Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors

The essential guide to Japanese home cooking—the ingredients, techniques, and over 100 recipes—for seasoned cooks and beginners who are craving authentic Japanese flavors.

Using high-quality, seasonal ingredients in simple preparations, Sonoko Sakai offers recipes with a mild voice and a passion for authentic Japanese cooking. Beginning with the pantry, the flavors of this cuisine are explored alongside fundamental recipes, like dashi and pickles, and traditional techniques, like making noodles and properly cooking rice. Use these building blocks to cook an abundance of everyday recipes with dishes like Grilled Onigiri (rice balls) and Japanese Chicken Curry.

From there, the book expands into a search of dishes organized by breakfast; vegetables and grains; meat; fish; noodles, dumplings, and savory pancakes; and sweets and beverages. With classic dishes like Kenchin-jiru (Hearty petite marmite with Sobagaki Buckwheat Dumplings), Temaki Zushi (Sushi Hand Rolls), and Oden (Vegetable, Seafood, and Meat Hot Pot) to more inventive dishes like Mochi Waffles with Tatsuta (Fried Chicken) and Maple Yuzu Kosho, First Garden Soba Salad with Lemon-White Miso Vinaigrette, and Amazake (Fermented Rice Drink) Ice Pops with Pickled Cherry Blossoms this is often an upscale guide to Japanese home cooking. Featuring stunning photographs by Rick Poon, the book also includes stories of food purveyors in California and Japan. this is often a generous and authoritative book which will appeal to home cooks of all levels.

About the Author

SONOKO SAKAI's cooking reflects her rich cultural upbringing. Born in New York and raised by Japanese parents, she lived in many places as a child, including San Francisco, Kamakura, Mexico City, and Tokyo. She is the author of two books, Rice Craft (Chronicle, 2016) and The Poetical Pursuit of Food (Potter, 1986). She has worked as a recipe developer, producer, creative director, cooking teacher, and lecturer. She is also a grain activist. Sonoko currently lives in Los Angeles and Tehachapi, California, with her sculptor husband, Katsuhisa Sakai.

I am a fortunate Angeleno who has had the wonderful opportunity to attend two of Sonoko Sakai’s cooking classes at her home. She is a master chef who is truly passionate about making traditional Japanese cuisine accessible to the home cook. I love the introduction to this book and was very touched by her description of her journey to teaching cooking with a focus on the craft of artisanal cooking. The book is much more than an assortment of recipes, it is a complete education in the culture of traditional Japanese cooking. The subtitle “simple meals, authentic flavors,” refers to the home-style way of preparing food. This does not mean that the preparation of the recipes are necessarily easy and fast. But the ingredients are clean and authentic, and the recipes are clear and instructive with gorgeous pictures. The resulting dishes are so incredibly delicious. My favorites dishes so far are the water kimchi which is super beautiful and refreshing and the amazuzuke (quick vinegar pickles) which also make beautiful gifts. Speaking of gifts, I am planning to buy copies of this book for holiday gifts for friends and family-Sergio

Sonoko Sakai's book is the ultimate anthology for Japanese home cooking. Ms. Sakai is a wonderful storyteller. She writes about the traditions and principles behind Japanese ingredients and recipes, and adds historical contexts where applicable. If you're like me and a bit anxious about food safety, you'll also appreciate that she gives you tips on how to store leftovers and how long the ingredients will keep! There are so many delicious recipes in here. You guys- I made soba noodles from scratch and it was actually really easy! The soba in homemade bonito and kombu dashi- so good! The noodles were sooooo much tastier than store-bought! Ms. Sakai shows you how to make your own shichimi togarashi, la-yu, Japanese curry bricks, and natto (for those feeling adventurous). I finally learned the proper way to cut kabocha... been doing that all wrong. I can't wait to try the mapo tofu with handmade tofu! My family is also so excited to try Ms. Sakai's ozoni recipe for New Year! Mmm and okonomiyaki and crab cream croquettes! It's going to be a delicious new year.-M Carr

Sonoko Sakai is one of the reigning authorities on Japanese cooking in the US. Born in the US and raised in Japan, she is the perfect evangelist for what I consider to be the most sophisticated and complex cuisine in the world. Her many fans in the LA region and elsewhere have been anticipating the arrival of this book for a long time and it certainly doesn't disappoint. For my money, it is currently THE go-to book for those wanting to cook authentic Japanese cuisine. They say that 90% of Japanese restaurants in the US serve sushi while 90% of restaurants in Japan don't serve sushi. This book is for Americans (and others) who want to learn about the riches of Japanese cuisine that they don't get in Japanese restaurants here. Highly recommended. -Muskantinho