Cucumber and Baby Sardines with Vinegar Dressing

Ingredients (for two servings)

1 cCucumber (100g)

1/2 tsp salt

20g bBaby sardines (20g)

ADressing: 2 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp soy sauce

Recipe

1. wWash the cucumber and cutslice it into about 1mm thin round slices. Sprinkle salt on them and set aside for 5-10 minutes. Then rRinse them the slices in water and squeeze out theany excess water from cucumbers.

2 Boil some water in a pan and pour the water over the baby sardines in a strainer, then drain them well.

3 Combine Athe dressinging mixture into a bowl and mix well. Then Ddress the cucumber slices and baby sardiens with Athe dressing just before eating and serve together in individual dishes.

Pork and Vegetable Miso Soup

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

･daikon radish (80g)

･carrot (50g)

･burdock (70g)

･konnyaku (50g)

･100g thiny sliced pork

･3 cups/600ml water

･2 tbsp miso
･1 tbsp sake

･Japanese leek (chopped) ---for garnish

Recipe

1. Peel the daikon radish and carrot, cut them into half-moons, and slice them into 5mm-thick pieces.

2. Peel the burdock and cut it into 1cm pieces. Soak the burdock in cold water to remove the bitterness, then drain.

3. Boil the konnyaku in water to remove the bitterness, then drain. Tear it into bite-sized pieces.

4. Cut the pork into bite-sized pieces.

5. Put the water in a pan and heat it. Add daikon radish, carrot and burdock and cook it over high heat. When the soup starts boiling, add the pork, konnyaku and sake to the soup. Skim the surface when the soup boil again, then reduce the heat, and simmer it until they are tender.
>Skim the surface when the soup boils again, then reduce the heat, ...
>Skim the surface when the soup is boiling again, then reduce the heat, ...

6. When the vegetables become soft, dissolve the miso into the soup.

7. Pour the soup into a serving bowl, then garnish with chopped Japanese leek.

Boiled Spinach

Ingredients (for two servings)

・Half a bunch of fresh spinach

・1 tbsp soy sauce

・1 tbsp dashi stock

・A pinch of salt, to boil

・Dried bonito flakes, if available

Recipe

1 Wash the spinach well and put it into boiling water with a pinch of salt.

2 Boil the spinach for about one minute.

3 Cool the spinach down under cold water in the bowl. Then, drain the water from the spinach and cut the roots of it a little bit and cut the rest of the spinach into about 3 cm long pieces.

4 Serve it in small bowls and put the mixture of soy sauce and dashi stock and dried bonito flakes on it.