How to cook Nikujaga – japanese beef stew & potatoes

This is a delicious recipe i just tried the other day. I checked out several cookbooks and decided on a simple one. The recipe’s sounds just about right. It’s definitely lovely with rice. Beef and potatoes, how can you go wrong i tell you…

I hear it’s a very popular dish in Japan as well. Everyone should try it. It’s yummy and it’s such a comfort meal.

The ingredients are basically some good beef, sliced thinly or in cubes and some nice potatoes. For a recipe for 2, you need about 2 cups of dashi or water will do. Personally, a dashi stock would give it an extra boost in flavour. Get the Ajinomoto Instant dashi stock available in Jusco and Isetan, it comes in the form of granules like instant chicken stock. Just add a teaspoon of that. Next 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, 3 tablespoons of mirin, 3 tablespoons of sake or rice wine. Now easy is that??? You can also add some carrots and brown onions.

First add a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok or pan, then stir fry the beef a little. Then when cooked, add in the carrots and potatoes. Stir fry a little as well. Then add the stock or water and the remaining ingredients. Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook in low heat / simmer for about an hour (the longer the more tender the beef becomes). After an hour the stock would have reduced, a thicken a little and the flavours are blended in….and the potatoes and beef are so bloody tender and nice.

Serve with rice and some soup…

It does look a bit like the curry recipe i posted earlier, it’s because it’s almost the same method of cooking only the stock is different…

Next on my recipe list is Tonjiru soup….I just need to know where the hell to get a burdock root!!

How To Cook Zaru-Soba

This is another easy dish to make and it’s eaten cold. Sounds weird, that’s what I thought as well but after having a taste, I liked it instantly. You can either make the soup from scratch or you can just buy the instant soup based type soy sauce (Soba-Tsuyu). A bottle cost about RM7-8. The one featured above is from Nissin. Not too bad.  

What you need is Buckwheat Noodles (Soba), Soba Tsuyu, Momi Nori (Shredded Seaweed), Water.

Cook soba like how you would with spaghetti/pasta.

Rinse soba under cold water.

Place the soba on a plate or for better presentation on a bamboo mat/box.

Mix 1/3 Soba Tsuyu into a bowl of cold water 2/3.

Just bring the noodles into the bowl and eat away. Simple and delicious! I like this when I’m just too lazy cook up anything else. It’s great to have when friends are over, it looks great and it’s tasty.

How To Cook Oyako Donburi

This is another easy dish to make. Great for a quick dinner and it’s delicious as well. For my version,

I added some bacon for that extra smoky saltiness, even tastier now!    

• What you need are 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of Mirin, a tablespoon of Japanese soya

• sauce, chicken cubes, bacon diced to bits, spring onions, shitake mushrooms, ½ cup of dashi.

• Firstly, heat some oil and cook the chicken and bacon together.

• Add the mushrooms, dashi, mirin and soya sauce.

• Beat the eggs and add them into the wok.

• Let it just set a little, do not overcook the eggs.

• Scoop the eggs mixture and place it above a bowl of steam Japanese rice.

• Sprinkle some chopped spring onions…Voila.

 This is one of my regular Sunday lunches as sometimes I just get too lazy to go out. What I usually do is, I would cook the rice, enough for about 4 persons. I would then keep the remaining uneaten rice in the freezer or fridge, then when I feel like eating say the above recipe I would just have to reheat it in the microwave. This saves the hassle of cooking the rice every time you want to eat this. It looks bland, but it’s tasty and healthy!

How To Cook Japanese Curry

Recipe One – Japanese Curry

Today’s feature product will be S&B’s Torokeru Curry Karakuchi. Priced at RM8.70, and it is good for 10 people! So if you are cooking for 2 it’s good for 5 times! This is a type of Curry Roux, curry paste. This of course is curry Japanese style, and far easier way to cook curry. This dish, as I mentioned earlier, is very easy and tasty! たいへにゃさしい！

 Some Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, Meat (beef or chicken or whatever strikes your fancy.  Cut them up to bite size pieces.   Fry them in some oil, until the onions and meat are slightly browned  Add some water, and bring it to a boil until the potatoes and carrots are soft enough.Add the paste, some paste come in cube forms and some like this. For 2 people, half a palm should do it       Simmer the curry until it thickens, stir it constantly.   Serve delicious curry with rice. (medium grained would be perfect) いただきます！

I boiled some miso soup to go with the rice as well, completing my meal quite nicely. Some will say the Indian curry or Nyonya curry are still the best. I can’t agree more, but noticed that there isn’t any coconut milk involved here and it is still very tasty. So there you go, a healthy meal!There are many brands and types of curry at the Japanese section in the Supermarket. They all look the same, some are just instant ready to eat curry where all you have to do is boil the silver packet and presto which I will feature as well. But trust me, making your own is a much better experience. Japanese curry comes in different variations of spiciness too, Mild to Hot and they rate it 1 to 5. This one is 4, which really is a joke for Malaysians.A tip, add half a teaspoon of instant coffee for a more robust flavour.  If you are cooking beef, leave on slow heat, covered for about an hour or more. This is to tenderize the meat. This dish with beef is excellent!