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

Eating out of the box – Indoor picnic

It’s still too cold to eat a bento box under the cherry blossoms… that are not yet opened here.

Top floor : hot silky tofu with borstch. Garnished by shiso leaves.

Haccho miso and green chili soup.

Base : rice and kinpira.

Making kinpira

Brown rice with a umeboshi (pickled plum).

Left-over of carrot and hijiki kinpira.

Leftover of a stir-fry kinpira : spinach renkon (lotus root) cut in big chunks, garlic, chili pepper, soy sauce.

As a dessert : a few litchis (frozen).

A lunch of seven sides, with triple kinpira

Ooops, I forgot to make a main dish for that Japanese lunch. That really doesn’t matter actually. What I love in Asian cuisines is the abundance of small side dishes.
That doesn’t take hours to prepare. I didn’t even need the whole 25 minutes the rice needed to be done in the rice-cooker.
I found 2 ways to make it quicker :
Tip 1 : make some for several meals, store left-overs (fridge, freezer) and rotate
Tip 2 : use the most efficient tool. I used those cheap graters for the daikon, the carrot, the ginger and the lotus root. I used scissor for slicing dry chilis. The set is hanging over my sink, I use, brush and rinse and hang again. Another day, knife may be faster, for small quantities it is not as you need to clean it and the board so many times.
Tip 3 : make variations of one dish. The same frying pan served for carrots, lotus roots, then fish bait.

Today, 3 variations of kinpira. It’s way to prepare vegetables. They are sliced, julienned or at least cut in small bits. Then stir-fry them a few minutes, pass on low heat, add a little water, a little soy sauce, simmer a little.
Average preparation time : 5 minutes.
Variations :

With kintoki ninjin, Kintoki carrot, the red Japanese carrot.

It’s ninjin no kinpira. No fuss. The carrots are sweet and tasty.

With renkon (lotus root).

It’s renkon no kinpira. Sir-fried with sliced dry hot chili.

With seaweeds, it’s hijiki no kinpira. A little sugar was needed in the water. I had made it the other day.
I only added a few drops of fragrant sesame oil, a few sesame seeds.