Japanese Potato Salad

You will need Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise for this to taste right but it’s easy to get hold of, either a local Asian supermarket or Amazon will sort you out! I would also advise the chunkiest ham you can get, either go for trimmings or bake a ham joint and use some in this.

2 large floury potatoes

1/2 small tin Sweetcorn, drained

100g ham, chopped

1/2 medium carrot, julienned

1” cucumber, very finely sliced

6 tbsp kewpie mayonnaise

Pinch of salt

– Peel and chop up your potatoes and boil in a large pan of salted water for 20 minutes. Drain and return to the pan, let them air dry for 5 minutes.

– Mash the potatoes until smooth.

– Add your other ingredients and give a good stir through. Eyeball it, if you feel you want different proportions go for it! Alter it to your taste.

– Voila! It’s a Japanese Potato salad!

Hiyashi Chuka

I make Japanese style lunch boxes, bento, for my mum when she’s at work.  A lot of the time they’re just leftovers dressed up prettily or made in minature.  I use a lot of western foods too.  Since bento means lunch in a box it all works.  Sometimes I get the urge to go very Japanese and I’m in that phase right now so expect a few Japanese recipes from me in the next week.  Tomorrow’s lunch contains hiyashi chuka, which is a sort of noodle salad.  It makes a great light lunch and is a little bit different, although not for the Japanese who would probably regard it as a tuna mayo sandwich type of lunch, ie. normal and boring!

For the egg sheet:
1 egg
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp dashi powder if you have it
1 tsp corn flour
a splash of cold water. 

1 nest of egg noodles per person
1 slice of ham per person
about 1″ of cucumber per person
Dipping Sauce (I use TsuYu, which I get in a big bottle from the Oriental Supermarket.  You can find a recipe to make a good dipping sauce here.) 

– Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.  Set aside to cool when done.
– Mix all of the ingredients for the egg sheet together well and heat a frying pan with a little oil. 
– Pour the egg mixture into the pan and swirl around so it is evenly covering the pan like a pancake. 
– Cook until the egg is solid then peel up off the pan and roll the egg sheet up swiss roll style. 
– Thinly slice the egg sheet, ham and cucumber. 
– Place the noodles on the bottom of each plate or bowl, then arrange the ham, egg and cucumber on the top. 
– Pour over the dipping sauce and eat!