Cooking class: Early summer entertaining with crisp greens and whites (and the scents of new season's green tea and the sea)

"Scented breeze across hills of spring verdure": see the little napkin and menu "hills"?

I had been lurking at the inspiring food and table blog Lovely place for some time, admiring the table coordination lesson pics, when it struck me that I could probably track this class down and attend myself. And with a bit of sleuthing, I did!

ATELIER Let's Have a Party! is run by a one-woman dynamo whose unassuming air belies a kick-ass knowledge of all aspects of entertaining, from flower arrangement, to table decorating, to meal planning. She makes her own table cloths, napkins, decor items and, having previously been a pottery teacher, even some of the tableware! She also has a deep knowledge of the sophisticated world of traditional Japanese colours. It is like a whole new language that I hadn't come across before as a Japanese-English translator. Actually, even the themes for her lessons are beautifully poetic and I'm having real trouble translating them into similarly poetic English. Long story short, I really like Oba-sensei's style!

Place setting

This is was my second lesson, after being thoroughly impressed at April's cherry blossom-themed class. This time, the theme was, pardon my translation, "Scented breeze across hills of spring verdure: Entertaining on the 88th day of spring." Inspiration came from the tiered rice paddies traditionally planted and new green tea traditionally harvested around that date (May 2 this year), which is marked on the traditional Japanese calendar as a time when the seasons change. It certainly felt like early summer the day my friend and I took the lesson!

After a short introduction to the day's theme, explanation of the specialist terms and concepts (not only for my benefit ; )), and rough overview of the cooking portion of the class; we got to work. First the flower arranging, then setting the table, then the cooking, and finally, the eating : )

Nori-dusted pork parcels with green tea salt

On the menu: 
Spring veggies in a kombu-cha dressing
Ginger-sesame salmon rolls
Green tea soba salad with tomato-wasabi dipping sauce
Nori-dusted pork parcels
Served with: Chilled green tea and an unsweetened matcha liqueur

All were delicious, but I got particularly excited by the salmon rolls and that tomato-wasabi dipping sauce. Those big, punchy flavours are right up my alley!

Sensei buys in dessert. This time it was (from left to right) matcha waffle, matcha and nut yokan (hard jelly), and nori-scented rice puffs. A lovely blend of sweet and savoury flavours that echoed the tea-and-sea aromas of the rest of the meal.

Sweet and savory dessert in green tea and nori flavours

Greens, in this case "matcha" green and "new-leaf" green, are really popular in Japan at this time of the year, when all around the world springs back to life, before getting truly, wildly green during the rainy season. Such a shame that sensei got her gorgeous green chargers and plates in the US, so I can't get some myself... Not to worry, I did my own (much less elegant) green table, with the flower arrangement we made in this class and what I have at home, inspired by the hydrangeas that are budding all around : )

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!