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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 Fish Sauce
![](https://tasteofculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/five-ways-to-use-fish-sauce-collage.jpg)
Five ways to use fermented fish sauce
There are lots of ways of using fish sauce. Here are a few popular examples:
(top, left) NABÉMONO (hot pots that get assembled ahead and simmered at table) are often made with a seasoned broth. IKANAGO NABÉ seasoned with funky ikanago shoyu, is brimming with fish, seafood, tofu and vegetables.
(bottom, left) A few drops of ishiri fish sauce added to the pot as daikon simmers imbues it with deep flavor. The tender-simmered daikon is then brushed with ishiri sauce and broiled. Daikon no Ishiri Yaki, multi-textured and richly flavored.
(top, right) NIMONO (simmered or stewed dishes) are yet another way of cooking with fish sauce Here, potatoes and squid are stewed in an ishiri-laced broth; a dab of mustard adds a spicy accent.
Here, fish sauce was used to marinate chicken before dredging it in cornstarch and deep-frying. This dish is known as Tatsuta Agé, a reference to the burnished color of autumnal maples along the Tatsuta River in Nara Prefecture (center, right).
Here, fish sauce has been used to make takikomi gohan. Takikomi is a method using seasoned broth instead of water to cook rice. When squid-based ishiri fish sauce is used, the dish is called ISHIRI GOHAN (click to download).
Using this recipe for ISHIRI GOHAN as a point of departure, create your own dish using ishiri or one of the other fermented fish sauces described in the post Funky Fish Sauces.
Please share what you make in your kitchen by posting a photo and brief description to Kitchen Culture Cooking Club. Looking forward to seeing what you make.
Check out the latest post to
KITCHEN CULTURE:
Funky Fish Sauces
Check out my FEBRUARY 2024 newsletter
all about Funky Fish Sauce.
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.
OBON: Summer Holidays
Rooted in Buddhist tradition and practice, Obon is the time when spirits of the departed are believed to return to this world for a short, annual visit. It is not a morbid occasion but rather a pleasant and respectful way for younger generations to stay connected to...
Project Tomato Salad
TOMATOES combine well with both land and sea vegetables, and with cold noodles too, to make a variety of SALADS. This Project Tomato Salad is about creating your own "house" salad featuring tomatoes. To start you off, here is a recipe for enjoying tomatoes...
Tomatoes in Japan
Originating in Mesoamerica about 7,000 years ago, tomatoes arrived in Japan early in the Edo period (1603-1868) having traveled the globe and being domesticated along the way. The first tomato plants in Japan were considered an ornamental -- they were not cultivated...
Project Shaved Ice
PROJECT Shaved Ice is about making Japanese-style kaki-gōri confections.Many people top shaved ice with fresh fruit or commercially prepared syrups. But for those who would like to make their own, here is a simple-to-make STRAWBERRY sauce. Note the recipe includes a...
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