sanrensho

I'm partial to eating yamaimo fresh as a salad. Peel, slice and chop into matchstick size pieces. Top with nori (optional) and dress with your favorite rice vinegar-based dressing. A citrus or ume dressing works nicely for this application.

Where can you typically buy tartaric acid? Edited to add that apparently it can be purchased from a pharmacist of winemaking supply store. I should have done a search first.

I'm assuming we're talking about cooked rice. Chill it in the fridge before frying. That will help to separate the grains and remove excess moisture.

Find a glass jar with a screw top, punch some small holes in it and fill with a sugar-vinegar solution. The suckers will drown in the vinegar.

We use fresh bay leaves almost exclusively. Our neighbour has a tree and gives us piles of bay leaves. We simply wash them, towel them off and pop them in the freezer for later use. I haven't noticed the medicinal quality you mention.

I believe you're referring to Kombiniya.

I second tom kha gai, it will definitely make the coconut milk disappear fast.

Can you ask for the sauce on the side? There is also a style of katsudon in Japan known as "sauce katsudon" in which the katsu is already sauced before placing it on rice. http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/ske/imgs/1/1/117debbc.jpg

For Particia Austin's bran muffin recipe, I had problems getting the centers to bake at the recommended 400 degrees. This only happened when I overfilled the pans to get big tops like on a commercial muffin. (When not overfilled, the centers baked fine.) For that recipe, I would try a lower temp and longer baking time. The tops for the PA bran muffins come out very crispy and rival any commercial bran muffin.

I usually like to eat my tonkatsu and shredded cabbage together. Also helps to cut down on the guilt factor of eating deep-fried food.

Adding some chopped mitsuba to the finished donburi is a nice touch, assuming you have access to it.

I really like Patricia Austin's bran muffin recipe from this thead: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...20muffins&st=30 This recipe produces a nice crispy muffin top. You may have to play with oven temps and times if you overfill your pans to get that commercial bakery look.

Nice job! However, I hope people aren't put off by the difficulty of making sushi at home. It can be as simple as temaki (cones) where you lay out all the ingredients and everyone makes their own temaki. That way you only need to prep the sushi rice and cut the ingredients and nori. Everyone can spread their own rice (easy on the rice) and roll their own temaki. That is the common way of doing it in Japanese homes, self-serve style.

I don't know. Never tried... Anyone? ← I suspect the rice would harden somewhat, like when you have leftover chirashi zushi. If it were me, I would leave some extra rice in the rice cooker (warming overnight) and mix a fresh batch the next day. One more thing, I would suggest adding your vinegar mixture a little at a time and tasting as you go. Keep in mind that the flavors will be more prominent as the rice cools down. Good luck!

Next time, try to buy a short grain rice like the Tamaki Gold or Hitomebore brands. Kokuho Rose is a medium grain rice.

Yoku Moku are indeed delicious. It doesn't take us long to demolish a box when they come our way. Your husband would probably like Shiroi Koibito as well. http://www.shiroikoibito.ishiya.co.jp/english/index.html Unfortunately, I've never seen either sold locally.

I predict that the location will be abandoned within a year. There are so many other (Chinese) bakeries in Richmond that produce a better sandwich bread, which is the only passable product that Cobs sells. The Chinese bakeries are cheaper, too, and offer way more dessert options. In comparison, Cobs takes the same bread mix and just slathers different toppings on. Not great value, either.

It looks like (natural) light has returned to Patrick's part of the world. Great photos as always.

Goldie: Great suggestions. Fish tacos are something that we could tackle with minimum fuss and we all love them. To be honest, I'm a little leery of kid's cookbooks. I've always suspected that the recipes are dumbed down, which is something I've avoided from day one. The only thing I will adjust is the heat, never spice levels or ingredients. jsolomon: Frittata is excellent and would be a nice intro to omelettes. Something nice and hearty with potatos and olives would go over really well.

The pizza idea is a classic! My four-year old daughter also gets into this in a big way. My daughter is pretty flexible when it comes to food and not squeamish in any way. She has her favorites, of course, but a lot of it has to do with what we make. The breakdown is probably 40% Japanese, 10% Chinese, 25% Italian and a mishmash of everything else. The other reason for emphasizing foods that can go straight from stovetop to table is to give my daughter exposure to other parts of the meal. While she's stirring away and doing her dish, she can see how other dishes are being prepared and finished. Recipes or dishes that we can prepare regularly are a big bonus. For our Japanese meals, I'm thinking that she can take command of making miso soup. She can vary this using different vegetables.

She is definitely interested in baking, but I'm not sure my wife can handle more flour prints in the kitchen. That is, in addition to the ones I create. On the breakfast front, I intend to teach her to do pancakes and then waffles. She can definitely handle those from start to finish. Eggs (scrambled and omelette) are on the list, too. I think it might be interesting to teach her to make a bechamel sauce as part of a gratin-making exercise. We could make mini-gratins using the oven toaster, so she could put the gratins in herself and watch them cook.

Do you mean that this is a freshly made, locally-produced product?

The rice pulao idea is great. For now, though, I want something that keeps her involved and at my side until the dish is done. (Otherwise, she'll disappear into her books and I'll never see her again!) I'm thinking that an Indian curry might be ideal, especially a kheema curry. Please keep the great ideas coming!

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. I know that there have been other threads on cooking with kids, but nothing specifically on whole dishes. My daughter is actually OK for 30 minutes or more, as long as she is kept busy. (About how long it takes for a risotto.) She already helps out with making potstickers, rolling meatballs and the like. The "whole dish" emphasis is for pride of ownership, independence (although I am always by her side) and for motivational reasons. I also want her to see a dish through to its finish, including adjusting seasonings, checking for doneness, etc. The risotto test has already convinced me of the value of giving my daughter her "own dish" to prepare.

The risotto has worked out surprisingly well. As long as everything is prep'ed, she can handle it up to the final stirring. Then her 7-year old arms get tired, although it partly has to do with the volume we make (family of four and heavy rice eaters). I would highly recommend this as a starter dish to other parents with young kids. The gratin idea is great but I would like to avoid oven foods. Only because it starts to become "my dish" when I start to get involved in pulling stuff in and out of the oven. Also, some of the continuity (and interest) is lost. Working on basic white and red sauces is a good idea. I think I'll try a fresh tomato pasta sauce so she can see it through to completion. jsolomon: Do you have an good dumpling recipes? I wasn't raised on these and my few attempts haven't been successful.