by

Atsuko’s Japanese Kitchen, a cookbook review

If I had to name a cookbook that both embodied home cooking and simple elegance, it would be Atsuko’s Japanese Kitchen by Atsuko Ikeda.  It’s the reason why I was looking forward to this review.

Back when I first started to cook, I was drawn to Japanese cuisine.  Shabu shabu, Japanese curry, miso soup with a proper dashi, etc. were the things I was trying to make in my home kitchen.  Somewhere, I stopped cooking Japanese food (with the exception of the occasional nabe). I’m not sure why. Maybe because it stopped feeling new to me?

But Ms. Ikeda does an excellent job of taking those familiar Japanese dishes and adding a modern flair, taking a familiar homemade dish and giving it a breath of newness.  Some examples are:

  • Smoked mackerel and dill onigiri
  • Mushrooms with blue cheese, yuzu ponzu, and truffle
  • Molten eggs with lightly seared marinated steak (molten eggs seem to be jammy eggs)
  • Mushroom and soy milk soup

 

That isn’t to say that there are no traditional recipes in this book.  For a few days, I couldn’t decide whether to test out her chicken and eggs on rice (oyakodon) recipe, or her beef and potato stew (nikujaga) recipe.  (And then I chose neither for this review.)

The book is divided into fairly standard chapters:

  • My Japanese kitchen
  • Regional Dishes
  • The secrets of Japanese cuisine
  • Small dishes for sharing
  • Soups and Noodles
  • Easy one-plate meals
  • Special occasion meals
  • Sides and Dressings
  • Desserts

 

The recipes I’m interested in making that I haven’t named already:

Glazed lotus root and chicken meatballs – I was introduced to this recipe years ago, and I may have lost the recipe.  I love renkon (lotus root) and you don’t see this stuffed renkon recipe in English written cookbooks often.

  • Ceviche-style scallops with citrus sauce – On paper, it reminds me of a dish from Tyler Kinnett, Executive Chef at Harvest (one of my favorite restaurants in the Greater Boston area).
  • Chicken in nanban seasonings with tartar sauce – Somehow, I never heard chicken nanban until recently.  It’s apparently the Japanese version of sweet and sour chicken.
  • Fried and steamed salmon in miso garlic sauce – The photo for this recipe really appeals to me.  It’s listed in the special occasion meals chapter but the ingredient list isn’t daunting, nor are the instructions.
  • Pumpkin salad – Kabocha squash, Japanese mayo, Greek yogurt, raisins, and almonds.  It sounds intriguing.
  • Azuki bean paste pancake sandwiches – It never occurred to me to make my own dorayaki.  I love red bean desserts!

 

And a shout out to the photographer, Yuki Sugiura.  Every recipe is accompanied was a gorgeous photo to inspire!

For my review recipe, I ultimately picked the chicken teriyaki with lime.  (The recipe serves it over quinoa rice, but it’s been hot here in the Greater Boston area so I chose not to cook another dish.  I ate it with store bought naan, and salad. I’ll make the rice next time.) I like Japanese teriyaki but I just never make it at home, but I was really curious how the lime matched the dish.

Aside from the chicken and the lime, I had all of the ingredients in the recipe.  (Full disclosure, I swapped the leeks with onion.) It was easy to make, so I can vouch that it’s a perfect dish to make at home.  Ms. Ikeda claims “after trying this recipe, you might never purchase ready-made teriyaki sauce again.” I’m inclined to agree! I thought this was delicious!  And the touch of lime elevated the recipe from being boring and ordinary.

If you’re interested in Japanese food, or if you’re looking for some new ideas that can be used for everyday cooking, I highly recommend this book.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I wasn’t. In fact, I think I’ll make the fried ginger pork for dinner this weekend.

Disclaimer – I kindly received this book from Ryland and Peters for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.

 

Reference Links:

https://rylandpeters.com/products/atsukos-japanese-kitchen?_pos=2&_sid=d98f195e2&_ss=r

https://www.atsukoskitchen.com/

Advertisements
by

The Greek Vegetarian Cookbook, a review

Every once in a while, there comes along a cookbook that I know immediately I am going to like.  In my never-ending quest to try to eat more vegetables and fruit, I am always looking for new ideas or inspiration.  And for me right now, that is The Greek Vegetarian Cookbook by Heather Thomas.  The recipes in this book are mostly uncomplicated, unpretentious, but not boring.  

The book is also really enjoying to flip through, as every recipe is accompanied by a gorgeous photo.  The breakdown of the cookbook is basic:

  • Chapter 1 – Meze, Dips, and Snacks
  • Chapter 2 – Salads
  • Chapter 3 – Breakfasts and Brunches
  • Chapter 4 – Light Lunches
  • Chapter 5 – Dinners
  • Chapter 6 – Bakes and Desserts

Trying to narrow down a recipe to test for this review was a little tough.  The recipes that I was most interested in, some of the ingredients are not in season yet (here being in New England).  But here’s a snapshot of some of the recipes I want to make from this book:

  • Halloumi and Lentil Salad
  • Hummus with Fennel and Golden Beets
  • Cretan Tomato Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette
  • Crunchy Greek Islands Salad
  • Melon and Avocado Salad
  • Halloumi with Sweetcorn Fritters with Fried Eggs
  • Chickpea and Eggplant Pilaf
  • Baked Stuffed Vegetables
  • White Bean, Tomato, and Feta Baklava
  • Fresh Fig and Orange Cake

In the end, I went with testing out the Broccoli Salad with Yogurt Dressing recipe because I had most of the ingredients and the photo looked appetizing.  It’s almost embarrassingly easy. You re-hydrate some raisins. You boil some broccoli. You make a dressing of Greek yogurt, honey, and vinegar. And then you serve the broccoli with the dressing, some onion, sunflower seeds, toasted pine nuts, and the raisins.

And you know what?  I loved it. The recipe comes with variations which also sound good, and I’m tempted to try all the suggestions.

So, would I recommend this book to someone else?  Yes! I think I’d recommend this book to anyone to be honest.  Interested in the Mediterranean diet? Get this book. Interested in recipes easy enough for a beginner?  Get this book. Want to eat more veggies? Get this book. And if you do get this book, let me know what you think of it.  🙂

Disclaimer – I kindly received this book from Phaidon for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.

Reference Link:

https://www.phaidon.com/store/food-cook/the-greek-vegetarian-cookbook-9780714879130/

by

What I’ve been eating this year so far

I still dream about this curry breakfast sandwich.  It came from 3 Little Figs.

Sadly, it was a special.  So if I want it again, I need to learn to make it.  Which in turn means that I need to work on my biscuit making skills.  It is going slowly because I am a household of one.  There’s only so much carbs and fats a person should be allowed to eat in a day.

Other works in progress?  Recreating the candy bar of my childhood.

Right now, my favorite ramen place is Tsurumen in Davis Square.

Oh, and I finally made it to Tasting Counter! The food was really excellent. It’s not the kind of place you can go to all the time… or at least, I can’t because I’m not made of money, but I highly recommend hitting it up at least once. It’s the kind of place where the people who opted out of alcohol pairings still got mocktails and other beverages that matched every course.

View this post on Instagram

Turbot, peas, and mushrooms

A post shared by @ awesomesauceeats on

And like everyone else in Greater Boston with a hankering for good Thai food, I highly recommend Dakzen. I can’t wait to go there again.

I finally made it to a meal at Commonwealth and was not disappointed. The night I was there, deep fried snapper head was the special. Luckily I was with friends who are adventurous and we were all the better for it. The restaurant also makes all its own ice creams and sorbets, which I also recommend.

I finally made it the famed Oleana, and every dish I ate there was amazing. My favorite, though, might have been the duck dish.

And most recently, I got to eat at Littleburg again. Littleburg is a vegan pop-up restaurant that I’m very fond of, but they are often at times/places that doesn’t fit into my schedule. At least, I was able to make it to their noddle bar night.

In all honesty, I don’t eat out that much.  Everything above was over the course of three to four months.  So, it’ll probably be another three to four months before you get another update like this.  lol!

 

Reference Links:

https://www.littleburgveg.com/

https://www.oleanarestaurant.com/

http://commonwealthcambridge.com/

https://www.dakzen.com/restaurant

https://www.facebook.com/TsurumenDavis420/

https://www.3littlefigs.com/

https://tastingcounter.com/

by

Heirloom Kitchen, a cookbook review

Who doesn’t love heritage recipes?  Cookbook author Anna Francese Gass started her collection by carefully recording her own mother’s Italian recipes.  (Which is quite a feat in my opinion! I’ve been trying to do the same with my mom, and my mom is just so uncooperative.  lol!) That dedication eventually led Gass to record and collect the recipes of other women who have immigrated to the US, and released her collection as Heirloom Kitchen: Heritage Recipes and Family Stories From the Tables of Immigrant Women.

The book is divided by locations:

  • Europe
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Central and South America
  • Middle East

The book is beautifully done.  There’s a mini-biography on each of the women who contributed their recipes, and a lot of tantalizing food photos.  I think there’s a good mix of recipes the general public is already familiar with, and recipes that are unfamiliar.

Here’s a sample of the recipes you will find in this book:

  • Arancini (Italian rice balls)
  • Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread
  • Borscht (Beef and Beet Stew)
  • Siberian Pelmeni (Pork and Beef Dumplings)
  • Schmorgurken (Ground Meat with Braised Cucumbers)
  • Spanakopita
  • Cullen Skink
  • Chicken Tagine
  • Winter Melon Soup
  • Poul Ak Nura (Cashew Chicken)
  • Palaw (Beef and Rich with Carrot Raisin Dressing)
  • Tahdig (Scorched Rice)

For this review, I wanted to make the Winter Melon Soup (because yay! Cantonese represent!) but I wasn’t going to have a chance to stop by an Asian market anytime soon.  Since I’m a sucker for quick breads, I ended up making the Jamaican Toto which is a spiced quick bread (aka cake) with coconut and raisins.

Had I been a total novice, the bread would have been a disaster.  The ingredient list is: butter, brown sugar, all purpose flour, baking powder, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, vanilla extract, grated coconut, and raisins.  Do you spot anything missing?

There’s no liquid.  There’s no egg. I’m willing to believe that the original recipe might not have had egg, but it had to have had a liquid.  It’s just tasty sand otherwise. I re-read the ingredients and the instructions about five times when I realized something was wrong.  Key ingredients were missing.

I went ahead, randomly grabbed buttermilk, added one egg, and finished the recipe.  Looking back I should have researched other Jamaican toto recipes online. It looks like I should have been using evaporated milk or coconut milk.  (I was in the kitchen soon after getting up from bed. I was not thinking at 100% capacity. I went on gut instinct instead.)

The texture of my final product did not look much like the photo in the book.  (I’ll blame the buttermilk.) So I want to give it a second attempt in the future.  More importantly though, it tasted delicious! (I may have eaten a third of the loaf in one day.  Oops.) So, I definitely want to try making toto again but probably with a different recipe.

The takeaway?  I recommend this book with caution.  The next time I pick out a recipe, I’m going to compare it with other similar recipes before starting.  (I still want to make the winter melon soup recipe. I ran it past my mom for her opinion. My mother makes a different variant of the soup, but said it looked correct.)  I don’t know how well this book was edited, how the recipes were compiled, or how much recipe testing went on. But when all is said and done, I really like the format and the theme of Heirloom Kitchen.  And I think it’s a great source of inspiration.

 

Reference Links:

http://www.annasheirloomkitchen.com/buy-the-book 

http://ediblecapecod.ediblecommunities.com/recipes/byron-scarlett-s-coconut-toto-cake
(a different toto recipe but this one makes more sense than the one from the book)

Disclaimer – I kindly received this book from Harper Design for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.

by

The Prairie Homestead Cookbook, a cookbook review

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I received a review copy of The Prairie Homestead Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Heritage Cooking in Any Kitchen by Jill Winger.  By name alone, I was expecting a lot of comfort food recipes just because that’s what I tend to think of when I think of stereotypical American cooking. And while there are comfort food recipe in the book, I feel like the soul of this book is more about cooking building blocks, and taking the DIY route in the kitchen.

The book is divided into these chapters:

  • Country Breakfasts
  • Hearty Mains
  • Farm-Style Sides
  • Home Bakery
  • Old-Fashioned Sweets
  • Homestead Sips
  • Prairie Pantry Staples
  • Herbs and Veggies
  • Eggs, Milk, and Meat
  • Stocking the Larder

 

Here are some recipes that you can look forward to:

  • Baked Eggs with Cream and Chives
  • Homemade Bacon
  • Homemade Chorizo
  • Old-Fashioned Sausage Gravy
  • Wyoming Burger
  • Cheddar and Herb Meatloaf
  • Saucy Spiced Beef and Onions
  • Old Homestead Pie
  • Chicken Poblano Chowder
  • Parmesan Roasted Cabbage Steaks
  • Herbed Crescent Rolls
  • Sourdough Crackers
  • Old-Fashioned Gingerbread with Caramel Sauce

 

The Herbs and Veggies, and the Eggs, Milk, and Meat chapters of the cookbook are the homesteading chapters, chapters which I wasn’t expecting at all.  Herbs and Veggies are pretty much what you might expect. It’s an introduction to gardening outdoors, more with a focus on raised beds. I basically live in a city with very little land space so I don’t have much use for information that isn’t about container gardening.  The chapter finishes up with a vegetable growing guide, covering the most conventional vegetables that you’d find consumed in North America.

The only information in the Herbs and Veggies chapter that I personally found worthwhile is the homemade organic garden spray recipe.  It makes me willing to try growing kale again (which is pretty easy… until it’s infested with bugs which also happens pretty easily).

The Eggs, Milk, and Meat chapter is about raising chickens, cows, and goats.  While I could technically raise chickens where I live, I’m really not about to.  (Let’s be honest. I don’t even own house pets because I’m cheap and lazy that way.)  Nevermind cows and goats for a city girl like me. Since I have zero experience with raising livestock, I will be fair and refrain from making any comments or critiques. I don’t know how useful the provided information is, and I probably never will.

It was the homesteading chapters that I saw first when I first flipped through this book.  I doubted how much this book would be useful to me. But the recipes? Now that I’ve had time to ruminate over the rest of the book, I think the recipes themselves are useful to have.

I made the creamy tomato garlic soup recipe as my inaugural recipe.  As the warm weather eases into New England, I am suddenly hankering for soups and all things slow cooked.  I want to enjoy all of it as much as I can before it gets too hot to cook much of anything.

I was really happy with my results.  It’s a very rich tomato soup. The ingredients are: butter, onion, garlic, all purpose flour, a bit of sugar, dried basil, sea salt, black pepper, chicken stock, fresh/home-canned/commercial canned tomatoes, heavy cream, and cheese for garnish.  Swap the heavy cream with evaporated milk, and you have a very pantry friendly recipe. It’s almost too rich for me, so I’m thinking about swapping some of the butter for olive oil too. But the flavor and texture is good and comforting.

I thought I’d put the book down once I was done with my recipe test and move onto my ever-growing backlog of “to try” recipes.  But there’s something to be said about a cookbook with a lot of basic recipes, because I write this review, I have her simple roast chicken (using the slow cooker option) cooking now.

While everything in the book sounds reasonably tasty, it’s Winger’s more basic recipe that I’m more drawn to.  In addition to the roast chicken I’ve got going, I want to try the roast beef, the slow cooker pulled pork (which I almost made but ultimately decided to carry home a whole chicken than a pork shoulder), the cast iron skillet bread, and the cream of wheat (key ingredient?  Actual whole wheat berries).

All in all, I’m happy to recommend this cookbook.  It might not be for everyone, but it’s handy to have.

 

Disclaimer – I kindly received this book from Flatiron Books for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.

 

by

Vegan Meal Prep, a cookbook review

Meal prep is a topic near and dear to my heart.  I’m often prepping 4 days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Sundays.  I try to go for meatless for breakfast and lunch, mostly because I know that I should amp up my vegetable intake in general.  You would think about after three years of meal prep (more or less) that I’d have it down to a science, but I really don’t.

Breakfasts tend to be the same recipe, week after week, until I can’t stand it anymore.  Lunches can go either way. They are variations of the same basic recipe or simple-but-new-to-me recipes.  Dinner is the one meal that I give myself more time and freedom for experimenting. I’m often flipping through recipes all week long, trying to decide what I am willing and wanting to make that weekend.  And sometimes, I end up in a mild panic and just use a tried-and-true recipe when I’m too indecisive and running out of time.

I’ve always wanted a cookbook that did all the thinking for me, which led me to pick up a review copy of Vegan Meal Prep by Robin Asbell.  Asbell’s latest cookbook is basically detailed step-by-step meal prep instructions, from start to finish.

The book is split into three major sections.  “Setting Yourself Up for Success: Five Weeks of Vegan Meals” is the first section.  The highlight in this section, in my opinion, is Vegan Nutrition Basics. Asbell is pretty detailed: listing sources of protein, omega-3, calcium, iron, and zinc.  It’s a pretty good one stop reference if you’re fully vegan.

The second section is “Meal Prep 101: Planning, Shopping, and Prepping.”  This is where you’ll find the overview of the five week meal plan, shopping lists, and the prepping instructions for each week.

The third section is “Let’s Get Cooking! 125 Vegan Recipes”, which is broken down into these chapters.

  • Vegan Staples
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Salads, Dressing, and Sides
  • Desserts and Snacks

Here are the recipes that I’m most interested in trying:

  • Whole Grain Baking Mix
  • Lemon Pecan Muffins with Apricot Cashew Spread
  • Smoky Tempeh Taco Meat
  • Sweet Potato Chickpea Cakes
  • Barley with Vanilla Apples and Spiced Sweet Potato
  • Blueberry Breakfast Squares
  • Farro and Kimchi Bowls with Kale and Sesame Dressing
  • Farro Salad with Apricots, Carrots, and Spinach
  • Tempeh, Brown Rice, and Roasted Veggie Wraps
  • Tempeh Pasta Salad with Tomato and Avocado
  • Black Bean and Sweet Potato Curry
  • Black Bean and Squash Chili with Dumplings
  • Matcha-Glazed Pistachio Blondies
  • Peanut Butter Raisin Cookies

The things I liked most upon first impressions were the tips, variations, and “to pack for lunch” blurbs that frequently show up on corners of the recipe pages.  I also like how the ingredient lists are generally not intimidating nor filled with hard to find items.

The only critiques I have are two.  I wish nutritional information were listed.  I’ve seen other meal prep books that do. But for the purpose of mixing and matching for people who might be trying to watch their sugar intake, etc., it would be handy to have.  The other issue I have is the order of the recipe section. The whole book is planned around the five week meal plan/schedule but the recipes are in order by course. At least within each course type chapter, recipes are back in order by schedule and marked with which week/day the recipe belongs to.  If you’re planning to mix and match, then recipes ordered by course type makes sense. But I think if you’re planning to use the book as written, then having the recipes ordered by course type makes less sense.

In neither a “pro” nor a “con” comment, all of the recipes are meant to make about 4 servings.  So while I had originally planned on following a full week of recipes for this review, it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t feasible for me.  I am not trying to feed a family of four (But you might be!),

I ended up testing two recipes: Baked Marinated Tempeh, and Breakfast Protein Cookies with Dates and Pistachios.

View this post on Instagram

Breakfast cookies

A post shared by @ awesomesauceeats on

Both were easy to make.  I’ve made breakfast cookies before but it never occurred to me to use dates and pistachios.  I tend to use a lot of raisins. (In fact, I didn’t have time to get dates for this recipe so I used golden raisins which I think are milder in raisin flavor than the more familiar thompson seedless raisins.  Please don’t hate me for substituting.)  The cookies have good protein content, due to the sneaky addition of tofu, and don’t taste too sweet.  Having said that, the cookies actually use more sweetener than my typical baked oatmeal, and I don’t think you can reduce it as the maple syrup acts as part of the wet ingredients.  (Well, maybe you could increase the tofu?  Maple syrup and tofu are the only wet ingredients in this recipe.  Vanilla doesn’t count.  And like I said, it doesn’t taste too sweet so would reducing the sweetener be a futile exercise?)  The portion size is 3 cookies, and it seems to mostly sate my morning hunger.  (But I have a really high appetite in the mornings.  Sometimes I want more food.  Your mileage may vary.)

I liked the baked marinated tempeh too.  It never occurred to me to use apple juice as part of the marinade before.  I decided to mix up the baked tempeh with leftover marinade (which I cooked with cornstarch thinking i could use it as a sauce) and some cauliflower rice.  The natural tempeh flavor was not too strong in this recipe, so I think I’ll use it again in the near future. (However, the cooked marinade plus cauliflower tasted like… fish?  It’s a subtle enough flavor that I will push through it, but yeah, I’m never doing that combination again. lol!)

Overall, I recommend this book for anyone who wants to do more meal prepping, want a reasonable food budget, and have more than one mouth to feed.  Oh, and if you’re just trying to up your veggie intake (like me). I do have the minor reservations as listed above, but that might not bother you as much as it does me.

 

Reference Link:

https://www.robertrose.ca/book/vegan-meal-prep-5-week-plan-125-ready-go-recipes

Disclaimer – I kindly received this book from Robert Rose for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.

 

by

Simply Hot Pots, a cookbook review

Someone I know recently said to me, “Really, you need a recipe book for hot pot?? Lol just throw stuff in!”

Well, yes, I could do that.  At home hot pot (aka nabe)  with friends and family have always been chicken broth or dashi up until now.  But you know what? That gets a little boring sometimes. Just because it’s hot pot, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for creativity!

It is that creativity that caught my eye with Amy Kimoto-Kahn’s newest cookbook, Simple Hot Pots.  Maybe it’s because she’s a fourth-generation Japanese-American, but Kimoto-Kahn doesn’t box herself in with traditional recipes.  She doesn’t ignored them, but there’s a lovely collection of non-traditional recipes that I think deserve attention.

The book is divided into these sections:

  • Broth bases, sauce, and more
  • Pork hot pots
  • Chicken hot pots
  • Beef hot pots
  • Seafood hot pots
  • Spicy hot pots
  • Vegetable hot pots
  • Specialty hot pots
  • Side Dishes
  • Desserts

As I said above, there are traditional flavors in the book like basic dashi and basic shabu-shabu broth.  But I think the stars of the show are going to be the sesame miso broth, creamy corn broth (see more on this below), Japanese curry broth, tomato broth, Thai coconut curry broth, and Vietnamese broth.  Other honorable mentions that aren’t traditional in Japanese cookery but I have seen in hot pot places are the Mongolian broth, Korean Kimchi broth, and Macanese broth.

I also appreciate the flavor pairings that Kimoto-Kahn puts forward to go with the broths.  That tomato broth? Use it for the mussels with spicy tomato nabe recipe. Kimichi broth? Match that with Korean short ribs, because that’s a tried and true pairing.  At any rate, they both sound delicious.

I legitimately love everything I’m reading in this cookbook!

To “test drive” the book, I knew I wanted to try one of the unusual recipes.  I ultimately decided on the Green Vegetable Nabe, which uses the creamy corn broth, the sesame miso sauce, asparagus, kale, bok choy, and broccoli crowns.  

The corn broth contains onion, corn kernels, nutmeg, chicken stock, milk, cream, and miso.  The result? It reminds me of mac and cheese… but without the mac or the cheese. lol! My favorite mac and cheese recipe to make is a Martha Stewart one and it includes making a roux and flavoring it with nutmeg.  It’s the same building blocks of flavor. So this broth recipe gets us part way there but without all the heaviness of a real mac and cheese recipe. It’s sweet from the dairy and the corn, but not overly so.

And pairing it with a vegetable nabe?  It was really delicious. I didn’t want to stop eating the broccoli except that I had to or else I’d have no veggies in the fridge for the rest of the week.  A worry I had while making the nabe was that maybe the broth would scorch the bottom of the pot from the natural dairy sugars. As far as I can tell, that didn’t happen.  (Though to be fair, it might be because I was making hot pot for one.  I’m not sure how the broth would hold up after longer simmering times.)

The sesame miso sauce was good too but I have to admit that I messed it up.  (Which is kind of amazing because it’s a simple sauce.)  I was having a bad kitchen day where I was constantly dropping things and just generally being a klutz.  On top of that I was trying to rush (because I was getting hungry), one will do things like miss the instructions that said to blitz the sesame seeds into a powder or suddenly forget one was making a half batch of sauce!  Even with all my stupidity, I manage to make it work. (But I’m think I’m going to blend up the leftover sauce so that it can at least look more like it’s supposed to.)

I can’t recommend this cookbook enough even though I’ve only tested two recipes.  (Well, one recipe and one inspired recipe.) I’m trying to decide what other things I want to use the creamy corn broth with.  (Sweet potatoes, mushrooms, ham, chicken? Not necessarily altogether.) I think I might be making the tomato broth next while it’s still winter in these parts.  

Kimoto-Kahn has done a wonderful job of making hot pot more interesting, offering a variety of styles and flavors.  And, I am all the happier for it.

 

Reference Links:

http://www.easypeasyjapanesey.com/

Amy’s website – I also recommend this.  A few of the book recipes are cross-posted on her blog.

https://www.quartoknows.com/books/9781631065675/Simply-Hot-Pots.html

 

Disclaimer – I received this book from Race Point Publishing/Quarto for this review.  I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.