Following are the ingredients and tools you need to cook genuine Japanese food. The Japanese pantry has very few ingredients and I have listed them below as the essential ones. Each one has an amazing story and I encourage you to look at the you tube adjacent to every one of them of as it is fascinating to learn how much they rely on soy and rice and seaweed and the care everyone takes in producing and selecting quality ingredients. It is in the combining of these few ingredients that great Japanese cooks distinguish themselves.
Essential ingredients:
Shoyu is either dark (koikuchi) or light (usukuchi). In Japan 80% of sauce used is the dark variety while here in the US 80% of consumption is of light soy sauce. I follow the Japanese convention of using usikuchi for cooking and koikuchi for sauces. Video
Mirin and Sake. Both are critical ingredients, and both are forms of rice wine.
The proper Mirin to buy is Hon Mirin and though a little more expensive it is a base element for so many recipes video.
Sake is used in cooking as well as is the traditional beverage to drink with Sushi and Sashimi. For cooking you should buy quality sake but not top quality drinking sake. You should not buy "cooking" sake video
Miso. Miso is another rice product that also includes some soybeans. There is light and dark soy that are distinguished by length of fermentation. Whichever you buy make sure it involved organic yeast, has no alcohol or MSG. The presence of these ingredients is an indication of shortcuts in manufacture and inferior quality. Video
Dashi
An ingredient every cook in Japan makes as we do chicken stock. You can buy high-quality dashi powder much as we can but chicken cubes. Making it from scratch however is better and more satisfying. I have included it in the cookbook here.
Kombu's fascinating story. Kombu video
Bonito flakes (Katsuobushi) are even more exotic. Video
Rice Vinegar
Rice vinegar is either seasoned or unseasoned. Buy the unseasoned as you will have the ingredients to season it yourselves. Video
Toasted Sesame Oil & Seeds
Sesame oil is generally used as is though sometimes it is combined with a variety of hot and savory spices and called Rayu
Sesame Oil video
You will also use much more toasted and black sesame seeds than you are now
Seaweed:
We have already talked about Kombu. Two other essential seaweeds are Wakame and Nori. Wakame is the seaweed you find in the bottom of your Miso soup and Nori is the seaweed used in sushi. We use both regularly and you will learn more about seaweed in Japanese cuisine here
Rice:
Rice is more central to the diet and hence culture of Japan than most any other food I know is to any other. So I can only scratch the surface here. What is distinctive is that rice is always rinsed clean, always soaked and always uses less water than we do in Europe and the Americas. Most all Japanese use rice machines which are quite sophisticated. One of the curious things is that these machines have settled on a standard measurement and provide a uniform cup for this purpose with the sale of every machine. The term cup then has entered into their recipes for making rice. The only problem for us is that their cup is about the equivalent to 3/4 of what we call a cup or 8 ounces. So, I have adjusted accordingly and if you are confused as to why a recipe, I reference indicates 2 cups and mine indicate 1.5 cups, now you know why.
Japanese rice is short grain and the Japanese rice grown in California and held in high regard by Japanese is called medium grain. They are treated exactly the same. This is the California rice we use. We have also used this Japanese rice with similar results. I tend to follow the water to rice ratio on the rice package rather than those of recipes. Recipes are often based on automatic rice makers and usually call for less water. Video here on rice in Japan
So, our dirty little secret is that while we very much enjoy Japanese rice,we feel it needs help for flavor. So, we always use dashi instead of water. The Japanese must feel the same way as they usually or at least quite commonly sprinkle Furikake on their rice. This is the brand I bought recently but there are many varieties, and they are all great. I usually add additional nori, or chile flakes or bonito flakes to a commercial furikake I buy. This captures this ingredient well.
Japanese also serve pickles routinely with their rice. I have listed to date two of these rice additives in our cookbook. Japanese Kimuchi and Tsukudani
Noodles:
There are various noodle types, and each has a variety of thicknesses. To date we have only really experienced Soba noodles made of buckwheat and usually served cold and ramen noodles which, for reasons I cannot understand, are generally sold in fresh form along with little packets of flavored broth. We make our own Ramen and so generally throw away the packets. Happily, we found a source of fresh ramen noodles without these packets, but it wasn't easy, and it wasn't in a Japanese store.
Gyoza wrappers:
Smaller than you might imagine and sold in the refrigerated section of Japanese stores. I have bought bad wrappers that were uncompromising to use and others which were soft, silky and forgiving. I therefore go for the more expensive and buy from Japanese stores. As gyoza, or pot stickers, are so tasty and so easy to make (after a bit of practice), you will soon regard this item as a kitchen essential
The following are items you will probably want to have on hand:
Yuzu Kosho Paste- Refrigerated combination of Yuzu citrus and green peppers. Spectacular
Fish sauce (Gyosho)- Much like the Mediterranean has Garum made from anchovies, Southeast Asian countries have fish sauce. It is indispensable and should not be omitted if called for. Some people don't like the idea of fish sauce just as some we know tend to react negatively to anchovies. For these individuals I would suggest you don't mention it and if you absolutely have to, lie.
Sriracha- Needs no introduction and is not Japanese, but has now become integral to spicy tuna, Poke bowls, spicy mayonnaise and many new Japanese or Japanese/American food
Kim Chee base sauce- While Kimchi is a Korean dish, this sauce is made in Japan. It is also a component of many of the same dishes listed above that call for Sriracha
Wasabi- Again needs no introduction and usually bought in a tube. Fresh wasabi is hard to find and expensive. This is why
Japanese cucumbers
Shiso leaves (also called Oba)
Mitsuba
Scallions
Napa Cabbage
Ginger
Radish sprouts
Chinese Chives
