Cuisine: Japanese

Coffee Jelly

While we were in Japan, I saw this sign at every Starbucks we passed. Coffee Jelly is served in the summer. You can serve it with cream, chocolate sauce, ice cream, whipped cream, or flavored coffee cream! It's actually really good. You don't have to serve coffee with dessert!

By Leslie Blythe

Shishito Peppers

Japanese Shishito are glossy, green peppers, about 3 inches in length, that are great finger foods, snacks or appetizers.

By Leslie Blythe

Japanese Beef Curry

I love Japanese Beef Curry. To me it's like Japanese comfort food. There's something so deeply satisfying and soul-warming about it. Japanese curry sauce mix, often called "curry roux," typically comes in the form of solid blocks or powder. It's a blend of curry powder, flour, oil, sugar, salt, and various seasonings and spices. Vermont Curry and S&B Golden Curry are ready made and the two most most popular brands. These mixes usually have MSG. I prefer to make my curry from scratch. Though making the roux does take about 20 minutes to reach "color of a fox," as the say in Japan, a deep tan color. It’s well worth the wait!

By Leslie Blythe

Sautéed Japanese Eggplant

Sautéed Japanese Eggplant is a very easy side dish. I made this earlier and served it at room temperature. Everyone LOVED it!

Japanese eggplant is the Western name given to dozens of Japanese eggplant varieties, both heirloom and hybrid. The most common of these varieties are Millionaire and Orient Express, both long, slender oblong shaped eggplants with glossy, purple-black, thin skin. The interior cream colored flesh is spongy and nearly seedless. Japanese eggplant's flavor is mild and because it is nearly seedless it doesn't possess that bitter quality found in Western and Thai varieties.

By Leslie Blythe

Nobu’s Miso-Marinated Black Cod

I made this Kaiseki style dinner. Kaiseki or kaiseki-ryōri is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. The term also refers to the variety of skills and techniques used to prepare the dishes. We had this Miso Marinated Black Cod several times while we were in Japan. I really like it. It's very mild and sweet tasting and easy to make. The main thing is that you have to marinate it for at least 24 hours or up to 3 days.

By Leslie Blythe

Steak with Yuzu Kosho

Steak with Yuzu Kosho - My husband is obsessed with Yuzu after staying at the Yuzuya Hotel Isshinkyo, a Japanese ryokan in Kyoto. This steak is easy to make and really delicious.

By Leslie Blythe

Spring Vegetables Steeped in Dashi (Ohitashi)

Ohitashi is a method of steeping vegetables in a delicate dashi, which infuses ingredients with umami and lovely flavor but retains the food's natural taste and sensibility. The trick is to first blanch and shock the vegetables (quickly boiling in water, "blanching," then halting the cooking by plunging in ice-water, a.k.a. "shocking"). By partially cooking this way, you transform ingredients from the raw state, but still retain their integrity, and allow them to absorb the dashi. Ohitashi is very versatile, and you can prepare it with green beans, spinach, shishito peppers, broccoli, snap peas, sugar peas, cherry tomatoes, and all kinds of mushrooms. I used asparagus, sugar snap peas, shiitake mushrooms and green onions.

By Leslie Blythe

Miso Glazed Salmon

Miso Glazed Salmon is delicious and very easy to make. The salmon in this dish can be substituted with sea bass or black cod as well.

By Leslie Blythe

Pork Tonkatsu

Pork Tonkatsu is a Japanese dish of deep fried pork cutlet, which typically placed on a bed of shredded cabbage. It is served with Tonkatsu sauce which a type of thick Japanese Worcestershire sauce that uses pureed fruit as a main ingredient.

By Leslie Blythe

Marinated Japanese Shiitake Mushrooms

These marinated Marinated Japanese Shiitake Mushrooms make a great appetizer or side and can be served on noodles, on top of pasta, or just by themselves. I used a mixture of shiitake and Brown Beech mushrooms.

By Leslie Blythe