theCooksCorner

summer squash patties

Incredients :
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup commercial sour cream
1 egg
1 tbs vegetable oil
3 cups coarsely grated yellow squash
1 medium onion, coarsely grated
Ground black pepper to taste

Procedure :
Combine first 6 ingredients, beating until smooth. Stir in squash and onion; add pepper, if desired. Drop mixture by tablespoonfuls into a hot greased skillet. Cook until golden brown, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

summer squash patties

Incredients :
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup commercial sour cream
1 egg
1 tbs vegetable oil
3 cups coarsely grated yellow squash
1 medium onion, coarsely grated
Ground black pepper to taste

Procedure :
Combine first 6 ingredients, beating until smooth. Stir in squash and onion; add pepper, if desired. Drop mixture by tablespoonfuls into a hot greased skillet. Cook until golden brown, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

Nikujaga – Meat and potatoes

Incredients :
Potatoes
Beef or pork: thin sliced
Onion
Sugar
Soya sauce
Japanese katsuo soup stock (benito)*

Procedure :
Cut the onions and potatoes in about 2×2x3cm pieces.

Cut the sliced meat in about 5×4cm pieces.

Fry the potatoes, onions, and the meat in a fry pan.
After about two minutes add water. Everything should be more or less covered with water.

Add two tablespoons soya sauce and the same amount of sugar. Add also a little bit of Japanese fish soup stock.
Cover the pan with a lid, and let it cook for about twenty minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

Okonomiyaki

Incredients :
Dough
300 g flour
210 ml water
2 eggs
Cabbage
Possible ingredients to put into/onto Okonomiyaki
Katsuobushi*: Dried, shaved benito (katsuo)

Aonori*: Green, dried seaweed.

Leek or green onion
Beef: thinly sliced or ground
Pork: thinly sliced or ground
Chicken: breast filets
Octopus*
Squid*
Prawn
Tuna
Mushrooms
and much more…
Sauces
Brown okonomiyaki sauce*
Mayonnaise

Procedure :
Cut four large, green cabbage leaves without the hard, white core in thin strings (ca. 4 mm).

Mix the water, flour, eggs and the cabbage strings together.
You may now add more ingredients to the dough: e.g. seafood, cut in little pieces, ground meat, cut mushrooms, etc.
Fry the dough like a pancake in a small frying pan.

Before turning the okonomiyaki over, and while the dough is still quite soft, you may put other ingredients on top of the dough.

Turn the okonomiyaki.
When fried well, serve the okonomiyaki with katsuobushi, aonori, mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce.

Udon – Japanese Noodles

Incredients :
Udon*
Noodle soup*: e.g. Ninben Tsuyu no moto
Kitsune Udon:
Naruto*: Fish sausage with a pink pattern when cut
Atsuage*: baked tofu. You can use the triangular atsuage bags that are used for Inari Sushi; but put them first in boiling water for a moment to reduce their strong taste a little bit.

Leek or green onion
Tanuki Udon:
Naruto*
Rests of Tenpura deep frying: Crispy pieces that are left from the last time you prepared tenpura. If not available, you can cut some leek, mix it with tenpura batter and deep fry it.

Leek or green onion
Tsukimi Udon:
One egg per person
Naruto*
Leek or green onion

Procedure :
Boil Udon and boil some water in another pan (about 400ml per person, depends on the size of the bowl in which you will serve the noudles).
Cut naruto (about 7mm thin) and leek/green onion.

Put Udon into sieve and rinse it with hot water.
Add noudle sauce into prepared hot water. Consult the bottle label about the proportion.With \”Ninben Tsuyu no moto\” sauce the proportion sauce-water is 1:8.
Put the hot Sauce into a bowl and add Udon into it. (Use one bowl per person)

Kitsune Udon
Decorate Udon with atsuage, cut leek and naruto.

Tanuki Udon
Put the deep fried pieces (Rests of Tenpura deep frying), naruto and cut leek onto the noudles.

Tsukimi Udon
Put the york, cut leek and naruto

Tempura – Seafood and vegetables deep fried in tempura

Incredients :
Tempura batter mix*
Tempura dipping sauce*
Prawn: raw and large
Seafood: almost everything is possible
Vegetables: pumpkin, carot, sweet potatoe, eggplant, and more
Mushrooms
and much more to try.

Procedure :
Prawn: Remove the head and the shell. Make little cuts on the inside of the curved prawn since they look nicer if their posture is straight.
Cut the vegetables in about 1cm thick pieces.

You can use whole mushrooms.
Mixtures: Cut various ingredients in small pieces and mix them together, eg. green onion, prawn and carots.

Mix Tempura flour with the amount of water described on the package. Do not mix it completely, but leave some small lumps in it.
Cover all the ingredients completely with the batter.
Mix also the mixtures made of the small cut ingredients with batter, and try to deep fry it together. Don\’t let them fall apart in all the pieces.
Deep fry at 180 degrees celsius. Be careful, and do not use wet ingredients because the water would react strongly with the hot oil, which may harm your skin or eyes.
When the Tempura pieces are beautifully golden, take them out, and try to remove as much oil as possible.

Yakitori – Skewered grilled chicken

Incredients :
Chicken thighs: without bone and skin
Japanese leek (negi*), leek, or green onion
Soya sauce
Mirin* or sake*
Sugar
Honey or maple syrup
Small wooden spears

Procedure :
Mix together 4 tablespoons of soya sauce, 3 tablespoons of sugar, a little bit of honey or maple syrup, a little bit of mirin and water, and heat it up until it\’s homogenous.

Cut the chicken thighs into about 3×2x2cm large pieces.

Put the chicken pieces into the already prepared sauce, and let it stand for a while.

Cut the leek or green onions in about 3 cm long pieces.
Spear three or four pieces of chicken and some leek on each wooden stick.

Grill them, or use the oven at 200 degrees celsius. (You may want to wrap the wooden sticks with aluminium foil; otherwise, they may burn off.)

Korokke – Japanese Croquettes

Incredients :
White Cream Filling
Butter
Flour
Milk
Canned corn
Meat potatoe filling
Potatoes
Ground beef or pork
Onion
Other Ingredients
Flour
Eggs
Bread crumbs
Korokke sauce*
Japanese mayonnaise*
Cabbage

Procedure :
Melt the butter in a fry pan and add flour.

Add the milk and stir until the sauce becomes homogenous.

Wait until the white mass is very viscose and add the canned corn.

Give the cream into a rectangular dish and put it into the refrigerator for several minutes where it should become more solid.

Gyoza – Japanese style dumplins

Incredients :
Dough:
170 mL water
200 g strong flour

Filling:
200 g ground pork
Cabbage
Nira*: can be substituted by leek or green onion

Leek or Green onion
Garlic
Ginger
Sake*
Soya sauce, salt, and pepper
Sesame oil

Dipping Sauce:
Soya sauce
Vinegar

Procedure :
Mix the water and the flour to a dough that should not be sticky but as soft as an ear lobe.

Put a wet towel over the dough, and let it stand for several minutes.
Separate the dough in 30 pieces, and form each of them to very thin discs with a diameter of about 10 cm. The middle of each disc should be a little bit thicker than the edge.

Filling:
Cut some green, outer cabbage leaves, some green onion (or leek), nira, ginger, and garlic in very small pieces. The amount of these ingredients should equal the amount of meat. Do it as you like.
Put some salt on the cabbage, and let it stand for five minutes. Then press the water out of the cabbage pieces.
Mix the cabbage, green onion (or leek), nira, ginger, garlic, and the ground pork all together, and add some salt, pepper, soya sauce, sake, and sesame oil. Mix it all very well.

Making and frying the Gyoza:
Put some of the filling onto a piece of dough. Remember that the filling should suffice for 30 gyoza pieces.

Moisten the edge of the dough with water. Moisten only a semicircle, not all the way around.

Close the gyoza. While closing it, fold the edge about 6 times as shown on the image.

Put the gyoza on the table as shown in the image.

Fry the Gyoza in a little bit of hot oil until the bottom is brownish, then add water so that the gyoza are in the water with about half of their hight.
Keep the high heat and wait until all the water has vaporized. Then remove the gyoza from the heat.
Dipping sauce: Mix the same amounts of soya sauce and vinegar together.