Japanese cooking class

My friend Alice who is now working in Japan used to teach Japanese cooking at a Japanese Language center down town. When she was seconded to Japan, she asked if I could help to take over the 'sinseh' (teacher) role. I was reluctant at first because of my weekend commitments but relented for the sake of helping a friend.

The Language center, JLSM offer several levels of Japanese language proficiency courses, Akido, Chirimen, Odori, Origami and other festival activities and fun.

Last Sunday, I taught Cha Soba and Gyoza. I was told that the JLSM committee members were holding their meeting at noon and was asked to help to cook extra for their lunch. Honestly, it is quite a task to make 'extra' gyoza in the short period we had but somehow all things went well and not only did the lesson finish, we managed to cook enough for lunch for another 10 people as well!

Below is the "Cold Cha Soba"


You can see the condiments laid in front of the metal tray of Cha Soba
(L-R) Sesame seeds, Spring onions, Quail eggs and a tube of Wasabi.



There were two pots of "Cold dipping sauce"



A pot of boiled Gyoza (the fried ones had long gone into the student's stomachs and take away boxes)


A pot of Miso soup.

More cooking lessons by and for #3

When I got home one night, #3 told me that she and #2 "made an ice-cream cake" for #1's birthday! I was surprised and asked how they did it. Apparently she stumbled on an old 'cooking activity book' for children and there were simple pictorial descriptions of how to make an ice-cream cake.

They used a round loose bottom pan and lined it with plastic cling wrap. They crushed some digestive biscuits and scattered onto the base of the pan. They then scooped Vanilla ice-cream into the sides of the pan and then filled in with Strawberry and Chocolate ice-cream.

The original recipe called for nuts but knowing that their eldest sister didn't like nuts, they avoided it and used Digestives instead. I thought that they were very discerning and considerate!

After that, they returned the fully filled pan into the freezer. The next day, #2 drizzled Hershey's chocolate syrup on top and served the ice-cream as a dessert. #1 was amazed and touched! This 'cake' was one of the many which came along the way in celebrating the end of #1's teenage journey and the beginning of a new horizon as a growing young adult.

Happy Birthday sweetheart!



***************************************************************************


Lemon Curd is a hot favorite in our home. I saw lemons going for dirt cheap at the wet market and instantly bought some with the intention of making lemon curd.

Recipe/Method:

Grate the zest finely and squeeze 6-8 large lemons equivalent to 300ml of lemon juice


Cut 225 g of unsalted butter into small cubes. Add together with 575 g caster sugar and the 300 ml of squeezed lemon juice and zest.

I created a Bain-Marie from a casserole over another pot of simmering hot water and slowly dissolved the combination of butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice


Lightly beat 5 large eggs and sieve into the above combination. Stir continuously for 25 minutes over a pot of simmering hot water until it gets 'thick' and able to coat the back of a wooden spoon. #3 was patiently doing that and once again enjoyed this supervised 'cooking lesson'.



This recipe filled the various sized bottles below.


The taste and texture was awesome as previous times. "Smooth, sweet, sour and just addictive!"

2nd Cooking lesson for #3

Today, up to Thursday this week, #3 is on holiday due to the UPSR examinations for Standard 6 students. To keep her occupied and satiated in her personal culinary quest, this morning we had our 2nd cooking lesson.

Meanwhile, #2 has ongoing SPM trials until the first weekend of September.

#3 fried her first pancakes (under adult supervision) this morning. It was a gleeful hour of dressing up with an apron for the role and then gathering the ingredients to whisk the load of wet and dry ingredients together to form the batter of this very flexible breakfast favorite.

We had these lovely pancakes with butter and maple syrup. *smacks lips*



This was #2's lunch when she got back from school. #3 fried the pancakes while I, pan fried the Sole fillet. I tossed some rolo rosa, julienne carrots, tomatoes, corn and sesame seed dressing together for the salad.


Notice the irregular color on the pancakes? The pan wasn't hot enough. The pan fried Sole fillet was topped with a gravy so that the dish would not be 'dry'.


When #1 came back from University after 2.00p.m., this was served to her. This time the pan was HOT and see how lovely the pancakes turned out!


Pancakes - delicious for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Who said pancakes were for breakfast only? They are a flexible lot to be creative with! #3 had to make a second batch to serve this meal because there wasn't enough!


Another Smilebox recipe for you! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Frist cooking lesson for #3

It's Saturday and all the kids were home, so lunch had to be served! I was amidst spring cleaning the cupboards and house was in a total mess.

My ten year old was reluctant to practice her piano scales, so I cajoled her by inviting her to "help mummy to prepare lunch." She was very excited and so was I. Our lunch menu was Spaghetti Aglio Olio and Italian Seafood stew.

Item 1: Spaghetti Aglio Olio.

Step 1: Fill a wok half full of water and add 2 tsp of salt.
Step 2: When water boils, add 350 g of spaghetti in a 'spread out circular motion' (shown below).


Step 3: Peel about 10 pips of garlic. (Here, you can see #3 peeling the garlic under supervision).

Step 4: Add 2 tbsp of EVOO into a pot and toss in the sliced garlic. Add 1/3 tsp of salt. Keep fire low and once the garlic is soft, it is ready. Do not cook till brown or it will taste bitter. Turn off the fire.

Step 5: Once the spaghetti is cooked, toss it into a sieve till dry. Toss it into the EVOO and garlic combination and mix well.


Step 6: Mix and toss well so that the spaghetti is well coated with the garlic EVOO.



Step 7: Spaghetti Aglio Olio is ready to be served. Congratulations #3! You cooked this dish almost completely by yourself, under mummy's supervision.



Item 2: Italian seafood stew. This was from my frozen stash. It's a vegetable base and I can add whatever which is available from my freezer. My elder two loves seafood so it's been like that for a while.

I took the box of frozen vegetable base and added a piece of Sole fillet and some fishcake which I bought from the market. It was near expiry and I wanted to use it up quickly.



This was lunch today. The two elder girls had a great time tucking in. #3 had her spaghetti aglio olio with Kewpie mayo as usual. All the dishes were empty and that was a good sign.

While all of that above was happening, I had two loaves of bread proofing.

This time, I sprayed water on top of the bread before baking instead of salt water and the finish was slightly different.

When #2 ate it she exclaimed that it was delicious and tasted even better than the last. This girl has amazing taste buds.

Yesterday, when I was shopping for high protein flour at a nearby grocery store, I splurged on a bag of organic unbleached flour which cost me RM18/kg and a bottle of Organic active dry yeast. My regular high protein flour only cost RM3.50/kg.

I didn't even say anything about my excessive splurge and #2 could immediately taste the difference! She never fails to surprise me!

Finally, after a delicious and leisurely lunch at the terrace, #3 began practicing her piano scales. She spent about 3 hours practicing but also resting in between, to reach "an acceptable level of competency." Next stage is to work on the speed.