I use it every single time I make rice unless the recipe absolutely specifies cooking in a pot or pan.

I think a pressure cooker is ideal for brown rice. But for white rice - that might be a question for someone with in depth knowledge of Korean cooking (I’m under the impression that Korean rice cookers are more akin to pressure cookers than the Japanese kind are).
I’ve personally never made white rice with a pressure cooker - and (being Spanish) I use my pressure cooker a LOT.

Pressure cooker is required for Kosogenmai / nekasegenmai - brown rice with Azuki beans (preferably the smaller harder variety) and kept warm until color change (3 days)
https://kawashima-ya.jp/contents/?p=438

さやいんげんの胡麻和え (Sayainngenn-no-gomaae, Japanese style green been with sesame dressing)
 

Being stuck at home and making Japanese curry from a store bought curry block started to get me going. I used to do more "cooking" at home when I was younger but these days. Needed something to do.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e6eb103f4e.jpg

Green beans or string beans. Can either boil in water or steam it, I chose to steam it.

That is it for green beans. Now to dressing. Use sesame seeds, specifically white sesame seeds are used here. If bought sesame seeds from stores, first you have to dry roast sesame seeds on a pan at home before uses. It is commonly used items in Japan that if you go to Japanese grocery stores, you can buy pre-roasted sesame seeds even in the U.S. If you do not find one at Japanese grocery stores near you then it is not a real Japanese grocery store. :p

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...10cb1add60.jpg

I use Japanese cooking mortar and pestle, suribachi (すり鉢). First grind sesame seeds.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7ef3c9d37b.jpg

Will smell of sesame seeds. On some other dishes ask to grind sesame seeds till it become paste, like peanut butter. However, on this dish you do not want to do that. It is perfectly alright to have few seeds which did not get grind. Then add sugar.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ea2e849eae.jpg

Continue grinding till seeds and sugar are evenly mixed. Then add soy sauce little at a time.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...26792935b7.jpg

Continue grinding by adding soy sauce little by little. Once all soy sauce is added, finished with the dressing.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...489e70e279.jpg

Then add cooked string beans and the dressing together

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2c14a64bef.jpg
.
You can do same using spinach, which is another popular dish in Japan. One nice thing about this dish is you can pre-make this and keep it in refrigerator for few days, green beans do not become soggy, remain crunchy.

鳥手羽先の煮もの (Toritebasaki-no-nimono, Japanese style simmered chicken wings.)
 

Get chicken wings. If it is whole wings then cut a wing at a joint and make it to two pieces. Cook both side of wings in a pan till both side is brown.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...90c0eaaf94.jpg

Once both side of wings are browned nicely, transfer wings to a pot. Add chopped ginger and chopped hot chili peppers, followed by water and let it boil once. Then add sugar, mirin (味醂, Japanese sweet cooking rice wine), and soy sauce.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...12650f4cc3.jpg

Let it simmer for least 1.5 hrs., till chicken get brown color from simmering liquid. Let the lid on a pot loose, and let liquid evaporate slowly to concentrate the flavor.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...50326ef738.jpg

Finish! Once finished meat on wings are so tender that meat will easily come off the bones. That is so nice about this dish, you can actually eat with chop sticks because meat will come off that easily. Do not have to eat like fired chicken.

That looks great! And I have some green beans that need to be cooked up.

Lots of good Youtube channels and videos, but I particularly like the ones from 岡奈なな子 (Okana Nanako). There's a very ordinary, non-recipe seeming method to her cooking. The chopping and knife work makes me cringe though!

肉じゃが (Nikujyaga, Japanese style simmered beef and potato)
 

This is another popular dish at Izakaya (居酒屋). For this dish use thinly sliced beef, that is why cooking time is very short for this dish, do not have to cook beef that much. If beef is not thinly sliced then need in improvise cooking of this dish.

In a pot brown thinly sliced beef with oil. Since beef is thinly sliced, beef will be cook fast, once beef is brown in color then that is it.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6d1572075b.jpg

Then add onions, potatoes, and shirataki (しらたき, Japanese semi-transparent yam noodles). Recommend cutting shirataki noodles to shorter before adding to the pot. Add sake (酒, Japanese rice wine) and stir the content once or twice.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...99f54c1a65.jpg

Then add sugar and soy sauce. Let it simmer. All you need to do is cook potatoes, which will be 10 min. or so. Beef is thin slice so it does not take time to cook. At the end add Naga-negi (長ネギ. Japanese large green onion (scallion)) . Simmer just a minute after addition of Naga-negi.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c517c18f5f.jpg

Dish is done! It is easy dish. Can keep in refrigerator for few days and warm it in a microwave oven for easy dish!

Izakaya at Home!
 

It is dinner time now after all these cooking! It was nice to have something to do stuck at home.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3ac6c8b58e.jpg

Addition to what I cooked, hiyayakko (冷奴, cold tofu) with chopped scallions, grated ginger, and katsuobushi (鰹節, dried thinly sliced tuna flake), add soy sauce over for flavor. Yes, store bought tofu.
Store bought Edamame (cooked soy beans), sprinkle salt for flavor.
Smelt tsukudani (ワカサギの佃煮) from Akita region (tsukudani, 佃煮, simmered and cooked in sugar and soy sauce) Old Japanese cooling method, food can be kept at room temperature. Used to preserve foods in old days.

Drink was Sapporo beer and Takashimizu sake from Akita brewing.

Why I need Wara-Wara or other chain Izakaya places if I can do this at home! :D

P.S.
After cooking and nice Izakaya dinner with nice sake, I treated myself. :D

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...53cb6b879b.jpg

Gotta cheat once in a while. :p But stuck at home, gyms are closed, I am getting fat! :td: 14 hrs. flight to Tokyo become more unbearable! :eek: :D

Thank you AlwaysAisle , that’s as close as I could hope to get to to getting a home cooked meal by my father-in-law. And no need to wash the dishes afterwards!
The “manly” meal inspiration is very welcome. Have just found a new source for beef, just occurred to me that if I freeze it a bit, I might be able to slice it thinly enough for this kind of nikujyaga. Hadn’t considered adding shirataki, but that’s perfect for us as I tend to eat less carbs/potatoes than the other members of my family - an ideal way to cater to us all with one dish.

Just realized I never had edamame at home. Is it difficult to make, or just quickly cook it and then put some salt on?

That's beautiful, but does anyone know what happens to the fruit from cherry trees growing in parks and on the public places, for instance in Tokyo? I've observed gardeners pruning trees very precisely, but I've never noticed cherries being picked, nor many cherries on the ground.

Thanks for comments. It was good way to spend time. I just had to move my behind off the couch and do something. I am lab chemist by training and how I arrange cooking is similar to how I work in the lab. Cooking will keep me standing, rather than sitting down so that was also good.

Japanese grocery store in Boston sell thinly sliced beef so I decided to do Nikujayga. I never asked it, but likely if I ask at local grocery stores they will thinly slice beef for me. Another dish I though about is Tori-no-karaage (鳥の唐揚げ, Japanese style fired chicken) where pretty much any white meat part of chicken boneless usually in small bite size, marinate in soy sauce, sake, and ginger. Sprinkle with potato starch (片栗粉, katakuriko) and deep fry. But that requires good amount of oil for frying. I really do not do cooking much lately and did not want to ended up with that much of used cooking oil.

Usually sold frozen in bags. I never seen edamame sold fresh as produce in the U.S. grocery stores, although that is nothing unusual in Japanese grocery stores. In the U.S. these days some grocery stores have Edamame at frozen vegetable section, does not have to be at Asian grocery stores.

Just read the cooking instruction. Some cook in boiling water for few minutes, some cook in microwave for few minutes. I saw one which supposed to thaw at room temperature、which take time. Once I did not read the direction on the bag at the store and bought a bag of frozen edamame which you thaw at room temperature. It takes time so I improvised and tried in microwave and boiling water, did not come out well...

They have "cherry" festivals everywhere, lots of jam, pies etc. are sold ! I gather this year the birds will be happy without the competition .

You are talking about Ebisuya? If so, do they seem to be doing well business-wise?
I was going to the Japanese market in Central but they closed and then even Kotobukiya closed in Porter, so there was no Japanese-run grocery store for a short while. Then Ebisuya opened but you couldn't get there without a car so I remember there being like almost no customers each time we went. Was worried about their viability, but I see that they're still open which is great!

For those of you who live in North America, Trader Joe sells really good frozen KAKIAGE. They call it "bird's nest."
I don't understand why they call it that, but it's literally kakiage like in Jpn and it tastes good.