Getting a flavor hit with each meal or dish is important to the Japanese diet. And studies are increasingly showing this can assist in weight loss and healthy eating. Intense flavors allow you to focus and enjoy on what you are eating. In Japan, a meal is served in several small dishes, known as kobachhi. This not only presents the food beautifully but as you take your time moving from dish to dish, it also helps you to notice when you are beginning to become full.
By hopefully eating more selectively, you can start to appreciate the taste of food more and thereby reduce the amount that you eat. By adding simple Japanese cooking techniques and methods to your cooking skills, then you can also start to reduce the amount of processed food, sugars and salt in your diet.
Our aim, at Juveriente, is to bring you Japanese diet and lifestyle tips and make them as simple and accessible as possible. When talking amongst my friends, one feature of Japanese food seems to provide a barrier to eating it more regularly, namely having lots of separate dishes with each meal.
Multiple dishes per meal.
Why doesn’t it come naturally to us in the States? Well, in general we tend to have a one plate approach to serving food. It is easier to serve to start with. With one plate, the food is all there in front of you. Setting the table is as easy as the washing up will be. But having it all on one plate, there is the temptation to fill the plate with food and then also to clear the plate of food by eating it all. I’m a convert to separate dishes. Even for my non-Japanese food. The reason for the separate dishes is to have distinct flavors and to keep them apart so that you can taste them clearly.
You get to think about the food that you eat and hopefully take the time to savor the flavor.
So, here are some very simple recipes to fill some of those dishes. They all depend on having a good stock. Once you get a basic Japanese stock recipe under your belt, you are good to go for a huge number of Japanese meals and you can also go freestyle with whatever vegetables you have to hand.
We recommend learning a couple of very simple recipes which will stand you in good stead for making Japanese meals more regularly.
Dashi
You may have heard of dashi. The best way to describe it is that it is a stock. It is used as the base for a large number of delicious meals, including miso soup. It is important in Japanese cooking as it provides the key flavor umami. There are powders and granules available but of course the best way is to make it yourself at home. I’m going to be brave and recommend a recipe that my friends and I all use. It is the basic, best, go to dashi for most of our Japanese meals. You need just two ingredients bonito tuna flakes (katsuobushi) and seaweed (kombu).
Add two strips of the seaweed into 4 cups of cold water into a large pan and leave it to steep. Overnight is ideal but a minimum of thirty minutes is needed for the umami flavor to develop in the water. Then, when ready to cook, heat to boiling. As soon as the water begins to boil, remove the pan from the heat. Remove the kombu from the liquid into a dish. Let the water sit for 5 minutes off the heat. Then add a loose handful of bonito flakes (15-25g), stir once and leave for 10-15 minutes. Drain the liquid through a sieve and you have made dashi. Simple.
One thing you need to be careful about is not to use too much kombu or bonito. The recipe that we use, gives a clear fresh clean taste which has a subtle flavor. You add more flavors when you cook the dish.
Keep the used bonito flakes with the used kombu. Bag them and freeze them. You can use them once more for a less intense dashi, known as niban dashi, which just means second dashi.
Freshly made dashi can stay in your fridge for a week and then you can throw together lots of other Japanese dishes very quickly together, such as ohitashi or nimono vegetable dishes.
Ohitashi
Ohitashi means to marinate your vegetables, typically green vegetables, in a dashi source. Ideally overnight in the fridge. For example, kale ohitashi not only gives you a fresh crisp powerful hit of flavor but also a wide combination of vitamins: A, B6, C and E as well as manganese, thiamine, iron, calcium, phosphorus and potassium. WOW.
The simplest method is the best. Blanch your chosen vegetables in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain and place under running cold water or an ice bath if you are organized. This keeps the color and freshness. Then place in a high sided narrow bowl and cover with one cup of cold dashi, ¼ cup of light soy sauce and one tablespoon of mirin for a couple of hours or overnight. Drain and serve without the liquid for a wonderful, intense umami dish. There are other dishes here.
Nimono
Nimono is another way to cook your food and use your dashi. It really means to simmer or stew your vegetables (or meat). There are literally thousands of recipes, but here is a simple one that works to give a knockout flavor to any vegetable. It’s simple to make. Put two cups of your homemade dashi into a pan, then add your vegetables, bring to boil. The liquid should just about cover the vegetables, so you might need to use a small pan lid to keep the vegetables in the stock. Then reduce the heat to simmer and add in your extra flavors. This is called the shiru and we recommend starting with two tablespoons of sake, one tablespoon of sugar and one tablespoon of soy sauce. The exact mix of your shiru ingredients depends on your own taste, so you can play around with these. Simmer until tender. This also gets rid of the alcohol from the sake but keeps the flavor. You still want to have a crunch or a bit of bite to the vegetable. No more than ten minutes and probably more like six. Then serve but not with all the liquid. Like with the ohitashi, you don’t drink the liquid as it can be too salty and too bitter. Other nimono recipes here.
So, once you can make your own dashi, you can then have some in the fridge to prepare a mid-week meal, be it a soup, some ohitashi or nimono. All of these methods are natural, simple ways to cook your food. They keep the goodness in the vegetables which are full of vitamins, nutrients and flavor and add texture and interest to a meal.
Healthy, quick and flavorsome. Why not add some Japanese dishes to your meal plans?
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