Recipes serve 4 ~
Yakitori – Chicken & Green Onion Skewers
Sauce Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup mirin
- 1/4 cup sake (sub for rice vinegar)
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
Chicken Skewer Ingredients:
- 500 grams boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 Tokyo negi (sub for the stem part of about 9 green onions)
Instructions
1. Soak 12 bamboo skewers (10cm length) in water for at least 10 minutes. Simply submerge them fully in water while prepping the ingredients. This step will prevent the skewers from burning.
2. Make the yakitori sauce. Add the soy sauce, mirin, sake, brown sugar, water and the green part of the Tokyo negi (sub for green part of the green onion) to a small saucepan.
3. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and let it cook for 30 minutes, uncovered. The sauce should thicken up and reduce to about 1/3 of its original volume. Let the sauce cool completely before use. You can prep this in advance – just store in an airtight container in the fridge.
4. Cut the chicken thighs into approximately 3cm squares. You should get about 36 squares in total. Chop the Tokyo negi (or green onion stems) into roughly 6cm lengths. You should get about 24 pieces of this.
5. To assemble the skewer, fold a chunk of the chicken in half, then pierce it into the skewer. Then pierce a piece of Tokyo negi, horizontally, into the skewer so that it sits on top of the chicken. Alternate between chicken and Tokyo negi until each skewer has 3 chicken pieces and 2 Tokyo negi pieces. Then, space them out onto an oven-safe rack with a lined tray underneath.
6. Now we can bake the yakitori. Grilling is the better and more authentic method, however most of us don’t own / want to use a grill. If you would like to grill your yakitori, you can search for a method online. Using the fan grill or broiler oven mode with the oven rack in the centre of the oven, preheat the oven to 280C or 550 F for about 5 minutes. Then, carefully place the tray of yakitori skewers into the oven and bake for 6 minutes.
7. After 6 minutes, take out the tray and generously brush the meat and Tokyo negi with the prepared yakitori sauce. Flip the skewers over, using a pair of tongs if it is too hot, and brush the sauce on this side as well. Place the tray back into the oven and bake for another 3 minutes.
8. Take the tray out again, brush the sauce on either side, and bake for a final 2 minutes. Remove from the oven and, optionally, serve with another brush of yakitori sauce.
Takikomi Gohan
Takikomi Gohan is a delicious Japanese mixed rice dish with meat, vegetables and seasonings. It’s an easy way to use up ingredients or get everything in one dish.
Dashi Ingredients:
- 15 grams dried shiitake mushrooms
- 5 grams dried kelp
- 275 grams water
Sauce Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons tsuyu
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- 2 tablespoons sake (sub for rice vinegar)
Remaining Ingredients:
- 300 grams short grain rice, uncooked
- 150 grams chicken thigh, diced into small pieces
- 20 grams fried tofu, thinly sliced
- 50 grams carrot, peeled and julienned
- 10 grams ginger, peeled and julienned
Instructions
1. Wash the rice two times thoroughly. Then add enough water to fully submerge it, and soak for one hour.
2. To make the dashi stock, roughly rinse the shiitake mushrooms and kelp. Add them to a medium bowl along with the 275g of water. Soak this for an hour as well. Make sure to occasionally mix around the ingredients to make sure they are not floating to the top.
3. Cut up the chicken thighs into small cubes. Peel and julienne the carrots and ginger. Thinly slice the fried tofu puffs (you can get these at the asian supermarket). After the shiitake mushrooms have soaked for an hour, remove them from the dashi and thinly slice.
4. Add some oil to a frying pan and when it is hot, add the diced chicken. Stir fry until it is no longer pink. Then, add the mushroom, ginger, carrot and fried tofu, frying for another minute.
5. In bowl, combine the sauce ingredients and set aside.
6. We will now cook the takikomi gohan. Once the rice has soaked, drain the water and pour it into a medium sized pot. Pour over all of the prepared dashi stock and gently wobble to make the surface even. Then, carefully spoon the contents of the frying pan on top, making sure to leave the ingredients on top of the rice. Drizzle all of the sauce over the top, making sure not to mix.
7. Cover the pot with the lid and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Make sure not to open the lid when cooking – you will know it’s boiling when you can hear it bubbling. Once it is boiling, let it boil for 2 minutes. Then, reduce heat to medium and cook for another 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cook for 5 minutes, keeping the lid on. Lastly, blast the heat on high for a couple of seconds – about 15 seconds.
8. Turn off the heat and let the pot rest – undisturbed – for 20 minutes. The rice will finish cooking in this remaining time. After it has rested, garnish with green onions and stir to fluff up the rice.
Miso Soup
Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons miso paste (I used awase miso – a blend of red and white)
- 4 cups water
- 200 grams tofu, cubed
- green onions, for garnish
Instructions
- Add the miso paste and water to a pot. Bring the water to a boil.
- Once boiling, add in the cubed tofu and cook for 5 minutes, stirring to dissolve the miso paste.
- Serve with green onions.
