Japanese Cooking Lesson (Hirakata Civic Hall)

Today cooking........

Today is my Japanese Cooking Lesson in Hirakata Civic Hall organized by the Hirakata Foundation for Culture and International Exchange. The lesson is only for foreign people, so I meet people from China, Indonesia, England, America and finally an old woman from Brazil. It can be call as an International cooking Class.

So, today we are going to cook a few dishes as below. The theme for today is Bento (lunch box). This is the culture of Japan where people prepare & bring bento to school and work. The menu is nice :

1.Spinach Salad with Tofu and White Miso Dressing

2.Tempura (Fried of mixed vegetable)

3.Rolled Omelette

4.Wiener Sausage (In octopus shape)

5.Salt-Grilled Salmon

6.Onigiri (Rice ball) The most difficult dishes is Spinach Salad and Tempura.

However, at last we make it out quite successfully. My team has a Japanese sensei and 4 student. (1 Malaysian, 2 American, 1 England). We have a lot of great time and funny stuff together during the 4 hour cooking and eating period.

Here are the secret recipe for the Spinach Salad and Tempura:

A. Spinach Salad

Ingredient: Tofu 200g, parched sesame 3 tsp, white miso 40g, mirin 2tsp, sugar 2tsp, carrot 30g, salt 1/3tsp, konyaku 1/3piece.

1. Boil and cut spanish into 1cm length.

2. cut konyaku into 1cm length and frt it for 3min.

3. cut the carrot into 1cm length.

4. break tofu into pieces, boil them and let it cold.

5. mix the tofu with sasame paste, some sugar and little oil.

6. stir the mixture and mix it with konyaku, spanish and carrot.

7. Lastly stir the mixture untill they are mixed and smooth.

B. Tempura (Vege)

Ingredient: wheat flour 200ml, 1 egg, cold water 1 cup, potato 100g, carrot 50g, onion 50g, burdock 50g, trefoil leaves 30g, salt 2tsp.

1. cut the potato, carrot, onion, burdock and trefoil leaves into strips 4 or 5cm.

2. the burdock shall be put it water for 10 min to make is soft.

3. mixed 1 egg and small cup of water.

4. stir the mixture gently and add in 1/2tsp sugar and 1/2tsp salt.

5. stir the mixture and mix it with all the vegetables

6. stir the mixture till they mixed and smooth.

7. scope the mixture in a 6x6cm size and fry it in 200 degree celcius hot oil.

8. take the tissue to absorb the oil of the tempura after it is fried.

Here are the recipes of the traditional Japanese cuisine, hope u will like it.......