Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors

From her home kitchen in Los Angeles, Sakai (The Poetical Pursuit of Food) renders Japanese flavors for the Western cook with exquisite care. She creates basics more often purchased at the supermarket, fermenting miso (for at least six months), kneading soba dough “(Wax on! Wax off!),” and pressing fresh tofu (“one of the tastiest foods in the world”). All of this yields rich rewards in dishes like a spicy soup of crisp-skinned duck and delicate soba noodles, or a simple broth with mushrooms, tofu, and yuzu peel. Throughout, Sakai brings readers along as she explores the ingredients and traditions she and her family carried with them from Japan. Readers are transported to the 300-year-old Tokyo shop where Sakai’s childhood friend had a job shaving woodlike blocks of preserved fish called katsuobushi, which is used to make a dashi broth. A bento box filled with inari zushi (fried tofu filled with sushi rice) and crab cream croquettes evokes Sakai’s schoolgirl days. But, as Sakai says, “[t]he goal is not to stress yourself out but to enjoy the creative process. People will appreciate your labor of love.” Home cooks wanting to dive into Japanese cooking will find Sakai to be a delightful and encouraging guide. (Nov.)