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As a student at the French CulinaryInstitute, I assembled a toolkit of kitchen gear for the intense program aheadof me. The things I was given included a chef’s jacket, black-and-whitecheckered pants, a knife kit and a fire-red box that resembled the tackle box Iused while fishing in Minnesota as a child. In the box were an oventhermometer, vegetable peeler, some spatulas, pastry bag and tips, tongs andmuch more.
In my Japanese kitchen I’ve also puttogether a toolkit, with some similar tools and many that are specific toJapanese cooking. You may want to consider adding a few of these to yourkitchen arsenal. They also make great gifts for your gourmet friends. And as anadded bonus, they can be used when cooking Western-style food as well asJapanese.
Strainers
I keep a wide variety of strainers inmy kitchen, and they can be useful in picking delicate items out of boilingwater or hot oil. When cooking in water or in stock, often meat and vegetableswill give off a scumlike residue. The fine meshed strainers are great forremoving the residue while leaving the stock behind. My favorite is thestrainer I use when cooking yudofu, a simple dish of cooked tofu in kombu dashi(seaweed stock). It was made by an old gentleman in Kyoto, and for some reasonthe tofu tastes better when I use his strainer.
Otoshibuta – drop lid
In culinary school one of our firsttasks was cooking vegetables, and part of the process was to prepare a circularpiece of parchment paper to place over the vegetables while they weresimmering. The diameter of the parchment would be slightly smaller than that ofthe cooking pot, and the parchment would have a hole in the center to allowsteam to escape. The Japanese use a similar technique with an otoshibuta – alightweight wooden lid. The lid keeps the temperature at a simmer and preventsthe liquid from going into a rolling boil. The lid also keeps everythingsubmerged in the water, but it’s light enough not to crush delicate items underits weight.
Oroshigane – grater
Japanese graters are typically used tograte ginger, wasabi and daikon radish, and I reach for mine when I’m makinggarlic bread. Japanese graters generally have finely spaced teeth, and arerelatively small, light and easy to care for.
Zaru – woven baskets
These are colander-like baskets madefrom bamboo, and they come in several shapes. They’re used for a wide varietyof tasks in the kitchen, including draining and rinsing as well as cooling ordrying foods. I find myself using a flat, round zaru most often, as the largesurface area allows hot food to cool off quickly. Also, the bamboo adds a niceJapanese touch to any kitchen.
Tea packs
When making meat stocks in a Frenchkitchen a key component is a bouquet garni, typically of parsley, bay leaf,thyme, and peppercorns. These aren’t carelessly tossed into the stockpot -they’re wrapped carefully in cheesecloth and secured with twine. In Japan Istill use bouquet garni, but now I quickly stuff the ingredients into adisposable tea pack. You can also use them to infuse a stock with other herbs,and of course you can use them for their traditional purpose, stuffing themwith dry tea leaves to be brewed in a teapot.
Mandoline
A mandoline helps you to cut fruit andvegetables into thin slices, all with an even thickness. The Benriner mandolineis a Japanese model that more than lives up to its name (“benri”means “convenient” in Japanese). Compared to the French mandoline weused at culinary school, which was clunky and awkward to work with, theBenriner is compact, efficient and much more affordable. (My last one waspurchased in Chinatown in New York City for less than $ 20.) It’s easy to adjustthe thickness of the cut, and you can get julienne cuts simply by switching theblades.
Rice Cooker
Recently Japan has seen a number of newcookbooks on the topic of how to prepare various dishes using your rice cooker.Whether it’s a hearty chowder or steamed vegetables, just add the ingredientsto your rice cooker and hit the start button. Beth Hensperger has written theultimate cookbook on this topic (called “The Ultimate Rice CookerCookbook”). You may be surprised at just what you can cook in your ricecooker and how simple it is to do.
Ceramic Peeler
This is used exactly like a non-ceramicpeeler, for peeling fruit, potatoes and so on. However, the cutting edge ismade from ceramic, so it won’t interact with the flavors of the food you’recutting. The ceramic edge also stays sharp much longer than a metal edge, andit will never rust. Kyocera makes a ceramic peeler that can be used by bothlefties and righties.
Brushes
In my red toolbox was a pastry brushthat looked like something an artist would use to paint a large canvas. Atculinary school it was used mainly for delicate tasks in the pastry kitchenwith melted butter, egg washes or finishing a fruit tart with an apricot jamglaze.
In the Japanese kitchen, brushes areused to coat fish with delicate sauces, or to dust things with flour. Thetraditional Japanese brush is itself a work of art, and handmade ones inparticular show an amazing attention to detail. They’re light and easy to workwith.
Shopping for your toolkit
If you’re shopping for any of these inTokyo, there are several places you can go. Kappabashi is the district famousfor selling plastic food replicas, but many chefs and savvy home cooks shopthere for kitchen goods. Then there’s Tsukiji – the world’s largest fish market- and Tsukiji’s “outer market” includes a number of small shopsselling items to help you in the kitchen.
If you’re short on time, you mightprefer Tokyu Hands or Loft. Tokyu Hands is a well-stocked, upscale do-it-yourselfstore with branches in Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. Loft is largehousewares and furnishings store, with branches in Shibuya and Ikebukuro. Someof the toolkit items can also be found in local supermarkets, although theselection may not be as wide.
Regardless of where in the world yourkitchen is, having the right tools may inspire you in your cooking. I’ve foundthat these tools make life in my Japanese kitchen easier, no matter whatcuisine I happen to be cooking.
TokyuHands Shibuya: Udagawa-cho 12-18, 03-5489-5111
Tokyu Hands Shinjuku: Sendagaya5-24-2, 03-5361-6111
Loft Shibuya: 21-1 Udagawa-cho, 03-3462-0111
LoftIkebukuro: Minami-Ikebukuro 1-28-1, 03-3981-0111
On the web:
Kappabashi:www.kappabashi.or.jp/
Tsukiji: www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/youkoso/welcom_e.htm
TokyuHands: www.tokyu-hands.co.jp
Loft: www.loft.co.jp
This article first appeared in bento.com in 2004.
Happy read Japanese Kitchen Tools original here: Japanese Cuisine – Cooking Japanese Food at Home
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