Kitchen Culture Cooking Club
EXPLORE and PRACTICE Japanese cooking in your own kitchenAbout 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 join the KITCHEN CULTURE Cooking Club Facebook Group (formerly the TSUDOI Project), an interactive community space.
PROJECT Potato
PROJECT Potato
Most white-fleshed potatoes generally fall into either of two categories: fluffy OR waxy.
Fluffy potatoes are high-starch and tend to crumble when simmered; they are perfect for mashing, and when making korokke (croquettes). The Japanese often describe these dishes as hokahoka (“steaming hot“). The most commonly available high-starch potato in Japan is DANSHAKU (男爵) — pictured above, to the left. These fluffy spuds are also good prepared as MISO KAMPURA.
Waxy potatoes are lower in starch. When you want potatoes to hold their shape and not crumble — many curries, stews and some potato salads — are best made with waxy spuds such as MayQueen ( メークイン) pictured above to the right. Dishes made with waxy potatoes are often described as shittori or moist.
Chips and fries can be made with either type of potato but tend to be crisper, crunchier if high starch spuds (such as danshaku) are used.
Try making potato dishes with both kinds of spuds.
Learn about Japan’s Potato Lingo & Lore by visiting my Kitchen Culture blog.
Read my November 2023 newsletter.
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.
PROJECT Ozoni
A sampling of REGIONAL OZŌNI Top row, from left: Kanto (Tokyo area) style, Kansai (Kyoto, Osaka) style, Kanto, KansaiBottom row, from left: Tottori with adzuki-jiru, Miyagi with whole grilled goby fish, Kagawa (Shikoku) with anko-filled mochi, Hakata with buri and...
Yuzu Yu
ゆず湯・Yuzu Yu Food customs in Japan often involve word-play. The winter solstice that occurs on or about December 22 is called tōji 『冬至』, literally "winter arrives." But the word tōji can also be written as 『湯治』meaning "hot-spring cure" or "taking the baths." One of...
PROJECT Yuzu Miso
季節のゆず味噌・Kisetsu no Yuzu MisoSeasonal Citrusy Miso Sauce The Japanese delight in bringing elements -- often fresh produce -- of each season to table. Yuzu citrus fruits ripen from green to golden yellow as autumn turns to winter. As yuzu ripen, the peels become...
PROJECT Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums ・ 菊 KikuTo eat ... To use as a motif This Kitchen PROJECT is about CHRYSANTHEMUMS, to eat and to use as a motif in designing your autumnal menu. I have created a reference sheet regarding EDIBLE VARIETIES of chrysanthemums. If you can source fresh,...