Miso-making...Check out the slide show

I'm excited to share this album with you.

Mr. Antonis Ricos (great person, great photographer), who joined our miso-making last weekend took these wonderful photos and compiled the album with the informative captions. Below is the slide show with the titles. If you click on "VISIT GALLERY" on the upper-right corner of the frame, you can visit the album website with the captions.

Thank you, Antonis-san!

Copyright for all the photos linked from this post: Antonis Ricos.

Donabe rice with home-cured pork belly and satsuma yam

I got a special gift from my friend, Ms. Wendy Yu, who is a serious foodie and wonderful person.

It was slices of Chinese-style home-cured pork belly, which Wendy's mom made. She said her mom marinated the pork belly slices in Shaoxing wine (Chinese rice wine), salt, and other secret ingredients. and they were air-dried for some days. We decided to use a piece to cook with the rice. Mmm...it was a serious looking pork belly.

I removed the skin part of the belly and cut it into small pieces. In the double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", the rice was assembled with the broth (dashi stock, Chinese wine, and light soy sauce), pork, and satsuma yam (Japanese sweet yam), and cooked for 15 minutes over medium-high heat over stove-top.

Voila. The special pork rice was ready with such an easy preparation. I could smell the intensely rich aroma of the pork once the donabe lids were removed. The flavor was really fantastic, and I couldn't believe just a slice of the cured pork belly made such a difference. With the sweet dense flavor of the satsuma imo, this pork rice became a rich complete dish.

Here's the recipe. I know, it won't be the same, but to substitute the homemade Chinese-style pork belly, you can make a quick marinade of the pork (with 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine and 1/2 teaspoon salt), or use Chinese sausage.

Cured Pork Belly and Satsuma Yam Rice

Ingredients

1.5 rice cups (270 ml) short grain white rice

1/2 rice cup (90 ml) sweet (mochi) rice

2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine

1 tablespoon usukuchi shoyu (light soy sauce)

350 ml dashi stock

1 large slice Wendy's mom's Chinese-style cured pork belly

1/2 pound satsuma yam, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces

Procedure

1. Slice of the skin from the pork belly. Cut the pork belly into small pieces.

2. Rinse both kinds of the rice together and drain.

3. In the donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", combine the rice, dashi stock, Chinese rice wine, and usukuchi shoyu. Top the rice with the pork and satsuma yam.

4. Soak the rice for 20 minutes.

5. Cover the donabe with both lids. Cook over medium-high heat for 15 minutes.

6. Turn off th eheat and let it rest (with the lids on) for 20 minutes.

7. Toss all the ingredients gently. Serve with chopped mixed herbs.

Donabe Cooking Class Report...Art of Miso Making

Miso, to me, is my passion and it's my heart and soul. So, I was so excited to host more miso-making classes this past weekend.

As a part of the healthy lifestyle of donabe and Japanese cooking, I passionately encourage people to eat miso everyday and eventually make your own miso! Miso is not only one of the most versatile ingredients but also has incredible health benefits. And, your homemade miso tastes the BEST.

We started with the tasting of amazake, followed by the tasting of different types of miso. We also tasted our still immature homemade miso (which was made last September).

Then, we moved on to make the miso together from scratch. Our goal was to make the best miso, so we used all the premium quality ingredients which were shipped from Japan.

After the "hard labor" of miso making, we had the lunch with the miso-themed dishes.

Miso-marinated tofu and eggs were so delightful with the chilled nigori-sake.

The main course was Hokkaido's regional "Ishikari Nabe", which is a hot pot of salmon and vegetables in miso-based broth. This traditional hot pot was cooked in our classic-style donabe, "Hakeme".

"Shime" (the end of the course) was miso-garlic-butter ramen noodles.

The guests we had on both dates were really fantastic. I was so grateful for their enthusiasm and was also very happy that they enjoyed miso-making.

Miso

Ginger Honey Pork with Tagine-style Donabe

I made a quick and healthy pork dish with my tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san". Kurobuta pork but slices were marinated in sake, soy sauce, and honey for about 15 minutes.

In the skillet of "Fukkura-san", the ingredients were assembled...there were kabocha, marinated pork, asparagus, and shiitake mushrooms. They were cooked together for about 7 minutes, then I added the reserved marinade, grated ginger, and mizuna. That's it! You can find the recipe on toiro's website. It's so easy and tasty, so hope you will try it sometime.

There are a lot of vegetables in this dish, so you can enjoy the balanced nutrients in this one dish. Condiments are always nice, too.

Rice was, as always, cooked with the double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". I made the half-and-half white and brown rice. It was so fluffy and steamy.

I also made a side dish, which is my regular soybean "Gomoku-ni" stew. It was made with the soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe". When the beans are cooked with this donabe, they come out so rich and deep in flavor. You can also find the recipe for this dish on toiro's website.

I love my donabe life very much.

Iga-yaki Grill...Yakiniku Temaki (Grilled Meat Handroll)

I'm deeply in love with my Iga-yaki grill, "Yaki Yaki San". Is this turning into obsession?

This ancient clay table-top grill is not only beautiful to look at, but also cook the ingredients nicely with the effect of the natural Far Infrared Radiation (FIR). And, yes, it's made of the same Iga clay as the other donabe pots we have.

I was home alone tonight, but I did the yakiniku dinner for myself. Here's how I set the table-top grill dinner for one.

The main protein for the grill were jumbo shrimp and American Kobe beef kalbi (short rib). I also had asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, abura-age (fried tofu pouch), and garlic cloves (sliced in half).

Sauces and condiments...Salt ponzu, tosa shoyu (my homemade sashimi soy sauce), grated daikon, sliced scallion, daikon sprouts, mizuna, roasted nori seaweed. There were also ground toasted sesame seeds and la-yu (hot sesame oil). I love eating the grilled items with a lot of vegetables.

Shrimp was really nice with the salt ponzu with scallion.

The beef was seriously amazing. For the first batch, I just dipped the grilled meat in the Tosa shoyu (sashimi soy sauce). It was so tender and almost melted in my mouth.

Then, I also made temaki rolls with the grilled beef. I did two versions, one was just the meat with vegetables in the nori seaweed, and the other version was with the sushi rice. Wow, temaki sushi with the freshly grilled meat was really something!

I LOVE healthy grilling, Iga-yaki style.