Japanese Recipes

509 Japanese recipes. Page 18 of 22. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Yaseuma (Flat Wheat Ribbons with Kinako), Uchigae Zoni (Rock Tofu and Taro Soup).

Desserts Medium

Yaseuma (Flat Wheat Ribbons with Kinako)

Hand-stretched wheat dough becomes long, flat ribbons that are boiled and rolled generously in kinako and sugar. Furuno in Yufu, Oita, is regarded as its birthplace, and it is still offered during Obon and Tanabata. Each ribbon is thinnest in the middle and slightly thicker at the ends, and one piece chews differently from end to end. The dough rests twice, once as a ball and again as short sticks, and that is what lets it stretch past 20cm without tearing.

Prep 100min Cook 20min 10 servings

Soups Medium

Uchigae Zoni (Rock Tofu and Taro Soup)

Rice cake has no place in this New Year zoni from the Iya area of Tokushima; firm rock tofu and taro fill the bowl instead. Two long slabs of tofu are crossed on top of the taro, a shape silken tofu cannot hold, and heavily pressed extra-firm tofu is the fallback. The bowl gets just a small pour of hot broth, leaving the crossed tofu in view.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 40min Cook 35min 4 servings

Asian Hard

Ikanago no Kugini (Ginger Soy Simmered Sand Lance)

Young sand lance, only 3 to 4 cm long, are reduced with soy sauce, sake, mirin, coarse sugar, and ginger until the pot is nearly dry. As they cook, the glossy fish bend and darken until they look like rusty nails, which is where the name kugini (nail simmer) comes from. This is a preserve from the Ise Bay coast of Mie, made in spring when the young fish are in season, and its sweet-salty glaze is eaten with plain rice.

Prep 20min Cook 45min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Japanese Rice Soup Porridge

In Japan, zosui is what happens to the broth left at the end of a hot pot, with rice simmered in it. Here it is made from scratch with dashi. Rinsing the rice once keeps the broth clear, and it is much looser than Korean juk, eaten as rice and broth together.

Prep 10min Cook 15min 2 servings

Desserts Hard

Yashoma (Patterned Rice-Flour Dumpling)

Every slice reveals a pattern built from green aonori, black sesame, black soybeans, and a red-tinted dough worked into rice-flour mochi. In Nagano it was offered at home altars and temples for Nehan-e on February 15 and then shared with children. Strands of each colored dough are laid side by side, wrapped into a long roll, and creased with chopsticks into ridges and petals, and the order of the strands decides the final design. Cotton thread cuts the soft roll without squashing that pattern. Fresh slices are tender; pieces that firm up in the fridge are good toasted.

Prep 45min Cook 50min 12 servings

Soups Hard

Uchimame-jiru (Flattened Soybean Miso Soup)

Flattened into flower-like discs, the soybeans cook faster than whole beans, take seasoning right to the center and release a nutty body into the broth. The method grew from storing winter protein in snowy northern Shiga, and the soup is often served as oko-jiru at Buddhist Hoonko gatherings.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 40min Cook 45min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Iragimun, Green Papaya with Pork and Miso

Unripe green papaya is treated here as a vegetable, and once cooked its firm but tender bite is often compared to daikon. In the Yaeyama islands of Okinawa, families picked it from trees planted near the house for ordinary meals, and also made the dish around the equinoctial observances. Pork, kombu, and atsuage (thick fried tofu) cook with it in small amounts of bonito and pork broth, seasoned with miso and a little sugar. The liquid ends up as a light coating rather than soup, which keeps every piece in shape and the miso mild.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 35min 4 servings

Desserts Hard

Miso Yubeshi (Steamed Yuzu and Miso Rice Cakes)

Grated yuzu zest and juice, fresh ginger, and miso go into the sweet rice dough, so each piece tastes salty and citrusy as well as sweet. The rice flours are added all at once to the hot yuzu-miso liquid, which cooks them into a dough right in the pot. Each of the 15 portions is wrapped in a food-grade bamboo sheath and steamed. Pieces that firm up soften again when unwrapped and warmed in the microwave or a pan.

Prep 50min Cook 50min 15 servings

Soups Hard

Dongara-jiru (Whole Cod and Offal Miso Soup)

Dongara refers to the head and bony trimmings of the cod. In the Shonai area of Yamagata, spawning cod goes into one pot from flesh to liver to milt or roe, and the liver melts into the miso broth, making it rich and savory. At home it is made from a cod hot-pot set cleaned by a fishmonger, with the gallbladder, gills and intestines already removed.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 35min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Jabu (Simmered Chicken, Tofu, and Vegetables)

Despite a name linked to the liquid that tofu and vegetables release, this simmer from central and eastern Tottori ends with only a shallow layer of broth in the pot. Chicken thigh, firm tofu, burdock, carrot, shiitake, fried tofu pouch, konjac, and Japanese leek cook together in a small amount of soy-seasoned dashi, and the pieces are plated whole rather than ladled like soup.

Prep 25min Cook 30min 4 servings

Desserts Easy

Yudedago Boiled Dumplings with Brown Sugar and Kinako

Wheat flour, shiratamako, and warm cooked rice are worked together with boiling water, and the rice is what keeps these flat dumplings soft after they cool. In Saga, where farmers often grew wheat after the rice harvest, both flours were on hand, and yudedago served as a fieldwork snack or a supplement when a meal ran short. The name is a local shortening of yude dango, and some call it hiradago. Brown sugar never enters the dough but is showered on with kinako while the dumplings are hot, leaving a melting sweet surface over a plain center.

Prep 30min Cook 15min 20 servings

Soups Medium

Yanagi Batto (Willow-Leaf Buckwheat Dumpling Soup)

Buckwheat flour kneaded with crumbled firm tofu is pressed into willow-leaf shapes, pointed at both ends and slightly plump in the middle, which keeps a springy buckwheat bite. This miso soup from northern Iwate takes less work than cutting fine soba noodles yet still tastes clearly of buckwheat. Anyone with a buckwheat allergy should not be served it.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 35min Cook 35min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Jako Goko, Osaka Pickled Eggplant with Shrimp

Mizu eggplants fermented in rice bran for two to three months, from late summer into autumn, become the base of this Senshu, Osaka simmer. In the name, jako means the small shrimp and goko means pickles. Soaking and blanching soften the salt and fermented aroma without erasing it, and the tender eggplant then soaks up dashi, shrimp, and soy sauce until very little broth is left.

Prep 150min Cook 35min 4 servings

Soups Easy

Aichi Zoni (Clear New Year Soup with Square Mochi)

Square rice cakes go into the clear soy-seasoned broth without grilling and turn smooth outside and soft through the middle. Aichi is known for dark soybean miso, yet this New Year soup uses none, keeping the broth light in color. Mochina, a traditional green from the Owari area, looks like komatsuna but is more tender and slightly sweet. It is added only after the rice cakes soften so it stays bright. A pinch of bonito flakes is the only garnish.

Tonkatsu sauce goes on one slice of bread and mayonnaise on the other, with a thick pork cutlet and finely shredded cabbage in between. The cabbage has to be dried well first, or it soaks the bread.

Prep 20min Cook 18min 2 servings