Project Eat to Beat the Heat

Aug 5, 2024 | Cooking Club

This project is about making foods that are refreshing and restorative when the weather is oppressively hot and humid.

Mouth-puckering UMÉBOSHI have long been touted as a way of ensuring food safety on hot days because of their anti-bacterial properties.

Members of the URI family (Cucurbitaceae or cucurbits) such as cucumbers (kyuuri) quench thirst and restore mineral balance (especially potassium and magnesium) depleted by sweating.

Thick, chewy UDON noodles provide the energy you need to function (your body turns noodle carbs into ready-for-action glucose).

To jump-start your kitchen project, here are some recipes for UMÉBOSHI, UDON and URI (cucumbers). ENJOY, and please post to the Kitchen Culture Cooking Club your dishes that help you beat-the-heat.

 

Uméboshi

梅干し Uméboshi

Here is a GUIDE to making your own mouth-puckering pickled plums… and follow these instructions to make your own plum-filled omusubi.

UDON noodles

Serve your noodles DIPPING-STYLE (tsuké-jiru) with condiments.  Make a classic dipping sauce with umami essence (a vegan version is available, too) and adjust intensity of flavor with stock (either Standard Sea Stock or Kelp-Alone Stock).

Here is a GUIDE to cooking store-bought udon noodles.

Cucumbers

胡瓜 (きゅうり)kyuuri

Cucumbers quench thirst and help restore mineral balance (especially potassium and magnesium) depleted by sweating.

Enjoy this Smashed Cucumber dish… or make a cucumber and wakamé salad dressed with a tart miso mustard sauce… or drizzed with plum dressing.

 

To learn more about eating to beat-the-heat
visit my Kitchen Culture blog
and read my August, 2024 newsletter.

Show Us Your Kitchen Project

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?
Ready to SHARE YOUR KITCHEN PROJECT with others?

KITCHEN CULTURE Cooking Club members, head over to our Facebook Group. Not yet a member? Please join – membership is opt-in and free of charge.

Looking forward to seeing what you’re making in your kitchen…

An Edible Ode to Winter: Sleet & Snow

An Edible Ode to Winter: Sleet & Snow

Winter weather reports predicting SLEET (mizoré), are rarely welcome news. After all, the bone-chilling mixture of rain and snow is messy under foot and creates hazerdous road conditions. But when  mizoré appears on a menu, it conjurs up tasty fare. Snowy white daikon...

Year-Passing SOBA; New Year-Welcoming UDON

Year-Passing SOBA; New Year-Welcoming UDON

Year-Passing SOBA... New Year-Welcoming UDON The Japanese bid farewell to the current year by slurping l-o-n-g noodles at midnight. Though most areas of Japan eat soba, calling the noodles toshi koshi (year-passing), those hailing from the Sanuki region eat udon....

PROJECT Noodle-Slurping

PROJECT Noodle-Slurping

NOODLE-SLURPING Anyone who has ever spent time in Japan, or regularly eats at Japanese restaurants, knows  (all too well)  the sound of slurping. Noodles, for sure, but soup, tea and other liquids, too. Although noodles, soup and beverages are part of every food...

Project Kayaku Gohan

Project Kayaku Gohan

Vegetables cooked into RiceKayaku (Takikomi) Gohan加薬 (炊き込み) ご飯 In different parts of Japan, rice that is cooked in a flavored liquid with a variety of ingredients (that went to flavoring that liquid) goes by various names. The most generic is takikomi because it...

Recent Posts & Projects