See the cool acting in the video clip

Japanese recipes : Pan-kun and James making ramen noodles.

Buckwheat noodles or soba(蕎麦) is one of the healthy dish and a hot weather favorite in Japan.

Green Tea Soba (茶蕎麦）

There are many type of soba in Japan and the most delicious type is, of course, the freshly home-made type called “te-uchi soba”(手打ち蕎麦). But, it is hardly find outside Japan unless making own self.
Chilled buckwheat noodles are often served on a basket-weave tray called “Zaru” in summer and these cold noodles are equally attractive dished up into bowls. Normally, there are other famous dishes to serve together during summer with the chilled soba in Japan such as hiyayako (Japanese cold tofu appetizer), hiyashi-chuka (Chinese style cold noodle salad).

Japanese healthy buckwheat noodles

Here in this post I use Japanese dried green tea favor noodles that just freshly brought as “omiyage” gift from Japan by my friend couple days ago.

Japanese recipes with pictures

Ingredients: (4 servings)

250 g dried green tea soba noodles
2 spring onion thinly sliced
1 nori sheet, toasted, cut into think strips

For dipping sauce:
3 tbsp dashi granules
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup mirin
salt to taste

Preparations:

Filled half of a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to boil over medium-high heat. When it is boiling, lower the noodles slowly into boiling water. Stir gently so that the noodles don’t stick together. Pour in 1/2 cup of cold water and return to boil.  Repeat this step or until the noodles are tender. Drain and rinse well under cold water, lightly rubbing the noodles with hands to remove excess surface starch. Drain and set aside.

To make dipping sauce, combine 1 1/2 cup water, dashi granules, mirin, soy sauce, and a pinch of salt in a pan. Bring to boil and stir well. Simmer for about 3 minutes then cool completely. Pour the dipping sauce into four small serving bowls.

Arrange the green tea soba in a plate, or bamboo basket (zaru) if you have one. Garnish with spring onion, and toasted nori strips. Serve with wasabi and dipping sauce.

Couple weeks ago, my friend, Yuji brought me a new product of Japanese Fresh Noodle, “Tsukemen” つけ麺 from Japan. This is my first time to have Tsukemen and I really enjoyed it special taste. Easy to prepare and enjoying the real taste of Tsukemen outside Japan.

Tsukemen  is similar to ramen but the noodles are served separate from the soup. The noodles are to be dipped into the soup like you would with cold soba. The noodles are usually best served cold while the soup is hot. You can add in others ingredients like leeks, bambooshoots, diced char sui pork, etc.

The instant fresh Tsukemen comes with a special Tsuke-tare (つけたれ) for dipping sauce. And the preparation is as easy as the below 4 steps :

Step 1, Cook the Ramen in boiled water about 5mins depending of your favorites (soft/hard of noodles).

Step 2, prepare the dipping sauce by adding 100ml hot water into a bowl. Mix in the dipping sauce.

Step 3, drain the ramen into a colander and cool them by rinse under tap water.

Step 4, transfer ramen to a serving bowl, serve with the dipping sauce.

Enjoy the cool Tsukemen dipping in hot dipping sauce

Today is Ohmisoka(大晦日), last day of the year 2008.
Wondering what is japanese (must) eat dish of the day?

I would like to introduce you the meaningful and healthy Japanese dish for new year eve,  toshikoshi-soba (年越しそば), literally “year-passing” soba.  Japanese eat toshikoshi-soba with the family while listening to the ringing of joya-no-kane (除夜の鐘),  the New Year’s Eve bells which are struck at the same time at every temple throughout the country.

Toshikoshi-soba (年越しそば)

In Japan eating soba as the final item on the New Year’s Eve supper is a wide spread custom. Even people who do not eat soba often are tempted to eat soba during the last days of the year, based on the unique customary thoughts from the ancient times that we cannot finish up the old year without eating soba. There are some reasons why soba but not any other kind of food:

(1) Soba is narrow and long in shape,so it symbolizes a wish for long life.

(2) The oldest story, from the Kamakura period, is that in Hakata, Kyushu, a businessman from China distributed buckwheat dumpling to poor people on the last day of the year and the following year their fortune changed for the better. So eating soba on New Year’s Eve became a tradition.

(3) The most persuasive explanation is that in the Edo era, goldsmiths used to clean factory floors with soba dumplings to pick up any gold dust on the last day of the year. So merchants started to eat toshikoshi-soba to collect ‘money’, as gold or kin in Chinese characters means ‘money’. Eventually ordinary people ate soba wishing for good fortune in money.

In Japanese culture, soba noodles have always symbolized good fortune. On New Year’s Eve, Japanese eat toshikoshi-soba, recalling incidents of the past year and looking forward to the coming year.

Joya-no-kane (除夜の鐘)

What Japanese do in this important day to welcome the New Year?

Ya, listen to “Joya no kane”, visit to the temple.  Japanese will visit the temple, listen to the striking bell to see the old year out.

Joya-no-kane (The watch-night bell)

Joya-no-Kane, or midnight tooling of the temple bells. At the stroke of midnight on New year’s Eve, the entire nation listens to the tolling of the Tsuri-Gane, the great bells or gongs at Japan’s Buddhist temples. While it is bell-shaped, the Tsuri-gane is struck on the outside by a large wooden hammer suspended by ropes, so it may be thought of as a gong. At Chion-in Temple in Kyoto, many visitors are drawn every New Year’s Eve to watch the tolling of one of the largest bells in the world. It weighs 74 tons. The Joya-no-Kane consists of 108 solemn tolls on the temple bells. The meaning of 108 has various views, however in Buddhism, it’s basically said that we human being possess 108 worldly desires. The figure 108 is said to be derived from 5 basic human sensory organs (eye, ear, nose, mouth, skin) and a mind. These 6 feelings is further categorized into 3 colors of good, bad and flat, and therefore this amounts to total of 18 feelings. Then each of these 18 feelings has 2 sides of vice and purity. Furthermore they are divided into 3 tenses: past, present and future. Altogether, we see that 18 x 3 x 2 = 108.
It takes roughly one hour to strike the bell 108 times. A few minutes before the new year, the solemn sound of a bell can be heard from a neighboring temples in a quiet night. While cheerful countdown party may be fun and enjoyable, it may also be a unique and tasteful way to pass the year-end by listening closely to the sound of a bell as they linger over the quiet night.

    To me, pasta or spaghetti created most memories for me in Japan. My first part-time job was in a spaghetti restaurant in Tokyo. My first experience on how to cook a tasty spaghetti in Japanese style, how to eat in a polite way etc. A dry long spaghetti not seems special to me, but, when it mixed up with other ingredients, it becomes extraordinary dish. Especially, I like to share the way of eating spaghetti with friends. The trick is use a fork to roll spaghetti onto a spoon held parallel to the plate. Then eat the pasta off the spoon. Bib not required!
    Yoshi…Kimatta, I decided to have spaghetti for today meal to recover some of my sweet and sour memories during the part-time. Enjoy here with this Japanese spaghetti with chicken white sauce.

Ingredients: (2 serving)

150g chicken breast, cut into thin strips
100g sausages cut into small pieces
1/2 carrot mince
1 tomato quarter slice
cheese powder (garnish)

(for making white sauce)
1 cup milk
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp. cheese grated
salt to taste
pepper to taste

How to cook spaghetti :
Preparations:

Heat milk and stir in other ingredients to make white sauce slowly. Stir constantly.
Bring water to a boil in a large, tall stockpot, add salt and olive oil. (1 liter water : 100g pasta). Put the spaghetti into the boiling water. Set 10~15 minutes if you have a timer for cooking. Taste a little piece from time to time to test readiness and get a perfect *al dente pasta. You can bend them around the saucepan once they have been in the boiling water for a couple of seconds.  When the spaghetti are to your liking, drain them into a colander and cool them by rinse under cold water. Pour the spaghetti into a serving plate.  Add in the white sauce mixed with other ingredients. Garnish with the cheese powder.
* The al denta in Italian refers to the correct cooking point of pasta. Literally, it means, “when it is right for the tooth” that is, soft but firm and never overcooked.

Japanese Recipe – Hiyashi Chuka

  If you have chance to visit Japan in summer, do remember to look for this Japanese cold noodle salad dish, Hiyashi Chuka(冷やし中華）。Hiyashi Chuka is a cold noodle salad that very popular serve in most Japan restaurant during summer time. It consist of chukamen(raw ramen) with lot of toppings such as thin fried egg strips, ham, cucumber, carrot and others. There are two main flavor of dressing, soy sauce flavor and sesame flavor. You can get the tare dressing which comes together with Hiyashi Chuka package from japanese grocery stores . With this free quick easy recipes or cold ramen salad recipe, sure it will cool you down and appetizing you in a hot summer. Another Pro for this japanese recipe is low in calories, very suitable for diet.

Ingredients:(4 serving)

For Toppings:
cooked ham cut into long thin strips
boiled chicken breasts thin strips
thin omelette’s strips
thin cucumber strips
thin carrot strips
sliced tomato
pickled red ginger (beni shoga, in little strips) 

Soy Sauce flavor dressing
1/3 cup water
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil

Sesame flavor dressing
1/3 cup water
5 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp sesame oil

Preparations:
Boil the noodles ramen, wash with cold water (cool water with ice). Drain and put in a plate. Arrange the different colors topping well to make the dish more attractive and nice to eat. Pour dressing onto it before eat.

       Japanese Food Ramen Clip.

Cool..Ya! Stay Tune for more.

    Ramen (ラーメン); a japanese noodle which is originated in China. Today, Japanese instant ramen noodles are very popular in the world. This typical Japanese food is kind of Japanese fast food and welcomed by most Japanese. Japanese Ramen Recipes has many variaties including Tonkutsu Ramen（豚骨ラーメン, Shoyu Ramen(醤油ラーメン, Miso Ramen(味噌ラーメン), Sio Ramen(塩ラーメン)and Chuka Ramen（中華ラーメン. Tonkotsu Ramen（豚骨ラーメン)is  my “Very Love” flavor where the soup is using pork bone to cook for over hours until it become creamy white. Shoyu Ramen (醤油ラーメン)is a soy sauce flavor with pork bone or chicken bone base. Miso Ramen (味噌ラーメン), the soup is using different type of Miso paste. Sio Ramen (塩ラーメン)is  soup in salt flavor and is free quick easy recipes. Chuka Ramen（中華ラーメン)is chinese style usually served in Chinese restaurant. It is very important when prepare the soup base for ramen since it is the main “factor” for people to determine whether the ramen is good or not?
 
Here is free online recipes for today;

 How to make Japanese Tonkutsu Ramen Recipes :

Tonkotsu Soup Base:

<Ingredients> (4 servings)
1 kg pork bone
1  onion, 2 spring onions, 1 carrot, , 3 cloves of garlic
3 liters water

Preparation:

  Bring the water to boil in a large deep pot. Add in tonkotsu and all ingredients. Boil for at least 3 hours until soup becomes white creamy. Remove the foam regularly. Filter through paper towel placed on strainer.

How to serve in Ramen:

1. Boil ramen noodles.
2. In Chinese noodle bowls, put in 1-2 Tablespoons of soup stocks.
3. Drain noodles well and put in bowls immediately.
4. Fill bowls with tonkotsu soup.
5. Garnish bean sprouts and other ingredients.
6. Add pepper and serve hot.

Japanese Recipe – Zarusoba (Cold Japanese Noodle)

     I was shocked when I first see Japanese salary man stand and “slurping” Soba (Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour) within 10 minutes, and then continue to rush into a train in Tokyo. In Japan, we called it  “Tachigui” (立ち食い), literally translates as “stand-and-eat” and more loosely as fast food.　You can find stalls for tachigui include soba (Japanese noodle bowl) or gyudon (beef bowl) located at the train station. They are concentrating their service on speed rather than quality or taste. So, it is quite difficult to find a really good taste Tachigui-Soba. So, I would recommend to go to Japanese restaurant rather than Tachigui-soba stall if you not in hurry.

     This post here is to introduce my favorites Japanese Soba Recipe – Zarusoba, cold chilled Japanese soba served on a sieve-like bamboo tray called Zaru. Zarusoba is often served during summer in Japan. It garnished with bits of dried nori seaweed, with a dipping sauce known as soba tsuyu on side. With the combination of wasabi, scallions, and grated ginger mixing into the tsuyu, you will experience its’ cool and delicious Japanese recipe during hot summer.

   Ingredients:

  100g dried soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles)
  100ml noodle dipping soup (mentsuyu)
  nori seaweed cut into strip
  green onion finely chopped
  wasabi paste

  Preparations:

  1. Boil water and add dried soba noodles in the boiling water with following the package instructions.
  2. Drain soba noodles and wash with cold water
  3. Put soba noodles onto the Zaru (bamboo-tray)
  4. Pour noodle dipping soup in a cup
  5. Serve finely chopped green onion and wasabi paste on a small plate

  More Japanese Recipes