Japanese food is beautiful food and the masters pay as much attention to presentation as they do to preparation. But don't let that intimidate you; Japanese cuisine is built on a few intensely flavoured prepared pastes, sauces and condiments that make it easy to prepare whenever you like. Just add a bowl of humble rice. 

Many recipes are simply grilled or simmered, yet they turn "a little into a lot", as the Japanese proverb goes. 

ESSENTIAL JAPANESE COOKING INGREDIENTS

If you have the following in your store cupboard or fridge, you will be ready to cook most Japanese dishes:

• Daikon: a large, long, white radish with a mild horseradish flavour. It can be subtstituted with red radishes
• Dried shiitake mushrooms
• Enoki: thin, crisp white mushrooms with a mild flavour
• Hashi: chopsticks
• Instant dashi: a stock base made from dried kelp and fish
• Mirin: light, sweet rice wine
• Miso: salty, fermented soya bean paste used for soups and sauces
• Nori: toasted seaweed sheets
• Noodles - chukamen for hugely popular Ramen dishes or use soba (thin) or udon (thicker) in a soup base - all three are available from Woolworths
• Panko crumbs: fine breadcrumbs available from Asian speciality food stores
• Ponzu sauce: a soy-based sauce spiked with citrus 
• Pickled ginger (gari) to cleanse the palate
• Sake: rice-based alcohol
• Su: rice vinegar used to make sushi rice. It has a lighter flavour than Western vinegars
• Shichimi togarashi: a sprinkle made with chilli, sansho pepper, sesame seeds and seaweed
• Wasabi: Japanese horse-radish which looks deceivingly like mashed avocado but can be very hot, and is generally served with sushi 
• Seafood - ensure the fish or seafood you choose is from a sustainable source

MASTERING JAPANESE COOKING TECHNIQUES

Learn how to make sushi maki, sushi rolled in sheets of nori

Learn how to make nigiri sushi, simply fish, wasabi and rice squeezed together, but not all that easy to get right

Learn all about the perfect Japanese tempura

Find out more about sashimi, and how it differs from sushi

Find out what umami, the Japanese 5th taste, is all about

Q&A with Australian MasterChef Adam Liaw

See some of the stranger things the Japanese love to eat on our Funny Food Friday blog

Make quick and easy teriyaki tuna

• Miso-glazed mushrooms - a quick and easy mushroom starter or light meal served on crispy
• Tuna sashimi and strawberry salad - classic, easy and healthy
• Salmon carpaccio with pickled enoki mushrooms - a great little amuse bouche for posh parties
• Fragrant rice - a salty, white steamed rice dish with radish that makes a great side
• Spicy tuna tartare in sesame miso cones - one of the star dishes served as the Academy Awards
• Japanese seafood rice pot - one of Luke Dale-Roberts' delicious re-inventions
• Japanese-style pork schnitzel - surprisingly an every-day fast food in Japan

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