Humble Bean | Japanese Recipes for the Home Cook (2024)

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Chocolate Mochi Brownies with Matcha

By Azusa | Published: May 3, 2012

I love mochi. I love chocolate. So when I saw Mary’s post on The Food Librarian last week, I knew this was going in my oven. If, by some small chance, you haven’t happened upon her blog, I suggest you head straight there. She can get crazy with jello, make a mean bundt, and mindblow you with a jello bundt. I love that she’s a fellow Angeleno, which means I learn a lot about the city through her. It also means I get a taste of what’s baking in her kitchen from time to time!

Posted in Contemporary Recipes, Sweets| 24 Responses

Kurogoma Soba Noodles

By Azusa | Published: April 26, 2012

On our trip to Japan in 2010, we visited Togakushi with my dad’s family and friends. The region is known for their soba, so on the last day we went to a soba making class at a restaurant. We were divided into 3 groups and proceeded with the process of vigorous kneading and rolling. I was surprised at this process since most techniques warn against overworking the dough. Once we got it to the right thickness, we were handed sharp, heavy cleavers to cut our dough into thin noodles. Those noodles headed straight to a vat of boiling water, cooled, and served to us. We slurped them right up and I discovered a new appreciation for it. We went around trying each others soba and were surprised at the differences. Even with the same ingredients and process, our technique was varied enough that we could taste it.

Posted in Contemporary Recipes, Favorites, Noodles, Salads| Tagged boil, buckwheat, cilantro, fish cake, goma, green onion, satsuma age, scallion, sesame, sesame seeds, soba| 3 Responses

Kof*cki Imo

By Azusa | Published: March 22, 2012

I finally made this easy-as-pie Kof*cki Imo. Love it. And I’m pretty certain you’ll love it, too. Shoyu-sugar-butter is pure magic!

Shoyu-butter is a common combination in Japan. It’s used in many ways like slathered on sweet summer corn or as a potato chip flavor. Shoyu-sugar is also super common. We love to dip our soft and chewy New Year’s mochi in it. Yum. But the combination of the 3 together is something else. You must try it.

Posted in Favorites, Traditional Recipes, Vegetables| Tagged boil, butter, pan fried, potato, shoyu, sugar| 15 Responses

Aroma Magazine: Tonyu Nabe

By Azusa | Published: March 15, 2012

While there’s still a lingering chill, how about making nabe? It’s one of my favorite foods, especially when it’s cold out and you need a little soul-warming sustenance. In case you aren’t familiar with nabe (short for nabemono), it’s a Japanese hot pot. Cooked in a variety of ways, I began tinkering with tonyu nabe (made from soymilk and miso) when I was contacted by the editor from Aroma Magazine to write and photograph an article for the inaugural issue of their online magazine.

I was first introduced to tonyu nabe from my good friend Tomo (photographer/musician/Japanese curry expert), who simmered a pot for a group of our artist and designer friends in his San Francisco loft. We opened bottles of sake, ate to our hearts content, and went home with happy bellies. Since then I’ve messed with a bunch of recipes until settling into one I liked. Then, my friend Juli pointed out a similar Korean dish which adds, as a condiment, a mixture of shoyu, green onions, and sesame seeds. I opted for sesame oil for its nutty fragrance and found it added the right amount of assertiveness to this hearty dish.

Posted in Books + Magazines| 1 Response

Furikake Popcorn

By Azusa | Published: March 8, 2012

I’m excited for the weekend because we’re headed to San Francisco! My husband’s independent feature film, The Crumbles, is premiering at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. It’s been 3+ years in the making, so it’s a big occasion for us. This is a bonus post to celebrate the debut of The Crumbles!

Folks from Hawaii will recognize this as a take on Hurricane Popcorn, but my version uses canola and olive oil instead of butter (or whatever that pouch of yellow liquid consists of!). I use nori fumi furikake, which has aonori and sesame seeds for the perfect balance of salty/sweet.

Posted in Appetizers + Snacks, Contemporary Recipes, Favorites| 4 Responses

Mixed Rice with Pork and Bamboo Shoots

By Azusa | Published: March 6, 2012

My new favorite way to make rice is this Mixed Rice with Pork and Bamboo Shoots! I must’ve made it at least once a week since I first made it a few weeks ago. Maze gohan translates to mixed rice, a method of mixing in ingredients into rice that’s been cooked. The idea of maze gohan was never more appealing to me than takikomi gohan, where the ingredients are cooked with the rice. I was surprised at how easy and flavorful this turned out.

Posted in Favorites, Rice Dishes, Traditional Recipes| 14 Responses

Clear Mushroom Soup

By Azusa | Published: February 28, 2012

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned I’m allergic to soy. Which is ironic, given the title of this blog and how much Japanese food depends on it. I’m mostly sensitive to tofu and miso, so I almost never make misoshiru. It pains me because I loved my grandmother’s misoshiru growing up! Instead, I’ve been making a type of sumashijiru (clear soup) with 3 types of mushrooms: enoki, shimeji, and shiitake.

Posted in Soups, Traditional Recipes| Tagged dashi, enoki, kinoko, mushroom, shiitake, shimeji, soup, sumashijiru| 7 Responses

Kinpira Kabocha

By Azusa | Published: February 21, 2012

Heard of kinpira gobo? It’s the dish that uses the earthy flavors of burdock root, combines it with carrots, and cooks it in a salty and sweet sauce. Kinpira Kabocha is a great alternative to that staple side dish.

Instead of gobo, it’s the kabocha that soaks up the flavors of the sauce. The profile is practically identical to this stewed kabocha dish, but cooks quicker because the kabocha is cut into smaller pieces. I still prefer stewed kabocha, but this recipe is great when you’re short on time.

Posted in Traditional Recipes, Vegetables| Tagged dashi, kabocha, kinpira, shichimi, stir-fry, Traditional Recipes| 2 Responses

Creamy Beef Curry Udon with Maitake

By Azusa | Published: February 13, 2012

Curry udon has been the #1 request in my house. I came across several recipes, Keema Curry Udon with Burnt Tomato being one of them. While that recipe offset the robust curry with tangy tomatoes, this recipe mellows it out by using milk. The feathery maitake mushrooms and the thin-sliced beef add a great textural element to the dish.

Posted in Contemporary Recipes, Meat, Noodles| Tagged beef, curry, Noodles, stew, udon, winter| 4 Responses

Stir Fried Napa Cabbage

By Azusa | Published: February 7, 2012

Happy accidents. I had leftover napa cabbage after making a batch of gyoza and I found this simple recipe in the back of the vegetable section of one of my favorite cookbooks. I wasn’t expecting muchâ€”I just needed something easy to use up the remaining cabbageâ€”so I was surprised at how much I loved it.

Japanese food has a lot of sweet notes, so this was a welcomed break from that. The ginger perfumes the dish, but what makes this addictive is the splash of vinegar. This was a perfect combination of sour and salty, with a hint of sweetness coming from the cabbage itself. I’m endlessly amazed at how a few simple ingredients can transform into something so delicious.

Posted in Favorites, Vegetables| Tagged cabbage, ginger, katakuriko, napa cabbage, potato starch, stir-fry, vegetarian| 6 Responses

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Humble Bean | Japanese Recipes for the Home Cook (2024)

FAQs

What beans are used in Japanese cooking? ›

Azuki Red Beans in Japanese Cuisine

In Japanese cooking, Azuki beans (or Adzuki beans) are almost exclusively used in making Japanese sweets or pastries. The beans are boiled, mashed, sweetened, and then used as fillings in Daif*cku Mochi, Manju, Dorayaki, Red Bean Ice Cream, Anpan, and so on.

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What are the Japanese beans called? ›

Edamame are delicious young green soybeans, often served in Japanese restaurants and izakaya pubs before entrees and main courses. They are most commonly eaten directly from the pod with a little salt, and you are sure to love them as much as the Japanese do.

How is Japanese food prepared? ›

The five basic cooking methods can be broken down into nama (cutting), niru (simmering), yaku (grilling), musu (steaming), and ageru (frying). In traditional kaiseki cuisine each of these methods is expressed as a separate dish, highlighting their characteristics and the ways they best compliment certain ingredients.

What are the 5 colors of Japanese food? ›

The colors of washoku, or goshiki, are red, yellow, blue (green), white, and black. They are thought to play different roles in a meal and both ingredients and preparation need to be considered to incorporate them into a dish. That is because depending on the method of cooking, the color of an ingredient can change.

What is it called when Japanese cook in front of you? ›

Teppanyaki is a modern Japanese way of cooking where ingredients such as meat, fish and vegetables are prepared on a hot grill plate. In restaurants, the chef stands directly in front of his customers, who sit at a kind of bar around the grill plate.

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What does red rice mean in Japan? ›

In Japan, it is traditionally believed that the color red wards off misfortune. Red-colored sekihan has long been eaten on auspicious days and during celebrations.

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What are sticky beans? ›

Food. Among all the soybean found in Japanese cuisine, natto, the sticky, fermented soybeans generally served over rice is probably the hardest to get visitors to eat.

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Do Japanese celebrate the first period? ›

When a Japanese girl had her first period, the family sometimes celebrated by eating red-colored rice and beans (sekihan). The color of blood and the red of sekihan are not related.

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What are the Japanese sticky beans called? ›

Natto consists of boiled soybeans that have been inoculated with a bacterium called B. subtilis (which is sold and known colloquially as nattokin, or natto bacteria), and then allowed to ferment. The sticky and gooey strands characteristic of natto are actually a bacterial biofilm that the probiotic cultures secrete.

What are the sticky brown beans in Japan? ›

There is one form of soybean, however, that is quite infamous: the sticky, pungent fermented version called nattō. Its gooey consistency and extreme odor can be baffling to Westerners, and it's far from universally loved in Japan as well: People from the west and south of the country tend not to like it.

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What kind of beans are Japanese red beans? ›

Vigna angularis, also known as the adzuki bean (Japanese: 小豆 (アズキ), azuki, Uncommon アヅキ, adzuki), azuki bean, aduki bean, red bean, or red mung bean, is an annual vine widely cultivated throughout East Asia for its small (approximately 5 mm or 1⁄4 in long) bean.