第１回料理教室(Japanese Page)

The first Fukuoka local food cooking class was held at the kitchen of Sangha Hall, Hilo on November 10, 2006.

The menu was

              Yaki Udon                                          Dango Jiru

  

Junichi Noumaru consulted with Chikako Ikeda, his mother, for the menu good for the cooking class. The dish demonstrated at the cooking class should be a local food popular in Fukuoka. She suggested the above menu. Yaki Udon is believed to have been first served in a small restaurant in Kokura, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, in 1945 when people struggled to get food. Since soba noodles were hard to obtain, the restaurant master substituted udon noodles for soba noodles to cook stir-fried soba, a popular dish in Kansai (Osaka area) at that time. It is said that the original yaki udon was cooked with dried udon. Because we also used the dried Hula Udon to cook yaki udon, we could have reproduced the original taste!

Dango-jiru is a popular home-style dish almost every countryside in Japan where wheat is grown. Especially southern Kyushu, such as  Oita, Kumamoto, Miyazaki and Kagoshima is famous for the original style of dango-jiru. Since Chikako was born and raised in Oita, dango-jiru was her favorite food. Under the influence of southern Kyushu, dango-jiru is also a popular food in Fukuoka.

Another reason why we chose the dishes for the cooking class was that the dishes could be made only with locally-available ingredients. We hoped that participants to the cooking class would cook the dishes in their home and would enjoy the food with their family.

Because we knew that Chikako would not be in Hawaii at the time of the cooking class, Sakae Kaya, Mitsuko Takasaki, Judith Fujiyama, Chiaki Noumaru and their spouses got together in Noumaru's house and learned how to cook them from Chikako before she left for Japan.

We shopped for the ingredients the day before, and at 4:00 p.m. on November 10th, a small group began cutting the ingredients into pieces.
 

About 30 people gathered at the dining room next to the kitchen at 6:30. The president of the kenjinkai greeted the participants and explained the reason why we were having the class at this time.

   

   


We all put on our aprons and hair coverings and and started cooking. We began with the dango-jiru by putting ingredients into a large wok.

Yaki udon was next, with participants paying close attention to how and when the ingredients were added.

   

Everybody was hungry. We put the completed dishes into the trays and moved them to the dining room.

   

   

Each participant sampled the dishes we cooked. Along with the saba maki and tsukemono made by Mrs. Takasaki as well as dishes brought by other kenjinkai members, our dinner was perfect!

We enjoyed the dinner. Everybody seemed to like both yaki udon and dango-jiru.

   

　


The president made concluding remarks and asked the participants if they would like another cooking class in future. Some said that they would be willing to attend a cooking class every month. If not once a month, many participants said they would enjoy having another cooking class.

We cleaned up and left Sangha hall at 8:30. I feel that Hawaii is close to Japan because we got all the ingredients locally. A participant told me that she remembered her mother making dango-jiru for her. I hope both dishes become favorite dishes in Hawaii. If I venture an opinion, dango-jiru will better if we use mugi miso (miso made of barley and soy beans). Miso sold in Hawaii is made of rice and soy beans. I would like to acknowledge that this event was made possible with the support of Sakae Kaya, Mitsuko and Haruo Takasaki, Stanley and Judith Fujiyama, and Chikako Ikeda and the financial support by Fukuoka kenjinkai.

Chiaki and Junichi Noumaru

November 11, 2006

Recipe

Dango-jiru 

Ingredients for four servings

• For dango
• A cup of flour
• A half cup of water
• For soup
• 4oz of Thin-sliced pork belly
• A half block of Konnyaku (4oz)
• A half small carrot (4oz)
• A small gobo (4oz)
• Two small Araimos(Satoimo) (8oz)
• Left-over soaking water for dried shiitake mushrooms (only if available)
• small amount of Green onion
• Cooking oil
• Miso (4.2oz)

1. To make dango, put flour into a boul and pour water in it, a little at a time. Knead it until it feels as hard as your ear lobe. Let it stand over one hour in the refrigerator.
   
2. Pork with some fat is suitable for dango-jiru. If you cannot find thin-sliced pork belly, buy a block of pork belly, remove the skin and excess fat, wrap it with plastic wrap and freeze. Move it out to room temperature ten minutes before slicing. Cut it as thin as you can.
      
3. Tear konnyaku by hand into bite-size pieces. Cut carrots, araimo and gobo into same bite-size pieces so that they cook evenly. Mince green onions.
4. Heat the pan, put cooling oil and stir-fry pork until it gets brown. Put all vegetables and konnyaku into the pan and stir until lightly heated.
5. Pour water and left-over soaking water for dried shiitake mushrooms and heat ingredients with medium heat. Remove the scum frequently until it is gone.
6. Put one tablespoon of kneaded dough on a spoon. Make it into a ball with another spoon, or with your hands and put it into the soup. Continue until all of the dough is used.
      
7. When araimo and dangos are cooked, add miso into the soup.
   
8. Serve the soup in a bowl with minced green onion.

Stir fried udon (Yaki udon)   

Ingredients for four servings

• 2/3 pack of Hula Udon (6oz)
• 4oz of thin-sliced pork
• One Gobo tempura
• 2oz of carrot
• One large dried shiitake mushroom (Presliced dried shiitake mushroom of the same amount can be substituted.)
• 4oz of onion
• green pepper
• 4oz of bean sprouts
• 5.5oz of cabbage
• 4 tablespoons of Ikari Worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper
     

Garnish

• Nori (seaweed)
• Dried bonito (Katsuobushi)
• Sliced red pickled ginger (beni-shoga)

Notes:

U.S. made Worcestershire sauce should be ok as long as you do not mind hot taste. Ikari sauce does not contain red pepper. We do not recommend tonkatsu sauce for this dish because it is too thick. Ikari Worcestershire sauce is available at Walmart and KTA Puainako.

1. Use pork belly prepared for dango-jiru. Leaner meat such as batayaki pork can be substituted.
2. Slice gobo tempura, Cut carrots into thin long slices. Soak shiitake mushrooms (precut or whole) in cold water for about 30 minutes (slices) to 3 hours (whole). The mushrooms must be thoroughly saturized. Soaked water can be used as soup base for dango-jiru or nishime. Cut mushrooms into thin pieces. Cut onion and green pepper into thin pieces. Cut cabbage into pieces of the similar size as onion.
      
3. Bring water to boil in the large pot and put Hula udon. Stir occasionally and boil for 5 minutes. When udon is fully boiled, drain it in a colander and wash with water.
4. Heat the pan and put cooking oil. Brown meat. Cook mushroom, then add onion, carrot, green pepper, cabbage, bean sprouts and gobo tempura. Lightly salt and pepper. When the ingredients are cooked, add udon and Worcestershire sauce and cook for a few minutes.
   
5. Put it in bowls and sprinkle nori, dried bonito and red pickled ginger.

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