I’ve been trying more recipes from Shizuo Tsuji’s great “Japanese Cooking:  A Simple Art”. Since I had some left-over dashi, I decided to make two dishes that require dashi. I am not sure if this would be served together in Japan, but it did taste well together and I was well pleased with the result. I pre-cooked the chicken sous-vide for an easier way to get chicken that is cooked through (and pasteurized) as well as juicy, but the original recipe doesn’t require that so you can also make this without sous-vide equipment.

The recipes make use of light Japanese soy sauce. The main difference with regular Japanese soy sauce is that it is saltier and has less color. You can substitute with regular Japanese soy sauce, but might need to add some salt.

Deep-fried marinated chicken

For 2 servings

225 grams (1/2 pound) boneless and skinless chicken thigh

2 Tbsp saké

1 Tbsp light Japanese soy sauce

1 tsp fresh ginger juice

2 tsp very finely chopped green onion

oil for frying

flour for frying (I used special Italian flour for deep-frying which is 30% rice flour to make it less greasy, but regular flour will do)

Make the fresh ginger juice by grating a piece of ginger and pressing out the juice with the back of a spoon.

Mix the soy sauce, saké, ginger juice, and green onion in a bowl.

If not cooking sous-vide, cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. Otherwise, cut each thigh in two only. Put the chicken into the marinade and mix to coat.

Marinate for 30 minutes, or cook sous-vide for 2 hours at 64.5C/148F in a ziploc sous-vide pouch (with the air removed by using the water displacement method).

After marinating or sous-vide cooking, drain from marinade and pat dry with paper towels.

Coat each piece of chicken with flour, and let the coated chicken rest for a few minutes.

When pre-cooked sous-vide, deep-fry in very hot oil (190C/375F) until golden. The chicken is ready as soon as the outside looks right, because it is already cooked through.

When marinated only, deep-fry in moderately hot oil (170C/340F). Since the chicken pieces are smaller and the oil temperature is lower, the chicken should still be cooked through as soon as the outside looks right, but test a piece to make sure.

Put the deep-fried chicken on paper towels to drain excess oil. The chicken is now ready to be served.

If you pre-cooked the chicken sous-vide so you left the chicken pieces large and you’d like to eat with chop sticks, you could slice the chicken to make it easier to eat. Just make sure that you present the chicken more nicely than I did in the picture above…

Drenched Daikon

For 2 servings

about 20 cm (8″) of a giant white radish (daikon or rettich)

1 1/4 cup dashi

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp light soy sauce

1 Tbsp mirin

Peel the radish and cut into 2.5 cm (1″) slices.

‘Bevel’ the edges to make the rounds look more interesting.

Put the daikon slices in a pot of lightly salted water. Bring to a boil.

Boil, covered, for 40 minutes or until the daikon becomes slightly translucent. Drain.

Combine the dashi, soy sauce, mirin and salt in a pot.

Add daikon and bring to a simmer (not boiling). Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Tsuji insists on using a drop-lid or circle of baking paper with a vent, but I don’t think the reasons he gives for doing so (keep the daikon submerged, prevent the daikon from being damaged during cooking) actually apply. So I didn’t bother (also since I don’t have a wooden drop-lid).

Serve daikon slices in a bowl with some of the simmering liquid. Tsuji says to garnish with a kinome sprig. By all means do so if you can find any 😉

Noodles in Broth

For 2 servings

180 grams udon or soba noodles

chopped green onion as a garnish

2 cups dashi

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp dark Japanese soy sauce

1 Tbsp light Japanese soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp mirin

shichimi toragashi

Boil the noodles according to package instructions in plain water (no salt).

Drain and rinse well with cold water to remove the starch.

Combine dashi with salt, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Bring just to the boiling point and keep simmering until ready to serve.

Reheat the noodles in hot water (30 seconds is enough).

Put noodles in a bowl. Add dashi and garnish with green onions and shichimi toragashi to taste.

To serve everything hot at the same time, prepare the noodles up to the point where they need to be reheated while the daikon is simmering. Deep-fry the chicken, and while the chicken is frying reheat the noodles and put the daikon and noodles into bowls. Serve everything as soon as the chicken is ready.