The Flavor of Green Tea

I love Japanease tea very much.
We enjoy having different kind of tea in each season.

For example,May is a season of new tea leaves.
We can enjoy it for a few weeks of a year.

In summer time , cold barley tea(Mugi-cha) is very popular.
When I drink it,I feel "summer is comimg!".
In cold season, I often drink toasted(roasted) tea.
It has caffeine-free.

Sometimes I visit IPPODO tea shop at Teramachi-Nijo to buy tea leaves.
They have many kinds of green tea in Uji.And we can try some tea
which we are interested in there.

It is not only that the taste of tea depends on a quality of tea leaves ,
but also depends on the way to serve like a water temperature.
I try to serve tea carefully.


The green tea of the left side is Sen-cha,which is green tea of new leaves(Shin-cha).
We will enjoy it until around middle of June.
The another one is roasted tea.We call it Hoji-cha.




This dark green colored tea is cold &sweet macha tea.
When I was a child,I loved it very much and
it is one of the popular summer cold tea.

The light colored green tea is cold Gyokuro tea.
Gyokuro is a little bit thicker than Sen-cha.
The taste is very rich & mild.It is one of my favorite tea.

Golden week-japanese holidays in May


I had 5 days holidays between May 2nd and 6th.
In this week,many japanese people go traveling around or visit hometown.

I spent the time to go to BBQ,invited my friends, visited firend's house
and went shopping to IKEA in Kobe.

These are the pictures when I went BBQ in Shiga prefecture.


At Ootsuchi Dam in Koga area(south-east side of the Biwa Lake)

This area is a famous for Ninja.
And it is also famous for green tea field.

May is the season of new tea leaves.
Tea fields in Uji(south of Kyoto city) in May
become a patchwork of beautiful fresh green
as well as this area.




It was a beautiful day !!





Salmon with onion&mashrooms



In another day ～

Here are the pictures of dinner, when I invited my friends.


Carpaccio of a flat fish


Coleslaw with breast chicken and japanese shiso herb



Steamed pork with japanese style sauce



Rolled cabbage-minced chicken and tofu meat
simmerd with kombu soup flavored sansho pepper



I also made others like a clear soup,flavored rice,
japanese style spring roll etc...


Pickles of chinese cabbage

I like to cook the western-japanese foods such as these dishes sometimes.

It is fun to arrange the western dishes flavoring with Japanese

seasonings!!

Soybean's product


There are many traditional shop for "Yuba" and "Namafu" in kyoto.

Yuba is a delicacy made from the skin forming on the top of
gently-boiled soybean milk.

And Namafu is a food made of wheat gluten.

Both of them are tyipical traditinal products in kyoto.

Yuba has some style like fresh skin form and fresh melted skin form or dried.
Also there are fresh Namafu and dried Namafu for bread-like.


In this evening,I visited "Hanbefu"which is one of the traditional Namafu&Yuba
shop near Gojo-bridge.And I got these items.


fresh Yuba 　生平ゆば


fresh melted Yuba 　汲みあげゆば


fresh Namafu(millet&mugwort)　生麩（あわ・よもぎ）



I made six kinds of dishes using them.


Deep fried shrimp wrapped with Yuba


fresh Yuba gratin with miso&mayonnaise sauce


melted Yuba soup


deep fried Namafu with cheese


Namafu steak with sour soy sauce with grated radish


Yuba-Don Rice with fresh Yuba and thick starchy soup






Toyu Yuba とゆゆば　dried rolled yuba




Deep fried Toyu Yuba とゆゆばのから揚げ




Fresh rolled Yuba 生小巻ゆば



Deep fried fresh rolled Yuba

This is good much for simmering with soup.

Sukiyaki


Sukiyaki is one of special meal for Japanese.
We eat this meal in a special occasion or to celebrate something.
There are big differences in ways to prepare sukiyaki between
Kansai(Western)and Kanto(Eastern)styles.

In the Kansai-style,we heat beef lard in a pot first,and start adding
beef,onions as if to pan fry and season with brown sugar and soy sauce.
Then add other vegetables and fried tofu.

The ingredients requiring longer time to be cooked are placed first,
and when it starts simmering,add sake or kombu dashi to adjust the
seasoning.

On the other hand,theKanto-style is characterized by preparing
sweet and salty seasoning sauce,called warishita mixed of
soy sauce,mirin,sake,and sugar,to simmer meats and vegetables
together in a pot.

Usually we cook beef sukiyaki,but also chicken sukiyaki
is really nice.
I cook chicken with bamboo shoots(spring) or matsutake
mushroom(autumn) in season.

Last weekend, we invited our friends and prepared
a delicious "sukiyaki of bamboo shoots and chicken".
I boiled fresh bamboo shoots one day before.
We had a great time together.

Green Green Green


April 6

In this week,it is the best time to see Sakura(cherry blossom) in Kyoto.
We have a custom which is called "Hanami",it is a party
under the Sakura tree enjoying food and sake.


"Benkei VS Ushiwakamaru" at Gojo-Kiyamachi
(the end of Heian priod,10th century)
I meet them every moring on my way work.
They are so Lovely with Sakura!

I am going to a new French restrant which have a beautiful
Sakura tree with my friends to have a lunch in this weekend.
Also I am going a picnic in Arashiyama-area with lunch boxes.
It is one of my favorite Sakura place in Kyoto.

By the way,I have been teaching many dishes using Takenoko
(bamboo shoots)like a seasoned rice,simmerd with kinome
(young leaves of japanese pepper),clear soup,tempura...etc
in my cooking classes recentely.

Not only Takenoko,but also we have more other beautiful
spring vegetables.
You will see these green vegetable dishes in my spring kitchen.


Soramame no soup ( broad bean's soup)



Takenoko to Kinome no Shigure ni
(Simmerd bamboo shoots with young leaves of japanese pepper)



Asparagus no Goma-ae
(Green asparagus dressed with sesame sauce )



Yaki-Soramame(Grilled broad bean)


Simple cooking,beans inside are steamed.
Serve with salt.



Mame Gohan(Seasoned rice with Endo beans)




Today,I got a broccoli from my neighbor.
I made a broccoli's cake as a dessert after dinner.

Picnic

I went picnicking with my friends bringing a spring lunch box i made to the park near my house.
It was a beautiful day today, but it was a little cold.This is a typical japanese spring weather.

Before we had a lunch,my friends and I practiced Yoga.We brought yoga mattress ourselves.
Someone read the books and someone take a nap.
This park is a really good place to enjoy our hobbies and sports each person.

This is today's lunch box(we call it bento box).

• Rice ball seasoned with bamboo shoot
• Rape blossom simmered with japanese soup
• Asparagus rolled with sliced beef
• Japanese style rolled omelet
• Grilled mackerel marinated sweeten miso paste

These bamboo shoot,rape blossom,asparagus and fish are just in season.


It was a Lovely holiday !!



This is my another day's dinner. Really traditional menu.

Spring will come soon...


When snow begings to thaw and the warm sunshine strikes
the ground, leaves of trees get colored with green.
Wild plants such as butterbur sprouts and horsetails raise their heads
in fields and mountains.
And rape blossoms cover all over with its yellow color.

Recently,I enjoy cooking using spring ingredients for my dinner
and decorating with spring flowers in my house.


This is Tarano-me.Popular spring sprout of Tara tree.



Tarano-me is called "King of Tempura".This tempura has
a fantastic fravor!!



Spaghetti with rape blossom & firefly squid.Both are popular spring
ingredients.



You will see this MOMO no hana(peach blossom) at the entrance of my house.
I am looking forward to UME(japanese plum blossom) ,SAKURA(cherry tree)
and my favorite flower Sweet pea.

Hina matsuri-Girls festival

March 3

Hinamatsuri is a festival celebrated by family with girls,
wishing their daughters a good health and growth by decorating
beautiful dolls made solely for this occasion.
On this day,We prepare special dishes like colorfully decorated garnished sushi,
red rice,clam clear soup and shirozake(white sweet sake made of sake and rice malt).

These dolls were given to me from my grand mothers when i was born.
I decorate them in this season every year with sushi and sweet.

Today I made these 3 kinds of dishes using spring ingredients
for this occasion.

I can feel spring will come very soon !



Chirashi-sushi
Decorated sushi rice with traditional ingredients






　 Wakegi to Akagai no Teppai
Red shell and japanese green onion dressed with white miso dressing




Hamaguri no sumashijiru
Clam clear soup

Setsubun

Setsubun is held on February 3 and 4, a custom to banish evils
and calamities from households.

I prepare special sushi roll and grilled sardine for my family every year.




After the dinner, we do mame-maki(a rite of throwing beans is to let devils out
and welcome happiness).And then we eat the same number of beans with the age.

Introduction about Mariko's Kitchen

I will teach you how to make Japanese home cooking with simple technique.

You will see some Kyoto's vegetable in season and local traditional ingredient at my kitchen.
I hope that my place become one of the memorial dinner place for your Japan trip.

Here are some popular ingredient & japanese kitchen tool.

←Kombu(sea weed)＆Katsuo bushi(dried bonitofish flakes)
We use them to make dashi(japanese soup stock)

←Handai & Makisu （using to make sushi rice and roll it)

←Oroshigane&Suribachi.Surikogi
(using for grating daikon,ginger/grinding sesame seed,etc...we use them a lot!)

←Yukihira nabe
These pots can be used for a wide range of Japanese dishes.


←Japanese rectangular omelet pan.
This can be used for sushi-omelet as well.