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name [pronunciation] |
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| beni tade [benee-tadee] |
water pepper, its tiny purple leaves with a peppery flavour are often served as a garnish for sashimi to be used with wasabi and soy sauce. | ||||
| daikon [DI-kuhn, DI-kon] |
giant white radish. An important vegetable in Japanese cuisine for nimono (braised dishes) or grated to be used with soy sauce for sashimi or tempura dipping sauce because it is known to be digestive for oily foods. | ||||
| dashi [DA-shee] |
Used extensively in Japanese cooking, dashi is a soup stock made with dried bonito tuna flakes ( KATSUOBUSHI ), KOMBU and water. | ||||
| edamame [eh-dah-MAH-meh] |
young green soy bean in the pod. Boiled on the stalk with sea salt, they are a typical summer side dish served with beer. | ||||
| enoki [en-oh-kee] |
clusters of tiny white mushrooms with thin long stalks. | ||||
| gobo [goboo] |
burdock root, rich in dietary fiber and vitamins; it should always be soaked in cold water with vinegar added to remove its bitterness. | ||||
| hijiki [hee-JEE-kee] |
A type of dried, black SEAWEED that's reconstituted in water and used as a vegetable in soups and other dishes. Hijiki 's flavor has a slight ANISE character. | ||||
| junsai [Jun-saee] |
shoots of water shield, a lotus-like water plant. The shoots come out in early summer, have a gelatinous coating, and are very slippery. They have no flavour but are coveted for its gelatinous texture. | ||||
| kinome [kih-noh-MEH] |
young leaves of sansho tree, prickly Japanese ash.
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| konbu [KOHM-boo] |
one of the most essential ingredients in Japanese cuisine, as it is used in making the basic dashi broth. Konbu grows in cold waters off the coasts of northern Japan. The dried blades can be in lengths up to 1 meter. | ||||
| matcha [MAH-tchah] |
A brilliant green powdered tea served in the Japanese tea ceremony. Matcha , also called hiki-cha , is made from very high quality tea, which is too bitter for most western plates. | ||||
| matsutake [maht-soo-TAH-kay] |
one of the most coveted and expensive delicacies in Japanese cuisine. It is a wild fungus which grows in sandy dirt in red pine forests, and are extremely difficult to find. The most famous are from Tamba with highly aromatic flavour and unique texture. There is even a specialty store in Kyoto which only opens for two months out of a year to sell the precious fungus. Because the domestic fungus is extremely expensive and becoming very scarce, they are imported on a very large scale from Korea, China and Canada. Harvested in autumn, can be charcoal grilled whole, cooked in rice or served in dobinmushi (soup). It is always served with sudachi.
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| mirin [MIHR-ihn] |
A low-alcohol, sweet, golden wine made from glutinous rice. Essential to the Japanese cook, mirin adds sweetness and flavor to a variety of dishes, sauces and glazes. | ||||
| miso [MEE-soh] |
a fermented paste of soy beans, barley or rice and salt. It is highly nutritious, having 14% protein, and is very tasty, with almost a meat-like flavour. It was originally developed in Mongolia and arrived to Japan through the Korean peninsula. Red miso is the most popular and widely used amongst all the different varieties. It is normally made with rice and is reddish brown colour. As it is quite salty, it is often mixed with white miso as awase miso when it is used for soup. Hatcho miso is a very dark miso made strictly with soybeans and it is favored in central Japan. The soups served in higher-class establishments will often serve akadashi that is made with this miso . | ||||
| mitsuba [mih-tsu-bah] |
trefoil, Japanese wild chervil. A popular herb used in soups, vinegared foods and as a garnish. Its name is literally translated as "three leaves" and is similar looking Italian parsley or coriander but its taste is more similar to a mild chervil. | ||||
| mizuna [mih-ZOO-nuh] |
a green leaf vegetable from Kyoto which is harvested in winter, used for nabe and nimono . | ||||
| mochi [MOH-chee] |
sticky rice cake, which is pounded from steamed glutinous rice. | ||||
| nagaimo | Japanese yams come in great variety of shapes, long, round or glove shaped. Originally harvested in the autumn, the wild long variety is known as jinenjo , they are cultivated all year in most parts in Japan. Nagaimo contains more water than the others and is delicious eaten raw in salads. The other varieties are grated and become very slippery. Can be eaten raw in the grated form, mixed with katsuo dashi and soy sauce to be served over hot rice cooked with wheat, or mixed in with other ingredients and cooked. | ||||
| nori [NOH-ree] |
laver, dried sheets of algae. Originally collected at low tide but it has been cultivated along most of the coasts of Japan except Hokkaido since the Edo period. The better known is asakusa nori which is made from a red algae. The large sheets of nori (22cm by 17cm) should be toasted, by holding it above a grill over a low flame and turning it over, just before eating and cut into small rectangular squares. | ||||
| ponzu [PON-zoo] |
the juice of Japanese citrus, although more commonly known as a dipping sauce made from mixture of sake, alcohol burned off, soy sauce and this citrus juice squeezed from daidai, kabosu, sudachi and sometimes yuzu . | ||||
| sake [SAH-kay] |
rice wine, although strictly speaking this is not a wince since it is made from a grain. The two most important ingredients for making good sake are rice and water. Therefore the most prestigious sake brewers exist in regions where high quality rice is cultivated with an abundant supply of pure spring water. Sake is made by fermenting steamed polished rice with koji (molded steamed rice) and yeastwith pure spring water. The koji converts the starch contenet in the rice to sugar and the yeast starts the alocohol fermentation which is continued for three months. The best sake is made in the cold winter months and called kanzukuri . The femented mixture is then pressed through a cloth and filtered or left to settle into a transparent state. The polishing of the rice is also an important factor in determing the rank of the sake . All sake with the exception of honjozo should be refrigerated, and should be consumed within three months. Sake does not age well like wine. GINJO: Ginjo sake is brewed from rice, which has been polished down to 60% or less. DAIGINJO: Daiginjo sake is brewed from rice that has been polised down to 50% or less. JUNMAI: Pure sake, junmai sake is brewed from rice and malted rice only, no alcohol is added. | ||||
| sashimi [sah-SHEE-mee] |
Sliced raw fish that is served with CONDIMENTS such as shredded DAIKON radish or GINGERROOT, WASABI and SOY SAUCE. Because it's served raw, only the freshest and highest-quality fish should be used for sashimi . Some Japanese restaurants keep the fish alive in water until just before preparing it. Special sashimi chefs are trained in slicing the fish in a particular way -- depending on the variety -- for the best presentation and eating enjoyment.
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| shiso [SHEE-soh] |
Perilla or beefsteak plant. Member of mint family and has a slightly basil-like flavour. It comes in two colours, aka shiso (red) is used for making umeboshi (salt pickled plum) and shiso (green) is used as a condiment or a garnish. The flower buds ( hojiso ) are used for garnish and very young left buds on the stalk are pickled. | ||||
| su [SOO] |
rice vinegar, low in acidity about 4.2%. | ||||
| sukiyaki [soo-kee-YAH-kee] |
Known in Japan as the "friendship dish" because it appeals to foreigners, sukiyaki consists of STIR-FRIED bite-sized pieces of meat, vegetables and sometimes noodles and TOFU . It's flavored with soy sauce, DASHI (or other broth) and MIRIN and is usually prepared at the table. Before eating each bite, diners dip their cooked food into beaten raw egg. | ||||
| tofu [TOH-foo] |
Also known as soybean curd and bean curd , custard like white tofu is made from curdled SOY MILK, an iron-rich liquid extracted from ground, cooked SOYBEANS. The resulting curds are drained and pressed in a fashion similar to cheesemaking. The firmness of the resulting tofu cake depends on how much WHEY has been pressed out. | ||||
| wakame [wah-KAH-meh] |
It is harvested in Hokkaido, Sanriku, and Sea of Japan, and is best when it is fresh, but can now be bought dried or salt preserved and reconstitutes very quickly in water. Normally used in miso soup, dressed with vinegared sauce in aemono , or as a garnish for sashimi. | ||||
| wasabi [WAH-sah-bee] |
originally grows wild and only in cool and shaded mountain streams but is recently cultivated on the banks of streams or idle rice fields. Fresh wasabi is expensive and its presence distinguishes the class of the establishment. The entire root can be grated and should be grated downward beginning at just below the leaf stalks. The best grater to use is the skin of korosame (angel shark), attached to a piece of wood but of course, metal graters can be substituted.
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| yuba [YOO-bah] |
famous as a Kyoto delicacy, it is the film which forms on the surface when soy milk is heated, similar to the film which forms on the surface of heated milk. As it absorbs the majority of the protein contained in soy milk, it is the richest source of protein know to exist. Nearly all fresh yuba is produced in Kyoto and is very expensive because of the time consuming handwork and refrigerated transportation costs, as it must be served very fresh. | ||||
| yuzu [YOO-zoo] |
Japanese citrus with an extraordinary fragrant aroma. Normally only the zest is used, in slivers or grated, to spike soups and braised dishes. The remaining fruit can be squeezed to make yuzu ponzu although ponzu is normally made from daidai or kabosu.
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