The Enlightened Kitchen: Fresh Vegetable Dishes from the ... (ISBN 4770024932)

Pour the spirit of heaven and earth into every dish:
Buddhism being a religion of reincarnation, one of the precepts of cloistered monks is to harm "nothing that flees when chased." After all, that might just be your brother or wife from a past life sizzling in your cookpot. However, even those pursuing enlightenment must eat, and even monks like their food to be varied and tasty, so the spiritually pure tradition of "Shojin Ryori" was born. Shojin Ryori is a vegan cuisine still served today in the temples of Japan, based on seasonal vegetables that can be grown by the monks. Eating food that follows the flow of nature is considered best for the body and soul, and seasoning is kept light so that the natural flavor of the fresh vegetables can be preserved. Author Mari Fujii learned the arts of shojin ryori from her husband Sotetsu, who was the Tenzo, or temple cook, during his ten years as a monk. Now a priest at a temple in Kamakura, Sotetsu and Fujii teach shojin ryori to all who wish to learn. With "The Enlightened Kitchen," they have brought this wisdom to a wider audience, allowing all to partake of the healthy, natural and delicious style of cooking. In seven section, including soups, salads, tofu/beans, vegetables, potatoes/rice/grains, and deserts, Fujii has selected easy-to-make dishes using seasonal vegetables that should be easy to find in any grocery store. The recipes are delightfully simple, and you will be amazed that such great food can come from such little effort. She stays with traditional Japanese vegetables, as well as occasionally incorporating rarities such as avocado and celery to mix things up. The base for most of the sauces is sake, miso paste, sesame oil, rice vinegar and lemon. She has substituted maple syrup for mirin, thinking that mirin might be hard to find in the US, but it is easy enough to swap it back. Not all of the recipes are strictly vegan, as Fujii points out that Chinese and Tibetan Shojin Ryori allow for dairy products, although authentic Japanese does not. Of the dishes I have made, the "Chestnut Tea Rice" was excellent, as were the "Fried Pumpkin with Peanut Sauce," "Tofu Fried with Almonds," "Sweet Potato and Soybeans with Miso/Lemon Sauce" and "Koyadofu Teriyaki." I am looking forward to exploring all of the recipes, and I have no doubt that they will be equally satisfying. It is said that those who eat Shojin Ryori fell as if a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. In the modern world where so much processed garbage gets shoveled into our bodies, it is a very pleasant feeling to sit down to a meal that is so completely natural.

Ingredients to obscure for small town livin':
Recipes all sound and look delicious, but almost all of them requires a hard-to-find ingredient (lotus root) or spice. I live in a small, blue collar town in Ohio and our local "chain" grocery store barely knows what tofu is.

wow:
I sent this to my friend as a gift and have been wanting one for myself. She wrote me shortly and told me that she made the sesame eggplant soup and thought she died and gone to heaven when she tasted it! Wow! I am looking forward to getting the book for myself.

A usable cooking resource...:
As a very novice home food preparer, I found this book easy to read and not overwhelming with complicated recipes. Recently I tried one of the recipes for tempura bananas desert and found a mistake in the batter mixture. It was simple to fix during preparation, and the desert came out fantastic! Highly recommend this for a novice!

My favourite new book!:
This books embodies the Japanese cuisine: the combination of few ingredients with the appropriate cooking technique (blanching, braising, roasting, deep-frying, poaching, steaming, etc.) to produce exquisite results. It is beautifully photographed (in full colour) and gives enough detailed instructions so a novice cook can follow them. Please do not be discouraged at first if some ingredients can be difficult to find. Most of the recipes are not labour intensive and require few simple steps and ingredients. In the short time I've had this book I've made Shiitake Sushi, the Green Beans and Eggplant with Sesame Dressing, Asparagus and Carrots with Walnut Dressing, and the Eggplant Salad with Lemon-Flavored Plum Dressing. Each dish was simple to make and absolutely delicious. All of them were absolutely delightful, a perfect marriage of flavours. In this book Mari Fujii has made high end Japanese gourmet cuisine accessible. I look forward to making the other 60 recipes, and any other offerings from this author!