Delectable Japanese Dishes You Can Whip Up At Home

Made more delicious by products from Groceries by Umamill

We’re sure you’ve taken a hand at making your own meal while social distancing. While things are easing up a bit, we say don’t let go of your newfound cooking skills just yet. Level them up! If you’re on the lookout for new recipes to try — or master — there are delectable Japanese dishes you can easily recreate and make better at home with the help of products you can find at Groceries by Umamill. It’s an online supermarket that brings food products to Japanese food fans in Singapore safely. Ready to get cooking? Here are recipes to bookmark and try.

Japanese Curry Rice

Japanese Curry Rice on a plate

Curry rice is always a good place to start. This beloved dish is rich with a mix of savoury and sweet — just what you need to fill you up. It’s easy to make, too. Just mix a curry roux with your choice of meat and some vegetables, and you’re good to go. Here’s what you’ll need and what you’ll do for a meal that can serve three to four people.

1 box(90-120g) Curry Roux (you can go for classically sweet or spicy)

200g beef, pork or chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 tbsp vegetable oil

3 cups of water

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

1 carrot, peeled and cut like coins

1 large potato, peeled and cut into small chunks

Salt and pepper to taste

Steamed rice

Season your choice of meat with salt and pepper then set aside. Pour oil into a pot and sautee the onions until they become translucent. Stir in your meat and cook till it’s browned. Add the potato and carrots and let them pan-fry a bit before pouring in the water. Then, simmer for 20 minutes. Then, add in the curry roux. Once the roux has completely dissolved, and let it simmer on low heat for an hour or until the meat and potatoes have been thoroughly cooked. Pour some over steamed rice.

You can opt to top it with tonkatsu (breaded fried pork) or ebifurai (breaded deep-fried shrimp, which you can easily make using frozen bread crumb shrimp), which is what locals usually do in Japan. If you’re not into rice, a bowl of udon noodle soup would be a good alternative.

Switch it up: If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, hike it up a notch by having omurice instead of regular rice. This recipe by Cookpad is a great guide.

Soba

Easy Japanese food recipe for soba made with products from Groceries by Umamill

Need to refresh your palate while being fully satiated? Chilled Soba would do just the trick. You can use dry soba or opt for the frozen version and just make necessary adjustments to how it will be cooked. For the broth, go the easy route, which is to use a pre-made one. Here’s exactly what you’ll need to whip this up for four persons.

1 packet (320g) Soba noodles, dried

330ml Soba sauce

1 green onion or scallion, chopped

1 tbsp Nori seaweed

A dash of wasabi

Bring a large pot of water to a boil then add the soba. Cook the noodles based on the packaging’s instructions, and make sure to stir the noodles so they don’t stick to each other. Once cooked, drain the soba noodles and rinse them well under cold water to remove the starch. Put the noodles on a plate and garnish with nori seaweed. Then pour the soba sauce in a small container where one can dip the noodles into. Add chopped green onion according to your liking. Looking to spice it up? Wasabi is a good match.

Switch it up: Make it different by using a Mediterranean-inspired sauce like this one by Cilantro and Citronella. Add fresh, raw vegetables to the mix to keep it refreshing!

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki on a plate

Hankering for something with a mix of sweet and savoury? Okonomiyaki is just what you need. As its name suggests — it’s a portmanteau of “okonomi” which means how you like or what you like and “yaki” which means “cooked” — you can put whatever you want on top of this pancake. Here’s what you’ll need and how to make it — enough for four people.

200g Okonomiyaki powder

300ml water

600g cabbage, finely chopped

2 eggs

1 tbsp vegetable oil

300g thinly sliced pork, or halved prawns

A dash of Okonomi brown sauce

A dash of mayonnaise

A handful of dried bonito shavings

A pinch of aonori or seaweed powder

Mix Okonomiyaki powder with water and eggs. Then add in the cabbage and mix them all together. Pour the mixture into a pan and make a round shape — just like your usual pancake. Meanwhile, in another pan, fry slices of meat (or shrimp). Once cooked, put them on top of the batter in the other pan. Flip it and wait till it’s cooked through. Flip one more time and spread Okonomiyaki brown sauce and put mayonnaise on top. Sprinkle with aonori and bonito shavings before serving.

Switch it up: Instead of making it like the Osaka style shown above, roll and flip the batter like

an omelette like Tasty Japan did.

Ready to whip these and more Japanese dishes up? Get your ingredients from Groceries by Umamill.