Japanese breakfast cooking class / 和食の朝食に挑戦

lynette, miiri and sarah, a photo by fumika yamamoto on Flickr.

Sarah asked me to teach her typical Japanese breakfast. I had 5 ladies (Sarah, Miiri, Amy, Laura and Lynette) who wanted to learn how to cook Japanese food!

セラさんに和食の朝食の作り方を教えて欲しいと頼まれました。今回の参加人数は5人でした。

I thought about making sake no shio yaki (salted salmon grilled fish), yudoufu (warm tofu), tamago yaki (sweetened egg), spinach gomaae, miso soup and some rice, but I realized that we do not have time to go to Mitsuwa to buy some fish and tofu. So our menu became nikujyaga (meat and potato), tamago yaki (sweetened egg), spinach gomaae, miso soup and some rice.

本当は鮭の塩焼きと湯豆腐と卵焼きとほうれん草の胡麻和えとみそ汁とご飯にしようかと思ったのですが、日本のスーパーは郊外にあって遠いので塩焼き用の鮭や美味しい日本の豆腐は買えないなぁと考え、鮭の塩焼きと湯豆腐をメニューから抜いて代わりにに肉じゃがをメニューに加えました。

Look at all kind of different sake in the center of the table!

テーブルの真ん中に置いてある色々な種類の酒を見て下さい！

Many Japanese people eat tamago yaki (sweetened egg) for breakfast. Almost everyone loves tamago yaki even in the U.S. because it is sweet like a dessert.

2 eggs
dashi 1/2 teaspoon
soy sauce 2/3 tablespoon
mirin 1 teaspoon
cooking sake 1 tablespoon
sugar 1/2 table spoon
water 1 table spoon

Whisk all the ingredient in a bowl. I like to use some butter instead of some oil when I cook tamago yaki. You make tamagoyaki just like you make your omelette except you keep adding layers and make tamago yaki shape with a bamboo mat after when it is done. Let it cool down for maybe 10 minutes and cut it.

卵焼きの作り方を教えていて面白いなぁと思ったのは卵とアメリカ人に言うと、みんなしてお寿司の事を言ってきた。卵焼きにはシャリもついてくのか？と聞かれたり。アメリカではやっぱり寿司が人気なんだなぁとあらためて感じた。

Sarah told me that she never had Japanese sweet potatoes. I wanted her and her friends to try some just like Bonnie. I decided to make some Japanese sweet potato miso soup this time as well.

water 2 cups
dashi 1 teaspoon
sweet potato 1 medium to big size
miso paste 3 tablespoon
some green onions

セラさんは日本のサツマイモを食べた事がないと言っていたので、お味噌汁はまたまたサツマイモのみそ汁にしました。

I was surprised to see how many people in Chicago knew the word, gomaae because it was not like that in Austin, Texas.

Clean spinach in cold water; cook it for 1 min in boiling water with salt. Drain hot water, cool it down with cold water and chop it up. Toast white sesame seeds in a pan until they smell good and grind them while they are still hot. Mix 1 teaspoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon sake, 2 teaspoon mirin and 2 teaspoon soy sauce in a bowl. After that put toasted sesame seeds a bowl with the mixture and mix them together. Combine this sesame seeds mixture like salad dress with spinach.

卵焼きの朝食と考えるとやっぱり緑の野菜が食べたいなぁと考え、ほうれん草の胡麻和えをまたまた作った。

NIKUJYAGA (meat and potato)!!!
Peel skin of 3 potatoes, cut them into 2 bites size and put them in cold water. Peel skin of 1 carrot and cut it into 1 bite size. Slice 1/2 yellow onion into thin slices. Cook a bag of shirataki noodle in boiling water for 3 minutes, rinse with cold water and chop it up. Slice 100 gram of beef into 1 bite size. Put some oil in a pan, then beef and stir until it changes the color. After that put onion, potatoes, carrot and stir and cook for a few minutes. Add 2 cups of dashi soup (water and dashi), 3 table spoon cooking sake, 2 table spoon sugar and cook for 3 minutes. Add 2 table spoon mirin, 4 tablespoon soy sauce and remove some foam on top of nikujyaga. Wrinkle an aluminum foil and use it as a lid. It is called otoshibuta in Japanese. It will remove extra foam for you. Cook it until you do not see much soup in Nikujyaga.

この肉じゃがはクシャクシャにしたアルミホイルの落としぶたがポイントです。

We had some extra sweet potatoes, so we made some sweet snack for us. We added some butter and sugar and smashed them like mashed potato and here they are!

サツマイモがあまっていたのでサツマイモの金時も作ってみた。お砂糖とバターをちょっと入れてつぶして、丸めて出来上がり〜

Miiri wanted to learn how to make some rice balls. I gave taught them how to make rice balls too.

ついでにおにぎりの作り方も教えました。

Sorry, this photo is not focused!

ありゃっ！写真がぶれてしまった•••