Japanese Tapas

One thing I love about Japanese food is the seemingly tapas approach to eating it. Delicate tasty concoctions, and a wide variety. Even in sushi, there is diversity. I never fully appreciated sushi until realizing the wonderful creative culinary aspects - now I can't keep my hands off the stuff.

So for Christina's return to Toronto I decided to cook up a storm of Japanese food. I prepped more then my kitchen could handle however so not everything was cooked that night.

So first up, I made some Gyoza. Japanese dumplings filled with pork and napa. I did them 2 ways, the traditional fried on the bottom, and then I deep fried some for quick convenience.

The prepared, uncooked Gyoza.

Deep Fried

Fried on the bottom

Second up was chicken Karaage. Japanese fried chicken, marinated in ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sake, then dredged in corn starch and fried. Served with lemon and Japanese mayonnaise.

Chicken Karaage

Thirdly I did sushi. This was my first time doing sushi. It all turned out well except the rice could have been spread a bit thinner on the horizontal rolls as I ad trouble closing them.

Salmon Nigiri

Dragon Roll (Crab inside, eel and avocado outside)

Spicy Salmon Roll

Dynamite Roll

Next up I did tempura. Now out of all time I've done tempura prior (maybe 2-3 times) this definatly turned out the best. I found the batter was a good medium-thin consistency, and when putting in the oil a waved the pieces back and forth to spread the batter a bit.

Finally I did some Tonkatsu. Japanese fried pork cutlets, breaded in panko bread crumbs. With Bull Dog brand Tonkatsu sauce on top.

breading station

Uncooked

Cooked, sauced, and delicious!