But before I get into that, I have to mention I’ve fallen into a slump. I was home alone, which means I usually revert to eating like a college student. Mac and cheese with a squeeze of sriracha, instant ramen topped with kimchee, and rice with fried egg drizzled with shoyu… you get the idea. Since the most rewarding part of cooking is sharing the meal with others, the process of cooking now felt laborious. Without mouths to feed, my motivation dissipated.

But I decided to cook at least one meal for myself during this time alone. I’d been eyeing this curry for a long time, and now that the weather demanded something hearty and warm I made up my mind to make it. I could freeze a portion for later and still the remainder would feed me for days.

The kabocha, green beans, renkon, and eggplant are deep fried before going into the pot. The recipe called for a small portion of sliced beef and a bouillon cube so it’s not a vegetarian recipe, but it could be very easily adapted. The key is to taste along the way and modify as you see fit. I tend to like my curry very spicy and on the watery side. I could’ve used more heat, so I’ll have to remember that for next time.

Vegetable Curry
Adapted from きょうの料理 (June 2000)
Makes 6 generous servings

Like many dishes of this kind, the flavors are better on the second day. The eggplant and tomato will have melted into the curry by this time, so add more to the pot, if you like.

7 oz. kabocha, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 renkon (lotus root), peeled then cut into bite-sized pieces
2 Japanese eggplant, cut into bite-sized pieces
10 green beans, cut in half crosswise
1 large tomato, cut into large bite-sized pieces
1 package shimeji mushrooms, trimmed
1/4 lb. beef, sliced thin
1 tsp. ground cumin
ginger, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup red wine
bouillon cube
3 1/2 cups water
6.5 oz. curry flakes
2 Tbsp. tonkatsu sauce
canola oil

Start by deep frying the kabocha, eggplant, renkon, and green beans. Heat the oil to 350 degrees. Fry until light brown (the eggplant is quick, so keep a watchful eye!) and drain on a plate lined with a paper towel.

Next, heat 1 Tbsp. of oil in a large pot over low heat. Once the oil is hot, add the ginger, garlic, and cumin. Cook until fragrant, about a minute. Turn the heat to medium low and add the onions and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the sliced beef into the pot and cook until no longer red. Add the wine, bouillon cube, and water to the pot and stir. Cook uncovered for 20 minutes. Carefully ladle out any impurities.

Turn off the heat and add the curry flakes, fried vegetables, tomatoes, shimeji, tonkatsu sauce, and 1 cup of hot water. You could add 1/2 cup at a time, if you like, to get the desired consistency. I tend to add more than enough water, then cook down. Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with steamed rice, fukujinzuke, and hard boiled egg.

My grandmother is big on kabocha, saying it prevents cancer. She’s from Hiroshima, which means she calls kabocha “nankin” and says other endearing words in the Hiroshima dialect like “houjyaken no” and “sou desu waine.” She practically lived in the kitchen and made real down-home Japanese food. She cooked for us daily, but she always ate yesterday’s leftovers. My grandmother’s generation, having lived through the difficult post-war years, didn’t waste a thing. She’s the kind of person who put everyone else first as she scraped the cold rice to eat for herself.

I was young and not yet interested in cooking, but I wish I had stuck by her side to watch her work her magic. I still learned a lot from her by way of eating and this is one dish I cannot make without thinking of her.

Stewed Kabocha
Adapted from ぜひ覚えたいおかず
Makes 4 servings

21.25 oz. kabocha
1 cup dashi
2 Tbsp. oil
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. mirin
1 Tbsp. shoyu

Wash and seed the kabocha and cut into large bite-sized pieces. With a vegetable peeler, swipe the edge off the corners where the skin meets the flesh, on all 4 sides (if your kabocha is cut roughly into cubes). With a knife, peel off parts of the skin—not completely, just in some places so the skin isn’t too tough when cooked.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the kabocha and mix to coat with the oil. The kabocha will begin to change color, becoming a brighter orange. At this point, add the dashi, bring to a boil and carefully remove any impurities that rise to the surface. Since pot sizes vary, be sure there’s enough dashi so the kabocha barely peek out and adjust the other seasonings accordingly. Add the sugar and mirin and fit a plate inside the pot—upside down on top of the kabocha—and let cook for 4–5 minutes. Add shoyu, lower the heat, and cook for another 10 minutes. Occasionally swirl the pot around so the dashi mixture coats the kabocha. Taste the dashi and add more shoyu or mirin if necessary. Insert a toothpick into a piece of kabocha and if it slides easily, it’s done!

This will keep for a few of days and the flavors will meld nicely. The stewed kabocha is also delicious eaten cold.

No, something was missing. The recipe was on the right track, but the flavors didn’t come through like I had expected. I was hoping for something close to the American version, but it was nothing like it. But I’m not giving up on it! Maybe next time I’ll take a cue from the Germans and let the hot potatoes soak up some vinegar and shoyu to give it more flavor. Or I’ll use mayonnaise instead of the tofu. Health-wise, cutting out the mayo was a great idea, but who are we kidding? Tofu is never a sufficient substitute for mayo.

Japanese New Potato Salad
Adapted from Japanese Pure and Simple
Makes 4 servings

14 oz. new potatoes, washed and scrubbed
10.5 oz. silken tofu
1/2 Tbsp. sesame paste (or smooth peanut butter)
1 1/2 Tbsp. white miso
1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. light shoyu
1 tsp. mirin
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1 stalk green onion, chopped

Double up 2 paper towel sheets (or use a kitchen towel) and carefully wrap the tofu. Set in a strainer and let sit for a couple of hours to drain.

In a medium bowl, combine the peanut butter, miso, sugar, shoyu, mirin, vinegar. Add the tofu and with a fork or a whisk, break up the tofu and mix until well incorporated.

Boil the potatoes until a knife easily passes through, about 5-8 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes. Drain and once cool to touch, peel the skin off with your fingers by pinching the skin and slipping off in pieces. Place the potatoes in a bowl and add 5-6 tablespoons of the tofu mixture, sprinkle with green onions and serve.

The tofu mixture is best eaten the day it’s made, but can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can also serve this as a dip for vegetables.

The preparation is a little obsessive, but I guess you learn to expect that with Japanese cooking. After peeling the skin of the daikon and cutting it into thick discs, you take your knife and trim around the edge to dull the corners. Cooking with my mom when I was young, I remember her telling me when vegetables are simmering, they bump into each other and the edges will break off, muddying the stew. Rounding the edges prevents this from happening. Also, there’s the additional step of boiling the daikon first with rice, before adding the kombu to the pot with fresh water and simmering for an hour. This is to maintain its white color. Such consideration!

I wasn’t able to get my hands on yuzu but the zest is absolutely essential to this dish, so I used a lemon as a substitute. The miso sauce might seem too salty at first, but as you cut into the daikon, the water will spill out and thin the sauce.

Furofuki Daikon
Adapted from 和風の基本
Makes 4 servings.

daikon, 8 inches in length
2 Tbsp. uncooked rice
2 pieces kombu, each 4 inches in length
6 oz. white miso
1 oz. red miso
1/2 cup dashi
2 Tbsp. mirin
2 Tbsp. sugar
grated yuzu zest (I used lemon)

Cut the daikon crosswise, into 4 pieces. Peel the skin and, with your knife, go around the diameter of the daikon to trim the sharp corners off the edges. With the daikon laying flat on the cutting board, cut an “X” into the face, only cutting half way through. This will ensure the seasonings in the broth will reach the center. The side with the “X” will be the side that faces down when you serve.

Put the rice in an empty tea bag or other type of tea strainer. A small square of cheesecloth will work too, but be sure to allow enough space before tying for the rice to expand. Put the daikon and rice in a large pot (the daikon should lay flat and not overlap) and fill with water until just covered. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat slightly for 15 minutes. This preliminary boil gets rid of the daikon’s bitter flavor and keeps the color white.

Drain and add cold water to the pot again, covering the daikon. Add the kombu and bring to a boil over high heat. Leaving the kombu in the pot will turn the daikon yellow, so take it out once the flavor is infused in the cooking water, about 5-6 minutes. Simmer for an hour longer.

Meanwhile, in a small pot over medium heat, combine the white and red miso, dashi, mirin, and sugar. Stirring constantly, lower heat once the sauce is heated through. With the pot off the heat, add the egg yolk and stir until combined.

In a small dish, place a piece of daikon, ladle some miso sauce over the side, and sprinkle with the yuzu zest.

I pulled this recipe from a Japanese cookbook by Kentarō, who I kind of see as a Japanese Jamie Oliver. He’s young, hip and uses contemporary ingredients and methods for his dishes. This particular book has a lot of Chinese, Korean, and Italian influence and is printed on nice uncoated stock. (The designer in me loves uncoated stock for luscious food photography. I know it shouldn’t matter, but one thing I detest in a cookbook are glossy pages. Eww!) Ahem… sorry. What I meant to say is happy cooking!

Miso Eggplant with Beef
Adapted from ケンタロウのおかずの王様
Makes 2 servings

3.5 oz ground beef
3 Japanese eggplants, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
1 green onion, cut to 1/2 inch sections
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 square inch of fresh ginger, minced
2 Tbsp. sake
1 Tbsp. miso
1/2 Tbsp. mirin
1/2 tsp. shoyu
3-4 Tbsp. canola oil
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
salt, to taste

Heat the canola oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Add the eggplant and turn the heat to high. When the eggplant absorbs the oil and becomes soft, transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Turn the heat to low and quickly wipe the pan with a paper towel to clean. Add the sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and green onions and cook until fragrant. Turn the heat to high and add the ground beef. Season with salt and cook until the beef is no longer pink. Once cooked, add the eggplant, mix, and add the sake, miso, mirin, and shoyu. Stir until incorporated and serve.

My love for this recipe are the textures—soft, melty eggplant, chewy pork and… crunchy cucumber. Yes! Through the heat, the cucumber maintained it’s characteristic crunch. The flavors had just the right balance of salty and sweet with the nice aroma of sesame—a perfect companion to a rounded bowl of steamed rice.

The cucumber and eggplant get sliced, sprinkled with salt, and are set aside for 5 minutes. This softens the vegetables and releases some of their liquid. The only thing I would do differently is trim the fat on the pork (the original recipe calls for sliced beef). The recipe calls for quite a lot of sesame oil, so a leaner meat would have been just right. I went easy on the heat, so add more red pepper flakes if you want to spice it up.

Spicy Pork and Vegetable Stir-fry
Adapted from おつまみになるおかず
Makes 4 servings

Marinade
2 Tbsp. shoyu
2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. chopped green onions
2 Tbsp. sesame seeds
1 tsp. grated garlic

7 oz. sliced beef or pork (I used pork sliced for sukiyaki)
3 Japanese eggplants
2 Japanese cucumbers (or 1/2 an English cucumber)
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 Tbsp. sesame oil
Scant 1 Tbsp. shoyu (preferably low-sodium)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. sesame
2 tsp. sake

Combine the ingredients of the marinade and mix well. Add the sliced meat and let sit for 10 minutes.

Thinly slice the eggplant (a little less than a 1/4 inch thick). The thick part of the the eggplant can be sliced lengthwise first, then sliced thinly into half moons. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp. of salt, toss to coat, then let sit for about 5 minutes. Similarly, slice the cucumber, sprinkle 1/2 tsp. of salt, and let sit for 5 minutes.

Dump the eggplant in a thin cloth towel (like a flour sack) and gently squeeze the moisture and lightly pat to dry. Rinse the cucumber and like the eggplant, dry with a towel.

In a wok or a large pan, heat the sesame oil and cook the meat over high heat. Once the meat changes color, add the eggplant and cucumber and stir.

Once the vegetables soften, add the red pepper flakes, shoyu, sugar, and sake. Mix and sprinkle sesame seeds. Serve with rice.

Printable recipe