Cooking class

Last Tuesday I attended the cooking class at Tonosho community center. I have been to about 5 cooking classes so far and I always learn a lot about Japanese food and cooking when I go.

Cooking class is a little like an adventure. First of all, the class and the recipes are all in Japanese and second, the cooking instructor, Ishige san, is a force to be reckoned with!

About 30 people attended the cooking class on Tuesday and we were split up into groups of 5 at each cooking station. On the menu for the day was ajisai rice ("hydrangea rice"), clams, pineapple cake and a pineapple drink. Ishige san went over the recipes (which I tried to quickly translate with the few words I recognized) and we got our ingredients and got started!

My cooking group preparing the ingredients.

Adding flour to the butter and sugar for the pineapple cake.

Ishige san (red apron and white shirt) checking on our progress.

All the recipes written in Japanese on the board. Help! I can't read that!

Cooking class is fast paced and always a flurry of people running back and forth, looking at other groups and making sure they are doing things correctly. For some reason, everyone is concerned they will do something wrong. If Ishige san sees a group adding an ingredient before its time or (heaven forbid) mixing something the wrong way, she swoops in, scolds the wrong-doer and finishes the task herself. Everything must be done a certain way. You'd think that these women never cooked a day in their life they way they act sometimes! I always find myself laughing when this happens and from time to time, if a group does something wrong, they will try and clean up the evidence quickly before Ishige san notices. :)

Ishige san demonstrating the proper method of mixing.

Luckily, I was placed in a smart group of women and we always doubled checked before we moved on to the next step in the recipe.

Once we finished assembling the cake and it was in the oven, we moved onto the clams.

So pretty! The clams were all different colors.

Kako san cutting garlic for the clams. Kako spoke a little English, to my delight!

Clams, 2 cloves of garlic, green onion and a cup of sake. Now into the microwave.

The finished product! Yummy!

Next, we took out the rice from the rice cooker and placed it into a circular mold along with two edamame beans. The rice was cooked with some water and a cup of red wine, so it was a beautiful purple/red color and smelled delicious. Its called "hydrangea rice" because it is the color of a hydrangea.

Putting the rice into the mold.

The cakes are done!

Beautiful! You can even see the chunks of pineapple poking through.

With the leftover pineapple juice from the cake, we made a refreshing smoothie. Ishige san put the pineapple juice, a cup of heavy cream, honey and some ice in the blender.

Assembling the smoothie.

Ishige san adding a small hydrangea leaf on top of each drink.

Once the food was ready, we arranged the food at our station and sat down to eat!

Our spread! Everything was delicious, but I have to admit I loved the cake and the pineapple smoothie the most.