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Build a Meal

Guruten (Gluten) Stir Fry

Tofu Shirataki Salad (Gluten free Cold Noodle Salad)

Nabe

BAM 40: Ikura Don (Salmon Roe Rice Bowl), Shitake and Green Onion Osumashi and Salad.

BAM 39: Teriyaki Chicken, Okara salad, Daikon with Chirimen jyako and Rice.

BAM 38: Shake (Salmon) Rice, Satoimo and shimeji miso shiru, hiyayakko with komatsuna and salmon skin daikon oroshi

BAM 37: Sui-gyoza 3 (3 of 3)

BAM 36: Sui-gyoza 2 (2 of 3)

BAM 35: Cabbage Salad with Sesame Dressing, Suigyoza Soup, Eggplant and Bell Pepper Miso Stir fry and Rice

Matsutake Gohan

BAM 33: Yakiniku, Kimchi, Kimchee, Soy Bean Soup and Rice

BAM 32: Wafū Pasta 3: Sansai (Mountain Vegetable) Pasta

BAM 31: Nasu no Tuskemono (Fast and Easy), Turkey Hijiki Niku Dango (Meat Ball), Negitama (Egg and green onion) Miso Soup and Rice

Cooking Perfect Stove Top Japanese Rice (Update)

BAM 30: Okonomiyaki (American-Kitchen)

BAM 29: Okonomiyaki (Buta Tama) (Easy Breezy)

BAM 28: Classic Osaka-Style Okonomiyaki (Buta tama)

BAM 27: Hiyashi Chuka

BAM 26: Southern-Japanese Build-a-Meal featuring Fried Chicken with Umeboshi Honey Dipping Sauce, Tofu Macaroni Salad and Okara Cornbread

BAM 25: Vegan Build-a-Meal Nagaimo Pancake, Lemon Daikon, Myoga and Red Potato Miso Soup and Rice.

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Building a Japanese Meal 2: The composition

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
I've been posting what I call "Build-a-meal" posts for a while now and I thought I'd revisit this topic since I only briefly talked about it in the first build-a-meal post. Japanese meals are typically composed of okazu (side dishes) along with rice and shirumono (soup). Japanese meals can also simply be a large bowl of rice with a topping called a domburi. For the Western influenced dishes on this site, the composition is closer to that of a Western meal therefore I usually leave out rice and soup and replace them with pastas, breads or other starches such as potatoes.

There are many ways to compose classic Japanese meals and there isn't one hard and fast rule, however, one of the basic rules to go by is "Ichijyu Sansai" (1 soup and three okazu). This combination is said to be the basic foundation of healthy meals because it is balanced and nutritional. I also think that the number of ingredients that go into each okazu is also an important factor but ichijyu sansai is a good rule of thumb. I've posted a couple ichijyu saisai build a meals (See BAM 10, BAM 13).

The concept of "Ichijyu Sansai" is based off of "Ichijyu Issai" (1 soup, 1 okazu) which was first adopted during the Kamakura era at Zen temples. This term was coined to place importance on meals that were simple and frugal. The kanji for "sai" means vegetable because the okazu was made up of vegetables in order to further simplify the meal. However, on special occasions, or when there were visitors, the composition of the meals were Ichijyu Sansai.

Most of the build-a-meals here are based on the "Ichijyu Nisai" concept (1 soup, 2 side dishes) but I try to make up having one less okazu with lots of ingredients in each dish.(See BAM 1, BAM 2, BAM 7, BAM 8, BAM 9, BAM 12, BAM 16, BAM 20, BAM 21, BAM 25).

For placement of dishes, see first build-a-meal post.
Tag List
tags (categories)
Soy Sauce [25]
Dashijiru [23]
Rice [19]
Daikon [14]
Egg [14]
Vegan [13]
Sesame Seed Oil [12]
Katsuobushi [11]
Chicken [11]
Kyuri [9]
Shiso [9]
Mayonnaise [8]
Miso [8]
Tofu [8]
Shoga [8]
Sake [8]
Cabbage [7]
Garlic [7]
Beef [7]
Vegetarian [7]
Pork [6]
Miso soup [6]
Vinegar [6]
Mirin [6]
Age [5]
Umeboshi [5]
Carrots [5]
Carrot [5]
Green Onion [5]
Hakusai [5]

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