ONIGIRI, TAMAGOYAKI AND KAKIAGE - Japanese tray with fryers, rice balls and omelette

Preparation steps

• Some information about these Japanese dishes and ingredients If Japanese cuisine is not for you, I advise you to read the recipe anyway because these dishes can be adapted to our Western taste, and you can make them in many versions of your own choice of ingredients while preserving the look refined Japanese cuisine :) These dishes can be served cold, they are great for guests, parties, birthdays, whenever you want. I believe many will not be able to find some Japanese ingredients in their local stores or markets. I am primarily thinking of the following: 1. Mirin - sweet-tasting rice wine 2. Rice vinegar Although it is vinegar and wine, these ingredients are in no way similar to our classic white wine or any vinegar used in the west, so do not by no means use our wine, or our vinegar to prepare these delicate dishes. 3. Dashi - not to go into too much detail because the whole story can be told about dasha :) these are small thin leaves of dried fish (but it is also made of algae). Dashi is one of the most basic ingredients in Japanese cuisine, like chicken soup (soup cube, Vegeta) or peeled / concentrated tomato. 4. Sake - a colorless Japanese alcoholic drink made of fermented rice, which is used for food preparation but also for consumption as a drink; cold, room temperature, or hot, depending on the type of dish being served, or the season. It is served in small cups - ochoko Soy sauce can be found in all stores today, but if you find a light-colored sauce, buy this one because it has a refined taste and is great for dipping. For those who want to prepare these dishes exactly according to the Japanese recipe, take a look at some oriental or specialty food stores. If you can't find mirin and rizin vinegar then prepare meals without these ingredients, just slightly increase the amount of soy sauce.
• Onigiri Onigiri are balls of rice and meat. Here you can use any type of meat, including vegetables mixed with rice, add various herbs or spices, prepare according to your own taste.
• For the Japanese version: Fry garlic and ginger in oil for 1-2 minutes. Add minced meat and chop with a fork. It should be finely crumbly. Fry until the liquid evaporates, about 5-7 minutes. Then add the other ingredients: sake, soy sauce, dashi, sugar, rice vinegar and chilli. Simmer for another 2 minutes. Allow to cool.
• Mix the cooled cooked rice with the cooled meat. Soak your hands with water and take part of the mixture and shape into balls or as small burgers / meatballs. The hands can be soaked under water after each ball, because otherwise the rice will stick to the hands and the balls will fall apart during shaping. When shaping, first press the mixture well between your palms to make it compact and then shape as you wish. Place on a serving plate. Onigiri can be served cold or hot. If they cool before serving, then just heat them in the microwave for about 15 seconds.
• They are best with Teriyaki sauce (if you can find it). If not then serve with the following: Mix 3 tablespoons soy sauce (light) 1/3 teaspoon ginger mixture or fresh very finely chopped sugar on top of a teaspoon
• For the western version: The procedure is the same, cook the rice separately, and prepare the meat to your own taste. You can add vegetables of your choice only necessarily or mix a little to be fine or chop as finely as possible so that the onigiri can be easily shaped. With onigiri you can prepare a fine tomato sauce, or mushroom sauce. Onigiri are also great for children's menus.
• Tamagoyaki
• Tamagoyaki is a Japanese omelette. There is no big difference from our omelette, except that it is prepared with 3-4 layers. Soy sauce, mirin and sugar are added to the eggs. This is a recipe with layers in different colors. Tamagoyaki is made in special square baking pans. Of course you can also make them in plain round, I advise you to use a large pan.
• For the Japanese version: Separate the yolks, egg whites and whole eggs. Whisk the egg yolks just a little with a fork, it must not foam. Leave the egg whites as is, without shaking. Whisk the whole eggs as for a regular omelet.
• Mix the soy sauce, mirin and sugar and add a portion to each egg mixture.
• Coat the pan with oil and heat. Be careful that the omelette does not darken during frying, so be sure to fry at a low temperature. The marks on my stove are 1-10, I fried at 3-4. First add the egg yolks and pour over to cover the entire pan.
• The egg on the surface must be half-cooked, so when you start rolling like a pancake it must still be a little "watery" on the surface. Use a silicone or wooden spatula.
• Roll the omelette like a pancake and leave along the edge of the pan. Add a little more oil and immediately pour out half of the egg whites.
• Repeat the process, let the egg whites turn white, and while it is still a little watery on the surface, lift with a spatula the side where the egg yolk omelette is.
• Slowly start rolling like a pancake.
• Wrap completely, add a little more oil and repeat with another layer of egg whites. If you want a thin white layer then you can skip this part.
• Repeat the procedure with the beaten eggs - the final layer.
• Carefully shake the omelette onto a plate.
• When slightly cooled, cut to 2cm thick with a sharp knife and arrange the tamagoyaki to see the middle. Since I took photos during cooking, each layer of the omelette was a little too cooked for me, so in the end you can see the distance between the layers, which should not be visible, the layers should be joined.
• Western version: The procedure is the same, only instead of adding soy, sugar and myrrh, you can only add salt and pepper. You can combine different colors, say a green layer with the addition of spinach, a red layer with the addition of tomatoes or ground pepper, add different herbs.
• Kakiage
• Kakiage is a type of tempura, the difference from the classic tempura is that several types of vegetables are used along with shrimp or fish.
• I was preparing this for the first time, so my first attempt did not turn out as it should. Kakiage should be crispy and light, with vegetables sticking out in all directions, it turned out to be similar to fritters, totally compact and like a cookie: D
• Kakiage - first attempt:
• I used onions, carrots, eggplant, leeks and potatoes.
• Grate the vegetables, chop the shrimp finely.
• Make a dough mixture. Mix the flour with very cold water in which you have added ice cubes. When adding water to the flour, remove the ice. Add egg. Do not mix too much, the flour must be in semolina. Stir for just a few seconds. Salt is not added because kakiage is served with soy sauce which is very salty in itself. I also added some chili patches that are not normally added according to the original recipe.
• Squeeze the vegetables with your hands to squeeze out the excess liquid. Add everything together to the dough and stir a little. As soon as everything is still cold, fry in deep oil.
• I had added too much water and flour, and I put two eggs. in the end the dough turned out like for fritters. With a spoon I took out the mixture and put it in hot oil, frying it for about 2 minutes on each side. It turned out great, but apparently it wasn’t a real kakiage. : D
• Kakiage - second attempt (successful!)
• Since I no longer had potatoes, eggplant and leeks, I made a simple version with onions, carrots and shrimp which is also the traditional version. I added more extra algae. This time I didn't chop the prawns but cut them lengthwise because they were too big. For ordinary shrimp, I advise you to leave them whole. Be sure to mash the vegetables with your hands to drain the liquid. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables, just stir briefly so that the flour covers all the pieces. Then add extremely cold water, beaten egg and mix quickly, just a few seconds. It should not be mixed for too long because the tempura will not turn out crispy.
• Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or deep fryer, add part of the mixture with a large wooden spoon or spatula. Fry each side for 1 minute and immediately place on the grill racks to "dry". Don’t just put it on a plate because the crust will soften and then it won’t be the right one. :)
• Serve with Tentsuya - tempura sauce. But it can also be made with plain soya sauce or teriyaki.