Onigiri Ingredients 1 lb short-grain rice 8 umeboshi (dried plum) 8 nori (dried seaweed) salt

Directions:

1 Cook the rice. 2 Keep it warm, but let it cool enough so that it won't burn your hands. 3 Cut each nori sheet into 9 strips. 4 Wet your hands and sprinkle them with salt to prevent the rice from sticking to them. 5 Mold a handful of rice into a triangular shape with an indentation in the middle. 6 Press a piece of umeboshi into the indentation you left. 7 Wrap the rice and umeboshi in Nori strips. 8 Serve immediately or save for later.

Marinated Japanese Mushrooms 2 tablespoons olive oil 3 packs Japanese mushrooms (such as shimeji, enoki, maitake, shiitake, or nameko) 2 tablespoons rice vinegar 1 tablespoon dashi soy sauce (regular soy sauce will work) 1 red chili pepper 2 tablespoons chopped mitsuba 1 tablespoon chopped green shiso

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over high heat, then add the mushrooms. Stir-fry until the mushrooms are cooked and there is little to no liquid in the pan.

Remove the pan from the heat, and then add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, chili pepper, mitsuba and shiso. Stir to combine, then add salt to taste. When the mushrooms have cooled, put them in a tupperware and refrigerate until you are ready to serve them.

These marinated mushrooms make a great appetizer or side and can be served on noodles, on top of pasta, or just by themselves.

Tofu Stuffed Squid 1 large squid or 10 small ones toothpicks or wooden skewers

for stuffing 1 tsp oil 1/2 length of daikon cut into 3mm cubes 1/2 carrot quartered lengthwise and diced 1/4 C bamboo shoot cut into small cubes 1/2 lbs tofu excess water sqeezed out using cheesecloth 1 Tbs mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine) 1 tsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp dashi powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/3 C garlic chives (a.k.a. nira)

for glaze 1 Tbs soy sauce 1 Tbs mirin 2 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp corn starch

Prep the squid. First remove the head by pulling on it. This should take much of the viscera out with it. Squeeze out any remaining viscera like you would a tube of toothpaste, or just reach in and scrape it out. Reach inside and you should feel something hard, running the length of the body. Pinch it with your fingers and get it out (Im not sure what it is, but it looks like a clear piece of hard plastic). If you want to eat the tentacles, use a knife to cut the head off near where the tentacles start (be careful, if you cut too close to the eyes, youll squirt black ink all over the place). The process for smaller squid is identical, but you just have to do repeat it. I peeled my squid, but its not necessary. Thoroughly dry your squid and throw it in the fridge until youre ready to use it.

For the filling just saute the daikon, carrots and bamboo in the oil until the daikon is tender. Crumble in the squeezed tofu then add the dashi, mirin, soy sauce, sugar and salt. When the liquid has evaporated, add the nira and take off the stove to cool.

To make the glaze, just whisk all the ingredients in a small microwave safe container and nuke until it boils.

When the tofu mixture is room temperature, get the squid out of the fridge and stuff, packing the filling in until its almost entirely full. Use a toothpick or skewer to seal it (kinda like you would use a safety pin). Brush some glaze on top and put it under a broiler on high until its nice and brown (a few minutes). Flip it over, glaze again and brown the second side. For the tentacles, just dip them in the glaze and throw it under the broiler with the squid and remove them when you flip the squid

Creamy Salmon Miso Soup (Sake no to-nyu Jiru)

1 qt soy milk 1/4 C katsuobushi 4 sheet kombu 3 small carrots cut into chunks 3 small turnips cut into 6 wedges 3 Tbs white miso 1 Tbs sugar (omit if there is sugar in the soymilk) 1/2 lbs salmon belly cut into square pieces 2 scallions sliced thin salt to taste

Put the bonito flakes in a disposible tea bag, or a double layer of cheese cloth and tie with twine. If you dont have either, you can steep it in the soy milk, but you will need to strain it out.

Add the soymilk, bonito satchel and the kombu into a pot, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove the kombu and satchel then add the carrots and turnips. Cover and maintain a gentle simmer until they are tender.

Laddle some of the soymilk into a bowl and whisk in the miso and sugar to dissolve. Pour this mixture back into the soup and salt to taste. Add the salmon belly and cook for about 10-15 minutes; because it has a very high fat content, salmon belly benefits from the extra cooking time. If you are using regular salmon, you only need to cook it for a few minutes, otherwise it will get dry.

Add the scallions and serve with rice or crusty bread..

Spicy Yakisoba

2 Tbs oil 1/4 lb thinly sliced meat or seafood such as shrimp, squid or octopus 1 C roughly chopped cabbage 1 C bean spouts 1/2 C yellow onion sliced 1/4 C shredded carrot 10 ounces cooked thin Asian egg noodles 2 scallions sliced thin on the bias 1 clove garlic minced 3 Tbs tonkatsu sauce (Worcestershire sauce will do in a pinch) 1 Tbs gochujang white pepper

aonori (green nori flakes) optional benishoga (red pickled ginger) optional

If you are using meat or seafood, sprinkle with salt and pepper then heat 1 Tbs of oil in a pan or wok and fry until just barely cooked. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

Saute the cabbage, bean sprouts, onions, and carrot until they are mostly tender. Add the noodles, scallions and garlic, then cover with the remaining oil (1 Tbs). If the noodles have clumped together, add a few tablespoons of water to the pan to help separate them. Stir fry the noodles until they are completely separated and there is no water remaining. Add the meat/seafood back into the pan along with the tonkatsu sauce, gochujang and white pepper and stir fry until the sauce is evenly coated around the noodles.

To serve, plate the noodles and top with with a sprinkle of aonori flakes and benishoga.