Easy Japanese recipes anyone can make at home
Beyond sushi
Chicken katsu curry
Curry is one of Japan's favourite comfort foods. This is a light vegetable curry topped with breaded, deep-fried chicken, served with rice and pickled ginger. Japanese curries are very simple without a long list of spices. The recipe asks for Japanese hot curry tablets, but if you can't find those, you could use equal quantities of mild Madras curry powder and garam masala, adding a little slaked cornflour to thicken.
Tonkatsu
Tonkatsu is essentially a Japanese take on schnitzel – thin pieces of pork loin dredged in breadcrumbs and deep-fried, served with a tonkatsu sauce – which you can make or buy ready-made – and shredded cabbage. The sauce tastes a bit like British brown sauce. Hunt out Japanese panko for this dish, which are crunchier and lighter than standard breadcrumbs.
Teppanyaki duck
A teppan is an iron plate and yaki means griddled. Juicy duck breasts are seared in a frying pan until crisp, then served with a soy, sake (Japanese rice wine) and orange sauce. There are teppanyaki restaurants all over Japan, where the chefs cook it on huge iron plates. The sake is important – it adds umami, acidity and sweetness to the sauce. Serve with noodles or rice – it's ready in just 35 minutes.
Miso ramen
A bowl of ramen – here with vegetables and noodles in a savoury miso broth topped with an egg – could become your go-to speedy supper, ready in around 15 minutes. Ramen are thin wheat noodles with a springy texture. This dish is so versatile: you could add leftover chicken or pork, frozen vegetables, or whatever you have in the fridge. Do toast the sesame seeds to serve, so they are creamy and nutty.
Yakisoba
Stir-fried noodles, with pork and vegetables and a mix of tonkatsu and oyster sauce, is a quick midweek meal. Confusingly, it's not made with soba noodles, which are unsuitable for stir-frying, but with ramen. You could use Chinese-style egg noodles. Swap the pork for chicken or tofu if you want, and add mushrooms and beansprouts if you have any lying around.
Smoked tofu okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki is a savoury pancake-like dish, traditionally made with cabbage and pork. This version is made with shredded cabbage, sweetcorn and smoked tofu, drizzled with mayonnaise, tonkatsu sauce and sprinkled with finely ground nori (seaweed). You can buy sheets of nori easily and blend them to a powder. You could also add seafood, pork, wasabi or chicken – it's a great dish to play around with.
Tempura prawns
Always a winner, succulent prawns are cooked in a light, airy batter and served with mayonnaise or a dipping sauce. This recipe uses ale in the batter, but you can replace it with sparkling water, which gives a lighter texture. You can also try it with chunks of courgette, broccoli florets, strips of fish or oyster mushrooms.
Chicken katsu noodles
Udon are fat, chunky wheat noodles, which are used in this recipe in a stir-fry of vegetables coated in a miso and sesame sauce, topped with crumbed, fried chicken and drizzled with teriyaki sauce. Buy the straight-to-wok udon noodles for this dish, or find them frozen in Asian grocers. The recipe uses white miso paste, which is light, sweet and salty, adding essential umami to the flavour of the dish.
Teriyaki chicken
Tender chunks of chicken, crisp on the outside, are stir-fried in teriyaki sauce to give a sweet and salty flavour. The sauce is easy to make – just soy, sake, sugar and mirin. Mirin adds a honeyed sweetness. For the soy, use a Japanese brand, as the flavour is quite different to Chinese soy sauce. Serve the chicken with rice and pickled cucumber.
Quick salmon ramen
A new way to cook with salmon is something everyone looks for, and this Japanese-inspired ramen dish fits the bill. It uses a pack of miso ramen noodles, but you can use ramen and add some white miso paste to the broth. With bok choy, garlic, ginger and chilli, it's a light yet satisfying dish.
Tofu katsu
This is a vegetarian take on the favourite chicken katsu, with a light vegetable curry topped with deep-fried tofu and melted cheese – irresistible. For this recipe, you'll need firm, block tofu which is robust and will hold together. It usually comes in tubs covered with water, and you'll need to dry it out on kitchen towel and press it before using. To do that, use a special tofu press, or wrap it in a clean tea towel, place in a bowl or on a lipped plate, weigh it down with tins, and leave for at least 30 minutes.
Udon noodles with sweet and savoury beef
Sweet, salty and savoury, this is nourishment in a bowl. Tender beef slices – rump or sirloin would be ideal – are cooked in soy and mirin. With udon noodles, the beef is immersed in a dashi stock, a mainstay of Japanese cooking which is full of umami flavours. The recipe explains how to make it, but you can buy dashi powder in Asian grocers to save time.
Get the recipe for udon noodles with sweet and savoury beef here
Sukiyaki beef hotpot
A popular dish in the winter months, sukiyaki gets your guests involved in the cooking, so it's a fun dinner party idea, as well as a tasty one. It's basically a soy-based beef and vegetable hotpot, where the savoury broth (buy dashi powder to save time) is brought to the table with an array of raw meat, vegetables and noodles, and guests dip the food into the hot broth.
Japanese fried chicken
The Japanese adore fried chicken, and you'll find it everywhere across the country, with good reason. It's crisp on the outside, juicy in the centre, with a big hit of savoury flavours. A word on ingredients in this recipe – shoyu is light soy sauce, and the burdock root may be hard to find, so replace it with a teaspoon of dashi powder.
Chicken and egg rice bowl
Called oyakodon in Japanese, it's literally translated as "parent and child" rice bowl, referring to the use of both chicken and egg. Chunks of chicken thigh are cooked in a savoury dashi stock with mirin and soy, before beaten eggs are added and the whole mixture is poured over rice. It's proper comfort food.
Black cod with miso
Made famous by Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa of the Nobu restaurant empire, this is a surprisingly simple and divine dish to make. It's intense and savoury, although you do need to allow two to three days for marinating. Black cod is hard to come by, but it works just as well with common cod, or even salmon or swordfish. Nobu serves it with hajikami, pickled ginger root, but you can serve with any pickled vegetables.
Pan-fried scallops with broccoli
This is such a simple recipe which is full of flavour. Juicy crisp scallops are matched with broccoli, beaten eggs, soy and sake to make a lovely starter or light meal. The scallops need to be lightly salted first, then left for 10 minutes or so. This process draws out the moisture and makes the scallops firmer. It's a good trick to use before frying or grilling any fish.
Chilled soba noodles
This is a traditional dish in Japan, perfect for their hot, steamy summers. The chilled noodles are served with a dipping sauce, so it's a simple dish to make. You could add pickles on the side, too. The dipping sauce is called tsuyu, which is soy-based. You can buy it or make your own, as in the recipe. You could also substitute it for a bought ponzu sauce, which has a lovely citrussy tang.
Moon udon
So called, as the egg yolk in the centre represents the full moon. This is a very savoury, tasty noodle soup, but you will need to make the all-purpose noodle sauce – which also makes a great dipping sauce for gyoza – the day before to allow the flavours to infuse. Once that's done, it's quick to make.
Miso cod ramen
Here's a speedy twist on the black cod recipe, with just 30 minutes' marinating. The marinade is simple, with soy, ginger and miso. The cod is fried until the skin is beautifully crisp, then incorporated with soba noodles cooked in a savoury soy broth. Add some bok choy and spring onions, and you have a healthy, nourishing dish.
Tokyo roll
A Japanese version of a Swiss roll, incorporating matcha and adzuki paste, made with sweet red beans. Matcha is a green tea powder, which is very intense, bitter and sharp, which is why it works so well in desserts to balance out sweet, creamy flavours. The matcha-infused sponge is filled with whipped cream and the bean paste. It's a real flavour sensation.
Green tea and pistachio cookies
A soft and crunchy cookie which again uses matcha powder. Matcha is quite expensive, but you only need a teaspoon. Its powerful flavour is balanced out with sweet white chocolate, crunchy cornflakes and pistachio nuts. The recipe makes 12 cookies, although you can also freeze the dough so you always have a batch ready to go.
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