Japanese Recipes

509 Japanese recipes. Page 17 of 22. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Tojiko-mame Soybean Wheat Sweet.

Tojiko-mame Soybean Wheat Sweet

Toasted soybeans are packed tightly into wheat dough sweetened with brown sugar and sanontou, then steamed in log form. The name refers to beans shut inside the dough, and it also goes by tochiko-mame or toshiko-mame. Around Yamaga and Kikuchi in northern Kumamoto it was made at year's end alongside osechi, and it appeared at weddings, funerals, and as a gift or farm-season snack. Chilled until firm and sliced, it shows beans crowded through the brown dough.

Prep 45min Cook 70min 30 servings

Soups Easy

Su no Shui (Warm Grated Daikon and Sardine Vinegar Soup)

Coarsely grated daikon and overnight-dried sardines simmer together, and a splash of rice vinegar at the end turns the pot into a hot, tangy soup. In the Miyazaki dialect shui means soup, and unlike chilled vinegared salads this one is eaten steaming, traditionally alongside mochi.

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Prep 20min Cook 20min 12 servings

Asian Easy

Heshiko Rice-Bran Fermented Mackerel

Gutted mackerel salted for about ten days and then buried in rice bran with chile, sake, and fresh sansho for roughly half a year becomes heshiko, a preserve from Kyoto's Tango region. The fish is salty and strongly fermented, so it is brushed of excess bran, grilled briefly, and eaten in small amounts with rice, ochazuke, or drinks. The name may come from heshikomu, a fisherman's word for pressing fish into a barrel. This recipe skips home fermentation and covers only a sealed, fully matured product from a licensed maker.

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Prep 15min Cook 10min 4 servings

Rice Medium

Tororo-Jiru (Grated Japanese Yam with Miso Dashi)

Grated jinenjo, a sticky wild Japanese yam, is worked in a mortar and loosened little by little with cooled miso dashi until it pours in a thick ribbon over hot rice. Mariko, in present-day Shizuoka City, was the twentieth of the fifty-three Tokaido post towns, and travelers stopped there for its tororo-jiru. Jinenjo is dug from mid-autumn into winter, and some communities eat the dish on January second.

Prep 20min Cook 10min 4 servings

Desserts Hard

Tsuki no Shizuku (Fondant-Coated Koshu Grapes)

Bite through a firm, crumbly white sugar shell and the tart juice of a fresh Koshu grape bursts out. One Yamanashi story traces the sweet to a grape that fell into boiling sugar at a Kofu confectioner in the Edo period. The shell is fondant, syrup boiled and then worked until it turns white, and the grapes need thick skins like Koshu. Thin-skinned or bruised grapes split open in the warm fondant.

Prep 60min Cook 25min 50 servings

Soups Medium

Tamago Fuwafuwa (Fluffy Egg and Clear Dashi Soup)

Eggs are whipped for 4 to 5 minutes into a creamy foam, poured into boiling broth, and left covered off the heat until the foam puffs into a soft dome and sets. Records put the dish on breakfast trays at the Fukuroi post station in the Edo period, and the Fukuroi tourism association revived it from those old documents.

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Prep 10min Cook 8min 2 servings

Asian Hard

Suzuki no Hoshoyaki (Washi-Wrapped Sea Bass)

The sea bass cooks in something close to steam inside wet washi, which holds in the fish's own moisture while the paper soaks up surface oil, leaving the flesh moist without heaviness. In Matsue, Shimane, Lake Shinji sea bass is cleaned through the gills (the tsubo-nuki method) so the belly stays uncut, then wrapped whole and opened at the table at autumn and early-winter banquets, when the fish carries more fat.

Prep 25min Cook 40min 4 servings

Rice Medium

Tororo Manma (Mountain Yam Rice with Miso Dashi)

Grated mountain yam, loosened with deliberately strong, fully cooled miso soup until it still clings to a spoon, is poured over freshly cooked hot rice. In northern and southern Akita and Yurihonjo, this was eaten during the first three days of the New Year and on the day after a celebration.

Prep 25min Cook 25min 8 servings

Desserts Easy

Yamaguchi Uiro (Steamed Warabi and Red Bean Sweet)

Softer than the rice-flour uiro of other regions, this one trembles slightly on the plate. In Yamaguchi it is made by stirring smooth red bean paste into warabi starch and steaming it, and this recipe makes just one small mold using store-bought paste. Chilled straight from the steamer, the starch firms up; it cools at room temperature instead and is eaten the same day.

Prep 10min Cook 15min 4 servings

Soups Hard

Tara Jappa-jiru (Whole-Cod Miso Soup)

Everything left after filleting a cod, from the head, backbone and skin to the liver, roe or milt, goes into one big pot here. Jappa means scraps in the Tsugaru dialect of Aomori, yet these parts make a full-bodied winter miso soup. Liver mashed into the broth near the end gives it a soft richness, and fresh milt is treated as a prize. In Tsugaru cod was the fish for welcoming the New Year; families bought a whole large one at year's end and dragged it home over snowy roads, which gave rise to the phrase tara shogatsu, cod New Year.

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Prep 45min Cook 45min 10 servings

Asian Medium

Igisu Dofu Red Algae and Soy Terrine

Igisu, a fine reddish-brown seaweed also called egonori, is dissolved in dashi with raw soy flour and left to cool, and it sets into a springy block with no gelling agent added. On the Hiroshima coast it is a summer side dish: the block is cut into squares and topped with a sweet-sour white miso dressing, shiso, and myoga.

Prep 35min Cook 12min 4 servings

Rice Medium

Unadon (Japanese Grilled Glazed Eel Rice Bowl)

The eel cooks skin side down first so some of its fat renders out, then gets brushed with a tare of soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar until glossy. Because of the sugar in the tare, the second coat goes on over low heat, just for shine. Sansho pepper and chopped chives are scattered over the eel once it is on the rice.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Desserts Easy

Warabi Mochi (Japanese Bracken Starch Jelly with Kinako)

Stirred without a break, the cloudy, thickening warabi starch mixture suddenly turns clear and starts pulling away from the sides of the pot. That is when it goes into the mold to chill; it is then cut into bite-size pieces, rolled in kinako, and finished with dark brown sugar syrup just before eating. It is softest on the day it is made.

Prep 15min Cook 10min 4 servings

Soups Easy

Imoni (Yamagata Taro and Beef Hot Pot)

In inland Yamagata, families and friends gather on riverbanks in autumn to share huge pots of this taro and beef stew at imoni-kai parties. The beef waits until a skewer slides easily into the taro. Added at the start, it toughens and throws off more foam.

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Prep 25min Cook 35min 5 servings

Asian Medium

Igoneri (Rolled Ego Seaweed Jelly)

It looks like a bowl of noodles, but igoneri from Sado Island in Niigata is a seaweed sheet. Ego seaweed is cooked down, set thin on a tray, rolled up, and cut into ribbons that loosen in the bowl, then topped with chopped long onion, grated ginger, lemon peel, and soy sauce.

Prep 20min Cook 40min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Uzumi (Rice Hidden under Tofu and Shiitake Soup)

What arrives looks like a clear soup of tofu cubes and sliced shiitake; the rice only appears when a spoon reaches the bottom of the bowl. That hidden portion is kept small so the soup and tofu can cover it completely. The broth comes from kombu and fresh shiitake and is skimmed during simmering to stay clear, and the firm tofu cubes are cooked gently so they hold their edges. Scallion, minced mandarin peel, grated ginger, and crushed sesame go on at the table, each diner adding as much as they like.

Prep 20min Cook 35min 10 servings

Desserts Hard

Yaki Manju Grilled Miso Buns

Four steamed buns go onto each bamboo skewer and are grilled under a sweet red miso glaze until they shine dark with small charred edges. Gunma traces the snack to miso-zuke manju made by Harashima Ruizo in Maebashi at the end of the Edo period; the glaze turned sweeter once kuromitsu syrup arrived. The rice-koji starter ferments for a day or two and the glaze rests in the fridge for 2 days, so the work begins well before grilling day.

Prep 480min Cook 90min 5 servings

Soups Easy

Kagoshima Tonjiru (Pork and Vegetables in Barley Miso Soup)

In Kagoshima, tonjiru is made with barley miso, which is sweet and mellow. Pork, daikon, taro, konjac and atsuage (thick fried tofu) go in so generously that they nearly fill the bowl, and thin scallions and slivers of ginger go on top.

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Prep 20min Cook 30min 4 servings

Asian Easy

Iizushi Fish and Rice Koji Ferment

Hokkaido fishing households packed iizushi around the first snow to carry them through winter, and the fish changed from coast to coast: hatahata, hokke, salmon, herring, or saury. Salted fish, daikon, carrot, and ginger are pressed in layers between rice and rice koji for a lactic ferment that is shorter than for many narezushi, which keeps the aroma mild. The fermenting is not done at home here; a refrigerated, finished product from a licensed maker is served with grated daikon and yuzu peel.

Prep 20min 0 4 servings

Rice Easy

Yaki Onigiri (Japanese Soy-Glazed Grilled Rice Balls)

Salted rice balls grill over medium-low heat, each side left alone for a good while, with a thin coat of soy and mirin glaze brushed on at every turn. The outside becomes a thin, crisp shell, and only the edges where the glaze gathers turn a little chewy. A strip of nori goes around the base, with miso soup and pickled radish alongside.

Prep 12min Cook 12min 2 servings

Desserts Medium

Yakitsuke (Griddled Mugwort Rice Cakes)

In Toyama, glutinous rice dough tinted green with mugwort is pressed into flat rounds, griddled, and brushed while hot with a thin layer of sweet sesame miso. The miso is made by grinding toasted sesame until its oil just begins to show, then mixing in miso and sugar, which leaves a little texture from the seeds.

Prep 30min Cook 20min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Tsubon-jiru (Clear Chicken and Seven-Ingredient Soup)

Seven ingredients, all diced to the same 1.5cm, float in a clear soy-seasoned broth: chicken, shiitake, taro, chikuwa, konjac, carrot and grilled tofu. In the Hitoyoshi and Kuma area of Kumamoto, families keep the count odd, seven or nine, and serve the soup with red rice and nishime at occasions such as the Okunchi festival. It also grew out of thrift, since trimmings left from making nishime could become a complete dish. The tofu is added last so the cubes stay neat.

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Prep 30min Cook 35min 10 servings

Asian Medium

Ika Menchi (Coarse Squid and Vegetable Fritters)

Bound only with flour and no breadcrumbs, the squid and vegetable mixture fries to a browned, crisp outside while the knife-chopped tentacles stay springy inside. The dish comes from the Tsugaru region of Aomori and is said to have started in the postwar years as a way to use squid legs left over from sashimi along with vegetable trimmings, and it is still everyday food at markets and prepared-food counters.

Prep 30min Cook 20min 5 servings

Rice Medium

Yakitori Rice Bowl (Soy-Mirin Glazed Grilled Chicken over Rice)

Chicken thigh and green onion are threaded onto skewers and cooked in a skillet, then brushed again and again with a thin coat of tare, a sweet glaze of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Thigh meat has enough fat to stay juicy through that repeated searing. Laid over hot rice, the glaze runs down between the grains and no extra sauce is needed.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings