The Art of Japanese Vegetarian Cuisine Shojin Ryori (Hardback) - Common Unknown Binding

This cookbook is one I appreciate much more after a demonstration of shojin ryori than I would have before the class. Each meal consists of 5 dishes, rice and soup. Two meals are provided for each season. Seasonal desserts are provided as a final section. There are photos of the complete meal as well as the individual dishes to show the presentation element of the meal.The recipes are very well selected - most are flexible so that you can experiment with alternate vegetables or grains. They carefully introduce you to many basic techniques and sauces so that by working your way through the cookbook you can become a decent Japanese home cook. It even points out things you would learn by watching your Mother e.g. using the water from washing rice to boil vegetables. While you need access to Japanese ingredients, the recipes use items that are most easily found if you have any access to Asian ingredients. Occasionally this means lemon not yuzu but it is rare for the simplicity of ingredients to harm authenticity.While one needs no special tools to cook the dishes, you will likely soon want a suribachi, a sushi bamboo rolling mat, chawan mushi cups ... and a collection of small single serving dishes, bowls, plates, sauce cups ... The reason is that Japanese dishes are individual not combined onto a single plate or platter. The flavors do not spread into each other. But one can collect these as you find the recipes that you wish to repeat and vary - get what makes that recipe easy to make and serve.Example recipes: - Goma dofu (Sesame tofu) as kuzu based starter- Daikon rolls- Braised burdock and carrot- Cabbage rolls- Asparagus with walnut-miso dressing- Ganmodoki (tofu fritter)- Eggplant with goma dressing- Sweet potato with cucumber puree- Courgette wrap- Nagaimo mushroom croquettes- Hijiki teriyaki- Vegetable termpura- Nagaimo chanwan nushi- Lotus root dumpling- Yamatoimo nori rolls- Mochi balls- Watermelon jellyWith detailed directions and a detailed appendix on the ingredients, this cookbook truly makes Japanese cooking approachable. The only thing missing is a comment that the rice and soup tend to end not begin a meal.As a next step I would suggest  Good Food from a Japanese Temple: a 600-year tradition of simple, elegant vegetable cookery

Super pleased. Beautifully photographed and minimalist Japanese Zen recipes. Another review indicates that many of the ingredients are not readily available; however, after perusing a few pages, you should be able to procure most, if not all, of the ingredients at any Asian market. If you live in a rural area without access to Asian ingredients, get creative and use alternative substitutes. I don't understand how you can two-star a product for introducing a foreign cuisine and then blame it for not having the foreign ingredients. It is up to the chef in each of us to use our own creativity. Aside from that, the book itself was challenging to purchase. I got lucky and was able to purchase an out-of-print hard cover copy from a third party seller. I will most likely use this as a coffee table book next to "Wookwan's Korean Temple Food" and a few other I have acquired along the way.

I was so disappointed by this VOTED BEST COOKBOOK . Duplication of recipes was one thing but the fact that there are so many recipes with unobtainable vegetable ingredient, there should have been a note with substitutions. Also many recipes are so simple and many use the same mirin, dashi and soy combinations. One noodle recipe ! The book is beautifully photographed and layout easy to read. It was definitely not worth an award or the $26. The tofu and carrot recipes are the best thing about the book. Check out The Enlightened Kitchen for more varied ingredients and interesting recipes and also I was able to find every ingredient.

Photographic composition is beautiful. The author knows how to best present both the recipes and the pictures. The glossary of unique ingredients (pictures and descriptions) presented at the end of the book were very very helpful for cooks who are not completely familiar with Japanese cooking. Can't wait to try some of these recipes out.

beautifully presented book, and the recipes are lovely, the only thing is because the book is sectioned into seasons- some of the recipes are repeated. Would of been better to just write a reference to the recipe in another section instead of devoting a whole page to repeating the recipe again.

Have not made too many recipes from this book yet, but love the simplicity and beauty of it.

Too much like the first one although very beautiful book. Choose one or the other

Danny Chu's cookbook is full of love and great recipes. If you love food and art, this book is for you! I cannot wait for his next cookbook!

Very nice book with beautiful pictures and recipes. Some pages are repeated but it's not a problem at all.

A real gem. it's a pleasure to read, easy to follow recipes, brilliant photography & and most highly regarded (by everyone that I've shown it to).Contents1: Introduction2. Basic Preparation3. Starters4. Recipes by season5. Deserts6. GlossaryWake Up Marshall Cavendish !! do yourself & and the public a massive favour !!This book would gain far more sales if Amazon included a "look inside".

This book has particularly difficult to find ingredients, with no substitution suggestions.Also, the receipts for Udon Noodles with sesame appears twice - once on page 88, and again on page 102Ditto for Miso soup with Nameko mushrooms, once on page 89, then again on page 102

Las únicas pegas que le pondría es que no puedes encontrarlo en castellano (que para ingredientes, preparaciones etc suele ser mucho más útil) y que tiene páginas repetidas, lo cual no entiendo por qué. Las recetas están fenomenal y el diseño y materiales del libro son muy buenos, tiene un estilo muy limpio, buenas fotos y claras explicaciones.

badly edited book with repetition of several pages