Minazuki     June 30


Minazuki  means "June" in Japanese.
Also Minazuki is the name of traditional this sweet.


June 30 is the day we eat this sweet.
This shape is from "ice" and people eat  for our health and luck for
coming summer in histrical meaning.

Obanzai

This in one of the typical "Obanzai" dishes.

Obanzai is the way to call "home dishes" in Kyoto.

This is the cooked koimo(japanese potato) and daikon(japanese radish)
with dahi,soysauce and mirin for a hour to simmer very well.

This type of  dishes is good matching with sake because the taste has deep
soyflavor with vegetables.

 

 

This green pepper is kyoto local vegetable"Manganji-Togarashi".

This is not so hot but has beautiful flavors.

I cook this with Konnyaku(japanese noodles like jelly).

Konnyaku is the one of the healthy ingredients in Japan.

Cooking with dashi,soysauce and a little bit mirin

 

Western style dish

 

I like Italian. I sometimes cook simple spagetti sauce by myself.

These are the ingredients for "Sora-mame"(broad bean) creamed spagetti.

Pasta,sora-mame,parmezan cheese,onion,cream and milk.

 

This is very simple dish but this has beautiful sora-mame flavor.

Tomorrow is the beginning of July.

I would like to introduce summer dishes to keep our stamina!!

Seasoned Rice


My favorite dish is seasoned rice.
I cook flavored rice each season.
In Spring,bamboo shoots rice is famous dish.
In Autumn,Matsutake gohan(special mushroom rice) is very popular.
So When you put some special season ingredient into the rice and cook with dashi,
you can feel that season.


Nowadays,we can get  many things through a year,but I think
It is very important to use the specific time,specific ingredient.

In May,I use a lot of Endo-mame(green pea) for the rice or egg dish.

 

When I was a child, it was always  my job to remove the peas.

Rice,water,Endo-mame,a little sake and salt.

This cooked Endo-mame flavor goes into the rice.

We call this "Mame-gohan"


June is the season for Ajisai(hydrangea).
This is one of my favorite flower.

Early summer time

Shin-shoga(young ginger).

We use this ginger for sweeten pickles beside of sushi.

This is the best from June to autumn.

Thin strips Shin-shoga and Age(thin deep fied tofu).

Cook with dashi,usukuchi soysauce(the light one)and salt.

This rice has a beautiful fresh ginger flavor.

It is very simple,but we will enjoy the Shin-shoga itself.

I immagine summer is coming soon.