Tokyo - Cooking Class

Lessons from a Master
Our landlady's mother gives cooking classes so of course we took her up on her offer.  Hotaka, on the left, translated for her mom as we learned to cook two different dishes.  First, a meat and vegetable hotpot then okonomiyaki - a savory pancake filled with vegetables and pork.

The first dish uses a very precise cooking methodology.  You only use salt and pepper for flavoring and you cook without any oil.  This diagram explains how you layer the ingredients in a certain order.  First, mushrooms are added to the bottom of the pan, then vegetables that grow above ground.  The next layer is onions followed by any root vegetables like potatoes.  The meat goes on top as the final layer.  We used small pieces of chicken and fish.  A generous dash of salt and pepper were the final touches.

To prove the power of this method, we also made another version with the same ingredients, adding them into the pot in no particular order.

I was skeptical the entire time until I tasted them side by side.  Both tasted great but the one layered in the special order tasted so much better.  I cannot explain it.

Next we made the okonomiyaki.  A layer of batter is put down then mushrooms, bean sprouts, carrots, onions, cabbage and a topping of pork.

More batter is added on top and then the lid goes on.

The result is almost like a double-crusted pizza.  Then you go crazy with sauces - I added tonkatsu sauce (which is like steak sauce), mayo and grated seaweed.

It doesn't look so great in a photo but it is absolutely wonderful.

Grandma was happy - we ate like two pigs.  We'll learn to cook something else next month.