Tag Archive for:  sauce

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.

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.

musubi-blog-4-Veggies-prawns-Tempura-class

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.

musubi-blog-4-Veggies-prawns-Tempura-class

 

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

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!

Curry & rice class

musubi Curry-rice-class1

Onoin, garlic, ginger, carrot & whole spices, some of the ingredients for Curry roux.

Ramen and Curry have a lot of things in common. Both are not traditional Japanese cuisine and originated from overseas, China and India respectively. Both introduced to our country fairly recently but now the most popular menu among Japanese people of all generations!
Somehow, Ramen has grown so well-known as someting typically Japanese & we receive many requests from visitors at our cooking class, yet not so much for Curry so far.

musubi Curry-rice-class1

So I knew my guest lady from Calgary, Canada, was very familiar with our local food culture and maybe lived in our country when she mentioned ” Curry & rice, with pork Katsu (cutlet or côtelette)”!
Japanese style Curry can be easy if you use a box of ready-made paste or roux. Or you can cook from scratch if you like to create your own roux with your choice of spices.
If you have time, keep stirring chopped onion over low-middle heat until golden brown, which is going to be the base for your Curry sauce. This process is similar to making French onion soup. Just be VERY careful not to burn your onion!

musubi Curry-rice-class3
2 big onion chopped here. It should turn to the color and amount below.

musubi Curry-rice-class4

My guest lady turned out to be a Japanese sweets chef and a cafe owner in Canada. In fact she was visiting Japan at this occasion to deepen her expertise as patisserie. Her boyfriend loved our home made Curry very much that he went for a full second serve, which made me super happy of course!
Many thanks for coming!

Chicken karaage class for a foodie couple

Our all-time favorite, Chicken Karaage is a main dish today!
Served with “black” rice, Miso soup with potato, Mitsba herb, etc. & vegetable side dishes with sweet and savory sauces.

My guest was a couple from the US. Both of them are great cooks & the husband turned out to be a specialist in pickled vegetables. Of course, I ask him a favor to send me a recipe, which I did receive and am enjoying now, THANK YOU!!!   One of my daughters is a big vegetable eater and she LOVEs pickled food.

Here is the table of our lunch with Karaage, aubergine, etc. Good food, good fun talk with good company.  Always been my favorite moment.
I hope my guests also liked their experience at the Tokyo apartment kitchen.
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Seafood Sushi class for US MBAs

Fresh seafood & vegetables +  short grain rice +rice vinegar, salt & sugar
= SUSHI!
I make them for my kid’s gatherings. Today it was a request from my guest MBA students from Pennsylvania USA.

Pounding sesame seeds here for one of our popular dishes, spinach with sesame sauce. Tossed sesame smells really great, with its rich aroma filling the whole kitchen and made us all so hungry!

Voila! The sushi roll plate is completed!
I hope this will be one of the happy moments in Tokyo for young students to remember…
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

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

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

Sushi-making & Sake-tasting for Nike

In early December we welcomed a group of 20+ people from Nike!

This was the 2nd time organized a gathering for this global company in Tokyo. We were very happy to hear that participants liked their team-building lunch back in August, so they decided to contact us again for an evening function.

We planned a Sushi roll & Temari Sushi cooking class. All ingredients for fillings and toppings were prepared in advance, but the guests had to make their Sushi seasoning and mix it with steamed rice, then start rolling & shaping their Sushi for dinner.

Although this cooking class was held after a long day at their global meeting, everybody did great work and everything went so smoothly that all results were beautiful and delicious!

After enjoying our tasty Sushi and other food including chicken Karrage, spinach with sesame sauce, fresh colorful veggies with Miso-Mayo dip, pork slices, sweet egg rolls, etc., it was time for the Sake tasting quiz! There are lots of types and brands of Sake in Japan. It was hard for us to choose just a few kinds, but we hope it turned out a good opportunity for our guests to try something different.

We would be very happy if we could be of a little help to discover some new charms of Japanese gastronomy!

Yuki & 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