cooking techniques– tag –

Tebiraki is a traditional Japanese technique for preparing sardines by opening the fish with your hands instead of using a knife. While most fish in Japanese cuisine are filleted into three pieces with a knife, sardines are a little...

Shira-ae is one of Japan's classic dressed vegetable dishes. It uses tofu—a soft, mild soybean curd—as the base of a creamy dressing that coats vegetables and other ingredients.  The most important step in making good shira-ae is removin...

Itame-ni is a Japanese cooking method in which ingredients are first sautéed in oil and then simmered in dashi broth. Traditionally in Japanese cooking, the more common approach was to first parboil the ingredients and the...

If you want your daikon to taste truly delicious, there’s a simple traditional trick worth trying: parboiling it in rice-rinsing water. Daikon, a long white Japanese radish, contains more enzymes than many other vegetables, which means t...

Chawanmushi is a delicate steamed egg custard. Despite the name “custard,” chawanmushi isn’t sweet. Think of it as a silky, savory egg dish flavored with dashi, salt, and light soy sauce. Its silky texture gently melts in your mouth, whi...

Edamame are young, green soybeans, with another name "azemame" (meaning “ridge beans”) in Japan, where farmers used to plant them along the ridges of rice paddies to protect the embankments. When you are boiling edamame, the main tip is ...

On July 7th, we'll welcome the Tanabata Festival, also known as ”Shichiseki no Sekku.” It is one of Japan's five seasonal festivals. In the central Kanto region, it is celebrated on July 7th according to the modern calendar, but in Senda...

When grilling a whole fish, “Keshojio” (Decorative salt) is a must-have. Grilling tends to burn the fins and make them look less appealing. To prevent this, you would want to apply some salt on them before grilling. The salt protects the...

Hirazukuri is one of the basic slicing techniques used for preparing sashimi. It is commonly used for sashimi made from fish like bonito (”katsuo”), tuna (”maguro”), and sea bream (”tai”). When preparing dishes on large platters, ne...

Kiage is a cooking technique where you cool boiled vegetables and other ingredients in a strainer without placing them in water. For green vegetables, it's better to cool them in water right after boiling. This step helps keep their natu...