New to japanese cooking

[izanaki]

I am new to japanese cooking, and was wondering if anyone could let me know any places(online or in the Illinois area outside of chicago) where i can obtain japanese ingredients, as well as simple foods to make, something that either only needs to be heated(over a campfire) or cooled in a fridge.

Thanks for the help.

[Saionji Shonagon]

www.mitsuwa.com/slh2.html

There's one in Arlington Heights.

[Noriko]

Also, many large grocery chains may cary some of the products you are interested in, usually in a section marked "Asian", though in our local Stop n' Shop, there are also some Japanese/Asian foods near produce. However, I often have to go to the local co-op to find certain ingredients, though ones like mirin, soy sauce, etc. you should have no problem finding.
That being said, there are many simple Japanese foods that you can make. I just bought a fabulous cook book and there are some very good recipies in there.
Rice balls, if put in a clean, dry, firmly shut tupperware container, will keep for about three days, without refrigeration (ok, they were in my coolish house in a tupperware container, but refrigeration kinda kills rice). Rice balls are filling (for a while), easy to make (even kids can help) and "finger food". Also, you can't go wrong with miso soup, especially if you have access to hot water. You can also make any kind of noodle too, if you have the ability to make boiling water. Soba (or udon) noodles, with a little soy sauce on top and some strips of toasted 'nori', is delicious. (google "zara soba" for recipes) May not be period but easy to make.
Other period foods would be vegetables that can be cut up and eaten raw (or mixed in a salad with a gingery dressing, though that may not be period), though you might have to do research for which vegetables are historically proper, though my book seems to reference turnips, scallions, eggplant and mushrooms. Also spinach and carrots, but I can't date them.
Apples are period for Japan (I believe) and they will keep and make good snacks. I think that Heian era aristocrats also enjoyed nuts, but I'm not sure what type. You could probably sneak in some of your favorites for a quick snack.

Hope that helps. I'm also scrambling for good food ideas since I attend events that usually only have small dayboards (i.e. bread and butter, some nuts, not meals) so I need to find foods that will survive in a basket.

[izanaki]

thanks for the info all.

[Please Delete]

By the mid-1600s we know that they were using the following greens in cooking based on "Ryori Monogatari" (Many of the romanizations do not appear to match the kanji or kana--that mostly comes from another reference in Japanese regarding modern names/pronunciations of some of the items--but it could easily be wrong):

1. NA 　菜　 (Rape or Mustard Plant)
2. DAIKON　大根
3. GOBŌ　牛房・牛蒡
4. FU 　ふ　(wheat gluten)
5. TŌFU　たうふ・豆腐
6. KON'NYAKU　蒟蒻
7. YAMA NO IMO 薯？　(Mountain taro)
8. SATOIMO 　里芋　(Taro)
9. KUWAI　鳥芋　(? Bird Potato?)
10. HASU 　蓮　(Lotus)
11. FUKI　ふき　(Butterbur?)
12. MYŌGA　めうが・みょうが　 (Japanese Ginger)
13. TANPOPO 　たんぽぽ　(Dandelion)
14. YOMEGAHAGI 　よめがはぎ　（薺蒿）　(aster?)
15. YOMOGI　蓬　 (mugwort)
16. KUSAGI 　常山 (beefsteak geranium?)
17. HAKOBE 　はこべ　(chickweed; stichwort; stitchwort)
18. NAZUNA なづ菜　(shepherd's purse?)
19. SERI　芹　 (dropwort; Japanese parsley)
20. (Line illegible)
21. TSUKUSHI ?? (horsetail)
22. UDO 　独活　(spikenard)
23. WARABI 蕨　(Bracken)
24. BŌFŪ 防風　(Ledebouriellae radix)
25. SUBERIHIYU 　すべり　(purslane)
26. AKAZA 藜　(goosefoot)
27. AZAMI 　薊　(thistle)
28. TADE たで (polygonum)
29. KARASHI NO HA　からしの葉　 (mustard leaf)
30. KESHI NO HA　芥子の葉　 (poppy leaf)
31. MAME NO HA 　大豆の葉 ([soy] bean leaf)
32. HŌKIKUSA ははき草 (Hoki grass?)
33. CHISHA 　苣 (lettuce)
34. KAWAJISHA 川ししや　(river lettuce?)
35. SHIRO'URI 　白瓜　(“melon cucumber”)
36. KARA'URI 　甜瓜　(“sweet cucumber”)
37. KYU'URI 木瓜　(Japanese quince (kanji)/ cucumber (pronunciation))
38. KAMO'URI 　冬 瓜 (DOUKAN=Wax Gourd)
39. KARASU'URI 烏瓜 (Snake gourd (lit. crow gourd))
40. YŪGAO　夕かほ・夕顔 (Bottle gourd (Evening Faces))
41. NASUBI　茄子　 (Eggplant, aubergine)
42. SASAGE 　ささぎ (Cowpea)
43. KUKO 　くこ　(Chinese matrimony vine)
44. UKOGI 　うこぎ (Eleutherococcus sieboldianus)
45. NIRA にら (leek, scallion)
46. NINNIKU　蒜　 (garlic)
47. NEBUKA　根深　(Allium fistulosum?)
48. HITOMOJI 　葱 (Spring onion, leek)
49. ASATSUKI 　あさつき(Chive)
50. NOBIRU 　野びる　(Wild rocambole)
51. TAKE NO KO 　竹子・竹の子　(Bamboo sprouts)
52. TARA NO WAKAME　たらの若め (Angelica tree sprout??)
53. MATATABI 　またたび　(catnip, silver vine, Actinidia polygama)
54. WASABI わさび
55. TOKORO 　ところ (Tokoroten?)
56. KUZU NO KO 　くずの粉　(Japanese arrowroot [kudzu] flour)
57. BOTAN NO HANA 　牡丹の花　(Tree peony blossom)
58. SHAKUYAKU NO HANA　芍薬の花　 (Peony blossom)
59. KUCHINASHI NO HANA　口なしの花 　(Gardenia flower)
60. KANZŌ NO HANA 　萱草花　(Kanzo flower)
61. KIKU NO HANA 　菊のはな　 (Chrysanthemum flower)
62. NŌZEN NO HANA 　のうぜんの花　(Trumpet creeper)
63. NINDŌ NO HANA 　忍冬のはな (Honeysuckle Flower, aka 'Suikazura')
64. SUMŌ-TORI NO HANA 　すまふ取の花 (Sumo-tori flower?)
65. JUNSAI じゅんさい　("Water shield"--a type of lilypad)
66. GINNAN　銀杏 (Ginko)
67. UME　梅 (Plum)
68. YAMAMOMO 　楊梅 (Peach)
69. SHISO　しそ (Beefsteak plant)
70. YU　柚 (Citron)
71. MOYASHI　もやし (Bean Sprouts*)
72. FUJI NO HA 藤葉　(Wisteria leaf?)
73. HOURENSOU　はうれん (Spinach)
74. BENI NO HANA 　べにの花　(Safflower flower)
75. AOMUGI 青麦　(Barley)

*For the bean sprouts here's a neat trick from RM: "For moyashi, prepare soybeans, azuki beans, cowpeas, and mung beans (bundou) in water, put dirt in an oshiki tray, sow the beans, and before long they will sprout. Use them when they are about 1 sun and 4~5 bu."

[Rei Shounagon]

For a really simple dish, I recommend mizu. It's the only Japanese dish I know how to make. Very refreshing on a hot day, or after strenuous exercise.

[Ishikawa Yoshimasa]

personaly I am fond of preparing some yakatori skewers before an event then cooking them on site (though I have had this backfire once when it got so windy at an event just as I was trying to cook them that the griddle was cooling on the fire. however for the REALY simple event cooking, I am partial to kikomans premade miso soup mix (other than the size of the ingrediant cuts I can not tell the difference between the kikomans that I prep in minutes (after the water comes to a boil) and the home made I did once taking nearly an hour and several dishes. My local grocery stores also had some good Udon kits that go together fast I frequently pick up a good steak cut at the store the thursday of the event, and brown off slices of meat to add to a bowl of udon for friday night dinner. udon is a noodle about 1/8 - 1/4 inch diameter... the noodles in the packet are vacume sealed, but precooked, so one doesn't have t worry about taking the time to boil the noodles before starting... just add the boiling water and go... the packets also hold enough food to fill one reasonable bowl (about the size of my chawan) which makes a good single serving... (for about $1.00-1.25 before adding real meat, it is a good deal)...

On the other hand a favorite of mine for saterday between watching fighting and attending court, I am most fond of making chilled soba again this is a VERY easy snack to produce. I will boil the noodles much like spagetti, though I cook them a li'l less to keep them firmer than I usualy fix italian. I will then poor cold water over them, and drain completely. once the cold water has lowered thier tempreture suficiently, I seperate the soba into a couple servings, and serve with soy sauce (some specific soba sauce is available at my local asian food market, BUT soy is the main ingrediant and other than being more expensive I can not tell a difference in my unrefined taste.) as well as diced green onion (I think it is commonly called chive, but I have always called it wild onion I will have to look at the store tomarrow and see what they are actualy called) as well as a small daub of wasabi. At my favorite (currently) sushibar and japanese resteraunt, they also top it with FINELY sliced seaweed on top... they cut it so thin it looks like dark green crismas tinsil, and I am not fond of the texture of it cut so fine, but that is a matter of taste, but for this reason I always leave it off when I make mine even if I am trying to impress someone with my presentation.

since one of my greatest pleasures at an event is attending feast (I have attended a couple events STRICTLY for the feast as they had no activities I was interested in) I do not usualy take along any kind of full meal, but on the rare ocasion I get to attend a war, I often try to take along a feast of my own<G>... the following is a cut and paste of the dinner plan I had worked out to supply for myself and a group of friends at borderraids this year... saddly cancilations left me with only last minute replanning, a pack of hotdogs, my udon packets, and a couple other things, but at the same time, the group I camped with made for great company, and provided so much food I did not end up using any of the japanese foods I had taken with me.


Friday

Breakfast
Fend for yourself. Departure scheduled to arrive when site opens

Lunch
Fast Food in route

Dinner
Main Dish: Pork & Miso Yakatori >>>these are spirals of meat and miso paste based sauce rolled together and turned into tastey skewers... this same recipe however was used for chicken but was the one mentioned above that was cursed by the wind... I had to unroll the skewers to make the meat much thinner to cook suficiently before the wind cooled it. it was rather salty (probably because I attempted a shortcut or two in preparing them and marinaded the chicken overnight in a soysauce (which I have since switched to low sodium soy sauce) based marinade)<<<
Side Dish: possibly beaf udon soup, Rice, Vegitable Spring Rolls?
Condiments: wasabi, pickled ginger, Soy Sauce, etc.
Beverages: Sake, soft drinks, etc.

Extras
Fresh fruits will be available as will trail mix, etc.
Water, Orange Gatorade, Fruit Punch Gatorade, and softdrinks will always be available >>>I also carry some jasmine tea in my feast kit, so this could be added to any meal<<<


Saturday

Breakfast
Main Dish: Bacon and Eggs
Side Dish: assorted fresh fruits
Condiments:
Beverages: OJ and Apple Juice (possibly tea or coffee if someone wants to donate it and something to brew it with)

Lunch
Main Dish: Sandwich makings, hotdogs, etc. (possible left over yakatori)
Side Dish: assorted fresh fruits
Condiments:ketchup, relish, mayo/mirical whip, etc.
Beverages: Soft Drinks, Water, Etc.

Dinner
Main Dish: Teriyaki Chicken (done as kamo no teriyaki) >>> as I recall from the japanese cookbook I got most of these recipes from, that is suposed to be duck in an orange and teriyaki sauce, but chicken would just have to do.<<<
Side Dish: Vegetarian Sushi (rolls and pressed), Miso and mixed mushroom soup w/ carrots
Condiments: wasabi, pickled ginger, Soy Sauce, etc.
Beverages: Sake, Soft drinks, etc.

Extras
Fresh fruits will be available as will trail mix, etc.
Water, Orange Gatorade, Fruit Punch Gatorade, and softdrinks will always be available


Sunday

Breakfast
Stop at Waffle House near the event site, Unless we Convoy with a group that has other plans.

Dinner
Stop for Pizza or go our separate ways.

Extras
Fresh fruits will be available as will trail mix, etc.
Water, Orange Gatorade, Fruit Punch Gatorade, and softdrinks will always be available



just as an OFFICIAL disclaimer before some members have a corenary over the items in this menu... it is POST PERIOD by a long shot... they are popular japanese foods, BUT they are not historicaly accurate... sushi a we know it did not exist, while I have heard that yakitori had been created in period, I have also heard it was nothing like we know it today... also while mymenuis planned for a sit down dinner with friends, most of the dishes are what would be considered fast food. from whatI have read venders would hawk skewered fish, eal, and bird from carts or small shop fronts... you may notice every japanese meal on the menu has rice as a side dish... this is simple boiled rice (though I have a couple bags of japanese medium grain sushi rice which are the ones that get used.) this is not uncle bens or any simular american style rice. when cooked it sticks together more, and has a slightly different texture in my opinion, but my local grocery store carries it, and I like it... I servee it without anything added to it and try to make enough that noone will run out of rice if they don't want to (I usualy calculate 2.5-3 servings per person) this is a staple of the diet of a samurai, so I try to make it a core element of any meals I prepare.

for those interested in bucking the system and having thier sushi parties at next pennsic... unless you have one of those li'l propane refridgerators, don't even think of meat with your sushi... on the other hand I have been complimented by many otaku on my vegitarian sushi now...I only make a couple pieces per person as it is simply a "traditional japanese" side dish for me. however I make every effort to make the presentation a work of art.when preparing it I take the time to bundle up carrot strips so as to make them look like flowers or stars in the center, I slice other ingrediants so as to create cross sections that appear to be other things...my proudest achievement in making good displays saddly had no witnesses... I pieced together several thin slices of various vegitables to appear asa daisho on a stand... it did not look perfect, but I was impressed I could pull it off and hope to get a chance to do so for friends one of these days soon. my ultimate goal is to put it together so it is a readable kanji, but at this time I think that is well beyond my abilities as my straight lines tend to warp when I press the rice into the gaps.

preparing the vegi sushi is realy simple... you need to cook the rice and mix it with the vinigar, BUTonce the rice is prepared, (yes it can be done with a small propane stove, and even over a properly prepared fire (then again I was a scout at one time, and learned scout camping practices from the "olde skool" when being able to set up a well furnished camp withan axe, a tarp and several lengths of rope was skill taught by respectable scoutmasters... saddly I have probably forgotten more than the scouts teach kids about woodsmanship now, but that is an entirely different rant<G> something about having to pass a class to even get to carry an axe now thanks to a lawsuite happy legal system... in the early 80's when I was a kid, my friends scout leader gave a surplus USAF pilots survival knife to any kid who could make a fuzz stick, and needed a good knife.) anyway back to making sushi, and yakitori in a primative camp...

after you have gone down to the streem and collected your water... (well o.k. I have not seen an SCA site THAT primative<G>) seriously... for sushi, boil your rice... if you do not have a specific sushi bowl, a heavy unfinished sala bowl will do the job... mix in your sushi vinigar (home made or from the store) sorry but if you do not already know what to do there, drop me a PM and I will send you a detailed step by step... meanwhile as your rice is soaking up the vinigar, cut your ingrediants... make them as simple (a bundle of ingrediants inside a layer of rice surounded by seaweed) or as complex (a detailed picture from a japanese museum rendered in rice and vegitable parts.) you can roll it with a simple mat (even seran wrap, which BTW one of the area sushi resteraunts uses wrapped around thier traditional sushi mats... when asked, the chef said it kept the ingrediants in a couple roll types from sticking to the mat) alternatly you can press them in any of a number of plastic or wood molds... I have even heard rumor of using certain cookie cutters, though I have not seen this done. you can even hand press them which results in an asymetric ball of rice with ingrediants in the middle... well l0ooks more like a lumpy rice egg to me, but...

the yakitori is even easier in a primative camp... you need your meat cut into thin strips (though I have heard it is also done in chunks like kabobs) and a can with your sauce in it...(the can is best made of metal in my opinion as I am partial to warming the sauce before dipping...) skewer the meat on 12" bamboo skewers, dip and grill. from what I read this is a completely authentic way to prepare them, BUT to the best of my knowledge the current "traditional" recipes are nothing like the period recipes. with just a small table on which to work, and either a small grill, or a camp fire grill grate, you can make these in a short period of time... especialy if you can prepare the skewers in advance. I have heard that prime candidates for grilling in this manner are chicken, fish, eel, though for more modern taste chicken and pork make the best choices... I just can not bring myself to eat anything that looks like a snake.

there are other options such as cooking an omlet based dish in a skillet over a fire, but thier omlets are a li'l tricker to make than most westerners are used to, just because they cook the egg thinner in the couple recipes I have looked into... makes it much more dellicate and prone to breakage when preparing, but they make a nice presentation.

still other than your skewers, the easiest to prepare in the field would be your soups... especialy if you cheat like I do and use a kit.

sorry this turned into such a book... and reading over it, I fear I do a better job of preparing some dishes than describing them, or describing how to prepare them.

[Saionji Shonagon]

I just finished making a batch for a potluck this weekend and onigiri, or rice balls, are about as easy as it gets. (That's onigiri, not Otagiri. They are not interchangeable.)

At their most basic, all you need is sushi rice and salt. Soldier's rations anyone?
Umeboshi (pickled plums), bits of grilled salmon or other fish are traditional fillings. Strips of nori (seaweed) or sesame seeds can also be used or not as you prefer.

One cup of dry rice cooks up to about three cups. Increase or decrease depending on how many of these carb bombs you want to make. For each cup of rice you need 1 1/4 cups of water.

Soak the rice 1/2 hour. Bring it to a boil, then simmer until it absorbs all the water.

Give the rice a few minutes to cool to the point that you can handle it bare handed without getting scalded. You want to work with it while it's still fairly hot. If you made as much as I did, it will get cool as you work, but will still be malleable.

Wet your hands and sprinkle your hands with salt for each onigiri. This not only salts the rice, but it helps keep it from sticking to your hands as you roll it into balls. I have small hands, my onigiri end up about golf ball size. I figure this size will not intimidate people who have never tried one.

Poke a small hole with your pinky, insert filling, roll the rice closed around the filling. At this point if you want to shape the rice into a disk, triangle or other shape, you can. I did different shapes for each flavor - the umeboshi are hockey puck shaped and the salmon ones are spherical.

Garnish with nori or sesame seeds.

Another variation is to mix your ingredients in with the rice - I flaked up my marinated salmon into bits and stirred it into the rice, then rolled the mixture into balls.

These are sitting in my fridge in plastic containers right now and aren't going to get served until Saturday. If they look like the rice is getting hard, I'll mist them with water and pop them in the microwave before leaving for the event.

[Saionji Shonagon]

Update on Operation Onigiri:

As I finished each onigiri, I put them into plastic containers. When a container was full, it went into the refrigerator. Because the rice was still warm, this caused condensation inside the containers. 48 hours later when it was time to serve them, the rice was still perfectly tender. The salmon onigiri went like hotcakes. The umeboshi ones came out a bit bland - I was so paranoid about the strength of the pickled plums, I put very small amounts into the onigiri, not realizing the rice would absorb and dilute a lot of the flavor. Now I know I can be a bit more liberal with the umeboshi next time.

[erink]

For the second year I made some onigiri for Pennsic. They worked out well this year, last year half of them went hard for some reason. Don't know if they are "period", but they're very handy for camp food. On the other hand, how could they not be period, they're totally basic.

I wrapped them in nori (completely or with just a strip as the mood struck me) for tidyness. I actually used the same nori from last year and it worked fine - I hear it can get icky because of humidity, but I kept it in a zip-lock in my freezer.

For fillings I used sweetened azuki beans - which I made, and it takes forever, but you can buy them in a can at an Asian supermarket - and some fishy furikake I bought in a jar. As a crappy cook, I was a too paranoid to try to use actual fish, though I considered using canned tuna (and decided against!). Maybe some of that upscale cooked salmon you can get in a can or foil bag would work - it's just for me, so it doesn't have to be fine.

Next time I'll have to try umeboshi. I'm still scared of umeboshi, which is to say I have never worked up the courage to buy a package and try them. I'm not a big fan of the asian pickles I've had (some Japanese and Indian ones, plus kimchee).

Speaking of fillings, when I was in Hawaii a few years ago I got a Spam nigiri from a beach vendor. (Actually they call it musubi, not sure what the difference is.) So you really can use your own judgement there if it's just for you. (It was about what I expected, not bad.)

I did not use salt when forming the balls, but the water is indispensible. I saw a recipe that said to put vinegar in the hand water, but I forgot this time and it didn't seem to make any difference.

Makiwara, you didn't mention adding vinegar to the rice (though you did say "sushi rice"), you didn't just use naked rice, did you? There is a lot of frantic verbage in most sushi recipes about adding the vinegar and folding the rice without crushing the grains and fanning it until it's cool, but I don't think it's that big a deal. Also, my experience is that the fresh rice tastes way too vinegary but I didn't notice it at all when I ate them a few days later.

Anyway, that's my deal. I'm really not a cook, and it worked out surprisingly well.

P.S. Here's an interesting article about modern musubi:
starbulletin.com/2002/06/19/features/story1.html

[Saionji Shonagon]

For the second year I made some onigiri for Pennsic. They worked out well this year, last year half of them went hard for some reason. Don't know if they are "period", but they're very handy for camp food. On the other hand, how could they not be period, they're totally basic.

They are period. Try putting your onigiri into zip lock bags or plastic containers while still warm and then storing them in your cooler - this should keep them moist for at least a day or two.

No, I did not use vinegared rice. I used Calrose sushi rice, which is what it says right on the bag. Plain white glutinous rice - none of the recipes I found said anything about vinegar.

I also used salmon teryaki that came precooked in a foil pouch - it flaked up perfectly and mixed into the rice very easily. I don't see any reason not to used canned tuna or canned salmon. I'm sure they'd be fine.

Umeboshi are sour and briny. How do you feel about green olives? Kind of like that only a bit stronger. I actually like them.

S.

[Ishikawa Yoshimasa]

ooooh several of these sound good... I am starting to thinkwe need a thread dedicated to riceball recipes.

[Saionji Shonagon]

ooooh several of these sound good... I am starting to thinkwe need a thread dedicated to riceball recipes.

An entire thread might be overkill.

Rice. Water. Salt. Additional ingredients of your choice. It doesn't get much easier than that.