A year and a half ago I did some writing on Japanese cuisine I make at home. I wanted to revisit and expand on that. All you really need are a few key ingredients and you can wing it for a large amount of Japanese food.
To make a large assortment of Japanese food you need these ingredients; soy sauce, mirin/sake, wakame and instant dashi. Wakame and dashi can be hard to find outside of Asian specialty grocery stores, but, thanks to the age of the internet, can be easily sourced online. If a recipe calls for mirin and you only have sake you can add sugar to the sake. An incredible amount of Japanese dishes require some or all of these ingredients as they are staples of washoku.
While specialty rice is beneficial for making sushi and other recipes that require forming the rice, most any rice will do as an accompaniment with food you make. Simple and delicious dishes can be crafted by making a simple broth with the basic Japanese ingredients (soy sauce, mirin/sake, dashi). Just bring the ingredients to a boil in a few cups of water. The measurements of the individual ingredients are more to taste than anything, but start off with small amounts. A few table spoons of soy sauce and mirin at a time and teaspoons of dashi. The dashi will dissolve as its cooked and everything will blend well together. From there you can add all sorts of things to the broth, different vegetables, tofu, meat. There is really no limit to what you can do in merging the tastes. Hard boiled/soft boiled eggs work very well, potatoes, tofu blocks, green onions, garlic, corn, cabbage, etc. Pour the resulting soup over a bowl of rice for an incredibly filling meal.
Rice can be eaten with basic ingredients as well. In Japan seasoning blends known as furikake exist to eat exclusively on rice. If you want to spice it up you can also add the Japanese red pepper product called togarashi, which is commonly used in noodle/soup dishes and increases in heat when cooked. Both are somewhat difficult to find outside of Asian grocers, but I have begun to see furikake in 'normal' grocers. There is also the wonderful world of internet shopping to alleviate any issues finding these items.
While not required, a rice cooker is one of the handiest things to own. While I am a pretty good cook I have always had problems making rice on the stove. The rice cooker I received as a present in 2000 has served me well and refuses to die...much to my annoyance as I really want to get an expensive, super fancy one. Simple and incredibly easy to use. The higher end ones has timer and warmer settings and different cook modes for different styles of rice and can even be set to produce entire dishes, not unlike a slow cooker. There exists and entire recipe category in japan of meals that can be made in a rice cooker. The unit I have been using for 16 years now only cost about $30 and just cooks rice, but it is amazing in that regard. The nice rice cookers that start having all the bells and whistles begin at about $150 and can go up to $300 before hitting commercial restaurant grade models.
When you have the basic ingredients there is little excuse to eat pre-made ramen in any format, particularly given how horrible it is for you. While fresh ramen noodles are difficult to source outside of Asian grocers (look for lo mein noodles) you can easily substitute in rice noodles which are widely available. Dehydrated soba and udon noodles are becoming increasingly easy to source and cost under three dollars for a package which contains a number of servings. While you will be hard pressed to save more money making the ramen by scratch you can easily match the price of a single package of Maruchan when you figure out how much you are actually spending on the amount of each ingredient used for a bowl of home made ramen. From there you can add all sorts of ingredients into it as well as more seasoning using spices readily available in the average American home. If you're feeling especially motivated you can make your own noodles as well. At a minimum you only need flour, salt, baking soda, a rolling pin and a knife. Fresh noodles can be frozen for use later so its best to make a large batch of noodles at a time.
If you have access to a Trader Joe's you can find a surprising number of specialty ingredients for Japanese cooking, particularly miso paste and various styles of tofu. They also carry a good assortment of quality rice and frozen vegetables that work in all manor of Japanese dishes. As a bonus...pick up some ice cream filled mochi for a delicious desert after your flavorful meal.
For the more adventurous there is the entire world of pickled food, tsukemono. Unlike western pickles, tsukemono are quicker to prepare and are designed to be eaten soon after making. Easy food to use for making tsukemonno are; ginger, cabbage, egg plant, garlic cloves, cucumber, daikon radish, carrots, peppers, etc. You would be hard pressed to find a common vegetable that does not have a tsukemono recipe.
In general daily Japanese cooking is easy to do with a few basic ingredients always on hand and a small amount of preparation. Sushi and the more fanciful restaurant dishes are usually specialty items that people don't eat on a daily basis. Traditionally the core of washoku is rice, miso soup and tsukemono. Remember that people in Japan make food by hand, from scratch just as much and just as easily as people in America, so there's no reason you can't do the same. Adding some of these dishes and ideas to your diet aren't a bad thing either. We all like variation and depending on what you are making, Japanese cuisine can be quite healthy. Not all though...beef bowls and tonkatsu aren't any better for you than pizza and cheese burgers. But Japanese cuisine can provide excellent ways to increase your vegetable intake if you are hard pressed to do so otherwise.
To make a large assortment of Japanese food you need these ingredients; soy sauce, mirin/sake, wakame and instant dashi. Wakame and dashi can be hard to find outside of Asian specialty grocery stores, but, thanks to the age of the internet, can be easily sourced online. If a recipe calls for mirin and you only have sake you can add sugar to the sake. An incredible amount of Japanese dishes require some or all of these ingredients as they are staples of washoku.
While specialty rice is beneficial for making sushi and other recipes that require forming the rice, most any rice will do as an accompaniment with food you make. Simple and delicious dishes can be crafted by making a simple broth with the basic Japanese ingredients (soy sauce, mirin/sake, dashi). Just bring the ingredients to a boil in a few cups of water. The measurements of the individual ingredients are more to taste than anything, but start off with small amounts. A few table spoons of soy sauce and mirin at a time and teaspoons of dashi. The dashi will dissolve as its cooked and everything will blend well together. From there you can add all sorts of things to the broth, different vegetables, tofu, meat. There is really no limit to what you can do in merging the tastes. Hard boiled/soft boiled eggs work very well, potatoes, tofu blocks, green onions, garlic, corn, cabbage, etc. Pour the resulting soup over a bowl of rice for an incredibly filling meal.
Rice can be eaten with basic ingredients as well. In Japan seasoning blends known as furikake exist to eat exclusively on rice. If you want to spice it up you can also add the Japanese red pepper product called togarashi, which is commonly used in noodle/soup dishes and increases in heat when cooked. Both are somewhat difficult to find outside of Asian grocers, but I have begun to see furikake in 'normal' grocers. There is also the wonderful world of internet shopping to alleviate any issues finding these items.
While not required, a rice cooker is one of the handiest things to own. While I am a pretty good cook I have always had problems making rice on the stove. The rice cooker I received as a present in 2000 has served me well and refuses to die...much to my annoyance as I really want to get an expensive, super fancy one. Simple and incredibly easy to use. The higher end ones has timer and warmer settings and different cook modes for different styles of rice and can even be set to produce entire dishes, not unlike a slow cooker. There exists and entire recipe category in japan of meals that can be made in a rice cooker. The unit I have been using for 16 years now only cost about $30 and just cooks rice, but it is amazing in that regard. The nice rice cookers that start having all the bells and whistles begin at about $150 and can go up to $300 before hitting commercial restaurant grade models.
When you have the basic ingredients there is little excuse to eat pre-made ramen in any format, particularly given how horrible it is for you. While fresh ramen noodles are difficult to source outside of Asian grocers (look for lo mein noodles) you can easily substitute in rice noodles which are widely available. Dehydrated soba and udon noodles are becoming increasingly easy to source and cost under three dollars for a package which contains a number of servings. While you will be hard pressed to save more money making the ramen by scratch you can easily match the price of a single package of Maruchan when you figure out how much you are actually spending on the amount of each ingredient used for a bowl of home made ramen. From there you can add all sorts of ingredients into it as well as more seasoning using spices readily available in the average American home. If you're feeling especially motivated you can make your own noodles as well. At a minimum you only need flour, salt, baking soda, a rolling pin and a knife. Fresh noodles can be frozen for use later so its best to make a large batch of noodles at a time.
If you have access to a Trader Joe's you can find a surprising number of specialty ingredients for Japanese cooking, particularly miso paste and various styles of tofu. They also carry a good assortment of quality rice and frozen vegetables that work in all manor of Japanese dishes. As a bonus...pick up some ice cream filled mochi for a delicious desert after your flavorful meal.
For the more adventurous there is the entire world of pickled food, tsukemono. Unlike western pickles, tsukemono are quicker to prepare and are designed to be eaten soon after making. Easy food to use for making tsukemonno are; ginger, cabbage, egg plant, garlic cloves, cucumber, daikon radish, carrots, peppers, etc. You would be hard pressed to find a common vegetable that does not have a tsukemono recipe.
In general daily Japanese cooking is easy to do with a few basic ingredients always on hand and a small amount of preparation. Sushi and the more fanciful restaurant dishes are usually specialty items that people don't eat on a daily basis. Traditionally the core of washoku is rice, miso soup and tsukemono. Remember that people in Japan make food by hand, from scratch just as much and just as easily as people in America, so there's no reason you can't do the same. Adding some of these dishes and ideas to your diet aren't a bad thing either. We all like variation and depending on what you are making, Japanese cuisine can be quite healthy. Not all though...beef bowls and tonkatsu aren't any better for you than pizza and cheese burgers. But Japanese cuisine can provide excellent ways to increase your vegetable intake if you are hard pressed to do so otherwise.
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