Baked Onion Chicken Thighs with Umeboshi and Shiso

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for the baking dish
1 large onion, minced
sea salt
fresh coarsely ground black pepper
10 umeboshi, pitted
20 shiso leaves, chopped, 1 tablespoon reserved
splash of sake
1 pound (450g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Serves 2 or 3


Umeboshi (Japanese pickled plums) and shiso is a natural and traditional combination in Japan (especially in sushi), but the sauteed onions blended into the mixture give it a new and satisfying depth that permeates the chicken. Wonderful with hot rice, miso soup, and a small flask of chilled sake.

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400F (200C). In a heavy skillet over high heat, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, add the onion, and liberally salt and pepper. Saute until soft, about 5 minutes.

Place the onion in the blender and add the umeboshi, shiso, and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and blend (also add as much sake as the blender needs to do its work). Reserve about 3 tablespoons of this mixture in a small bowl.

In the same skillet, heat up the 2 remaining tablespoons of oil over maximum heat and fry the chicken until brown spots begin to appear. Transfer the chicken and the blended onion mixture to a large bowl and mix.

Apply or spray some olive oil to a baking dish, transfer the chicken to it, and bake until golden, about 30 minutes. Remove the chicken, mix the reserved sauce through it, and return it to the oven for another few minutes before serving.

Serve on a warm plate, topped off with the chopped shiso.

Buri no Teriyaki

Ingredients: (for 4 servings)

4 pieces of buri, Marinating sauce (tare): 1/2 cup soy sauce,1/2 cup mirin, 1/2 cup daikon oroshi (grated raddish).





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preparation:

Wash fish. Pat dry.
Mix Soy sauce and mirin. Marinate buri for 1 hour.
Make tare sauce. Mix ingredients, boil, turn off heat.
How to make:

Remove buri, drain excess liquid.
Place fish skin side up on cutting board to keep flat. Skew sticks lengthwise into both sides of fish.
Pre-heat broiling net to prevent sticking.
Grill skin side down 1 minute on a medium fire.when cooked, turn over using skewers.
Cook other side Brush on tare sauce about 3 times each side.
Remove skewers. Place buri skin side down on plates.
Add daikon oroshi.
oven cooking: Place buri on grill. Brush tare sauce both sides Do not turn over.

skewering buri

Gyoza

Gyoza is originally a Chinese dish, which has become very popular across Japan. This recipe shows how to make the gyoza dough and the gyoza filling. The time consuming and difficult part of making of the dough can be skipped by buying premade dough pieces, which are available at some Japanese and Chinese grocery stores.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ingredients:

(for 30 Gyoza)



Dough:
170 mL water
200 g strong flour


Filling:
200 g ground pork
Cabbage
Nira*: can be substituted by leek or green onion

Leek or Green onion
Garlic
Ginger
Sake*
Soya sauce, salt, and pepper
Sesame oil


Dipping Sauce:
Soya sauce
Vinegar
* This ingredient may not be available in Western supermarkets, but you should be able to find it in Japanese grocery stores that exist in most large European and American cities.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Preparation:

Dough:

Mix the water and the flour to a dough that should not be sticky but as soft as an ear lobe.

Put a wet towel over the dough, and let it stand for several minutes.
Separate the dough in 30 pieces, and form each of them to very thin discs with a diameter of about 10 cm. The middle of each disc should be a little bit thicker than the edge.


Filling:
Cut some green, outer cabbage leaves, some green onion (or leek), nira, ginger, and garlic in very small pieces. The amount of these ingredients should equal the amount of meat. Do it as you like.
Put some salt on the cabbage, and let it stand for five minutes. Then press the water out of the cabbage pieces.
Mix the cabbage, green onion (or leek), nira, ginger, garlic, and the ground pork all together, and add some salt, pepper, soya sauce, sake, and sesame oil. Mix it all very well.


Making and frying the Gyoza:
Put some of the filling onto a piece of dough. Remember that the filling should suffice for 30 gyoza pieces.

Moisten the edge of the dough with water. Moisten only a semicircle, not all the way around.

Close the gyoza. While closing it, fold the edge about 6 times as shown on the image.

Put the gyoza on the table as shown in the image.

Fry the Gyoza in a little bit of hot oil until the bottom is brownish, then add water so that the gyoza are in the water with about half of their hight.
Keep the high heat and wait until all the water has vaporized. Then remove the gyoza from the heat.
Dipping sauce: Mix the same amounts of soya sauce and vinegar together.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Serving and eating:

Eat gyoza pieces after dipping them in the dipping sauce.

General information:

In China dumplins are usually eaten either steamed, fried or in a soup. Japanese gyoza, however, are usually fried. There are many kinds of fillings used, e.g. with different seafood instead of the meat, other vegetable, etc.

Preparing jumbo shrimp for nigiri-zushi

jumbo shrimp

This is the method to use when preparing jumbo shrimp (king prawns) for sushi. It will cook them the appropriate amount of time and prevent them from curling.

1. Wash shrimp under running water and cut off heads.




Insert a bamboo skewer or long toothpick along shrimp from head to tail, running along legs of shrimp without touching flesh.

Drop shrimp into a pot of salted, boiling water (use enough salt to make it taste like seawater). Boiling shrimp in salted water keeps protein in shrimp. They will sink to bottom and after 3 to 5 minutes will change color and rise to top. (Do not use a lid, or a strong smell of shrimp will remain.)

To check that they are cooked, remove one shrimp from water and squeeze gently. If inside is firm, it is cooked.

Quickly place shrimp in ice water. This gives them a good color and stops flesh from shrinking and becoming hard. When shrimp are cold, remove from ice water and place in a colander.

To remove skewer, use a screwing motion to avoid breaking flesh.

Remove shell from around body, but not tail.
2. To make butterfly cut, lay shrimp down with tail away from you, then cut from head to tail along belly with knife only going halfway in.




3. Use the knife or your fingers to open out and flatten shrimp carefully, without breaking the flesh.






Remove vein and rinse shrimp with mildly salted water. Lay on paper towels to drain.

Note: For sushi rolls and chirashi-zushi, remove tails and cut shrimp in half lengthwise, or leave whole.

Crabmeat with Wasabi Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon sake
1 tablespoon salt
8 fresh Alaskan (snow) crab sticks
ice water, for chilling
4 strips of daikon 4 inches by 1/2 inch (10cm by 12mm)
16 long chives, stemmed
1/4 punnet mustard cress
For wasabi mayonnaise:
1 3/4 oz (50g) light mayonnaise
1/3 oz (10g) wasabi
Serves 4