Dashi
Japanese mayo
Okonomiyaki sauce
Usuyaki tamago
Mentsuyu
Ajitsuke tamago
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While I was deciding how to tell you about all the japanese food we tried, I faced a dilemma: trip and food, all together or separated?
And in recipes, add in all the “minor” recipes as well, or keep things separated?
Then the Offspring came to help “you gotta keep ’em separated”.
It also helps to make posts you can access directly, because some “minor” recipes are handy for “bigger” recipes, and it also makes for shorter, easier posts.
So here’s the Okonomiyaki sauce (that you can use as well for Teriyai, for Takoyaki and any other “yaki” actually!)
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Okonomiyaki sauce
(x2 servings)
Can be used as well for Teriyaki, Takoyaki etc
1 tbs ketchup
2,5 tsp worcestershire
1,5 tsp oyster sauce (or mushroom sauce, or soy sauce you thickened with starch)
1,5 tsp sugar
Mix it all up, the consistency is that of ketchup.
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Japanese mayo
If you can’t find it in stores, you can substitute it with yogurt & lemon mayo (thinned with a drop of milk if it’s too thick), or you can mock-make it with classic mayo, plain fat free white yogurt and milk in this proportion 10:1:1
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Dashi
Some sort of stok, bascally. The easiest version is made with kombu seaweed and katsuobushi
A piece of kombu (8x10cm)
30 g katsuobushi or bonito flakes
1 lt water
With a damp cloth clean the seaweed, without removing the white part. Let it soak in water overnight (best), or a few hours, or if you don’t have time just skip this.
Put it in water and bring to a boil, as soon as some bubbles start forming, remove the kombu, turn off the heat and let cool.
Then add katsuobushi and again bring to a boil. When it boils turn the heat to low and let simmer for 30 seconds. Then turn off the heat and leave it for ten minutes.
Then strain really really well.
For a vegetarian dashi, stop at the seaweed part 
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Usuyaki tamago
“Usuyaki tamago” is the typical japanese egg crepe.
It’s often used as side dish or garnish.
Once it’s cooked, sometimes it’s rolled up and sliced in thin slices, then it becomes “Kinshi tamago“.
(As you might recall from the Tamagotchi era, tamago means egg :P).
– 1 egg
– 1 tbsp starch (your choice): it helps in making the crepe elastic and less prone to breaking (but still be careful)
– 1 tbsp cold water
– salt and pepper to taste
– 1 tsp sugar (optional)
Whisk all the ingredients together well, untill, raising your fork from the batch, this drips down in drops making no filaments. To be extra sure your mix is fine enough, you can sift it a couple of times.
Greas a non stick pan, that is large enough (as usual: a drop of oil goes a long way, most of all if spreaded with a piece of kitchen paper or a cooking brush). Heat the pan on low heat, pour your mixture and distribute it evenly.
Based on the preparation, you might have to pour back some of the mixture in the bowl it came from.
When the bottom side is cooked, turn your crepe (slide it, cooked side down, in a dish, then upturn it in the pan), and finish cooking.
Take it out from the pan, pat away some excess grease, let it cool down.
For Kinshi tamago: roll the cooled crepe and slice it thinly.
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Mentsuyu
1/2 cup sake
1 cup + 2 tsp mirin
1 cup soy sauce
a piece of Kombu seaweed 5×5 cm
1 cup katsuobushi
Simmer sake for a few seconds on medium heat. Add Mirin and soy sauce, then add kombu and katsuobushi.
Bring back to a boil over low heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Turn the heat off and let cool down.
Filter everything and squeez well the leftovers.
It’s ready.
You can store this in the fridge for a few weeks.
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Ajitsuke tamago
2 room temperature eggs
1 spn vinegar
water
ice
2 spn soy sauce
2 spn mirin (or 1 spn oyster sauce)
6 spn water
1 freezer bag
thumbtack
fishing line thread
Bring some water to a boil in a pot.
In the meanwhile prepare the marinade: pour soy, mirin and the 6 spoons of water into the freezer bag.
When water is to a rolling boil add vinegar, and then punch a hole in the bottom wider part of the egg with the thumbtack. Then lower the egg gently into the boiling water.
Boil it, at medium/high heat, for 6, max 7 minutes.
Pick the egg out with a slotted spoon and put it immediately in a bowl with icy water, to stop the cooking process.
Once cooled, deshell it in the water.
Once deshelled, put it in the marinade, in the fridge, overnight (or at the very least for three hours).
When it’s time to serve, cut the egg open with the thread: wrap the thread once arount the length of the egg, and pull on the two crossing ends of the thread.
Warning: the yolk should still be runny, so while cutting it may spill and stain. Do this on a cutting board.