Tag Archive for:  salad

Gyoza & Edamame class

The main dish choice by my guest couple from Melbourne, Australia was Gyoza, pork, and veggies Potstickers Japanese style! Side dishes include aubergine with sweet Miso sauce, fresh cabbage salad with pickled Kombu slices, and Miso soup. It was a hot day in early summer so we boiled some Edamame beans as well. Fresh Edamame is available only in the summer months here.
It turned out that both of my guests were already quite familiar with our food, as they have been hosting many Japanese students in Australia. I was surprised to hear that they even have a bottle of Mirin stocked at home for occasional use cooking Japanese dishes!
In this cooking class, we used Mirin to make sweet Miso sauce. The main ingredient for Mirin is Mochi Rice (a very sticky type of rice, rich in glucose) while Miso is mainly made with soybeans. If you use white Miso, this sweet sauce tastes almost like salty caramel but is 100% veggie-made!
I have a lot of great memories of Victoria and Melbourne. It was such a nice time for me to hear all sorts of things about Australia that I almost felt like I were back in Aussie land.
I was so busy chatting that I did not take many photos but it was a wonderful few hours.
Many thanks for coming!

 musubi_blog3 Gyoza & Edamame class.

Seafood Sushi class

This was a private class for an elegant arty couple from NY, USA and their main dish choice was Sushi roll with seafood, plus egg roll & seaweed salad as sides. Such a nice combination of choices for a hot summer night in Tokyo!

In Japanese cooking, we use a variety of seaweed including black Nori, wrapping sushi rolls, or Wakame, often used in Miso soup. For this salad, I bought a pack of mixed seaweed including red Aka-Tosaka, etc. In general, fresh seaweeds are only seasonal but salted or dried ones are available all year round. All you need to do is rinse them in cold water before use.
These sea veggies from the ocean are full of precious minerals and good fiber. No strong smell, easy to handle, and easy to stock at home.  Musubi Seafood Sushi class1
My guest lady preferred to use as little salt as possible (in fact, soy sauce and Miso are both quite salty!) so we adjusted some parts of our recipes. This is the beauty of cooking your dinner!

Musubi Seafood Sushi class4 Musubi Seafood Sushi class2

It was their first time to see a whole piece of smoked Bonito and even grate it with your own hands! Cheers!!
They made a few beautiful Sushi rolls and loved our Maguro and salmon, and of course freshly grated Wasabi. Fresh Wasabi is not always available at my nearby supermarket (sometimes too dry to grate..) but we were lucky that day I found a nice piece before the class. But if not, Wasabi in tubes are not bad at all and they are more commonly used in our daily life.

Musubi Seafood Sushi class3The nice tangy fragrance of fresh Wasabi does not keep long in the fridge. If you have some leftovers, wrap them in saran wrap and freeze until your next Sushi or Sashimi occasion.
Many thanks for coming!

Seafood Nanban class

Blog Ramen & Gyoza class

My favorite menu, seafood Nanban style for the main dish!

Blog Ramen & Gyoza class

Since my guest family from England, the UK & a couple from Germany were all willing to try some seafood dish cooking experience, I have prepared a mix of ingredients including prawns, salmon, swordfish, and a side dish using salt-and-chili flavored cod roes (Mentaiko).

If you wouldn’t fancy ‘fish eggs’ on your holiday, imagine something like ‘pink caviar’ 、that is our Mentaiko(except being a lot saltier and spicy).  For Japanese cooking, it plays a role like an anchovy, I think. In this class, we made a salad of lightly boiled lotus root & Mentaiko.

Blog Ramen & Gyoza class

My guests were ready for some new culinary adventure & I was very happy to see they all liked what we cooked together. Such a delight to see all plates empty after the class!

Blog Ramen & Gyoza class

I must add one more thing my guest liked, Mugi-cha, or toasted barley tea. It is something everybody drinks here during summer as it has no caffeine contained. There are a variety of barley tea bags available at supermarkets so easy to make as well!

Blog Ramen & Gyoza class

Many thanks for coming!

Blog Ramen & Gyoza class

Akiko

Gyoza and Tempura/ 2 main dishes

Today’s guests are a happy group from San Diego and it was so much fun!

The menu is 2 main dishes: Gyoza and Tempura
and 2 side dishes: Japanese sesame spinach salad/cucumber salad
tofu and Okura miso-soup
always so much fun to make Gyoza with family and friends! Let’s do Gyoza Party!!

And also preparation of Shrimp for Tempura.

Itadakimasu!
so much fun class was.
Thank you!

Gyoza & healthy veggie sides for American girls

Today’s main dish was Gyoza dumplings with pork, Chinese cabbage, garlic, green leek & more! Side dishes were eggplant with sweet & savory Miso sauce, fresh cabbage salad with pickled Kombu, etc.

Welcome to my Tokyo kitchen!  It was such a fun class with beautiful American young ladies.  Good friends from high school days, good teamwork naturally!

Can you believe we have made all these Gyoza with hands, the filling was made from scratch?  It is very simple and easy. Gyoza is fun to make with friends, and eat with friends.
Many thanks for coming!!
Akiko

Tempura and Pork Ginger class!

Today was the Private class.
The 2 main dishes are Tempura and Pork Ginger.

The point of Tempura preparation is remove water from and keeping ingredients cool.
Deep frying time! We put the ingredients a little by each in to the oil then we can keep oil temperatures.
We also made Pork Ginger, Japanese sesame spinach salad and Green pepper stir fry with young fish.

It was really fun class! Thank you for coming.

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