No1 [Eating] Harumi, the Housewife’s Heroine

Harumi, the Housewife’s Heroine

Despite her status as domestic superstar (over 22 million books sold in japan, a chain of shops, her own homeware range) Kurihara Harumi still retains the image of ordinary housewife, or shufu. The celebrity writer likes to recall how her mother would rise at five each morning to prepare breakfast, cooking three meals a day for the family (and often the employees of her father’s small printing company). Harumi’s Japanese cooking is Kurihara’s first English cookbook, aiming to “demystify the cuisine”. Her egg drop soup is a great place to start, combining the three basic flavours that underlie most of her recipes: dashi (fish stock, preferably made from kombu seaweed and dried fish flakes), mirin (a type of sweetened alcohol), and soy sauce. Thickened with cornflour, beaten eggs are simply added to the piping hot mixture, and garnished with spring onions or fresh green herbs. easy, delicious and refreshing. a chatty writing style, modern, but rooted in tradition, a brief flick through the pages of this accessible book should have you running for your nearest asian supermarket.

Harumi’s Japanese cooking, by Kurihara Harumi,
published by Conran Octopus Limited