September 11, 2000: Chikuzen ni and White-dressed vegetables |
We had a home-cooking party at Mrs. Takeuchi's house. She keeps a lot of Ukokukei chickens like this. This is the first time preparation for a mini-cooking course to be held in next January.
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First of all, we cooked a large amount of Chikuzen soup. Pre-seasoned chicken is fried quickly and once taken out of the pan. Soup stock, seasonings, and various kinds of vegetables (burdock, carrot, taros, dried mushrooms soaked in water, and lotus roots) are put together into the pan and boiled.
Once taken out chicken is then returned to the pan and the ingredients are patiently simmered down with skimming off the scum carefully that rises to the surface of the cooking water.
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The boiled down ingredients are left in the pod for a while for steaming. A handful of string beans is quickly boiled and put on the ingredients as a decoration. Here you are.
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| Next dish is Shiro-ae (white-dressed vegetables.) Lumps of Konnyaku (jelly-like food made from the starch of devil's tongue) are well rubbed with salt, sliced into small pieces, and quickly boiled. Spinach, another ingredient, is boiled and drained well.
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| Roasted sesame seeds are ground well in a grinding pod. Miso paste, sugar, and sweet sake are added into the pod and ground. Tofu cakes are added in the end and ground thoroughly. Tofu cakes are warmed lightly in a microwave and squeezed using a kitchen towel.)
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Here, appetizing Shiro-ae with mouth-watering flavor is ready for serve. Chopped carrot should have been added for better coloring, however.
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Egg soup was added on the table as well. Dumplings were served as a dessert, because we will soon have the autumn equinox. |
Now, all the dished are completed. Let's take a picture. Two members are scheduled to join the lunch, but we couldn't wait for their late arrival. All the dishes were really tasty.
In the afternoon, we five read the lines "good thing can be realized without fail" quoted from writing by Motoko Hani. We brought the Chikuzen soup back home as a souvenir today. |
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