Cooking class: Everything coming up cherry blossoms

When checking out the offerings of Japanese cookbooks after the New Year holiday, I came across one with a recipe for yuzu-flavoured scallop date-maki which, as a big fan of yuzu and scallops, really got my heart racing. A how-to of plating techniques that just happened to have recipes, the book was right up my alley, and came home with me the very same day. Written by the daughter half of a mother-daughter cooking school and table coordination combi, it pointed me in the direction of their lovely blogs (mother and daughter), the photos on which had my tummy rumbling on many a long homeward commute since I can tell you!



I was particularly struck by the mouthwatering blog photos of the sakura-themed cooking class, and reading that there were a small number of places still available, arranged to go on the last session offered, which happened to be the day before I was having guests.



Welcome drink: Sakura-yu cherry blossom "tea"

 It was rather a hike out to Nakamura-sensei's home in the picturesque woods of Chiba, a good two hours from Yokohama. The long journey was soon forgotten, however, when I met sensei. A more charming, knowledgeable and kind teacher you could not hope to have. The earliest arrivals sipped sakura-yu, a fragrant "tea" of preserved cherry blossoms, while we waited for the last two students to turn up. All assembled and aproned up, the five of us put together the the amazing spread above over the next 3 hours, but it never felt rushed or like hard work. 

On the day's menu:



A meal of spring delights

In the bowl:

Eel and prawn-filled lotus root balls in thickened yuzukosho (yuzu and green chilli) dashi soup

In the cocktail glass:
Firefly squid jelly topped with onsen tamago (eggs with cooked yolks and loose whites) and dashi gelee

On the dinner plate from top left:

Yuzukosho sauce for dipping the bamboo shoot coquettes

Bite-sized steaks with wild spring vegetables and sesame dressing

Kombu-jime sushi wrapped in sakura leaf

Bamboo shoot coquettes with yuzukosho sauce

On the side plate:

Yuba rolls with chicken fillet, rape blossoms and wasabina leaf mustard, again with dashi gelee

Sakura pound cake


There was a great deal to learn, both in the cooking and the plating and table decoration fronts. Sensei gave me special instructions on 3-hour dashi and how to make gari sushi shop-style pickled ginger, as well as explaining the method of preserving sashimi by sandwiching it between sheets of vinegared kombu kelp. I also learned a delicious way to prepare seasonal Japanese veggies udo (aralia cordata), kogomi (ostrich fern) and tara no me (buds of the angelica tree) that I had long passed over in the veggie shop for lack of knowing how to prepare them. I particularly liked the crunchy udo. Must have a look for some more recipes for that : )



Main dish set to the correct orientation



On the plating front, we learned the correct way to serve a main dish (wrongly oriented in the photo above), how the tiniest sprinkling of matcha can transform a white plate, and how to make decorative "cherry blossom petals" from the odd end of a daikon!

I also got the recipe for perhaps the loveliest cake you can ever bake in under an hour! The secret to making a pound cake lovely and moist, I learned, is to cover it with wrap while it cools. For a non-baker like me, that was a total revelation!



A feast of sakura: Sakura leaves, sakura bean paste and blossoms baked to perfection

Sitting down to eat at the gorgeous table, I found I had few words as I took each mouthful of truly amazing flavours and textures, savouring every moment.



If not for the distance, I would love to become a regular at Y's Kitchen. As it is, I think I may have to take a day or two off work this year to go on a weekday.



 And that sakura pound cake? Truly as amazing as I thought it would be, it appeared on my Persian New Year spread the very next day!

Cherry blossom dainties II: Kansai-style sakuramochi

Kansai-style sakuramochi

The arrival of spring is awaited in Japan with much longing from the very first day of the New Year, which tradition, if not the weather, claims as the "first of spring".

Closer to the true arrival of warmer days, the Bureau of Meteorology starts to chart the (forecast) arrival of the much beloved cherry blossoms (sakura) on a 7-stage scale, from budding, to first blossoms, to full-bloom, to blossoms-and-leaves on a "sakura front". As of late February, the front was predicting full-bloom in Tokyo/Yokohama on March 25, rather earlier than usual. However, a burst of very warm weather in mid March had the Bureau calling "full-bloom" on March 23, the second-earliest such call on record! Luckily, the weather turned cool again immediately after, and we had a long two weeks to enjoy the fleeting pleasures (and cherry blossom viewing parties under the boughs) of the sakura season.

Sakuramochi are the Japanese sweet of the cherry blossom viewing season. There are two basic types:  (1) Kanto-style (Tokyo and surrounding areas) sakuramochi, which consist of a ball of koshi-an (smooth adzuki bean paste) wrapped in a pink-tinted pancake made from rice flower, topped with a preserved cherry blossom (like the ones I made last year), and (2) these Kansai-style (Osaka and surrounding areas) sakuramochi, in which the balls of an are covered with pink-tinged glutinous rice and wrapped in an edible preserved sakura (cherry tree) leaf. Both are delicious, but the Kansai style might be a little bit trickier to make (if my maiden effort is anything to go by). But only in as far as the sticky rice layer is, well, sticky ; )

It's hard to describe the scent of sakura leaves; it is something like the the scent of flowers and incense remembered in a dream. They have a lovely floral flavour, too, heightened by the slight saltiness that remains even after soaking them to remove the salt they are preserved in. I bought a pack of 45 from Tomizawaya, where you can also get the an powder (or prepared an) and domyoji-ko (dried pre-steamed sticky rice) rice needed to make these lovelies. The good news is that any leftover leaves can be frozen for later use.

Since I don't make sweets much, never mind Japanese sweets, I chose the powdered an last year. There was plenty left over for making these this year, and a sakura pound cake I made last weekend. This, along with a longer use-by date (don't you hate being under pressure to "use up" special ingredients?...), makes the powder the right choice for me. It does add the extra step of reconstituting the an. That only takes a couple of minutes, though, so no biggie.

This recipe is from a leaflet I picked up at Tomizawaya. It is for 15 sakuramochi, and that's what I made, but it's such a tricky number. I'd advise making 16 instead. They will be plenty big enough.

Since the much-loved whitish variety of sakura had finished blooming by the time I made these, I made the rice layer a darker pink, similar to the later-blooming varieties. Typically, Kansai-style sakuramochi are a more subtle pink. The choice is yours.

Kansai-style sakuramochi

Makes 15-16

For the an

72 g Tomoe koshi-an powder
216 ml water
160 g white sugar
or 300 g prepared koshi-an

150 g domyoji-ko
70 g white sugar
280 ml water
pinch natural red food coloring
15 preserved sakura (cherry tree) leaves

1 Soak sakura leaves in water for 30 min to remove the salt. Dry well with kitchen paper.

2 To make the an if using the powder, bring the water and koshi-an powder to the boil, reduce the heat to medium, add sugar and stir until thickened, taking care not to allow the an to burn. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

3 Mix the sugar and water in a small pot and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat. Add red food colouring a little at a time to achieve the desired colour.

4 Add the domyoji-ko and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, over a medium heat for 7-8 min. Remove from the heat. Make a cartouche (covering) from kitchen wrap and place on the surface of the domyoji-ko mixture and leave to steam for 40 minutes.

5 Divide the an into 15 or 16 equal-sized pieces and roll into balls.  Divide the steamed daimyoji-ko mixture into 15 or 16 equal-sized portions. With slightly wettened hands, cover each an ball with a piece of the daimyoji-ko mixture and wrap in a sakura leaf, with the vein side on the outside.

Meshi-agare!

More negishio: Chicken & sugar snap peas with Japanese leek and salt dressing

Chicken & sugar snap peas with Japanese leek and salt dressing

My earlier post on negishio has been the most popular here at Miso and Yuzu since I posted it. There was even a spike of interest in it a couple of weeks ago after a debate about scallions broke out on eGullet!

In this take, the chicken is stir-fried with the peas and the dressing stirred in right at the end. You don't get crispy chicken skin, but it is a deliciously moreish mouthful anyway.

We had this with a tuna and pea rice dish, and it was a wonderful spring meal to coincide with the earlier-than-usual arrival of the cherry blossoms!

Chicken & sugar snap peas with Japanese leek and salt dressing

Serves 4

For the dressing
4 tbsp finely chopped Japanese leeks (negi)
2/3 tsp salt
4 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

2 boneless chicken thighs
4 tsp katakuriko potato starch
200 g sugar snap peas, topped and tailed
2 tbsp vegetable oil, separated

1 Mix the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. Slice the sugar snap peas in half on the diagonal.

2 Cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks and place in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt, katakuriko and 1 tbsp of the oil, tossing to mix after each addition.

3 Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the sugar snap peas and stir-fry for about 1 min. Add the chicken and continue stir-frying, breaking up the meat as you go.

4 Once the meat changes colour but is not quite cooked through, add the dressing and turn up the heat. Stir-fry for 1-2 min longer until cooked through. Transfer to a serving dish.

Enjoy!

Recipe source: Orange Page April 17, 2010 edition (no longer available for sale)