Saturday: Japanese

Last week I got a copy of Elizabeth Andoh's Washoku: Recipes From The Japanese Home Kitchen in order to learn more about making (and eating) Japanese food. Yesterday Cati took me to a good Japanese supermarket down in Mountain View so I could stock up on staples. And then yesterday afternoon and evening I cooked. And cooked. And cooked. :-)


Things that I made, with brief comments:

1. Salt broiled fish. I used ling cod for this because the fillets looked pretty good and had nice bits of skin still attached (finding skin-on fillets of anything other than salmon is a bit time PITA). This wasn't the best choice of fish for this dish, as the ling cod was a bit too mild to be served so plain.
2. Miso soup with enoki mushrooms. I liked this, but I think I added too much miso. Also, next time I will use something other than white miso, which was a bit too sweet in this application.
3. Broiled tofu with two sauces: leek miso, and spicy red miso. This was really, really good. The tofu was super fresh and had a great, gentle flavor.
4. Soy-braised hijiki with carrots. Different, and good.
   
5. Pickled carrot threads. this was an improv to use up the rest of the carrot from the hijiki. I sliced it lengthwise with the ceramic slicer, then julienned the slices to get long threads. After salting for about half an hour, rinsing, and squeezing, I sprinkled them with rice vinegar and mirin. Nice.
6. Daikon peel sauteed with soy sauce and sake, with hot pepper. This is a variant Andoh suggests of a recipe for "Fiery Parsnips"; it's excellent.
7. Rice, of course.
8. Pickled ginger (purchased, not made)
   

It's going to take me a while to get my brain around this cuisine, but it is seeming possible.