I can’t get Dashi where I live, or the ingredients to make it. Does anyone know of any way to make something similar that will do at a pinch? Thanks for your help.
I CANNOT GET THE INGREDIENTS WHERE I LIVE. THERE ARE NO ASIAN MARKETS. THERE IS NO BONITO!!!! THAT IS WHY I ASKED THIS QUESTION.
I need it tomorrow. Ordering on line is not going to do it. I need a quick alternative.

You can probably get the instant dashi online, but I would use that as a last resort. It tends to be too salty.

If you head to your local bookstore, look at a Japanese Cookbook. It might offer resources in the back where you can order items online. Here are a few that I used when I lived in Florida and could not find quality Asian products:

Equipment:

http://www.korin.com

Food Items:

http://www.maruwa.com/index_e.html

http://www.qualitynaturalfoods.com

http://www.southrivermiso.com

http://www.uwajimaya.com

I wish you the best of luck in finding what you need. I live near Japantown in San Francisco, if you need anything shipped to you, let me know.

I am near Los Angeles and looking for a beginner cooking class, preferably a Japanese cooking class because I need to learn how to cook Japanese food (says my mom). I am not trying to do this as a career but I am sick and tired of being affraid of the stove. I just need to learn the basics of preparing food and I am not sure where to look. I tried to search for japanese cooking classes but no luck. Does anyone know of a place or a website? Maybe a good cook book or two for beginners?

Thanks in advance.

Whole Foods offers cooking classes covering all sorts of topics from the basics of using a knife to ethnic cuisines. I’d recommend checking with your local Whole Foods and starting there.

As for cookbooks, I haven’t found a really great Japanese cookbook for beginners yet but I can recommend some good basic cookbooks:

1. Joy of Cooking – any edition (used okay). This classic covers the basics of baking, cooking meats, veggies, etc. and explains the whys as well as the how tos. Most of the recipes are reliable.

2. How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
An excellent, modern cookbook. I gave this to my brother for Christmas and he loved it!

3. America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks feature product recommendations, clear explanations and reliable, fool-proof recipes.

Alton Brown has some good cookbooks out. Cook’s Illustrated and Cooking Light are 2 very good magazines.

Online resources to consider:

Recipes and information:
www.foodtv.com
www.epicurious.com

Recipes and to get an idea about America’s Test Kitchen & Cooking Light:
www.americastestkitchen.com
www.cookinglight.com

Mark Bittmans’ website:

http://www.howtocookeverything.tv/htce/Home/index.html

After learning a few basics and getting an idea of what you look for in a cookbook, you can check out Japanese cookbooks at your local bookstore.

I prefer to go to my local Kinokunya bookstore. You can find Japanese cookbooks in English in some Japanese grocery stores or at a Japantown bookstore.

Drinking sake is best if stored in the refrigerator or a cold room (50-60 F) with no sunlight, for no longer than 6 months. Sake should be drank within a few days of opening for best flavor as it starts to decrease in quality quickly after opening.

I would follow the same guidelines for cooking sake. You could safely keep it longer, but the flavor won’t be as good.

Here’s an article about sake basics, with links to an online sake workshop and a sake distributor.

Dashi is a soup stock made with Kombu kelp, soya sauce, mirin or sake, a touch of sugar and bonito flakes.

Any simple beef broth with a bit soya sauce and sugar is fine, not a substitute, but a close second, if you want the fish flavour, you can add a touch of Thai fish sauce, but that is not nessessary.

The kombu and bonito flakes make the distinct flavour in dashi, but can worked around.

Are there any good authentic Japanese restaurants in Dallas?
I’m really missing Takoyaki and takuan maki. I heard there was a place in Dallas like Izakaia’s.

http://local.yahoo.com/TX/Dallas/Food+Dining/Restaurants/Japanese+Restaurants

FYI, you may want to say Izakaya instead of Izakaia.

A website that shows you clear recipes for simple, everyday dishes, not huge meals.

I know, use Google, but Answers is more fun.

heres as two that i peek at from time to time..

http://www.japan-guide.com/r/e1.html

http://www.mit.edu/~wchuang/cooking/Chinese_n_Japanese.html

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/World-Cuisine/Asia/Japan/Main.aspx

here is one dish i made…

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken thigh, cut into bite-size pieces
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup rice vinegar
4 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp chopped red hot chili pepper
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
*katakuriko starch or corn starch for dusting
Preparation:
Soak onion slices in cold water for about 30 minutes and drain well. Mix soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and red chile pepper in a sauce pan and heat on low heat. When the sugar dissolves in, stop the heat. Dust chicken with katakuriko starch or corn starch. Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a skillet and fry chicken pieces until brown. Pour the sauce over the chicken and stop the heat. Serve onion sliced on plates. Place chicken pieces on top of the onion. Pour some sauce left in the skillet over the onion and fried chicken.
*Makes 4 servings

i make a vermicelli noodle on the side with this…

found here. http://japanesefood.about.com/od/teriyakichicke1/r/chickennanban.htm

I wanted to start learning to make Japanese food, so I found a good website, when reading the ingredients list for pork or beef dishes it dosen’t say what cut to use. What are the traditonal cuts used in Japanese cooking is it tenderloin for beef etc.

Beef: sukiyaki, shabu shabu, beef teriyaki, use boneless rib steak. If you have an Asian preferably Japanese grocery store you can find meat specially sliced for sukiyaki or shabu shabu.

Pork: tonkatsu, use boneless pork tenderloin.