put the lid on and give a squeeze, but don't crush it. If it doesn't squeeze shut, you used too much rice. If it doesn't squeeze at all you didn't put enough rice in.

I�m good at digging into wells. This helps a lot! Thanks!

Stringent posted:

onigiri molds what the gently caress?

use your hands you loving sperg.

I tried being handsy and ended up with tunamayo-rice mash patties and I lost like a layer of skin on my palms. gently caress it, mold works.

Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 14:56 on Jan 9, 2019

# ¿ Jan 9, 2019 14:53

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Leftover curry meat, chile verde pork, egg salad, those weird red cabbage pickles you need to use up...

# ¿ Apr 30, 2019 14:17

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Oh man, a bento drawer. That's not such a bad idea. Having to make poo poo from scratch every night was the biggest pain in the rear end of making bento, anything that makes it easier to put a box together helps immensely.

I've been making karaage recently, using the Cooking with Dog recipe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEX_rCVTPKE), and it's loving delicious - though I wonder if I'm getting the batter down right. I'm used to fried chicken having like a tough crunch to it, but karaage is a lot softer than that - is that normal? Maybe it's because I'm using potato starch instead of flour and breadcrumbs or something. And how dry/wet should the batter be - sticking well to the chicken, or falling off of it?

EDIT: It looks like another thing I should be doing is using deboned whole chicken thighs instead of boneless skinless thighs, since wrapping the meat in the skin helps keep the chicken pieces together instead of blobbing out. And I see kind of a mix in terms of whether people dredge the chicken in potato starch, or incorporate the potato starch into the marinade+beaten egg mixture. Not sure which I should be doing.

Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 01:11 on May 19, 2019

# ¿ May 19, 2019 00:46

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Yeah, I've had trouble getting the oil temperature down exactly right. The "stick some chopsticks/batter in it and see if it bubbles" adage isn't very accurate, and my pen thermometer doesn't go up as far as 325~380. It really probably is as simple as the oil being too cold.

But goddamn, is it still absolutely loving delicious anyway. I bite into a piece and there's just this layer of fat and meat and ughghghghghhghghghghghhg I need more.

# ¿ May 19, 2019 04:18

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Johnny Truant posted:

Not what I was thinking of but that's a great bottle.

Babby's first okonomiyaki!

Oh man, I just totally blanked on the fact that you can just make okonomiyaki at home. :psyduck:

I need to try this! Finding bonito flakes might be a bitch though.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2019 03:34

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

I mean I could but also I can just stop by Hmart on my way back from work and try there. Super 88 looks fuckin dope tho.

Goddammit I gotta make okonomiyaki for dinner sometime. I�m so hungryyyy

# ¿ Jun 24, 2019 04:55

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

I still have no idea what the difference between leeks and negi is. At least nira are distinct.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2019 15:26

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

I've recently fallen in love with sushi vinegar (and therefore sushi rice), but there's no way I'm gonna deal with raw fish on my own, since I'm not an expert. Any good recipes that use seasoned rice with cooked ingredients? Some sort of easy oshizushi, maybe?

# ¿ Oct 28, 2019 04:05

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Grand Fromage posted:

Chita might be worse now that I'm thinking about it, poo poo was pretty gross. I could barely chug the entire bottle on the train.

I thought you weren�t allowed to drink on the train?

On the topic of booze, genshu blows everything else out of the water.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2019 03:51

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Tried my hand at sushi rice tonight and wow, you really do wanna go kinda light on the sushi vinegar. :barf:

I mean, I love vinegar, but I think I overdid it. Plus, it's reheated rice, so it ended up kinda waterlogged...there's some sort of proper ratio that I have to figure out.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2019 00:56

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

I tried eating curry with seasoned rice and some pickled radishes and oh man that's a bit too much for curry. Really threw me off, I'd rather eat with sticky plain rice instead. I do like a little bit of pickled ginger with it though.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2019 18:20

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Stringent posted:

I've been enjoying this youtube channel lately.

This guy does a good job with the izakaya junk food style dishes that I can't help but love.

Something I saw in one of his videos - what exactly does 作り置き mean? Just foods that keep well or something?

# ¿ Jan 4, 2020 22:26

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# ¿ May 19, 2024 06:08

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Batch foods, gotcha. That's what I expected. I should look some of those up, it looks real convenient for meal prep.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2020 05:45

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > The new Japanese Cooking Thread: Now With 72% Less Pocky and Instant Ramen.

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