The Japanese Larder

We are very excited to announce our collaboration with Luiz Hara & grab our copy of The Japanese Larder on October 18th to re-create all the wonderful recipes inside.
(See if you can spot our edible leaves, flowers & micro cress)

A stunning new cookbook that demystifies key Japanese ingredients and techniques, and encourages the home cook to experiment with them in their everyday cooking. 

 How often have we bought an exotic foreign ingredient for a special recipe only to struggle to think what to do with it beyond cooking that dish and for it to be sitting in our fridges until it is past its use by date? I think we can all relate to this. Japanese ingredients all too commonly baffle home cooks – we often don’t know how to use them except in the recipe at hand. 

For example, miso paste is the key ingredient in the ubiquitous miso soup, but there is so much more to it than that. Miso can be used in many different ways to create anything from marinated grilled cod to barbecued caramelized pork ribs, and even miso ice cream. 

Over recent decades, home cooks the world over have come to love many delicious and previously unfamiliar foods. Take the humble garlic – unused and unloved in most English speaking countries until Elizabeth David and Julia Child opened the eyes and taste buds of their readers in the 1950s. And outside of Italy, whoever cooked with radicchio, pancetta or even balsamic vinegar 30 years ago? It was only through the work of visionary chefs that these ingredients are in our kitchens today. 

With the same passion, enthusiasm and love of flavour in mind, Luiz Hara firmly believes that great ingredients should not be limited by geographic boundaries. The Japanese Larder was written as a celebration of key Japanese ingredients and the richness and depth of flavour they can bring to readers anywhere in the world. In each chapter of this stunning cookbook, a set of core Japanese ingredients is explained and their uses illustrated in both classical Japanese and newly created recipes for kitchens outside Japan. 

Beyond some essential Japanese ingredients, recipes in The Japanese Larder are based on produce that is readily available in any major supermarket, encouraging cooks to try something new yet accessible. Readers can use these recipes to create an entire meal, or use one of these dishes alongside some of their own favourites. 

Recipe examples include: Roast Soy and Butter Chicken, Grilled Lamb Cutlets in Spicy Green Miso, Seared Tuna with Sesame-Ponzu Dressing, and Matcha and Clotted Cream Rice Pudding.

Luiz Hara says ‘The Japanese Larder is not a Japanese cookbook, but rather introduces Japanese ingredients in easily achievable, traditional and novel recipes for the home cook’. 

For those wondering what that image is on the front cover, Onigirazu is a new Japanese food, a rice sandwich similar to ‘onigiri’ but not triangular in shape and using less traditional Japanese ingredients. You can fill onigirazu with whatever takes your fancy – ham & cheese, teriyaki burger, raw salmon, avocado and mayo are some of my favourites.

Onigirazu is so simple to make and really encapsulates the idea behind The Japanese Larder which is to bring Japanese ingredients to anyone in their everyday cooking.

Author: Luiz Hara
Published by: Quarto Cooks
Produce from: Nurtured in Norfolk

Available to buy online or from all good book retailers.

All images with credit to:

© Simon Smith for Quarto Publishing Group PLC