The Quick and Easy Japanese Cookbook: Great Recipes from Japan's Favorite TV Cooking Show Host »

KATSUYO KOBAYASHI is Japan's favorite television cooking personality, and the best-selling author of 140 books. In her popular noontime program and many of her cookbooks she focuses on teaching people to cook delicious home-style food fast. She has appeared on the wildly successful program IRON CHEF and been declared the winner. She owns a restaurant and a cafe in Tokyo.

For nearly thirty years, Katsuyo Kobayashi has been showing people how to make good food with a minimum of fuss. She's Japan's most trusted and popular television cooking personality, and the best-selling author of 140 books.

In The Quick and Easy Japanese Cookbook, she presents foolproof recipes that anyone can make. All the ingredients are readily available outside Japan, and the cooking methods are kept simple and straightforward.

A large full-color photograph of each completed dish is shown opposite the recipe, for easy reference. Small photos of the cooking process, also in color, are in the right-hand margin, with notes from Kobayashi about points to remember or substitutions that can be made for ingredients that may be less familiar. Calories and preparation time are noted for each dish.

This is real Japanese family-style food-the kind that you won't find in restaurants but that people are really eating every day, at home. Japanese cooking today is made rich in variety by Asian and European influences, and this book reflects that diversity. Many of the great traditional recipes of Japan are here, such as Japanese Pan-Fried Chicken and Tofu with Sweet Miso Sauce, but so are recipes that came to Japan from China and were adapted to Japanese tastes, like Gyoza Pot Stickers, Steamed Shumai Dumplings, and Banbanji Chilled Sesame Chicken. There's Japanese-style curry, and the popular "Omrice"—delicious flavored rice wrapped inside a thin omelette. There are even Japanese-style hamburgers, flavored with soy sauce and sake.

Now, you can enjoy Japanese home cooking without ever leaving home.

Introduction 8

FISH
Mixed Rice with Shrimp and Vegetables 11
Clams Steamed in Sake 13
Seafood Salad 13
Shrimp and Celery Salad with Ginger Dressing 15
Salmon Simmered in Wine 17
Quick-Simmered Mackerel with Miso Sauce 17
Cod with Tofu 19
Breaded Shrimp 19
Salt-Grilled Whole Fish 21
Foil-Baked Cod with Mushrooms 21
Assorted Tempura 23
Sweet-and-Sour Fish 25
Quick-Simmered Fish with Sake and Ginger 25

MEAT
Fragrant Chicken Nuggets and Long Onions 27
Japanese Pan-Fried Chicken 29
Banbanji Chilled Sesame Chicken 29
Quick-Fried Liver with Nira Chinese Chives 31
Crispy Fried Chicken 31
Minced Meat Cutlets 33
Yakiniku Beef 33
Japanese-Style Hamburgers 35
Ginger Pork 37
Simmered Chicken Meatballs 37
Stir-Fried Beef and Lettuce with Kimchi 39
Sweet and Spicy Beef Curry 39
Gyoza Pot Stickers 41
Steamed Shumai Dumplings 43

VEGETABLES
Crunchy Daikon Salad 45
Tomato Ginger Salad 47
Mushrooms Steamed in Sake 47
Crushed Cucumber Salad 49
Blanched Spinach Salad 49
Simmered Kabocha Squash 51
Asparagus Saute 51
Quick-Simmered Green Beans 53
Bean Sprout Salad with Ground Pork 53
Sweet Tomato Salad 55
Simmered Shiitake Mushrooms 55
Cauliflower and Broccoli with Sesame Dip 57
Eggplant and Peppers Sauted in Miso 57
Ginger Eggplant 59
Onion Hitashi Salad 59
Simmered Mixed Vegetables 61

EGGS
Omrice:Chicken Rice Omelette 63
Scrambled Eggs with Chinese Chives 65
Crabmeat Omelette with Sweet-and-Sour Sauce 65

TOFU
Tofu with Sweet Miso Sauce 67
Golden Fried Tofu in Broth 69
Mabo-dofu Chili Tofu 69

RICE/NOODLES
Summer Udon Salad with Lemon-Sesame Sauce 71
Yakisoba Noodles with Seafood 73
Chilled Chinese Noodles 75
Beef Bowl 75
Oyakodon Chicken-and-Egg Rice 77
Mushroom Rice 77
Toasted Onigiri Rice Balls 79
Oyster Rice 81

SOUPS
Miso Soup with Short-Necked Clams 83
Miso Soup with Wakame Seaweed 83
Pork and Vegetable Soup 85
Miso Soup with Tofu and Nameko Mushrooms 85
Assorted Vegetable Soup 87
Japanese-Style Egg-Drop Soup 87

Basic Techniques
Making Rice 89
Making Dashi Stock 90
Making Mentsuyu Noodle Stock 90

Glossary 92
Index 97
Acknowledgments 104