Dining with the Chef Season 5

Our theme for this episode is deep frying. We'll be making fried shrimp, covered in three different coatings: white sesame seeds, aonori, and kakinotane rice crackers, making them a beautiful white, green, and red for visual variety to match the different flavors. Chef Saito will also demonstrate a variety of techniques for preparing shrimp from start to finish to make them look as good as they taste. For our side, we'll be making a soup with the springtime flavors of hamaguri clams and rapini, and showing how to make a beautifully clear dashi stock, as well as how to choose the freshest clams.

In this episode, we'll be cooking with fukinoto butterbur shoots, a spring vegetable with just a hint of bitterness. For our first dish, we'll be making an easy-to-eat variation on a rural Japanese home-cooked dish, fukinoto with miso. Our main dish is crispy and delicious tempura with spring shoots, featuring fukinoto butterbur shoots, as well as taranome shoots and kogomi fiddlehead ferns. You won't want to miss the way we show you how to make crispy tempura batter using carbonated water! The tempura is served with salt and sour sudachi citrus. We'll also learn about how to combine new potatoes with avocado for a beautiful green potato salad.

Our theme for this episode is making soboro, or tiny seasoned bits. Chef Saito will be showing us how to make soboro that come in very handy for home cooking or bento lunches. Whether it's the sweet and savory simmered chicken soboro or the deliciously fine scrambled egg soboro, they both go great with fresh snow peas for a beautifully colorful topping to rice. We'll learn Chef Saito's useful techniques and tricks for making soboro, including how to make all of the pieces evenly sized. For our side, we'll be making paper-thin pickled turnip, an elegant Kyoto specialty. We'll teach you everything you need to know to make this traditional and beautiful type of pickled turnip at home.

In this episode, we'll be making deep-fried rockfish. By frying this spring fish whole at a low temperature, we can seal in their rich flavor to enjoy their flaky white meat and firm red skin, and serve the fish plated beautifully with grated daikon radish and ponzu sauce and scattered slices of green onion. For our side dish, we'll be making vegetable agebitashi with seasonal vegetables, by deep-frying these vegetables plain and then coating them with a special sauce, for a dish as beautiful as it is delicious. We'll also learn about how to make an Italian-style twist on Japanese octopus rice using a donabe clay pot, for a fragrant and delicious dish.

In our next two episodes, we'll be focusing on the Ise-Shima, Mie area of central Japan, which has been in the spotlight recently for the G7 Summit being held there. This scenic area is a treasure trove of fresh, delicious seafood, and we'll be learning about Kaiseki-style cuisine, which uses expert skills to bring out the very best of this incredible seafood. This episode will be focusing on two dishes: onigawara-yaki style grilled spiny lobster, made with one of Ise-Shima's best-known catches, and handmade sushi balls, topped with a wide variety of the best of land and sea that Ise-Shima has to offer.

This second episode is dedicated to the Ise-Shima, Mie area of central Japan, where the G7 Summit will be held, and has long been a beloved traditional sightseeing destination. We'll learn from an expert how to make Ise Udon, a local noodle dish served to weary travelers to rejuvenate their minds and bodies. We'll also learn all about how to eat it from the "Ise Udon Ambassador," including easy instructions for how to make your own Ise Udon at home. For our second dish, we'll be focusing on Tekone Sushi, made with some of Ise-Shima's famously fresh and delicious seafood.

In this episode, we'll be making chikuzen-ni, a local favorite from Rika's hometown of Fukuoka beloved for the delicious texture of its chunky ingredients. Perfect for family gatherings or even just as a side in a bento lunch, this is an easy-to-make simmered dish once you just memorize the proportions of the seasonings. For our side, we'll be making eggs with tuna and green onions mixed in and cooked until golden brown. We'll also learn about miso soup, and how to make Rika's favorite, miso soup with daikon radish and abura-age fried tofu, among the many other possibilities offered by the incredible versatility of miso soup.

Our theme for this episode is "cutting." In the world of Japanese cuisine, cutting is counted as a cooking technique alongside other techniques like grilling or stewing. We'll be introducing some of the cutting techniques found in Japanese cuisine that help to bring out the best of the ingredients. The simplest cutting of all can be found in sashimi, one of the most famous examples of Japanese cuisine. To make sashimi, we will use cutting techniques developed over the years to make raw fish both delicious and beautiful.

In this episode, we'll be introducing beef cutlets, a popular dish from the Kansai region, prepared in Rika's own style. This delicious dish consists of juicy world-famous wagyu beef, coated in crunchy breading to seal in the great flavor. The meat is cooked rare to bring out the best of the beef and is served with a Japanese-style sauce made with soy sauce and wasabi. For our side dish, we will be making akadashi miso soup with summer eggplant and tofu. Akadashi is made with bean-based miso, giving it a distinct aroma that makes it a great palate cleanser for a rich and fatty main dish. Finally, at the Chef's Personal Corner, Rika will be making a salad with fragrant watercress, meaty mushrooms, and Rika's special dressing, to go perfectly with the beef.

Our theme for this episode is "Dashi." dashi is often considered the characteristic foundational flavor of Japanese cuisine. Kombu kelp and bonito flakes have come to be relatively well known overseas, but in Japan, there is a third ingredient considered vital to making dashi: niboshi dried sardines. Kombu kelp dashi goes well with fish, and bonito flake dashi goes well with vegetables, while niboshi dashi has a light and clean flavor with a distinctive depth that comes from using whole fish, leading it to be a popular choice in homes all across Japan to make everyday miso soup since long ago. In this episode, Chef Saito will provide a lecture on making niboshi dashi, and we'll make hot nyumen noodles, a great way to enjoy the flavor of the dashi.

In this episode, we'll be making cabbage rolls with a recipe Rika learned from her mother. Cabbage leaves are wrapped around a tender, juicy meat filling, then stewed in a soup full of the sweetness of the vegetables, for a Western-style home-cooked favorite. For our side dish, we'll be making egg and shirasu rice bowl with sansho pepper: rice topped with scrambled egg and shirasu small sardine, with sansho pepper and sesame oil to provide the finishing touches on this original dish. Rika will also teach us about miso-marinated tofu, a simple yet great recipe for a side or snack, known for its deliciously cheese-like flavor.

In this two-week special episode, chef Saito and host Yu Hayami step out of the studio and visit the Kamakura and Shonan regions of Kanagawa, introducing the wonders of the local ingredients. The first week covers Kamakura, a popular destination for top chefs and tourists from Tokyo in recent years. Produce of this region includes the fresh Kamakura vegetables, numerous varieties ranging from ancient local breeds to the newest foreign plants grown in small batches. They go on to visit the leading producers of the area to discover the allure of the vegetables of Kamakura. Using the seasonal produce they've just bought, Chef Saito will be showing how to make three basic dressings used in Japanese homemade dishes--the sesame and rice vinegar, tofu and vegetables, and Japanese mustard and miso. We'll be learning about a Japanese way of eating vegetables, choosing the most suiting vegetable for each dressing that enhances the seasonal flavor.

In this two-week special episode, chef Saito and host Yu Hayami step out of the studio and visit the Kamakura and Shonan regions of Kanagawa, introducing the wonders of the local ingredients. On the second episode, the duo heads to Shonan to enjoy the summer flavors native to Sagami Bay. The complex underwater terrain and the kuroshio current makes the bay a prime fishing ground, which is a home to about 1300 species of fish of which 300 varieties are caught for caught. Shirasu small sardines caught in Sagami is particularly famous across Japan, and eating these raw is a Shonan specialty. Freshly boiled shirasu has also been loved by all around the Kanto region. The chef and Yu visit the Shonan morning market and shirasu fishers, getting their hands on some fresh seasonal ingredients. We’ll be making a rice bowl using plenty of boiled shirasu, and a fried mackerel and plum roll made with fragrant plum and nori seaweed.

In this episode, we will recreate the maze-sushi or mixed sushi that Rika’s mother used to make her for dinner. This sushi is vibrant, using the Japanese cuisine principle of five colors. It is perfect if you don’t like fish, as it uses chicken and other vegetables. As a side dish, we’ll make a traditional nutritious spinach dish mixed with tofu and aromatic sesame (spinach shiraae). In the Chef’s corner, the Rika will be making a soup full of littleneck clams and green onions, which can help you recover from fatigue and increase your metabolism – a great way to survive the hot summer!

In this episode, we'll be making curry with gyusuji, or beef tendons. Beef tendons slowly stewed in a sweet and savory broth made with sugar and soy sauce are a popular addition to okonomiyaki, yakisoba, udon, and more. In the Kansai region, beef tendons simmered as part of simmered daikon radish with miso to make dote-ni are variations long beloved as everyday dishes. Rika will be demonstrating her pressure cooker prowess to quickly stew beef tendons until they're tender, then add Japanese curry roux, coriander seed, cardamom, garam masala, and other spices to put together a delicious curry. For her side dishes, she'll be making octopus sautéed with wasabi, butter and soy sauce, as well as pickled myoga ginger buds and okra.

In this episode, we'll be making tamagoyaki sandwiches, a dish that has seen rising popularity of late. The standard Japanese egg sandwich is generally thought of as being made with chopped egg and mayonnaise, but in the Kansai region of western Japan, sandwiches made with omelets are common as well. Recently, this type of egg sandwich is becoming a popular trend in Tokyo, and Rika will make her own tamagoyaki sandwich with a thick omelet for a filling meal. For her sides, she'll be making fried chicken wing kara-age that uses nam pla sauce for a finishing touch, and a simple yet nutritious carrot soup.

In this episode, we'll be making hand-rolled temaki sushi, a staple of Japanese house parties. Instead of the usual fresh seafood, we'll be filling the sushi with more laid-back items like cheese and ham, for simple sushi that's bound to delight kids and grown-ups alike. In addition to cheese and ham, we'll be making sushi filled with surimi, tuna and mayonnaise, watercress, cucumber, avocado, lettuce, and takuan pickled daikon radish, for a spread that offers a delicious variety of flavors and textures. We'll also be making mizu-yokan, a popular summer treat. By making cuts into a bamboo leaf and rolling it around the mizu-yokan, it can be served in a dish with ice, keeping it chilled to make the most of its juicy texture.

In this episode, we'll be making nanban-zuke marinated swordfish with some heat from a chili pepper, the perfect dish for appetites lost to the hot summer days. Chef Saito will be using bell peppers, onion, basil, and more for a beautiful and delicious dish, and he'll also show the tricks to getting the best flavor out of vegetables. For our side, we'll be making braised dried daikon radish. With its sweet and savory flavor and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds, it makes the perfect accompaniment, rounding out the meal alongside rice, miso soup, and freshly pickled vegetables.

In this episode, we'll be making rice with healthy chicken breast and umeboshi pickled plums. We'll be cooking the chicken rare, to help it keep its flavor, with green shiso leaves and a refreshing ume plum sauce. For a side dish, we'll be making egg drop soup, using the water we cooked the chicken in. With the glutamic acid from kombu kelp and the inosinic acid from the chicken, this soup has plenty of umami for a rich, delicious flavor. We'll also be making potato salad with green beans. This simple salad is made by lightly boiling our vegetables, then adding a special sauce made with mayonnaise and wasabi.

In this episode, Chef Saito will be making teriyaki chicken, a Japanese standard. Teriyaki is a distinctly Japanese style of cooking, where a soy sauce-based sweet and savory sauce is added to foods being pan-fried or grilled to coat them. This style of cooking is becoming well known worldwide, and Chef Saito will explain the basics. And for our side dish, nothing says fall in Japan quite like salmon, so we'll also be making salmon rice, full of plenty of other fall ingredients too, like mushrooms, Japanese herbs, and mitsuba trefoil.

In this episode, we'll be making omelet rice, deliciously flavored with butter and ketchup, and with a tender, fluffy omelet. This simple recipe for this western-style Japanese dish is made without wrapping the omelet around the rice, for easier preparation. For our side dish, we'll be using eggplant, a fall ingredient, grilling it and serving it with a miso dressing. The dressing is made with sushi vinegar, giving it a deliciously light and clean flavor. We'll also learn about how to make a Japanese-style jelly from soymilk and black sesame seeds, for a healthy dessert that makes the most of the mild sweetness of the soymilk and the rich aroma of the sesame seeds.

The prefecture of Okinawa at the southern tip of Japan once flourished as the independent Ryukyu Dynasty, and its unique and colorful culture remains to this day. Ayaka Yamamoto is a legendary chef who draws on the traditions of the Ryukyu Dynasty for modern Ryukyu cuisine, and in this two-part special she will introduce us to Ryukyu cuisine. In this first episode, she will be preparing three dishes. The first of these is minudaru, a dish made by topping steamed pork with plenty of black sesame. This dish is representative of Okinawa's food culture, and was once served as an appetizer to foreign dignitaries visiting the Ryukyu Kingdom, as a way of demonstrating hospitality. The second dish is stewed pork spareribs, considered the finest delicacy. Finally, her third dish is rúyìzomin, a beautiful clear soup made with somen noodles, with a name representing its auspicious meaning.

In part 2 of this special, we will be learning more about Ryukyu Cuisine, the unique food culture developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom through exposure to Japanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian cultures. Our host Yu Hayami will visit Ayaka Yamamoto, the leading authority on the traditional cuisine of the Ryukyu Islands, and both learn about the essence of Ryukyu culture and cuisine, while sharing Okinawa's food culture with the world. In this second episode, we will be learning about Ryukyu home cuisine, including how to make three dishes: fu-irichi, bira-garamachi, and kufa-jushi.

The Japanese noodle dish udon has garnered a lot of attention from overseas in recent years. In this episode, we'll be making curry udon, which combines traditional Japanese udon noodles with curry, a western-style Japanese food. Chef Saito will be sharing the secrets of the recipe he makes at home for his own family, made with kombucha and soy sauce. We'll also be making jumbo shrimp tempura, the perfect addition to make curry udon feel extra special, and we'll learn techniques for how to make crispy tempura, like how to scatter the batter when deep-frying.

In this episode, we'll be preparing three dishes that make the most of some of the incredible ingredients available in fall. Our main dish is simmered pacific saury with ginger, made by chopping these deliciously fatty fish into large pieces and simmering them until tender, with plenty of ginger and other seasonings commonly used in Japanese cuisine. We'll also be taking advantage of some of fall’s delicious seasonal ingredients, making chestnut rice as well as a clear soup that combines shrimp dumplings with matsutake mushrooms, the "king of autumnal flavors." To bring out the best flavor from the mushrooms, we'll be cooking them separately from the shrimp dumplings, only bringing them together at the very end in the serving bowl — a preparation style befitting this exquisite dish.

In this episode, Chef Saito will be making chawanmushi savory egg custard, known to be a particularly difficult steamed dish to prepare. He'll be teaching us how to avoid all the common pitfalls, from the difficulty of maintaining the right temperature to the risk of the custard separating or developing holes. For our side dish, we'll be making crab rice, a delicious dish prepared in a donabe clay pot. The red of the crab and the green of the mitsuba trefoil sprinkled on top give it a beautifully colorful look, and a hint of ginger serves as a finishing touch to bring the flavor together.

Oysters are one of the culinary highlights of winter. Japan's oysters are known for their size and creamy flavor, and in this recipe we'll be using them for two different dishes. Our first is deep-fried oysters, breaded with Japanese-style panko breadcrumbs to make them crunchy outside yet tender inside. We'll also be making oyster rice, letting the rich flavor of the oysters soak into the rice for a delicious finished dish. We'll round things out with a light cabbage salad — the perfect match for a fried main dish — to complete our "oyster festival."

In this episode, we'll be working with nutritious tuna, popular worldwide, and avocado, known as a great antioxidant, to make a delicious Japanese-style carpaccio dish. For our side dish, we'll be making udon noodles topped with stir-fried pork belly and Chinese chives, and a soup made with ago or flying fish for the perfect finishing touch on the flavor. We'll also learn how to make a simple yet delicious Japanese-style mushroom stir-fry by briefly sautéing thick-cut mushrooms in butter and seasoning them with wasabi and soy sauce.

In this episode, Chef Saito will be making sukiyaki, a popular Japanese dish known around the world. The chef will be preparing his own take on two different dips for the sukiyaki: egg and kudzu starch sauce. For a side dish, we'll be working with cucumber and wakame seaweed. We'll also be talking about Japanese salads and vinegar-seasoned items, which go wonderfully with meat or fried dishes.

In this episode, we'll be cooking tatsuta-age deep-fried mackerel, a fish that isn't just delicious and in season, but is rich in healthy fats that help the blood run smoothly and help prevent lifestyle diseases. We'll be marinating it in a delicious marinade made with soy sauce and ginger, and frying it coated in a starch powder to keep it flaky and juicy. For our side dish, we'll be making a light soup, using plenty of cabbage — the perfect complement to fried fish. By using a bit of bacon, we can bring out the sweetness of the cabbage. We'll also be preparing a rich, flavorful salad made with asparagus and onsen eggs, one way of preparing boiled eggs.

In this episode, Chef Saito will be making oden, simmering meat, seafood, vegetables, and other items in a pot of hot dashi broth. Simmering these items together helps them share their delicious flavors and pick up the great flavor of the simmering broth, while the simmering broth gets the flavors of the other ingredients at the same time — it's the secret to why oden is so delicious! Chef Saito will share useful tips and advice for how to prepare the ingredients beforehand, making sure that they're cooked through and that any off flavors have been removed before adding them to the simmering broth, to keep everything tasting great.

In this episode we'll be making simmered kinki fish, considered one of Japan's finest simmered dishes. One distinctive quality of Japan's simmered fish dishes is that they are often simmered in a small amount of simmering broth, rather than simmering for a long time in a lot of broth to heavily flavor the fish — even after the fish simmer, they still retain much of their original flavor, with only the outermost layer of the fish being seasoned by the simmering broth. Chef Saito will be teaching us the secrets of great simmered fish prepared this way. We'll also be making a side dish featuring the popular fish tuna, and natto, which is famously considered an acquired taste. Even if you don't think you like natto, this recipe uses chopped natto in a way you're bound to love, for a dish that goes great with sake.