(2011.6.22) 外国人のための日本料理教室〜魚料理編〜
After the success of our bento cooking class back in March, my supervisor and I had been considering what kind of cooking class for foreigners we could do next.
Then, a Filipino lady who we are good friends with dropped by our office. The original purpose for her visit was totally different, but I think my supervisor asked her if there was anything she wanted to learn how to cook. Then, the lady launched into this story about how she and her family often receive giant styrofoam boxes full of fish from neighbors for FREE, but she has no idea what to do with the fish, so she often has to "return them to the river." Mind you that the fish are frozen and dead, and they come from the ocean...
This convinced my supervisor to do cooking classes focused on how to completely use up foods that you could possibly receive from others. First, we'd do fish. Then, maybe in the winter, we'll do daikon radishes.
7 different fish dishes in one class! Participants focused on aji (mackerel?), but the instructors also prepared iwashi (sardines) and kinmedai (super high class!!!!) for us <3.
We started the class off by having everyone practice how to fillet the aji. The lady on the left was one of our instructors~! She runs a small but super popular fish store in Kamogawa. I learned how to slice up the fish too! I've learned to cook over my past three years here, but even now I think I've only cooked fish ONCE, because...I had no idea how to. I thought it'd creep me out a little more to rip out the fish's insides, but it was surprisingly painless, and kinda stress-relieving???
Siki came too!!!
One of the participants, getting ready to make namero!!! During the cooking class, everyone learned how to make 煮魚, 骨せんべい, 南蛮漬け, イワシのすみれ汁, アジのたたき, なめろう, and さんが焼き. The last two, namero and sangayaki are a couple of Kamogawa's most famous local specialties! Basically namero is fish minced up with ginger, negi, miso, aoshiso leaf, and a couple of other things...and sangayaki is the fried version of that (think of a fish hamburger?). It is super super delicious!!! <3
Sangayaki fresh from the frying pan <3
The instructor also taught some cool practical stuff, like that you can prepare sardines and other small fish with just a spoon instead of a knife!
And the feast is ready~. All this in just an hour and a half!
Anyway...everyone got a copy of the recipes to take home. I want to start practicing how to cook this stuff...especially the nizakana! Lately, I've really fallen in love with キンメダイの煮付け, which I think is too expensive to want to prepare on your own instead of just going out to eat it, but maybe with other fish???
Then, a Filipino lady who we are good friends with dropped by our office. The original purpose for her visit was totally different, but I think my supervisor asked her if there was anything she wanted to learn how to cook. Then, the lady launched into this story about how she and her family often receive giant styrofoam boxes full of fish from neighbors for FREE, but she has no idea what to do with the fish, so she often has to "return them to the river." Mind you that the fish are frozen and dead, and they come from the ocean...
This convinced my supervisor to do cooking classes focused on how to completely use up foods that you could possibly receive from others. First, we'd do fish. Then, maybe in the winter, we'll do daikon radishes.
7 different fish dishes in one class! Participants focused on aji (mackerel?), but the instructors also prepared iwashi (sardines) and kinmedai (super high class!!!!) for us <3.
We started the class off by having everyone practice how to fillet the aji. The lady on the left was one of our instructors~! She runs a small but super popular fish store in Kamogawa. I learned how to slice up the fish too! I've learned to cook over my past three years here, but even now I think I've only cooked fish ONCE, because...I had no idea how to. I thought it'd creep me out a little more to rip out the fish's insides, but it was surprisingly painless, and kinda stress-relieving???
Siki came too!!!
One of the participants, getting ready to make namero!!! During the cooking class, everyone learned how to make 煮魚, 骨せんべい, 南蛮漬け, イワシのすみれ汁, アジのたたき, なめろう, and さんが焼き. The last two, namero and sangayaki are a couple of Kamogawa's most famous local specialties! Basically namero is fish minced up with ginger, negi, miso, aoshiso leaf, and a couple of other things...and sangayaki is the fried version of that (think of a fish hamburger?). It is super super delicious!!! <3
Sangayaki fresh from the frying pan <3
The instructor also taught some cool practical stuff, like that you can prepare sardines and other small fish with just a spoon instead of a knife!
And the feast is ready~. All this in just an hour and a half!
Anyway...everyone got a copy of the recipes to take home. I want to start practicing how to cook this stuff...especially the nizakana! Lately, I've really fallen in love with キンメダイの煮付け, which I think is too expensive to want to prepare on your own instead of just going out to eat it, but maybe with other fish???