Japanese food features more prominently in author Julia Busuttil Nishimura's new cookbook. Here she shares four family-friendly recipes, kitchen kit and tips.

I can still remember the very first dish my husband Nori cooked for me – a simmered pumpkin dish called, in Japanese, kabocha no nimono. Large pieces of pumpkin were gently poached in shoyu, sake and mirin.

We were in our early 20s, living in a sharehouse. I was still studying at university and he was a chef at a nearby Japanese restaurant. We ate it on a red chequered blanket on the median strip with steamed rice and tempura prawns. I immediately had to write down the recipe. That was 10 years ago and I haven't stopped writing down the recipes he cooks, along with the ones we cook and create together these days.

Nori grew up on a strawberry and rice farm in the Japanese countryside between Kyoto and Nagoya. He left his family home for Australia when he was 23, and memories of food from his childhood still inspire every dish we make. I am so grateful for this connection and the new stories we have made together here in our home in Melbourne.

Now with two boys, the importance of cooking Japanese food is even more powerful. It connects them to their culture, history and family. It's a bonus that it is also incredibly delicious. Since our regular trips to Japan were curtailed by the pandemic, we all relished this comfort and connection through food.

My own Mediterranean roots, which spawned a love for Italy and time spent living in southern Tuscany, have always influenced the way I cook and think about food. The common thread between the two cuisines is an emphasis on simple cooking using produce that is seasonal and as local as possible.

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Since my cookbooks are always a reflection of what I cook in my own kitchen day to day and year to year, Around the Table dedicates even more space to the Japanese recipes that fill our home. From shokupan, mushroom udon and Japanese curry to agedashi dofu, each dish is something I love to make for my family.

Along the way, I've learned many tips from Nori and his family: add a pinch of sugar to the dried shiitake mushrooms as they soak to speed up the rehydration process; and that raw cabbage smeared with miso (like celery and peanut butter) is one of the best snacks in the world.

In Around the Table you won't find fancy ingredients or overly complicated techniques – that's not how I cook. It's home food – accessible and achievable and with an emphasis on finding the best quality produce, doing as little as you can to it and enjoying it with friends and family. It's joy-bringing, life-enhancing stuff.

My most crucial tip to cooking great Japanese food is to buy good-quality ingredients. This is so important in all cooking but I think there is something about the simplicity of Japanese cooking which really benefits from this principle.

To build a Japanese pantry, be selective with what you put on your shelves. Instead of buying a huge array of ingredients that you might not use, purchase only what you need for the dish you are making and build your store up slowly.

These are the ingredients I always have on hand:

Okonomiyaki pancake decorated with Japanese mayonnaise and DIY okonomi sauce. Photo: Supplied

Okonomi means "as you like" and yaki means "fried" – so as you can imagine, there are countless variations of this savoury Japanese pancake. Nori's mum often made it with finely sliced pork belly, which is incredibly delicious. Ours has prawns and pork. Bacon rashers are a good alternative to the pork belly, too. Whatever you choose to add to your okonomiyaki, for a lightpancake be sure to stir the batter as little as possible and avoid pressing it down in the pan.

We usually make a simple dashi (stock) with shaved katsuobushi (bonito flakes), but store-bought or homemade chicken or vegetable stock is a really good alternative.

I've also suggested a way to make your own okonomiyaki sauce – it is more just a mixture of a few different sauces, but it means you can adjust the sweetness and flavour to your liking. And while Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise is readily available, okonomi sauce can be more tricky to come by, so this is a good little recipe to have up your sleeve in times of need.

Agedashi dofu is a real family favourite of ours. It's what we make when we're all out of ideas or it's been a long day. My favourite agedashi dofu is made with silken tofu – the contrast between the fried exterior and soft interior is beautiful. But it is rather delicate to handle, so soft tofu can also be used. I love it simply topped with grated ginger and spring onion. Nori likes to add shredded seaweed and katsuobushi, too. We always eat it with plenty of steamed rice and a simple salad.

Chicken braised with onion, carrot and potato. Photo: Supplied

This is one of my go-to weeknight meals as it is so simple to make and loved by both my boys. Preparing your own dashi (stock) creates a wonderfully smoky base for the braise and only takes a few minutes. If you can't get your hands on dried katsuobushi (bonito flakes), simply use water instead. Often made with lotus root, burdock or konnyaku, our family's version is simplified and contains onions, carrots and potatoes.

Miso marinated pork belly with steamed rice and a simple salad. Photo: Supplied

This is such a great way to enjoy pork belly on a weeknight. It requires minimal time in the oven and you can get away with marinating the pork for a short time. You can marinate it the night before, of course, or even the morning before you want to cook it. We eat it with steamed rice and a simple salad of daikon, carrot and spring onion, with a vinegary dressing to cut through the richness of the pork belly.

*Note: Grain vinegar (kokumotsu su) is a moderately acidic Japanese vinegar made from a mixture of grains such as wheat, corn, sake lees and rice. It usually has a higher proportion of non-rice grains to be classified as a "grain vinegar". It is available from Japanese grocers and some supermarkets. If you can't find it, use rice vinegar instead, which has a higher proportion of just rice.

This is an edited extract from Around the Table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura, published by Plum, RRP $44.99, photography by Armelle Habib. Buy now