Happy New Year! Kids are back to school and I finally found some time to sit in front of my PC to update my blog. This year we went back to my husbands hometown, Himeji in the Hyogo Prefecture. Himeji City is known for the Himeji Castle - one the most beautiful castles in Japan. After 5 years of major restoration, it reopened last spring and we had been waiting for a chance to visit it. Himeji Castle is also known as the White Heron Castle (Shirasagijo) due to its elegant, white appearance. Although we have visited the castle many times, we couldn't help taking photos from every angle. It is more a fortress than a castle as it is very stragetically laid out to prevent the enemies to come into the castle.
0 Comments
Yesterday was my last class of this year - Mizudaki-Nabe Class (Chicken Hot Pot) a perfect dish on a cold day. A Tokyo resident student with his visiting mother. She came to my class last year when she was visiting Tokyo which is a great honor for me to receive returning guests.
Mizudaki is a hot pot cooked in water and dipped in sauce when eating as opposed to hot pots such as yose nabe which are cooked in seasoned soup and eaten as it is. The success to the misudaki hot pot is to use chicken bones which make a good soup stock. Eating nabe in winter is an economical way of keeping warm on a cold day, and healthy! Simply Oishii Japanese Cooking Class will be closed between Dec. 23 and Jan. 12th. I will be checking e-mails to accept bookings for dates after that. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I've been asked by some of my clients about gift vouchers for Christmas. So I've created a voucher to give to your friends and family. You don't actually need the copy of this voucher, but I guess it's nice to send it as a gift. (The voucher will be sent in PDF format)
If you would like to give my cooking class as a gift, just let me know the full name of the person and I will issue a voucher once the payment (bank transfer of paypal) is made. There will be a small gift for the person using this voucher. Once the person receives the voucher she may e-mail me to book a class. It will be a home cooking class, but may be used for other courses of the equivalent value (6700 yen). Other courses with a greater value can be chosen with additional charge to be paid on the day. So if you haven't decided on what to give your friend for Christmas, how about a lesson on Japanese Home Cooking? *Please note that my cooking class is for ladies, couples and families only. We went to my husband's annual college reunion last weekend. This reunion has been going on since they graduated from college up to now. Although most of the children have grown up and no longer attend these family gatherings, our children along with a few more came to the gathering held on the university campus.
I brought along a couple of jars, whipped cream, sponge cake, biscuits, gummy, chocolate chips, strawberries and some other sweets so that the kids can make their own trifles. This was a big hit and after decorating the jar with ribbons and stickers, they all took their piece of work back home. Mason Jar Trifles along with gyoza dumplings and temaki-sushi are great hands-on activities for children at birthday parties and play dates. For details of children's cooking party, please contact me for details >>> To brush up my wagashi skills, I attended a nirikiri class to learn 3 types of nerikiri. Nerikiri is a dough made with white bean paste and rice powder. With the dough we wrap the bean paste and shape them into various figures that represent the season. In this class we made a chrysanthemum flower and a mountain resembling the changing leaf color with a small dragonfly. The brown color nirikiri is made with cocoa powder symbolizing a stone pavement with a falling leaf. Wagashi of the season will be served as dessert for my cooking class.
Also, if you are interested to learn wagashi, look out for my Wagashi taster session in October. A short while ago, I attended a seminar on dash (soup stock) and miso. Although I regularly use miso and make my own dashi, I was curious to taste the miso and dashi that I have never used. In this seminar, we made our own miso from organic soybeans and sea salt. It was much easier than I thought but I guess I wouldn't be able to find out whether I succeeded until next February when the miso is ready to eat. During the seminar, we tasted, wheat miso from Kyushu, Haccho miso (Dark Red Miso) from Nagoya, Edo-ama miso from Tokyo, home made rice miso, and white rice miso from Fukushima. I personally liked the Edo-ama miso, a dark colored miso (not red miso) that has a slightly sweet taste. I hope to use more miso in my class. Miso making procedure The most dreaded summer holiday is here and with the boys around the house fighting all the time, I can't say that it’is the best environment to practice on my wagashi skills. I almost lost myself when after a round of kicking and punching in the dining room, a dust cloth came flying in the kitchen and landed right next to my freshly made white bean paste. It was quite a challenge today making my own white bean paste which is the major ingredient for the Nerikiri Dough.
So that's my excuse for a not so perfect wagashi flower I made. I'll have to practice some more when it's more peaceful. Today was I took my third wagashi lesson conducted by Yumiko Sensei. In this lesson, We used a dough called "Konashi" this dough is more popular in Kansai area (Osaka and Kyoto area), and I don't recall having it myself. It is a mix of White bean paste, flour, and rice powder. As it contains flour and rice powder it needs to be steamed before handling it.
In the Kanto area including Tokyo, we usually use "Nerikiri" as the dough (this is the dough we used for the Rose session). Nerikiri is a mixture of White bean paste and Gyuhi (this is made with rice flower, water and sugar). Although the ingredients of both dough seems to be similar, the texture is quite different. After wrapping the red bean paste with the dough, we add the finishing touch, the leaves and vines made with Matcha powder and the crystal clear kanten jelly to represent the morning dew. Now that I have completed all three courses, it's time to practice at home during summer! I hope to start my Wagashi class this fall. Last class before Summer Holiday was an obento Class attended by Students studying in Japan. They did a brilliant job making onigiri rice balls! Classes will resume in September. Hope everyone has a great summer holiday and see you all this fall!!!
Guests from France last Saturday taking my Japanese Style Cocktail Party Course. We all had fun making sushi balls and topping the tofu. This course is great if you like to entertain at home, something different for a change. For details of this course please go to course details>>>
|
AuthorI'm Miyuki and I teach Japanese Home cooking at my home in Tokyo. Archives
February 2021
Categories
All
|
service |
Information |
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
|