Although I don’t work a regular nine to five, there are still times that I get slammed with work. With two public speaking engagements and two TV appearances this week, I needed to keep my recipes quick and easy. During these ultra-busy times, I often turn to quick pastas , or some kind of protein with a simple sauce that can be made in the same pan. This week, that meal ended up being this pan-roasted cod with a cherry tomato and basil pan-sauce....

What is Pancake Cereal? Pancake Cereal is a viral trend that started on TikTok. They’re just regular pancakes painstakingly miniaturized and served in a bowl instead of a plate. I say pain-staking because flipping a pan full of regular pancakes can be a pain, but try flipping several pans of M&M-sized pancakes… You get the idea. The other problem is that they’ll turn to mush the moment you try to add milk to the bowl....

Bell peppers are a fantastic way of adding flavor, sweetness and color to dish, but the simple act of roasting them amplifies their sweetness, umami and flavor elevating them from simply delicious to utterly magical. That’s because the Maillard reaction turns the reducing sugars and amino acids present in the peppers into entirely new flavor compounds. Along with caramelized onions and dashi , roasted red bell peppers are an essential part of my flavor arsenal that I always try and have on hand....

Goma Ae (ごま和え) Traditional Japanese meals usually consist of rice and soup, along with a protein, but these are almost always accompanied by a few kobachi (小鉢) or small bowls, which are filled with side dishes. Goma Ae is one of the most common side dishes that can appear on the table for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The combination of earthy sesame seeds and umami-rich soy sauce can turn almost any vegetable into a mouthwatering side....

After a rather productive week in the kitchen last week, I’ve been feeling wholly uninspired this week. Call it a case of chef’s-block, or cooking apathy, but the mere act of getting myself into the kitchen has felt like chore. I even had a bout with a nagging craving for bad Chinese food, which I finally relented to and sated with a $5 plate of greasy chow fun from around the corner....

I was recently asked what my favorite thing about New York is. Anyone who’s lived here knows that there’s a lot to like, but one of the things that makes it unique for me is that you can walk down almost any block and witness something you would never see any other place on Earth. Last month, I was heading out to get my hair cut in NoHo, when the gleaming white interior of this Japanese butcher shop caught my eye....

Nikuman (肉まん), also known as Bāozi in China and Pork Buns in the West, are the Asian equivalent to sandwiches. With a savory meat and vegetable filling wrapped in dough and steamed, these Japanese pork buns make a complete meal that can be eaten on the go without utensils. While convenient, I’ve always been a little wary of the mystery-meat filled steamed Japanese pork buns you can buy at the store....

Shrimp Toast Shrimp toast often gets a bad rap as greasy, but if you make it at home, it’s a delightfully crispy and flavorful Chinese appetizer that’s perfect for game days and get-togethers. Making them is not hard, and they can even be prepared ahead of time, but the trick is to fry them just before you plan to serve them so they’re piping hot and ultra-crisp. Shrimp Toast Why My Recipe Works Ingredients for Shrimp Toast How to Make Shrimp Toast Other Finger Food Recipes 📖 Recipe FAQ Comments Why My Recipe Works By hand chopping half of the shrimp and puréeing the remaining shrimp into a paste, you get two textures of shrimp in every bite....

I love making carpaccio with Kanpachi. It’s a white-meat fish in the Amberjack family that’s supple and yet tender and creamy. This makes it very easy to slice thinly, and it has a fairly neutral flavor, which makes it the perfect foil for all the other ingredients. Difference between Kanpachi, Hamachi, and Yellowtail Is my fish safe to eat raw? Slicing the fish The Oil The Cheese The herbs 📖 Recipe Comments The Fish - Kanpachi Kanpachi can be found at Japanese grocery stores when it’s in season (spring), but if you can’t find it, other white-meat “sashimi-grade” fish such as Hamachi(Japanese Amberjack), Hirame(flounder) or Tai(sea bream) will work as well....

What is Ogura Toast (小倉トースト) Created at Mitsuba Cafe in Nagoya in 1921, Ogura Toast has become a Japanese breakfast staple in Aichi prefecture, as well as around the country. While there are many different ways to do it, it usually involves spreading a thick layer of anko (sweet bean paste) onto buttered toast. The result is a quick meal that’s sweet, creamy, and ultra-satisfying. What is Ogura Toast (小倉トースト) Why My Recipe Works Ingredients for Ogura Toast How to Make Ogura Toast Other Breakfast Toast Recipes 📖 Recipe Comments Why My Recipe Works Toasting the bread with the butter on top makes it easier to spread and leaves the center of the bread tender while the edges crisp up....

Japanese Omurice Omurice is a popular modern Japanese dish that’s a mashup of Western omelettes and Japanese fried rice, delighting Japanese palates of young and old alike. It’s a favorite amongst kids and, therefore, a staple of home cooking here, but it can also be served a little fancier at Yōshoku restaurants (Western-style restaurants) in Japan. Although every household makes it a little differently, the omelette is usually stuffed with chicken rice, which is fried Japanese short-grain rice that’s made with chicken and seasoned with ketchup....

Because the waters around Japan become warm in summer, oysters are typically only eaten in months that include an “r” (Septembe_r_ through ap_r_il). With the end of oyster season rapidly approaching, I found a half pound bag of shucked oysters at my local supermarket on sale for about $7 and couldn’t resist. While pre-shucked oysters are convenient, bivalves tend to lose their freshness much faster than other seafood, which is why I’d never eat a pre-shucked oyster raw....

Pickled Carrots and Daikon (Kohaku Namasu) With a history dating back over 1,300 years, Pickled Carrots and Daikon, or Kohaku Namasu (紅白膾) is a Japanese side dish made by quick pickling thin strands of daikon and carrot in vinegar. Because red and white are auspicious colors in Japan, this dish is often eaten as part of the traditional new year’s meal, or Osechi Ryori . My version smoothes over the daikon’s funky smell with the fresh zing of citrus zest, and the addition of konbu adds a ton of umami to this easy salad....

“Three Cup” refers to the base recipe, which is supposed to include equal parts sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine. Ironically, most cooks these days put their own spin on it, changing the ratios, or adding other ingredients, like scallions, chili peppers or black pepper. For my Three Cup Chicken, I like adding a little extra rice wine for the flavor and sweetness it imparts. The additional liquid allows you to cook the chicken for a bit longer, making it more tender, without burning it....

If you’re a ramen lover and you want a quick, satisfying meal, tsukemen (literally “dipping ramen”) offers a fun twist on the classic Japanese noodle dish. While traditional recipes require nearly a day of cooking to develop deep, complex flavors of the unctuous broth, my recipe employs simple science to create an authentic ramen shop tsukemen broth at home in under half an hour! Tsukemen vs Ramen Why My Recipe Works Ingredients How to Make Tsukemen Broth Toppings How to Eat Tsukemen 📖 Recipe Tsukemen (Dipping Ramen) FAQ Comments Tsukemen vs Ramen The main difference between tsukemen and ramen is that tsukemen separates the components, featuring thicker noodles that are dipped into a rich, concentrated sauce before eating....

Mushrooms live in their own quirky kingdom(neither plant nor animal), yet they’re packed with the same umami‑rich glutamates and nucleotides that make animal proteins so satisfying. That savory depth, paired with their firm satisfying texture, lets these fungi slip seamlessly into dishes where you’d normally lean on meat. Substituting them for animal protein in recipes often results in a dish that can be just as delicious as the original. But mushrooms aren’t just a stand-in for meat; they deserve the spotlight....

As a kid, the holidays meant one thing: my step-dad’s apple pie. He wasn’t the main cook in our household, but I loved watching him pull out that yellowed 3x5 card from the recipe box. Soft at the corners and stained with years of butter and cinnamon, it held the secrets to turning a few ordinary ingredients into something truly extraordinary. Almost forty years later, I’m still making his pie, but with a few tricks of my own....

I feel like I say this a lot, but some of my best creations have come about when my refrigerator was running on empty. I first made a version of this a few weeks ago when Tokyo was buried under 10 inches of snow. For a city that is ill-prepared for any amount of snow, this may as well have been snowmageddon. Having lived for a few years in Sapporo (a stone’s throw from Siberia), I can deal with the cold, but with cars, bicycles, and people slipping and sliding all over the neighborhood, it just didn’t seem like a good idea to venture outside....

<img loading=“lazy” src=“https://norecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/recipefresh-split-pea-soup.1024x1024.jpg" onerror=“this.onerror=null;this.src=‘https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhe7F7TRXHtjiKvHb5vS7DmnxvpHiDyoYyYvm1nHB3Qp2_w3BnM6A2eq4v7FYxCC9bfZt3a9vIMtAYEKUiaDQbHMg-ViyGmRIj39MLp0bGFfgfYw1Dc9q_H-T0wiTm3l0Uq42dETrN9eC8aGJ9_IORZsxST1AcLR7np1koOfcc7tnHa4S8Mwz_xD9d0=s16000';" alt=“Fresh “Split Pea” Soup - 1”> There’s nothing better than a thick split pea soup, redolent of smoked ham and caramelized onions on a bleak winter day. But while the rich soup may warm your body and soul, most split pea soups look a bit like the inside of a soiled diaper. Nauseating metaphors aside, have you ever looked at a bowl of split pea soup and thought “Wow, that’s a pretty bowl of soup”?...

UPDATE: Nissin has discontinued their Miso Ramen, but you can make a delicious Hokkaido-style miso ramen from scratch using my 30 minute miso ramen broth recipe . Hokkaido, is Japan’s northernmost island and was my home for my first 3 years back in Japan. With wide open pastures and coastal waters loaded with some of the best seafood in Japan, it’s the landscape looks more European than Japanese, and as the field would suggest, it’s also the breadbasket of Japan....