We held a Cooking Party at Sumaya!! 4 people joined our event from Spain, Russian and Japan. We cooked Miso soup, Chirashi sushi, Okonomi yaki and Yakisoba together. We had some troubles, but it was very excited, and we hope that everyone had a great experience through our event.
We would like travelers to enjoy Japanese local experience. We guess it is very difficult for travelers to get oppotunities to learn Japanese home-cooking in a restaurant. And we also want travelers to enjoy Japanese real culture through cooking with local people because they usually cannot touch it from a guidebook.
At first, we explained what Umami and Dashi are. Glutamic acid of kelp(Konbu), inocnic acid of dried bonito(Katsuobushi) and guanylic acid of dried shitake mashroom are called the three major ingredients of Umami. These ingredients are not so delicious to use alone, but combination of each ingredient creates a synergy effect, and the taste will change much better.
Dashi is a soup stock which is used in Japanese-cuisine. For example, dashi, which is made from Kombu and Katsuobushi, is very famous and used in various Japanese menus such as miso soup and Udon noodles. And then, we tried to take Dashi.
And then, we cooked Miso soup using Dashi. Miso soup is a Japanese comfort food, so we eat everyday. We cannnot imagine our life without miso soup. The set of miso soup, white rice and grilled fish is the Japanese classic morning set. The recipe is very simple.
After that, we made Chirashi sushi together. Chirashi sushi is a kind of sushi in a box or bowl with fish, vegetables, egg, and various other ingredients on top. This sushi is often eaten in a celebration day at home. This recipe is also very simple, but be careful not to break a fried egg because it is too thin.
And then, we made Okonomi yaki. Okonomi yaki is also one of the Japanese party menus. Sometimes this food is called Japanese pizza, or Japanese pancake. Okonomi means “what you like”, so you can enjoy the toppings(cheese, ham, and so on) when you make okonomi yaki. There are many types of okonomi yaki in Japan, and Kansai-style and Hiroshima-style are the most famous types.
Finally, we cooked Yakisoba. This is a fried soba, and it is very popular in Japan. You can watch the people who enjoy watching baseball game with yakisoba and beer in a baseball stadium. In general, Chinese noodle is used when you make yakisoba, but you can also use Udon (Yakiudon).
Last event was very excited, and we would like to continue a cooking event for foriegn travelers to tell them about the attraction of Japanese food. Thank you very much!!
These are the recipes which we cooked together
※Steps written in red are the parts which we taught in our lesson Dashi
Dashi (160cc)
▼Materials
- water 200cc
- ¼ of kelp(10cm✕10cm)
- dried bonito 2.5g
▼How to make
- Put kelp in the water for 20~30 minutes
- Heat, and take it before boiling
- Add dried bonito, and turn off the heat when it boils
- Finish!!
Miso soup (9cups)
▼Materials
- 160cc per person
- Tofu 1 block
- dried seaweed 5g
- miso 16g per person
▼How to make
- Dice tofu, and put dried seaweed back in water
- Put tofu and seaweed into a pot, and boil with Dashi on mediam heat
- Turn down the heat before boiling, and melt miso little by little (you should use a ladle to prevent miso from getting hard)
- Finish!!
Chirashi sushi (serves:4-5)
▼Materials
- 4 go(about 600g) of rice grain
- vinegar 100cc
- sugar 20g
- salt 15g
- Sashimi about 200g of each sashimi (tuna and sarmon)
- Wasabi
- soy source
- shiso (beefstake plant) 10 peices
- egg 3
- snow pia about 20
▼How to make
- Boil rice
- Put vinegar, sugar and salt in a bowl, and then heat them up untill dissolved in a microwave
- Put rice in a bowl, and add 2. and shiso, and mix it.
- Beat eggs, and strain it through a sieve
- Pour it into a greased pan, and cook thinly Fold it, and cut thinly
- Boil snow pias in salting water, and cool it in water
- Put egg, snow pias and sashimi in a dish (you should be careful the contrast of colors)
- Finish!!
Okonomi yaki (serves:4)
▼Materials
- Dashi 200cc
- weak flour 160g
- yam 60g
- cabbage 400g
- pork back libs 60g
- Shrimp 100g
- egg 4
▼How to cook
- Put Dashi, weak flour and yam in a bowl, and mix them
- Add eggs and cabbage, and mix again
- Add shrimps, and mix again (only shrimp-okonomiyaki)
- Fry pork libs (only pork-okonomi yaki)
- Pour them in a pan, and expand until the smaller size of pan, and keep it 2cm thick
- Put a lid on the pan, and scollop it for 3 minutes
- Put 4. on the dough (only pork-okonomi yaki)
- Flip the dough, and scollop for 4 minutes
- Flip the dough, and scollop for 3 minutes again
- Put sauce and mayonnaise
- Finish
Yakisoba (serves:4)
▼Materials
- cabbage 400g
- pork back libs 160g
- noodle 4bags
- bean sprout 2bags
- yakisoba sause 200g
▼How to cook
- Fry pork libs for about 1 minute
- Put cabbage and noodles in order on the pork, and steam 2 minutes and a half
- Put noodles and fry it for some minutes over medium heat
- Add sause and keep frying for 20 seconds
- Finally, serve them on a dish, and dust them with green laver
- Finish!!