DashiDashi

It’s summer. It’s warm. (Yes, even here in England.) Therefore, it’s time to eat cold noodles. (Can you tell I’m going on holiday in less than 12 hours, and attempting to write the world’s shortest blogpost on soba dipping sauce?) So without further ado, I bid you au revoir for now. If you’re an oyster in the [...]

Somen, according to Tsuji: A very fine white noodle, made from a hard-wheat dough slightly moistened with cottonseed or sesame seed oil. Hiyashi Somen: A widely popular summer meal, normally garnished with just chopped spring onions. Summer has yet to arrive officially in the UK — it’s made a few impromtu visits, but nothing definite — but [...]

According to economic theory, most assets fall into one of two categories: fixed or consumable. My wok is a fixed asset; my supply of Lindt 70% dark chocolate is alarmingly consumable. So far so good. We then get to crockery and the boundaries start to blur. Being a certified klutz, when I buy bowls/plates/mugs, it’s [...]

So it’s official: the secret of happiness is not love, beauty, or a tax-free jurisdiction. It’s having a signature dessert. Just imagine: never again will you be left peering into the oven, running an hour late and covered in flour, while your newly-attempted gateau fails to rise to the (special) occasion. Or your panna cotta [...]

It always surprises me to meet people who hate mushrooms. It’s like not liking bread. Or kittens. At least mushrooms don’t scratch and make you wheeze. As a kid, my favourite mushrooms were straw mushrooms, which (for some unfathomable reason) my mother nicknamed ‘Great Wall of China’ mushrooms. Presumably the longer name was intended to tongue-tie [...]

To the uninitiated, boiled-up kelp and fish flakes appear to be an unlikely basis for an entire national cuisine. But according to Tsuji, good dashi is “the first secret of the simple art of Japanese cooking”. A fitting place to begin, then. Not least because this innocuous, one-size-fits-all stock features in at least every other recipe in [...]