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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 Cooking with Bamboo Shoots
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PROJECT Cooking with Bamboo Shoots
A single bamboo shoot has different segments, each with a different texture and flavor profile.
The BROAD BASE is best suited to cutting into circular slabs, half-moon slices, or chunks. Try slathering these with miso and broiling to make dengaku... or soy-glazing them, teriyaki style. The broad base can also be sliced into batons or matchsticks for stir-frying, or small dice for simmering and saucing.
The TENDER MID-SECTION is usually sliced into comb-patterned wedges called kushi-gata, in Japanese. These wedges can be used to make takénoko gohan (rice cooked with bamboo shoots)… or to simmer with wakamé, or stir-fry or braise with meat and other vegetables (such as Chikuzen Ni).
The CONICAL TIP is most often sliced into thin kushi-gata wedges and floated in clear osumashi soup, or simmered with wakamé.
PRINCESS SKIN is delicate and tender, best shredded for clear soups or sauced with tart plum to make bainiku aé, or peppery sanshō leaves to make kinomé aé, or smoky bonito flakes to make okaka aé.
In addition there are many suggestions, and recipes, in KANSHA: Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions (see page 94).
Using the recipes suggested here as a point of departure, create your own bamboo shoot dish and share it with us at Kitchen Culture Cooking Club.
Takénoko Kinomé Aé
One way to enjoy bamboo shoots is to dress it in a peppery-citrusy sauce made from crushed kinomé leaves and sweet light miso. Download the recipe.
Download this reference sheet for details regarding sanshō (pepper plant) and kinomé (peppery leaves).
Takénoko Gohan
Many versions of this springtime classic add thin strips of abura agé (fried tōfu) to the sliced bamboo to boost nutrition and provide a pleasantly chewy texture that contrasts to the tender-crisp shoots. Most often a touch of spiciness is added as a garnish just before serving — ki no mé (sprig from the sanshō pepper plant)
Visit Kitchen Culture blog to learn about FRESH BAMBOO SHOOTS.
Download instructions for preparing them from scratch.
Read my April 2024 newsletter.
Show Us Your Kitchen Project
QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?
Ready to SHARE YOUR KITCHEN PROJECT with others?
KITCHEN CULTURE Cooking Club members, head over to our Facebook Group. Not yet a member? Please join – membership is opt-in and free of charge.
Looking forward to seeing what you’re making in your kitchen…
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.
PROJECT: Osechi-Making
December is a busy time… The Japanese aptly call the final month of the year shiwasu, written with calligraphy for "professor" 師 and "running about in a tizzy" 走. In Japan shiwasu is a time of frenzied activity that culminates with Oshogatsu (New Years) when families...
JAPAN’S POTATO LINGO & LORE:
In Japan today, two types of Western-style potatoes are regularly enjoyed: mékuin (May Queen) and danshaku ("Baron"). The former was developed in Great Britain at the beginning of the 20th century and made its way to Japan via America shortly thereafter. Mékuin...
Project Potato
Most white-fleshed potatoes generally fall into either of two categories: fluffy OR waxy. Fluffy potatoes are high-starch and tend to crumble when simmered; they are perfect for mashing, and when making korokke (croquettes). The Japanese often describe these dishes as...
TONBURI: Caviar of the Fields
The Japanese eat a number of "unusual" foods, and TONBURI (とんぶり) surely qualifies as one of them. Tonburi are the seeds of Kochia scoparia/Bassia scoparia, also known as 箒草 hōki-gusa. Branches of the mature kochia plant are crafted into hōki brooms (yes, brooms that...
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