Japanese cooking class in kyoto

2011-08-01T21:33:00.001+09:00

Gogh's Sun Flower

The August is started.
It is really hot in Japan.

Today i found cute Sun Flower at my favorite shop.
This name is Gogh's Sun Flower.
It is more ellegant shape than the normal one.
I decorate this at the entrance and it makes bright!

It is popular to eat sticky vegetables like Okura or Nagaimo(Yam) in summer.

I made minced chicken humgerg with those vegetables.

The flavor is Teriyaki suace (sweeten soy sauce).

This is cucumber sushi.
The rice is vinegard with myoga(summer ginger) and sesame seeds.
Sprinckle nori on top.
This is very fresh rice dish in hot day.

This is miso which is fermented soybeans products.

We use this for many dishes like soup,dressing,saurce...etc.

The left one(light brown) is basic miso.The taste is very mild and a little sweet.

I like this.

The left one(brown) is aka(red)miso.The taste is a little strong and salty.

This is good for summer.

I deep fry the eggplant in the oil and sprinkle myoga(summer ginger).

Pour the dashi soup including miso.
It is good to change the type of miso in each season.

2011-07-25T23:33:00.001+09:00

Summer vegetables in July

Kyoto,we have one of the biggest festivals,GION MATSURI in July.
You can see about 32 wooden floats on the streets in the central of kyoto.
These are the pictures i took July 16 in evening.

This name is MOON float.

The boys are parading on the main street.

I enjoyed taking a walk in late evening after the classes.

It is very excited and nice tradition.

The next morning July 17 is the parade's day.

It is beautiful sunny day!

A lot of men are working hardly to move the floats with their hands.

I use summer vegetables recently.

Corn soup

We have a custum to eat Unagi(eel) in July 21st.

Unagi Donburi (steamed eel with rice)

Fushimi Tougarasgu (Kyoto local sweet geen papper) & baby sardine

Cook with saysauce,mirin with dashi

Kabocha(pumpkin) I cut the skin with spots.

Simmer with dashi,sugar and soysauce.

I like the pumpkin with a little bit soy & sweet flavor.

I cut the skin with thinly slices

Simmer with dashi with a little light flavor soysuace

Serve with grated ginger

Cook the Tofu balls with edamame(green soy beans) with dashi

These vegetable dishes are good matching with white rice!

2011-06-01T22:16:00.007+09:00

Bento - lunch box-

Sometimes I bring my bento box to my office.
I make a few things in the morning ,but mostly they are leftover last night.

Part 1

●　grilled salmon,

●　eggplant&soinach salad,

●　carrot salad,

●　chikuwa (fish cake)

●　omelet with green beans

When we make bento,we care the color combination.

Part 2

●　small sushi roll with cucumber&ume,
●　potato salad,

●　sausage,

●　 tofu stake,

●　 omelet with seaweed,

Part 3

●　beef&green,red pepper with chinese style sauce

●　fried-egg

●　chikuwa&cucumber

●　popato&beans salad with carry flavor

part 4

● Yakisoba&bread

JUNE Flower Rainy season
\

2011-05-30T22:06:00.001+09:00

May in Kyoto

May is beautiful wheather in Japan.

People go out and enjoy walking in the nature.

You will see Tsutsuji is eveywhere.

The rose is also in season now.

The eggplant is one of the summer vegetables.
Tonight i bought a big round one(Maru nasu) at the market for dinner.

Age-dashi Nasu
This is popular home dish in summer.Served with soup,daikon and ginger.

Aji (horse mackerel) summer fish.

Cooked rice mixed with Aji & Shiso(herb).

Aji &Spinach salad with dashi soup

carrot salad for stock

～Healthy dinner menu～

　These menu are typical traditional meal

2011-04-13T21:26:00.001+09:00

Sakura in Kyoto

April 10 Sunday

I took a walk around my house.

It was so beautiful day and Sakura blooming has been just in time.

A lot of people are sitting along the river and enjoying their bento box with

beautiful view. I love picnic!

The Kamo river

Kiyamachi street

Gion area

Takenoko(bamboo shoots) is famous spring vegetable in Kyoto.

Deep-fried tofu ball with bamboo shoots.

Japanese style rolled melet with spring vegetbales

Dashi soup with spring vegetables

Somen noodles with cold spup.

Minced chicken rice flavored with sweet&soy&ginger .

This is popular bento menu.

2011-03-29T21:26:00.003+09:00

It is still cold in March this year.I can not leave my winter hat or jacket yet

This whether is big influenced to the food market.

The harvest of bamboo shoots in Kyoto are late.

I can't wait.

Sakura is blooming soon.There are so many good places to see Sakura in Kyoto.

It is short time.That's why it worths to see.

I look forward to walking along the sakura in the weekend sometimes.

I choosed sometimes chicken dishes in my cooking classes in March.

This is cooked chicken and Japanese local potato.

It is sweet&soy flavor.People like it.

This is minced chicken&japanese yamaimo(sticky potato) patte.

This texture is so soft because of this popato.

Also I put some Shiso (japanese hearb) in it.

This is my favorite noodle,Somen&Clam&Nanohana soup.

This is popular combination in March.

Onigiri(rice ball) looks easy to make,but it need experience.

We put some ingredient in a ball like umeboshi(plum pickles)or grilled sarmon.

This is Hatakena (kyoto local green leaves vegetables).

It is popular to cook with deep fried tofu and dashi.

2011-02-27T23:32:00.017+09:00

Dishes for Hinamatsuri Girl's Day

March 3rd is the day is a traditional family celebration for the health and happiness

of young girls.We display of beautiful dolls set in the family home.

We invite my relatives and friends and celebrate togeter to eat homemade

dishes like sushi and soup using spring ingredients.

Especially popular ingredients for this occasion include tai(sea bream),ebi(shrimp)

and hamaguri(clam).

When i was a child, I used to play traditional girl game like otedama(beanbag juggling),

ohajiki(marbles),and ayatori(string fingers).

Mari-tsuki (ball bouncing) was also popular.

We would bounce a temari(a ball made of colorful silk threads) and sing beautiful,

rhythmical songs.

This sushi is called Temari sushi ,which looks like hand sides traditional ball.

It is very popluar in spring.

Tai,ebi,salmon,and flat fish with vinegerd rice(sushi rice).

They are so cute!!

Clam soup with Nanohana (rape flower).
We see many wild Nanohana with yellow flower in everywhere in March.

I teach traditional dises in my classes.
But sometimes i like to cook western-Japanese dishes like them
using japanese ingredients for my private dinner.

I put this Nanohan in creamed soup instead of brocories.

Spring cabbage salad with shiso herb and mayonaze.

Japanese style ,curry and rice.

For break first

Here are the season ingredients in early spring.

Hotaru ika with vinegar miso dressing.

Spring onion salad with steamed chicken and miso dressing.

Wakame is my favorite.It is good for salad.

This is dried wakame.

Dried wakame is good topping for rice.

Sawara is beautiful spring fish.

This is grilled with Teriyaki sauce with sansho pepper.

Chawan mushi

This is steamed egg custard with spring vegetables.

2011-01-31T22:44:00.008+09:00

The visiting Nara

I visited Nara (the southern part area of Kyoto) with my friends in this Sunday.

Nara is also very historical place as same as Kyoto.

I went to the Miwa shrine,and which is one of the most famous and biggest shrine in Kansai.

It was a very cold day but beautiful wheather.

This shrine has a famous rabit made of blond for luck.

People are toutching it and pray for our happines.

This is the view from this shrine on the hill.
We saw the beautiful landscape of Nara.

I dropped by the famous beef shop of Yamagata on the way home.

I bought some very good quality and reasonable beef there.

When I came back home,I made the Croquette which is very popular dish
using this beef.

Cooked beef,oion and beef with soysauce,sugar and mirin.

Mushed them up,

Deep fry them with shreaded bread.

Serve with cabbage. This is very hot and tasty with sweet&soysauce flavor.

Moyashi salad (boiled soy bean sprout with sesame dressing)

Cooked daikion with Dashi.

Kabura Mushi

Grated Kabura &fish steamed dish with dashi soup.

One of the famous winter dish in kyoto.

2010-12-31T19:15:00.008+09:00

Oomisoka December 31, 2010

We call the December 31 "OOMISOKA".

Today we had the first snow in kyoto city as this winter.
It have been snowing all day long.

The neighborhood is so quiet and calm.

People must be staying inside of their house and be reluxed.

This is the view from the terace of my house.

I decorated the entrance to put the new year's flowers.

2011 is the year of rabbit! She is smiling btween the pine trees.

This is called Kagami-mochi.

This is served for God and made of rice.

I have started to cook Osechi from the morning again.

Winter vegetables

Daikon&Kintoki ninjin(winter carrot)Yuzu(winter orange).

●Onamasu

This is shreaded salad with daikon,carrot and yuzu peel
dressed with sesame dressing of rice vineger,sugar,and a little bit soysauce.

●Gomame

This is small dried sadine carameled soysauce,sake and mirin.

●Konnyaku

Konnyaku is one of the traditional ingredients here.

This is simmerd with dashi,soysauce and mirin.

●Kintoki Ninjin

Cooked carrot with dashi,sugar and mrin.

This carrot is a little bit sweeter and softer.

We can get this only winter time.

Lotus roots

●　Subasu

This is boiled renkon and simmer with dashi,rice vineger,sake and sugar.

It is good to be white color.

●Dashimaki Tamago

This is rolled omelet with dashi.

In evening,I decorated them in special box(Ju-bako).

●　Ichi no ju (the first box)

●　Ni no ju (the second box)

●　San no ju (the third box)

I put them at a cool place until tomorrow.

We have a tradition to eat Soba the end of year.

Tonight topping is Temupura,thank for this year's happy things.

At 12:00am

I went to the local temple near my house to ring the bell.
It was so cold outside....

See you 2011!

2010-12-30T18:55:00.004+09:00

The end of the year 2010

It was so quickly passing in this year.
I really enjoyed to meet interesting people who come from different
countries through my cooking lessons.

I am taking new year vacation from the end of December to the New year.
Then i am preparing the decoration in my house and cook the new years dishes.

I went to visit Nishiki market this morning to get special ingredients and vegetables for that.
Even morning,there are so many people and i could not walk through in the crowded small street.
But i like that.Because it make me feel the end of year.

We call new years dish,OSECHI.
I will make 16-18kinds of osechi.

●Imo-Bou

Bou-Dara

This is dried cod and one of the traditional winter item in Kyoto.

I have been soaking this in cold water for a week.

Then simmer in water with kombu.

About 3hours later, add soysauce,mirin and sugar.

Cook with Ebi-imo(kyoto local potato) together for 3 hours more.

●Kuro-Mame

Kuro mame(black beans) is famous in Tamba area(northen part of kyoto prefecture).

It is simmerd for 6 hours in water including sugar.

It will be very soft and smooth.This is one of my favorite!

●Saikyo-zuke

Marinated fish with sweet miso

A couple of days later,off the paste and grill the fish.

The fish will have beautiful miso flavor.

●Tataki Gobo

I introduced many time this loot vegetable,Gobo.

It is boiled and dressed with sesame,dashi,rice vineger,and soysauce.

●Kazunoko

Kazunoko is herring roe.One of the popular Osechi ingredients.
This sells with salty,so I soak in water for 6 hours to remove salt.
Then marrinate with dashi,sake,mirin and soysauce for a day.

Serve bonito flakes on top.

2010-11-25T22:36:00.001+09:00

The winter coming soon

Kyoto,it is getting colder and colder.

It is nice to walk in a mountain. The leaves are changing their colors.

So pretty!

I love the roots vegetables like gobo(brown burdock),renkon(lotus root)

Japanese red carrot.This carrot is sweeter than normal one and only can get in winter.

This is preparing for Chikuzen-ni,which is one of a popular home dish.
Cut the same size and stair-fry with the oil.

Add dashi or water with soysause,mirin and little sugar.Then simmer it.

The other day,I had a Oden party with my friends.

Oden is one of the popular pot dish in winter.

It takes a lot of time for preparation,but you can cook everything

before your guests came.That is very convinient menu for party.

Daikon is boiled for preparation.

boiled egg,konjaku,boiled daikon

They are all fish paste prodacts.with cheese,mochi and tofu.

The fish paste products are very very popular ingredients here.

Cook vegetables with dashi soup including soysauce,mirin,and alittle sugar.

for a few hours.

Set on the table with pot and add fish paste product in last minutes.

You can pick up some as you like by yourselves.

I love the Daikon.

This food make your body warm very much.

It's good for cold day!

2010-10-22T18:34:00.001+09:00

Create an Autumn Picnic Bento Lunchbox!

I like a picnic or hiking in autumn very much.

I often go hiking around northen part of Kyoto or Shiga area.

The mountains are not so high but the views are so beautiful

especially maple colors are changing.

Another fun is bento box.
It is more tasty to eat in the nature.

Autumn in Japan is an especially popular time for outdoor events
and activities such as sports festival ,school hikes,and shrine/temple festivals.

Many poeple bring homemade bento boxes to these events.
It is always exciting to see what inside when they are opened.

I feel the bento is special form of traditional japanese culture.

Especially we call the picnic bento Koraku bento.
They are always beautiful and seasonal.

I like to bring with my family or friends it and enjoy the colors of autumn
on picnic along the Kamo River or the river in Arashiyama or some other
lovely locations.

This is usu-age(thin deep-fried tofu) for sushi.

I get them at tofu shop.

Cut this age in half(triangle shape) then simmer with sweeten Dashi.

In another pot, this is cooking autumn vegetables(lotus roots,

gobo,and carrot)with dashi.

Add them in Sushi rice.

Put the sushi rice in a pocket.

Inari Sushi &

Chicken Tatsuta-age(Autumn deep-fried chicken)

2010-09-22T01:04:00.007+09:00

The Harvest Moon September 22nd

Tomorrow is the day of the full moon viewing in autumn.
We decorate Susuki(the japanese silver grass) and Dango(simle confections made of rice flour with
azuki beans paste).
This means we serve some food to the God wishing for rich harvest.
People traditionaly enjoy seeing a beautiful full moon with sake tonight.

This Dango looks like japanese autumn potato(Ebi imo).

(We serve this vegetable for God)

This view is the moon at the terace of my house the 21st evening.

I hope it will be beautiful day tomorrow.

A few weeks ago,I had a Gyoza party(japanese dumpling )with my friends.

They are the piano teachers,so their finger works are very good!

Cook then on the table

This gyoza are beautifu brown & crispy.

This is the autumn popular fish ,Sanma (saury).

The simple grilled are the most popular cooking.

I like to eat them with grated radish(daikon) or lime(sudachi).

Today i made a glatin using the Sanma and vegetables.

Grilled eggplant and Sanma.

Put cooked tomato,onion and cheese on top.Then grill in the oven.

Sprinckle parsely.

This is the corabration of the japanese autumn &Iitalian.

Satoimo(japanese atutumn potato)and pampkin are popular autumn vegetbables.

Cooked satoimo with dashi and soysauce and mirin(sweet rice wine).

The Simmerd vegetables like this are traditional side dish.

Pumpkin croqutte.

Deepfried horse mackrel marinated soysauce,sake and mirin.

Maitake Gohan , flavored rice cooked with maitake mashroom and deepfried tofu.

Sweet rolled omelet with green onion,served with grated radish.

Miso soup with potato and onion.

Simmerd cabage with dashi.

2010-07-26T22:59:00.003+09:00

Doyo no Ushi (the day of Unagi)

July 26

Today is the day to eat Unagi(eel).
You can smell this grilled Unagi flavor everywhere.

It is different way from Kansai(west) and Kanto(east),how to cut and grill.
And people eat this eel in the hot day like today to get some stamina.

I cook some very thin egg sheet.

Today I got this grilled Unagi from my favorite fish store.
They were so busy day.

This is Donburi dish.

The bottom is rice with unagi sauce.

I put a piece of unagi, sprinkle sansho pepper,shreaded egg on top of the rice.
Then steam it.

Serving with dashi soup and pickles.

2010-07-21T20:41:00.024+09:00

Cooking for hot day

Today was very hot in Kyoto,actually everyehere in Japan.
It was 35 degrees and strong sunshine.
My body wanted some vinegar dish very much.

Then I decided to make Hamo Sushi.

I prepared grilled hao(pike conger fish),sushi rice and sansho pepper.

I put some sansho pepper between hamo and rice.

And roll it using clean cotton towel and bamboo matt.

I love home made sushi rice flavor.

We eat a lot of colorfulled vegetables in summer time.

One of my favorite summer vegetables is Nasu(eggplant).

I cooked it with dashi.Cold one is also beautiful taste.

Cold somen noodles with tomatoes and okura.

This is the aka-Zuiki ,which is the leafstalk of japanese popates.

We eat this traditional vegetable in summer time,escecially

Obon week (August 12-16).

This is dressed with sesame sweet-vinegar dressing.

2010-07-17T23:05:00.000+09:00

Shimple Menu

Today it is officially ended rainy season.
Summer start.

It was really hot day,but I prefer this weather to raining.
One of my favorite summer noodle is Somen.
I prepare the dipping soup by my self and store in refrigerator
all the time.

Somen is very fine wheat noodles, but this is the finest one.

I like this very much. I boil them for a few miniutes and wash

with cold water to remove the salty and oil.

As a topping, sprincle the sesame seeds.
This is very elegant texture and flavor.

This flavord rice is one of the popular dishes in my classes.

We will besaticefied although we don't have main dish.

Why don't you eat such as this simple menu when it is hot?

2010-07-17T13:04:00.013+09:00

The Gion Festival

July is the month of one of the largest and most histrical festival of Japan,

Gion festival.Actually it is July 1st -31st.

You can see the Yama and Hoko 32 floats in streets central of the city .

My house is very close to this area,so after my guests joined my cooking class,

they went to see this festival.

Also I went to Yoi-Yama(eve-night festival) with my neighbors after the lesson.

This is the Friday nigts,so there are a lot of people.

This is the view from the hoko float.
There a lots of peole in small street.

This is "Moon"Hoko.This is one of the beatiful decoration in evening.

July 17 9:00 morning,

The 32 Yama and Hoko floats moving and parade begins.

At my kitchen,

We eat often Hamo fish (pike conger) in July.

This is traditional ingredient for Gion festival dishes.
We use for soup,sushi,tempura using this Hamo.

This is Hamo tempura with shiso leaf.

Summer in Kyoto,very hot,unbelievably humid.

I like to eat a lot of summer vegetables like tomatoes,cucumbers,

ginger,or egplants,to cool the body.

At the same time ,we also favor stamina improving foods like unagi(eel).

I feel summer is the most important season of the year for a balanced,

healty diet.

I cook vinegar marinated dishes in summer time very often.

One of the popular dishes is Aji no Nanban-zuke.

The conbination of rice vinegar and the fish oil flavor is said to be

perfect to stimulate a sluggish summer appetite.

Ko-Aji (small horse mackerel)

Deep fired fishes.

Cut the vegetabes in thread.

Marinated with rice vinegar,dashi,sugar and soysauce for 1 day.

Delicious!!

2010-06-30T22:38:00.001+09:00

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!!

2010-06-01T23:14:00.002+09:00

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.