The new year began, and more and more students were coming to Kura Cooking.

In January, in addition to our regular lessons, we have started kimchi making.

After making kimchi, everyone enjoyed making Japanese dishes or scones and cakes for afternoon tea !

The room was decorated for New Year’s. And around the middle of January, red and white Ume trees started blooming.

Students enjoyed seeing ume flowers while they made some dishes

The welcome drink was lemon honey juice which was prepared in the fall using lemons from my vegetables garden. The juice was mix with hot water and served with the pickled lemons.

The Japanese meal was a Setsubun plate:

Grilled sardines with breadcrumbs , simmered daikon with setsubun beans, stir-fried konnyaku, cooked rice with Setsubun beans, roots vegetables soup, and Onimanju( steamed sweet potato cake).　

Seasoned breadcrumbs are placed on sardines and baked in the oven.

Setsubun daikon (Japanese radish) is made in the image of Setsubun beans in wooden boxes.

Cooked rice with Setsubun beans is savory and very delicious. Please make this dish when you have some beans left over from the bean-throwing ceremony.

Onimanju (steamed sweet potato cake) are made with the meaning of exterminating ogres(oni). When made with rice flour, they are pure white and beautiful. Moreover, they are very sticky!

Afternoon tea for Setsubun and Valentine’s Day:

The tea was zodiac tea which was very fragrant and delicious.　 　

Setsubun bean scones, chocolate cookies with tofu, apple focaccia, and steamed sweet potato cake(onimannjuu).

This year, we used Wajima lacquer platters and fan plates to create a Japanese style!

We also enjoyed decorating chocolate cookies with tofu. Setsubun bean scones were very savory.

For the Armenian sisters, it was their first time to have afternoon tea, so we made plain scones, apple crumble cake, cucumber sandwiches, and miso focaccia.

The plain scones were served with roselle jam and clotted cream. We are glad they enjoyed their first scone, their first clotted cream, and their first roselle.

Although it was out of season, they also made cucumber sandwiches.

The miso focaccia was baked with an overflowing sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese.

They seemed to like all of the dishes and immediately made them at home.

In February, we will start making miso!

We are excited to meet some of the people who come only during this time of the year.

I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say.

I also share my garden covered with snow in January.