Oh, I get it now, thanks. I thought you personally wanted a substitute. You’re right, not everyone may have access to sake, good thought.
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Same by me.
But I have a large Japanese grocery/liquor store half a mile from my home and 2 H-Marts (Korean supermarket) within a 30 minute drive.
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I was trying to be conscientious because it really is a crazy simple recipe.
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I used to have one within walking distance – that was wonderful! But I do have pretty easy access to H-Marts. Sadly because of goofy Massachusetts laws, none of them can sell alcohol. Still, no shortage of kimchi, weird sodas, canned coffee, spicy condiments, interesting produce, or any sort of ramen you could want.
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If you see it in the same liquor stores that sell sake, I recommend soju /shochu. Essentially Korean or Japanese moonshine. But in general it has only about 30-40 proof. Its mild, sipable and mixes with pretty much everything. Essentially like a light vodka.
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Thanks, it’s something I haven’t really tried much! I’ll get some next time I see it.
I recently had the chance to try Chinese baiju, which is a similar sort of clear liquor made from sorghum (and other grains), which is decidedly not mild and sippable. More like a funky fermented complex un-aged whiskey.
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I have tried baiju, not a fan to say the least. Like something I would have drunk when I was underage.
Soju/Shochu is far easier on the palate. Typically its made with either barley, rice or sweet potatoes. Even the cheap stuff is pretty decent.
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Hi. Here’s my very, very simple (yet tasty) recipe for rice and beans:
Beans
Part A:
2 tablespoons Virgin Olive Oil
1 small Yellow Onion (chopped)
1 tablespoon Garlic (minced)
2 tablespoons Tomato Paste (or 1 tablespoon of concentrated version)
Part B:
3 teaspoons Smoked Paprika
2 teaspoons Black Pepper
3 teaspoons Cumin Powder
2 teaspoons Dried Oregano
2 tablespoons Vinegar (balsamic, white, etc.)
One 15.5 oz. canned Black Beans (I strongly recommend using the GOYA Prime Premium brand. After trying many others over the years, I’ve found the GOYA brand to have a superior quality and perhaps the highest bean to water ratio.)
Sauté (moderate heat) Part A ingredients in a medium sized frying pan and mix well. When the onions have become translucent, mix in the beans and the Part B ingredients. Adjust the heat as needed to get the mixture very gently simmering. Cover the frying pan to retain heat and moisture, checking occasionally to stir the mixture, and to readjust the heat if necessary. While this is going, you can start on cooking the rice.
Rice
Part C:
1 tablespoon Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup White Rice (long-grain or pearl)
1 tablespoon Butter (or substitute e.g. margarine)
1 tablespoon Curry Powder
Sauté (moderate high heat) Part C ingredients in a medium sized sauce pan and mix well to ensure that the rice is thoroughly coated with the other ingredients. Add whatever amount of water is called for on the rice packaging, stir, then adjust the heat as needed to get the mixture simmering. If your rice packaging instructs you to cover the pot, then do that. (Note that I cook simple rice recipes up Caribbean-style which means cover off, then cover on, with a certain way of stirring the rice during the cover-on stage; I won’t go into that here.)
When the rice is done, fluff it with a fork, plate it (should serve 3), then add the beans to the rice. I intentionally left out salt (which I never use but which you could add if desired). I also left out spicy ingredients (which you could also add, if you wish).
I kept the ingredients to a minimum, limiting it to what I felt were important. Obviously, other things could have been added (cilantro, chopped red sweet peppers, dried jalapeno flakes, etc.)
The beans came out well. For myself, next time I’ll add “corn smut” to the bean recipe, add a touch of spicy heat, thicken it into a sort of meatless chili, and eliminate the rice altogether (which would eliminate the overabundance of carbs from the dish). On top of the “chili”, I’ll add a huge dollop of Plain Greek Yoghurt, sprinkled with chopped Cilantro and Smoked Paprika.
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That’s a recipe for disaster. 
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I’ve been reaching back in time and looking at dishes and cookbooks from the 19th and early 20th centuries a bit. Here are some of the highlights
The DIspenser’s Formulary - (1915) Sodas, restoratives, ice cream (including a couple dozen different banana splits) and lunch counter fare that puts a lot of today’s restaurant fare to shame. about 2500 recipes
The Rector Cookbook - (1928 edition) a complete cookbook by the owner of the then-closed Rector Hotel, one of the premier places to eat drink and be seen in New York, and second home of Diamond Jim Brady. A French base with American touches
Dining By Rail: The History and Recipes of America’s Golden Age of Railroad Cuisine - Partly a history of food on railways from the earliest days of boys tossing apples through train windows to the mid-20th century, partly a cookbook with a few hundred of the best recipes from the major rail lines. Damn, but they ate well. Recently made a dinner with Fricassee of Lamb, Stuffed Eggplant, and Cantaloupe Pie.
Bull Cook and Authentic Recipes and Practices - Tall tales and an interesting mix of recipes from the founder of what used to be an iconic outdoors supply store.
Claudia Roden, multiple James Beard winner, is always always good. I learned how to cook from A Book of Middle Eastern Food and wildly expanded my definition of Jewish food with The Book of Jewish Food.
I got a copy of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook, Expanded Edition: From Lady Mary’s Crab Canapés to Christmas Plum Pudding—More Than 150 Recipes from Upstairs and Downstairs and you know what? I’m taking it to the used bookstore. Edwardian cooking is heavy and boring.
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Years back Chris Bunch (ztl) and Allan Cole wrote the Sten series, a very enjoyable seven book space opera. Every book had at least a couple recipes. Over the years I tried to go from the descriptions with improving results as my cooking skills got better. Cole, a chef by trade, wrote the Sten Cookbook which has all the recipes from the infamous beverage Stregg to the world’s best hangover cure, Angelo Stew. Where the descriptions were sufficient he leaves those in. But for almost all of them he gives a real recipe with ingredients and method. So far there’s not a bad one in the bunch, much like the books.
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A few years ago, I helped put on an interactive-theater event set in a 1920s-era health colony (like the one in Road to Wellville but creepier) and for the meals we found cookbooks and recipes used in Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium. Most of the food was as bland and unappealing as you might expect, but one recipe, for vegetarian bean loaf, was so surprisingly tasty that I’ve made it a few times since for dinner. (ignore the part about apples and potatoes, they don’t work very well. I put ketchup or bbq on it and cooked it like a meatloaf.)
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A fascinating history book about food that I just recently finished. It turns out my jokes about British food and empire were correct. They really did conquer 1/4 of the world in order to find tastier cuisine than bland British food. Sort of.
The chapters on the “Corn Laws” were very helpful for understanding the last season of Victoria. (A show I watch pretty much out of infatuation with Jenna Coleman)
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Just peruse my Instagram and ask me what the recipe is for those items…
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That sounds very good especially since we’re doing twobdays a week meatless
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I should mention that for the weird ingredient of “two cups of bread-crumbs squeezed out of hot water”, I just moistened breadcrumbs with some hot water in a bowl and added the seasonings.
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I have been making the same jokes. Just ordered a copy of the book. Thanks for the tip.
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I assumed soak the breadcrumbs then squeeze dry by hand.
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