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!!

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.

Especially in last 3 weeks, a lots of people have visited my kitchen
because of sakura season.
I have been opening classes almost every evening.
Then I introduced mainly Takenoko(bamboo shoots) and spring vegetables.
But also noodles dish was very popular.

This is the Niku Udon (noodles with sweet-soy flavored beef).
The soup is so tasty and I love this.
Especially the Udon is very popular in Kansai.

This is vegetable Tempura.
My favorite is Pumpkin and Shiitake mushroom.

This is Dashimaki Tamago.(The omelet including Dashi)
This menu is that I have been introdusing since 2002.
Making this with the omelet pan is so fun!

This is Warabi which is one of the mountain wild vegetables.
We will eat them in middle of April to early summer time in kyoto often.

Today I cooked 2 kinds of dishes using this Warabi .

Warabi no Sunomono

Warabi salad dressed with sweeten-vinegar.

Another one is the cooked Warabi &Hirousu(deep-fried Tofu with vegetables)
with Dashi soup.

I took this yellow rose picture at my terace yesterday.
They have just started to bloom. This is the signal of May is coming soon for me.
Isn't it pretty?

Takenoko (Bamboo shoots) Taste of spring



Nishiyama(west mountain) in Kyoto , that is one of the famous Takenoko area.

I have been introducing Takenoko Gohan in my classes using the fresh bamboo shoots
hearvested in that morning there.

This is Shirako (Type of bamboo shoots).The taste is mild and soft.
The only good quality's one,you can put the rice directly without boiling.
You can taste very fresh flavor and texture of Takenoko.

Cooking rice, striped Bamboo shoots& deep fried tofu with Dashi.

Decorate with Kinome(sansho pepper leaf) in Ohitsu (traditional wooden rice box).


















This is another dish,Kinome-ae.

Cooked Takenoko with dashi marrinated with grated Kinome leaf,sweet miso,
sake and mirin.

This is small sardine Tempura.

 

Tofu salad with sesame dressing.This dressing is one of the popular dressing 

in my classes.

 

In spring time,we can get Shin-Jagaimo( potato)and Shin-Tamanegi(onion).

They have just hervested right now,so thet are very juicey and soft.

They are good for simmerd or deep-frying and salad.

I cooked potatoes with skin in Dashi flavored soysauce and sugar.

 You will enjoy the potatoes itself taste with this simple cooking.

This small onion is cooked  in consome soup for an hour.

I love it ,so tasty!!

This is Kiyamachi street near my house.

It is just best season for Sakura here in central Kyoto.

Why don't you take a walk in evening after cooking.

They have lights.It is beautiful atomosphere.

 

Hinamatsuri


March 3rd


Today is the day which is a traditional family celebration for the health of
young girls in which beautiful dolls are arranged in the house.
"Hina" means doll.
I display the dolls in my guest room from February
until March 3rd every year.

I decorate "momo no hana"( peach blossoms) for the Doll's festival
at the entrance.

Chirashi Sushi  is one kind of sushi.
I make this colofully decorated garnished sushi for the most special of
occasions.

Chirashi Sushi is a typical type of home style cooking.
Each house has own styles and ingredients(fresh fish,shrimps,eggs,etc).
I like to use traditional dried ingredients.

Chirashi Sushi  is full various textures and flavors.
Serve with a clear soup contaning hamaguri clam,
teppai(green onion and seafood seasoned with rice vinegar and
sweeten miso)and sake.

Spring is coming!

Setsubun


February 3rd


Setsubun is the festival of spring in Japan.
In our homes,the family join together and chant
"Oni wa soto"(Go out demons)" "Fuku wa uchi"(Come in good luck).
throwing soy beans.



Sometimes.the fathers or boys put the demons mask to pretend.
The rest of the members throw the beans to them.

We throw the beans from the each room window to outside.
After this ceremony we eat the beans as same amount as each age.





Also we eat the "Eho Maki",which is sushi roll including lucky.

These are the ingredients,
Koya-tofu(fried tofu),kampyo(dried guard shavings),hoshi-shiitake(dried shiitake),
Kamaboko(fish cake),Mistuba(japanese paserly),Tamagoyaki(omelet).

I roll up them with Nori(dried seaweed) and sushi rice.

Sometimes we bite hole piece without cutting tward to ths years derection
(this year is west-south-west).
I usually serve it with grilled sardine fish.


Recently I am not sure how many pieces I should eat the soy beans....