Steamed eggplant with mayo-miso

Combining our Japanese study and our wish to try some new Japanese foods, we decided to study some Japanese cook books in the library! Ok, we will admit, sometimes the recipes were a little hard to follow/read, so we just use our own imagination and taste to complete the recipes and fill in the blanks :)

During this process of reading, and trying we have come to make some nice dishes of our own. This time we want to share a recipe that combines the joint love of the Dutch and Japanese for mayonnaise! While we Dutch are known for putting mayonnaise on everything, the Japanese also use it as topping on many recipes. (who would want to eat Okonomiyaki without mayonnaise??) This recipe is for steamed eggplant with a mayo-miso sauce! In the Japanese kitchen eggplant is combined with miso in a lot of recipes, but we liked this recipe for it's full, creamy taste the mayonnaise adds.


Ingredients (2p):

• 1 (big) eggplant
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp (red) miso paste

 Cut the eggplant is slices of around 1 cm thick. And steam the slices for about 10 - 15 minutes. (In our previous recipe we described how you can steam easily with just simple kitchen tools: pan with lid and a colander)

In the meanwhile, mix the mayonnaise and the miso paste. You might want to taste a bit and adjust the ratio to your preferred taste. Too much mayo can make the taste too fatty, but too much miso will make it too salty.

Put the steamed eggplant slices on a plate and add the mayo-miso sauce mix on top. Very easy, but tastes great!

Steamed eggplant with mayonnaise and miso sauce

Steamed sweet potato, with banana and honey

Recently we posted a recipe with Satsuma-imo (Japanese sweet potato's) prepared in the rice cooker: Satsuma-imo gohan (or sweet potato rice). However, we found that Japanese sweet potato's can be prepared deliciously in many different ways. Because our local supermarket has recently had the Satsuma-imo on sale a couple of times we decided to try some other ways of preparing our favourite Japanese potato.

Today we want to share how to make steamed satsuma-imo, very easy but tastes very good and it is actually a very healthy way to prepare the sweet potato's (or food in general). This time we decided to mix the sweet potato with banana and honey, to complement the sweetness and give it a more fruity taste to make the satsuma-imo nice into a recipe for the summer!



Ingredients (2p):

• 2 small satsuma-imo (or 1 big one)
• 2 banana's
• honey as a topping
• rice for 2 persons

 We like to serve our steamed meal with rice, but if you prefer otherwise you can of course substitute the rice with anything you like. Otherwise, just cook the rise as usually.

Satsuma-imo, Japanese sweet potato

Cut the sweet potato into big pieces, you can make them around 3cm square. Steam the pieces for about 15 minutes.
We don't have any special steamer, so we just use simple basic kitchen tools: pan with lid and a colander with a diameter a little bigger than the pan (so you can hang the colander in the pan, without it touching the bottom). Put a little bit of water in the pan (around 1 cm), so that when you hang the colander in the pan it won't touch the water and bring to boil. Put the potato's in the colander and hang it in the pan, then place the lid on the pan. Then, all you have to do is wait 15 minutes (maybe check that the water isn't evaporated)

Cut the banana's in pieces and place together with the steamed potato on a plate. Add honey to taste, and mix all together. Serve with rice, and enjoy you sweet, fruity satsuma-imo dish!

Satsuma-imo, banana and honey

Pumpkin (kabocha) cookies

This time we want to share a recipe that can be enjoyed in many different ways! It's nice to eat as a snack, a great taste and healthy cookie. But we also enjoy it very much to eat as a side dish in our bento boxes. Easy to make a bunch of cookies and then take them with you on several days.



Ingredients:

• half Japanese pumpkin (we have never tried it with non-Japanese pumpkin, so we don't know if it will work just as good)
• flower
• topping: sesame seeds

Japanese pumpkin

Remove the seeds from the pumpkin (easily with a spoon), and cut them to small pieces. Let them cook for about 10 minutes.

Cut into pieces

Cooking

Put the cooked pumpkin pieces in a bowl and add the flower. You will need enough flower so that the flower mixed (smashed) together with the pumpkin will feel very soft and kneadable. We normally use around 7 (big) table spoons of flower to reach this. But you can just try and add more flower till you're satisfied with the result.

Cooked pumpkin

Result of mixing the cooked pumpkin pieces with flower

Then, make round flat shaped cookies from the pumpkin-flower mix. It will be much easier if you keep your hands wet, so it doesn't stick to your fingers to much. Add sesame seeds on top, and make sure stick to the cookie.

Put on over roster (maybe use a sheet of baking paper first!)

Put them in the oven, and bake them till they turn a little brown. In our oven, it takes approximately 10-15 minutes on 200 degrees C.

Baking the cookies

'How-to-make' video :)

 Let them cool down, and enjoy!

Satsuma-imo gohan (Sweet potato rice)

Our school has started again, so we spend our days in the classroom and/or in the library. This means that we normally don't have time to eat lunch at home. Therefore, we bought some nice lunch-chopsticks with holders, and have started making a lot of bento-meals. So, from now we will probably start sharing some of our favourite take-with-us recipes.

  Usually we prepare these meals before we go to school, so they have to be real easy and quick to make. This recipe, Satsuma-imo gohan or sweet potato rice, is exactly that. You only need a rice cooker and some time to wait until it is finished cooking.

Satsuma-imo are Japanese sweet potatoes, with a purple skin and yellow-ish inside. It has a really nice, sweet taste. We have even seen (and tasted) it as a ice cream flavour!

Japanese sweet potatoes (Satsuma-imo)

Ingredients (2p):

• White rice for 2 persons
• 2 average sized sweet potatoes
• 3 tbsp mirin
• topping: sesame seeds

We have seen recipes for this meal using different kinds of rice, but since we normally only have plain white style rice we just use that and it tastes good! However, for some variation in taste, you can try making it with (combinations of ) different kinds of rice.

Wash the sweet potatoes and cut them in small pieces. Put the rice in the rice cooker, and place the sweet potato pieces on them. Add water (just use the amount you would normally use for the amount if rice) and the mirin (3 tbsp) then cook as usual.

Sweet potatoes cut into small pieces

The rice (below, not visible on photo) with potato pieces on top and with water added to cook

When it has finished cooking, divide into two portions and place on a plate or put in your lunch-box. Add sesame seeds on top for the finishing touch (in both look and taste!)

Result when rice cooker has finished cooking

Easy, and delicious!

Satsuma-ima gohan - Sweet potato rice

Cold soba with dipping sauce

 Now that is has become July, the weather is getting warmer and warmer in Toyko. We have therefore come to love to eating cold meals, to cool down a little bit from the heat outside. With the more warmer periods yet to come, we expect to grow even more fond of these Japanese cold meals.
This time we want to share a favorite meal of us: cold soba. Soba noodles are buckwheat noodles, and can be eaten both cold and warm. Because we enjoy eating cold soba so much, we searched on the internet to find the recipe for the Japanese cold dipping sauce (Kaeshi) that is normally served with cold soba. Turned out: it is very easy to make and very tasty!
 
Making the dipping sauce (Kaeshi)

Ingredients (makes several portions, can be stored in refrigerator)

• 2 cups soja
• 1/3 cup mirin
• 1/4 cup sugar

 Put the 1/3 cup mirin in a pan, and bring to boil. Lower the temperature, so it can simmer for a little bit. Then add the 1/4 cup sugar (if you prefer a more sweeter sauce, you can try adding more sugar), and stir until all the sugar is melted. Finally, add the 2 cups of soya sauce and let the sauce warm up. When it starts boiling, take is off the heat.
Let is cool down, and then store it in the refrigerator. It will make several portions, but put in a airtight container it can be stored for quite some time.
Put the sauce in a small cup, so you can dip the noodles in.

Making the soba

Ingredients (2p:)

• 200 gr. soba (will normally be packed in 1-persons portions of 100 gram so very easy!)

Making cold soba noodles is really easy (maybe that's why we like this meal so much?). Put water in a pan and bring to boil. Then, carefully add the soba noodles to the pan, and divide them in the water. Let the noodles boil for the amount of time as indicated on the label (probably around 5 or 6 minutes).
Now comes the most important part of cooking soba noodles. After it's done cooking, you need to wash the noodles thoroughly in cold water. After that it's ready to serve.

 
Traditionally we see cold soba served on beautiful bamboo plates/mats, but since we don't have those we just use our basic plates. Still tastes good!