Product Description

"Yum!" thought Amy Kaneko when she tasted the Japanese home cooking she'd married into. Even better, turned out it uses easy-to-find ingredients, and she couldn't believe how simple the techniques are for food this delicious. This terrific cookbook showcases 70 of Amy's favorite recipes, including Tonkatsu (crispy pork cutlets in a tangy sauce) and Onigiri (cute little rice balls stuffed with salmon). A glossary describes the more unusual ingredients and a source list makes it a snap to find and use Japanese specialties such as daikon, miso, and wasabi. It's tasty, it's practical, it's a wow with family and friends so Let's Cook Japanese Food!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #438843 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Home-style Japanese cooking is demystified in this refreshing and informative cookbook. After marrying into a Japanese family, the American author was taken under her mother-in-law's wing to learn the ins and outs of Japanese cooking. Here she presents her acquired knowledge in an appealingly designed book with Japanese graphic motifs and color photos. The recipes themselves are a mix of family favorites and restaurant dishes Kaneko learned to recreate at home. Yet readers will see few of the familiar foods available in Japanese restaurants in the U.S. Instead, the book illustrates how to make dense, exotic creations like a sumo wrestler's stew with fish, bacon, chicken and tofu, as well as Yoshuko (fusion) dishes combining Japanese and Western influences, like Beef and Onions in Tomato Gravy over Rice. In the first few pages, Kaneko identifies the basic ingredients and equipment needed. Chapters devoted to Tofu and Eggs; Vegetables, Fish and Shellfish; Meat and Poultry; and Rice Noodles and Dumplings intersperse recipes with boxes that highlight Japanese traditions. Though she includes a labor-intensive Okonomiyaki (a pan-fried dish), Kaneko recognizes the home chef's limits: she readily employs the concept of mottai nai (don't waste) and saves readers time with suggestions for reusing leftovers. (Apr.)
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About the Author
Amy Kaneko spent several years in Tokyo and now lives in San Francisco. Her two children approved the noodle chapter.

Deborah Ory is a New York-based photographer, whose work has been featured in Bon Appétit and Real Simple.

Customer Reviews

Yay! Yay!
Ms. Kaneko has created something unique -- a Japanese cookbook that reads, in its way, like Betty Crocker. These are recipes that she and her family make at home in California, and she has used commonly-available ingredients, with substitutions noted for things like teriyaki sauce and tonkatsu sauce. I have used a couple of recipes (and look forward to trying more as our schedule opens up) and found them to be delicious and no more complex than a good American recipe. The measurements are in English (Imperial) rather than metric (which also makes it friendlier to an American cook). If you are trying Japanese cooking for the first time, this is the cookbook you want.

Valuable for more than just the recipes
My hubby was born in Tokyo, but came over at 7. He's a great cook, but his repertoire of from-scratch homecooked Japanese food is pretty limited -- miso soup and fried rice. He's taught me those. Everything else Asian that we eat at home comes partially out of a box/bag from the Asian grocery -- curry, mabo tofu, real ramen, and okonomiyake.
I've bought several Japanese homecooking cookbooks, but something was missing from the translation on the **method.** The author of this book explains those missing methods in ways I can understand.
For example, the author explains how to cook kabocha squash. Kabocha is probably in everyone of my Japanese cookbooks. Being used to boiling potatoes for American fare, I've always put way too much liquid in it. I end up with mush. She says 1/2 inch of liquid at the most. I can't wait to try this out when the weather gets cooler.
I love the narratives that come with every recipe.
You don't get a whole lot of recipes in this book, but I think her explanation of *how* to cook Japanese homestyle food is well worth the price.

great cookbook with great photos
the recipes here are great. I love the fact that it's simple, but not boring. It's well organized, although I wish there were photos for every dish in the book. Otherwise, a great cook book for people who want to start cooking japanese food. It also has a decent glossary for ingredients and such.