Japanese Home-Cooking - 5 must-haves家庭料理の基本 (Part 1)
家庭料理 (katei ryori) is home-cooking or home-style cooking in Japanese.
In Singapore, it seems that it is much cheaper to eat out and that people are often too tired to get down to cooking at the end of a long day. My colleagues are always surprised that I cook almost all weekday dinners.
Despite being here for 5 years, my husband still hasn't gotten used to the local food.
Before we were married, we talked about what was important to us and "dining together everynight as a family" was one non-negotiable.
So yes, it's a mad rush everyday, planning and shopping for dinner and executing this after a long day at work. And now that I have a child, I need to make her meals as well and sometimes, tend to her while cooking (a juggling act, but can be done as most mult-tasking mothers would concur).
Most of my colleagues are interested in the "Japanese" dishes that I make. Sometimes, I get asked if I can make Sushi or Tempura. I think that it's very cute that people ask that but most Japanese people actually eat these at specialty shops. Of course, we can make Sushi at home or fry a bit of tempura on the side. But there's a lot more to Japanese food than those (check back for part 2).
Fortunately, Japanese cuisine is very popular in Singapore and there are a few Japanese supermarkets to choose from- Medi-ya @Liang Court, Isetan (Scotts and Westgate) and there's a huge selection in Cold Storage at Takashimaya, Bishan and Clementi Mall.
These are the must-haves in my kitchen and with just these, you're pretty much set for most Japanese recipes.
1. Soy Sauce 醤油 shōyu
2. Mirin みりん
3. Cooking Sake 酒 sake
4. Miso みそ
5. Dashi 出汁
I will write more about the different combinations of the above in diffrent recipes.