Easy cabbage pancake (okonomiyaki variation)

Kentaro's cabbage pancake

This is from my favorite cook book "dokanto umai tsumami by Kentaro Kobayashi"  It's easier than okonomiyaki.  The way to use cabbage in the fridge.  Can add variety of meat like sausage, bacon, sliced pork.  Use high heat to brown the pancake.

• 1/8 cabbage head (chopped small)
•  Meat (bacon, sausage, sliced pork, etc)
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 1 egg
• 2-3 table spoon water
• Salt and pepper
• Japanese tonkatsu sauce (thin usuta- sause or worcestershire sauce)
• (mayonaise, karashi & shoyu)  -- replacement of usuta- sauce

1. Start heating pan at medium heat
2. Chop cabbage relatively small
3. chop sausage or meat at bite size
4. Mix flour, egg, water, salt and pepper.  If it looks too thick, add more more table spoon water
5. When the pan is hot, pour 1/2 tea spoon canola oil.  It's better to spread with a brush to minimizes oil
6. Pour the batter in the pan and bake 3-4 minutes until brown and turn over and cook 2-3 minutes.  It may be tricky to turn over without breaking.  Use a large plate to turn over. 

*  Can add dashi to the batter.  

 

Katsudon

Great with left over tonkatsu

Make Katsudon with left over tonkatsu.  The secret is to use the best possible eggs and cook half way (hanjyuku)

Material for two 

• Tonkatsu (3-4 piece if fillet, one if it is cutlet version) - cut into a bite size
• one yellow onion
• 120cc of dashi soup (one cup of water with dashi)
• 1 table spoon mirin
• 3 table spoon shoyu
• 1.5 teaspoon of salt
• 3 eggs
• 2-3 scallion green onion
• rice (2 serving of gohan bowl-chawan) or more if preferred

1.  Put a tea spoon of canola oil in a shallow pan and cook onion on low heat until it becomes soft (3-4 minutes)
2. Add dashi soup and heat up to boil
3. Lay cut tonkatsu in one layer and cook till tonkatsu is heated
4. Slice green onion about 1/2 to one inch length.  Add it to on top of tonkatsu and cook for a minute
5. Lightly mix three egg (do not over mix) with hashi and pour over to tonkatsu.  High heat for 1-2 minutes.  When the eggs are cooked half way (40 still raw) take the pan off the heat.
6. Put the hot rice in a bowl (donburi).  ladel the the donkatsu/egg on top of the rice.  Try to move the donkatsu/egg mixture as is from the pan to the rice  -- looks nicer
7.   Sprinkle hichimi pepper

* Service it with misoshiru and tsukemono (pickled vegetable)

Debu Special (breakfast)

Material for two

• Spinach (one bundle or one pound)
• One yellow onion
• 3 eggs
• 1 table spoon olive oil
• pepper and salt (to taste, start with 1/2 tea spoon salt)

1. Boil water in a large pot 
2. Cook spinach for about one minute or less (take them out as soon as they become a little bit soft).  Quickly put them in either ice water or cold water
3. Squeeze all water out of spinach and set aside
4. Chop onion (medium chop)
5. Heat up pan to medium heat (hot enough but not too hot) and cook onion for about 5 minutes or until them become caramelized.  High heat will burn onion.
6.  Add spinach and stir fry for a few minutes
7. add eggs and stir fry for a minute or two.  Do not overcook eggs
8. Serve on the plate and add a little more grind eggs.

Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu

Very easy but tasty Japanese version of Schnitzel

My version emphasize less oil to fry.  Cabbage is a must for fiber and vitamin for health.   Use a heavy pan to cook oil for temperature stability.  Make enough to have katsudon next dinner.

Material for two

• Pork fillet or 2 cutllet (pork fillet is better)
• egg (1-2)
• flour (about 1/4 cup)
• pepper and salt (enough to sprinkle over pork)
• panko (1/2 cup, adjust)
• Tonkatsu sauce 
• Canola oil (pour about 1/2 inch in the pan)
• 1/4 to 1/2 head cabbage (thinly sliced)

1. Mix sliced cabbage with 1 teaspoon salt and leave is for at least half an hour.
2. Slice pork about 1 inch.  Put salt and pepper each side (evenly but not overly)
3. Dust pork with flour
4.  Egg in a bowl and whisk quickly.
5. Spread panko in a cooking pan
6. Dip pork in egg and then put it into panko and set aside.  Put panko lightly (do not press)
7. Heat oil about 1/2 inch oil in a pan (oil needs to be hot - leave with medium high heat for 4-5 minutes)
8. Fry pork 3-4 minutes and turn over and cook 2 minutes - katsu should be brown but not burnt.
9. Squeeze water out of cabbage.
10. Place cabbage in the middle of the plate then place tonkatsu around it.  
11. Pour tontkatsu sauce over the tonkatsu

      *  Sprinkle Shichimi pepper over the cabbage.
      *  Serve with rice and misoshiru
      * For crispy tonkatsu, oil needs to be relatively high (but not burning).  

Yakimeshi (fried rice)

Yakimeshi

Okasan version of fried rice

Okasan's yakimeshi use a lot of vegetable.  Make yakimeshi when you have left over rice.  It's great to clean up all left over vegetable.  Make sure to warm up rice before adding to the pan.  Also, use garlic for added flavor.

• Rice (2-3 cups or whatever in the fridge)
• Chopped vegetable (celery, carrots, onion, red/yello pepper, green onion, etc)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 table spoon canola oil
• Meat (ham, bacon, chicken, sausage, etc) I like ham and sausage (especially Japanese small sausage)  Canned crab is also good.
• Egg optional (I don't use it to avoid cholesterol)
• Salt (1 table spoon?) 1 tea spoon shoyu

1.  Warm a thick pan (better with Teflon pan to minimize oil)
2. Add one table spoon (or less) canola oil and heat
3. Add chopped onion and chopped garlic to the pan and satee it for a few minutes with salt (one tea spoon) a medium low heat.  Do not burn.  Slowly caramelize onion.
4. Add other vegetable and add another tea spoon salt and pepper; stir in high heat for 3-4 minutes
5. When vegetable are soft, add rice and stir fry at high heat for another 3-4 minutes
6. When vegetable and rice look cooked and mixed well, if you like add 1-2 eggs.  Break egg and mix in a bowl and pour into the pan.  Cook for a minute.  Do not over cook.
7. Stop the heat and pour one table spoon of shoyu at the edge of the pan.  Take it off the heat.  Adjust the taste with salt and pepper

*  renkon (lotus roots) are also good to add if available.  To be healthy, use Teflon to minimize the oil.  Serve with misoshiru (miso soup).  Here a lot of vegetable and good for you.

Misoshiru (miso soup)

Mishoshiru (miso soup)

Miso is very good for health.  Try to add a lot of vegetable.  My favorite is like (potato, wakame, age), (daikon, chinese cabbage), (tofu, wakame, age), etc. Many vegetable works for miso soup so try adventurous.  Do not boil after miso is added.  Remove pan from heat then add miso.

Material for two (vegetable shown in the picture)

• Three cup of dashi soup (or three cups of water and 1 table spoon dashi)
• Diced daikon (bite size)
• 2-3 leaf of chinese cabbage (cabbage is OK also) - chopped (bite size)
• Chopped green onion
• 2 table spoon miso

1. Boil dashi
2. Add daikon and hard part of chinese cabbage and cook for 3-4 minutes until vegetables are tender
3. Turn off the heat and remove the pot from the heat
4. Add miso to the soup.  It's best to use miso koshi to ensure miso is melted.
5. Serve in a miso chawan (misoshiru bowl) and sprinkle chopped green onion.

 

Miso koshi (miso strainer)

Ojiya (Japanese rice porridge)

Ojiya (Japanese porridge)

Great breakfast and comfort food.  My version is with lots of vegetable.  Almost all left over vegetable works (Chinese cabbage, carrots, daikon, spinach, wakame, green onion, Asian green)

One person

• one cup of rice (or as much as stomach requires)
• 1.5 cups of water 
• one tea spoon dashi
• one table spoon dashi
• one tea spoon shoyu
• chopped vegetable of choice (about 1/2 to one cup)
• one egg (option)

1. Boil water with dashi
2. Microwave rice (warm )
3. Add salt and vegetable and cook until vegetables are soft (maybe 5-7 minutes). 
4. Add shoyu and adjust the taste with more salt or shoyu and add egg and cook 20 seconds
5. Turn off heat and let egg cook with left over heat
6. Serve with schichimi