Food Blogging Basics & Tools: How to start

Want to start a food blog? This write up is a long time in the making. Over the last few years we’ve been answering questions and mentoring new food bloggers behind the scenes. We receive many questions from people we meet at our conference panels and in private emails, that it’s wonderful to see this community grow with new voices, faces and content.

We realized that we needed to make this info we’ve been sharing behind the scenes public and honestly, much more manageable. Emails start to get overwhelming to answer and it would be even better if we can share this info with all our readers and those who have wanted to start a blog, but didn’t know how.

This will be a continuing series with information with not just basic technical information but also interviews from established food bloggers. The goal of these interviews is to discuss all issues associated with food blogging and how each person addressed problems they had in the beginning and what they did to solve those issues.

It’s important for everyone to understand that blogging  on all topics, not just food, is executed in different ways.

And how each person defines and achieves their success is vastly different. It’ll be nice to meet and see how each food blogger got to their point in blogging and what they consider is success to them.

We’ll also discuss later in the series our own journey in food blogging, the balance, the mistakes and focus it took to get to where we are today.

So to start on this post,  let’s discuss the basics.

Want to start a food blog?  Here’s how we started. Below are resources and affiliate programs we have used and work well for us.

Every blogger has a different network of resources and in those later interviews, they will discuss those resources that work for them. But these are what we use and love. 

1. Blog Name – Selecting a blog name to convey your voice, style and identity is very important. Quite honestly, we didn’t think about it too much when we came up with our random name and we pretty much broke all the rules. Our blog name, White On Rice Couple,  has absolutely nothing to do with food, gardening, photograph or travel.

Why did we choose our name? Because we were probably drinking and built this blog on a whim,  as a hobby and not as a business. A few margaritas late at night will do that to you— White on what? how about Rice? OK. Done.

So think about your blog name, what you want to do with it and where you want to go with it. Personal hobby or business?

-There are a ton of ways to do it, but we search for availability of a web domain and buy domains through Hover.

Hover is a internet domain name registration service. It’s a simple, clean and an easy way to manage your domains. If you like investing in domain names for future blog or websites, hover is a great place to manage all your lists.

Although Hover is not the cheapest,  their prices are fair and upfront. Unlike other sites that may charge cheaper, Hover doesn’t nickle-and-dime you on additional features like private registration.

2. Choose a Blog Platform: We use WordPress.org and we love it.

3. Hosting your blog: Hosting for Free or Self-Hosting?

Free hosting is available on WordPress.com (different from WordPress.org), which means that your blog lies on their server.

Your blog url will be FoodBlogExample.Wordpress.comRead more about WordPress.com herethis is route is good for those of you who just want a simple place to share content without having to worry about servers and customizationIf you don’t plan on growing your blog beyond the basic pages and without specific customization, then this option is fine.Low to no cost option

Upgraded hosting and other features are also available on WordPress.com for additional fees.

You can use a custom domain for your blog such as FoodBlogExample.com .Read about it hereYou will need to spend some money

Self Hosting- (WordPress.org) is the most customizable and allows you total control

You can upload custom themesAbility to upload pluginsYou have complete control to change the code on your blogThis route is for those to hope to expand on their blog and make it very specific to their needsThis is what we do for our sites.

Still confused on WordPress.com vs WordPress.org? Here’s a couple links breaking down the difference- WordPress.com Explanation and  DIY themes Explanation.

4. Choosing a reliable host. If you are going to self-host, you’ll need a provider to park your blog somewhere.

There are many web hosting servers, some good, some very frustrating. We look for reliable hosts, with great customer service and both BlueHost and Liquid Web have fit that bill. We have used both and have had great experiences with each and are pleased to recommend them.

Blue Host is where we host our smaller, private-hobby blogs and they have great prices, including a free domain name. When you host here you get a free domain, so you wouldn’t need to buy your first domain anywhere else.

Blue host offers everything you need to get started at a great price: email accounts, domain hosting and much more.

When our traffic started growing, we wanted to move to a dedicated server. We had heard from our close blog friends that they loved being on a Liquid Web dedicated server so that’s where we moved over the WhiteOnRiceCouple.com blog.

Since being on Liquid Web, we’ve loved the experience and always have great technical support. They have amazing customer service when we needed it on technical issues and have been very responsive when we have problems.

5. Choose a Theme or cool design for your blog

Thesis became a game changer for wordpress themes. It allowed an enormous amount of customization without needing to know code. A click of a button can change your site from 2 columns to three, change the fonts, colors, etc…

Today it has also developed into a great community of support when you want to customize further and continually works on becoming easier at the same time as being very SEO friendly. We love it and use a customized Thesis theme coded by Paul at ZelCreative.

4. Statistics and Analytics: as you build your traffic you might want a more advanced way to analyze your blog stats to understand more about where your traffic is coming from and what your readers are reading most.

 Google Analytics is a great tool and it’s free.

This is a service offered by Google that allows you to see detailed specifics about visits to your site. Google analytics lets you measure basic information about your visitors and where they’re coming from.

Clicky is where we go to for real-time data and analytics. Interface is easy and straight to the point. Accessing real-time data is a piece of cake on whatever platform you have on you, Droid, iPhone, iPad, laptops, etc. It is another great tool for knowing how and when people are using your site.

5. Food Photography & Styling – capturing nice food photographs can be helpful in gaining attention to your recipe. But this takes patience, dedication to practicing and studying the art of food photography & styling.

Some great resources for food photography tips can be found here:

Once you start learning food photography and want to add to your collection of gear.

Adorama and B&H are great resources to start buying.

These are where we make all our camera gear online purchases. The prices are always competitive and you’ll often find products in which they’ll offer free shipping (B&H free shipping – Adorama free shipping).

6. Setting up social media & where to share your recipes.  Start being a part of the online food community by connecting with everyone.  Also, there are many great community sites that you can submit your recipes to. If accepted, your recipe will be shared within their community.

7. Other resources for food blogging:

These resources is just a start and we’ll be adding more as we build this list for you!

We’ll be continuing with this series on how to sustain and succeed in food blogging, as well as interviews from experts in the community.

Have Fun,

diane and todd

View the original article here

Basics: Japanese soy sauce - all you need to know (and then some)

(An exhaustive look at Japanese soy sauce. Originally published in December 2011, revised and edited in August 2012.)

I’ve written so many articles here on Just Hungry over the almost nine years of its existence, that I’ve forgotten half of them. But one thing I have not really done so far is delve into the subject of one of the most important ingredients in Japanese cooking, shoyu (??)or soy sauce. I have written about soy sauce briefly in years past, but I feel now is the time to go deeper.

Note: I am talking here only about Japanese soy sauce. Soy sauce is made by other Asian cultures of course, where processes and ingredients may differ. I’m sticking to what I’m familiar with here as usual.

So, let’s dive in to the world of Japanese soy sauce.

Like miso, soy sauce is a fermented and aged product. The kanji characters for soy sauce or shoyu are ??, which literally means ‘fermented food oil’ - so in Japanese and Chinese there’s no ‘soy’ at all in the ‘soy sauce’ name. In the olden days, many foods were salted and fermented for longer shelf life and flavor. For instance the ancient Romans liked a thing called garum, a strongly flavored condiment or sauce made from fermented fish. The fish sauces that are essential for south east Asian cooking are salted-and-fermented-food products too. (Did you know there are several Japanese fermented fish sauces too? The most well known one is called shottsuru (?????)and is made in Akita prefecture, in the Tohoku region.)

Generally soy sauce is made from a mixture of soy beans, wheat, salt and yeast. Some types of soy sauce also include fermented rice (kome koji) or amazake to give sweetness to the flavor. Mass produced soy sauce is made from defatted soy residue (soy from which the oil has been extracted), which makes the soy sauce ferment a lot faster than using the whole bean. Purists argue that this also leads to a loss of flavor and body. The wheat and/or rice is necessary to feed the yeast as the mixture ferments, and to develop a sweet flavor in the soy sauce.

Here’s how they make soy sauce at a traditional soy sauce maker (shoyu-ya) in Chiba prefecture:

Here’s a nice big vat fermenting away…

Of course this is not how it’s done at say, Kikkoman factories around the world. But the process is fundamentally the same.

Soy sauce is typically aged at least 6 months before it is bottled, though some are aged longer. While ‘standard’ soy sauce (see koikuchi below) usually does not have any additives, in some cases things are added (usually alcohol) to prolong the shelf life of soy sauce, or sweeteners to give it a sweeter flavor. By Japanese law, all such additives must be clearly indicated on the label. So if you’re looking for a soy sauce that’s as natural as possible, look for one with no additives.

There are 5 main traditional types of shoyu or soy sauce. The type of soy sauce used in largely influenced by what part of the country you live in, or where the cook of the family grew up. (I know a lot of people outside of Japan tend to think it’s all the same and homogenous, but at least when it comes to food that’s certainly not the case.) Typical Japanese households stock just 1 or 2 types of soy sauce, unless they are really into cooking.

The most widely used type by far is koikuchi (???)soy sauce. Koikuchi literally means ‘dark mouth’. This is the quintessential soy sauce that you see for sale from brands like Kikkoman and Yamasa in Japanese grocery stores around the world, and since it is the ‘starndard’ soy sauce for many people it is not always labeled as koikuchi. Koikuchi soy sauce sales account for more than 80% of the market in Japan according to the Soy Sauce Information Center (SOYIC - Japanese only website). It’s the soy sauce of choice in the Tokyo/Kanto area and the north. Koikuchi soy sauce is usually made with equal parts of soy and wheat, plus salt and yeast.

This is the soy sauce I use in all of my recipes here on Just Hungry as well as on JustBento unless specified otherwise. Why? Well for one thing I’m from Tokyo, and my mom and her mom and my father’s mom were all from the Kanto region. So we are koikuchi folks. Also, koikuchi soy sauce is the ‘standard’ as noted above, and much easier to get a hold of than other types.

The second most popular type of soy sauce is usukuchi (??; kanji scholars may notice that the kanji ?? is used rather than ??). This is a lighter colored, used primarily in western Japan, namely the Kansai region (Kyoto/Osaka), and has about 15% of the soy sauce market share. In traditional Kyo-ryori (Kyoto cuisine), which has its origins in refined imperial court cooking, dark colored koikuchi soy sauce is considered declassé and ruins the flavor and appearance of food. However, don’t think that because it’s lighter in color that it’s less salty. On the contrary, usukuchi soy sauce is saltier than koikuchi soy sauce - 18-19% of its volume is salt, compared to around 16% for koikuchi. In recipes that call for usukuchi soy sauce this is taken into account. Usukuchi soy sauce is also made with soy and wheat, and is often rounded out with the addition of fermented rice (kome koji), wheat gluten or amazake.

Another type of soy sauce that became popularized in the west is tamari (???)- which means ‘pooled residue’. It is a thick, almost viscous soy sauce, which originated in the Chuubu region (central Japan; the main city in the area is Nagoya). It’s used mainly as a dipping sauce for sashimi, and to finish off certain dishes to give a burnished reddish- brown color and shine, e.g. to teriyaki dishes. Tamari became popularized in the west because it got the reputation that it was made without wheat. This is not necessarily the case - especially if it’s a tamari made the traditional way. If you must stay away from any kind of wheat please check the label. (Tamari made with 100% soy does exist.)

(*A note about gluten intolerance and soy sauce. Much of the wheat gluten is broken down and basically consumed by the yeast during the long fermentation process. I’ve looked at the blogs of many Japanese celiacs, and they all say they don’t worry about consuming small amounts of soy sauce. But of course, Your Body May Vary. Kikkoman does make a gluten-free soy sauce, but I’m not sure if it’s for the overseas market only.)

Finally we come to two very regional soy sauces. Saishikomi (????)soy sauce originates south-western Japan, especially Yamaguchi prefecture. It’s unique in that it is re-brewed (that’s what ‘saishikomi’ means) from a previous batch ofmade soy sauce. This means the color is very intensely dark red-brown, and the flavor is less salty and sweeter more rounded than other soy sauces. And then there is shiro (?) or white shoyu that originates in Aichi prefecture. It’s even lighter in color than usukuchi shoyu - it’s about the color of dashi stock made with lots of katsuobushi (bonito flakes), and has become rather trendy to use amongst some chefs in Japan who want to add some soy sauce flavor to dishes but not color. (Outside of Japan, certain trend-conscious chefs have started specifying usukuchi soy sauce. They need to catch up. ^_^)

Reduced or low-sodium salt soy sauce, called genen (??)or teien (??) is koikuchi soy sauce that has had its salt content reduced mechanically so to speak.The salt content of reduced sodium soy sauce ranges from 9 to 13%. (Don’t confuse reduced salt soy sauce with usukuchi (light) soy sauce, as noted above.)

Soy sauce is graded both by the Japaneese Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry (JAS) and an industry group called the Japanese Soy Sauce Association. The official government grades are Special Grade (??, tokkyuu), First Grade (1?, ikkyuu) and Standard Grade (??, hyoujun). Grading is based on measuring the chemical composition soy sauce, mainly for its amino acid and alcohol content. The Japanese Soy Sauce Association adds two more grades that are higher than Special Grade: Extra Select (??, tokusen) and Ultra-Extra Select (???, choutokusen).

Soy sauce is also graded by experts based on color, aroma, roundedness and other such more subjective criteria.

As with most Japanese things, you tend to get what you pay for when it comes to soy sauce.

Other things to look for on a label might be “yuuki” which means grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides (almost organic), and “marudaizu” which means the soy sauce is made from the whole soy bean rather than defatted dregs.

Generally speaking, people tend to use expensive, special soy sauces and very assertively flavored ones straight up, for dipping and other uses where it is not diluted by other ingredients.

Nama-shoyu (???) - unpasteurized soy sauce - seems to be the new trendy thing these days in the U.S. It’s exactly what it says - soy sauce that has not been heated to kill off any good or bad organisms. Natural-food fans like it because it’s, well, unpasteurized. Does nama-shoyu always taste better? I’m really not sure. I personally think that the soy sauce made by skilled, experienced artisans is the best, regardless of whether it is ‘raw’ or not.

Is nama-shoyu a health food? In my opinion, anything with the high levels of sodium soy sauce has can never really be a “health food”. It’s a condiment and flavoring, something to be used in small amounts. In that sense, and this is just my humble opinion of course, nama-shoyu is not worth the expense over a good old pasteurized soy sauce. Pasteurization is not ‘bad’ for you you know - it’s one of the greatest innovations in human history. Before pasteurization, people died regularly from food poisoning and such.

Many people in Japan called nama-shoyu ki-joyu; both terms have the same kanji characters (???). I’ve read that they are both the same, and also that ki-joyu is just a culinary term used by chefs and such to say ‘straight soy sauce’ without the addition of mirin, sake or other ingredients. In English speaking areas at least nama-shoyu is the term used.

If you can only afford one soy sauce type (budget or space-wise) in your kitchen, get the best koikuchi (or regular) soy sauce you can afford. It’s really the best all-rounder. I usually buy Yamasa Marudaizu or regular Yamasa. I just prefer Yamasa over Kikkoman, but that’s just a personal preference. (And by the way, I do stick to Japanese brands; I just find they taste better to me. I tried an ‘organic’ soy sauce made in the UK once and it was just..lacking.) I do have a couple of extra-special, artisanal soy sauces around purchased in Japan, but they are not really necessary and I actually rarely use them, except for dipping.

If you dislike the dark color soy sauce gives to dishes, or have gotten into Kyoto style cooking, you’ll want to use usukuchi soy sauce, but it does tend to be more expensive than koikuchi. Your local Japanese grocery store will stock both koikuchi and usukuchi soy sauces, as well as tamari and maybe other types. Your local general-Asian grocery store will probably only have koikuchi (plus soy sauces from other nations).

Nowadays you have a wide selection of soy sauces to choose from in the U.S. as long as you’re willing to mailorder - go nuts if you want! In France/Europe, be sure to look up Workshop Issé if you want to go high-end with your soy sauce.

I hope I’ve covered all of your soy sauce questions! If not, let me know in the comments as always.

View the original article here

Basics: Japanese soy sauce - all you need to know (and then some)

I’ve written so many articles here on Just Hungry over the eight years of its existence that I’ve forgotten half of them. But one thing I have not really done so far is delve into the subject of one of the most important ingredients in Japanese cooking, shoyu (??)or soy sauce. I have written about soy sauce briefly in years past, but I feel now is the time to go deeper.

So, let’s dive in.

Like miso, soy sauce is a fermented and aged product. The kanji characters for soy sauce or shoyu are ??, which literally means ‘fermented food oil’ - so in Japanese and Chinese there’s no ‘soy’ at all in the ‘soy sauce’ name. In the olden days, many foods were salted and fermented for longer shelf life and flavor. For instance the ancient Romans liked a thing called garum, a strongly flavored condiment or sauce made from fermented fish. The fish sauces that are essential for south east Asian cooking are salted-and-fermented-food products too. (Did you know there are several Japanese fermented fish sauces too? The most well known one is called shottsuru (?????)and is made in Akita prefecture, in the Tohoku region.)

Generally soy sauce is made from a mixture of soy beans, wheat, salt and yeast. Some types of soy sauce also include fermented rice (kome koji) or amazake to give sweetness to the flavor. Mass produced soy sauce is made from defatted soy residue (soy from which the oil has been extracted), which makes the soy sauce ferment a lot faster than using the whole bean. Purists argue that this also leads to a loss of flavor and body. The wheat and/or rice is necessary to feed the yeast as the mixture ferments, and to develop a sweet flavor in the soy sauce.

Here’s how they make soy sauce at a traditional soy sauce maker (shoyu-ya) in Chiba prefecture:

Here’s a nice big vat fermenting away…

Of course this is not how it’s done at say, Kikkoman factories around the world. But the process is fundamentally the same.

Soy sauce is typically aged at least 6 months before it is bottled, though some are aged longer. While ‘standard’ soy sauce (see koikuchi below) usually does not have any additives, in some cases things are added (usually alcohol) to prolong the shelf life of soy sauce, or sweeteners to give it a sweeter flavor. By Japanese law, all such additives must be clearly indicated on the label. So if you’re looking for a soy sauce that’s as natural as possible, look for one with no additives.

(Note: I am talking here only about Japanese soy sauce. Soy sauce is made by other Asian cultures of course, where processes and ingredients may differ. I’m sticking to what I’m familiar with here as usual.)

There are 5 main traditional types of shoyu or soy sauce. The type of soy sauce used in largely influenced by what part of the country you live in, or where the cook of the family grew up. (I know a lot of people outside of Japan tend to think it’s all the same and homogenous, but at least when it comes to food that’s certainly not the case.) Typical Japanese households stock just 1 or 2 types of soy sauce, unless they are really into cooking.

The most widely used type by far is koikuchi (???)soy sauce. Koikuchi literally means ‘dark mouth’. This is the quintessential soy sauce that you see for sale from brands like Kikkoman and Yamasa in Japanese grocery stores around the world, and since it is the ‘starndard’ soy sauce for many people it is not always labeled as koikuchi. Koikuchi soy sauce sales account for more than 80% of the market in Japan according to the Soy Sauce Information Center (SOYIC - Japanese only website). It’s the soy sauce of choice in the Tokyo/Kanto area and the north. Koikuchi soy sauce is usually made with equal parts of soy and wheat, plus salt and yeast.

This is the soy sauce I use in all of my recipes here on Just Hungry as well as on JustBento unless specified otherwise. Why? Well for one thing I’m from Tokyo, and my mom and her mom and my father’s mom were all from the Kanto region. So we are koikuchi folks. Also, koikuchi soy sauce is the ‘standard’ as noted above, and much easier to get a hold of than other types.

The second most popular type of soy sauce is usukuchi (??; kanji scholars may notice that the kanji ?? is used rather than ??). This is a lighter colored, used primarily in western Japan, namely the Kansai region (Kyoto/Osaka), and has about 15% of the soy sauce market share. In traditional Kyo-ryori (Kyoto cuisine), which has its origins in refined imperial court cooking, dark colored koikuchi soy sauce is considered declassé and ruins the flavor and appearance of food. However, don’t think that because it’s lighter in color that it’s less salty. On the contrary, usukuchi soy sauce is saltier than koikuchi soy sauce - 18-19% of its volume is salt, compared to around 16% for koikuchi. In recipes that call for usukuchi soy sauce this is taken into account. Usukuchi soy sauce is also made with soy and wheat, and is often rounded out with the addition of fermented rice (kome koji), wheat gluten or amazake.

Another type of soy sauce that became popularized in the west is tamari (???)- which means ‘pooled residue’. It is a thick, almost viscous soy sauce, which originated in the Chuubu region (central Japan; the main city in the area is Nagoya). It’s used mainly as a dipping sauce for sashimi, and to finish off certain dishes to give a burnished reddish- brown color and shine, e.g. to teriyaki dishes. Tamari became popularized in the west because it got the reputation that it was made without wheat. This is not necessarily the case - especially if it’s a tamari made the traditional way. If you must stay away from any kind of wheat please check the label. (Tamari made with 100% soy does exist.)

(*A note about gluten intolerance and soy sauce. Much of the wheat gluten is broken down and basically consumed by the yeast during the long fermentation process. I’ve looked at the blogs of many Japanese celiacs, and they all say they don’t worry about consuming small amounts of soy sauce. But of course, Your Body May Vary. Kikkoman does make a gluten-free soy sauce, but I’m not sure if it’s for the overseas market only.)

Finally we come to two very regional soy sauces. Saishikomi (????)soy sauce originates south-western Japan, especially Yamaguchi prefecture. It’s unique in that it is re-brewed (that’s what ‘saishikomi’ means) from a previous batch ofmade soy sauce. This means the color is very intensely dark red-brown, and the flavor is less salty and sweeter more rounded than other soy sauces. And then there is shiro (?) or white shoyu that originates in Aichi prefecture. It’s even lighter in color than usukuchi shoyu - it’s about the color of dashi stock made with lots of katsuobushi (bonito flakes), and has become rather trendy to use amongst some chefs in Japan who want to add some soy sauce flavor to dishes but not color. (Outside of Japan, certain trend-conscious chefs have started specifying usukuchi soy sauce. They need to catch up. ^_^)

Reduced or low-sodium salt soy sauce, called genen (??)or teien (??) is koikuchi soy sauce that has had its salt content reduced mechanically so to speak.The salt content of reduced sodium soy sauce ranges from 9 to 13%. (Don’t confuse reduced salt soy sauce with usukuchi (light) soy sauce, as noted above.)

Soy sauce is graded both by the Japaneese Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry (JAS) and an industry group called the Japanese Soy Sauce Association. The official government grades are Special Grade (??, tokkyuu), First Grade (1?, ikkyuu) and Standard Grade (??, hyoujun). Grading is based on measuring the chemical composition soy sauce, mainly for its amino acid and alcohol content. The Japanese Soy Sauce Association adds two more grades that are higher than Special Grade: Extra Select (??, tokusen) and Ultra-Extra Select (???, choutokusen).

Soy sauce is also graded by experts based on color, aroma, roundedness and other such more subjective criteria.

As with most Japanese things, you tend to get what you pay for when it comes to soy sauce.

Other things to look for on a label might be “yuuki” which means grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides (almost organic), and “marudaizu” which means the soy sauce is made from the whole soy bean rather than defatted dregs.

Generally speaking, people tend to use expensive, special soy sauces and very assertively flavored ones straight up, for dipping and other uses where it is not diluted by other ingredients.

If you can only afford one soy sauce type (budget or space-wise) in your kitchen, get the best koikuchi (or regular) soy sauce you can afford. It’s really the best all-rounder. I usually buy Yamasa Marudaizu or regular Yamasa. I just prefer Yamasa over Kikkoman, but that’s just a personal preference. (And by the way, I do stick to Japanese brands; I just find they taste better to me. I tried an ‘organic’ soy sauce made in the UK once and it was just..lacking.) I do have a couple of extra-special, artisanal soy sauces around purchased in Japan, but they are not really necessary and I actually rarely use them, except for dipping.

If you dislike the dark color soy sauce gives to dishes, or have gotten into Kyoto style cooking, you’ll want to use usukuchi soy sauce, but it does tend to be more expensive than koikuchi. Your local Japanese grocery store will stock both koikuchi and usukuchi soy sauces, as well as tamari and maybe other types. Your local general-Asian grocery store will probably only have koikuchi (plus soy sauces from other nations).

Nowadays you have a wide selection of soy sauces to choose from in the U.S. as long as you’re willing to mailorder - go nuts if you want! In France/Europe, be sure to look up Workshop Issé if you want to go high-end with your soy sauce.

I hope I’ve covered all of your soy sauce questions! If not, let me know in the comments as always.

View the original article here

Back to Basics 400A 7-Quart Aluminum Home Steam Canner

Back to Basics Steam CannerSeal your jars more efficiently with this stove top steam canner. A steam canner uses less water and reaches temperature faster than a boiling water canner. When canning foods, just pack your jars, secure the lids, place them in the canner, warm for one to two minutes, place the dome on the base, raise the temperature until a column of steam is visible, process accordingly. This 7-quart canner is made of rust-resistant aluminum. Its cover doubles as a 15-quart kettle. Not recommended for low-acid foods. Features: 7 qt. canner Rust-resistant aluminum Cover doubles as 15 qt. kettle Uses less water Heats faster Not recommended for low-acid foods

Price: $59.99

Click here to buy from Amazon

Japanese basics: Nanban sauce or vinegar (Nanbansu)

I’ve been craving sour flavors recently for some reason (no I’m not pregnant ^^;), which means that I’ve been making nanban foods quite a bit. The word nanban uses the kanji characters for ‘south’ and ‘savage’, meaning foreign savages who come from the south. It was originally used to refer to the Portuguese, the first non-Asian foreigners to land on Japanese soil. Later it came to refer all foreigners except for long-time neighbors China and Korea - or in other words, the Europeans. I guess to the Japanese of the 16th century or so, those white people looked like otherworldly savages! In any case, it seems that the Portuguese had some kind of dish that had sour flavors (I haven’t been able to pin down what that dish might have been - if anyone has a clue let me know), and so the term ‘nanban’ came to be used for any dish had a combination of sweet/sour/salty and often spicy-hot flavors.

Nanban sauce or vinegar is most commonly used for nanban dishes. For instance Chicken nanban is a dish that originated at a popular restaurant in Miyazaki prefecture in the southern island of Kyuushuu back in the 1950s, and is basically battered deep fried chicken that’s been doused in this sauce and served with a ton of of tartare sauce. It was popular in Kyuushuu for decades, but only became well known nationwide in the last decade or so when it became a popular item on famiresu (family restaurant) menus, as well as in convenience store bentos. Wakasaki no nanban zuke is another popular dish, consisting of small, whole ice fish (which are a bit like little sardines) that are deep fried and doused in nanban sauce with lots of shredded vegetables. Nanban sauce can also be used on noodles, or with either cooked or raw vegetables. It makes an unusual salad dressing.

I’ll have specific recipes that use nanban sauce later on, but I wanted to write down the basic recipes so I can point to them instead of repeating them over and over. There are almost as many nanban sauce recipes as there are households and restaurants that make nanban dishes, but here I have three variations. Just pick the one that looks the most appealing to you. Any one of them can be kept for at least week or two in the refrigerator.

This version uses mirin.

1/2 cup (120ml) rice vinegar1/2 cup (120ml) mirin1/4 cup (60ml) dark soy sauce4 tablespoons sugar1 piece konbu seaweed (about 4 inches / 10cm long) 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (optional) 2-3 small red (Thai) chili peppers, cut into rounds (remove seeds if you don’t want it too spicy) 1/2 tsp salt

Combine all the ingredients in a small pan, Heat and stir until the sugar is melted; heating it also takes the edge off the vinega and makes it milder. Cool and put in a screwtop jar. Store in the refrigerator, where it will keep more or less indefinitely. If you want to keep it in your pantry instead, just strain it off and pack into clean, sterile jars.

Omits the mirin, for everyone who wants to avoid alcohol in cooking. (Since the nanban sauce is not cooked long, it still has some of that alcohol in it.) The honey adds an interesting dimension.

1/2 cup (120ml) rice vinegar1/4 cup (60ml) dark soy sauce1/4 cup (60ml) runny honey 1 piece konbu seaweed (about 4 inches / 10cm long) 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoons ketchup 2-3 small red (Thai) chili peppers, cut into rounds (remove seeds if you don’t want it too spicy) 1/2 tsp salt

Combine all the ingredients in a small pan, Heat and stir until the sugar is melted; heating it also takes the edge off the vinega and makes it milder. Cool and put in a screwtop jar. Store in the refrigerator, where it will keep more or less indefinitely. If you want to keep it in your pantry instead, just strain it off and pack into clean, sterile jars.

This is a bit more elaborate than the other two, but really good. It also has less sugar, since the leeks are quite sweet anyway.

the white park of a leek, chopped a flavorless oil for cooking sprinkle of salt 1/2 cup (120ml) rice vinegar1/2 cup (120ml) mirin1/4 cup (60ml) dark soy sauce1/4 cup water 2 tablespoons sugar 1 piece konbu seaweed (about 4 inches / 10cm long) 1 handful bonito flakes (katsuobushi)

Heat a frying pan over medium heat, and add just a bit of oil. Sauté the chopped leek until soft and lightly browned. Combine all the ingredients in a small pan, Heat and stir until the sugar is melted. Cool and put in a screwtop jar. Store in the refrigerator, where it will keep for 2-3 weeks. To keep longer, strain it off and pack into clean, sterile jars.

If you have kids or people who don’t like spicy food, omit the chili peppers. If you like extra heat, add more.

While you wait for me to post some nanban recipes, try out this non-recipe: Heat up some leftover fried chicken until hot in the oven - even KFC will do. Douse the hot chicken in some nanban sauce, and let cool again. Cut into smaller pieces. This is really nice for bentos and picnics, and for some reason, the sourness of the sauce makes even KFC fried chicken taste lighter and better-for-you. Not that it is of course!

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Basics: How to sasagaki cut burdock root (gobo)

Gobo or burdock root is a vegetable that really tastes Japanese to me. It has an earthy quality and deep flavor that really adds character to many dishes. Unfortunately for me, it’s really hard to get a hold of in the part of Europe where I live. So, whenever I am in Japan or for that matter in the New York City area of the US, I indulge in gobo as much as I can. (In the US these days you can easily get burdock root from Japanese or Korean groceries, as well as some general supermarkets in some areas.)

Gobo is available year-round, but its true season is the fall to winter months. Since the root is quite fibrous, one of the usual ways to prepare it for Japanese recipes is to shave it very thinly. This cut is called sasagaki (???), which means to cut something as fine as sasa no ha(???) or bamboo leaves. It’s not a cutting method you encounter in other cuisines, so here’s how to do it step by step.

First, scrub the surface of your burdock root well. In Japan you would most likely use a tawashi or natural bristle scrubber, but you can use a vegetable brush. There’s no need to peel the roots.

With a sharp knife, make vertical cuts into the root, about 7 inches (20cm) from the end.

Hold the uncut end of the root. Now shave the cut end of your root thinly, preferably right over a bowl of water to catch the shavings. Pretend the root is a pencil and you are sharpening it. Rotate the root as you go.

The shavings should be quite fine and thin.

Keep going until the part you are cutting (where you put in the vertical cuts) is just about gone.

Then, make new vertical cuts into the root, about 7 inches (20 cm) or so in, as before, then keep making thin shavings.

When you can’t make shavings any more, just slice up the remainder as thinly as possible.

There you have your sasagaki gobo. You’ll notice that the water you dropped the shavings in is a yellow-brown in color. Just dump the shavings into a colander and rinse them lightly to get rid of any bitterness or overt earthiness.

And voilà - perfect sasagaki gobo. This can be used as-is in soups, stir fries, and so on. Many people prefer to use sasagaki gobo instead of simply julienned gobo in kinpira gobo.

You can do the sasagaki cut on any cylindrical root vegetable. It’s great for fibrous roots like salsify or parsnip, and is a nice change of pace for carrots too. It may take a bit of practice to be able to do a large mound of it quickly, but the results are really quite nice.

Note: We used a rather large kitchen knife here, but you can use a small peeling knife or fruit knife instead, for better control.

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