Japanese Cooking and Recipes

[Kinsora]

Originally Posted by GTJ

Stick it in some bread and you have あんぱん. That's the simpliest and yummiest thing I can think of and I do it all the time. It's the poor man's あんぱん!

Haha!
I was actually thinking イチゴ大福、but it seems like the 大福 batter would be hard.

*PS, is that kanji right?

[TokyoSamurai20]

What are some good and reliable japanese food recipe sites that I can go to and get recipes for japanese food?

[jwfort]

ohagi

It's served during Shunbun no hi. It's actually supposed to be given to familie's ancestor's tombstone. the japanese believe that their ancestors will only eat round food. So ohagi is usually made round.

heres a link of the recipe and different toppings to put on the riceball.

Japanese Recipe: Ohagi | The Anime Blog

[jamachahi]

Originally Posted by GTJ

Stick it in some bread and you have あんぱん. That's the simpliest and yummiest thing I can think of and I do it all the time. It's the poor man's あんぱん!

Food... Mayby food and music? Video on right bottom of page:

Profil muzyczny Michu_z – Użytkownicy w Last.fm

[Eureka77]

Seeing "food" is making me hungry.

[Yamha]

I'm sorry, but what is stock? I wanted to make ramen, but I don't know what stock is. I checked the dictionary, but the word didn't fit.

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by Yamha

I'm sorry, but what is stock? I wanted to make ramen, but I don't know what stock is. I checked the dictionary, but the word didn't fit.

Stock basically means a liquid made by slowly boiling meat or fish trimmings or vegetables in water. It's used as a basis to make sauces and gravy's and soups. For example when I cook a sunday roast, all the peelings from the vegetables go into a separate pan of water with a bay leaf and let to simmer and that makes up my gravy stock. Afterwards I take the left-over gravy I made with ~that~ stock and boil it up again with whatever is left-over of the meat joint to make a thick soup stock. Very economical!

You can also cheat and buy in cubes in the supermarket and mix with hot water. They look like this: http://img.21food.com/userimages/sunriseint/sunriseint$16113920.jpg
Knorr is a pretty good brand. I like their jelly-type version of this.
Home made is always better though!

Ramen stocks always seem a bit complicated and daunting for beginners though. I don't know about elsewhere but often if you ask for bones and scraps at the butcher's it's often free.
Here's a link to a ramen stock recipe: Ramen Stock (if you google there's lots more)

[Yamha]

Thank you! Ok, then I know what it is. We usually just use the cubes, but perhaps I could try to make it from scratch.

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by Yamha

Thank you! Ok, then I know what it is. We usually just use the cubes, but perhaps I could try to make it from scratch.

It's not too difficult. A chicken stock is really easy to make. ^^ Here's how I do it:

(Basic ingredients)
* chicken bones. Left over from pre-roasted bird are best but really any will do. Bones need not be 'clean', in fact best if there's still a bit of meat on them. Place in large pan.
* Add enough water to cover.
Add:
* large pinch salt
* large pinch black pepper (or several whole pepper corns)
* Small onion peeled and halved
* medium carrot cut into large chunks

(Optional extras for interest)
* whole fresh herbs such as rosemary, bay leaf, thyme.
* whole clove garlic
* half a lemon
* Stick of celery
* inch of whole root ginger
* any spanking-fresh dirt-free vegetable peelings or leaves EXCEPT POTATO. Potato makes it starchy and horrible. Ditto Yam. I never use starchy root vegetables for stock. Pre-roasted vegetables of most sorts are alright to add, but pre-boiled veg. tends to turn to flavourless mush. Fruit-veg like tomatoes, courgettes (zuchinni), marrow, squashes etc, can go a bit weird. It's best to cook them separately and add them later if you really want them. Ditto mushrooms.

Bring to boil, let boil for 10 mins, reduce to simmer for at least half an hour to an hour; more if the pot is very large. Stock doesn't really have a 'done' stage; provided all the meat is cooked through, you can let it sit and simmer for a long time.

The beautiful thing is, most stocks for cooking world-wide are only variations on this theme. A typical simple Japanese dashi, for example, is made using flakes of dried bonito in place of bones and a strip of kombu in place of onion and carrot. Best of all you can make it up in a large batch and freeze it in portions to use later.

[Yamha]

Thank you so much It was very nice of you to write all that. No, it didn't look that difficult the way you did it, and I think we have most of the ingredients too, so. Perhaps we could have chicken tomorrow, and I could try to make ramen the next day.