Seasoning and Flavouring In Japanese Cuisine

Japanese cuisine uses four basic flavours - salt, sugar , vinegar and miso. It tends to be healthier , light and clean and high emphasis is given on presentation. Some seasoning and Flavouring used in Japanese cuisine are:-

• Miso ( soyabean paste ) :- soyabean paste or miso is made of boiled and crushed soyabean to which barley or rice starter is added 

• Beni - shouga :- It is used to flavour Japanese style tortilla ( okonomiyaki ) , yasokaba ( stir fried noodles ). It is red salt pickled ginger.

• Wasabi :- It is served as an accompaniment to sushi and sashimi in Japanese cuisine

• Su :- It is also called rice vinegar and golden in colour . Su has sweet fragrance and less harsh flavour than white vinegar.

• Mirin :- It is rice wine which is mainly used in cooking instead of drinking. 

• Shichimi :- Scichimi is a mixture of seven spices usually of dried ginger , nori sea weed , white sesame seed , red pepper , sansho powder , dried mandarin orange peel and hempseed 

• Yuzu - koshou :- It is hot raw spice made of yuzu , citron , green chilli powder and salt.

• Goma :- It is black and white sesame seeds used for topping on soup , in dressing and in ingredients of goma tofu

• Mitsuba :- It is known by trefoil in English and it a member of parsley family which can be used fresh or after parboiling in many dishes and soup.

• Shiso :- It is a member of mint family and can be used either as whole or in chopped form in variety of dishes like sushi , tempura.

• Yuzu Citron :- It is like lemon or lime and is used as relish over soup or in simmered dishes

• Myouga ginger :- It is edible flower bud and have refreshing aroma and taste.