83 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Introduction to Healthy Eating, October 12, 2005
Japanese food is famous for being great to look at and great for your body. But it is not easy to make it using traditional methods. Kurihara's book removes that problem. She makes it easy to create both the traditional family meals and some unusual concoctions of her own.
This book does not cover the kinds of foods you will be able to buy at Japanese restaurants but rather the kinds of foods that Japanese eat at home. Her recipes make it easy to make them in your home. She has tested these recipes in Europe and has found some interesting substitutes for materials not easily found outside of Japan.
If you like Japanese cooking and would like to try to make it at home, this is the best introduction. Once you get accostomed to her cooking style, you can then move on to the more difficult methods of Tsuji and Suzuki. But you will find yourself returning to this book regularly because your family will keep requesting her foods.
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36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delicious, creative Japanese-influenced recipes, January 14, 2007
This review is from: Harumi's Japanese Cooking: More than 75 Authentic and Contemporary Recipes from Japan's Most Popular Cooking Expert (Hardcover)
Just so you know, the recipes in this wonderful cookbook are largely Japanese-Western fusion, not traditional Japanese. We enjoyed the delicious mentaiko spaghetti this afternoon (very easy to make) and the tofu Gorgonzola pesto salad. The combinations of flavors are interesting and tasty, but if you're looking for a book of more traditional recipes, you might try Washoku.
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
for one of my most frequently used cookbooks:, April 30, 2007
This review is from: Harumi's Japanese Cooking: More than 75 Authentic and Contemporary Recipes from Japan's Most Popular Cooking Expert (Hardcover)
Harumi is a bonafied cookbook star in Japan. She's published more than 12 cookbooks, some of them small and adhering to themes like Bento, Seafood, or Italian, and many of her larger ones are collections of her "favorites," recipes that are regulars in her household - both are huge bestsellers, and I own most of them. So when this english version came out, I couldn't wait to try them.
The best part is that most of these recipes are "Japanese," but they are selectively compiled to cater to the American audience. She steers clear from the so-called "weird" Japanese ingredients, like natto (fermentated soy beans), or umeboshi (really sour pickled plum). A lot of Japanese home cooking are western dishes, like casseroles and hamburgers (surprise!), but Harumi, staying true to her title, has selected authentic Japanese recipes or western dishes with a Japanese twist.
I've cooked about half of the recipes in her book, and they all came out great. The best one so far is the open-faced dumplings, and the salmon cakes, and the chicken salad. There was one questionable recipe - the shredded carrot salad - which is her staple dish (as it's published in many of her cookbooks), but I think either Harumi or her editors may have altered the original recipe (which does NOT include vinegar or mustard) to cater to the more American notion of "salad." The original version is MUCH better; less like a salad and more like a stir-fried side dish.
I can guarantee that many, if not all, of her recipes in this book will turn out great, and this is coming from a girl who was raised by her mom's Japanese cooking for a good part of her life.
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