Recipes

Chickpeas and Barley Broth *(v) possible

Chicken, Main, Soup, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Hi guys!

I suppose that many of you are planning summer parties this or next weekend! So today, I would like to share a wonderful recipe, Chickpeas and Barley Broth, which is useful to fulfil your guests. For vegetarian or began guests, ignore chicken and swap chicken stock with veg stock.

The key to make lovely broth is making stock by yourself whichever chicken or vegetarian stock you use. I have tried several types of stock cubes for the broth and they definitely worked, but they could never beat my homemade stock which were made from various vegetables including carrots, potatoes, onions, leaks, mushrooms and chicken wings etc. I will not put the recipe of stock as we all know that there is not a certain way to make nice stock and I don’t think mine is the best either. Use what you have in your cupboard, and add a bit of salt, black pepper and white wine. But if you don’t have enough time, then don’t worry and use cubes.

This is not “Aisan-Asian” broth. My English husband actually loves it so do not worry to serve non-Japanese food fan! I hope you guys will find this recipe helpful!

 

[Ingredients] 4 – 5 servings

  • 3 tbs of olive oil
  • 1/2 onion – diced
  • 3 garlic cloves – chopped
  • 1/2 red chilli – chopped
  • 2 chicken thighs – chopped, with the skin removed
  • 1/2 red pepper – cut into 2cm²
  • 1/2 yellow pepper – cut into 2cm²
  • 2 tomatoes – sliced roughly
  • 5-8 chestnut mushrooms – cut into half
  • 50ml of white wine
  • 300-400g of chickpeas tinned
  • 1300ml of chicken or veg stock
  • 100g of barley – washed
  • 50g of quinoa – washed
  • A pinch of salt
  • A pinch of black pepper
  • A bunch of coriander – chopped

[Instruction]

  1. Pour olive oil into a hot large sauce pan and stir fry onion, garlic and red chilli. Add salt and black pepper.
  2. Add chicken thighs into the pan and panfry them.
  3. Add all other vegetables and cook them, stirring for 5 minutes.
  4. Pour white wine into the pan and reduce the juice for a minutes.
  5. After adding chickpeas and mix them well, pour the stock into the pan. Leave the pan with the lid on for 20 minutes.
  6. Add barley and quinoa into the pan and simmer 30 more minutes. Add seasoning if necessary.
  7. To serve, put coriander on the top of broth.

 

 

When you try my recipes, please leave the comment and give me feedback. There is no need entering your email address to leave messages so if you are not happy to give me your personal information just skip that question. (I can not remove that question due to the worldpress system.) You can also contact me on my Contact Page or you can also share your attempts on Instagram with #jhomerecipes.

I hope you find this information useful for your happy healthy life!

Kimchi Nabe(hot pot)

Hot pot, Main, pork, Soup, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Winter

Hi, guys!

Have you heard of word, Kimchi? Kimchi is spicy Korean pickle which is now world famous. In Japan, these days the idea of adding Kimchi into Nabe has been featured among young people. Actually, this is my husband’s favourite ingredients for Nabe. If you are keen on trying a different flavour, try my  Soya milk nabe(hot pot) (available as (v) too) , which had much more mild flavour than Kimchi nabe.

[Ingredients]

  • 4-5 leaves of Chinese cabbage, roughly cut
  • 25g of mushrooms
  • 20g of leeks, thickly sliced
  • 6-8 pieces of cod cheeks
  • 100-150g of tofu
  • 100g of white radish, sliced
  • Ramen noodles (as much as you want)
  • A bit of shichimi spice (if you need, as a topping)
  • A pinch of chipped spring onion (if you need, as a topping)

Kimchi nabe soup

  • 3-5g of kombu
  • 500g of cold water
  • 200g of Kimch
  • 2 tbs of soya sauce
  • 1 tbs of sake
  • 1 tbs of mirin
  • 1 teaspoon of sesame oil

[Instruction]

  1. img_4318Make Kimchi nabe soup. Leave kombu in cold water as long as you can. In this process, you can make lovely kombu stock. If you do not have enough time, make sure you put kombu before you start to heat the cold water. Boil the stock in a sauce pan for 5 minutes. Add soya sauce, sake and mirin.
  2. Place Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, leeks, cod cheeks, white radish, tofu and Kimchi in another sauce pan. Pour Kimch nabe soup in the sauce pan with vegetables. Bubble it with lid on top until they are all cooked.img_4320
  3. Drop sesame oil, spring onion(if you want) and shichimi(if you want) just before serve. Make sure you do not finish soup.
  4. Once vegetables in nabe has been finished, start to cook ramen noodles in boiling water for 1 minutes. Add the noodles into the Kimch nabe. Add more vegetables or seasonings if you need. Serve nabe ramen once again.

 

Nabe is an absolutely fantastic option for party menu as well. Why don’t you trying Kimchi nabe with your family or friends this weekend? And if you do, please share your kimchi nabe with #jhomerecipes or #japanesehomerecipes to share our passion!

Thank you for reading my article today too! I hope you all have a lovely weekend!x

Zosui (Aromatic Japanese rice porridge)

Breakfast, Main, Rice, Side dish, Vegetarian

Hi, everyone!!

Whenever I try new kinds of recipe, I am always in trouble to figure out how I can finish the ingredients left over. Originally, I always avoid to use double cream because cream is not familiar to Japanese cooking and I have poor knowledge of these ingredients. I imagine that same things would happen to you when you try to cook Japanese foods. This recipe is pretty good for these situation.

Zosui is a Japanese rice porridge in dashi flavoured soup. Japanese people eat it when they feel tired or need something good for digestion after you drink/eat too much.  Also, this can be good breakfast in early morning when you are not ready to have a big meal. Zosui is very light and nutritious so that desirable for children and elderly people too. the funny thing is, to make nice zosui, we prefer old rice rather than fresh hot rice (I will explain why later). Now let’s have a look!

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[Ingredients] for 2

To make zosui, there is not rule about ingredients. The key is; good stock, sticky rice are not sticky, fluffy egg and some extra seasoning!

  • A few pieces of konbu
  • 1 bowl of cooked sticky rice (about 180g)
  • 3 bowls of water (about 400ml)
  • 1 tbs of soya sauce
  • A pinch of salt
  • 2 tbs of mirin
  • 1/2 tbs of sake
  • 1 egg
  • Vegetables
    • Spring onion (as a topping)
    • 2cm of carrot
    • 1 tbs of sesame seeds
    • A bit of grated ginger
    • 1/4 onion
    • A handful Chinese cabbage

[Instruction]

  1. Leave konbu in the water in fridge over night.
  2. Cut all the vegetables finely.
  3. Boil the water with konbu and add all the vegetables except spring onion.
  4. Add soya sauce, salt and mirin.
  5. When vegetables are cooked, wash sticky rice with water. This is very important step to make zosui. If you do not wash sticky rice, your zosui will be too thick. By washing cooked rice with water, the soup will be nice and watery. And this is exactly why you do not have to prepare freshly cooked rice.
  6. Break an egg in a bowl and whisk.
  7. Make sure the soup is being boiled. Turn off the heat, and pour egg into the soup drawing an arc.
  8. Leave it for a minutes and turn on the cooker again.
  9. When it starts to be boiled again then stir gently.
  10. Place your zosui into the bowl with spring onion on top.

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If you think that it tastes too plain (although it should be very plain), drop some grated ginger or sesame oil. These extra seasonings bring you more strong flavour so that you can enjoy it more!

If you try any from my recipe, please show me or tell me how it was. I am looking forward to hearing from you!xx

 

 

Soya milk nabe(hot pot) (available as (v) too)

Hot pot, Main, Noodles, pork, Soup, Tofu, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Winter

Hi, guys!!

Thank you for visiting my website today too!!

Woo, this is very cold winter, isn’t it? I heard it would be snowing in the south of England next weekend. I am so excited!! In such a cold day, I can’t help wanting “nabe” which is one of the most traditional Japanese culture in winter. Nabe is a kind of hot pot which has many kinds of vegetables, meats and seafood in soup.

The thing that makes nabe culture so special is the style we enjoy it. When we have one, we share a big pot with your family or friends. In Japan, having nabe together means you have a good relationship with them. This is why first year uni students often hold nabe party to make new friends!

Although there are many kinds of flavour for nabe, today, I would like to share my favourite recipe of soya milk hot pot which I made for the party last week. This is quite healthy and you can make it suitable for vegetarian or even vegan.

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[Ingredients] for 4

  • 1L of soya milk
  • A few pieces of dried konbu
  • 400g of water
  • 2 tbspoons of sesame oil
  • 2 tbspoons of soya sauce
  • 1 tbspoons of sake (white wine is fine if you do not have any)
  • A few pinch of salt
  • 1 tbspoon of sesame seeds
  • Pork (if you would like)
  • Vegetable
    • leek
    • mushroom
    • carrot
    • Chinese cabbage/savoy cabbage
    • onion
    • Tofu
    • sprout
  • 300g of Udon noodles
  • A teaspoon of grated ginger

[Instruction]

  1. Leave dried konbu in the water over night. (Konbu make lovely stock in the cold water.But if you do not have time, you can just put them in the water and start to boil it immediately. This is not the best way, but you can still have konbu stock.)
  2. Boil the water in a big pot.
  3. Add 600ml of soya milk and keep cooking until it starts to boil.
  4. Add soya sauce, sake and salt.
  5. Cut pork into pieces you like.
  6. Chop vegetables into pieces you like. I recommend to cut into tofu quite big pieces, otherwise they will break int the soup and you will never see them again! Do not add udon noodles yet!
  7. When all the vegetables are cooked, add 1 tbspoon of sesame oil and sesame seeds just before you serve.
  8. Serve.
  9. When you finish almost all ingredients, add 400g of soya milk and udon noodles and heat it up for 10 minutes again. We call this style “shime” which means “finally end”.
  10. Add ginger and 1 tbspoon of sesame oil.
  11. Serve again.

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Spaghetti in original tomato sauce with Brussels sprouts and aubergine

Main, Noodles, Vegetables

Hi, everyone!!

Today I will share an example of how you can use my tomato sauce paste.

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tomato sauce

First, I will explain how to finish tomato sauce. Like I said in the article “Lovely tomato sauce paste“, this paste is not tomato sauce. To complete making tomato sauce, all you have to do is add 2-3 tbspoons of paste into the300-400g of tin tomato and cook. You can use this for soup and pasta sauce, or it is also good to cook fish in this sauce.

The reason I think it good is, you can always cook with this paste in a little time. If you feel too busy to cook by yourself or too tired after working all day, this tomato sauce will help you to stay healthy and save money!!

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 [Ingredients] for 2

  • 1/3 of aubergine
  • a handful Brussels sprouts
  • 200 g of spaghetti
  • 300g of tin tomato
  • 100g of original tomato sauce paste
  • 30ml of olive oil

 

[Instruction]

  1. Cut aubergine into the shape you like, and leave them in the cold water for a few minutes.
  2. Marinate the aubergine with 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a bowl.
  3. Pan fry aubergine on a frying pan.
  4. Boil the water and cook Brussels sprouts.
  5. Boil the water in a tall sauce pan and cook spaghetti.
  6. Pour tin tomato into a frying pan and cook it with high heat until the colour become vivid red.
  7. Add the tomato sauce paste into the frying pan. When the sauce gets too dry, add some water from the sauce pan of spaghetti.
  8. When spaghetti is cooked, add spaghetti, aubergine and Brussels sprouts into tomato sauce. (If you can finish cooking all of those, it would be good!)
  9. Mix well and plate your spaghetti.
  10. Dress with olive oil on top.

Then, here is the spaghetti!

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It was amazingly simple and so tasty. Please try once!

 

Now, I am thinking to make video to show the recipe more simply. I am preparing for the camera or equipments etc at this moment. I will let you know if this plan goes well.

 

I hoe you enjoyed this article too.

See you soon!xx

 

Lovely tomato sauce paste

Sauce & Dressing

Hi, everyone!!

Today I would like to share my original recipe of tomato sauce paste which can be used various way,as I mentioned yesterday. Please be aware that this is not a recipe of tomato sauce. This is the recipe of paste so that you can make brilliant tomato sauce easily. I usually make it whenever I can, and keep it in the fridge. Then when you cook dinner, all you have to do is just add this paste into a tin of tomato in the sauce pan.

This recipe is highly recommended, especially if you are a busy person who wants to cook by yourself but haven’t got any time for it. I will share the example of the use next time. Now, let’s have a look of instruction!!

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[Ingredients]

  • 1/2 of onion
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 3 tomatoes or 200g of tin tomato
  • 2 tbspoons of olive oil
  • A bit of salt and pepper

 

[Instruction]

  1. Finely chop onion and garlic.
  2. Pour olive oil into a sauce pan, and pan fry onion and garlic until they get soft and smell nice.
  3. Add seasonings.
  4. Mix the onion and garlic from step3. and tomato in a blender.(Chop tomatoes roughly if you need.)
  5. Turn on the blender and keep going until they become smooth.
  6. Keep the paste in a small container in the fridge.

 

This is the example I am going to share next time.

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Woo!! I can’t wait to share the recipe!!

See you next time xx

 

 

Spaghetti in tomato sauce with tuna and spinach

Main, Noodles, Seafood

Hi, everyone!

It has been one year since I opened my website. Time flies so fast! Although my life has changed so much in such a little time, my passion for foods had never died. I have got visa, found a job, started volunteering and got another job again, decided to go to school…but the most important is, I AM A CHEF NOW!!!! (amazing, isn’t it?)

Anyway, today I want to share one of my favourite recipe of spaghetti sauce. In Japan, combinations of ingredients are very important as well as how it looks or how it tastes, because it is believed that they affect your health either in a good way or in a bad way.

Spinach is one of the most controversial ingredients about this, because, for example, everyone loves the combinations of spinach and bacon and never wants to believe that it might cause cancers, (neither do I!!)  Whether if it is true or not, there is one fact; the combination of spinach and tuna is absolutely fantastic!!

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[Ingredients] for 2

  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 onion
  • 400g tin tomatoes
  • 100g tin tuna (in water)
  • A handful spinach
  • Spaghetti for two (200-300g)
  • 50ml of olive oil
  • A little bit of salt & pepper
  • 1 tbspoon of sugar

[Instruction]

  1. Chop a garlic and onion finely.
  2. Pour 3 tbspoon of olive oil into a hot frying pan.
  3. Pan fry onion and garlic until they get soft and smell good.
  4. Add tomato into the frying pan.
  5. Boil water in a tall sauce pan and cook spaghetti.
  6. Add olive oil into the sauce and keep cooking until the colour of the sauce changes into blight red. Add some seasoning.
  7. When the sauce gets dry, add some hot water from sauce pan cooking spaghetti.
  8. Add tuna into the sauce.
  9. When you finish cooking spaghetti then add them into the sauce.
  10. Add spinach just before you serve, and mix well.
  11. Plate your spaghetti nicely. Dress it with olive oil on top.

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Making pasta sauce is always simple but it is difficult to make it nice. The key is; garlic, onion and tomatoes. In fact there is my original recipe of tomato sauce paste which can be used in various way. I will write a article about it next time.

Thank you very much for reading my recipe today! I hope you enjoyed it!

See you soon!xx

Travel to Tokyo – 1. Kaiten-zushi

Tokyo

Hello, everyone!

My husband and I spent 2 weeks in Japan. It has been 1 year since I moved to the UK. As we had such a lovely holiday, I want to share our memories there, and hopefully, some of them might be useful for you when you travel to Japan!

Today I will introduce some amazing restaurants you can enjoy in Tokyo. xx

 

1. Kaiten-zushi (circling sushi counter) restaurant

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Kaiten-zushi restaurant is the style that you will take sushi from the sushi counter circling beside you. There are many options of kaiten-zushi restaurants all over Japan and my favourite restaurant is 海鮮三崎港(Kaisen Misakiko) which is a popular chain mainly in Tokyo. (Do not look down on Japanese chains, their foods are amazingly fresh!) There, you can also order your favourite sushi with the tablet on your table as well, which is easy for foreign travelers (usually, in many kaiten-zushi restaurants, you have to ask chefs in front of you directly). You can choose some languages on the tablet but sometimes translation is wrong. (Sorry about that!)

Soon after you order sushi with the tablet, your orders will arrive at your tables on a bullet train. (They will use 2 lanes. Upstairs for your orders, down stairs for everyone.)

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In these restaurants, the price are told by the colours of plates. When you finish, ask a staff to count the number of your plates you had and they will give you a bill.

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In Tokyo, you can find kaiten-zushi restaurants everywhere. If you see the symbol of “回転ずし” or “回転寿司” then that means kaiten-zushi!!

 

Be brave and jump into the new world! xx

Satsuma age (deep fried fish paste)

Main, Seafood, Starter

Satsuma age (deep fried fish paste) is a popular home cooking food in south of Japan. Because my grandparents were from that area so whenever or whoever visited their house, my grandma made fresh homemade satsuma age. Maybe making satsuma age for guests means to say “hi” to their guests. Although they have passed away a few years ago, these are still wonderful memory.

How people eat satsuma age is different in each area. In the south area people eat them without sauce so satsuma age has stronger flavour. In most of areas satsuma age is served with soy sauce, ketchup or chilli sauce so taste should be a bit weaker. Because in England people tend to east foods with sauce, my recipe use less salt and sugar. Otherwise you will have a heart attack!

Here is one thing to tell you all who think Japanese food is healthy. Remember; miso, soy sauce, pickles, rice cake and ramen soup… most of Japanese foods have a lot of salt. Study shows the area where more people eat salty foods has high rate of getting sickness. You should be careful when you take more Japanese food in your life. I do not want to make you sick because of my recipes!

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[Ingredients] 3-4 serving

  • White fish 50g
  • Onion (medium) 1/2
  • Grated ginger 1 tablespoon
  • Salt
  • a few pinch of salt
  • Corn flour 1.5 tablespoons

 

These are the most fundamental ingredients. You can also enjoy by adding salsifis, sweet potato, carrot or edamame. If you like my recipe please try these ingredients too!

 

[Method]

  1. Chop fish on a cutting board and grind them with a wooden pestle. If you have a blender, it would be easier.
  2. Add a pinch of salt and mix well with wooden pestle. Repeat this a few times. then it gradually becomes sticky.
  3. Add corn flour and salt and keep mixing well.
  4. Add grated ginger and finely chopped onion into the fish mix well.
  5. Deep fry fish paste with preheated (180-200 degree) oil for 4-5 minutes.
  6. Serve satsuma age with ketchup or soy sauce etc. (my husband likes them with ketchup. I could enjoy them without any sauce though!)

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I hope all of you has or had a lovely weekend!xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maki-zushi for Setsubun 

Main, Rice, Seafood, Winter

Hi in my blog I have kept saying that Japanese people do not eat sushi every day, because sushi is a kind of special food even to them.

Setsubun, 2nd February is one of the important day for Japanese to hope their luck of the year. On the day, most of the sushi restaurant or even supermarket which sells sushi are very busy.

The kind of sushi they eat in setsubun is makizushi.  I made some this year.

Salmon, potato salad and avocado makizushi. So easy😊

[Ingredients]

[methods]

  1. Set nori on the cooking foil or cooking sheet. They will help you to roll sushi easily.
  2. Put some vinegar rice on nori, and a bit of  wasabi and mayonnaise on it.
  3. Put potato salad, salmon, mushed avocado in a line on rice. It is better not to put them in a middle, but closer to the edge of start point to roll.
  4. Roll the sushi.
  5. If you cut your makizushi, put some water on the surface of your knife. So that your knife will move more smooth.

 

Please try this easy makizushi!xx