Emiko Davies

Essential Japanese pantry dishes from Emiko Davies, author of Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking. The Japanese Pantry is a follow up to Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking, Emiko's tribute to her mother's family and her soul food - Japanese home cooking. In The Japanese Pantry, Emiko explores the pantry items essential to Japanese home cooking. Simple, easy-to-find ingredients that can be combined with fresh produce and a few other basics like tofu, rice and noodles to create delicious and authentic Japanese food no matter where you are. Each chapter explores one of these essential ingredients - soy sauce, miso, rice vinegar, seaweed, sake, sesame and tea - including information about the history and production of these in Japan, as well as Emiko's thoughtful and approachable recipes. In helping readers get to know these pantry essentials, Emiko hopes to give home cooks the confidence to make authentic Japanese dishes that are inherently simple and full of flavour.

Simple, everyday Japanese cooking from best-selling author Emiko Davies. Practically any home-cooked Japanese meal revolves around rice. It sits beside miso soup, pickles, tofu, and a piece of grilled fish at breakfast. It soaks up the sauce in a comforting donburi bowl, or is wrapped in nori for the ultimate portable lunch—onigiri. And it’s there for dinner, perhaps served with a pickled plum, some mild Japanese curry, braised fish, or even a Japanese-style Hamburg steak. The everyday meals, cooked in the homes of Japanese mothers and grandmothers, is the food that Emiko Davies grew up with. They’re the dishes she makes for her own children: simple, satisfying food like tamagonogohan (stir fried egg and rice), soba noodle soup, Japanese curry, yakisoba, and miso soup, prepared with whatever seasonal vegetables happen to be around. Unlike what many people think, Japanese home cooking is not fiddly, nor time consuming. It’s quick and remarkably simple, thanks to the Japanese philosophy that fresh, seasonal food doesn’t need much to enhance its natural flavor. “Gohan to me means the everyday home-cooked meal. Nothing fussy. It’s quick and easy, but nourishing. A meal made with love.”

Florentine is a collection of recipes and photographs from Tuscany's capital. Emiko Davies draws on her lived experience of traditional Florentine cuisine to share recipes that transport readers to the piazzas of Florence. From her torta di mele - a reassuringly nonna-esque apple cake - to ravioli pera e ricotta - mouthwateringly buttery pear and ricotta ravioloni - allow yourself to be taken on a culinary tour through the city. Florentine is a unique stroll through the city's streets, past pastry shops bustling with espresso-sippers, hole-in-the-wall wine bars, busy food vans and lunchtime trattorias, to reveal why the people of Florence remain proudly attached to their unchanging cuisine - a cuisine that tells the unique story of its city, dish by dish. From the morning ritual of la pasticceria (the pastry shop) and il forno (the bakery), the tantalising fresh produce of il mercato (the market) and il maccellaio (the butcher) through to the romance of la trattoria, Davies expertly guides food lovers through the Renaissance city. Be swept up in the atmosphere of Florence's street food scene with a few bites of crunchy crostini with fig compote and prosciutto, or savour a silky gelato of hazelnut and crema. With a nod to Florence's rich history, Florentine offers some much-loved traditional dishes, such as schiacciata fiorentina (orange and vanilla cake), apricot jam crostata (apricot jam pie), piselli alla fiorentina (peas cooked in tomato sauce) and cinghiale con le olive (stewed wild boar with olives). Seasons and long-held food traditions play an important role in the Tuscan kitchen and this is reflected in every Florentine menu, bakery window or market stall. Davies says that one of the things living in Tuscany has taught her is that there is no such thing as Italian cuisine; rather, Florentine is about offering readers a local's perspective on one of the country's 20 regional cuisines. In this case, the one that has won her heart.