Demon Slayer is set in a fantasy world where demons feed on humans, and a secret society protects humanity from these supernatural threats. But the tale takes place during the Taisho-era in Japan, and there’s a lot of Japan’s cultural history woven into the storylines. Gyunabe, which literally means “beef hotpot” in Japanese, was one of the first ways beef was consumed in Japan after the 1200 year ban on eating meat was lifted in the latter half of the 19th century....

Getting off at my metro stop near the end of the line, everything was shuttered for the evening and I was all but resigned to falling asleep with an empty stomach that night. But as I rounded the corner, I noticed a warm glow coming from some small windows on an old stone building. There was a dimly lit sign outside and the tantalizing aroma of pork was wafting my way....

With thick, chewy noodles in piping hot vegan-friendly dashi broth, the defining feature of Kitsune Udon is the sheet of savory-sweet fried tofu on top, which is known as Inari Agé. In this easy recipe, I will show you how you can put together both components of this comforting bowl of noodles from scratch. Why This Vegan Kitsune Udon Recipe Works? The traditional Japanese dashi stock used to make the udon soup is as simple as soaking some dried kelp and shiitake mushrooms in water....

The result is a warm chocolate cake that’s light and fluffy in the center with a rich, fudgy sauce enrobing the cake. I’ve been a recipe developer for over 12 years now, and I’ve probably created over 2500 recipes in that time, but this Chocolate Mug Cake has the best taste to effort ratio of anything I’ve ever made. Although it can be prepared in about 1 minute, it tastes like a molten lava cake that you might order at a restaurant....

Why This Recipe Works? Braising the wings on the stove in teriyaki sauce avoids the need to marinate them first. Braising also tenderizes the chicken while rendering out most of the fat from the skin. This makes it easy to brown the skin in the oven while ensuring the inside is tender and flavorful. Blasting the chicken wings in a hot oven turns the skin a beautiful shade of mahogany. It also lets you prep the chicken up to this point in advance so you can reheat and brown them in the oven when you want to serve them....

Cooking inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes a stroll through a verdant farmers market on a warm spring day sets the gears of creativity in motion. Other times, it’s a six pound bag of Costco chicken, a half-full bottle of Côtes du Rhône, and some odds-and-ends lurking in the dark recesses of my fridge. A rummage through the deli drawer revealed a loosely wrapped package containing the remains of slab of pancetta, and the vegetable drawer coughed up some button mushrooms that had seen better days....

Growing up in Napa, this simple stir-fry was my mom’s favorite from the local Chinese take-out joint. For me, I vacillated between the Singapore Noodles and Mongolian Beef, but what always struck me about this dish was how they managed to cook the green beans long enough to be tender, and yet they had an almost surreal green hue. Trick for Tender yet Vibrant Green Beans The trick restaurants use to make their green beans tender without losing their vivid color is to blanch them in oil before stir-frying them; this is a nice way of saying that they are fried....

Long before Washoku (traditional Japanese food) became a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Japanese food culture has been making inroads into the hearts and bellies of foodies around the world. Whether it was teppanyaki in the 80’s, sushi in the 90’s, or ramen in the 00’s, the world’s understanding of Japanese food has developed, and with it, so has its appreciation of Japan’s beverage culture. Sake is perhaps the best known Japanese beverage brewed from rice....

Some kids know exactly what they want to do when they’re four years old. Be it a doctor, policeman, or astronaut, most kids seem to have some notion of a dream job at an early age. Sure, many of them probably go on to become something entirely different, but they put a stake in the ground that their parents can reminisce about during adulthood visits home. I was a bit different....

While I have different favorites for different moods, this is a lunchtime staple in my house. The name Pad Kee Mao (ผัดขี้เมา) literally translates to “Fried Drunkard”, but rest assured there were none of those included in this dish. Nor does it include any alcohol (though that may not be a bad idea). In all likelihood, the name refers to the random assortment of ingredients that looks like it was assembled by a boozer, or perhaps the fact that it goes so well with a beer....

While you only really see it being sold as a juice in health food stores here, in Japan, it’s quite common to see it added to beverages and yogurt. It’s one of my favorite things with yogurt (up there with passionfruit), and I love the slightly green taste and the quivery cubes of aloe that have the texture of resilient grapes. Realizing that I may be waiting a long while for Dannon to start offering little cups with aloe on the bottom here in the States, I decided to take matters into my own hands....

Making chicken stock is simple, add bones, aromatics and water into a pot and cook them for a long time. I’ve shared my technique for making clear chicken consumé with perfectly cooked meat, but what if you want want a rich creamy stock to use as an ingredient, or for making an unctuous soup like chicken ramen? The trick to getting a rich creamy soup is to use parts of the chicken that have a lot of collagen and fat, cooking them long enough to allow the collagen to break down into gelatin, and then emulsifying the fat into the stock....

With crunchy shrimp tempura, creamy avocado wedges, and crisp lettuce rolled with sushi rice and nori, this tempura shrimp roll has a mouthwatering combination of textures and flavors that makes these as fun to eat as they are delicious. Why This Recipe Works Although tempura is meant to be enjoyed with a light coating of crispy batter, this goes soft too quickly for sushi. That’s why I use a thicker batter when making my ebi tempura sushi....

There’s nothing complicated about this dish, but there are a few tricks you need to know to pull it off, so I’m going to share all my secrets for making the best Tempura. Why This Recipe Works? By barely mixing the batter, you avoid forming long gluten chains, which will can make the batter doughy and heavy. Shaking frilly mushrooms as you add them to the oil gets rid of the excess batter while spreading each individual mushroom out, resulting in a beautiful shape and light, crisp texture....

In this version, I’ve created a mashup of broccoli beef and yaki udon for a quick weekday meal that’s as satisfying as it is delicious. With thin slices of steak marinated in ginger and garlic stir-fried with fresh broccoli florets, the stir-fry is pulled together with thick, chewy strands of udon noodles and a savory sweet glaze that’s redolent of black pepper. Why This Recipe Works? Thinly slicing the beef against the grain and marinating it with soy sauce, garlic, and ginger tenderizes the meat....

If you’ve ever had a good ratatouille though, it’s a memory that’s hard to forget. Large chunks of tender vegetables, impregnated with the ripe flavors of the summer sun. Juicy, but not watery, and with a rich savoriness that tastes more sinful than its virtuous ingredients indicate. So what’s become of this French classic? Perhaps the biggest culprit is the use of poor quality ingredients. To paraphrase a computer nerd maxim: if you put garbage in, you get garbage out....

As the weather warms, my menus tend to go from simmered to steamed and from protein to produce. It’s partially because my body craves rich foods less, but it’s also a practical matter of keeping the apartment cool. Still, there are times when I crave some melty tender meat and these braised chicken tacos fill that need without taking the kind of apartment heating time a whole pork butt would require....

Ingredients for Sugo all’Amatriciana Like most Italian pasta sauces, Sugo all’Amatriciana is quite simple and can be put together in just minutes. Here’s a list of what you’ll need, along with suitable alternatives. Guanciale Guanciale is a cured pork product made from the jowl of a pig, which has been rubbed with salt and spices and hung to partially dry. It has a more intense flavor than other cured Italian meats like Pancetta, and has a wonderful texture that bursts into a pool of creamy flavor with each bite....

Why This Recipe Works? The key to a delicious dipping sauce is to start with high-quality dashi stock. To achieve a great texture for the cold soba noodles, they are chilled using a two-step process. First, the starch is rinsed off, and they are brought to room temperature. Then they are chilled in ice water to make the soba cold. Saving the boiling liquid from the soba allows you to turn the remaining dipping sauce into a comforting soup to finish your meal....

The problem is that we don’t always have leftover curry sitting in the fridge, and spending a few hours making a pot isn’t a practical way of sating a curry udon craving. That’s why I’ve come up with this relatively quick curry udon. It comes together in about 20 minutes, and I think it tastes better than the version made with leftovers. There are so many different variations of Curry Udon in Japan, but my favorite version is from a chain called Konaya (古奈屋)....