Authentic-ish Japanese

Yakitori kawa is literally just grilled chicken skin and sauce. There's nothing left if I swap out the skin, so you can't lighten it without serving a stick of nothing.

I can't make shioyaki "lighter" in any honest way. If you cut the portion, you cut the protein. If you swap out the mackerel fat, you lose the entire point, plus half the taste. There's nothing here I can do that's not an insult to both the fish and the eater. This is already as high-protein and "lean" as this kind of food needs to get.

Kabocha no nimono is squash simmered in dashi, soy, mirin and sugar. Cutting the sugar works and takes it to 183 kcal. Then I put chicken in to hold the protein for the calories up and it went to 246, which is heavier than where it started. Choose one: a lighter side dish with the sugar cut, or a main course. It cannot be both, so the sugar cut is written into the swap kit and the dish stays here.

Chawanmushi is dashi set with egg, at 145 kcal. I got it to 140, which is 3% and not worth printing as a recipe. The custard is already mostly stock. It is here as a dish that needs nothing rather than one that defeated me.

Dashi is water, a strip of kelp and a handful of dried fish shavings, strained. A bowl of it is 13 kcal. There is nothing in here to take out, and every version I tried came back at exactly the same number because I was subtracting from nothing. It is in this chapter because it is the base of half the book and it deserves saying plainly: dashi is already free.

Suimono is dashi with something small floating in it. The whole dish is 101 kcal a bowl. I added prawn to lift the protein and made it heavier, which is the honest outcome and not a recipe. Leave it exactly as it is.

Hiyayakko is a block of cold tofu with ginger and spring onion on it, at 108 kcal. The only way I made it better was by putting more tofu on the plate, which is a bigger dish rather than a lighter one. It needs nothing from me.

Agedashi tofu is a good example of what counting the oil honestly does to a book. Weigh the whole pan and it looks like a heavy dish that badly needs rescuing. Weigh only the fat the tofu actually takes up, which is what this book does, and a serving is 264 kcal and there is almost nothing to remove. What my version does do is raise the protein per 100 kcal from 3.1 to 7.9, by using firm tofu instead of silken and cutting the sugar in the broth. That is a real improvement and it is not a calorie saving, so it does not get to be a recipe. Use firm tofu, cut the mirin by a third, and fry it in a small pan.

Sunomono is cucumber, rice vinegar and a pinch of sugar, at 47 kcal a serving. Adding crab or prawn to raise the protein doubles it. That is a nicer starter and a worse answer to the question this book asks, so it stays where it is.

Tsukemono is vegetables in salt. A serving is 41 kcal. Every attempt to give the pickle dish a job beyond being a pickle made it heavier, and pickles do not need a job. This is a method rather than a recipe, so the method is here and the arithmetic is left alone.

Edamame is boiled soybeans in the pod with salt on them, at 109 kcal a serving and 11g of protein. It came out of every pass at exactly the same number, because there is nothing in it but the bean. The best snack in this book needed no work at all.