Recipes with mirin

109 recipes. Page 4 of 5

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Dipping Ramen (Japanese Thick Noodles with Concentrated Dipping Broth)

Dipping cold-rinsed thick noodles a mouthful at a time into a hot, reduced pork bone broth keeps the chewy bite and the warmth of the soup separate until the end. The dipping broth simmers for about 15 minutes until it tastes far stronger than ordinary ramen soup, strong enough to season cold noodles in a quick dip. The miso has to dissolve completely, since lumps leave the broth uneven and cloudy. The noodles boil a little under the package time, and the cold rinse firms them so they hold their spring. Rubbing off the surface starch and shaking the noodles dry keeps them from watering down the concentrated broth. Chashu, bamboo shoots and a soft-boiled egg sit with the noodles, not in the broth.

Prep 20min Cook 30min 1 serving

Asian Medium

Hyoboshi no Nimono (Simmered Dried Purslane)

Purslane is blanched and dried in summer, then soaked in winter and stir-fried with shirataki, carrot and fried tofu before simmering in soy-based seasoning. In the snowy Murayama and Okitama areas of Yamagata, wild greens and vegetables were dried this way to eat through the winter. The soaked stems are soft but still have a little give when you bite. The purslane here is commercially made hyoboshi sold for eating, not something picked from a field.

Prep 35min Cook 35min 5 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

Noodles Medium

Japanese Stir-Fried Udon

With no broth at all, a soy, oyster sauce and mirin glaze clings to thick udon, salty with a little sweetness. Udon still wet from rinsing drops the pan temperature and ends up steamed and soggy rather than stir-fried.

Prep 10min Cook 15min 2 servings

Asian Hard

Ebiimo to Bodara no Taitan (Simmered Taro and Dried Cod)

This is a braise meant to be reheated and eaten the day after it is made. Overnight, gelatin from the dried cod coats the taro, and the ebiimo turn sticky and glossy. Ebiimo is a dense, striped taro from Kyoto; the cod is the dried kind traditionally brought down from Hokkaido, first simmered on its own in bancha tea to take off its smell and leftover salt. In Kyoto it is made in autumn and winter and also served at New Year.

Prep 45min Cook 180min 10 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

Asian Medium

Ei no Nikogori Chilled Simmered Ray

Ray carries so much collagen in its skin and cartilage that the broth it simmers in, sweet and salty with ginger, sake, mirin and soy, sets like jelly once it cools, with no gelatin needed. In Katsuragi, Nara, ray has long been chilled in its broth this way. Nara has no coast, but seafood landed in Osaka came in quickly along the Takenouchi road.

Prep 50min Cook 25min 3 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

Asian Easy

Furu-takuan no Nimono (Simmered Aged Pickled Daikon)

Takuan pickled the year before, by now salty and sour, gets sliced thin and boiled several times in fresh water before a gentle simmer in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. Because a perfectly edible pickle is given extra work to become a new dish, it is also called zeitaku-ni, the luxurious simmer. Red chili and white sesame finish this Fukui side, which goes with rice, sake, or ochazuke.

Prep 20min Cook 60min 12 servings

Rice Easy

Korean Salmon Rice Bowl (Marinated Raw Salmon over Warm Rice)

Raw salmon and avocado alternate over warm rice, dressed with soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil: half the sauce coats the salmon for a short rest in the fridge, and the rest is drizzled over the rice. Buy salmon sold for raw eating and kept refrigerated. Smell and appearance alone do not tell you it is safe raw. Keep it chilled until you cut it, and use a clean knife and board. Neither the warm rice nor the soy sauce cooks the fish, and the unheated mirin keeps its alcohol. The bowl is best eaten right away, before a long marinade toughens the flesh and the warm rice changes its texture.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 15min Cook 5min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Goyori Mame Soybeans with Dried Small Fish

Small fish and shrimp from Osaka Bay, sun-dried together, go into this sweet-salty bean dish as goyori: the mixed catch left over after the saleable pieces were picked out. Dried soybeans are cooked tender with coarse sugar, sake, mirin, and soy, then reduced with the dry-roasted goyori until no liquid remains and the beans shine. It comes from Osaka's Senshu and Kawachi areas, and in Kawachi it also goes by jako mame.

Prep 20min Cook 140min 20 servings

Asian Hard

Haze Tsukudani (Tamari-Simmered Sea Goby)

Two rounds of refrigerator drying, one before an unseasoned grilling and one after, firm small sea gobies enough to keep their shape through a long final simmer in sweet tamari broth. Grilling also cuts surface moisture and fishy aroma. The result, a preserved side from the Mikawa Bay coast of Aichi, is nearly dry, concentrated in soybean savor and sweetness, and eaten a little at a time with rice or drinks.

Prep 30min Cook 55min 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

Asian Hard

Jibuni (Flour-Coated Duck Simmer)

Thin slices of duck breast are dredged generously in flour before going into the broth, and that coating does two jobs: it protects the meat and gives the sauce its body. This is a Kanazawa dish from Ishikawa, with sudare-fu (ridged wheat gluten sheets), taro, shiitake, and flower-shaped fu each cooked separately in the same sweet-salty soy and mirin dashi. They are plated with the duck and blanched spinach under the thickened sauce, and a small mound of fresh wasabi cuts through the sweetness.

Prep 30min Cook 35min 4 servings

Asian Hard

Slow-Simmered Japanese Pork Belly (Kakuni)

Kakuni falls apart along the grain at the touch of a chopstick, the result of thick pork belly cooked in soy sauce, mirin, and ginger over the lowest heat until even the fat layer turns translucent. Chilling it overnight and lifting off the set fat before reheating gives a cleaner broth, and a dab of hot Japanese mustard goes on the side.

Prep 20min Cook 120min 4 servings

Asian Hard

Kombu-Maki (Herring Rolled in Simmered Kombu)

Each slice shows a dark spiral of kombu wrapped around soaked dried herring, glossy with a sweet soy glaze that reaches between the layers. The rolls come from the Hidaka area of Hokkaido, and because kombu sounds like yorokobu, to rejoice, they appear in New Year osechi boxes and at celebrations.

Prep 30min Cook 240min 4 servings

Asian Hard

Komo-dofu (Straw-Wrapped Seasoned Tofu)

Straw ridges run along the outside of each slice, and inside, the crumbled tofu has knitted back together with tiny gaps that hold a sugary soy simmering liquid. That rough interior is the point: unlike a smooth block of simmered tofu, the cut surface drinks up the seasoning during the overnight rest. In central Ibaraki, villagers once pooled straw and made it in large pots for weddings and funerals, when meat was hard to come by.

Prep 35min Cook 35min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Koya Tofu Powder and Vegetable Nimono

Fine powder left over from making koya-dofu, Japan's freeze-dried tofu, is stirred into a pot of diced chicken and root vegetables, where it drinks up the dashi and clumps into soft, crumbly curds. This home dish from Takacho in Hyogo is eaten with a spoon: everything from carrot and burdock to konnyaku, chikuwa fish cake, and fried tofu is cut small so each bite gets a bit of everything.

Prep 25min Cook 20min 5 servings

Asian Medium

Kuchizoko no Nitsuke (Saga-Style Simmered Sole)

Along the Ariake Sea, tonguesole is called kuchizoko, and it is simmered briefly and hard in a generous mix of sake, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Unlike long-braised fish, these thin fillets cook in minutes and come out of the pot as soon as they are done, which keeps the flesh tender and flaky. Burdock cooked in the leftover liquid goes alongside.

Prep 20min Cook 20min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Miso Potato (Fried Potatoes with Sweet Miso Sauce)

A floury potato center, a thin crisp coat, and sweet-salty miso sauce come in that order with each bite of this Chichibu snack from Saitama, once eaten by farmers as kojuhan, a small bite between stretches of field work. The sauce is poured over rather than tossed so some crisp edges stay dry.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Nabera-nbushi (Loofah, Tofu, and Pork Miso Simmer)

Young edible loofah, nabera in Okinawan, gives off a clear, faintly sweet juice as it cooks, and that juice mixes with red miso into something moister than a stir-fry yet thicker than a soup. Nbushi refers to simmering with miso, and this summer home dish adds pork belly and hand-torn chunks of firm island tofu. No plain water goes in, only the loofah's own juice and a little of the pork cooking broth.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 35min 4 servings

Asian Hard

Etsu Nanbanzuke (Fried Fish in Sweet Vinegar)

Etsu fried crisp in potato starch goes straight into a vinegar-soy marinade while still hot, so the fish absorbs it quickly and the thin-cut vegetables stay crunchy. The fish is caught only during a short season from May to July in the Chikugo area of Fukuoka, and its many fine bones call for closely spaced cuts along the body. Served chilled, it is a summer side dish.

Prep 35min Cook 25min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Nara-ae (Simmered Vegetables with Narazuke)

Narazuke, Nara's vegetables pickled in sake lees, is chopped and folded into a sweet-soy simmer of fiddlehead fern (zenmai), kanpyo gourd strips, shiitake, konjac strips, carrot, and fried tofu. On its own the pickle is strong, but spread through so many soft vegetables its boozy aroma and firm crunch become a gentle accent. This everyday side dish from Nara is eaten fully cooled.

Prep 30min Cook 25min 4 servings

Asian Easy

Niku Dofu Beef and Tofu Simmer

The name leads with meat, but tofu is the center of the pot, with thin beef and Kujo negi, Kyoto's long green onion, in a sweet soy broth around it. It is a winter home dish in Kyoto. The slick gel inside the onion leaves is not rinsed off, and the onion cooks for only the last two minutes to keep its sweetness and aroma.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 20min 3 servings