the non-japanese cook: Japanese food for British home cooks

new home, new recipes

22/04/2018 by Chris Leave a Comment

久しぶりですね？ Long time, no see.

You may have noticed that the blog has been a little quiet over the last few months. This is because we’ve been in a rather roundabout process of moving home and starting new jobs. In short, we ended up in London, capital of excitement and the UK.

In numbers, our situation is as follows:

Weeks since we got our own kitchen: 4
Weeks since all our kitchen implements arrived: 3
Weeks since we got an internet connection: 1

As you can deduce from the above, our #Londonlife began with a week of cooking without spoons followed by two weeks of having only spoons for entertainment.

Thankfully, those days are over. From now on, I can return to blogging about home-cooked Japanese meals on a hopefully regular basis. Click ‘read more’ below to find out about this one!

haiku of the month 03.2018

20/03/2018 by Chris Leave a Comment

bad timing
is no cause for shame
daffodils

rangiri cucumber yuzu salad: a lazy sunomono

19/03/2018 by Chris Leave a Comment

When I’m pushed for time and need an extra vegetable dish, this rangiri cucumber yuzu salad is the recipe I turn to most often. Essentially a cucumber sunomono (vinegared salad), it provides a nice splash of acidity and colour alongside fish, chicken, rice or miso soup. Rangiri or ‘random-cut’ refers to the chopping technique, or rather the visual effect it creates. It’s actually not random – or complicated – in the slightest. Read on for all the info and a few ideas for variations!

udon alla carbonara recipe: not wafu, not pasta?

15/03/2018 by Chris Leave a Comment

Carbonara is big in Japan. But, as you may know, Japan loves to adapt ‘Western’ foods to its own taste. When this particular flavour first hit Japanese shores, I’m sure karubonāra udon (カルボナーラうどん) came about pretty quickly. As it happens, Italy is where I first became interested in cooking. There, culinary localism and orthodoxy remain strong. I must have internalised some of this, since I’ve always shied away from messing with classics such as spaghetti alla carbonara. That is, until recently. Now I realise I was missing out! Could udon actually beat spaghetti? Try my udon alla carbonara recipe and see what you think.

sweet red bean paste recipe (koshian)

16/02/2018 by Chris Leave a Comment

This post is dedicated to sweet red bean paste, or anko as it’s known in Japanese. This glorious substance is a component in many traditional Japanese desserts and yes, you can make it at home. Anko comes in two main varieties: coarse tsubuan and smooth koshian. I have always preferred koshian, but have only recently attempted to make it from scratch. I must warn you, it did take a whole morning. If you want to hear that story, read on. Alternatively, jump to the end for the sweet red bean paste recipe in brief!