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 Small Plates
MAMÉ-ZARA Fun
Collecting and Using Small Plates
Part of the fun of collecting dishes and other tabletop accessories, is to assemble wide-ranging variations within a category. With mamé-zara, one way to do this is focus on a color scheme such as red and then collect as many different shapes and designs as possible.
Another might be to choose a subject like Mt Fuji … or the auspicious kotobuki calligraphy 寿
No matter what color, shape or theme you choose for organizing your mamé-zara, small plates are a great way to serve tasty tidbits, whether they are freshly made for that meal, or leftovers from a previous one.
To get you started, here are a few recipes for small bites that pair well with beer or sake or tea.
SHISO MAKI しそ巻き hails from Japan’s Tohoku region known for its walnuts and full-bodied red miso. This dish showcases both in an addictively tasty filling for herbaceous shiso leaves. Some Tohoku chefs will add a spicy spark to the sweet-and-salty miso mixture by adding a pinch of fiery shichimi tōgarashi to the filling.
and
HŌRAI-ZUMÉ 宝来詰め plump, juicy Treasure Filled (stuffed with chicken) Mushrooms, that are skillet-seared and soy-glazed.
Visit the companion blog post, Small Plates.
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 Bean-Throwing for Setsubun
Mamé maki (bean-throwing for Setsubun) tosses ogres outside (with dried beans) and brings good fortune inside (with dried beans). Fuku mamé (dry-roasted “good luck” soybeans) can be black or white (beige, really). FUKU wa UCHI ONI wa SOTO Bring in...
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...
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
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...