Tag Archive for:  dashi

Veggies & prawns Tempura class

My guest was a family from California, USA, who has selected Tempura as their main dish at our home-cooking class. Side dishes were spinach with sesame sauce, aubergine Miso sauce with kumquat peels on top, Miso soup of Enoki mushrooms and Mitsuba.
Lots of vegetables, lots of preparations! And yes, we made a beautiful lunch table in the end. Not only Mum and Dad but also teenagers were very hard working and good cooks as well.

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At the beginning of the class, I like to ask ALL my guets to try grating smoked Bonito. Of course, the familly had to experience it while they were at my Tokyo apartment kitchen.

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Dashi stock made with smoked bonito is an important element for Tempura dip sauce. Add a spoonful of grated Daikon radish and little bit of ginger in your sauce if you like.
Many thanks for coming!musubi-blog-4-Veggies-prawns-Tempura-class

Agedashi Tofu, Okonomiyaki pancake & more

This was a private class with 2 main dishes & more; Agedashi Tofu (deep-fried Tofu dipped in Dashi sauce), Tempura of prawns and mushrooms, and savory Okonomiyaki pancake with pork, cabbage, etc.
My guests are from Chicago, USA. A lovely couple of an architect and a doctor wishing to try some Japanese homemade dishes.  For some reason, I felt very close to the lady from the beginning, then we found out that we are both mothers of twin kids! meaning you have gone thru a lot and survived those sleepless days…

There was a lot of chopping and slicing and frying to do, but we made it beautifully!  Plenty of food and fun chatting over the lunch table.
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Ramen & Gyoza class for an Aussie couple & Swedish café owner

“Oishi-!”  do as Japanese do when photo-shooting in Japan!?

The main dish for this class was Pork Ramen, with pork broth & Japanese Dashi soup stock, with toppings of Miso flavored pork and meat sauce with Japanese seasonings.
For Gyoza, we chopped cabbage, garlic chives (Nira), leek etc. Add a little bit of grated garlic if you like.
Both are served sizzling hot and full of rich meaty flavors, so I recommended something cold and fresh as a side dish. I would like my guest to try something different while they are at Tokyo apartment kitchen so here it is, fresh cabbage torn into one bite size with hands, marinated with sesame oil, salt and pickled Kombu! If you like soy sauce & vinegar flavor, try this easy side!
My Swedish guest owns a cafe near Stockholm serving some menus inspired by Japanese taste such as Maccha, while my guests from wine country Adelaide were big fans of anime.
I hope they all find our home cooking dishes as good!
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Tempura, Sushi and Gyoza class WOW

This was probably one of the most challenging classes this year but we made it!
Thankfully we had 5 very skilled participants from BC Canada and Michigan US at this class.
The main dish choices are Tempura of prawns, Maitake mushroom (my favorite!), and vegetables, plus Sushi roll with Maguro(tuna), salmon, and greens. For side dishes, we prepared a small portion of Gyoza with pork and shrimp & spinach with our flavorful sesame sauce.

We started grating smoked bonito for Dashi soup stock, then prepared Sushi rice with seasonings, chopped veggies and wrapped Gyoza, and finally deep-fried Tempura and rolled Sushi!

And I was astonished that one of my guest ladies was going to be a speaker at a medical conference held in Tokyo that same evening! Indeed some people are super talented.
I have also learned one new thing in this class. My guest told me that avocado in Sushi rolls are first created by a Japanese chef in British Columbia, although we often call it ‘California’ style. I must visit ‘Tojo’s’ in Vancouver one day.
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Private Class for Vegetarian Dishes with Autumn harvests

The main dish was chosen as Vegetarian Ramen for a guest lady from Israel who has been vegetarian for many years. Side dishes include cold fresh cabbage with Konbu, Gyoza dumplings with lotus root, Kaki (persimmon) & greens dressed with creamy Tofu sauce, etc.
My guest was very interested in Japanese Dashi soup stock with dried Shiitake mushrooms & Kombu kelp. Both are essential products for Umami in our cuisine.
Kombu is very rich in glutamate or glutamic acid, which is contained in most vegetables but by far the most in dried Kombu. Another ingredient known for richness in glutamate is dried tomato.
Dried shiitake is known for its richness in guanylic acid or GMP, like many kinds of mushrooms around the world including dried porcini. This may be explaining why many Japanese people are deeply in love with Italian food!?

My guest lady was a medicinal food professional with vast knowledge about Chinese herbal medicine & diet, so it was very inspiring to share some time with her in the kitchen cooking and talking about various vegetables and foods!
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Gyoza party with happy American foodie girls!

The requested main dish was Gyoza dumplings. I suggested to my guests if they don’t mind putting shrimp as well as pork in the fillings, which they also liked very much and it turned out as a great success!

One of my guests lived in Japan when she was a little girl. She said her memory from those days wasn’t very clear, but she certainly remembered the taste of our traditional Dashi soup stock.
Her friend also tried Katsuobushi (Smoked Bonito) grating and both found it full of flavors, almost like bacon from the ocean!
We made Miso soup from the Dashi soup stock of Bonito, adding some thinly sliced pork, potato, lotus roots, and onion. With a small piece of left-over lotus root, we fried lotus chips, too. This is my favorite appetizer and is nice if you are welcoming vegetarian guests or almost anybody.

Several days after the class, I heard from one of my guest girls that she was doing a Gyoza party with her friends back in the US! What happy news!!!
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Honeymooners from Tel Aviv cooking Japanese comfort food

Today’s guests are happy sweet honeymooners from the IT capital, Tel Aviv, Israel. We cooked Ramen with pork soup stock.

I also adventured to use simmered Konbu kelp in cabbage salad, which is our family’s favorite quick dish. Here we use Konbu as herbs and it goes nicely with sesame oil. Please try if you have some leftover Konbu after making Dashi broth.

The couple told me some very interesting stories about their culture & life, my favorite part of doing cooking classes for travelers!
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko