Kitchen Culture Cooking Club

EXPLORE and PRACTICE Japanese cooking in your own kitchen

About Kitchen Culture Cooking Club

Welcome to the Kitchen Culture Cooking Club, a community space providing encouragement to those who want to EXPLORE and PRACTICE Japan’s washoku wisdom in their own kitchens.

To facilitate this, themed projects will be posted to this page periodically. Project Assignments and links to relevant reference material stored on this site will be posted to this page. Anyone, anywhere in the world, with a sincere interest in Japanese food culture is welcome to browse the contents of this page and then replicate the themed project in their own kitchen.

For those who wish to display-and-discuss their projects with like-minded people, I invite you to become a member of the KITCHEN CULTURE Cooking Club Facebook Group (formerly the TSUDOI Project), an interactive community space. If you are not already a member, please apply. Members are encouraged to post photos and a short description of what they make in their own kitchens in accordance with the chosen theme.

 

Project Kiriboshi Daikon

Cooking with KIRIBOSHI DAIKON in your kitchen.

This versatile ingredient can be used in soups, pickles, rice dishes and a variety of sides, too. Here are a few recipes to get you started:

Kogane Meshi, a takikomi-style rice dish

Granny’s Sun-Dried Radish, a stirfry-style side dish

Hari Hari-Zuké, a gingery sun-dried radish pickle
(KANSHA, Ten Speed Press), pg. 204

Packages of kiriboshi daikon are available outside Japan in most Asian groceries. It is best to buy sun-dried product, tenpi-boshi, rather than chemically dried radish so that the soaking liquid can be used as a stock. Check labels carefully. Or, download instructions to make your own  Home-Made Kiriboshi Daikon.

 

Want to know more about kiriboshi daikon? Check out the KITCHEN CULTURE blog

If you haven’t yet read my MARCH 2024 newsletter about kiriboshi daikon, check it out.

Recipes and Resources

Stock (Dashi)

Dashi stock is essential to making soups and simmered or stewed dishes. Dashi is also used when making many egg dishes and all sorts of sauces, dips and dressings. Using good dashi will make a noticeable difference in the outcome of so many dishes you prepare.

Click to download recipes for (vegan) Kelp Alone Stock or Standard Sea Stock + Smoky Sea Stock

How to Cook Rice

In Japanese, the word for cooked rice, ご飯 GOHAN, is the same as the word for a meal, ご飯 GOHAN. Indeed rice is central to the meal.  Download the Rice with Mixed Grains recipe.

How to Prepare Sushi Rice

Sushi dishes are made with rice that has been seasoned (with sweetened vinegar) AFTER being cooked. Download the Classic Sushi Rice recipe.

Quick Pickles

The Japanese enjoy a wide variety of tsukémono pickles, many can be assembled quickly and are ready to eat within a short time.

Download a recipe for Quick-Fix Hakusai Cabbage.

Kiriboshi Daikon

Kiriboshi Daikon

Before refrigeration became widely available, pre-modern societies struggled with keeping fresh food from spoiling. A variety of ingenious techniques were developed throughout the world, including drying fresh foods in well-ventilated shade. In Japan, the resulting...

Funky Fish Sauces

Funky Fish Sauces

Fermented fish sauces can be found in many parts of the world, most having been produced for thousands of years. It is unclear whether each was an independent "discovery" or whether they influenced each other by way of shared ancient trade routes and/or political...

PROJECT Cooking with Fish Sauce

PROJECT Cooking with Fish Sauce

There are lots of ways of using fish sauce. Here are a few popular examples: (top, left) NABÉMONO (hot pots that get assembled ahead and simmered at table) are often made with a seasoned broth. IKANAGO NABÉ seasoned with funky ikanago shoyu, is brimming with fish,...

Miso Soup

Miso Soup

An Honorable Bowl of Soup The Japanese have several words to describe their ubiquitous soup seasoned and enriched with miso. The prosaic miso shiru 味噌汁 is a generic word meaning "miso-thickened broth" while miso ji-daté 味噌仕立て is a functional, culinary term meaning...

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