Robata: Japanese Home Grilling

I bought a small yakiniku bbq for outdoors because I don’t always want to start the big Kamado. We tried a few recipes from the book over the weekend and I am happy how they turned out. Most recipes in the book are easy and the list of ingredients is short. Would recommend it. The only item which should be better explained is how to light the bamboo charcoal. It is a bitch to get going, I use normal charcoal as a starter before adding the binchotan.

Though I love sushi, I did not know about Robata, the art of Japanese grilling, so I found this an interesting book. The book is beautifully laid out, with the most glorious photographs, which makes it a delight to read. The introduction includes a brief history of robata, and a detailed explanation of how to set up the grill and cook robata, including how to set up an ordinary barbecue. I liked the fact that she says that the recipes are her interpretation of traditional recipes and that she gives suggestions in the chapter Other Skewers to encourage new combinations of ingredients and flavours. Not all the recipes are for grilling, for example there are recipes for sashimi, nibbles, salads and sides. I tried the Cured and Robata’ed Sea Trout and served it with the Nasu Deganku (aubergine) Both were delicious, easy to make (on a traditional barbecue) and with interesting flavours. A success like this means that I will certainly try more of the recipes! I would have rated the book with 5 stars, but I am a little concerned when I find editing errors; in the Charred Leeks with Spicy Dip the ingredient list calls for 8 medium sized leeks and 1 pepper, but the instructions mention peppers (more than one?) and baby leeks (which are quite different to medium sized leeks) Granted these are minor errors, but I did wonder if I would find more as I worked through other recipes.

Das Buch hat mich total fasziniert. Ich konnte es nicht mehr liegen lassen. Ich habe angefangen nach einem Robata Grill zu surfen und noch mehr fantastische Bilder gefunden, wonach mir das Wasser im Munde zusammen lief. Was für eine Inspiration. Danke!

Un libro un pò insolito sulla cucina giapponese di casa, vale la pena. Le foto sono belle e lo styling curato.

perfe

Occasionally I have eaten at some smaller Japanese restaurants and had a type of teriyaki that defies the mass produced sauce at the other places; namely, the good stuff is not overly thick nor heavy handed with salt, garlic and ginger. It’s almost impossible to find an online recipe that doesn’t go nuts with the garlic and ginger, either. The recipes in this book are balanced and have that cleaner taste I was looking for. I’ve made many items from this cookbook and we love them all, particularly the chicken and salmon recipes. This is one of those cookbooks where you feel that the author has revealed too much of the true secrets of cooking! And there are some real secrets here that I apply now every time I cook chicken and seafood, regardless of the cuisine. I say that those who rated it poorly, it’s not that it’s a bad cookbook at all; it’s that (in those instances) she’s thrown her pearls to swine. I own both the hard back and a Kindle version, in case I need to reference it at a store or when visiting a friend.

Nice book