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 join the KITCHEN CULTURE Cooking Club Facebook Group (formerly the TSUDOI Project), an interactive community space.

 

PROJECT Tomato Salad

TOMATOES combine well with both land and sea vegetables, and with cold noodles too, to make a variety of SALADS. This PROJECT Tomato Salad is about creating your own “house” salad featuring tomatoes.

To start you off, here is a recipe for enjoying tomatoes OHITASHI-style

TOMATOES and COLD NOODLES

Tomatoes and cold noodles are a winning combination. Find information and inspiration in the posts devoted to:

TOMATO, CORN and WAKAMÉ

This combination of land and sea veggies makes a terrific salad, a summertime favorite in Japan.

Here is a primer on using fresh and/or dried calcium-rich wakamé (Undaria pinnatifida; a type of algae). DOWNLOAD Anatomy of Wakamé.

 

TOMATO, TŌFU, OKRA, BONITO FLAKES and NORI

In Japan, tomatoes are often paired with tōfu in a dish known as hiya yakko.

Bonito flakes (katsuo-bushi also known as okaka) are often used to garnish fresh or briefly blanched vegetables. The fish flakes will be more smoky-aromatic if roasted in a dry skillet before crushing them.

Use this post devoted to okra to help you prepare it well.

Plain, or flavored (aji-tsuke) nori can be crumpled and sprinkled on top of tomatoes — a tart sesame-soy dressing goes well with this. Or, make nori tsukudani and use it as a sauce or dressing.

For more about Tomatoes in Japan visit my Kitchen Culture blog

and read my July 2021 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.

Kinoko Gohan

Kinoko Gohan

Kinoko Gohan Rice with Mushrooms The Japanese call autumn’s many culinary pleasures Aki no Mikaku. Such pleasures include a glorious array of mushrooms. You, too, can celebrate the season at table by composing a menu that highlights this bounty. Kinoko Gohan Is an...

Daigaku Imo

Daigaku Imo

Daigaku Imo (Glazed Sweet Potatoes) 大学芋 Syrup-glazed, black sesame-studded Daigaku (university) imo (potato) first became popular among university students in Japan at the turn of the twentieth century. To learn more about the history of this dish, read my October...

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 will...

Tsukimi Udon

Tsukimi Udon

Tsukimi Udon Moon-Viewing Noodles 月見うどん    As summer turns to fall, the moon wanes in a particularly luminous fashion. Indeed, the Harvest moon is celebrated in stories and songs around the world. In Japan, tsukimi, or “moon-viewing” also has a place at table. This...

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