I don't have much work right now. I should get the house in shape, but I am not making much progress. I do a little something every day, in addition to the usual chores, I go to bed earlier and read instead of working into the wee hours. The truth is, whenever I'd rather cook or bake instead of chasing after dust bunnies.

In the spirit of adventure, I wanted to try out The Vegetarian Haiku in Four Dishes from the NY Times of January 12. I am fascinated and intrigued by Japanese cooking, and Japanese aesthetics in general, although I will readily admit that my acquaintance with Japanese culture is superficial and haphazard. My idea of Japanese cooking is entirely derived from meals I had in Japanese restaurants in the US, from a few fortuitous meals Japanese friends prepared for me, and from the perusal of books on Japanese cookery, aimed at Westerners.

In the article Mark Bittman ("The Minimalist') describes his visit with a Japanese chef, Yumiko Kano, who owns a very small vegetarian restaurant in Tokyo. She grew up on a farm in the countryside and her parents supply her restaurant with vegetables. Her emphasis on fresh, home-grown ingredients and her unpretentious straight-forward preparations appealed to me, and so did the fact that she whipped up the menu "in just over an hour." I decided to give it a try.

The ingredient list was not overly long and exotic and the preparations were simple. It would have helped though, if I had carefully read through all of the four recipes beforehand and drawn up a consolidated game plan. I could have saved myself some time if I had chopped all of the shitake mushrooms I needed for the various dished at once instead of separately, and likewise I could have kept on hand a large pot of kombu broth, or a supply of ginger juice instead of doing the same step over again.

I started out with the Sesame-Soy Custard. Unfortunately it would not come out of the mold or set up properly. Instead of the beautiful and elegant jiggly white cubes that had caught my eye in the paper I ended up with something the color and consistency of grout that hasn't dried yet. It was a shame because it tasted delicious. I suspect the ingredients were somehow off, or maybe there was some kind of "trick" to it that you need to learn by watching someone.

The Kabocha Squash Soup was amazingly easy and very good. Although it seems an unlikely description, it was both hearty and delicate at the same time. The Green Beans With Walnut-Miso Sauce Mark Bittman had praised so highly did not seem all that spectacular. They were good, but considering we like green beans in any incarnation the fancy dressing did not seem to add all that much.

The greatest success was the Burdock and Mushroom Sushi, a bowl of sushi rice mixed with sauteed burdock root, carrots and mushrooms. The vinegary, slightly sweet rice blended beautifully with the heartiness of the mushrooms and the vegetables gave it some nice crunch. We all loved that and the girls were clamouring for the left-overs to go in their lunchboxes. It would also go nicely with some fish or egg. The only thing I would change next time is chop the vegetables more finely. The instructions said "julienned or finely chopped" and I julienned (not so finely) because this was the last dish I was getting ready when "just over an hour" had long passed and I was surrounded by hungry people. With finer chopped vegetables the flavors would even meld better.

As I was cooking I remembered I the trouble I had had with recipes from the NYT before. It seems to me they don't test them very well. The amount of liquid suggested to cook the rice was way too much, but I was able to adjust that. For the green bean dish I ended up with twice as much dressing as I needed. I can find other uses for the dressing, but it still seems like an oversight. I can usually tell by looking at a recipe whether or not it will work for me, but with Japanese cooking I am in unfamiliar territory and have to rely much more on the instructions.

All in all, it was fun. Except for the custard, everything turned out great. The sushi rice may well become a favorite and we will probably make the kabocha soup again very soon. But more than anything, I want to thumb through some Japanese cookbooks now, marvel at beautiful pictures, and pick out more dishes to try. I will do it on a leisurely Sunday afternoon though, not on a weekday school night.  2:14:40 PM