Fried Mackerel

Simple fried fish with crispy skin, served simply with pickled ginger.

1.5 lb skin on mackerel fillets, halved
6 T soy sauce
2 T mirin
2 T sake
2 T grated ginger
50/50 mix of cornstarch and rice flour for dredging
Pickled ginger to serve
Oil to deep fry

Combine the fish with the soy, mirin, sake, and grated ginger and marinate for 30 minutes or more.  Remove the fish from the marinade and dredge; you're looking for a light coating here that just helps crisp up the fish, you should be able to see the fish through it.

Fry the fish at 350 F, starting with the skin side down and flipping once until the fish is just golden brown and the skin is crispy.  Serve immediately with a side of pickled ginger.

Spicy Tuna Sauce

This is the sauce that you'd use for making a spicy tuna roll, or just perking up some sushi (which is why I'm giving it a Japanese tag, even though it's definitely an American creation), but honestly I've put it ham sandwiches for a little bit of an Asian twist.

1/3 C Mayonnaise
1 t chile oil
1 t sesame oil
chile garlic paste
sriracha

Mix all of the ingredients and give it a few minutes to blend.  The amounts of chile garlic paste and sriracha are to taste, but I aim for 2:1 chile garlic paste to sriracha.

Sushi Rice

The start to all good sushi and chirashi.

Sushi Rice:
2 2/3 C Japanese short grain rice, rinsed to remove starch
Water appropriate for your rice cooker plus a little (roughly 3 C on the stove top)
note card sized piece of kombu, wiped down with a damp cloth

Vinegar mixture:
1/2 C Japanese rice vinegar
1/4 C sugar
1 t salt

Heat the vinegar mixture until everything is dissolved, but without boiling. Allow to come to room temperature.
Cook the rice the kombu, then remove to a large bowl (preferably non-metallic), discarding the kombu, and allow to sit for several minutes to cool.
Add a small amount of the vinegar to the rice, pouring it on the back of the spatula to spread it, then cut it into the rice. Continue this until you've used all the vinegar; this mixes the vinegar in and separates the rice grains.

Miso Soup

Basic miso soup, but made so much better by using homemade dashi.

Miso soup:
2 Q water
1 - 1 1/2 oz bonito flakes
half a block firm tofu, in large dice
small handful wakame, rehydrated
5 note card sized pieces of kombu
~10 T miso paste (depending on taste and type used, I like a blend of white and red called awase)
small handful thinly sliced green onion

Place the kombu in the water and bring just to a light boil over medium. Remove the kombu and add the bonito, continue to cook until it just returns to a boil, or 10 seconds, whichever comes first, then kill the heat. Allow the bonito to soak for 15 minutes, or until the bonito sinks to the bottom, then strain out the bonito flakes. From this point you can hold the stock (dashi) until ready to make the soup. When you are ready bring the dashi to a gentle simmer, whisk in the miso, then add in the tofu, green onion, and wakame and give it another 30 seconds.

Japanese Ginger Dressing

1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup + 1/2 T rice vinegar
2 T water
3 T minced fresh ginger
2 T minced celery
1 1/2 T ketchup
4 t soy sauce
2 t sugar
2 t lemon juice
1/2 t minced garlic
1/2 t salt
1/4 t fresh ground black pepper

Processor together; the onion flavor will be strong on the first day, but will mellow if left overnight in the fridge. Don't be afraid to adjust flavors if you like more or less vinegar, ginger, etc. in your dressing.

Katsudon

7 T soy sauce
6 T sugar
sprinkling dashi (japanese bullion base similar to bonito flakes, optional)
5 T mirin (sweet japanese rice wine)
2 T sake
lean pork (typically two boneless pork chops, trimmed)
4 eggs
panko (japanese breadcrumbs)

Slice pork thinly (about 1/4 inch thick across the grain so each pork chop produces 3-4 slices), dip in 1 beaten egg and then panko. Fry in 350 degree vegtable oil until golden brown and completely cooked. Slice cooked pork in to 1 cm wide strips.

In a two cup measuring cup add first 5 ingredients, along with enough hot water to bring to 2 cups, stirring to combine.

Divide pork in to 3 portions. Put 2/3 C of the sauce in a wok, over moderately high heat add a portion of pork and bring to a boil; when boiling crack an egg into the mix and stir rapidly with chopsticks or a fork until the egg is cooked. Remove batch from the wok and repeat for remaining batches.  Serve with rice.

Seasoned mushrooms

Two handfuls of dried shitake mushrooms
1 C dashi
1/4 C soy sauce
splash mirin
splash sake

Take dried shitake mushrooms and soak in hot water for 20 minutes or so; remove and trim off stems while reserving the cooking liquid. Add the cooking liquid to a pan with dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and sake. Put in the mushrooms, making sure that they are in a single layer all in the liquid. Simmer over medium to medium low until most of the liquid is gone, turning the mushrooms once or twice. These can be used for sushi, drunken noodles, vegetarian wontons, or anywhere else shitakes might be used.