Teriyaki sauce not only pairs well with chicken but with fish as well. I already cooked chicken teriyaki. As teriyaki sauce can be made very easily, I decided to try it on this sea bass.
Following the same procedures that I did with chicken teriyaki, I fried the sea bass fillets on hot pan, nearly seared them until just cooked. The fish was still tender and retained moisture inside.
Sea bass really went well with this sauce. Sprinkle the fish with thinly sliced spring onion, you’ll have a simple but delicious meal. Fish is always our favorite (we believe eating fish is healthier than meat). And I’m glad that now I know a new dish with sea bass.
Teriyaki is a very popular sauce used in Japanese cooking. At supermarkets, you will find ready-made teriyaki sauce in bottles easily. However, making your own teriyaki sauce matters only whether you want to make it or not, as it is very simple. If you like Japanese foods and like cooking them at home, I’m sure that you always have basic ingredients that are used frequently by Japanese people.
Investing in Japanese ingredients, such as soy sauce, sake, mirin, etc is not cheap at the beginning, as they are more expensive as compared to the other popular Asian ingredients. However, you will see they are very economic in the long run, as you use only a little at one time and, more importantly, you can make wonderful Japanese foods by yourself. Eating out at Japanese food restaurants or food stalls is often more expensive than cooking at home. And never worry about whether you can make the dishes with authentic flavor or not, as many people are now sharing their recipes and experience, what you can learn and adapt, on the Internet – this is an unlimited source of reference that I am still exploring days by days.
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If you are interested in Japanese food, it is less likely that you’ve never seen these cute rice balls. Actually, these are not "balls" but they are shaped in triangles. They can be shaped in oval as well. And of course when you make bento – a meal in box, you can shape the steamed rice in any shape that you like in the way you want to "design" your bento. In Japanese, these rice balls are called "onigiri".
These onigiri are very simple to make. In fact, the moulds for making them are now available widely at specialty stores. I have seen these onigiri a lot in Japanese movies and films, howeve, this is the first time I tried making these rice balls. I don’t have the mould, so I had to shape them with hands. It is better and easier to shape the steamed rice when it is still very warm, so making the rice balls with bare hands is a little hard work though it is very interesting to play with the rice.
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Don is a way of serving or presenting a bowl of rice with a kind of "topping". I used to make oyako donburi – also a very popular don dish.This dish is less complicated than that one but it still tastes good and offers a typical Japanese flavor due to the comdiment sauce. The sauce can be made at home or you can use the same sauce as used for okonomiyaki – a Japanese-styled pizza. This sauce is often available at the supermarket. I often make okonomiyaki at home so I have one bottle of this sauce, and I used that on this fried chicken out of convenience.
Due to the breading, the chicken breast is kept juicy and tender after frying. Still, frying chicken breast should be well-monitored so as not to overcook it or it will be tough and dry. Serving the fried chicken with hot steamed rice and the sauce is simple but complete. I also cooked a boiled vegetable dish to have some greens for my meal.
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I learned this dish from one of my Japanese cookbook. This stewed pork is applicable but it is quite troublesome. I actually didn’t understand the cooking process and the purpose of some required techniques applied in making this dish.
The result was quite pleasant to the taste but I didn’t see much outstanding taste or flavor after all those cooking procedures. Maybe I didn’t cook well enough to get the best from this dish.
Yaki nasu is the Japanese name for this dish, maybe the more complete name is Miso yaki nasu as it is baked with miso. The type of miso that I used for this dish is white miso paste – though the true color of the miso is brown yellow. This miso is actually lighter in flavor, unlike the red miso paste which is stronger and deeper in flavor.
The Japanese’s favorite eggplants are not so long. They are about half the length of this one. This long eggplant does not have a top quality for flavor, however, it is also suitable for making this dish. I regretted that I only baked one eggplant for two persons. At first I thought such a long eggplant was enough, but the yaki nasu was so great in flavor and texture that we finished it in a couple of minutes and then we wished to have another one. The miso paste after being baked was so great to go with eggplant.
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Also a noodle soup with egg, the name of the dish is also inspired by the image of a full moon floating freely and easily in the sky. This udon noodle soup not only differs the tsukimi soba I made previously by the kind of noodle used but also the soup tastes differently. It is good if you have fresh udon to make this noodle. If not, using the dried udon is also fine, as I used to make these two bowls.
Though the noodle looks plain in color but it is tastier, I think, than tsukimi soba. The secret lies in the using of leek in making the soup. Next is the chicken stock, which has a tangier taste than dashi stock, which is mild and refreshing, that makes this noodle soup stand out. Anyway, I love them all and enjoy them while imagining a deep blue sky with a free and easy bright moon floating high up there…
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Sukiyaki (すき焼き) is the name for a broth, or can be called a dish, used in Japanese steamboat style (nabemono). The broth is made with a kind of meat (beef is most often used) and vegetables. When going to a Japanese restaurant, I find that sukiyaki is one of the most memorable names in Japanese that non-Japanese speaking customers can remember.
Cooking this noodle soup doesn’t take a long time. Preparation is quite simple. If you cook Japanese food sometimes, then you certainly have the key ingredients ready. The broth is light and fragrant. The beef is just cooked and still retains its tenderness and moisture. In many recipes, or in this recipe in particular, beef should not be overcooked or it will become very hard, which will take away the good impression of the dish. Eating this soup reminds me of Pho Bo ( Vietnamese beef noodle soup), which also has such a pleasant flavor, however, the techniques required in making Pho Bo and the ingredients are too complicated for me to cook at home. (My difficulty is not be able to get the right ingredients in Singapore.)
Finding this recipe, I wondered whether the Japanese do have any secret to it. However, the recipe from one of my cook book seems to be so practical, so I did try making it. And I was not dissappointed. I really loved to have the second helping.
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