Hiyayakko - How to Serve Cold Tofu with Soy Sauce

Hiyayakko is one of my favorite ways to have tofu, and there is nothing simpler to prepare.

Newcomers to the world of Japanese food might consider this a little on the adventurous side, but if you've had it once or twice, you may find yourself craving it at some point.

Hiyayakko is simply cold tofu with a little soy sauce poured over it, and usually topped with things such as:

• Katsuo-bushi
• Negi (shallots/green spring onions)
• Surigoma (ground sesame seeds)
• Oroshi Shoga (finely grated fresh ginger)

There are various types of tofu.  Hiyakakko uses the soft/silken fresh tofu.
☆If you're trying it for the first time, make sure you use enough soy sauce, break off a mouthful portion with your chopsticks, let it dip in the soy sauce before eating.  

The simple ingredients combine to create a delicate and unique flavour. 

This healthy way of preparing cold tofu is one of the most common side dishes served with Japanese meals, both in traditional Japanese restaurants and at home.

(...This post was inspired by a hiyayakko craving!) 

Shabu-Shabu Is Too Easy

Shabu-shabu has the image of a luxurious Japanese dinner party and yet, it can be made with not-so-expensive, everyday ingredients.  Here is our family's Shabu-shabu:

Shabu-shabu Recipe (Amounts written after ingredient are approximate for 2 people.  All vegetables are optional):

• 5cm piece of kombu (kelp)
• Goma-dare (Sesame Seed Dipping Sauce) (click for recipe)  and/or Ponzu
• A bowl of steamed rice for each person 
• 4 cups water
• Beef, Paper-thin sliced,  300g 
• Enoki Mushrooms,  150g     (Shimeji Mushrooms are also excellent)
• Negi (shallot, spring onion), 1
• Moyashi (Mung bean sprouts), 100g
• Watercress
• Carrot shaved with a vegetable peeler
• Daikon shaved with a vegetable peeler
• Hakusai (chinese cabbage, wombok), A few leaves
• Atsu-age (Deep fried tofu), sliced thinly, 150g

1. Boil water with Kombu in a wide flat saucepan (or deep frypan).  Place on a gas cooker on the table.
2. Add some of each vegetable and tofu, in a separate spot in the pan.
3. After a minute or two, each person adds meat as desired.
4. Now it's time to eat, ach person dipping each cooked item in the Goma-dare (or Ponzu).

While wagyu would be the ultimate meat of choice for shabu-shabu, in our family (in Australia) we enjoy whatever thinly sliced beef we can buy locally.  Below is a photo of the "shabu-shabu" beef at a local Korean butcher.  It was about $4 for 300g.

4-Step Shabu-Shabu:
Step 1:  Buy your meat already sliced:

Step 2:  Cut the vegetables and tofu:

Step 3: Get your Goma-dare from the refrigerator: (make a large batch - it keeps well for months in the fridge!)

Step 4:  Put the kombu in the pot of boiling water and add some vegetables, meat and tofu.

...now all you have to do is enjoy it, because everyone cooks their own.

(Don't you love not having to cook cook dinner!)

 ❤Enjoy your Shabu-shabu❤

Sukiyaki Recipe (with Wagyu & Kinoko-rui)

Wagyu and Kinoko-rui Sukiyaki

In Japan all these delicious kinoko (Japanese mushroom) varieties are FRESH and in the local supermarket (and so much cheaper than overseas!) so tonight we're gonna eat them all! The wagyu beef was a gift, so we decided to use it for sukiyaki...
By the way, did you know Sukiyaki is SO EASY it's just 3 steps?


3-step Sukiyaki
 Step 1:  fry beef fat to grease the pan.  Add sauce.

Step 2:  Add some of each ingredient...

 Step 3:  Add shungiku.  It's now time to eat!

Wagyu Kinoko-rui Sukiyaki (full recipe)

• Wagyu Beef, thinly sliced
• Grilled Tofu
• Negi (Shallots or scallions)
• Fresh Shiitake mushrooms
• Shimeji Mushrooms
• Enoki Mushrooms
• a bunch of Shungiku (Spring Chrisanthemum leaves)
• 1 package Ito-Konnyaku (Konnyaku noodles, also called Shirataki)

• A chunk of Beef Fat
• 1/3 cup Japanese Soy Sauce & 1/4 cup sugar & 3/4 cup water(and more of each for later)                                            OR a bottle of Sukiyaki sauce
• Sake (as much or little as you like)

• A bowl of steamed rice for each person
• A raw egg in a small bowl for each person

Preparation: Prepare ingredients and place on a large platter:

Tofu: slice into 1 inch cubes

Negi: slice diagonally 2 inches

Shiitake: stem removed, halved if big

Shungiku: Fill a bowl with water in the sink.  Submerge shungiku, dunking well. (this also freshens them) cut into 3-4 inch lengths.

Place cooking equipment on the table.  Set out egg bowls and rice bowls and chopsticks for each person.  Each person whisks their egg with chopsticks and waits in anticipation.

1. Heat Sukiyaki Pan and fry beef fat to grease the pan.  Add sauce ingredients (or 2/3 of a bottle of sauce) and a dash of sake.
2. Add some of each ingredient (beef, tofu and vegetables *except for shungiku) each in their own position in the pan.  Keep it tidy. 
3. Allow to cook for 1-2 min and then add shungiku.  It's now time to eat!  Everyone takes something from the pan with their chopsticks, dips in raw egg and eats.

Keep the pan only just simmering as you enjoy your sukiyaki.  When most of the ingredients are gone, add more of each ingredient, pushing the cooked ingredients to one side (still keeping it tidy).  Add some more sake and sauce mixture.


The ingredients:

I don't think I've ever eaten such expensive wagyu in my life!

It is so tender it almost melts in your mouth.  

Wagyu is sooo filling, (due to high fat content) this was enough wagyu for maybe 8-10 people.  

There was just three adults eating... we did NOT eat it all!

I thought it interesting that the Sukiyaki Pan is made by an Italian company, possibly in Italy??


This is my second Sukiyaki Post...I think I must really LOVE SUKIYAKI!
By the way, this style of making Sukiyaki is from a friend from Yamagata.
For my mother's style of sukiyaki, (kansai) with a cooking video click here

Sukiyaki Recipe (Kansai style)

Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki Recipe  (4 people)

Ingredients

• 300g Beef, thinly sliced
• 200g Tofu (Regular tofu or grilled tofu, not Silken)
• 2-5   Negi (Shallots or scallions)
• 8     Shiitake mushrooms (I use dried shiitake, soaked in hot water)
• 1/2 a Hakusai (Chinese Cabbage)  I used about 6 large leaves.
• 200g Moyashi (bean sprouts)
• a bunch of Shungiku (Spring Chrisanthemum leaves)  And/or Spinach. 
• 1 package Ito-Konnyaku (Konnyaku noodles, also called Shirataki)
• +/- a package of Udon noodles (to use at the end)

• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1/3 cup Japanese Soy Sauce
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp sake
• 3/4 cup water

• A bowl of steamed rice for each person
• A raw egg in a small bowl for each person

How to Make Sukiyaki:

1.  Prepare ingredients and place on a large platter:

Tofu: slice into 1 inch cubes

Negi: slice diagonally 2 inches

Shiitake: stem removed, halved if big

Hakusai: Slice leaves down the centre, then into 2-3 inch lengths

Shungiku: Fill a bowl with water in the sink.  Submerge shungiku, dunking well. (this also freshens them) cut into 3-4 inch lengths

Mother's My Sukiyaki Nabe

2.  Place cooking equipment on the table.  Set out egg bowls and rice bowls and chopsticks for each person.  Each person whisks their egg with chopsticks and waits in anticipation.

3.  Pour about a Tbsp oil in the heated pan (Med heat).  Add half the beef and stir-fry until browned a little.  Sprinkle sugar on it, pour on soy sauce and sake.  Add water to the pan.

4.  Add vegetables, tofu and ito-konnyaku, each in their own position in the pan.  Keep it tidy. 

5.  Allow to cook for 1-2 min and then dig in!  When most of the ingredients are gone, add more of each ingredient, pushing the cooked ingredients to one side (still keeping it tidy).  When the sauce becomes low, add some more sugar, soy sauce and water, keeping the taste balanced. (Don't let it boil dry!)  Last of all, add the udon noodles.

♡　♡　♡

Baby boy loves the ito-konnyaku, udon, beef and hakusai in Sukiyaki

Yesterday we had so much fun having a little Sukiyaki lunch party at my friend's place.

I bet you've heard of Sukiyaki.  

Most non-Japanese I've asked don't seem to know what real sukiyaki is.

Sukiyaki is my favorite of my mother's cooking.

It's very healthy, with lots of green leafy vegetables, mushrooms etc.

And so much fun!

The cooking sauce for Sukiyaki is just shoyu (Japanese Soy Sauce) and sugar, 

+/- a dash of sake.  But it's the flavours of the beef, negi, shiitake and shungiku that combine to make the rich and unique sukiyaki flavour.  

Sukiyaki is cooked on the table in a cast iron sukiyaki pan over a gas flame, or a frypan or skillet.  My mother often uses an electric frypan recently.)  Everyone sits around the table from the start of the cooking and in a minute or two they can start eating, picking something from the pan with their chopsticks, dipping it in their small bowl of raw egg, and eating.  Then going back for more.  

Oh, did I say raw egg?  Ah, yes.  That's the other essential part of the sukiyaki flavour (however some of my friends think eating it without the egg is fine).  

If at first raw egg sounds strange, just think of egg-nog or soft-boiled egg and you realize it's rather normal.  The flavour, when combined with the flavours of the sukiyaki, is really amazing.

The beef, negi, and tofu are pretty essential, but some of the other ingredients can be omitted if you can't get them.  

Please watch the videos to get a feel for Sukiyaki.  

There are several ways to make Sukiyaki, depending on what part of Japan you're from (and how your mama made it).  This is Kansai Style.  My Mother oils the pan using a chunk of fat cut from the beef (and then throws it away).

  

I'm sorry about the camera shake, especially at the beginning of the video...next month I'll be getting a tripod. Yay!  ...And next time I'll shoot in HD.  (This time I used my friend's camera because my memory card was full)

Video: Cooking Sukiyaki (steps 3-4)

Video: 20 min later...

After 50 min of Mama conversation...

...we might do this as a regular thing...
\(^o^)/
oh yeah, we do...
here's another recipe for Sukiyaki with Wagyu and Kinoko-rui