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 Flower-Inspired Rolled Sushi
Flower-Inspired Rolled Sushi
Use your imagination to create rolled sushi inspired by flowers. To get you started, here are some basic recipes:
This recipe for CLASSIC SUSHI MESHI includes instructions on cooking and seasoning rice, and information on the wooden tub in which the cooked rice is seasoned.
Flower-Inspired sushi rolls includes instructions for making PINK SUSHI RICE from black rice and for assembling some simple rolls.
FESTIVE FLOWER SUSHI ROLLS appear on pages 33-37 of KANSHA: Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions (Ten Speed Press, 2010)
My April 2023 NEWSLETTER is about FUJI (wisteria)
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.
SETSUBUN
FUKU wa UCHI ONI wa SOTO Bring in Good Fortune! Throw out the ogres!節分 Setsubun, a marker on the ancient, lunar-based koyomi calendar indicates the start of a new season; setsubun breaks occur many times during the year. Today in Japan the...
Furofuki Daikon Piping Hot Radish with Miso Sauce
Furofuki Daikon topped with Yuzu-Scented Miso ふろふき大根 Furofuki Daikon Piping Hot Radish with Miso Sauce Furofuki, literally “blowing steam,” is the name given to vegetables – most often daikon radish – that has been tender-prepped and then simmered in dashi broth....
Rice Porridge with Seven Spring Herbs
From left to right, the seven spring herbs are: SERI, NAZUNA, GOGYŌ, HAKOBERA, HOTOKÉNOZA, SUZUNA, SUZUSHIRO 七草粥 Nana Kusa Kayu Rice Porridge with Seven Spring Herbs More than a thousand years ago, the Japanese spoke of watari-dori ("migrating birds") coming from the...
Kuri Kinton
Kuri kinton sweet chestnuts in yam paste.KURI KINTON 栗金団 This traditional New Year’s sweet combines syrup-stewed chestnuts with a sweet paste made of mashed and sieved satsuma imo potato. The golden color of both the chestnuts and the potatoes are enhanced by...