How to cook three easy Japanese Side Dishes 〜副菜三種〜 easy Japanese home cooking recipe

Welcome to Taiji's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you how to make three easy Japanese side dishes. So usually in a Japanese meal you have like four to five different plates. So you have the main dish, then you have rice, you have miso soup, and then you have like one or two or three side dishes, usually of vegetable and usually less complicated made than the main dish. And today I'm going to show you three of those examples. Then let's get started. The three easy side dishes that I'm going to show you today are green beans with sesame seeds, sliced onion with bonito flakes, and cabbage with tuna fish. For the seasoning I have soy sauce, sugar, dashi powder, and sesame oil. So let's first cut up the green beans. So I want to get this top part off. So I'm just going to line them up in the same direction. So now they're all lined up. I'm just going to do one each. I'm going to stack them up so that the ends are level, and I'm going to cut just the end off. And then I'm going to cut them into bite pieces, which is probably with these, just in half. And the other ones I'm going to do the same, level up the ends like so, and then I'm just going to cut the tip off and cut them in half so that it's all in bite pieces. So I'm going to boil them. So let's cook the green beans. So I'm going to bring the water to boil, and I'm just going to put a little bit of salt Sodium helps the green to brighten up a little bit. And here, next to it, I'm going to roast the sesame. In Germany, I haven't found any roasted sesame, so I roast it myself. It tastes much, much better. You have more strong flavor of sesame when it's roasted. So I'm going to turn the heat to low and put in the sesame here. While we wait for the water to boil, I'm going to make the sauce for the green beans. So you need two teaspoons of soy sauce, I'm going to add to that half a teaspoon of sugar, and a pinch of dashi powder. And give it a little mix, I'm going to wait until the sugar dissolves. So here, roasting sesame, you want to constantly mix the sesame. So the water is boiling, I'm going to add in the green onion, just like so. So you don't want to overcook the green beans. I think the frozen green beans are always overcooked, and I think they taste very nasty. But green beans taste really, really good when it's fresh, and when it's only slightly cooked. Kind of like al dente. We're going to let it cook for about a minute or so. As you can see, the greens are brightening out. While we wait, mix the sesame every so often. So it comes to a boil again, I'm going to wait a little bit more, let it cook. If you're not sure, just have one piece and then have a try. A little bit more. So this looks ready, I'm going to take this and let it drain. I'm going to let it drain, and put it in the bowl. So roasting sesame, you need really a lot of patience. So I don't know if you can see, the small smoke is coming out. It's kind of hard to see in the video, but you see the smoke is kind of coming out. So you want to keep mixing it like this. So this takes quite a lot of patience and time, and so I don't do this every time of course. I roast it a certain amount at a time, and then I store it in a container, and then use it every time. Now there's a lot more smoke. So it's been about 15 minutes, it's kind of hard to see it when it's ready. So it's a bit darkened, you don't want to over roast the sesame. So if you're not sure, wet your finger a little bit, and then just a little bit. It's very hot, it doesn't look hot at all, but it's very hot, so be careful. And then, oh yeah, that's good, perfect. So I'm going to turn the heat off. So you can use this exactly like this, but actually sesame itself won't be digested when it's not broken. So what I like to do is I like to grind them. If you have a food processor, great. Put these roasted sesame seeds in the food processor and let it be a powder. But I don't have a food processor, so I'm going to use this, what's called suribachi. You might have seen it in Indian cuisine where they grind the ingredients. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to grate these sesame seeds. Oh, it's starting to smell so good. So, it's ready. So I'm just going to put them together. So I have my green beans here, I'm going to put over it the sesame seeds, and the sauce over it, like so. Now I'm going to give it a little mix. And I'm going to add a little bit of sesame oil to that. So this is finished. So let's cut up the onion. So I'm going to take the bottom part off, and the top off, and then I'm going to cut it in half. Skin off. So what you want to do is you want to slice it as thin as possible. If you have a slicer, then great, use that. I don't, so I'm just going to try to slice it as thin as possible, like so. And also, you want to use your cat's finger, cat's palm, when slicing. You don't have to do it fast. Just, you can do it very slowly, just as thin as possible. So when it gets towards the end, what you want to do is, you've been slicing this way, so it gets thinner in this direction. So you can flip it up like this way, so it gets easier to slice. And one more time, maybe. So they're all sliced up. I'm going to put this in water, like this. I'm just going to let this sit in water for about 15 minutes, because raw onion contains a little bit of bitterness and spiciness, kind of. So you want to get rid of that. So the onion has been soaked in water for about 15 minutes, I'm going to drain it. So I want to get as little watery as possible, so I'm going to drain the water out. I'm going to put this back in. So to this, I'm going to add in the bonito flakes, like so. And then I'm just going to add in the soy sauce. This is about 2 or 3 teaspoons. So this is finished. So let's cut up the cabbage. I'm going to peel them off, probably 1, 2, 3 is enough. And so what I'm first going to do is, I'm going to take this hard stem part off. We're not going to throw them away, we're going to eat them, but they're going to need longer time to be cooked. And we're going to slice them in small pieces. And then cabbage, there's no really right way to cut them, I'm just going to cut this in half, and I'm just going to cut them in small pieces like this. So cabbage are all cut up and ready to be boiled. So we're going to cook the cabbage, I'm going to bring the water to boil. While we wait for the water to boil, I'm going to prepare the tuna. Taking the tuna, not all the way, I'm just going to drain the oil. So I've seen a lot of people throw this away in the sink, but I would ask you not to do that because it's not very eco-friendly. So what I usually do is I throw this away in the garden. So this is soaked in sunflower oil, but you can also buy the one that's soaked in water. So the water's boiling, I'm going to first put in the stem part, because it's going to take longer time to cook. So I usually wait about one extra minute for the stem. Then let's put in the leaf part, cabbage. So it comes to a boil, I'm going to let it cook for about 30 seconds or so after it comes to a boil. You also don't want to overcook the cabbage. So this is ready, I'm going to drain here, turn off the heat, so I'm going to let it cool a little bit. So the cabbage has been somewhat cooled off, I'm going to put this in a bowl. And then to that I'm going to add the tuna. Then here I'm going to add one and two tablespoons of soy sauce. I'm just going to give it a little mix. I'm also going to add the sesame oil. And then at the end I'm going to sprinkle a little bit of sesame on the top. Then it's finished. Okay, let's eat. Itadakimasu! That's kind of strange for me because I have rice and just three side dishes. But oh well. So let's start with the cabbage, it looks great. Mmm, this is good. If you like spicy, you can add a little bit of chili to it. And if you want to make it a little bit more South Asian, then you can add ginger or garlic. I'm sure it's also going to be good. This matches also with the rice, very good. Then let's eat the onion. I'm going to give it a little mix. Mmm, this is good. This combination with soy sauce and bonito flakes is just perfect. So bonito flakes is full of umami and also the soy sauce. Mmm, very good. Let's try the beans. Mmm, oh this sesame. The sesame seed is just incredible. And the combination of sesame seeds and soy sauce and sugar, oh this is great. Really good. Oh, this is really delicious. Gochisosamadeshita! Yeah, that was delicious. Yeah, as you saw, these dishes aren't very difficult at all, except for roasting the sesame seeds. But it's not difficult, it just takes time. And please try it yourself at home. And these dishes, except for the onion, sesame, and the tuna dish, you can alternate with any other vegetable. Like eggplant, carrots, spinach, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, paprika, or whatever. So yeah, please do try it at home and let me know in the comments how it went. Hope this video was informative for you. And if you like what you saw, please subscribe. And I look forward to seeing you in the next video. Bye!