-Not surprising: that noodles and soups were the most frequent dishes to show up in the rotation. Somewhat surprising: that I ended up making five types of Japanese pickles and four types of curry.

-I knew dashi, mirin, soy, etc. were important to Japanese cuisine but perhaps didn’t understand what core building blocks they were to so many dishes.

-Great sources for recipes: Just One Cookbook (probably my #1 resource), my cookbooks “Japanese Soul Cooking” and “Tokyo Cult Recipes” (I have other Japanese cookbooks, but these were the best), and Harumi’s “Japanese Mini Kitchen” series on NHK. I made a handful of Serious Eats and Japanese Cooking 101 recipes, too, and worked in a few other sources as well.

-MVP Dishes: The dishes I actually made multiple times during the challenge: kara-age, nishyoku don, tuna tataki, Japanese salt pickles, grilled shitakes (once by John), Japanese breakfast, ponzu salmon, dashi. My overall favorite recipe, though, was probably the tantanmen. The omurice was also a show-stopper.

-My Japanese pantry and fridge have reached epic, yet ridiculous proportions (“well, of course I need two different colors of sesame paste, OBVI”). I also am now the proud owner of everything from a daikon grater to multiple drop lids, thanks to my husband who encouraged this hobby (especially during the Christmas season).

-Dishes I really wanted to make but didn’t get around to it (yet!): croquettes (though John made them one night), tako yaki (I even bought the pan!), somen, kaki age. I’d hoped to work on my rolled omelet, which I haven’t really mastered yet, butnever got around to it. I didn’t make much in the way of sushi (though I’ve done maki rolls a few times before this year), but I honestly find it a hassle so I’m not shocked that I slacked here.

Such a fun challenge! I definitely discovered that Japanese cooking will remain a hobby long after 2017.

This was curry #2 for potluck, and was a hit among vegetarians and meat eaters alike. I used this chicken curry recipe as a building block, subbing in vegetables (including new-to-me-for-cooking ones like burdock and lotus root) for the protein.

My third ramen from scratch! This was fairly doable if you spread the workload out into multiple days. I was impressed with this recipe from “Japanese Soul Cooking.” Note a few different building block recipes are included here (I’ve made both marinated eggs and chashu before but think I give a slight edge to this version).

Katsudon was one of the recipes I made when on a Japanese recipe tear when John was out of town. First I prepared the katsu (I baked it to save a few calories given the texture of this dish). Then I turned it into katsudon, the Japanese rice bowl. I’ll admit I got distracted when making it and my eggs ended up overscrambling. But this is still a good recipe (two, really) to have on hand — remember to make katsu sandos with any remaining katsu!

I am approximately eleven recipes behind on updating the site, so bear with me. This is one of two (new!) Japanese curry recipes I made for our annual holiday potluck. This beef one was thinner than some we’ve made before, but had a nice depth of flavor. From my “Japanese Soul Cooking” cookbook. I doubled this recipe with no issues.