Tag: Side Dish

Inari Sushi

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I can’t shake the memory of the savory-sweet inari sushi I had on the train in Japan this past May.

Nishan and I were tired and hungry after a long day in Hakone, a sleepy town at the feet of Mount Fuji and best known for their onsen, or hot springs. We only had ten minutes left to catch the train back to Tokyo so I dashed into a shop and grabbed a small box of inari sushi. It was a welcome treat after a long day in the mountains and we inhaled it down to the last grain of rice on the return train. Each piece of sushi held a different savory and oh-so-slightly sweet filling atop the rice: furikake, tsukemono, shiitake mushrooms, and tamago.

I’ve since learned how to make these delicious parcels and they are much easier to produce than I initially thought. They are simple but filling and perfect for a picnic — or your next train ride.

Mother's Day sushi brunch

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sushi rice
1 2/3 cups water
1 4-inch piece of kombu seaweed
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 slices abura-age deep-fried tofu
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/2 carrot
4 dried shiitake mushrooms
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons mirin
2 3/4 cups dashi stock
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sake

1. Make the vinegared rice: soak the kombu seaweed in the water for about one hour to make the stock. Wash the rice 30 minutes prior to cooking and drain on a sieve. Put the vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small pot and heat slightly until dissolved. This completes the vinegar dressing. Place the rice and stock into a rice cooker and cook according to cooker instructions. Transfer the rice to a large bowl and sprinkle with the vinegar dressing. Using a flat wooden spoon, toss the rice with horizontal cutting strokes while cooling the rice with a hand-fan. When tossing is completed, cover the rice with a clean cloth moistened with water.

2. Mix 3/4 cup dashi stock, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon mirin in a saucepan. Peel the carrot and cut into julienned strips. Add carrot to saucepan and simmer over a low heat until seasoned, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

3. Mix 3/4 cup dashi stock, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon mirin, and 1 tablespoon soy sauce in another saucepan. Soften the dried shiitake mushrooms in warm water and cut into 1/4 inch cubes. Add mushrooms to saucepan and simmer over a low heat until seasoned, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

4. Mix remaining 1 1/2 cups dashi stock, 3 tablespoons sugar, and sake in another saucepan. Place the abura-age tofu in the saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons soy sauce to the abura-age simmering liquid, slightly with a lid and simmer until the liquid is mostly gone.

5. Add the sesame, carrot, and shiitake mushrooms to the vinagared rice and mix.

6. Squeed the abura-age lightly to remove moisture. Fill each abura-age pocket with vinagared rice. Adjust the shape and fold the opening. Serve room temperature.

Buttery Dal

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Until last year, I didn’t really know how to cook South Asian food. I mean, I’d try, and it’d end horrifically in memorable encounters such as That Time I Attempted A Dubious Fish Curry or In Which We Attempt A Fusiony Chicken Karahi Recipe from Bon Appetit. Needless to say, I thought I was completely incapable of pulling off decent biryani or a passable samosa.

That is, until I tried out this buttery dal. This dal, ladies and gentlemen, was my gateway dish into finally learning how to cook South Asian food, and deliciously at that. There are countless iterations of dal, but this was the first I mastered, and my favorite to date. This is comfort food at its finest.

Buttery Dal

Ingredients:

1 cup lentils (ideally Indian black lentils)
1 bay leaf
4 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly crushed
1 small onion, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 jalapeno or serrano chile, seeded and finely chopped
salt
1 tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Rinse the lentils and pick out any foreign objects. Put in a bowl, add water to cover by 1 inch, and soak for at least six hours.

2. Drain the lentils and put in a medium saucepan with the bay leaf and 5 cups water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and lower to a simmer. Cook, skimming the foam periodically, until the lentils are tender and beginning to disintegrate, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds; when fragrant (about 1 minute), add the onion, garlic, chile, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the tomato and another 1/2 teaspoon salt and continue to cook, stirring for 1 minute longer.

4. Add the tomato-onion mixture to the lentils and return to a simmer. Cover the pot partially, lower the heat, and simmer gently for 1 hour to blend the flavors. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Carefully puree half of the dal in a blender (in batches, if necessary) and add it back to the pot.

5. If the dal is runnier than you like, continue to simmer uncovered until it reaches the desired consistency. Stir in the lemon juice, then taste and season with more lemon juice or salt if necessary.

Spicy Anchovy Banchan

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This side dish is meant to be a banchan, or one of the small dishes served alongside cooked rice in Korean cuisine. I love it so much that sometimes I eat it on its own, too. It’s chewy, salty, fishy, and perfect with a cold drink. Spicy anchovy banchan, or myeolchi-bokkeum, keeps for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator and can be served at room temperature, making it great for a picnic. This version is adapted from the always wonderful maangchi.com.

Anchovy banchan

Ingredients:

1 cup of medium-small dried anchovies
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 clove minced garlic
1 tablespoon gochujang (hot fermented pepper paste)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1. Make the sauce: mix the gochujang, sugar, garlic, and 1 tablespoon water in a bowl and set aside.

2. Heat a pan over medium-high heat and add anchovies, stirring for 1 minute. Add olive oil and stir-fry for another minute.

3. Push the anchovies to the edge of the pan away from the heat and add the sauce to the cleared spot in the middle of the pan. Simmer until the sauce is shiny, about 30 seconds.

3. Mix the anchovies with the sauce in the pan and then remove from heat. Add sesame oil and sesame seeds and serve.

Japchae

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Japchae was the first Korean dish I tasted when I first tried the cuisine years ago as a teenager. It became one of my favorites but I rarely order it at a restaurant anymore because I’ve learned to cook it at home.

These results are restaurant quality and totally worth the payoff. Don’t substitute these sweet potato noodles — they’re worth seeking out for their chewy, slippery texture that soaks up all the flavor. Best of all, japchae reheats well and tastes just as good the next day.

Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons avocado oil
  • 1 cup julienned carrots
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 cups thinly sliced onions
  • 1 cup julienned red bell pepper
  • 1 cup julienned button mushrooms
  • 1 cup julienned filet mignon
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 pound dried dangmyeon (Korean sweet potato starch noodles), cooked according to package directions
  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions, for garnish
  • 1 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

Directions:

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrots, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until half-tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. Repeat with 1 tablespoon oil, onions, peppers, and mushrooms and add to bowl.
  2. Wipe skillet clean; heat remaining oil. Add steak and garlic and cook until browned, about 4 minutes. Add soy sauce and sugar and cook until sugar dissolves. Pour over vegetables in a bowl, add noodles and sesame oil, and toss. Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.

Korean-Style Mixed Green Salad

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This isn’t a green salad, per se. This recipe came about one evening when I had an abundance of Persian cucumbers and not being quite sure what to do with them, I turned to Maangchi, my favorite Korean food blog. Gutjuli, or mixed green salad, is typically leafy, but I adapted it to be heavy on the cucumbers and light on the leaves. Either way, this dressing packs a punch and works well with nearly any fresh salad vegetable.

Korean mixed green salad

Ingredients:

2 cups mixed lettuce greens
3 Persian cucumbers
1 green onion
1/2 clove garlic
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon gochugaru (hot pepper flakes)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon sesame oil

1. Slice cucumbers thinly and add to a large bowl along with the lettuce. Thinly slice the green onion and add it to the bowl.

2. Prepare the dressing by whisking together soy sauce, gochugaru, sugar, sesame seeds, and sesame oil. Mix the vegetables with the dressing and serve.