Ingrediences:

Nikujaga (Beef-Potato-Onion-Stew)

750g Potatoes

400g Onion

200g thinly cut Beef

Vegetable Oil

400ml Dashi

75ml Soysauce

3 TS Sugar

2 TS Mirin

1 TS Sake

Gyouza (Potstickers)

"Japanese Style"

250g Groundbeef

Springonion

Soysauce

1/2 big Mushroom

Ginger

Corn

"Korean Style"

250g Groundbeef

Springonion

1/2 big Mushroom

Kimchee

So I had lovely Gesa over last weekend. We hung out, watched silly stuff on Youtube, saw "The Good The Bad The Weird" (my sixth time), cooked and had an overall good time.
We made Nikujaga, one of my favorite japanese homecooking dishes ever. I´ve been told that you can get married for a good Nikujaga so... I´m trying.
I got this recipe from Kurihara Harumi`s book but everyone should know by now that I hardly ever follow instructions properly. I always use way more potatoes because I love the way they suck up the sweetness from the sauce. They´re even better the next day. It´s also pretty hard to get thinly cut beef around here so we usually use Gulash-Chops and cut them even smaller. I´m also pretty generous with the soysauce, the dashi and the sugar...

Here´s what you´re supposed to do:

Peel potatoes, wash them, get rid of the starch.

Peel onions, cut into 6 wedges each.

Cut meat into small pieces.

Heat up oil in a big pot, put in potatoes, then onions and beef. Fry for a few minutes.
Add Dashi, Soysauce, Sugar, Mirin and Sake (all of which is just NECESSARY for cooking japanese stuff and should be available at any respectable asian supermarket).

Get rid of the foam if any builds up. Let simmer until Potatoes are done.

Add more sugar or soysauce if wanted. Always remember: You have to like it, it´s yours, you decide. (Yeah, this is me trying to get everyone into wildstyle cooking again)

We usually eat Nikujaga on rice which is apparently not what the japanese do but... whatever. It´s good.

We also made Gyouza. This time I forgot to buy Cabbage and thought it would surely end up in epic fail but it didn´t. I just added tiny chopped mushrooms (well not that tiny but small enough), chopped springonion, a few tablespoons of (leftover) corn, and some grated ginger to the groundbeef, threw some soysauce on top, mixed well and put it in and it worked.

Gesa did pretty much the same with her ingrediences: ground beef, mushroom (her´s was smaller than mine), springonion and Kimchee. Tug in, done. Yes, it´s that easy. Well, you might have to practise folding a bit but that´s not hard, either. Gesa did it without folding, she just glued the Gyouza-thingies together with water.
Should I do a tutorial on how to fold Gyouza next time?
The folded dumplings go into a pan, get fried a little bit, the you pour water over them, put on a lid and let them steam. I usually let them fry some more after the water is all gone to get the underside of them crispy again. Because I like it.

And that´s it.
My only good note for this one is that if you keep ginger in the freezer it grates much easier than it does fresh. It peels really easy and you don´t have to fight the fibre-thingies that usually are a pain in the ass...

My gyouza filling.

Gyouzawrappers. This time not homemade but bought.