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 Hakusai
Using HAKUSAI fully
A favorite wintertime vegetable in Japan, hakusai cabbages are increasingly available in Asian groceries throughout the world. A whole head averages 2 kilo (about 4 and 1/2 pounds). I encourage you to buy one (or at least a half or quarter-head wedge) and use it fully. Over the course of a week or 10 days try your hand at making several different dishes from it.
Download a recipe for: HAKUSAI no SENMAI NABÉ (Many-Layered Pork and Napa Cabbage Hot Pot 白菜の千枚鍋) to get you started. The most suitable leaves for making this dish are from the center of the head. To get to these tender leaves, peel away some of the outer-most layers — they are likely to be bruised, but save them to use as a “lid” for pickles.
Next, download a recipe for: HAKUSAI no SOKUSEKI-ZUKÉ (Quick-Pickled Hakusai Cabbage 白菜の即席漬). Here is your chance to use any trim from constructing your layered pork and hakusai segments for your hot pot. Quick Pickles are also a great way to use the tougher core pieces of hakusai.
Other suggestions include stir-frys, soups and gyōza dumplings (use the recipe on pg 260 of WASHOKU to guide you).
Hakusai also works well with noodle dishes. Try it as a topping for nyūmen and for sara udon (Flat Plate Udon Noodles pg 63 KANSHA).
See page 200 of An American Taste of Japan (Morrow, 1985) for instruction on making Shabu Shabu (Bubbling Beef-in-a-Pot).
A recipe for another quick-fix pickle combining hakusai with cucumbers and fiery yuzu koshō (Crisp and Fiery Chinese Cabbage and Cucumbers) can be found on pg 195 KANSHA.
Download a Guide to Buying, Storing, and Using Hakusai Fully
Visit the Kitchen Culture page for more about hakusai. And read about hakusai in my January 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.
Green Tea
Green Teas 緑茶 RYOKU CHA Green teas are green because enzymes responsible for oxidization have been prevented from doing their (dark and discoloring) work. The Japanese halt oxidation by steaming freshly picked leaves, while the Chinese typically pan-fire or roast tea...
Sora Mame
(Fava beans have been part of the eastern Mediterranean diet (Egypt, Greece, Italy) for at least 4000 years. There are stories of monks from India traveling through China who brought fava beans to Japan in the Nara Period (710-794 AD). However, the first written...
Displaying Dolls for Doll’s Day
The Andoh Family's full set of HINA NINGYŌ Just off camera is a wind-up music box that plays Ureshi Hina Matsuri うれしひな祭り. Download a chart explaining each of the dolls, and words to the song. 雛祭り Hina Matsuri Doll's Day For ancient agrarian societies, quirky winter...
FUKI no TŌ
Fuki no Tō 蕗の薹BUTTERBUR (Petasites japonicas) Sansai, literally “mountain vegetables,” are foraged from woodland areas in various parts of Japan as winter thaws into spring. When sansai dishes appear at table, it signals the start of culinary spring fever: an...