One of the best things about cooking for yourself is how it frees you to try new dishes just about any time. Your local go-to takeout spot will keep you in its culinary lockstep (Italian, sub sandwich, Chinese) but when you're in charge in the kitchen, it can be Finnish one night and Japanese the next.
Except at my house, where it never is Japanese. I'm descended from German/Irish stock via Chef Boyardee and Betty Crocker, and while I'll cook Thai and Indian dishes at home, or at least facsimiles thereof, Japanese has seemed to me unapproachable. That makes me a good audience for the new cookbook A Cook's Journey to Japan (Tuttle, $28) by The photography, by Japanese photographer Noburu Murata, is beautiful and is the best P.R. some of these dishes could have. The photos of the desserts were particularly alluring, a fluffy Oolong Tea Chiffon Cake and cool Green Tea Ice Cream with Black Sugar Syrup. I'm even thinking I could probably handle making Miso-Filled Rice Patties (konetsuke), a sort of dense savory version of a whoopie pie that looks easy in the step-by-step demo photos (but judging from my lifetime patty-making resume, I worry that they would fall apart). Damp hands is the secret, according to the recipe. Feldner recommends the following as good and easy starter recipes from the cookbook: Miso-Marinated Grilled Fish, Udon Soup with Chicken Meatballs, Garlic Chive Pancakes, and a wonderful Sesame Salad Dressing. Although all the recipes in the book are meant to provide easy entry to the cook new to Japanese cuisine, there are some that are more challenging, just because they have more steps, require enough advance planning to marinate a protein a few days in advance, or use ingredients that may be "a bit harder to find," says Feldner: Cold Sesame Noodle Salad, Chicken 'n' Rice Stew, and Inarizushi (or Rice-Stuffed Tofu Pockets). So stock up on the miso and the mirin, and find a supplier of burdock root that you don't have to dig up yourself.
