Ryori, a Japanese classic menu… (compilation by cooking techniques)

Quick list of Japanese “classics” to help you navigate on this site. That’s not complete at all. I tried to make it representative. I often make them with a twist, but I tell you in the post.

Short memo about the Japanese meal

-all dishes are brought at the same time, ideally served in individual dishes, one plate per item.
-there is rice + soup + three items. Or more.

The items, called okazu tend to be side-dish sized. On the menu in restaurants, traditional style was to present the okazu by cooking technique.

ONE :

GOHAN, rice
rice cuisine list ***** sushi list

and ONE :

吸い物,SUIMONO
A soup to drink !

DASHI (basic stock tutorial)
vegan dashi tuto
misoshiru (miso soup, in many posts)
shijimi miso soup
clear soup
O-zoni New Year soup
sake kasu Winter white soup

And THREE, FOUR, FIVE… many :

OKAZU LIST

お造り o-tsukuri
Normally, that’s a term for seafood sashimi, raw seafood. I don’t *cook* it of course.

scallop sashimi
calamari sashimi noodles
hamo no aburi (flamed sashimi)
hiya yakko (chilled tofu cubes)
konnyaku faux-sashimi

和え物,aemono
Cold dish with sauce.

shira-ae veggies
goma-ae kogomi (sesame fiddle heads)
snappy beans and shrimps in kimizu-ae (yolk sauce)

蒸し物, mushimono
Steamed.
egg tofu
dobin mushi (steamed soup)
okowa kabocha (steamed pumpkin with rice)
steamed scallop

御浸し, o-hitashi
Blanched.
mustard green o-hitashi
green leaf maki
reishabu (poached meat)

揚げ物 agemono
Fried dishes.

tempura (tutorial)
kakiage (mixed tempura)
karaage fish
agedofu, fried tofu DIY
kaki-furai (fried oysters)

焼き物, yakimono
Grilled dishes.

shioyaki (salt grilled fish)
kabayaki conger eel
yakiniku, beef BBQ
yakitori (chicken skewers)
teriyaki chicken(the “real” thing, recipe)
teriyaki fish
miso yaki chicken
miso yaki fish
dengaku (skewers)

鉄板焼き,teppanyaki
Grilled on the hot plate.
Beef liver teppanyaki
okonomiyaki (compilation)
ika-yaki (calamari)

煮物, nimono
Simmered.

pumpkin kabocha no nitsuke
kakuni (pork)
beef shigure
buri daikon (fish and radish)

炒め物 itamemono
Stir-fried.

champuru (Okinawan scramble)
kinpira

漬物, tsukemono
pickles
wasabi leaf tsukemono
daikon radish leave tsukemono
dashi’t, Obanazawa pickle
pink lotus root tsukemono

酢の物, sunomono
Quick vinegar pickles. Salads with lots of vinegar.

potato sarada
daikon ume sarada
kabocha sarada

Five small dishes, J-mood

An easy Japanese meal, quickly prepared. Well, you need rice. I trust the rice cooker.

This block looks like pumice. It’s hard… It’s koya-dofu. The freeze-dry tofu of the monks of Mount Koya near Nara. It’s a religious mountain town that is now to Buddhism was Disneyland is to … er, culture ? Well, a few generation ago, people living there used to follow a strict Shojin that was 99% vegan (exception of a little fish stock) and they invented many vegan dishes.
Re-hydrated, that looks like a sponge with a light milky flavor. I cooked in dashi stock, with shiitake mushrooms and carrots, plus a little soy sauce and mirin, so it absorbed all the flavors.

The dashi was then recycled in soup with a few leaves of shungiku (young chrysanthemum).

This bowl was the leftover of my yuzu-kosho kimizu. So :

Snappy beans and shrimps in kimizu-ae (kimizu sauce dressing).
There are many variations of kimizu-ae for veggies, seafood, etc. If you ask your browser you can see a few : click here.

A kaki (persimmon) for dessert. That looks like a tomato, but no comparison. What the photo doesn’t show is this kaki is super sluggish. For a tomato, that would mean it tastes of water. For a persimmon, on the contrary, it’s usually a sign it’s very sweet and syrupy inside. A real treat !