Anderson - Nanban

This book could not have been made without the support and effort of a great many people.

First and foremost I must thank my family. My parents Mike and Nancy and my brother Benjamin never failed to encourage (and bankroll) all my pursuits, however strange, throughout my entire life. Im also extremely grateful to my wife, best friend and life partner Laura for sharing my love of Japanese food and for being a great cheerleader, an honest critic and an occasional therapist. So many times she has been like an oasis in the middle of a sandstorm.

More directly, I must thank my editors Rosemary Davidson and Rowan Yapp, Lisa Gooding and the entire team at Square Peg for all their hard work and advice. I feel like writing ones first cookbook shouldnt be quite as easy and painless as they made it seem. Lots and lots of love is also due to Paul Winch-Furness for making my humble cooking look beautiful. Many thanks too to my agent Rosemary Scoular and her assistants Wendy Millyard and Aoife Rice for making this particular dream a reality, as well as my manager Holly Arnold for keeping the dream alive.

A number of people have fostered my passion for Japanese cuisine over the years, but most importantly, my undergraduate mentor Morgan Pitelka. He advised my many research projects on such absurd topics as curry and food museums, and helped me understand and appreciate Japanese food for all its complexity. This book is built on his teachings.

It would be an egregious error not to acknowledge the MasterChef family as well: Karen Ross, David Ambler, Vicki Howarth, Katie Atwood, Gregg Wallace, John Torode, Tony Crumpton and so many others. They made this book possible, not to mention my entire career as a chef. And thanks to my fellow finalists Tom Whitaker, Sara Danesin and Jackie Kearney for pushing me forward and sharing their knowledge to make me a better cook.

The London food scene in general has also been very supportive. So I must mention the following people who have been sources of inspiration, great collaborators and/or founts of wisdom: Fumio Tanga, Patrick Knill, Oisin Rogers, MiMi Aye, Emma Reynolds, Adam Layton, Lawrence Perera, Rebecca Song, Graham OBrien and the Pressure Drop team, Mark Gevaux, Hugo Ushida, Uyen Luu, Rukmini Iyer, Rohit Chugh, Sarah Harding, Sujan Sarkar, Nikki Morgan, Ash Mair and Jon Dale.

Finally, many thanks to the people who dont fit in one category but have helped me in all sorts of ways over the years (they know what they did): Kylie Clark and the JNTO staff, Courtney Brigham, Emiko and Donald Pitman, Wai Wai Club, Kimura-sensei, Fujita-san, Justin Torres, Angeline Gragasin, Jordan Queen, Sarah Nahikian, Vijan Joshi, Amanda Lee, Luke Guttridge, Yuki Serikawa, Dylan Collins, Karen ODonoghue, regulars and staff at the Euston Tap, Motoko Ezaki, Joel Harding, Stefanie Flaxman, Sam Schumacker, Dr. Barak Kushner, John Jones, Jay Rayner and the Kitchen Cabinet crew.

Kansha Itashimasu!

Tim Anderson is a Wisconsin-born chef working in London. Interested in Japanese cuisine from an early age, Anderson went on to study Japanese food history at university, and then to live in Japan on a working holiday for two years. Since then he has moved to the UK to be with his wife, and won MasterChef in 2011. He is now the proprietor and executive chef of the pop-up restaurant Nanban.

Youll find the following condiments and sauces referenced throughout this book, but you should get to know these even if you dont need them for a specific dish theyre good all-purpose Japanese soul food seasonings.

Basic Sauces and Condiments

(Sweet and Sour Miso Dressing)

This sweet and sour miso dressing is very versatile. Diluted with a little oil and vinegar, its a fantastic salad dressing, but on its own, its also a wonderful flavouring for meat or fish. Sumiso tends to be quite salty because of all the miso, so if youre serving this, just be careful with your seasoning as you cook.

Stir all the ingredients together and taste; add sugar if its too sharp. The consistency should be pourable, but only barely like Marmite, rather than peanut butter. If you need to thin it out, stir in little water, sake or dashi in small increments to taste.

(All-purpose Sauce)

Tare (pronounced tah-ray) is, broadly, a dipping sauce, and it comes in many flavours and varieties. Among the most popular are negishio-dare (salted spring onion sauce), goma-dare (sesame sauce) and perhaps the most versatile, shyu-dare: soy sauce sauce. Alright, so it doesnt translate, but it is delicious: essentially sweetened and thickened soy sauce, flavoured with a few aromatics. Its a great dip or glaze for all manner of grilled dishes (see ), and also makes a good teriyaki-ish marinade.

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Reduce by about a third. For a thicker sauce, whisk in the cornflour slurry and cook for a few minutes to thicken. Pass through a sieve and keep in an airtight container in the fridge.

(Soy Citrus Dipping Sauce)

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Stir everything together in a jar or bowl until the sugar dissolves. Taste and add more sugar as needed. It should be quite sharp; the sugar is just to take the edge off, not to make the ponzu noticeably sweet.