Naoko Takei
Cookbook Author, Teacher
Naoko Takei is a cookbook author, teacher, and the founder of Toiro in Los Angeles, a cookware shop devoted to the traditional pottery of Iga, Japan.
Los Angeles
California
United States
- Cooking
- Writing
- Culinary Education
Featured Works
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One Pot Cooking: Art of Donabe
Naoko Takei introduces you to the simple pleasures of cooking with a donabe.
Kenchin Jiru
Kenchin-jiru is vegetable miso soup, originally a dish in Buddhist temple cuisine — made with vegetables, mushrooms, and dashi (seaweed stock). You can add any vegetables you like.
Tamago-Toji Udon
This comforting, easy-to-make dish of noodles in a dashi broth also features shiitake mushrooms and wakame, a type of kelp native to the cold waters of the northwest Pacific. The mushrooms and wakame boost the nutrition, and make for an extra savory broth.
Corn & Hijiki Rice
Cooked in a traditional donabe (clay pot), this dish combines Japanese rice with fresh corn and the sea vegetable hijiki. Mineral-rich hijiki is reminiscent of carrot and burdock, and they’re often all simmered together in Japanese cooking. Juicy, sweet corn and the earth-meets-ocean flavor of hijiki are good together, especially with fluffy, warm, slightly sticky short-grain rice.