3 easy side dishes with Cucumbers 〜きゅうり副菜三種〜 | easy Japanese home cooking recipe

Welcome to Taiji's Kitchen. Today I'm going to make three side dishes using cucumbers. So cucumbers are probably one of the vegetables that you can find pretty much anywhere in the world and nowadays you can probably find them throughout the year. But for those who have done a lot of gardening may know that this is actually a summer vegetable and therefore they taste much better in the summer and they also contain more nutrients in the summer. And also within the philosophy of the eastern medicine, the vegetable or fruit that grows in the summer have the nutrients that your body needs and it has the effect of cooling down your body. So this is also another perfect reason to eat a lot of cucumbers for the summer. And today I'm going to show you two dishes using raw cucumbers, strictly vegetarian. And third I'm also going to cook some cucumbers with meat which can be made for the main dish. So I hope you give these dishes a try. Then let's get started. Here are the ingredients for three side dishes using cucumbers. So these cucumbers that you see here may be a little bit smaller than some cucumbers that you may know. In Japan these are kind of the cucumbers that you'll find. And I personally don't like those big like really big long cucumber. Those big cucumbers I think they taste a little thinner and I personally like these small cucumbers because I think they taste much better. But of course you can make these dishes using any cucumbers. And for the first dish I have dried wakame seaweed. If you can't get hold of these then you can also make it without it. And then I also have roasted sesame seeds and for the seasoning I have salt and ponzu. If you don't have ponzu then you can make this very easily with one-to-one ratio of soy sauce and citrus juice. Then for the second dish I have a piece of ginger and garlic and then also sesame oil. And for the third dish I have ground up pork meat and for the seasoning I have soy sauce and I'm also going to use a little bit of starch. Any starch will do just to make the sauce a little bit more creamier. Then let's start cooking. So the first thing I'm going to do is put some water in the dried wakame. So I'm just going to pour some water and let it sit for like 10 to 15 minutes. While we wait on that I'm gonna cut up the cucumbers. So take the top and the bottom off and then just try to cut them up as thin as possible. If you have a slicer then you can of course use slicer. So what I'm doing is that I'm kind of cutting like what's called cat's paw. I'm not having my finger like this. Instead I have like this top knuckle putting on here and I'm sliding my finger slowly backwards like this so that it'll be cut up as evenly as possible. Then here I'm going to put in half a teaspoon of salt and just kind of sprinkle around. And then we're going to let it sit like this for 5 to 10 minutes or so. So 10 minutes has passed. You can see that the wakame has soaked up the water and also that the cucumbers have lost their water and got a little bit soggy. So we're going to very lightly wash this both. So for the wakame I'm just going to squeeze this water out. Try to get as much water out as possible. So that's that. And then this you want to wash out the salt because you don't want to have it too salty. I'm just going to pour a little bit of water on it like this and then I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to also squeeze the water out. So that's enough. And then we're going to just mix them together. And then here I'm going to put in 1 tablespoon of ponzu sauce. Like I said if you don't have ponzu sauce then you can make this very easily with 1 to 1 ratio of lemon juice and soy sauce. And then here 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. And then you can sprinkle how much sesame seeds as you want. I usually put in like 1 to 2 tablespoons. Sesame seeds have a lot of umami so it gets much tastier when you have a lot of sesame seeds. And this is finished. So then let's make the second dish. So this is probably the easiest dish to make and I make this quite often. So I'm going to cut up the top and the bottom. You can cut this up also but I want to break up the cells. So I'm going to place a knife over it like this and I'm just going to hit it very lightly. Not too hard. By doing this it'll break up the cells and allow the sauce to soak in much better. And I'm just going to kind of cut it into pieces like this. I'm doing the rangiri, the random cut like this. And then in this I'm going to smash in the garlic and the ginger. And by the way if you're using garlic smasher I found out that you can just put in like this with the skin on. Then the skin doesn't come out. So I'm just going to go in like this and then like so. And then you're left with the skin on inside like this. And I'm also going to cut up some piece of ginger. Cut up some dried part. And ginger also. And then this I'm going to put in two teaspoons of soy sauce and two teaspoons of sesame oil. And then I'm just going to kind of mix it very lightly. Now at the end I'm just going to sprinkle a little bit of sesame on the top. This is garnish. And so this is finished. Very easy. Then let's make the last dish. I'm going to take off the top and bottom. Now I'm going to cut this so-called rangiri which means random cuts. What I'm going to do is I'm going to make a cut and then kind of turn 90 degrees or so. Cut 90 degrees. Cut 90 degrees. Cut. So you have like a kind of random kind of neat form. Oh yeah I forgot. So I'm going to have to prepare the ginger. I'm just going to peel the ginger. And then use a garlic smasher. So I'm going to fry this. I'm going to turn the heat to high. So I often use a pot for frying not necessarily a frying pan. So the problem with the frying pan it's so shallow it's flat. So that a lot of things can spray. But if you use a pot like this then you have the side so a lot of things doesn't go outside. So I like using pot for frying. And here I'm going to put in one teaspoon of sesame oil. And then in this I'm going to put in the ginger. So as this is lightly getting fried I'm going to go ahead and put in the pork meat. So as the pork is getting heated I'm going to put in the cucumbers. I'm going to turn the heat to medium. While this is getting heated I'm going to mix the starch and the water. So in a separate small dish I'm going to mix in two tablespoons of water. And also in here about a teaspoon of starch. And then mix this lightly like this. And then in this I'm going to put two teaspoons of soy sauce. And then just give it a little mix. And then here I'm going to put in the water with the starch. Make sure you mix this before you put in otherwise the starch will stay in the bottom. So this is finished. I'm going to turn the heat off. And then let's put this on a plate. So the three dishes are finished. Let's eat. Okay let's eat. So let's start with the cucumber with wakame seaweed. That was a great combination with the cucumber and wakame seaweed. And all mixed up in this ponzu sauce. The sourness is really refreshing in this hot summer. And let's have the cucumber mixed with ginger and garlic. This kick from the ginger and the garlic is really perfect with the cucumber. Because cucumber itself doesn't have a very strong flavor to it. But mixed with ginger and garlic with the soy sauce and the sesame oil. Oh this is great. Then let's have the last dish. Cooked cucumber. Itadakimasu. And this also matches with rice really well. So I saw this recipe a while back ago and I thought cooking cucumber was so insane. Why would you want to cook cucumber when it's good to be eaten raw? But I just kind of gave it a try and it was actually very delicious. So it's kind of similar to zucchini. But has a little bit slight different flavor to it. And I think it matches really well with pork meat like this. So hope you give it a try as well. So please don't be offended by picking up the plate like this. In Japan this is very common to eat. So as you might have noticed when you have different dishes like this in Japan. Which is the most case. We are supposed to eat so-called triangle eating. So you go to one dish. You go back to the rice. And go to another dish. Go back to the rice. Go to another dish. And then back to the rice. And so like rice is always like the base. So inside the Japanese table manner. You're not supposed to eat one dish to the end. And then finish that. And then to the next. And then finish that. And to the next. No. You're supposed to go to one dish. And then back to the rice. And then to another dish. And then back to the rice. And to another dish. And back to rice. So if you ever have a chance to go to Japan and eat there. Then I suggest you do that. That was delicious. So as you saw. These dishes are very easy to make. And also very perfect for hot summer. So I hope you give it a try. If you like what you saw. Please hit that like button. Or if you have any comments or requests. Please write anything in the comments below. And I look forward to see you in the next video. Bye.