Learn to cook authentic Japanese food from scratch at home, with step by step recipes for the traditional classics like ramen noodles, broth, sushi rice or homemade tofu as well as recipes for more contemporary fusion dishes. Maori Murota takes you to the heart of today’s Japanese family home cooking with Japanese Home Cooking, sharing the recipes she learned while she watched her own mother and grandmother cook.
There are 100 recipes – eggplant spaghetti, pepper and miso sauce, donburi, baked sweet potato, soba salad, roast chicken with lemongrass, onigiri, hot dog, Japanese curry, steamed nut cake – many of which are vegan friendly and plant-based, to take you to the heart of Japanese home cooking.
Shoyu ramen (Tokyo-style ramen)
Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
This Shoyu ramen is filling and delicious! The whole family will love this one for dinner and ask you to make it all the time.
Ingredients
Seasoning
180 ml (¾ cup) cha-shu marinade (see below)
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 table
spoons malted or nutritional yeast
Salt
Toppings
2 handfuls bean sprouts, blanched in boiling water for 1 minute and well drained
4 eggs to make ajitsuke tamago (see below), then cut in half
8 rashers cha-shu marinated pork (see below)
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
½ nori sheet, cut into 4 rectangles
Pepper
Ra-yu (see below)
Method
Prepare the soup. Pour the broth, cha-su marinade, oyster sauce and yeast into a saucepan. Heat over medium heat and season with a little salt to taste.
In a large pot of boiling water, cook the noodles according to the packet instructions or recipe below. Drain well and divide into four large bowls. Pour the hot soup over the noodles, add the toppings and serve immediately.
TIP: If you buy Chinese noodles at an Asian grocery store, choose the thin, slightly yellow noodles. However, homemade noodles will always be better!
Ramen Meat Broth
Serves: 4
Prep time: 30 minutes
Resting: 2 hours–overnight
Cooking time: 2 1.2 hours
Ingredients
Dashi concentrate
500 ml (2 cups) water
5 g (⅛ oz) dried kombu
10 g (¼ oz) katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
Cha-shu marinade
150 ml (5 fl oz) soy sauce
2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon raw sugar
1 slice dried kombu (5 cm/2 inches square)
Ajitsuke tamago (marinated soft-boiled egg)
4 eggs, at room temperature for at least 30 minutes
Broth
4 free-range chicken wings
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) roasted pork shoulder
2 litres (8 cups) water
½ onion, halved
½ carrot, cut into 2 cm (¾ inch) rounds
1 dried shiitake mushroom
1 leek (green part)
100 ml (3½ fl oz) sake
2 slices fresh ginger (5 mm/¼ inch each), skin on
2 garlic cloves
Method
Prepare the dashi concentrate. Bring the water, kombu and katsuobushi to the boil in a saucepan, then simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow to cool. Drain and squeeze the katsuobushi to extract the last drop of liquid.
Pour all the cha-shu marinade ingredients into a zip-lock bag large enough to hold the pork.
Bring water to the boil in a saucepan and cook the eggs for 6½ minutes. Remove from the heat and immerse them in cold water to stop the cooking. Allow to cool and peel. Dip the eggs in a bowl filled with water for 1 minute to remove the egg smell. Drain.
Prepare the broth. Blanch the chicken wings and pork for 1 minute in a pot of boiling water. Drain. Pour the water for the broth into a large pot, add the meat, onion, carrot, shiitake mushroom, leek, sake, ginger and garlic. Bring to the boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low. Cover, leaving a 5 mm (¼ inch) gap, and simmer for 1½ hours. Remove the pork after 1 hour and leave to cool. Add the dashi concentrate and leave to simmer, uncovered, over low heat for a further 45 minutes. Strain. This makes around 1.6 litres (6½ cups) of broth.
Add the pork and soft-boiled eggs to the marinade bag. Press to remove as much air as possible from the bag, close it and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.
TIPS:
It would be a shame to throw away the tender chicken wings! Enjoy them with a little soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar and some herbs (coriander or chives). They make a delicious little dish!
—
Never throw away any remaining katsuobushi or kombu! They can be used to prepare furikake seasoning
—
The cha-shu can be used to make chimaki. Simply prepare it here with an additional 100 g (3½ oz) pork (it freezes very well if needed).
Ramen
Serves: 4
Prep time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 1–1½ minutes
Resting: 1½ hours–3½ hours + 1–2 days
Ingredients
4 g (1 teaspoon) salt
175 ml (6 fl oz) filtered water
350 g (12 oz) plain flour (T55 or Type 0)
50 g (1¾ oz) cornflour, arrowroot or tapioca starch
4 g (1 teaspoon) bicarbonate of soda
For working the dough
Potato starch or cornflour
Method
Dissolve the salt in the filtered water. Sift the flour and starch into a bowl. Add the salt water gradually, mixing with your fingers until you get a crumbly texture, similar to a crumble topping. Form a ball by pressing well with your hands. At this point, the dough will not be smooth. Wrap it in a damp tea towel. Leave to rest for 15 to 30 minutes at room temperature.
Put a board on the floor, cover it with a damp tea towel, place the dough on top and cover it with another damp tea towel (or place it in a large sturdy zip-lock bag). Knead the dough with your feet. Start from the centre and take small steps towards each side (about 50 steps).
When the dough is nice and flat, fold it in four. Knead it again with your feet. Repeat this process a total of four times. Once the dough is flat, fold the edges towards the centre to form a ball. Work the folds with your fingers to smooth the ball. Turn the dough over with closed side underneath. Wrap it in a damp tea towel. Leave to rest at room temperature: 1 hour in summer, 2 hours in spring and autumn, 3 hours in winter.
Do not flour the work surface or dough at this stage. Cut the dough into four equal pieces. Use a rolling pin to flatten the pieces until they are 1 cm (½ inch) thick. Now feed each piece through the rollers on a pasta maker using the widest setting. Fold each piece in half and feed it through the machine again. Repeat this process to properly develop the gluten. Generously flour all sides of the dough with starch, then gradually reduce the thickness of the dough each time you roll it through, until it is 2–3 mm (1/16–⅛ inch) thick (on my machine, I use settings 0, 2, 4, 5). Then cut each piece in half lengthways to get eight pieces of rolled-out dough. Install the thinnest cutting mould and feed each piece through. Make piles of noodles. The ramen noodles are ready!
To make curly noodles, place them on the work surface, sprinkle with starch, then squeeze them together by pressing them between your hands. Release and repeat with the other piles of noodles.
Put the noodles in an airtight container, cover with baking paper, close the lid and leave to rest in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days before eating. This will improve the texture and taste.
Cooking:
Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Drop the noodles into the water and cook for around 1 to 1½ minutes. Drain.
Cha-shu marinade (for Ajitsuke tamago and pork)
Ingredients
Cha-shu marinade
150 ml (5 fl oz) soy sauce
2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon raw sugar
1 slice dried kombu
(5 cm/2 inches square)
Ajitsuke tamago (marinated soft-boiled egg)
4 eggs, at room temperature for at least 30 minutes
Pork
8 rashers
Method
Pour all the cha-shu marinade ingredients into a zip-lock bag large enough to hold the pork.
Bring water to the boil in a saucepan and cook the eggs for 6½ minutes. Remove from the heat and immerse them in cold water to stop the cooking. Allow to cool and peel. Dip the eggs in a bowl filled with water for 1 minute to remove the egg smell. Drain.
Add the pork and soft-boiled eggs to the marinade bag. Press to remove as much air as possible from the bag, close it and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.
Ra-yu (ginger and spice infused oil)
Serves: Makes 120 g (4½ oz) ra-yu
Ingredients
90 ml (fl oz) grapeseed oil, sunflower oil or cold-pressed sesame oil
15 g (½ oz) red chilli flakes
2 dried red chillies, sliced into thin rounds (or mild Korean chillies)
1 tablespoon Sichuan pepper
3 star anise
25 g (1 oz) fresh ginger, grated
½ teaspoon light brown sugar
1 pinch salt
Method
Heat the oil in a small saucepan until it smokes. Put the remaining ingredients into a bowl and pour the oil on top (taking care not to burn yourself or inhale the air as it can sting the eyes and throat). Mix and allow to cool. Pour into a jar. Ra-yu will keep for 1 month in the refrigerator.
— Japanese Home Cooking by Maori Murota (Murdoch Books) is out now.
Japanese Home Cooking
From the new cookbook, Japanese Home Cooking!
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