Japanese Kitchen Gadgets & Equipment

[giantbee]

A few years ago I bought a little tool to julienne carrots, gobou, daikon, etc. I use it often and it's still pretty sharp. Julienning a carrot and adding some sesame dressing is the easiest way to get my three year-old daughter to eat her vegetables!

http://www.hirokoskitchen.com/hiroko/pages...ennepeeler.html

[torakris]

this

is sort of a combination product that I really love, it has two thicknesses for julienne, a slice and a grater and they all snap onto the top of the box, so the food falls inside. It also has a finger guard so you don't slice of the tips of your fingers.

I rarely use the slicer or the fatter julienne as I have gotten pretty good with a knife but I use the grater for daikon,apples, ginger etc and the really fine julienne I just can't do with a knife.

This set cost about 1500 yen ($15) in Japan.

[smallworld]

I like the miso ladle thingy- I think it's called a "miso-koshi"- is really useful for making miso soup. It's a deep sieve with a vertical handle and comes with a small flat spoon. You scoop the miso from the tub with the spoon, then submerge the ladle into your soup, put the spoon in the ladle and stir until all of the miso is dissolved. This will leave you with perfectly dissolved miso- no lumps.

But I have way more western-style gadgets in my kitchen than Japanese ones. Speaking of which, are the mandolines, slicers and peelers shown above really Japanese gadgets? I kind of assumed they were European.

[Hiroyuki]

I forgot to mention Millser, a small-sized blender, which I used to make some mayo the other day.

http://www.millser.com/index.html

[helenjp]

One of the most useful gadgets I have is definitely the huge, sharp bamboo grater known as an oni-oroshi or "devil's grater". It is so fast that I use it to "chop" cabbage for cabbage soup, or daikon for certain kinds of salads etc rather than using a food processor.

Japanese ridged mortar (suribachi) and xanthyllum wood pestle...I'd show you a photo, but son's teacher asked kids to bring one to class to hull their harvested rice...and somebody dropped our one

I used to have an earthenware pot with an opening in the top, used exclusively for toasting sesame seeds. That did a lovely job, but toasted sesame seeds these days are much better in quality than they used to be...I confess I rarely toast them at home.

Mesh ladles, "ana-tama" ladles with holes in...very handy items indeed..

BUT! The prize goes to ordinary old sai-bashi...extra-large chopsticks used for cooking. I literally can't cook without them, when I'm in New Zealand I keep reaching out for them and they're NOT THERE!

[merrybaker]

I have only a few -- suribachi, benriner, and ginger grater. But one more is my favorite -- a little bamboo "brush" that cleans all the ginger pulp off the grater. It's saved me so much time and aggravation!

[Hiroyuki]

Until a few years ago, my wife and I used to rinse empty milk cartons well with water, cut them open, dry, and bring them to the supermarket for recycling, like any other respectable member of society . Then, one day, we suddenly realized how precious and useful these cartons could be. From that day on, we have never brought them to the supermarket for recycling.

We use an open, flat carton to cut fish, meat, and oily aburaage instead of the cutting board. After use, we just dispose of it.

On rare occasions when we have to dispose of used oil, we pour it into an un-cut carton, seal the top with gum tape, and dispose of the carton and all.

What do you do with your empty milk cartons? And how about other items that are supposed to be recycled, such as PET bottles?

[torakris]

I am a very bad person and recycle almost nothing....

take a look at this site:

http://www.mc-club.com/make/index.html

click on any of the 3 go buttons for some ideas of what they can be used for.

On tv I have seen people use them for things such as baking cakes, as ice cube trays and as containers to freeze food.

[torakris]

the suribachi (mortar) and surigoki (pestle)

[torakris]

some more gadgets

this is my Japanese blender, called a ミキサー (mikisaa) in Japanese, it has a special attachment for making kakigori (Japanese shaved ice) anda spice mill for grinding spices/sesame seeds/etc.

One of my two 漬物器　tsukemonoki (pickle press)

and my 巻き簀　まきす makisu (bamboo sushi mat) and a press for making hosomaki (thin sushi rolls), I bought tis press for the kids, but it hasn't been used yet...

[Kiem Hwa]

My O-cha Mill !!!

I just got this for Christmas....It works pretty good. It requires high-grade tea (no stems), and makes it into a fine powder you can use for Matcha.

Here I am planning to make Matcha and I will eat my Melty kiss with it (green tea and sweets )

[Neal J. Brown]

My O-cha Mill !!!

I just got this for Christmas....It works pretty good.  It requires high-grade tea (no stems), and makes it into a fine powder you can use for Matcha.

Here I am planning to make Matcha and I will eat my Melty kiss with it (green tea and sweets )

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Can you tell me where you got your green tea grinder please, I would love to have one of those, Great Gift!

[Kiem Hwa]

Can you tell me where you got your green tea grinder please, I would love to have one of those, Great Gift!

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Mine appears to be made by a brand called Porlex.

ポーレックス お茶ミル

Mine was bought in Hawaii at a Japanese store called Shirokiya, but it looks like you can buy one on the Japanese Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/tg/det...8#more-pictures

[torakris]

a nice article with a lot of pictures on gadgets for the Japanese kitchen:

http://www.bento.com/fexp-tools.html

[tissue]

the suribachi  (mortar) and surigoki (pestle)

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I have this. But I mostly use it to grind down yamaimo.

[shinju]

wattacetti - I purchased 5 different Shun Kershaw knives from ebay.

[Hiroyuki]

I have a question. What type of toaster oven do you use? I use a small-size, 830-W toaster oven (oven toaster in Japanese). The tray is about 24 cm x 14 cm in size. Believe it or not, I place the toaster oven on top of the refrigerator (because of the limited kichen space, of course) and I use it for a variety of purposes such as grilling fish.

[torakris]

I have a question.  What type of toaster oven do you use?  I use a small-size, 830-W toaster oven (oven toaster in Japanese).  The tray is about 24 cm x 14 cm in size.  Believe it or not, I place the toaster oven on top of the refrigerator (because of the limited kichen space, of course) and I use it for a variety of purposes such as grilling fish.

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I don't have a toaster oven, I toast my toast in a toaster and do everything else in my oven....

[smallworld]

I don't have a toaster oven either. I still don't know why they're so common in Japan- they use so much electricity and take up so much precious counter space. And besides, everyone has a convection oven and that little fish griller in the gas stove. Seems to me like that's enough.

[merrybaker]

A gadget-related question: what's the best way to clean a suribachi? There's always some sesame seed "paste" that just doesn't come out of the grooves, and hot water doesn't remove it completely. Is there a special brush? Sometimes, when I have nothing better to do, I take a toothpick and clean the grooves one-by-one. One more thing, is it okay to use soap inside the bowl, or is it porous?

[Hiroyuki]

A gadget-related question:  what's the best way to clean a suribachi?  There's always some sesame seed "paste" that just doesn't come out of the grooves, and hot water doesn't remove it completely.  Is there a special brush?  Sometimes, when I have nothing better to do, I take a toothpick and clean the grooves one-by-one.    One more thing, is it okay to use soap inside the bowl, or is it porous?

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I use a bamboo skewer for use in making yakitori, rather than a toothpick. It's bigger and easier to handle.

Are 'tawashi' brushes available in your area?

http://www.asahi-mullion.com/mullion/colum...30827index.html

(top left photo)

Two of the sites I found recommend using a tawashi. One of them says to wash a suribachi with neutral detergent and a tawashi.

A suribachi is of course porous, so I rinse it immediately with water after washing it with detergent.

[torakris]

I don't have a toaster oven either. I still don't know why they're so common in Japan- they use so much electricity and take up so much precious counter space. And besides, everyone has a convection oven and that little fish griller in the gas stove. Seems to me like that's enough.

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Almost every Japanese I know has a toaster oven but none of my foreign friends do, sometimes I think they only exist to make pizza toast (with corn ).

[torakris]

My suribachi is probably my only dish/pan/gadget that I wash immediately after using (with soapy water and a sponge) and wipe dry, I also never leave it to soak. Occasionally I will run a bamboo skewer through it to remove stray seeds....

[baconburner]

I've got a Benriner mandolin, but that's about it. Trying to find some Kershaw Shun knives but they're somewhat difficult to find in Canada.

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I just did a search on Google and found several places and places to buy them.

Cheers

baconburner

[Hiroyuki]

I don't have a toaster oven either. I still don't know why they're so common in Japan- they use so much electricity and take up so much precious counter space. And besides, everyone has a convection oven and that little fish griller in the gas stove. Seems to me like that's enough.

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Almost every Japanese I know has a toaster oven but none of my foreign friends do, sometimes I think they only exist to make pizza toast (with corn ).

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OK, smallworld and torakris,

I'll let you know how versatile toaster ovens are. I'll start a new thread in a day or two. I'm sure you will cry out, "I want one!, I want one!"