Peel かぶ skin, then mash. Boil leaves and cut to small 4cm.
Make だし with 昆布 first, soak for hour or two depends on time. Take 昆布 out before fully boiling, Add extra だし powder 1.5-2 bags, boil for a while and filter the soup. Add mirin, salt and little bit soy sauce for aroma.
Cut tofu to cubes and add to soup.
Mash かぶ, filter water then add to soup.
Mix kuzu with water then add to soup.
Finish to bowl and leaves and yuzu skin thin slice.


京都牛の落ち切れ 300g this time

生姜の細切 3big blocks is prefered, good beef will absorb ginger’s spicy flavor, and ginger will turn beef flavor tasty and crunchy, but not spicy.

Take some the fat off from beef, pan fry in a pan to make oil, then add all beef in and stir fry briefly until color changes and cooked, add ginger and some sake, around 40-50ml, 2-3 tsp of sugar, keep stir, add soy sauce (one to two round), more sugar in mommy’s recipe (another two to three tsp) should be light tasty and not very strong and meat is not very flavored yet. It will taste better with light sauce and slow cook into flavor. Then stir once in a while until no liquid steam out, around 10min, add mirin a bit around 20-40ml, and one or two round of soy sauce, mix well and steam out sauce a bit. Lots of oil will come out, take out with paper towel if don’t like oily. Stop fire and add a bit of soy sauce for flavor.

But darling thinks that was too sweet =•= I feel it was similar to before though.

This one take lot less time, and meat remain pieces form and looks more than the sansho version. Might taste better with rice when it turns cold though.

Looks like this recipe but with different beef and saucing method.


Every year different? Or 23rd September +3 days to celebrate end of summer, prepare lots of food for our deceased ones.

Steam mochi rice till soft, one is to fill red bean paste inside and wrap with kinako powder outside, another one is to wrap rice ball with red bean paste outside, make hands wet with water so it doesn’t stick, make it pretty and big ball.


Inspired from news of a restaurant, we made this ourself.

Peel of all bean shoots, but big spring onion thick like hot pot and layer underneath, then bean shoot and pork slice, have seaweed and salt in water and steam for around ten minutes until pork is cooked. Serve with ponzu, didn’t have pepper and small spring onion. Need more flavor in bean shoot as darling commented. Could serve cold in summer maybe?


だし: stronger than udon dashi but less than tempura dashi.
500ml water, two bags dashi, sake 1 tbsp, sugar 4 tsp, salt 4 tsp, soy sauce 2 rounds. Check flavor. Cool down before soak fried eggplant.
なすび: 6 for 150yen from 道の駅. Normal small long ones. Cut vertically to quarter and fry with thin tempura paste, just enough to cover the eggplant. Soak into sauce soup after fried.
* small round ones are preferred, cut to half only, looks better with half white and half purple color, this time has too much white color.
* fresh eggplants skin keep nice purple color after cooked. Old ones skin color turns black after cooked.
Topping: 茗荷みょうが cut to half vertically and then thin slice. Add to eggplant after soak into sauce soup. And leave it fridge.

Topping 2: green shiso cut to thin string, spring onion cut to 3mm, add to dish before serving. Shiso color will get black if leave it in sauce or fridge for too long.


酢生姜 Sushi ginger

Sushi ginger as commonly known in English, but it’s actually a pickle dish in Japan which does not limit to accompany sushi only 😉

The ginger used is new ginger, which is white in and out, and pink on the top. If it gets older, the pink part will turn darker and black, and it starts to grow white strings on the body. When cut it, new ones are juicy inside, easy to cut, less string, while old ones are dry, hard to cut and strings are thick and hard to cut, taste lot spicier too.

To make it, for around 400-450g ginger, vinegar 160ml, sugar 9 tsp, salt 1 tsp, sake few drops/1 or 2 tsp. This makes quite a lot of soup, but to make sure the flavor, and ginger was not super fresh, I made it sweetie so it doesn’t turn out too spicy. The first time I make it myself without help was totally failed since I underestimate the sugar we need for it even though I knew it need “lots” of sugar.

Scratch out ginger skin, and cut it to portions so it’s easier to slice. Cut by knife is better than slicer, though it takes forever to cut, and they might be in different thickness with not excellent skill.

In a small pot, add all ingredient for soup, melt the sugar and make it to boil, try the flavor by finger, should make sourness and sweetness balanced. When just boil, try one piece of ginger for the taste, it’s okay to make it a bit sweet since sweetness would turn milder after cooled down. Drop a handful ginger slices, when it turn boiling, reduce the flame, and mix ginger well with the soup. Always add ginger when it’s just boiling, and reduce heat after it boils again. Should be ready around 10-20 seconds, take the ginger out with a sief and make another round until all finish. Leave it in a bowl to cool down before put it to a container and store in fridge. First round ginger should be light pink color, later would not turn pink as first round, but as long as the flavor is okay, they will eventually mix together and become pink like a family. It should last for few weeks or more if keep it clean (always take it out with clean chopsticks) and cool.

Mix rice

ごぼうburdock・にんじんcarrot・揚げ fried tofu

Although it’s call five, we usually only put three in the mix rice, optionals are dry mushroom しんたけ and bamboo roots 筍.

Wash burdock well, and shred (?like a sharpen a pencil) it to small pieces, smaller is better, but would take more time.
Cut carrot and fried tofu to very small pieces.
For three cups of rice, add 40ml mirin, a bit less water to make up 3 cup (say 200ml/cup, would be 540ml water, add the burdock, carrot and fried tofu, soy sauce go two rounds, and two tsp of salt. Ready to go.

Soy bean, wash and pan fry before head in fry pan. Add to washed rice with sanshou (need quite a bit), with mirin and salt. Haven’t tried myself, but darling is not interested at all 🙁

Wash taro, peel skin and cut to balls or cubes? And age tofu to thin slice like for miso soup, cook with mirin and salt I think … Not darling’s food again.


** these days I go with 1:0.85 for normal rice, need to minus another 120ml water for vinegar for three cups of rice


For two cups of rice. Usually I do 1:1 for rice and water to make the hardness that darling prefers. For sushi rice, 2 cups of rice: 40cc mirin + 1 cup and 80cc water, rest 80cc vinegar for later. (I thought it would not be enough and it turns out quite hard, try more water next time). Add mirin water to rice, and small piece of 昆布, a tsp of salt to rice cooker. When rice is nearly cooked, mix 80cc vinegar and two tsp of sugar, because 玉姫 vinegar is quite sweet and mild, only put two tsp sugar. Heat with low fire until fully melted, add to rice when it is cooked, and mixed well with fan cooling down. Serve with tasty seaweed, fish, and soy sauce.

might try more water and less vinegar next time.

2014.08.04 鮭アボカド
Bake salted salmon and break into small pieces, doesn’t have to be super small. Cut avocado to big cubes, add wasabi and soy sauce, smell like cheap tuna. When 寿司飯 cool down a bit, add salmon and a bit of roasted sesame, topping with avocado.