Japanese Food

Its fun to make Japanese food. Simple ingredients, easy recipes and delicious noms. Today I decided to invite a friend over to try some recipes from a new online cooking show called One World Kitchen. http://oneworldkitchen.ca

Its a series that features 5 Canadian women and recipes from around the world. I love the unique concept and delicious recipes (although I’ve only attempted to make Japanese food, I am intrigued and inspired to cook other recipes as well!).

We decided to take everyone’s favourite Spinach Goma-ae , okonomiyaki and Japanese curry. These recipes can be found on the website.

We started off tackling the spinach goma-ae since we wanted the spinach to cool before serving. Boil a LARGE bag of spinach. You’ll be surprised how much the spinach shrinks. Once the spinach is wilted, drain and let it cool before you squeeze out the water. While the spinach is cooling down, toast the sesame seeds. Make sure to put it on low and keep an eye on it.

The sesame seeds are ready when it becomes really fragrant and lightly brown. I like using fresh sesame instead of store bought sauce. It just has a better taste.

To the sesame paste, add 2 Tbsp of soy sauce and 2 Tbsp honey. You can add more or less honey to make it the sweetness you want. You can also add some sesame seed oil. (Check out my other page for more details on how to make goma-ae https://eatitnoworeatitlater.com/2015/05/23/spinach-gomaae/).

The other recipe we made was Japanese pancake (okonomiyaki). You can take a look at the recipe on our other page. This goes into detail on how to make basic pancakes.(https://eatitnoworeatitlater.com/2015/06/06/okonomiyaki/)

We made a variation to the okonomikyaki this time and added shrimp and mushrooms.

Our main dish was a delicious curry recipe from One World Kitchen. It was very simple to make and tastes delicious. First prepare the ingredients by cutting up the carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and beef. It is also easier to portion all your ingredients so you can just focus on cooking instead.

Start by adding oil to the pot and browning the beef. You want to create a nice brown layer. This adds flavour and gives the beef a nice texture. Once the beef is browned, remove from the heat and sprinkle with flour. Let it rest while you cook the rest of the ingredients. To the pan, add the onions, garlic and ginger. Cook this for about 3 minutes and then add the tomato paste, curry powder, carrots and potatoes. Let the flavours mingle.

When ready, add the broth and “deglaze” the pot. That means the broth will pick up all the brown bits left from cooking the ingredients. It gives the curry a umami flavour. Once the liquid starts boiling, turn it down to a simmer and add the rest of the ingredients (beef, jam, Worcestershire). Season the curry with a little bit of salt and pepper to taste.I used stewing beef for my recipe so I let the curry cook for about 1 hour. This gets the beef tender and the potatoes and carrots soft. Serve the curry over steamed Japanese rice and garnish with green onions. Enjoy!!