The basics of Japanese cooking

Japanese food is beautiful food and the masters pay as much attention to presentation as they do to preparation. But don't let that intimidate you; Japanese cuisine is built on a few intensely flavoured prepared pastes, sauces and condiments that make it easy to prepare whenever you like. Just add a bowl of humble rice.

Many recipes are simply grilled or simmered, yet they turn "a little into a lot", as the Japanese proverb goes.

ESSENTIAL JAPANESE COOKING INGREDIENTS

If you have the following in your store cupboard or fridge, you will be ready to cook most Japanese dishes:

• Daikon: a large, long, white radish with a mild horseradish flavour. It can be subtstituted with red radishes
• Dried shiitake mushrooms
• Enoki: thin, crisp white mushrooms with a mild flavour
• Hashi: chopsticks
• Instant dashi: a stock base made from dried kelp and fish
• Mirin: light, sweet rice wine
• Miso: salty, fermented soya bean paste used for soups and sauces
• Nori: toasted seaweed sheets
• Noodles: chukamen for hugely popular Ramen dishes or use soba (thin) or udon (thicker) in a soup base. All three are available from Woolworths.
• Panko crumbs: fine breadcrumbs available from Asian speciality food stores
• Ponzu sauce: a soy-based sauce spiked with citrus
• Pickled ginger (gari): to cleanse the palate
• Sake: rice-based alcohol
• Su: rice vinegar used to make sushi rice. It has a lighter flavour than Western vinegars
• Shichimi togarashi: a sprinkle made with chilli, sansho pepper, sesame seeds and seaweed
• Wasabi: Japanese horse-radish which looks deceivingly like mashed avocado but can be very hot, and is generally served with sushi
• Seafood: ensure the fish or seafood you choose is from a sustainable source

MASTERING JAPANESE COOKING TECHNIQUES

Learn how to make sushi maki <ADD LINK>, sushi rolled in sheets of nori.

Learn how to make nigiri sushI <ADD LINK>, simply fish, wasabi and rice squeezed together, but not all that easy to get right

Learn all about the perfect Japanese tempura <ADD LINK>

Find out more about sashimi <ADD LINK>, and how it differs from sushi

Find out what umami <ADD LINK>, the Japanese fifth taste, is all about

Make quick and easy teriyaki tuna <ADD LINK>.

NOW START COOKING JAPANESE

• Miso-glazed mushrooms <ADD LINK>: a quick and easy mushroom starter or light meal served on crispy.
• Tuna sashimi and strawberry salad <ADD LINK>: classic, easy and healthy.
• Salmon carpaccio with pickled enoki mushrooms <ADD LINK>: a great little amuse bouche for posh parties.
• Fragrant rice <ADD LINK>: a salty, white steamed rice dish with radish that makes a great side.
• Spicy tuna tartare in sesame miso cones <ADD LINK>: one of the star dishes served at the Academy Awards.
• Japanese seafood rice pot <ADD LINK>: one of Luke Dale-Roberts' delicious re-inventions.
• Japanese-style pork schnitzel <ADD LINK>: surprisingly an every-day fast food in Japan.

STOCK UP

Durban 

Cheung Hing Hong, Shop 3, 35 Newport Avenue, Glenashley; tel (031) 562-0633

Johannesburg

Dragon Chinese Supermarket, Shop 17, 9th Ave, Rivonia, tel (011) 803-6408

Thrupps, Thrupps Ilovo Centre, cnr Oxford & Rudd roads, Illovo, tel (011) 268-0298

Pretoria

Yat Kee Chinese Supermarket and Trading, 27 Maroelana Street, Hazelwood, tel (012) 346 8506

Cape Town

Mainland China Food Market, in the alley between 45 and 47 Main Road, Claremont, tel (021) 683-7298

Ding Ho Asian Foods, Unit 2 V.R.P Park, Track Crescent, Montague Gardens, tel (021) 555 2426

Bloemfontein

Mother Chinese Food Market 888, Shop 1B, Emily Hobhouse Square, Dan Pienaar, tel (051) 436-7658