Osaka negiyaki, powered up.

ねぎ焼き negiyaki
A fresh blog of the classic popular food of Osaka to replace or complete the old tuto.
Keep it really simple and don’t believe you need many ingredients, as it’s originally poor people cuisine, that was made with what was available that day. It’s easily made plant-based.

Here is a typical list of variations of negiyaki you can order in shops around here :

牛すじねぎ焼き　gyusuji negiyaki (beef tendon)
豚ねぎ焼き buta negiyaki (pork)
イカねぎ焼き ika … (calamari)
えびねぎ焼き ebi … (shrimps)
豚キムチねぎ焼き buta kimchi … (pork kimchi)
牛すじキムチねぎ焼き gyusuji kimchi … (beef tendon kimchi)
牛すじもちねぎ焼き gyusuji mochi … (beef tendon mochi)
牛すじしょうがねぎ焼き gyusuji shoga …(beef tendon ginger)
ミックスねぎ焼き mix negiyaki …(=we’ll open the fridge and push everything there’s in into your dish)

Check list :
–negi leeks and nikomi (or any other)
-batter
-sauces and garnishing powders
-options : egg, tenkasu
-hot plate and oil

Osaka style :
Options and garnishing (negi and nikomi) are added to the batter at the last minute. Each guest chooses additions or not.

Negi, scallions, Spring onions…. that’s the base of the dish. You need lots of negi greens. Cut thinly.

This is konnyaku eringi ginger nikomi (recipe here).
I am probably the only person putting this in negiyaki. The classic version is : konnyaku gyusuji nikomi.
The gyusuji is beef tendon, with the meat that stays around, and that’s a very cheap cut of beef. It is prepared the same way I prepared the eringi. You can make some other meat or mushroom stew as you like.

BATTER, gourmande style :
Grated nagaimo (about 1/2 cup), flour (1 cup), fish flakes. And enough water to get a creamy texture. Whip well.

Grating the yama imo

Veg’ version : skip the fish flakes, replace water by vegan kombu dashi (recipe here).
Gluten free version : replace flour by rice flour.
Imo free version : replace by grated potato or corn starch + a little baking powder.

Options :

They are not necessary for the classic version, but if you feel more hungry or like them, add what you want, that’s the rule of the game (okonomi = what you want). These 2, you read about on many blogs, they are often found in the rest of Japan, not so systematically here in Osaka :

Egg. The reasons to not add to the original batter :
-some people don’t want egg (it’s the biggest allergy in Japan)
– texture, with egg, it would make it a harder pancake. In many shops, they add the egg whole egg onto the rest, already on the hotplate and break it and mix with chopsticks.

Tenkasu. Tempura crumbles.

Others :
beni shoga pickled ginger,
kimchi,
raw meat, raw seafood,
mochi (rice cakes, use the tiny cubes arare, or thin slices),
tofu, cheese,
other veggies, sausage, ham, veggie pickles (tsukemono), salty seafood…

Heat the hot plate (your skillet). Pass oil with a kitchen paper.

MIXING :
In a bowl, put a cup of negi, 1/4 cup of nikomi, other options, a whole egg if you use it, a cup of batter. You can add more fish flakes if you wish. Mix roughly with chopsticks or a fork.

COOKING
Pour everything on the plate, at middle heat. You can cover or not. When it’s all hardened, flip with 2 spatulas. (I cut it in 2 to flip with only one spatula… who cares ?).

TOPPINGS :

All optional, as you like it, if you want some. A bare negiyaki is good too.

Sauce and mayo :

-the sauce is a thickened and sweetened worcester. The original sauce (called Ikari) was a copycat of LeaPerrins, sold to Kobe’s Brit expats.
Here I have a ready sauce, which is plant-based. If you don’t have it, LeaPerrins steak sauce is very similar. Or thicken the liquid classic worcester with corn starch (simmer a little, sweeten to taste) or by mixing with ketchup. Many shops make their sauce that way.Use a brush to paint it on the top.

-the mayonnaise. It is made more liquid by adding either milk, white wine or lemon juice. (to make easy egg mayo /// to make tofunaise).
To make nice drizzles, put the sauce and mayo in some plastic bottles with a tubular top. I don’t have that.

Variations :
-ketchup
–shoyu (soy sauce, thickened)
–ponzu (soy sauce + citrus juice)
-steak sauces

Powders (found in Japanese grocery stores) :
–kezuribushi fish flakes, or fish powder
–aonori seaweed
–shichimi togarashi, 7 spice mix

SERVING
When it’s cooked, put the heat on minimum, decorate.
Let on the plate while eating. Cut small wedges that you push toward guests that can heat directly from the plate, or on a small plate, while the rest stays hot.

Hot purple marron pie

That’s a Japanese meal. Yes, you can see natto. That’s not the criteria as I’d fusion natto into any cuisine style. Well, I have rice, a soup, okazu dish, sides. The rice is part of the pie, which is a azuki bean and chestnut toasted rice tart, with hidden fire. That’s a long title but that was really yummy.

These are sorts of hot Habanero hot peppers cultivated in Kyoto and they are hot. Yes, I’m repeating because they are made of fire. I used 2 mm of one and I like my food spicy. I really wish I could use more as they have a really charming flavor.

The base of the pie is freshly cooked brown rice. I’ve added a little potato starch, a little water, squeezed between 2 molds to shape and toasted with the molds, then without.
The filling is made in the mortar : a little dry garlic, miso, very small bits of hot chili, azuki beans (boiled)…

And wined chestnuts.

You could see on the tray a bowl of greens, it’s kikuna, chrysanthemum greens. I have slightly steamed them, just to warm. On the plate, you can see natto, with shiso, ika shiokarai, walnuts. All this is mixed and eaten with the greens. This salad is not plant-based as it contains seafood.

The rest is salty, I wanted a neutral soup. I’ve put dry mushroom (mix) in lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar, let 30 minutes. Then reheated and added sesame seeds.
Oboro kombu seaweed ribons completes it. It’s on the side :

As soon as you put the oboro kombu into the soup, it softens and becomes like this.

Chilled miso somen soup

A very simply lunch, for a busy hot day.

Boil a bundle of somen noodles. with 1/2 onion. Refresh in cold water. Put in a bowl cover with iced water.

In a second pan, make a dashi stock with kombu seaweed and dry shiitake mushroom. Add veggies (okra, bell pepper, edamame). When they’re cooked, mix in a tbs of miso and refresh with ice-cubes.

Combine the noodles and the soup. I’ve let the shiitake and I’ve cut a few ribbons from the piece of kombu seaweed.
Add toppings :

Ribbons of nori seaweed cut from a sheet. The color is slightly purple as that’s raw nori (often for sushi, it’s grilled). I’ve also added sesame, chili flakes and sticks of peel of kinosu lime (the yellow bits).

Deconstructed inari soba and 4 treasure mozuku soup

Inari-zushi are sushi in little pockets like this (click). I wanted to make a variation , inari soba, with soba noodles instead of rice but I made a technical mistake, so the taste is here, delicious, but the shape, not at all… The second dish is a seaweed and veggie soup.

Abura-age (fried tofu) simmered in a broth of soy sauce, paprika, with a little chili and garlic.
MY MISTAKE : I forgot to open the pockets before simmering. And later, that was… impossible without tearing all apart.

I have made kujo negi into threads :

I’ve salted slightly and mixed with fresh soba buckwheat noodles (boiled 1 minute, then cooled in iced water, drained).

So I’ve placed the noodles on top of the pockets. The project was to fill them.

Fresh edamame from kuromame (black soy beans)

You need to cook them. It’s possible to rub the pods with salt and boil them that way, or to open as I did.

Inspired from a Chinese soup. I’ve cooked green and black edamame, dices of kabocha pumpkin and slices of okra. I’ve added sea salt and mozuku seaweed to the cooled broth. A few slices of sudachi lime bring fruity acidity.

Mixed baby leaves, plus mitsuba and cherry tomatoes.

My lunch !

Black bean sesame burgers and waxy squash red SE-Asian soup

Beans patties and a soup with flavors of Thailand in company of its exotic rice.

The patties are a random mix : boiled kuromame (soy black beans), black sesame seeds (pasted), grated garlic and ginger, minced onion, green chili and black miso. A little potato starch to bind. Pan-fried. Glossed with sweet chili sauce. On the place, yellow bell pepper and mitsuba stalks.

Boiled cubes of tougan (waxy squash) and tororo kombu seaweed.