Tag Archives: Russian Cuisine

Ramen: Cold Ramen/Hiyashi Ramen-Basic Recipe

January 16, 2010 dragonlife 8 Comments

Ramen are not always eaten hot, even in cold countries (japan does become very cold in some areas in winter, I can guarantee you!).
Be it hot or cold, Cold Ramen, Hiyashi Ramen/冷やしラーメンare a very popular dish here.

Whereas the presentation basically varies little, many sauces can be combined with them
Here is the basic (classic) recipe with some different sauces.
I have left the precise quantities again to your preferences. I sincerely hope it will help!

INGREDIENTS:

-Main ingredients:
Cucumber
Beansprouts
Dried shiitake
Char Siu/Chyashyu
Ramen

-Peanuts sauce
Peanuts butter
Soy sauce
Seasme oil
Rice vinegar
Salt
Water

-Hot Sauce
Doubanjiang (chinese), Toubanjian (Japanese), Gochujang (Korean)
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Rice vinegar
Japanese sake
Water

-Sweet vinegar sauce:
Sugar
Soy sauce
Sesame sauce
Rice vinegar
Japanese sake
Water

RECIPE:

Cucumbers:
Choose the short, crispy Japanese variety.
First massage them with salt.
Wash them under cold clear water.
Slice along their length at a slant and cut the slices into long thin strips.

Beansprouts:
Do choose them fresh for best taste.
Plunge them into hot water and stir them a while.
Drain them thoroughly and let cool completely.

Dried Shiitake:
Let the shiitake swell backto their original soft size in lukewarm water.
Boil them for 5 minutes then.
Drain thoroughly and let cool down before slicing them thin.

Char Siu/Chyashyu:
See recipe HERE.
Cut as much as you want into thin strips.
If unavailable, ham is fine.

Peanuts sauce:
Do experiment with quantities. Have a good look at picture, too!
In a bowl, mix soy sauce and peanuts butter (the less sweet kind if osiible) until you attain a creamy sauce.

Add sesame oil and a little and mix well again.

Add some water and mix well (to lighten it).
Add a little rice vinegar for seasoning and mix well again.
Pour the sauce into a mortar. Add sesame seeds and crush/mix with a pestle.
Depending on your preferences, you can add chili pepper, or a drop of tabasco.
By all means, experiment!
If the taste seems a little bland, add rice vinegar and soy sauce.

Hot sauce:
In a bowl drop Doubanjian, Japanese sake, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and water. Mix well!
Once again, do experiment!
You may add liquid lard for a deeper taste.

Sweet vinegar sauce:
in a bowl drop soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, Japanese sake, sesame oil and water. Mix well.
Once again, do experiment!
If sauce is too thick, add water.

In a large pan bring to boil plenty of water with a little salt.
Throw in the ramen after having made sure they don’t stick to each other.
Control the heat so as not bringing the water back to boiling point.
Cook until slightly hard or very firm.

First drain thouroughly, then wash under cold running water.
Drain again thoroughly.
To prevent the ramen from sticking to each other, add a little sesame oil and mix well.
Boil the ramen after all the other ingredients are ready for fast and best sevice.

Place the ramen in the middle of a plate and cover them with cucumber, beansprouts, shiitake and char siu as decoratively as possible and serve with sauce in a separate dish.

NOTES/POINTS:

-Many restaurants serve the cold ramen seasoned with their sauce. This is not a very good idea as the ramen will end up impregnated and softened.
Add sauce little by little with a small spoon from the sauce dish. It might take more time, but it will far more delicious.

-You can of course use other ingredients as far as the vegetables are concerned. Let your imagination fly. Just make sure they are cut in strips all apprimately the same size!

-The Japanese often add hot mustard just before eating them Experiment!

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Japanese Cuisine: Char Siu/Chyashyu Basic Recipe

January 16, 2010 dragonlife 13 Comments

Posted by Shizuoka Gourmet

I was going to write on article on Cold Japanese Ramen/Hiyasi Ramen/冷やしラーメン when I realized I would have to introduce one main element first, namely Chyashyu (in Japanese) or Char Siu (in Chinese).

Therefore, here is the basic Japanese-style Char Siu recipe before I can introduce the one on Hiyashi Ramen!

INGREDIENTS:

As this is the basic recipe, I will explain the procedure only. I will leave it to you to decide on the exact amounts as priorities are vastly different!

-Pork Belly
-Salt
-Twine
-Sesame seeds
-Seven Spices/Shichimi/七味
-Thin leeks
-Large leeks
-Garlic
-Light taste soy sauce
-Japanese sake
-Laurel

RECIPE:

Choose a block of pork belly with the right proportion of meat and fat.
Personally, I ctually prefer blocks cut out the thighs or back.

Make a few shallow cuts across the pork and salt it lightly. That step will ensure an even seasoning.

Bink the pork with cooking twine as shown in above picture with the fatty side outside.
Bind it tightly as to effectively shape the pork.

As the char siu has to be boiled first, prpare a large enough pan filled with water.
Drop the meat in the water.
Add just a drop of soy sauce, one clove of garlic, two leaves of laurel, some roughly cut leeks (thick variety), some Japanese sake and bring to boil.

Boil over a strong fire for one hour, scooping unwanted matters from time to time.
Bear in mind the boiling water can be used as soupstock for other dishes!
Once taken out of the pan, let it cool and cut the twine. The meat should hold by itself.
It can be consumed as it is.

The Japanese then grill it (aburi/炙り) for even deeper taste.

They use a special grill called nanarin/七輪 using charcoal.
take care not to overgrill it and bear in mind oil could start flying!

Cut the char siu to the thickness wanted.
I like it very thin and eat it a it is. But when using for ramen, I might cut it a bit thicker.

If you want to it eat and serve it for its own sake, cut many slices and arrange them on a serving dish and season it with seven spices mix/shichimi/七味, sesame seeds (whole or ground), chopped thin leeks, a little ponzu.

Doesn’t that look appetizing!

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Japanese Cuisine: Sweet & Spicy Chicken Liver

January 14, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

The Japanese have their own version of”Sweet and Sour”. They actually call it “Amakara” or “Sweet and Spicy”
It is a bit different from Chinese Cuisine in taste, although the concept is very similar.
Here is another simple Japanese liver recipe that you can easily expand on:

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Liver/Tori No Amakara Ni!

INGREDIENTS: for 2 people

-Chicken Liver: 250 g (you can adapt it to any other kind of liver!)
-Ginger: 5×5 cm (fresh)
-Soy sauce: 2 tablespoons
-Sugar: 2 tablespoons
-Japanese sake: 2 tablespoons
-Mirin/sweet sake: 1 tablespoon

Optional:
-Onion: 1/2
-Boiled eggs: 2

RECIPE:

-Clean chicken liver under running cold water. Repeat operation for 10 minutes. You can add 2 tablespoons of milk later if you don’t like the acidity of the liver.

-Cut the fresh ginger into thin slices.
Bring enough water to boil in a pan. Boil the liver for 1 minute. Drain thoroughly.

-Lightly wash the liver under cold running water again. Take off all the fat and blood vessels. If you have the heart, slice it.

-In a pan, drop the liver, soy sauce, sugar, Japanese sake, mirin and ginger. Add 50 cc/ml of water. Cover with lid. Switch on the fire to strong.

-Once brought to a boil, reduce fire to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. If you want to add the onions and boiled egg, slice the onion beforehand and add the onion and boiled egg together with the liver at the same time.

-Try to reduce as much as juices as possible, but don’t overcook.

Option 1: just cooked and served with boiled eggs.

Option 2: cooked and served with both onion and boiled eggs!

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Russian Cuisine: Liver sauteed with Potatoes

January 11, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

in spite of those vegan and vegetarian postings, I’m not ready yet to abandon meat, especially liver, which particularly healthy and tasty as far as meat comes!

The Russians do have a gastronomy, and a very homey one at that in spite of all these platters of caviar, and smoked salmon washed down with vodka or Georgia (former Russian Republic!) wine!

Here is a simple recipe to keep you warm on these increasingly colder months of the winter:

Russian-style Liver suteed with potatoes!

INGREDIENTS: For 2 people

-Potatoes: 2 (may Queen, or potatoes that fry well)
-Unsalted butter (A): 20 g
-Salt and black pepper: a little of each

-Liver: 200 g (pork or veal according to your priorities. sliced)
-Onions: 2
-Wine vinegar: 1 tablespoon
-Basalmico vinegar: 1 tablespoon
-Olive oil: 2 tablespoons
-Unsalted butter (B): 30 g
-Unsalted butter (C): 20 g
-Light flour, salt, black pepper: a little of each
-Parsley: a little (finely chopped)
-Garlic: a little (finely chopped)
-Balck pepper: to taste (coarsely ground)

RECIPE:

-Peel onions, cut in half, cut across and along and chop into 7~8 mm wide pieces.
Transfer into an oven dish. Add a little salt and 2 tablespoons of olive oil (not included in the ingredients). Mix well. Wrap it closed with some cellophane paper.
Cook inside microwave oven for 5~7 minutes at 600 W.
This step will help the onions to sweeten up and will improve the overall taste.

-Peel the potatoes. Boil them as they are. Once cooked, cut them into 1 cm thick slices.
In a frypan melt unsalted butter (A), fry the potatoes lightly into it. Season with salt and black pepper. Transfer in a separate hot dish for keeping.

-in the same frypan melt unsalted butter (b) and fry the onions in it until they get lightly brown and sweet. Transfer into a separate hot dish for keeping.

-Coat the sliced liver with a little salt, black pepper and flour. In the same frypan melt unsalted butter (C) with the olive oil and saute the liver in it.

-Once the liver slices are properly cooked on both sides, add the blsamico vinegar and saute for a while to allow the balsamico vinegar to penetrate into the liver. Transfer into a separate dish.

-In the same frypan transfer the onions back and fry them into the juices laying at the bottom of your frypan. Saute them to let them absorb those juices. Add wine vinegar and sautee long enough for the final touch.

-On a serving plate, first lay the sliced potatoes.
Lay the onions over the potatoes.
Lay the liver over the onions.
Think of presentation when arranging them on the plate. Look at pic above!
Season the whole by sprinkling the chopped leeks, chopped garlic and coarsely ground black pepper.

Serve with dark beer!