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 Chikuzen Ni
Four Examples of Chikuzen Ni (left to right):
(VEGAN) sato imo (potatoes), lotus root, shiitaké, carrot, snow peas
konnyaku, chicken, lotus root, shiitaké, carrot, gobō and snap peas
chicken, broccoli, lotus root, bamboo shoot, konnyaku, and carrot
(VEGAN) gobō, shiitaké, carrot, thick fried tōfu and snow peas
筑前煮 ・Chikuzen Ni
This Kitchen Culture Cooking Club PROJECT is about making CHIKUZEN NI (soy-braised vegetables in the Fukuoka style) in YOUR kitchen… and sharing with fellow members what you have made.
A cross between a stir-fry and a stew, this dish no doubt has as many variations as there are households in Fukuoka. The BASIC RECIPE I offer includes two versions: CLASSIC (made with chicken) and VEGAN (made with thick fried tōfu). Use these as a point of departure for developing your own house version of Chikuzen Ni.
Scroll down for several BROTH OPTIONS.
All sorts of root vegetables and tubers are welcome in this dish; choose according to seasonal availability in your region of the world. Gobō, bamboo shoots, and lotus roots are commonly added. To make the dish colorful, carrots and some green vegetable are always included. Dark shiitaké mushrooms are often added to deepen flavor and provide a dark color contrast.
The flavor profile of this dish is a simple dashi broth base with a sweet-and-salty soy taste. Strong or spicy flavorings such as mustard, miso, sanshō, yuzu koshō or shichimi tōgarashi are not used.
Curious about how lotus root is grown? Take a look the Chikuzen Ni Kitchen Culture blog post and my February 2022 newsletter.
Looking for suggestions for other dishes that could be made with lotus root?
In WASHOKU: Burdock and Lotus Root Chips (page 213), Sweet-and-Sour Lotus Root (page 222)
In KANSHA: Lotus Root Dumpling Soup (page 78-79), added to Good Fortune Bags (page 180), added to Heaven-and-Earth Tempura Pancakes (page 109), added to Good Fortune PIckles (page 207)
Archived on this website: Chunky Chowder (Kenchin-Jiru), Soy-Simmered Root Vegetables and Shiitaké (Nishimé) and Kimpira
Simple vegan broths can be made using either Kelp Alone Stock or a mushroom-enriched version called Sankai Dashi (literally Mountain-Sea Stock). Using several varieties of kombu will add depth and complexity of flavor to your noodle soup.
Stocks using fish such as Standard Sea Stock (and Smoky Sea Stock) and Sanuki Sea Stock (made with iriko or niboshi dried sardines) are the most commonly encountered.
Looking forward to seeing YOUR CHIKUZEN NI dish at 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.
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...
Gingery Soy-Stewed Snapper
Gingery Soy-Stewed Red Snapper, several versions 金目鯛の煮付 KINMEDAI no NITSUKÉ Nitsuké-style stewed fish is especially flavorful when cooked bone-in. In addition to slices with skin and bone intact, various fish parts including heads, and collars are delicious prepared...
Shaping Rice
Making bale-shaped rice logs 俵型 TAWARA-GATA The Japanese often serve cooked rice at room temperature, packing it in obentō lunch boxes, or making it part of a buffet-like spread to feed a large crowd. At such times, the cooked rice is likely to be pressed, by hand or...
Rolled Omelets, Two Ways
Thick Rolled Omelet Atsu Tamago Yaki厚玉子焼き A classic in the washoku kitchen, thick, rolled omelets are made by cooking a seasoned egg mixture, layer by layer, in a pan – preferably a square or rectangular-shaped one. In and around Tokyo, the egg mixture is rather...
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