Everyday Harumi [Hardcover]

Harumi Kurihara (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2009

Harumi Kurihara, Japan's most famous cookbook writer, selects her favorite ingredients and presents 70 new home-style recipes for you to make for family and friends.
In Everyday Harumi, Harumi Kurihara, Japan's most popular cookbook writer, selects her favorite foods and presents more than 60 new home-style recipes for you to make for family and friends. Harumi wants everyone to be able to make her recipes and she demonstrates how easy it is to cook Japanese food for every day occasions without needing to shop at specialist food stores.

Arranged by her favorite ingredients, Harumi presents recipes for soups, starters, snacks, party dishes, main courses and family feasts that are quick and simple to prepare, all presented in her effortless, down-to-earth and unpretentious approach to sylish living and eating. Every recipe is photographed and includes beautiful step by step advice that show key Japanese cooking techniques, such as chopping skills or how to serve rice. Texture and flavor are important to Japanese food and Harumi takes you through the basic sauces you can make at home and the staples you should have in your store cupboard.

Photographed by award-winning photographer Jason Lowe, this warm and approachable cookbook invites you to cook and share Japanese food in a simple and elegant style.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Created expressly for Westerners, the latest stylish volume from Japanese cooking star Kurihara (Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking) shows Americans how they can incorporate Japanese styles, flavors and techniques into weekday meals. A sort of Japanese Rachel Ray, Kurihara offers 70 home-style recipes big on flavor and short on effort. Arranged by main ingredient or flavor (rice, miso, shellfish, potato, etc.), readers will be able to crank out fare such as Rice with Sea Bream, Ginger Pork or Tonkatsu (pork shoulder steaks that have been breaded, fried and served with cabbage and a sauce of the same name) in almost no time at all, provided they have a few sauces on hand. Japanese riffs on fried chicken and sliders with teriyaki sauce make pleasant surprises, but there are enough classics like yakitori, egg drop and miso soup (three variations), and ubiquitous Sweet Pickled Ginger to please traditionalists. Those with a soft spot for Japanese flavors and techniques, or traditional cooks looking to branch out will find this a welcome, sharply-produced introduction.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Created expressly for Westerners, the latest stylish volume from Japanese cooking star Kurihara (Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking) shows Americans how they can incorporate Japanese styles, flavors and techniques into weekday meals. A sort of Japanese Rachel Ray, Kurihara offers 70 home-style recipes big on flavor and short on effort. Arranged by main ingredient or flavor (rice, miso, shellfish, potato, etc.), readers will be able to crank out fare such as Rice with Sea Bream, Ginger Pork or Tonkatsu (pork shoulder steaks that have been breaded, fried and served with cabbage and a sauce of the same name) in almost no time at all, provided they have a few sauces on hand. Japanese riffs on fried chicken and sliders with teriyaki sauce make pleasant surprises, but there are enough classics like yakitori, egg drop and miso soup (three variations), and ubiquitous Sweet Pickled Ginger to please traditionalists. Those with a soft spot for Japanese flavors and techniques, or traditional cooks looking to branch out will find this a welcome, sharply-produced introduction. (Publishers Weekly 2009)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Conran (September 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840915447
• ISBN-13: 978-1840915440
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Asian > Japanese

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best cookbooks I own, let alone best japanese cookbook February 19, 2010

By Neel Gandhi

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book off a recommendation in Saveur magazine. I have always been hesitant of reaching out to Japanese books because of their need for fairly difficult to find ingredients that don't have much place in the other types of cuisine I normally cook. I am a big fan of Japanese food in general and have been eager to bring it home for some time.

Construction:
This is a very well made book. The paper stock and print is very well done. Aesthetically its very well presented and very clear and easy to follow/understand.
5/5 Stars

Content:
This is where this book shines. I wish I could score this thing A+++ just for the content. The first thing this book does is break down your fear of cooking and then further remove any barriers to entry to Japanese food in general by going over the base ingredients you will need. The thing that's attractive here is that there are alternatives suggested to items so that if you cant find something or don't want to purchase it for a one off recipe there is a suitable alternative suggested. Very very cool. The next part of book that is amazing is the fact that the recipes are all everyday cooking recipes so they are not too involved. This translates to delicately crafted dishes that are not heavy on ingredients so if you were to stock a couple of the base ingredients Harumi recommends you are able to make a large number of dishes in this book. Cant ask for better let me tell you!
5/5 Stars

Overall:
This is a no brainer, this is 5 star over and over again. This is a cornerstone book for anybody who wants to try their hand at Japanese food or even for those that want to take their skills one step further. Harumi is considered Japans Julia Child and this book tells you why. She has demystified Japanese cooking and made it accessible to the masses.
5/5 Stars

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Japanese Cookbook! November 18, 2009

By P. Choquet

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Thank you Harumi for such a great Japanese cookbook! I absolutely love this cookbook. I was so excited to see Harumi came out with a new cookbook. I have her other two cookbooks and really enjoy them. But, when I received this cookbook in the mail I fell in love right away with the book itself. Beautiful photos to go along with the delicious recipes. I have been so inspired by the recipes in this book and everything I have made has been so tasteful (my husband and daughter agree, too). This cookbook has really inspired me. I have several Japanese cookbooks (I mostly cook french food), but Harumi's books (especially this one) are the only ones that are so flavorful when I make them. The Sauteed Leeks and Mushrooms were so easy to make and terrific. Loved the Tuna Tataki, Fried Rice with Crabmeat and most of all loved the Tofu with a Spicy Minced Meat Sauce. Can't wait to try more. If you are interested in Japanese cooking this cookbook is a must! Also, can't believe Harumi is over 60 years old - She looks amazing - must be the Japanese diet!!!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The only Japanese cookbook a Westerner will need June 8, 2010

By Jesse Kornbluth TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Harumi Kurihara is almost unknown in America, but in Japan, she's a household name --- literally. Like: 52 shops in department stores. Like: 12 cafes and restaurants. Like: books and books.
Just don't think of her as "the Martha Stewart of Japan."

"Martha is an entrepreneur but I am a housewife, and I want to continue," she says. She started giving cooking classes because her husband and child loved the way she cooked, and even when she became a successful teacher, she still took her greatest pleasure from making family dinners. One thing led to another, and she began sending articles to magazines.

In 1992, she published her first cookbook, "Gochisosama Ga Kikitakute!," which means "I want to hear you say delicious!" Her publisher hated the title. 'It is too casual and inappropriate. It sounds like the title of an essay, not a book' was the complaint," Harumi has said. "But I did not compromise. The book sold over a million copies and remains in print. I feel vindicated."

Everyday Harumi, her most recent book, was created for Western home cooks. It capitalizes on our attraction for Japanese food --- its lightness, its scant use of meat, fat and dairy products, its smaller portions, its creative use of vegetables. Even better, it's not for purists. This is a cookbook for housewives, both literal and metaphorical. That is, it's for busy people who have little time to cook but who are too proud, cost-conscious and health-minded to order take-out.

It is, simply, the most useful and creative approach to Japanese cooking I have yet encountered. Harumi is to Japan what Marcella Hazan is to Italy and Patricia Wells is to France. Though new in our home, Harumi's book is already food-stained --- the ultimate compliment.

What you get are more than 70 user-friendly recipes, most of them simple to prepare. Yes, you have to do some shopping first, but you'll be buying oils, spices and condiments that will find their way into many dishes. And the recipes are, mostly, simple in the extreme. Barbecue sauce: 12 ingredients, a few minutes of preparation, brief cooking, and you're done.

Western influences? Chicken and celery salad, with mayonnaise in the dressing. Japanese hamburger (tsukune). Ginger pork with bok choy: 6 ingredients, 6 steps. Green beans with ground pork. Lots of fish. Mashed potatoes with a Japanese-style mushroom sauce. Japanese coleslaw. Sauteed leeks and mushrooms.

Simple family meals? Rice with soy-flavored pork and carrots. Fried rice with crabmeat. Stir-fried noodles with pork and cabbage. A surprising tofu "steak." Several varieties of miso soup.

Vegetables? You expect green beans with sesame dressing, but pumpkin with a sweet sesame glaze (4 ingredients, 4 steps) will surprise you. Ditto potatoes with a sweet soy dressing

Delicacies? Deep-fried scallops stuffed with mozzarella will make you forget your pledge never to eat fried food.

Desserts? None. Not one. How totally refreshing.