Prep Time: 30 minutes - 1 hour | Cook Time: 30 minutes or less | Serves: 8 Lunch » Seafood » Japanese Visual Recipe By: Chris Taylor Click Here To Print Recipe Using Selected Print Style | Click On Images To Enlarge Comment On This Recipe Share on Facebook
Ingredients: Mmmm, sushi. Almost everyone loves sushi. Most people spend the extra cash to get it from a restaurant, but making it yourself is both cheaper and more fun. So, what exactly is involved in making sushi? Well, to start, you need to make the rice. Sushi rice is short-grained and made very sticky. Exactly how much rice you need is dependant upon how much sushi you're making, so I'll let you judge that for yourself. However, three cups was all the rice that I used to make what's in the pictures later in the thread. The general recipe for rice is this: 2c Short-grain rice, washed. 2c Water 1/4c Rice Vinegar 1tsp Sugar 1 Rice Cooker You will need to wash the rice before cooking it, just to clean all the extra junk off of it. Run the rice in a strainer under cold water, until the water flowing through it runs clear. It doesn't take very long, and it tastes so much better.
Step 1: You'll want to measure out 1/4c of rice vinegar and dissolve the sugar into it. Add this to the 2c of water and washed rice in your rice cooker. Hit the switch to send it into cooking mode, and go do something else for a bit. When it's done cooking, you will have something that looks like this: Fresh out of the cooker, the rice will be too hot to handle, much less to form to make sushi. So, let it cool off until you can work with it. I suggest putting it under a fan, to speed the process. Don't let the rice go cold, though, it needs to retain a bit of warmth. Don't ask me why, it just does.
Step 2: So, you'll need to have something to go on top of the rice. Pictured (clockwise from the top) are eel (unagi), tuna (maguro), an unidentified fish that was marked as salmon (sake), but didn't taste like it, and imitation crab, or fish cake. All, with the exception of the tuna, came from a Japanese market. The tuna was from a Central Market (which is owned by HEB). An important note: do not assume that fish is sushi-grade because it "looks good." Sushi-grade fish is checked for parasites, so make sure you check with whoever is behind the counter. If they don't know, don't buy it.
Step 3: So, let's start by making some nigiri, which is a small brick of rice with a slice of fish on top. First of all, get a bowl of water to wet your hands. I can't emphasize this enough! If you don't wet your hands between making pieces of sushi, you will never finish! Rice becomes stuck to your hands, and it turns into a huge, frustrating mess. You'll want to slice the fish up into pieces that are a little larger than 2" x 1/2". Thickness should be to your liking, though when they are thin, it's easier to eat. You also get more servings out of it. Any fish you have left after you've used up your rice can be eaten as sashimi, if you wish.
Step 4: A good guide for size is a 2" long by 1/2" wide and 1/2" tall brick. You don't really need to get a ruler out or anything, just go with something that seems about the right size to eat. Too big, and you'll have a hard time picking it up. Too small, and you'll have to eat about 30 pieces. If you clump the rice where your fingers meet your palm, and curl your fingers to square off the brick, it will give you approximately the right shape. It's hard to describe exactly how it's done, and I don't have any pictures of that step, so you'll have to experiment with what works for you. Compression of the rice is important, or it will fall apart when you try to eat. Once you have a brick ready, top it with a slice of fish that is just a little bit oversized, so that it drapes slightly over the edges. Squeeze the fish and the rice together, so it won't fall off, and you're done. It may not look like what you see in a restaurant, but they've got more practice in than you. On the imitation crab rolls, I took a small strip of seaweed and wrapped it around the roll, to make it look awesome and to ensure the topping stays on. So, now that you've got making nigiri down, let's try some rolls, or norimake. These are what you see being served most often. It's a roll of fish or vegetables with a wrapping of seaweed (nori) on the outside. They're relatively easy to prepare, but take a lot of time compared to nigiri. For a normal-sized roll, you'll need to put a full sheet of seaweed out on a bamboo rolling mat. Protip: turn on a burner on your stove, and drag the seaweed across it a few times, to make it easier to work with and less likely to split. Spread rice thinly across the seaweed with your hands (remember to wet them down often), making sure not to leave gaps in the middle, but do not pack the rice down, rolling it will take care of that for you. You'll want to put a line of whatever is to be in the roll down the bottom side of the seaweed, leaving enough room to start the roll. It will look something like this:
Step 5: Pictured here is a California roll, minus the fish, with some rolls of fish eggs to the side. I didn't have any tuna left over from the nigiri, so we just used cucumber and avocado. Really, you can add almost anything to these rolls, so long as you slice it up to fit on the seaweed. To begin the roll, grab the edge closest to you, and curl it over the bulk of the ingredients. Once you've got it over, you can start using the mat to roll, like this:
Step 6: It helps if you wet down the back edge of the seaweed, to make the roll stay shut.
Step 7: From there, cut the roll in half, and those halves in half again. You should end up with 8 rolls of a good size, though the two end rolls may be a little bit deflated. I usually just eat them before serving. Tasty! You can see in one of the above pictures that I also have rolls that I made with roe, or fish eggs. It's really very simple to make these, just lay out the seaweed and rice as if you were making a normal roll, spread the eggs across, roll, and top with a bit more. I also made some rolls with what was left of the imitation crab, and they turned out really well.
Step 8: Wasabi is important to the meal, as most people mix in a little wasabi with their soy sauce. I choose powdered wasabi as my favorite, but it can be purchased in tubes, if you wish. Some people eat ginger between pieces of sushi, but I'm not a fan, so I left that out. All there is to do now is set the table and get to the eatin'. Enjoy your sushi!

Prep Time: 30 minutes or less | Cook Time: 30 minutes or less | Serves: 2 Lunch » Pizza » Japanese Visual Recipe By: Box Dog Click Here To Print Recipe Using Selected Print Style | Click On Images To Enlarge Comment On This Recipe Share on Facebook
Ingredients: Okonomiyaki means "whatever you like, grilled in Japanese". It's one definition of "Japanese pizza" because, well, it does kinda look like pizza, and you eat it like one too. Today we'll be making Osaka-style Okonomiyaki. It's also popular in Hiroshima, but it's a little harder to make and doesn't appear to pay off much more in the taste department! Base: 1 cup flour 3/4 cup dashi (or water, see below)* 1 egg 1/8-1/4 of a cabbage Toppings - any of the below: Chicken Roast pork or beef Squid, Octopus, other seafood Corn Mushrooms Onion Garnishing - any of the below, if you can find it and actually want it: Katsuo-bushi (dried bonito flakes) Sakura-ebi (dried shrimps) Beni-shoga (red ginger) Ao-nori (green seaweed) Sauces: Okonomiyaki sauce (or tonkatsu sauce) Mayonnaise * Dashi is japanese stock, used in heaps of different recipes. When made up it smells like smoked fish and seaweed. You can buy it from oriental grocers in sachets that come in boxes like the one to the right of the beer in the picture above. Just mix up a bit with some hot water. If you can't find it, it's okay - just use water.
Step 1: So firstly grab that cabbage and chop it up finely. Better to have too much than too little because it shrinks a little as it cooks, and it's mega cheap anyway. Get out as much of the white stem parts as you can.
Step 2: Now break an egg into a large bowl and pour in the dashi/water, and the flour.
Step 3: Then beat with a whisk until smooth.
Step 4: Now add some of the finely chopped cabbage and mix as best you can. It should end up looking like this.
Step 5: Heat up your skillet, electric frypan, grill, whatever you're going to use to cook this baby. Preferably use something that's got teflon on it :-)
Step 6: Now prepare your toppings. I'm using Chinese BBQ pork slices, a little bell pepper, some onion, mushrooms, parsely and spring onion. Just chop it all up good.
Step 7: Throw it all in the frypan with some oil (sesame is good) to keep it all well-lubed. Cook until either heated through or in the case of raw meat or veges, for a few minutes until it's getting close to being cooked.
Step 8: Arrange the nearly cooked toppings in a round...
Step 9: Then throw the cabbage/dough mixture on top, also in a round!
Step 10: Turn up the heat a little to medium and let that bad boy cook through for 5 minutes or so. Then flip it. In the picture below, I had to cut the round in half to flip it, which doesn't matter because we'll be cutting it into pieces later anyway. You could always make two okonomiyaki instead! Let it cook for another 5-10 minutes. You can break away a bit of the dough bit when it doesn't look raw any more and see if the cabbage and dough is cooked through.
Step 11: Flip it out onto a plate and cover liberally with Okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise! OH GOD MY TASTEBUDS!
Step 12: Cut, serve and savour! Bon apetit.

Prep Time: 30 minutes or less | Cook Time: 30 minutes or less | Serves: 3 Appetizers » Vegetable » Asian Visual Recipe By: ShakeYoBouteille Click Here To Print Recipe Using Selected Print Style | Click On Images To Enlarge Comment On This Recipe Share on Facebook
Ingredients: Well, I'm a cooking newbie, but I'll post my past cooking experience. I decided to make some steamed vegetarian dumplings. You can vary them however you want. You can steam or fry them (steamed is healthier obviously) and you can fill them with whatever you want too. Meat, shrimp, spinach and cheese, whatever. I decided to go with some fake sausage. fake meatless sausage soy sauce oyster flavored sauce fish sauce hoisin sauce scallions hot mustard won ton wrappers
Step 1: Then, the easy part, making the filling. In my case it was basically taking that wannabe meat and mixing in the scallions and a bit of all those sauces into something like such (while making a pretty mess). I ended up getting something like so:
Step 2: First, take a won-ton wrap and put a bit of the filling in the middle. Then, you gotta rub the edges of the wrap with either water or egg white. I used egg white. I also used my finger because that was easiest as so. Basically dip my finger in egg white then rub it along the edges:
Step 3: Then you fold the wrap in half and press it together, the egg white / water will make it stick. Then you kind of pull the two ends together as so: Note in the previous picture I also have a dumpling where I didn't pull it together (just folded it in half). I did most of them like this because it was 1) quicker and 2) I could put more stuffing in it. If you want to do the full way, you gotta add egg white down the middle where you pull the two ends together so it sticks too.
Step 4: Anyway, then it's time to steam them. I don't actually have a steamer so I used this for substitution. Gotta place the dumplings along the bottom so that they don't actually touch.
Step 5: Then you steam it. Now for my super secret sauce. Hot mustard and soy sauce mixed together.
Step 6: The dumplings are done. Sure they don't LOOK as good as when they are fried, but they are still very tasty.

Prep Time: 1 - 2 hours | Cook Time: 30 minutes or less | Serves: 10 Breads » Scones » Asian Visual Recipe By: sherry817 Click Here To Print Recipe Using Selected Print Style | Click On Images To Enlarge Comment On This Recipe Share on Facebook
Ingredients: 250G Flour (2.5 cups) 10G Butter (Soften) (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) 6G Yeast (1 tablespoon) 1 Egg 100ML Milk (3.4 ounces) 10 Sausages 10G Sugar (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) A pinch of salt
Step 1: In a bowl, put together the flour, Butter, Yeast, Egg, sugar, salt and Milk
Step 2: Mix all the ingredients with your hands or a mixer.
Step 3: Combine until all the ingredients finely mix together.
Step 4: Knead the dough until the surface turns smooth and bright.
Step 5: dust some flour, cover with kitchen tower, put it on a dry place for an hour and let it grow
Step 6: While waiting for the dough to grow,prepare the sausages. L Lightly fry the sausages and cut each sausage in half.
Step 7: After an hour, the dough should look like so. It should be double the size of the original.
Step 8: Knead it with your hands to release the air.
Step 9: Divide the dough into 10 small pieces.
Step 10: Roll the dough into long shape.
Step 11: Wrap it over the sausages and put into baking tray. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave it for 20 minutes.
Step 12: After 20 minutes, wash with eggs and sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake in 180 Degree celsius (355 Fahrenheit ) for 10 minutes or until golden in color.

Prep Time: 1 - 2 hours | Cook Time: 3+ hours | Serves: 12 Dessert » Cheesecakes » American Visual Recipe By: Cray Click Here To Print Recipe Using Selected Print Style | Click On Images To Enlarge Comment On This Recipe Share on Facebook
Ingredients: There is no flour in this recipe. The downside is that it takes longer to cook. A lot longer. From start to finish, with preparation, baking, and cooling, you'll need almost four hours. It is most definitely worth it. I have made two of these now, and each time I've been told by the people who tasted it that this was the best cheesecake they had ever tasted. And I live in the Philly/NJ/New York area, so there's plenty of good cheesecake around. The orange flavor is subtle, but noticable. If you'd prefer to make the cheesecake without it, just omit all the steps related to anything orange-flavored, and the food coloring (which is optional anyway, but a nice touch). You'll want: - A Springform cake pan, 10" wide by 3" tall - Aluminum foil - Large mixing bowl - Small mixing bowl - Whisk - Hand Mixer - Grater - Your favorite chef's knife If you don't have a springform pan, get one. It's almost essential for cheesecake making, because it's about the only way you'll get it out of the pan intact. If you don't want to buy one, use a normal cake pan, and line the bottom with a round piece of parchment paper, and the sides with a strip of parchment paper.
Step 1: Ingredients: - 24 oz (3 pkgs) Cream Cheese - Graham Crackers - 6 tbsp (3/4 stick) Butter - 1 cup Sugar (for cake) - 3 tbsp Sugar (for crust) - 3 Eggs - 1-3/4 cups Sour Cream - 2 tsp Vanilla Extract - Zest of one Orange - 3 tbsp Orange Juice Concentrate - Food coloring (optional) If you'd like to make the Mandarin Orange topping, you'll also need: - 2 cans (11 oz each) Mandarin Orange Slices in light syrup - 1/4 cup Apricot Jam - 1 tbsp Orange Juice (use your concentrate for this)
Step 2: First, set your oven to 300 degrees. Then, cube up your cream cheese (this is the only thing you'll need the knife for) and set it aside in your large work bowl. Doing this first will give it a chance to soften. You can even place the work bowl in a larger bowl or pan with warm water in it to help things along. Also, place the orange juice concentrate in a bowl of hot water to help it thaw.
Step 3: Next, prepare the springform pan by crossing two sheets of aluminum foil over the insert. Rub the foil flat over the insert, fold it over the edges, and put the insert into the rest of the pan. Then fold the foil up the edges (but not over into the pan). This will help prevent leakage, and make removal of the cake much easier.
Step 4: Now to prepare the crust. First, take your 6 tbsp of butter (cut into 1 tbsp chunks) and melt it in the microwave. Should only take about 30 seconds, stir it up to dissolve any solid bits. Then place 10 graham crackers in a thick ziplock bag.
Step 5: And crush them mercilessly (until fine). You can use your hands (but it'll take a while) or a rolling pin (if you've got one) or a glass bottle (like me). Add the 3 tbsp of Sugar, and shake until well mixed. If you have a food processor, by the way, these two steps could be done in there. I like the bag method.
Step 6: Then, drizzle in the melted butter, about 1 tbsp at a time, and mix it with a fork at first, then your hands.
Step 7: You'll know the crust is well mixed when you can take a handful of it, make a tight fist, and end up with a well-formed clump. It should crumble slightly when you break the clump in half. Pour it out of your work bowl and into the springform pan, pack it down tightly and evenly, and place in the 300 degree oven for 10 minutes. This will help firm up the crust and prevent too much batter from soaking into it later.
Step 8: Now, to start on the cake itself. Begin by preparing and measuring out all of your ingredients (this is good practice for any recipe, as you won't need to stop in the middle of a step to measure things or wash measuring devices, plus you'll know before you begin if you're missing anything). Here we see, clockwise from the top, the cream cheese (already cubed), three eggs in the small work bowl (lightly whisked together), food coloring (red and yellow), 2 tsp of vanilla extract, the orange zest, 3 tbsp OJ concentrate, 1-3/4 cups sour cream, and 1 cup sugar in the middle.
Step 9: To zest an orange, you want to lightly scrape off with a grater the outermost layer of skin. This layer has lots of citrus oils in it, and will add a lot of orange flavor to the cake, as well as the nice appearance of little orangey bits. Just scrape it over your grater with moderate pressure, not too hard, because you don't want to grate off any of the pulpy white stuff under the skin. The orange won't last long without its skin, by the way, so you should eat it soon. Also, the easiest way to measure out the 1-3/4 cups of sour cream, is to take a 2 cup package, reserve 1/4 cup of it, and dump the rest into a bowl. Put the 1/4 cup back, and save it for a baked potato or taco or something.
Step 10: By this time, 10 minutes should be up, and your crust should be done. Take it out of the oven, and turn the temperature down to 275 degrees.
Step 11: Now, the first step is to pour the 1 cup of sugar over your cream cheese, and mix it in with your hand mixer. You'll get the most even distribution if you mix together the cream cheese a bit first, then add the sugar about 1/4 cup at a time. Don't forget to scrape down your mixer and the sides of the bowl occasionally.
Step 12: Now, get the small work bowl with the eggs in it, and whisk in the sour cream. Again, it makes the going easier if you add the sour cream slowly, about 1/4 of it at a time. Once mixed, add the vanilla extract, orange zest, and OJ concentrate, and whisk to combine. Now, add this mixture to the cream cheese, break out the hand mixer again, and mix them together until the whole thing is smooth (will take a couple minutes of mixing).
Step 13: Now, get your springform pan out, and pour half of the cheesecake mixture into the pan. Yes, half. Smooth it all out with a spatula, and get out the food coloring. Add three drops of red and five drops of yellow to the remaining mixture, and use the hand mixer to mix it all in.
Step 14: It now should have an orange color: Why not just add the food coloring to the whole thing? Because this way, when you cut into it, we'll get a nice two-layer effect, with the top orange and the bottom white. It's entirely optional, of course, but it looks really nice.
Step 15: Carefully pour the colored mix into the pan, and spread it evenly over the first half. Place the whole thing in the oven, and set your timer for 15 minutes. This is going to take a lot longer than 15 minutes to bake. But, during the first hour, you'll want to open your oven door for a few seconds (to let the heat out) every 15 minutes. This will make the heat "gentler" and reduce your chances of the top of the cake cracking open. Adding 1 tbsp of corn starch will help even more. And if you want to avoid opening the door entirely, put the pan in a water bath. (This means place it in a large pan with about 1/2 inch of water in it. This will soften the heat, and keep the top of the cake moist. Alternately, you can use a baking stone.) If you're using a springform pan, only use a water bath if you have lined the bottom with foil, and have enough extra to fold up along the edges of the pan. Otherwise, water will leak into your cake through the gaps in the bottom of the pan!
Step 16: After the first hour has gone by (and you've opened the door four times, now) go ahead and keep the door closed, baking it for one more hour. I've seen a lot of cheesecake recipes that bake for a much shorter time than this. Trust me, the cake will come out perfect. Also, it may "rise" a bit in the oven -- don't worry, it'll settle back down when it cools. How to tell when the cake is done? It will be lightly browned around the edges, but stil soft and jiggly in the middle. A toothpick inserted near the edge will come out clean, but near the center will come out with cake batter on it. And here it is, very slightly brown around the edges (the brown doesn't show up as well against orange), a little wobbly in the center. Carryover will take it the rest of the way. When it gets to this point, remove it from the oven, and place on a cooling rack for one hour. Do not place it directly in the fridge! The heat that it's hanging onto will finish cooking the middle of the cake, without overcooking the edges. Once an hour has passed, place the cake in your fridge for at least six hours before removing from the pan.
Step 17: And here it is, finally out of the pan. The orange layer doesn't show up as well in the picture, but it looks really nice laying on a plate. The edges are a little rough and ugly, though, so first we'll cover that up.
Step 18: Take your remaining crushed graham crackers, and press them into the sides of the cake. You won't get a huge amount of them to stick, just a thin layer, but it's enough to pretty it up. Once that's done, it's time to start making the topping.
Step 19: Put the 1/4 cup of Apricot Jam and 1tbsp of Orange Juice in a small sauce pan over medium low heat. (Why Aprocot jam? Because orange would be too overpowering. Apricot has a sweeter, less acidic flavor that won't overpower the mandarin orange slices, or the cake.) While that's melting, take a moment to drain the mandarin orange slices and pat them dry with a paper towel.
Step 20: Once the jam and juice mixture has melted, coat the top of your cheesecake with it. A pastry brush is excellent for this, of course. You could use a basting brush, but be careful with the stronger bristles it has. If you don't have either of these, just pour it on top of the cake and carefully smear it all over the top with a soft rubber spatula, a spoon, or your (clean!) fingers. Don't worry if it drips over the edges. Once it's well coated with the glaze, start putting the orange slices in concentric circles on the top of the cake. The slices are really small, but there's a lot of them. It'll be fine. Cover the entire top of your cheesecake with them. Letting this chill in the refrigerator for at least a half hour before serving will allow the glaze to firm up and really hold the orange slices onto the top of the cake, though it could certainly be served immediately. Extra Bonus Content! -- Here are a few more ideas that I just came up with right now. 1) Want an extra fancy presentation? Get an extra can of mandarin orange slices, and prepare 1-1/2 times the glaze. Drain and dry them like the others. Put your cheesecake on a platter big enough to serve it on, and arrange the extra slices around the base of the cheesecake. Drizzle the extra glaze on the plate around the cake. 2) Don't want the mandarin orange topping? Try this. Get some chocolate (baking chocolate would be best because of the firmness and size of the chunks, but you can use a Hershey's bar) and put it in the freezer while your cake is in the fridge overnight. When you're ready to make the topping, zest another orange, and shave the chocolate bar. (Using a knife to shave it will yield the best looking results, though you could use the grater.) Liberally sprinkle the top of the cake with the orange zest and chocolate shavings. 3) The mandarin orange topping goes great on plain cheesecake, too. Or try it with other fruit, like strawberries (you can use strawberry jam for this since they aren't really acidic), blueberries, or cherries. You can take the easy way out by using canned pie filling, or make it yourself with fresh ingredients. You can also try other flavors for the cheesecake itself, though this may require more experimentation. And there you have it! My favorite part of this recipe, by the way? It's pretty cheap. Assuming you already have the basic baking supplies (sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract) and not counting the cost of the cake pan. Blocks of cream cheese can often be had for $1 on sale, and you can use store brand graham crackers. The cost of the whole thing is less than $10, and you will never find a whole cheesecake this good for that price.