Japanese Cooking Blog with Asako Nonaka #16
Asako Nonaka ◆ June 2, 2016
“Time really does fly to do work or house chores. Though I feel happiness in my present life, I think there is something else I can do more. I want to have a fulfilling life. I have had a dream but I have no idea what I should do first.”
How many people are there who have such stress and anxiety about the future? Have you ever thought you wanted to live your own life without doing things as decided?
It is important to have strong determination. If you didn’t have it, you would go the wrong way. If you had it, you could stand at any unstable place and walk straight to the place you want to go.
In order to do that, you need to control your body and mind. I think Japanese culture helps you do that.
RESOBOX has many classes of Japanese culture like Iaido, Kendo, and Jodo. They help you train the body and even the mind. You can imagine that when you follow the “kata (forms)” of them, you feel calm as well. In other Japanese cultural practices such as Shodo, Ikebana and Sumie, you create beautiful things by using your hands and even your mind. I guess many foreign people like Japanese culture because they can control the mind as well.
There are two approaches to control the body; they are from outside and inside. Exercising is a way to do so from the outside. So what is it that you can do to control the body from the inside? It is eating foods that become the energy to move us. The better the quality of food that you eat, the better the body you will have. There are many ways to control the body from the outside but eating is the only way to control it from the inside except through medical practice. So eating food is very important for us.
Japanese food makes us feel calm and empowers us from the inside. It uses Dashi (Japanese broth) and doesn’t use too much seasoning so you can taste the original flavors. It uses a lot of seasonal vegetables, seaweed and beans so rich in nutrients. You can feel the changing seasons and control your body and mood by eating them.
You don’t have to think it’s difficult to cook Japanese food. All you have to do is cook seasonal ingredients to use Japanese seasonings. It is easy and simple. You never get tired of the taste.
Furthermore, through cooking Japanese food you can understand how Japanese people have thought and grown. To know the sentences about eating Japanese food you can understand even the Japanese mind that is calm, quiet, dislikes a quarrel and respects other people.
This time I am introducing an easy recipe of “Fried eggplant in broth.”
The skin of the eggplant has an anthocyanin pigment called “Nasunin”. It’s a kind of polyphenol. Anthocyanin works for the recovery of eyestrain and eyesight. It inhibits active oxygen and prevents cancer. It cleans the vascular system and prevents arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure! Let’s eat eggplant and be healthy.
Recipe: Fried Eggplant in Broth
★ Details
Cooking Time : 20 Minutes
Recipes Makes : 4 Servings
★ Ingredients
- 3 eggplants
- 1 cup of “Dashi”(broth)
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of mirin
- 1 tbsp of sugar
- An adequate amount of bonito flakes.
★ Directions
- Remove the stems and hulls from the eggplants and discard. Cut lengthwise into two halves. Make diagonal cuts on the skin side. Cut them into bite-size pieces.
- Grease the pan with olive oil. Grill the skins in a pan until lightly browned. Turn to the opposite side and grill as well.
- Add the remaining ingredients and cover. Simmer for 10 minuntes.
- Dish it up and put bonito flakes on it.
I hope you will be healthy and be able to control your body and mind through cooking Japanese food. I hope you have a fulfilling life and try what you want. When you visit Japan, please feel free to come to my cooking class!!
