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Recipes with dried bonito flakes

4 recipes that use dried bonito flakes, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Kishimen (Nagoya flat noodle soup), takes 20 minutes. It is most often cooked with kombu, light soy sauce and mirin.

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Oden (Tokyo style)

When the evenings turn cold, Tokyo's convenience stores set out steaming trays of oden by the till, and small oden bars and street stalls fill up with office workers. Tokyo's style uses a darker, soy-seasoned dashi than the paler Kansai one, and it includes chikuwabu, a chewy tube of wheat dough that is rarely seen outside the Kanto region. Everything simmers gently for a long time, so the daikon turns translucent and soaks up the broth. Serve it straight from the pot with a dab of hot Japanese mustard. Chef's tip: make oden a day ahead and let it cool in the broth overnight; the daikon and eggs take on far more flavour as they cool than while they boil.

90 minSoups
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kishimen (Nagoya flat noodle soup)

Travellers changing trains at Nagoya Station often grab a bowl of kishimen standing up at one of the platform noodle counters, and the dish is eaten all year in noodle shops across the city. The noodles are wide, thin and slippery, so they pick up a lot of broth with every mouthful. A typical bowl has a light, golden dashi, sweet fried tofu, a little green vegetable, a slice of fish cake and a big pile of bonito flakes that wave in the steam. It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. Chef's tip: add the bonito topping right at the table, not in the kitchen; it softens and sinks within a minute, and the fresh smoky smell is half the pleasure.

20 minPasta & Noodles
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Hitsumabushi (Nagoya grilled eel rice)

Order hitsumabushi in a Nagoya eel restaurant and it arrives in a round wooden tub, often with a small card explaining how to eat it. You divide the rice into quarters: eat the first plain, the second with spring onion, wasabi and nori, the third drowned in hot dashi or green tea, and the last whichever way you liked best. Nagoya cooks grill the eel until the skin is crisp, then chop it into strips. At home, ready-grilled eel fillets (unagi kabayaki, sold frozen in Japanese shops) work very well once reheated properly. Chef's tip: spoon a little of the sweet sauce through the rice before the eel goes on, so every mouthful is seasoned, not just the top layer.

40 minFish
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Akashiyaki (Akashi egg and octopus dumplings)

Ask for tamagoyaki in Akashi, a fishing town on the coast of Hyogo, and you will be served these dumplings rather than a rolled omelette: that is what locals call them. Small shops near the Uonotana fish market sell them on tilted wooden boards, with a bowl of warm dashi for dipping. Compared with Osaka takoyaki, the batter is mostly egg and stock, so the balls are soft and trembling inside, and they come without sauce or mayonnaise. Akashi is famous for its octopus, and a piece sits in every ball. Chef's tip: oil the pan generously and fill each hollow right to the brim; the soft batter needs the extra to make a round, puffy ball.

45 minSnacks & Starters
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with dried bonito flakes