- Hi, I'm Rie, I'm a Tasty producer.
Today, I'm going to be showing you
how to make my favorite Japanese recipes.
Omurice is one of my favorite food growing up.
You might remember this from Eating Your Feed episode
where Andrew tried to make Chef Motokichi's
recipe for omurice.
This is a slightly different version of the recipe
I modified to be easier and fun to make at home.
Chef from kichi kichi uses demi glaze sauce on top
and very soft omelet,
but the most common style
is rice seasoned with ketchup wrapped with thin omelet.
You might think seasoning rice with ketchup
is a little strange,
but ketchup is popular seasoning in Japan.
The most difficult part of making omurice
is making the omelet.
The inside of the omelet is almost like soft scrambled egg.
I wanted to make easier way of making this, and my coworker,
Hitomi, suggested poaching egg in plastic wrap.
This is one of the first video I made for Tasty Japan.
I like making it this way because it's a little easier
and lighter than making a larger complicated one
like Chef Motokichi.
I make omurice whenever I don't feel like making dinner
or I cannot find anything in my refrigerator.
It's one of my favorite Japanese dishes to eat.
Some of you might recognize this dish
from the Tasty Cookoff video.
It's not only my favorite,
but it instantly becomes the favorite of whoever tries it.
The frying temperature is important.
I fry at 320 degree
to make sure the chicken wings are fully cooked,
then I take the wings out and raise the oil temperature
to 350 to make it crispy on the outside.
I've made it hundreds of times because my friends
and coworkers always ask me to.
The secret of the wings is the sauce.
The easy way to remember is the ratio two parts soy sauce,
one part sugar, sake, and mirin.
It's easy to adjust the amount whether you have to make
a smaller or bigger batch.
A big difference from American fried chicken is
I coat them with potato starch instead of flour.
It gives more crispiness to the wings.
It was my first competition and I won,
but some people said I made wings instead of fried chicken
so it doesn't count, but wings are also chicken.
So, technically it's a fried chicken.
I still won (laughs).
There is a donut chain store called Mr. Donut in Japan.
One of their signature donuts is their pon de ring.
It's chewier than regular donuts.
I wanted to recreate their donut, so I made this video.
You might be surprised
because I used tofu as one of my main ingredients,
but don't worry, it doesn't taste like tofu at all.
I added tofu to give more moisture and body to the donuts.
Pon de ring has this cute ring shape,
so I shaped the dough into a small ball shape
and stuck them together on top of the parchment paper.
When you fry it,
you can drop them into oil with the parchment paper.
Parchment paper will separate naturally in the oil.
Once it comes off, take it out from the oil.
The technique helps the donut hold the ring shape.
If you like mochi, you will definitely like these donuts.
They are quite different than American donuts,
but I like them because they are not too sweet,
but I'd love to hear what you think.
If you make them, tag me on Instagram.
I love seeing when the Tasty audience makes our recipes,
and these are really worth the time.
I think a lot of people know ramen by now,
but we also have another awesome noodle dish called udon.
Udon is made with flour, water, and salt.
It's thicker and more tender.
It's usually served with warm soup
or cold soy sauce-based dipping sauce.
Since it's only made with such a simple ingredients,
I remember we made udon from scratch at the summer camp.
We put flour, water, and salt in a plastic bag
and kneaded the dough by stepping on it.
I don't think that at summer camp in the US
they are making udon noodles, and they are missing out.
There are a variety of toppings,
but my favorite is niku udon or kitsune udon.
Niku means meat.
Niku udon is usually served
with thinly sliced cooked meat on top.
Kitsune udon is served with beef fried tofu skin
called aburaage.
Kitsune means fox.
Because the guardian foxes of Shinto Shrines
are frequently brought offerings of fried tofu,
it's thought that foxes enjoy fried tofu,
which is where kitsune udon got its name from.
In a video, we made a curry flavor version,
which gives a nice spicy kick to it.
Udon soup is different in the west and east side of Japan
for a lot of reasons.
Some say it's because the mineral contents of the water
and people in Tokyo like a little stronger flavor.
So, if you buy instant udon noodle,
they make different version in the east and the west.
It's a comfort food for me.
I always crave it when the weather is colder
or when I feel under the weather.
I made this video for April Fools.
Basically, you make small cream puff
and stuff a couple of them with wasabi.
Cream puffs are not a Japanese dessert,
but I see them everywhere in Japan
and they are one of my favorite dessert to eat and make.
In Japanese, we call them chu cream.
The tip is when you heat up the flour and water mixture,
you should mix them very well until it's shaped like a ball.
My trick to adjusting the amount of egg is when the dough
falls in a triangle shape, it's good to go.
The dough is called pate choux, and if you fry them,
you can make churros.
I recently taught Ryan and Shane from Unsolved
how to make pate choux.
Once you've piped the dough,
don't forget to brush some water on the surface.
Moisture helps choux pastry puff up in the oven.
Whenever I make cream puffs,
I wait in front of the oven and watch the pastries puff up
because I love watching the transformation in the oven.
The second tip is when you are adding eggs,
make sure to wait until the dough is cold enough to touch
so the egg won't curdle or scramble
when are mixing them with the dough.
Cream puff is my favorite dessert that my mom makes,
also it's one of the first dessert I learned to bake.
Cream puff in Japan is usually stuffed with custard cream
and it's so delicious.
So, when I made these,
one of my unlucky coworkers ate the one with wasabi,
which is a very spicy paste and not very good dessert.
She didn't like it,
but that's why I called them Russian Roulette cream puffs.
I make this cake a lot at home.
It's quite easy, and you don't need a cake mold.
You just need a sheet pan.
This cake is very moist, so it's easy to roll it up.
It's been two years and a half
since I started working for Tasty.
I was hired as a recipe developer to launch Tasty Japan,
but also learned how to produce videos along the way.
I've never made videos before, but my mentor, Jodie,
told me how to shoot and edit videos very patiently.
I love making Tasty food videos
because it's just my hands and cooking.
I'm a shy person,
and I've always been self-conscious about my accent
because English is not my first language.
So, when our producer, Spencer,
first asked me to make mesmerizing Japanese dessert video
with my face and my voice, I was very hesitant;
however, after we published the video,
I was encouraged by so many positive comments,
and it made me realize that your weaknesses
can be your strengths
because it makes you different from the others,
and that isn't a bad thing, it's what makes you unique.
And that's what I've learned since coming to Tasty
and sharing about my life and what I love with all of you.
If you have passion to share what you love,
there will always be audience for it.
I'm really grateful for all of your support and kind words.
Thank you so much for watching.
- [Andrew] Oh, yes!
(relaxing music)