Japanese Cooking 101: Fresh ingredient shopping list for Week 1

We'll be starting Japanese Cooking 101: The Fundamentals of Washoku next week. If you're cooking along with the course as the lessons are listed, this is your shopping list of fresh ingredients. This is in addition to the staple ingredients on this list.

For Week 1 your fresh ingredient shopping list is pretty short. Basically I want you get something that can go into miso soup (omisoshiru) or clear soup (osuimono or osumashi). Here are some suggestions for some classical ingredients, but you can go with something else if you like too.

For miso soup - choose 1 or 2 of the following (you don't need the whole list):

  • Potatoes and wakame seaweed (which you have already in your staple list)
  • Soft (silken) tofu, on its own or with wakame
  • Cabbage
  • Onion
  • Daikon radish
  • Spinach leaves
  • Aburaage (fried tofu skins)

For clear soup - again, choose 1 or 2 of the following; if any of these ingredients are unfamiliar to you, just go with something else:

  • Green onions (scallions)
  • Wakame seaweed (on your staples list)
  • Mitsuba
  • Mizuna
  • Spinach
  • Soft (silken) tofu)
  • Fresh shiitake mushrooms or regular mushrooms
  • Chicken breast meat
  • Kamaboko

If you haven't gotten all the ingredients on the staples list yet, the ones you will be needing are:

  • konbu seaweed
  • katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
  • OR dashi granules
  • wakame seaweed (if you'll be using it in your soup)
  • miso

You'll also need some salt, which I'm going to assume you have anyway. (Any old edible salt will do here, you don't have to get expensive sea salt or anything unless you want to.)

And that's it! The first lesson will be posted early next week.

Filed under:  japanesecooking101
handbook