Japanese Cooking

As interest in Japanese food has grown so has an interest in Japanese cooking. Popular cookbooks like Jenifer Andoh’s Washoku have brought the skills of everyday home Japanese cooking, with its tools and ingredients into American homes.

Japanese cooking requires a few special tools and an increasingly more common set of ingredients to get the great tastes found only in this cuisine. Probably one of the first things a novice cook will need to get their hands on is miso paste. Made from fermented soybeans, this ingredient serves as a base ingredient for miso soup and is used as a flavor in a variety of Japanese dishes and sauces.

Next a series of condiments is necessary to get great flavor. Soy sauce is already very common in the United States, but is essential to many dishes. Mirin also very common is a type of sweet rice wine. Sake, though very perishable and most often used as a drink, is a very common ingredient in many dishes. Rice wine vinegar is also a good ingredient to have on hand for many sauces and marinades.

A few helpful tools can get you started. A good sharp knife is helpful, the most common of which in Japan is the santoku, which looks like a standard chef’s knife, but with a curved end. A rice cooker is a good appliance if you plan on cooking a lot of Japanese dishes, but rice can also be cooked on the stove. Finally, a set of Japanese table wear – chopsticks, soy cups, rice and soup bowls will complement the food you prepare.

Related Information

Traditional Japaense Foods
Traditional Japanese foods often include different kinds of sea vegetables.

Japanese Foods
You can prepare Japanese foods in your home with the help of a few tips.