Homemade Japanese Dinner #2

I convinced Iris to make us a Japanese dinner the night before her first day of school (mostly since I know she'll be too busy once school starts... at least until volleyball season is over).  This time on the menu was Miso Soup (again, but this time with better instructions), sticky rice (obviously) and tempura.  

First the Miso:

sorry it's sideways!

I cut these cubes.  They are a bit bigger than when Iris did it.  Next time I'll do 6x5x2 instead of 5x4x2.

Shiitake mushrooms.  Last time we used enoki, but they were all out.

Bean sprouts.  The ones at the asian market had more developed beans at the end that offered a bit more nuttiness than the bean sprouts I'm used to.  I really liked it!

Green onion added at the very end.  I cut it with scissors right into the pot.

Miso Paste.  We got this at the Asian Market.

First boil the mushrooms for a bit.

Then add a handful of bean sprouts.  Let boil awhile, then the tofu.  I didn't keep track of exact times because it doesn't seem to matter too much.  I would say prepare the mushrooms, put them in.  Wash the bean sprouts, put them in.  Cut the tofu, put it in, etc.

She put in about 3 spoonfuls like this of Miso Paste.   The green onions go in almost right before serving.

 Now for the tempura.

She was looking for shrimp to bread, and the Asian Market already had some breaded!  Next time I'll just get the shrimp, though, so she can show me how to do the breading as well.

I decided awhile ago to give up on eggplant, because I've never made something with it that I liked.  Well, perhaps I gave up too early :)

Green pepper.  Isn't that weird?  I don't think I've even eaten green pepper as the main veggie before, it seem to always play in the orchestra for my meals.

This is the batter- about 3 cups flour, two eggs, and then add enough cold water to get it about the consistency of pancake batter. (but not lumpy like pancake batter)

Trying to show the consistency with horrible photography skills.

Coating the eggplant.

This electric skillet was filled with about an inch of vegetable oil and heated to about 350 F.  She started the shrimp first.

Then added the eggplant.  You can see how beautiful the shrimp looks now.

The finished goods.  And MAN were they good :)

This is some kind of sauce that you dilute with water to dip the tempura in.  It's called  "tsuyu".   This is what she put on the fried tofu last time too.

We also dipped the tempura and shrimp in a mixture of soy sauce and  mayo.  I had to laugh because it reminded me of Utah's famous "fry sauce" :) (ketchup and mayo, for all you non-Utahns)

The Frog approved.

We also picked up some of these to try- Iris likes them...

and so does Peach.

Thanks Iris for a delicious meal!  Hopefully this was enough info for some of you to try it for yourself :)