Cooking in Kyoto

Monday 27^th February

One of our all-time favourite travel days was spent in Chang-Mai, Thailand. You can read about it here but to summarise, we spent the day at a cooking school where we learnt to make some amazing Thai food. While in China we also spent the day learning how to make some popular Chinese dishes and so we decided that the best way to spend our final morning in Kyoto was at the Cooking Sun Japanese cookery school. Offering a variety of classes where you can learn to make everything from gyoza to tempura, we opted for a morning Bento box class. When we arrived we were greeted by two Japanese women who kitted us out with a little apron and led us to our work station where we began making our first dish.

We began by making a Japanese egg roll, made by pouring half the mixture of beaten eggs in to a narrow pan, rolling when almost cooked and then adding the second half of the mixture. I was off to a good start and like a true teacher’s pet, was told that my colour and roll was perfect. This dish was for use in a sushi roll so we put it to the side and got started on the next part of the meal! This very simple dish involved quickly cooking Japanese spinach, squeezing out all the excess of water (a job for Rory obviously) and then mixing in sesame seeds that we had grinded to a fine powder. For such a simple dish it looked and tasted great but as this class was focused on making bento boxes, what the Japanese typically each for lunch, we weren’t able to eat as we went along! Grumpily I put the spinach to the side and got started on tempura!

This dish was slightly messier to make but surprisingly simple! We coated vegetables and a slimy prawn (I’ll skip the part where I had to de-shell and snap the prawn, after removing the vein because it was super gross) in flour then batter before quickly deep frying in bubbling hot oil. The tempura came out looking lovely and so we moved on to sushi.

Full disclosure – I hate sushi. I just can’t get behind fish, especially raw fish but I fancied giving it a go. Preparing the sushi was surprisingly easy and it looked pretty great, if I do say so myself! Once we sliced and diced the sushi we added it to our bento box and made the final component; teriyaki chicken. The sauce was so simple that I know I’ll make it again and so we happily completed our bento box and headed to a separate room to eat what we had made! The bento box was a great introduction to Japanese food and I’m really glad we did this cookery school. I have learnt techniques that I’m sure I’ll use again and it was a great way to spend the day, even if I couldn’t stomach the sushi!

With most of the day still ahead of us we decide to pay a quick visit to the Golden Temple. After getting a subway to a local bus station we realised that we had no money and so we began an arduous trek in search of a 7/11. It’s amazing how quiet I can be when I’m absolutely raging. And so, in complete silence we navigated the streets, found a 7/11, withdrew money, caught a bus and finally, still in silence, found Kinkaku-ji.

Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavilion, is one of Kyoto’s most famous sites. The original building was built in 1397 as a retirement villa for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (don’t be getting any ideas JR and Esther, play your cards right and you can live in my garage, not a golden pavilion). His son converted it to a temple and in 1950, an obsessed young monk burned it to the ground. In 1955, a full reconstruction following the original design was completed and the gold foil extended from the main hall to the lower floors. Of all the temples we have seen this one was probably the most striking, especially against the bright blue sky. I don’t think the pictures will do it justice so you’ll just have to come and see for yourself!

From here we took a bus back to the apartment where we relaxed before going out in search of gyoza! Rory had found a TripAdvisor recommended restaurant and as much as it pains me to say, it was a great shout. The small restaurant was totally packed and we were greeted by smiling staff who shouted a welcoming hello. Seated facing our servers we picked an assortment of dishes – sesame beansprouts, salty and sweet chicken, chicken wings, beef gyoza, pork gyoza, mozzarella and chicken gyoza and a house beer for Rory. It was an absolute feast and some of the best food we’ve had in Japan. I can’t begin to describe the atmosphere but it’s one of those places that you can’t help but love! Feeling very full and completely satisfied we headed back to the apartment for our last night in Kyoto! As a city it was busier than I expected and quite tricky to navigate but if you can forgive that then it’s definitely worth a visit – the sites are exceptional and there really is something for everyone!

For anyone who is interested (but mainly future Gina because I'm pretty sure she'll have lost the recipe book), here are the recipes of the dishes we cooked today.

Gomaae – Salad dressed with sesame sauce

Ingredients (1 person):

2 bunches of spinach

1 tablespoon of sesame seeds

1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce

½ teaspoon of sugar

A few drps of mirin

A few drops of dark soy sauce for washing vegetables

Directions;

1.       Grind sesame until about 70% are crushed. Mix sesame, soy sauce, mirin and sugar to make sesame dressing.

2.       Boil spinach in salted water for 1 minute and put it in ice water

3.       Drain water and squeeze out as much water as you can. Cut into bite size pieces. Squeeze out any remaining water.

4.       Wash the spinach with soy sauce, drain and squeeze out any remaining soy sauce

5.       Dress the spinach with sesame dressing

Teriyaki Chicken

Ingredients;

60-70g chicken breast or thigh

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon mirin

½ teaspoon of sugar

Directions;

1.       Make teriyaki sauce by mixing soy sauce, mirin and sugar. (sugar can be substituted with honey or jam)

2.       Pan fry the chicken over a low medium heat

3.       Add the teriyaki sauce and cook until the chicken is fully glazed and shiny, then remove from the heat

Rolled Egg

Ingredients;

1 egg

1 tablesoon dashi

½ teaspoon light soy sauce

Directions;

1.       Which the egg well, then add dashi and light soy sauce to it 0 its preferable to use light soy sauce so the egg does not get darker

2.       Pour enough egg mixture into the oiled heated pan to cover its surface, then roll up the half cooked egg from the back to the front

3.       Pour the rest of egg mixture and repeat again – make sure to lift up the cooked egg and tuck the second egg mixture underneath

Tempura

Ingredients;

1 shrimp

A few slices of pumpkin

A few pieces of green vegetables

50ml of water

25g of wheat flour

Dipping sauce ingredients;

2 tablespoons dashi

1 ½ teaspoons of dark soy dauce

1 ½ teaspoon of mirin

Directions;

1.       Make the tempura batter by stirring the flour into the water

.       Do not over mix otherwise gluten forms

.       Use cold water

2.       Powder shrimp, pumpkin and green vegetables with wheat flour

3.       Dip the powdered ingredients into tempura batter and deep fry them in heated oil (180c/350f) until cooked throughout

4.       When the bubbles start to get smaller it is time to remove

Sushi Roll

Ingredients;

½ cup of rice

12.5ml vinegar

5g sugar

2g salt

85ml water

1 slice nori seaweed

¼ cucumber

1 slice kanpyo

2-3 slices egg roll

Directions;

1.       Place a sheet of nori on makisu (bamboo rolling mat) and thinly spread rice. Leave one edge (about 2-3cm) without rice

2.       Place your favourite ingredients onto nori of one third of your side horizontally

3.       Grab the bottom edge of makisu and roll it into a tight cylinder

4.       Remove makisu

5.       Cut in to 6-8 pieces using a wet knife

Miso Soup

Ingredients;

1 teaspoon miso

150ml dashi

Optional – seaweed of your favourite vegetables

Directions;

1.       Warm up dashi on a medium heat and dissolved miso well

2.       Add the ingredient and stop before the soup starts to boil