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Appetisers & Starters

? The meatloaf is flavoured with miso, soy sauce and sugar so it is quite different from the Western style meatloaf. It looks fiddly but actually, it is quite simple to make. Great as finger food or an accompanying side dish for a Japanese meal.

Japanese Chicken Meatloaf (Noshidori)

Edamame is served at Japanese restaurants but you can make it easily at home and it’s much cheaper. Perfect snack for a crowd. It goes very well with drinks, particularly beer, but I don’t mind any drinks with edamame.

Edamame

This is an elegant looking dish suitable as an appetiser or a side dish. Steamed lotus root balls are made of grated lotus roots mixed with prawns (shrimps), gingko nuts and green peas.

Steamed Lotus Root Balls

When bite size pieces of deep fried fish are marinated in slightly sweet vinegar and soy based sauce with plenty of shredded vegetables, it transforms the fish into something totally different.

Nanbanzuke (Marinated Fried Fish)

Agedashi Tofu (or Agedashi Dofu) is one of the a-la-carte dishes you always find on the menu at Japanese restaurants. It is delicate and simple but so yummy. The sweet soy sauce-based dashi goes so well with deep fried tofu.

Japanese Fried Tofu (Agedashi Tofu)

The flavour of Simmered Chicken and Vegetables, Chikuzenni, is a typical combination of dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar but the ingredients are stir-fried first so the dish is much richer than other simmered dishes.

Chikuzenni (Simmered Chicken and Vegetables) Two Ways

One of the few Japanese dishes that is eaten with a spoon, Chawanmushi is the appetiser that is almost always served in Kaiseki ryori. The egg is mixed with dashi, soy sauce, mirin and salt, then carefully steamed with various ingredients in it. The texture of the egg custard is so smooth and delicate.

Chawanmushi (Savoury Egg Custard)

The Japanese version of steamed dumpling, shumai (or shao mai) is quite easy to make. It only contains pork mince, onion and few typical Japanese seasonings, but it tastes so good.

Shumai (or Shao Mai, Steamed Dumpling)

Gomoku-mame (五目豆, Simmered Soybeans with Vegetables) is a wonderful, healthy vegetarian dish. Soybeans are cooked with diced root vegetables in a sweet soy sauce flavour. It keeps well for several days in the fridge and you can freeze it, too.

Gomoku-mame (Simmered Soybeans with Vegetables)

Nuta (ぬた or 饅) is a miso and vinegar based dressing. It is made with miso, vinegar and sugar, with or without Japanese mustard. One of the representative nuta is tuna and shallots (scallions) nuta. It is a great accompaniment for drinks, particularly sake. Miso dressing goes well with many different ingredients and you can be creative.

Seafood Nuta (Miso Dressing) Two Ways

Octopus and cucumber sunomono is one of the regular Izakaya dishes. Boiling a whole octopus is quite simple and you can make this sunomono in no time. It tastes better when chilled.

Octopus and Cucumber Sunomono (Vinegar Dressing)

If you love pork, you must try this kakuni (角煮, simmered pork belly). The pork is so tender with lovely sweet soy sauce flavour, yet it retains the flavour of ‘pork meat’. It takes time to cook the pork until it almost falls apart but it is pretty easy to make.

Kakuni (Japanese Simmered Pork Belly)

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Hi, I’m Yumiko!

I was born and raised in Japan and migrated to Australia with my family in 1981. I got tired of my kids constantly asking me for their favourite Japanese recipes, so I decided to collate them in one place so they can help themselves - and now you can too! Read More…

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