Cooking with Veronica
Veronica at the Akasaka Cooking School
Konnichiwa!
I'm just back from Tokyo where I took a course in Japanese home cooking. As you can tell from the pictures, there was a lot of tofu involved. Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of tofu - though I do like it deep fried(!) My favorite dish that we made is Niku-jaga, a really yummy meat and potatoes dish. Here's the recipe. As usual, I would love to hear what you think!
If you are interested in studying Japanese cooking in Tokyo, I highly recommend Akasaka Cooking School, they have great three hour courses.
The woman in the picture to my right, is my friend, Mina Takahashi. Mina is in the publicity department of the Mori Art Museum, the coolest new museum in Tokyo.
Hope you all are well and that this Niku Jaga is the perfect dish to take you from the coolness of spring into the heat of summer!
Veronica
NIKU JAGA
(Niku means beef, jaga means potato.)
INGREDIENTS
1/4 Pound Thinly-sliced Beef Sirloin
4 Potatoes
1 Onion
4 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
4 Teaspoons Sake
4 Teaspoons Mirin
1 Teaspoon Sugar
8 Snow Peas
2 Cups Sashi Soup
DIRECTIONS
Cut beef slices and vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Boil snow peas lightly and set aside. Put oil in a pan and saute beef quickly. Add potatoes in the pan and saute them together. Add dashi soup stock, soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar in the pan and simmer for 10 minutes on medium heat. Add onion in the pan and simmer on low heat until the liquid are almost gone. Sprinkle snow peas over the simmered beef and potatoes.
Makes 4 servings
DAISHI BROTH
Dashi is Japanese soup stock, which becomes the base of many Japanese dishes, such as soup and nimono (simmered dishes). Since dashi is often used in Japanese cooking, it's useful to know how to make it. There are different kinds of dashi. It can be made from konbu (dried kelp), katsuo-bushi (dried bonito flakes), niboshi (dried small sardines), or hoshi-shiitake (dried shiitake mushrooms). Konbu dashi and mushroom dashi are known as good vegetarian stocks.
INGREDIENTS
4 Cups of Water
6 Inches Long Konbu
DIRECTIONS
Wipe the konbu with a clean cloth to remove dirt. (Kombu shouldn't be washed under running water.) Soak the konbu in the water in a pot for one to two hours. Put on low heat and bring the water to a boil. Just before the water boils, remove the konbu.
RECIPE FOR A GOOD LIFE
Veronica and Jason
Less Eating, More Chewing
Less Whining, More Breathing
Less Words, More Action
Less Greed, More Giving
Less Worry, More Sleep
Less Anger, More Laughter
These words of wisdom come courtesy of my friend Shay Youngblood. If you like them, you'll love her novels, Soul Kiss and Black Girl In Paris.