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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 CUTTING & SLICING
![gobo pulled from field + scrapping + various cuts collage](https://tasteofculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/gobo-pulled-from-field-scrapping-various-cuts-collage.jpg)
PROJECT Cutting & Slicing
This Kitchen Culture Cooking Club PROJECT is about cutting & slicing ingredients to maximize flavor, texture and appearance while minimizing waste. Specific examples below focus on gobō cut three different ways:
SASAGAKI 笹掻き
SENGIRI 千切り
RANGIRI 乱切り
These cutting techniques are basic to Japanese cookery and can be performed with any knife – no special equipment needed.
Kimpira can be made using the sasagaki technique to produce shreds OR with the sengiri shredding technique. Try both ways, and compare your results. Did the irregular shapes and surfaces of sasagaki shreds shorten (or lengthen?) the cooking time compared to matchstick-like sengiri shreds? Did one, or the other technique seem to help, or hinder, flavor distribution? Which technique produced better (tastier, more attractive, easier) results for you?
Similarily, Chikuzen Ni can be made with vegetables cut using the rangiri technique to produce multi-faceted chunks OR with ordinary cubed or diced vegetables. Try both ways, and compare your results. Did rangiri cutting shorten, or lengthen, the cooking time compared to ordinary cubes? Did rangiri-cut ingredients seem to help, or hinder, flavor transfer and distribution? Which technique produced a more attractive dish in your opinion?
Please share your kitchen experiences with members of the Kitchen Culture Cooking Club. Post a photo with a brief description of what technique you used and how your choice affected the results.
(If gobō is difficult for you to source, use carrots or other long, slender ingredients such as celery, parsnip, or narrow radishes. Whatever ingredient you choose should be suitable for preparing by several different methods (such as simmering, stewing, and skillet-searing).
To find out more about gobō visit my May (2022) Kitchen Culture blog
The theme of my May 2022 newsletter is gobō.
![kimpira gobo sasagaki collage](https://tasteofculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/kimpira-gobo-sasagaki-collage.jpg)
SASAGAKI cutting technique is often referred to as a “whittle cut” in English because the knife blade is used as though to whittle a pencil. Sasa, however, means “bamboo grass.” The long, thin shavings produced when cutting sasagaki style do resemble sasa.
An easy way to create these shavings is to slash a stick of scrapped gobō lengthwise, as though to make a “plus sign.” Then whittle the stick so that each stroke of your knife blade removes several thin strips at the same time. Rotate the stick of gobō and repeat to remove more thin shavings. Continue to rotate and whittle to produce a pile of shavings. Or, use a peeler to produce lots of thin strips.
![kimpira gobo diagonal into julienne collage](https://tasteofculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/kimpira-gobo-diagonal-into-julienne-collage.jpg)
SENGIRI cutting technique is often referred to as “matchsticks” in English because the resulting piecees — narrow, square-ish strips — resemble matches. The same cut can also be referred to as julienne, after the French technique. Sengiri, however, means “1000 cuts” referring to the numerous long, thin strips produced when cutting sengiri style.
To create sengiri strips of gobō, first make many thin slices on the diagonal. Arrange these slices so they overlap slightly (domino-style) and then cut thin, lengthwise strips.
![gobo rangiri chikuzen ni 3 collage](https://tasteofculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/gobo-rangiri-chikuzen-ni-3-collage.jpg)
RANGIRI cutting technique produces multi-faceted chunks from long, slender vegetables (such as gobō and carrots). It is sometimes called a “roll cut” in English because the item being cut is rotated between slices. However, the word ran refers to items arranged at “random” or in “disarray.” Indeed the cut pieces appear to be haphazard pile.
To create rangiri chunks, make your first cut on the diagonal, then roll/rotate the item towards you (about a one-third turn). Repeat slicing on THE SAME diagonal. The item (gobō, in this instance) is rotated, but the position of the knife remains fixed.
Post YOUR CUTTING & SLICING Project to
Kitchen Culture Cooking Club.
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.
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...
NANBAN-ZUKÉ
NANBAN-ZUKÉ 南蛮漬け (Southern Barbarian Style Fried-and-Pickled Fish) NANBAN refers to the Portuguese, the “southern barbarians” who settled in the port of Nagasaki, Kyushu late in the 16th century. In addition to Christianity and trade, these early Portuguese visitors...
Corn-studded Rice
Corn-Studded Rice Tōmorokoshi Gohan 玉蜀黍ご飯 Summertime... bushels of fresh, sweet, corn at every market begging to be taken home and transformed into Tōmorokoshi Gohan: corn-studded rice. Prepared takikomi-style, rice dishes are cooked in a flavorful stock extracted...
Domburi
Soboro Don そぼろ丼 Colorful Big Bowl When I first wrote about soboro don in 1981 for Food & Wine magazine, these sorts of rice bowls topped with various ingredients were little known outside Japan. Fast-forward forty years and classic domburi dishes such as...
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