Japanese Recipes
207 recipes found
Niku Jyaga (Japanese Beef and Potato Stew)
There’s nothing extraordinary about meat and potatoes stewed in a sweet soy broth, and yet it’s easy to find yourself taking just one more taste until half the pot is gone. Patience pays off though: niku jyaga tastes better the second day, when the potatoes are saturated with sauce. Every household makes it a little differently in Japan, and so the flavor is affectionately called “mother’s taste.” Saori Kurioka, a private chef in Brooklyn, cooks hers the same minimalist way her mother and grandmother did in Kobe, with just beef, potatoes, onion and carrot. She uses a wooden otoshibuta, a drop-lid that fits inside the pot, so the vegetables simmer and steam evenly as the broth slowly concentrates, but the same thing can be achieved with parchment paper. Beveling the edges of the potatoes with a peeler keeps them from crumbling as the jostle around the simmering pot, but skip it if you’re rushed or impatient.
Fruit Sandwich
The origins of the fruit sandwich are believed to go back to Japan’s luxury fruit stores and the fruit parlors attached to them. This version comes from Yudai Kanayama, a native of Hokkaido who runs the restaurants the Izakaya NYC and Dr Clark in New York. Fresh fruit — fat strawberries, golden mango, kiwi with black ellipses of seeds, or whatever you like — is engulfed in whipped cream mixed with mascarpone, which makes it implausibly airy yet dense. (In Japanese, the texture is called fuwa-fuwa: fluffy like a cloud.) Pressed on either side are crustless slices of shokupan, milk bread that agreeably springs back. The sandwich looks like dessert but isn’t, or not exactly; it makes for a lovely little meal that feels slightly illicit, as if for a moment there are no rules.
Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Soup)
Whether served on top of a bowl of rice or with chewy udon noodles, thinly shaved beef cooked with onions in a sweet-savory dashi broth is classic, warming Japanese comfort food that can be made in minutes once your pantry is stocked with a few simple Japanese staples.
Tuna Poke
This is a dish that comes from Long Island, New York, not the Big Island of Hawaii, a Northeastern take on a Pacific classic. I’ve made it with Atlantic bonito caught offshore and yellowfin tuna bought at the market, the meat trimmed, cubed and mixed with sesame oil and soy sauce, a little chile-garlic sauce and lot of chopped scallions. I top the salad with roasted macadamia nuts and a few vigorous shakes of furikake, a Japanese seasoning that is made of sesame seeds, dried fish and seaweed, salt and sugar. It makes for about the most delicious eating in the world.
Dashi
A cornerstone of Japanese cuisine, this basic kombu and bonito dashi from “Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking” by Naoko Takei Moore and Kyle Connaughton (Ten Speed Press, 2015) is full of umami but made from just two ingredients: kombu (dry kelp) and katsuobushi (smoked, dried bonito flakes). It has smoky, salty, savory notes and tastes restorative on its own, but more often contributes depth to many traditional Japanese recipes, used as one might use any other broth to build flavor. After infusing the water with the kombu and katsuobushi, avoid the temptation to press the katsuobushi to extract as much liquid as possible — doing so would alter the equilibrium of this delicate dashi, which tastes oceanic but not overtly fishy.
Mushroom Miso Soup
This miso-enriched brothy soup is pleasing on many levels. You get complex flavor with minimal effort, especially if you make the dashi in advance. All the little garnishes are optional.
Japanese Burgers With Wasabi Ketchup
This burger recipe comes from the chef Tadashi Ono's 2011 book, “The Japanese Grill: From Classic Yakitori to Steak, Seafood and Vegetables,” written with Harris Salat. The writer Alex Witchel raved about it in The Times that same year: “Half beef, half pork, it stayed uncannily moist despite being cooked through. Perfection.”
Teriyaki Sauce
The beauty of teriyaki sauce is in its balance of salty and sweet without the noise of sharp garlic, hot chiles or any other ingredients. You can add seasonings, if you like, or stick to the original, which calls for only sake, soy and mirin. Brown sugar gives this blend gloss and a syrupy consistency ideal for drizzling over ready-to-eat ingredients. But you could also skip the sugar and simmer just sake, soy sauce and mirin in the proportions below with your dish, thickening it into a glaze that clings to the main ingredient.
Hoshigaki (Dried Persimmons)
Japanese hoshigaki are a special, seasonal treat made with firm, astringent Hachiya persimmons that are dried for a few weeks until they become extremely tender and sweet. The prep is a little intensive — each fruit must be peeled, dunked in boiling water and suspended in such a way that it doesn’t touch anything, to discourage mold from forming. If the stems haven’t been cut so they’re easy to tie with string, they will require binder clips or another makeshift hanging solutions. But after the persimmons are set up, all they need is plenty of time, sunlight and air to transform into succulent hoshigaki. Slice the dried fruit and nibble it as is for dessert, pair it with good cheese, or toss it into a simple green salad.
Miso Soup
In the United States, especially in Japanese American restaurants, the standard version of miso soup usually involves little more than soft tofu, seaweed and a lily-pad suspension of scallions. Think of this recipe as your blank canvas: You could add thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms at the end, or replace the katsuobushi entirely with dried shiitakes for a vegan version. Fried tofu, clams and even chicken are all fair game when cooking miso soup at home. The chef Seiji Ando, of Benkay restaurant in Portland, Maine, adds sake and mirin for balance, and says even a tiny bit of butter can be delicious.
Short-Grained Rice
Japanese short-grained rice, sometimes labeled as "sushi rice," needs a good rinsing before you cook it in a ratio of one cup of water for every cup of rice. The result is smooth and pearly rice that holds together well without being gummy, and tastes of the grain. You can make it on the stovetop. But once you start using an electric rice cooker, it is hard to go back. Serve it with soy-sauce-pickled eggs.
Kare Rice (Curry Rice)
Kare rice is instantly nostalgic and hearty, a dish that’s both warming and filling. Japanese curry has origins in India, and it made its way to Japan’s populace by way of the British. By the late 1960s, kare rice became a common sight in Japanese markets and restaurants, and the dish has since found its way into kitchens all over the world. There are as many variations of kare rice as there are cooks preparing the dish: It can easily be made pescatarian (utilizing seafood as the protein), vegetarian or even vegan (omitting the chicken and utilizing a vegetable-based broth). In this version, dashi is used to add umami, with a range of vegetables to add texture to the dish alongside its chicken.
Kakuni (Braised Pork Belly)
Kakuni — “square-simmered” in Japanese — is a dish of pork belly cubes that are tender and savory after simmering slowly in a base of soy sauce, sugar and sake. The dish is eaten all over Japan, but its origins are in China. The dish most likely stemmed from dongpo pork: a Chinese braised pork belly dish believed to have been created in the Song dynasty. Because of a strong Chinese presence on Japan’s island of Kyushu, Japanese-Chinese style dishes emerged over time, becoming more distinctly local with each passing century. Now, kakuni remains popular in hubs like Nagasaki — but it’s cooked in homes and izakayas all over. By blending basic Japanese ingredients and allowing ample patience while cooking, a deeply flavorful and rich dish that embodies comfort results.
Potato Korokke
Korokke, or Japanese croquettes, are comforting oval-shaped staples. The dish was introduced to Japan in the late 1800s and is said to have descended from French croquettes. Now, you’re as likely to find these crunchy-creamy cakes in a neighbor’s kitchen as at a butcher’s shop, street vendor or convenience store counter. Potato korokke consists of mashed potatoes folded into a mixture of onion and ground beef, but that formula is a platform for endless variation. Kabocha korokke substitutes potatoes with Japanese squash; kani cream korokke is filled with crabmeat and bound by bechamel; kare rice korokke eats like a distant cousin of arancini; kon kurimu korokke uses corn and cream. Leftover korokke can be reheated and eaten with toasted milk bread for a miracle sandwich.
Five Vegetables and 15-Grain Rice Pot
Pickled Mackerel
The chef Kyle Connaughton’s recipe for pickled mackerel is straight out of the Japanese playbook. It’s simple and foolproof to prepare, and the time it takes is mostly unattended. He serves it plain or over rice that’s been dressed with some cucumber and toasted sesame seeds. I also tried seasoning the rice with a couple of spoonfuls of the leftover vinegar marinade plus grated ginger, black sesame seeds, minced scallions and diced avocado, and Mr. Connaughton seconded that idea, as well as the notion of serving the pickled fish Scandinavian-style, with sour cream, sweet onions and boiled potatoes.
Japanese Curry Brick
This recipe for buttery curry brick comes from the cookbook author and teacher Sonoko Sakai, who wanted a homemade alternative to the industrial, store-bought cubes that make the thick, spicy sauce for Japanese curries. Sakai wanted to avoid palm oil, preservatives and artificial ingredients, so her version starts with whole toasted spices, ground into a fine powder and stirred into a gently browned roux of butter and flour. Feel free to play with the spice proportions — increase the chile powder for a hotter curry or the kombu for more sweetness. No matter how you tweak it, the best part about Sakai’s recipe is that it makes enough for several meals, and you can store the extra curry bricks in the fridge or freezer, so you’re ready to make a curry whenever you like (see the note below for instructions).
Nina Simonds's Broiled Halibut With Miso Glaze
Miso-Glazed Fish
Most recipes for miso-glazed fish are for salmon, because fatty fish are well suited for this preparation and salmon is particularly delicious. Nobu Matsuhisa is known for his miso-marinated black cod, which he marinates for two to three days. I can’t imagine finding fish fresh enough to marinate for that long, so in my recipe I marinate the fish for a few hours before broiling and then finishing, if necessary, in the oven. The marinade is based on the Matsuhisa recipe, but I’ve reduced the sugar considerably.
Vegetable Shabu Shabu in Kombu-Ginger Broth
This soothing broth comes together quickly with the help of umami-rich kombu. But the secret weapon is the grated ginger stirred in at the end. The raw ginger keeps the broth fresh and bright. Kombu is rich in valuable minerals and vitamins, so don’t waste it; once the broth is made, chop the kombu and add it back to the pot. The nice chewy texture and mushroomy flavor play well with the daikon and tofu.
Japanese-Style Rice Salad
Whether it’s tender and tasty short-grain, astonishingly fragrant basmati or superchewy red, brown and black varieties, rice is one salad ingredient that does not deteriorate when dressed. It absorbs and thrives on the addition of liquids.
Loaded Miso Soup
Many vegan dishes (like fruit salad and peanut butter and jelly) are already beloved, but the problem faced by many of us is in imagining less-traditional dishes that are interesting and not challenging. Miso soup is a more adventurous, though no more complicated, option to try.
Vegan Vegetable Tempura
Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken)
At Kunyan, a ramen shop in a mountain hot-spring town near the Sea of Japan, fried chicken is served until 2 a.m., or whenever the last customer leaves. The flesh is firm and flavorful with sweetened soy and garlic, coated in a fox-colored crust of potato starch that stays crisp on the table through a second round of highballs. Kunyan’s “mama,” who presides over pan-frying gyoza and pouring frothy Super Dry beer, would never give up her recipe, but the flavors in this version are awfully similar. To approximate the best Japanese chicken — meatier, fattier, and more flavorful than American supermarket meat — buy your chicken from a farmers' market, and debone it yourself or ask a butcher. Don’t feel pressure to do it perfectly: The pieces will be encrusted in a crisp coating, and the leftover bones make great stock.