Just Hungry

This page is a work in progress, highlighting some of the best and/or most popular posts on Just Hungry.

Please also take a look at the recipe index, feature article index, and the blog archive index. Also try the search function if you can’t find what you’re looking for.

Japanese Recipes and articles

I’m from Japan, but I’ve lived outside of Japan for much of my adult life. I love the food of my homeland, but trying to recreate some dishes without easy access to all kinds of Japanese ingredients can be tough. A major feature of Just Hungry is on cooking Japanese food at home, trying to achieve authentic flavors with limited access to these ingredients.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for on this page, try the page of all Japanese recipes and how-tos

The Basics: If you’re new to Japanese cooking, start here:

• The essentials of a Japanese Pantry - the things you really need, and some things you don’t.
• Essential Japanese cooking equipment - with easer to obtain outside of Japan substitutes.
• The anatomy of a Japanese meal - how to put together a Japanese style meal.
• Japanese basics: SaShiSuSeSo - how to season Japanese food, and in what order.
• Japanese basics: dashi stock - dashi is the basic stock for most Japanese savory meals.
• Japanese basics: Japanese essence - A seasoning mix you make yourself and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
• Japanese basics: plain rice, sushi rice - how to cook plain white rice, and also turn it into sushi rice.
• Japanese basics: brown rice in a pot (not a rice cooker) - If you don’t have a rice cooker that handles brown rice, here’s how to make it in a pot.
• How to make a perfect cup of green tea
• Answering some Japanese questions - a biased view of course!

Some popular traditional Japanese (aka washoku) recipes

• Onigiri and Onigiri revisited. Two of the most popular articles on the site are about how to make onigiri or omusubi, aka rice balls. I recommend the second article for a beginner-friendly method that doesn’t burn your hands. Also see More about Onigiri: Keeping them fresh and more.
• Ochazuke, rice with tea - another popular article, how to make a very simple, light yet satisfying snack with rice and hot tea.
• Osekihan: festive Japanese rice and red beans - sticky mochi rice cooked with red azuki beans, popular fare for festive occasions
• Basic miso soup
• Two classic tofu dishes - how to make cold and deep-fried tofu.
• Handrolled sushi
• Inari zushi: sushi in a bean bag - sushi rice in a fried tofu bag
• Kitsune udon - Basic udon noodles from scratch!
• Nikujaga: Japanese meat and potatoes - Cooking a la oka-san (mom’s cooking)!
• Ganmodoki or hiryouzu, tofu fritters
• Shell-shaped sushi

Yohshoku recipes

Yohshoku is Western/European influenced Japanese food. It’s different from, say, French food that’s served in Japan in that they have been adapted and changed so much that they barely ressemble the original dishes that influenced them.

• About Yohshoku
• More about Yohshoku
• Tonkatsu, fried pork cutlet
• Omurice, rice omelette
• Japanese style beef curry, the stew type curry (curry rice)
• Japanese style dry curry, a fried rice/pilaf style curry

Baking

I love baking bread, as well as cakes and muffins.

• My favorite bread is desem bread, which is rather complicated to make but has the fewest ingredients: whole wheat flour, water, salt - and a starter (called desem) that takes two weeks or more initially to make. If you’re up for an interesting and rewarding challenge, please give it a try (see all desem entry posts.)

This page will continue to be updated!