Cooking Cloth

Cooking Cloth

Cloth is the work horse, and often unsung hero, of the kitchen. In the Japanese kitchen, cloth enables the cook to perform a wide range of tasks such as lining steamers, draining and straining, enveloping, and shaping. fukashi nuno 蒸し布 Cloths known as fukashi nuno 蒸し布...
PROJECT Cutting and Slicing

PROJECT Cutting and Slicing

PROJECT Cutting & Slicing This Kitchen PROJECT is about cutting & slicing ingredients to maximize flavor, texture and appearance while minimizing waste. Specific examples below focus on gobō cut three different ways: SASAGAKI 笹掻きSENGIRI 千切りRANGIRI  乱切り These...
Aku Nuki and Kogomi

Aku Nuki and Kogomi

KOGOMI こごみ・屈み Fiddlehead of the ostrich fern; Matteuccia struthiopteris What the Japanese call kogomi is commonly known in North America as fiddlehead ferns; they can be found in many parts of Canada, New England, the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. In Japan,...
Yuzu Koshō

Yuzu Koshō

Yuzu Koshō 柚子胡椒 Mid-September…the heat of summer lingers on, but there is the promise of cooler autumn days ahead. That is when I typically see baskets of green yuzu in my Tokyo neighborhood markets and bags of green chili peppers, too. Within a month the yuzu...
NANBAN-ZUKÉ

NANBAN-ZUKÉ

NANBAN-ZUKÉ  南蛮漬け (Southern Barbarian Style Fried-and-Pickled Fish) NANBAN refers to the Portuguese, the “southern barbarians” who settled in the port of Nagasaki, Kyushu late in the 16th century. In addition to Christianity and trade, these early Portuguese visitors...
Great Graters

Great Graters

The Japanese developed two very special graters for two specific foods: 鬼おろし機 oni oroshi ki (“monster graters”) made from bamboo used to coarsely grate daikon into shards and鮫の皮 samékawa graters made from nubbly sharkskin that transform tough, fibrous wasabi roots...
Shaping Rice

Shaping Rice

Making bale-shaped rice logs 俵型 TAWARA-GATA The Japanese often serve cooked rice at room temperature, packing it in obentō lunch boxes, or making it part of a buffet-like spread to feed a large crowd. At such times, the cooked rice is likely to be pressed, by hand or...
Otoshi-buta Dropped Lids

Otoshi-buta Dropped Lids

16th century scroll (Shuhanron Emaki) 酒飯論絵巻 落し蓋 Otoshi-Buta Dropped Lids Used in Japanese kitchens for centuries for preparing nimono (simmered dishes), otoshi-buta lids drop down to sit directly on the food, rather than on the rim of a pot. Fuel-efficient as they...