Flavors of Winter

Please visit the website- kyotouzuki.com

Video maker, Mies Heerma made the film of my sweet making class. Please have a look at this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHtmjkTBpGM

Uzuki in Shiwasu;last month of the year

Please visit the website- kyotouzuki.com

Home-made senmai-zuke : Senmai-zuke a la Uzuki
Senmai-zuke is Kyoto winter pickled kabu;turnip
Famous special shops' senmai-zuke is very nice, but expensive.
So I make it myself!

Hiryozu : Deep-fried tofu ball

This is originally from shojin ryori; temple foods


Monica and David







Renkon-mushi: steamed lotus root dish
with some fish and vegetables




Clear soup of lotus root ball & yuba (soy milk skin)



Lotus root chips with green tea salt and citrus 'sudachi'





Autumn-Winter ingredietns
clockwise, the top - lotus root,
sudachi(citrus) and yuzu(citrus)
the center - ginkgo nuts



Renkon, lotus root is a mystic vegetable to me.
Maybe this comes from the image of the lotus flower, a symbol of Buddha, a symbol of purity and Buddha is sitting on the flower. What an interesting plant! The noble flower is floating on the swamp, the root grows in the mud below the water’s surface.

Since I was a child renkon has been one of my favorite vegetables.
I love its decent flavor, crunchy texture and its pretty pattern when they are cut in round slices. Lotus roots savor of the earth, I feel somehow. They are nourishing, contain Vitamin C, dietary fiber etc.

They suit various recipes, such as sweet vinegar marinated, deep-fried, and simmered. Also grated lotus root is the wonderful ingredient for a winter steamed dish ‘renkon-mushi‘, deep-fried lotus balls etc..

For the Japanese, renkon is a special vegetable and an essential ingredient for New Year foods called Osechi-ryori as well.


Fuyu no o-bento : winter boxed meal


Phoebe and Marte are happy with their special o-bento

Shimotsuki : Month of Frost

Please visit the website- kyotouzuki.com

Video maker, Mies Heerma made the film of my sweet making class. Please have a look at this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHtmjkTBpGM

Uzuki showcase in Shimotsuki;November



kabura-mushi: steamed turnip with amber sauce






Alyssa, her mom and dad, Karin & Helmut

Kyoto traditional Dengaku : grilled namafu & scallops with Kyoto style miso sauce
Their dengaku looks cute!


Marie Therese loves Japanese vegan dishes
She is showing Japanese 'kudzu' starch, which she likes very much!

on the left - aki no gohan;autumn rice
on the right - chawan-mushi;steamed egg custard


Inoko-mochi:Shimotsuki(November)special mochi-rice cake


November is considered the first month of the year in Japanese tea ceremony.


Dashimaki: Kyoto style egg-roll

This egg-roll is quite soft with dashi(broth)


Camille is cutting kaki; persimmon




Fabrice is cracking ginkgo nut shells; it's hard work!















Diana is roasting ginkgo nuts 　　 ↑

Autumn flavor from the mountains and sea

Please visit the website- kyotouzuki.com

Video maker, Mies Heerma made the film of my sweet making class. Please have a look at this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHtmjkTBpGM

In Japanese/Kyoto cuisine, the combination of ingredients in each dish is one of the most important elements. As Japan is blessed with nature, we have a large variety of ingredients both from the mountains and sea. We like to find and enjoy the best possible combination of seasonal fish/seafood (or meat) with vegetables (or seaweed). We call it ‘umi no sachi ‘ (blessing from the sea) and ‘yama no sachi’ (blessing from the mountains) in Japanese.

In October what you must not miss is the combination of matsutake and hamo.
Matsutake is a mushroom that has an elegant flavor, particularly the ones grown in Kyoto. They are quite expensive, though. (So not necessarily the ones grown in Kyoto) Hamo is a fish that also has a very good but modest flavor, thus doesn’t compete or interfere with matsutake’s wonderful flavor. Hamo's season will end soon; please hasten to it!

Dobin-mushi of matsutake & hamo

'Dobin-mushi' is a Kyoto autumn special; kind of a clear soup dish. Using a tiny pottery tea-pot, we cook it and we drink the soup in tiny sake cups



Matsutake mushroom



Michelle & Matt's autumn lunch



Chu-lain's autumn menu











Simmered taro potatoes with prawn amber sauce


For meat-lovers: taro with ground chicken sauce




Aline is happy with the autumn cocktail



Another combination from the mountains and sea:
Nagaimo yam(potato) and fresh tuna(fish) cocktail




Shiitake mushroom and prawn tempura

Ania is chopping prawns
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Ula is finishing minced prawn


Yonatan is filling minced prawn in undersides of shiitake mushrooms


Matsutake gohan : cooked rice with matsutake mushroom

Shimeji gohan : cooked rice with shimeji
Shimeji is other kind of mushroom

Topping-ginkgo nuts




One class : fish・fish・fish

O-sashimi: raw fish dish with wasabi

Sushi and grilled fish

They're working hard!
Anneke 　　　 ↑
Ana　　　　　 　↑
Pere　　　　 　↑

In the moonlight

Please visit the website- kyotouzuki.com

Video maker, Mies Heerma made the film of my sweet making class. Please have a look at this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHtmjkTBpGM


Uzuki showcase in the moonlight

By the old lunar calendar it is considered that the most beautiful full moon appears in the mid-autumn. This year tomorrow, on the evening of Oct. 3rd we'll be able to appreciate it. We Japanese love the moon viewing very much. When we have the full moon viewing in autumn, o-dango(tiny dumplings of rice cakes) and some seasonal ingredients, like sato-imo(taro potatoes), kuri(chestnuts) and autumn fruits such as grapes etc. are offered with pampas grass to the moon. We share the autumn harvest with the moon.
Hoping to have a moonlit night tomorrow!



O-dango: tiny dumplings with a rabbit!
As we have an old folk-tale that rabbits live on the moon and pound rice cakes.

Here is o-dango with grapes & red bean paste
Laura



Sue




Tom loves o-dango very much
He's making mochi(rice cake)-dough!





Tom


Autumn sweets
Kinton: Murasaki
ingredients: white bean & purple potato



Kaki: persimmon; autmn fruit

Kaki-daifuku: mochi rice cake
inside-red bean paste and a piece of persimmon

Shungiku-dango: dumplings of 'shungiku' green leaves with red bean paste


Shungiku-dango by the students of Global College;
Marte, Adam, Jeannette, Sarah and Miaja


Alexandra and phoebe with their kinton & a bowl of matcha; powder green tea


Their kinton, elegant!








Shira-ae: tofu dressed salad
Traditional style - dried shiitake mushroom, lotus root and Kyoto carrot


Fruity one - kaki(persimmon) and green beans

Kuri-Kinton : An autumn speciality!

Please visit the website- kyotouzuki.com

Video maker, Mies Heerma made the film of my sweet making class. Please have a look at this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHtmjkTBpGM

When I think of autumn foods, kuri (chestnuts) comes to mind first.
It’s hard work to remove the burr, outside skin and inner skin.
But during the work, when I start imagining the tasty cooked chestnuts with the nice flavor, the preparation pain disappears immediately.　
To me, a Kyoto person chestnuts are a gift from autumn, or from nature, it seems.
After enduring Kyoto's hot and muggy summer, we are given a wonderful gift from nature: autumn and chestnuts.
Many people in the old days and today, too enjoy collecting chestnuts at chestnut groves in the countryside.
Although chestnuts are on sale at the market in season, it's more fun to gather chestnuts on our own and cook them.

During the chestnut season I make kuri gohan (rice cooked with chestnuts),
simmered chestnuts with chicken, healthy sweets and so on.
If there is just one chestnut dish on the table, the meal with it would become special, a celebration of autumn!

There are some kinds of kuri sweets, my fovorite is 'kuri-kinton'.
It's simple - you steam or boil chestnuts with shells, scoop out the inside and add some sugar. Thus you simply enjoy the taste and flavour of chestnuts and autumn!


Kuri-kinton


Kuri-kinton wrapped with Uzuki-paper!

Delicious exchange!

Please visit the website- kyotouzuki.com

Video maker, Mies Heerma made the film of my sweet making class. Please have a look at this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHtmjkTBpGM


The attendants and I often exchange recipes.
I'm so glad I can get a lot of delicious recipes from all over the world.
I really appreciate this fabulous opportunity!

Here is an attendant, Micaela from Parma, Italy. She also opens a cooking class at home in Parma. She gave me a very good recipe of gnocchi, which her grandma taught her. I introduced 'dashi'(broth) of katsuobushi(fish flakes) and combu(seaweed) to her. We cooked natsu-yasai no nimono; simmered summer vegetables with dashi together.

Lovely! Good recipes are handed down from generation to generation, and now we exchange them. This is a preferable globalization!


Micaela and Emi

Listen to autumn flavours!

Please visit the website- kyotouzuki.com

Video maker, Mies Heerma made the film of my sweet making class. Please have a look at this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHtmjkTBpGM

Here are Autumn vegetarian dishes, but Kyoto people
have these as usual dishes in autumn.
We appreciate fresh ingredient's flavour,
don't use a lot of seasonings not to destroy their natural
flavours.
A Japanese word, 'kiki-zake' is listening to sake(wine);
sake(wine) tasting in English. Enjoying ingredients'flavours is
listening to their sweet voices, or their whispers, I feel!


Top-right: simmered yuba(soy-milk skin) & taro potato
with vegetable sauce



Kuri-gohan:
Chestnut rice


Aki no shira-ae:
Autumn salad with thick tofu dressing
shimeji mushroom, Japanese pear and green bean


Yaki-nasu no miso shiru:
Miso soup with grilled eggplant(aubergine)
Garnish: myoga

Kristen and her mom, Geraldine
They love shojin-ryori: Japanese vegetarian dishes