Dining with the Chef - Season 4 / Year 2014

This episode we have a rice porridge created using soup stock made from dried scallop, an ingredient used in Chinese cuisine. With ginger added too, it is a perfect winter dish that will warm your body to the core. We will take a look at it together with a rich-flavored sautéed chicken with teriyaki sauce and a wonderfully nutritious egg dish that both go superbly with a light porridge.

The theme for this episode is Cream Stew. A variety of delicious ingredients in a soup nicely thickened with milk, it is a popular home-cooked meal in Japan in winter. It uses seasonal oysters lavishly, and has a light flavor that goes perfectly with rice. Accompanied by a salad seasoned with sushi vinegar and a Japanese sake jelly, it is a full course of Rika's original Japanese nouvelle cuisine.

The theme for this episode is Dressing Techniques (Part 1). Japanese cuisine contains a magnificent array of aemono, or dressed dishes. Here we will take a look at one of such dishes known as shiraae. Vegetables and seafood, such as tuna, cuttlefish, and scallops, are colorfully dressed using a paste made from tofu. Another variation is a tofu paste and persimmon aemono, which is also wonderful as either an appetizer or dessert.

The theme for this episode is Dressing Techniques (Part 2). We will take a look at the dressed dish known as nutaae that uses a dressing made with miso, the characteristic Japanese food. The rich, golden sauce and luscious green onion produce a beautiful spring feel. Another variation is the Japanese favorite macaroni salad prepared in the nutaae style.

The theme for this episode is the ever-popular gyoza. A filling of minced meat and chopped vegetables is kneaded together, wrapped in a dough skin and fried. There is an incredible variety of gyoza depending on the ingredients and cooking method used by individual restaurants or households. Rika-style gyoza use pork mince, and four vegetables including Chinese cabbage and shiso, to create a light and tantalizing flavor.

This episode features bamboo shoots - the ingredient that symbolizes spring in Japan! We take a look at takikomi rice, as well as chawan mushi which is given a smooth, velvety texture with egg and which brings out the full umami flavor of dashi. In addition to these two fine examples of Japanese cuisine that use bamboo springs lovingly, we will also present a simple steamed fish dish.

We take a look at chakin sushi, which consists of sushi rice carefully wrapped in thinly fried egg and then colorfully decorated. Garnished with shrimp and rapini, it brings a wonderful feeling of spring to the table. The second dish is a soup that uses dashi and egg white, and creates a delightful appearance of blooming flowers.

A tonkatsu sandwich of fresh pork loin covered in a crisp bread-crumb coating and wrapped in lovely soft bread, is wonderful when you feel like treating yourself for lunch. Packed in a lunch box with some pickles, it's also perfect for a picnic amongst the cherry blossoms!

The theme for this episode is "cutting". We take a look at ushio-jiru soup using an in-season fish, sea bream. We'll show you how to fillet a sea bream and create a delicious soup with a fantastic aroma. It's garnished with iris-shaped udo and rapini to add a lovely touch of spring. The second dish is rice with sea bream, which uses dashi and leftover fish from the ushio-jiru soup, bringing out the umami of the sea bream.

The theme for this episode is a hand-rolled sushi party that children can enjoy, too! Our main sushi roll fillings will be chicken soboro and egg omelet. It is perfect for people who don't eat raw fish or who live in areas without easy access to fresh fish. We'll also show you how to make grilled tofu with a miso sauce which is perfect as an appetizer, as well as a warming Japanese comfort food, shiratama-shiruko (sweet azuki bean soup with rice dumplings) for dessert.

The theme for this episode is sautéing. We're going to cook a world-famous Japanese food, teriyaki swordfish. The thick-sliced, nicely-browned swordfish is sautéed in the sweet, aromatic teriyaki sauce until it's been glazed beautifully. For our second dish, we're making daikon radish steak, sautéed in great-smelling sesame oil, and topped with grated daikon to add a refreshing flavor.

Our main dish in this episode is udon, the Japanese noodles that are becoming popular worldwide. We'll show you how to make chilled udon with Rika's delicious dipping sauce that combines the appetizing aroma of sesame seeds with the flavor of the Chinese condiment douban-jiang. The sauce also goes great with Chinese noodles or phở, too, making it a great recipe to know.

Rika grew up in a large city named Fukuoka. It is considered to be one of Japan's culinary destinations with everything from delicious street food to high-end cuisine. Today, she is making 3 dishes and all of them are local Fukuoka specialties.

The theme of this episode is "Deep frying." We'll be making crispy deep-fried chicken wing Kara-age, flavored with sake and soy sauce and served with a Japanese-style negi green onion sauce made with dashi stock, and beautifully garnished with shishito chili peppers and white negionion. We'll also show you how to easily remove chicken bones! For another variation, we'll try something unique with our chicken wing Kara-age lettuce wraps, made with red miso paste and mayonnaise — perfect for any party!

In this episode, we're going to take a look at Kushiage or deep-fried skewers, one of the popular local foods of Osaka's unique food culture. We'll be using Rika's selection of pork, asparagus and three other ingredients, and we'll deep-fry them using two types of breading, for two different textures. In addition, we also will make three sauces to add more variety.

In this episode, we will learn about Nikujaga, the very popular Japanese food. Its ingredients are very simple, so even if you are not in Japan, you can still make it easily. Our version of this recipe adds a Chinese chili paste, Douban-jiang. The chili's fragrance and the miso's richness will enhance the complexity of the dish's flavor. This Japanese home cooking classic will turn out to be something unique and surprising.

Our main dish in this episode is Yakisoba, a staple of Japanese summer festivals. We're using plenty of shrimp and vegetables, and adding some salt and nam pla to give it a light, clean flavor. We'll also be preparing a squid salad with lemon, and a sautéed liver side seasoned with a variety of Asian flavors to give us the energy to beat the heat, for a meal perfectly suited to the season.

Our theme of this episode is handmade soba noodles. Our teacher will be the handmade soba master, Akila Inouye, showing us a fail-safe method for delicious soba noodles that even beginners will have no trouble with! We'll be cooking mori-soba, the best way to enjoy their natural buckwheat flavor. In addition to soba noodles, we'll also show you how to make a dipping sauce, and a delicious bukkake soba recipe with seasonal vegetables and duck! This will be the perfect first steps on your journey to becoming a soba master yourself!

Our theme of this episode is marinating, and our teacher will be Chef Saito, mentor to a number of famous chefs worldwide. We'll be learning how to prepare fish by tossing it with salt to remove the moisture, then marinating it in vinegar. Vinegar marination is a technique invented long ago in Japan to preserve fresh fish, and has been passed down for generations. It's great for not just preserving fish, but for using the vinegar to give fish a delicious flavor that's unlike sashimi. We'll also be learning a modern spin on the recipe that's rolled up in nori with uniquely Japanese herbs — don't miss it!

Our main dish in this episode is made with edamame, in season for summer and finding popularity all around the world! East meets west for our edamame pasta dish, and with a cold eggplant salad on the side, and the popular Japanese summer dessert mizu-yokan, all three of our recipes will help you stave off the summer heat!

The theme of this episode is pan-frying. Chef Saito will be showing us a Japanese twist on steak, a worldwide favorite. The secret is the ume-sesame sauce: the tartness of the sauce goes perfectly with the fattiness of the steak, for a clean, delicious flavor. We'll also be leaning how to make miso soup with tofu and wakame seaweed, a Japanese standard. We'll be making it with a niboshi dried fish dashi as the base, for a delicious side to go perfectly with our steak!

Our theme this week is the American-born Japanese food, the California Roll. Featuring colorful fillings like salmon and avocado, and with decorations on the outside, too. We'll also be making a side dish that'll teach you the secrets of how to use the sushi staples, wasabi and nori.

There are many variations of curry, which is popular around the world. It is said curry was originally brought to Japan from the U.K. and it has evolved, adjusting to Japanese palates. In this episode, Rika is making Japanese-style curry and rice. Using her creativity, she makes it extra special.

Our main dish in this episode is menchi katsu, just as delicious hot and fresh as it is cooled down. Mix meat and vegetables, make patties, and bread them. Fry them up and they're nice and crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and absolutely irresistible. We'll also take a look at three great sides to go perfectly with menchi katsu in your next bento lunch box!

Our theme in this episode is simmering. We'll be making Simmered Taro and Beef with ingredients that are in season for autumn. With its sauce made with a shiitake dashi stock, and its beautiful glaze, this is one dish sure to make anyone hungry. We'll also be putting a unique spin on a classic by making chewy croquette with the simmered taro and ginger.

The theme of this episode is deep-frying. We'll be using top-quality flounder and preparing it ikada-age style, making even the bones delicious. We'll fillet the flounder into five pieces, soak it in salt water, and fry them up to look like little rafts that could float on water. After frying the flounder to get crispy bones and tender meat, we'll be making green tea soba noodles with chili-seasoned grated daikon and ten-tsuyu sauce for a dish as beautifully reminiscent of pine needles as it is delicious.

The theme of this episode is "grilling." We'll be introducing the Japanese favorite, kabayaki. We'll learn the easy way to spread open sardines for kabayaki without even using a knife. We'll also learn about how to make a variation on kabayaki by flaking the sardines and adding dashi stock, to make delicious hitsumabushi.

Our theme of this episode is deep-frying. We'll be working with mushrooms, in season for fall, and making Autumn Kakiage mixed tempura with a variety of ingredients, like lotus root, maitake mushrooms, scallops, shrimp, and more, for a deliciously crunchy and colorful dish. We'll also make a variation on the recipe, letting the flavor of nori shine in our chicken tenderloin nori-fry.

Our theme this of episode is the fall harvest. We'll be cooking a meal with the ingredients and flavors of fall. Our main dish will be salmon and three types of mushrooms, wrapped in foil and baked. We'll also be making beautiful sweet potatoes simmered in syrup, with the purple of the skins contrasting with the yellow of the inside. Finally, for our third dish, we'll be making a delicious bacon and burdock root soup with dashi made from kombu kelp and bonito flakes.

Our theme of this episode is warm noodles, full of the best of land and sea, to make cold winter days better. The port city of Nagasaki, on the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan, remained open to foreign trade even when Japan closed itself off from the 1600s to the 1800s. As a result, Nagasaki developed its own unique food culture, and this week Rika will be making her own version of Nagasaki's famous noodle dish, champon.

Our theme of this episode is sushi. We'll be introducing sushi, that most famous of Japanese foods. We'll invite Chef Yasuda, who has dedicated himself to sushi for thirty years, including running New York's top sushi shop. He'll show us how to make Edo-style sushi with the finest ingredients, sharing the secrets of how to cook the rice, prepare the fish, put the sushi together, and even the best way to eat it. He'll also teach us about nori-wrapped negitoro rolls.