Shirasu-don

"Don" is literally a oversized bowl, but also means a rice bowl dish consisting meat, fish and and vegetables served on cooked rice.

For example, Gyu-don consists of sliced beaf simmerd with onion, soy sauce and sugar on rice and Tekka-don is a rice bowl topped with thin-sliced raw tuna. We have various don dishes and ingredients are rich in variety as one in the Japanese traditional style and another in the Japanese-Chinese hybrid.

This is today's dinner, Shirasu-don. Shirasu means whitebait in Japanese. The term applies to juveniles of engraulis japonica and sardines. It is called "Shirasu" in the Kanto region including Tokyo and "Chirimenjako" in the Kansai region, the southern-central area of Japanese main island. There are 3 type of Shirasu, one is fresh which is only eaten along the fishery coast, another is boiled which is called "Kamaage" and the other is boiled and sun dried. Today I put Kamaage Shirasu, some pieces of laver, curing salmon roes, finely chopped leeks and grated fresh ginger root on rice.

This is Taiyaki, a Japanese fish-shaped cake filled with sweetened red bean paste that is made from azuki beans. It is a folksy snack sold at a corner shop. Lately there are a variety of fillings, custard cream, chocolate cream and cheese.

This is a Taiyaki shaped soap. It is well done, isn't it?

How to cook Japanese rolled omelet

Tamagoyaki, Japanese rolled omelette is one of traditional dishes for  breakfast and bento. Tamago means egg and yaki does "grilled". It is composed of several thin layers of cooked egg usually prepared in a rectangular omelette pan. Egg is seasoned with sugar, salt or soy sauce, though each family has a taste of its own. My daughter likes the sweeten one.

How to cook Tamagoyaki.

3 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
Vegetable oil

Beat eggs and suger until well mixed. Heat the pan on medium heat and grease with oil.

Pour a forth of the mixture into the pan and spread over the surface.

Roll the egg toward the one side before the surface get cooked through.

Oil the vacant space of the pan again and  pour in a third of the remaining mixture.  Then lift the cooked egg to spread the uncooked egg over the surface of the pan.

Cook it until half done and roll again quickly.

Repeat it twice more times with the remaining mixture.










Put the omelette on cutting board and leave it for 10 minutes. Then cut it into 3cm width.

Memo : Cool all dishes before packing into a bento box to prevent rotting and food poisoning.

Grilled Beef Bento

This bento box is my favorite one, because a reusable cold pack dedicated to it is attached. It is very good to prevent bento from going bad in summer. Some schools and kindergartens have a heat-retaining machine in each classroom and a few electric appliance manufacturers release several types of thermal bento box, but it is difficult to keep it cool at school and office. So such a cold pack is very useful.

Today's bento menu :

Korean beef bowl consisting rice topped with grilled beef seasoned with soy sauce, sugar, grated garlic and sesame oil.

Kimchi, a traditional fermented napa cabbage seasoned with chili pepper.

Boiled Komatsuna, a type of leaf vegetable known as Japanese Mustard Spinach.

Tamagoyaki, a kind of Sweet Omelette that is one of the traditional dishes for bento. It is difficult to cook for beginners.

I will introduce how to cook Tamagoyaki with pics on the next post. Don't miss it!

Inarizushi, Japanese family-style sushi

This is Inari-zushi that fried tofu skin (aburaage) cooked in soy sauce and sugar, then stuffed with a mixture of vinegared rice(sumeshi), brown sea vegetable(hijiki), boiled carrots cut into fine strips and lightly roasted sesames. It is prepared on auspicious event. I often cook it for family picnics, outings and an athletic meet that held at my daughter's school every fall and allows to bring bento.

Aburaage is a fried tofu and you can easily get it in Japan. If you cannot, you'd better cook it by yourself. At first drain water off a whole of tofu to roll with paper towel and to press with something put on it. And cut it into thin slices and deep frying first at 110~120 °C then at 180~200 °C again until light bown. Dried hijiki needs to rince with cold water and soak in the water for 5-10minutes.
Cut it in half to opened into pockets creating spaces for the rice. Then boil it for 3 minutes to remove the excess oil and dry with paper towels. Let it simmer gently with 200ml water, 30ml soysauce and 30ml sugar for 20minutes in a pot with a small lid resting directly on aburaage. Let it cool in the broth.

Polish 360ml uncooked rice and soak it into water for 30minutes before cooking. After cooking, add the mixture of 50ml rice vinegar, 10ml sugar and a pinch of salt while it's hot. Then mix with a rubber spatula fanning it to let it cool. Add hijiki, boiled carrots and roasted sesames.

Lightly press to remove the excess broth and open the pocket. Then stuff inside with the rice mixture. Fold in the open side to close the pocket.