Welcome to the Temple Cuisine Blog!

Welcome to Temple Cuisine, the blog I'm starting to document my recipe testing for Elizabeth Andoh's work-in-progress cookbook, "Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegetarian Traditions".

Elizabeth is the author of "Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen", which I highly recommend for her well-tested recipes capturing homestyle Japanese cooking.

Here's Elizabeth's description of Kansha:

"Kansha means 'appreciation,' and is evident in many aspects of Japanese society and daily living. In a culinary context, the word acknowledges nature's bounty, as well as the efforts and ingenuity of the people who transform that abundance into marvelous food. In the kitchen and at table, as well as in the supermarket and garden, kansha encourages us to prepare nutritionally sound and aesthetically satisfying meals while we avoid waste, conserve energy, and sustain our natural resources.

"Kansha is one of several aspects of washoku, the indigenous food culture of Japan based upon notions of balance (color, flavor, and method of food preparation) that assure nutritional and aesthetic harmony at table. As with my previous book, Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen, KANSHA will introduce readers to a culinary concept as well as the food associated with it.

"Although a keen appreciation of food does not require me, or my readers, to choose a plant-based diet, I have (in this book) decided to celebrate Japan's vegetarian traditions. In particular, I have taken inspiration and instruction from shojin ryori (Buddhist temple cuisine), primarily as practiced in private homes and served at temple restaurants.

"One of several important themes of the book is the variety and richness of a plant-based diet. Kansha is not about abstention -- doing without meat, fish, poultry, eggs or dairy. Rather, it is about abundance -- of grains, legumes, roots, shoots, leafy plants (aquatic and terrestrial), shrubs, herbs, berries, seeds, tree fruits and nuts. Further, kansha is about the clever and respectful transformation of natural resources into nourishing food."