One of what I learned in Japan, making Japanese sweets. I had to devise something own way to make sweets always when I had opportunities to serve a bowl of Matcha (tea of Tea Ceremony) here. Because it was impossible to find out appropriate sweets in this area. Even it's difficult to get the ingredients for making those by myself. So I searched a single lesson which I could join during my short stay in Japan, and I found it. What I learned there seems to be useful for future in NZ.
CHA-TSUMI (The name of this sweet, with meaning of tea-picking)
Green tea pikelets which wrapped Gyuhi-mochi (rice cake) of sweet Matcha flavour. Yes, it was tea-picking season in May!
茶摘み 抹茶の求肥を抹茶の生地で包んだ焼き菓子。
The ingredients:
あ、この材料ならNZでも作れる！ 良質の抹茶をこっちで買って帰ろう。
Making Gyuhi-mochi / 求肥作り
Baking pikelets / 生地作り
NURE-TSUBAME (The name of this sweet, with meaning of Swallow in the rain)
On Nerikiri-paste of delicate sky colour, a swallow and raindrops were decorated. Something like story seems to be appeared. (sweetened Azuki bean paste is inside)
It was completed! I love this swallow, so cute! ようやく完成！ 袋に入れ、箱に入れてみたら・・・ まあ素敵な和菓子の詰め合せに！
When I packed my works in a box... It looked like a wonderful sweets gift. Good to share with family at home. I will surely make those after I backed to NZ.
The season passed from winter to spring. 考えているうちに季節は巡り、冬から春へ。
Sakura cherry tree has now started blooming in my garden. It will be great to do outdoor Tea Ceremony, in front of the view of snowy mountains and the Sakura.
Let's eat SAKURA-MOCHI when we enjoy the scenery of Sakura cherry blossoms. I made those sweets, but the weather became worse...
その後、天気下り坂・・・
寒い雨の一日、 今日は室内でお抹茶一服。
Then, I enjoyed it with Matcha tea in inside on this chilly day. It's nice, too, to see the Sakura in the rain through the window. We can feel the full of love the seasons in Japanese sweets.
After the un-usual weather through January and February, I finally got some great summer-like days for the pickled ume which was needed to be aired under the sun.
梅を干すなら今！ 塩漬けからすでに 4週間が経過。 チャンス！
Perfect timing! I let those get the sunlight on the swing at the terrace.
気持ちの良い青空の下、 今年もテラスのブランコの上で日光浴
Together with the bottles of Ume vinegar beside
梅酢も傍らで
赤紫蘇がないので、白梅干しですが、 これがまた美味しいのです。
I made the pickles without red Prilla because I couldn't get it here, but these pickles are still delicious enough. I love it.
After the airing for 2-days (6-hours each day), it was completed. I put the Umeboshi in jars and store them in dark cool place, together with the bottles of Ume vinegar.
2 pcs umeboshi --- Chop finely the pitted ones to make the paste. 1/2 tea-spoon honey (I used Manuka honey) 2 Table-spoon sake 1 Table-spoon mirin a little some Kobu-cha (or dashi) powder to adjust the taste.
The "Ume-dare" sauce can be used for various food, as a dipping or dressing for grilled meat or fish, tofu, fresh or cooked vegetables, etc. I enjoyed it with the dish such as follows.
**Dipping sauce of chicken cutlets** I usually use "Bull-dog Tonkatsu sauce" for it, but this "Ume-dare" was also great. The mellow acidity of the sauce lets deep-fried food refresh and the taste lighten.
**Topping on Soba-noodles** Just drop a little of this "Ume-dare"sauce. The harmony of all ingredients (Soba & the sauce, avocado, green shiso-perilla, and "Ume-dare") was wonderful. We had another servings several times each! **もりそばのトッピングに、アボカド・刻んだ青じそ・マヌカ・ハニーの梅だれ** あ、つゆに入ったスタイルだから、かけそば？ しゃっきりそばと、つゆに絡まったアボカド・青じそ・梅だれが美味しいハーモニーで、 おかわり続出！
***Dipping sauce for "Daikon-chips"*** Do you know Daikon-radish? The good fresh Daikon is juicy and delicious. I sometimes deep-fry it. After chop it smaller pieces, sprinkle little-some salt, coat with cornflower, then put into the hot oil. It is like potato chips, but it's more juicy texture. Perfect snack for beer. And... It becomes perfect snack for "Shochu", when it's dipped with the "Ume-dare".
The taste of "Umeboshi" is gradually matured from now on, and it becomes more delicious. It is one of my preserving at home. Not only at the meal time, but also the "Umeboshi" is useful as a medicine when my body is out of condition.
In addition, the "Ume-zu" vinegar, which is the by-product, is usable for the making of sauce or dressing, and is useful for making of cherry blossom pickles in October. I toast this splendid Japanese food culture!
Do you know Ume-boshi ? It is pickled Japanese ume (apricot), and can be said that it is the representative of Japanese traditional food of preserving, having a strong acidity and saltiness. Foreigners who don't know about it are surely surprised at the taste at their first bite. However, Umeboshi was an essential side dish in Japanese dietary habits that people ate rice mainly. The eating habits changed little by little, and we Japanese eat various food as well as rice nowadays. But Umeboshi is still the food I yearn for now. And, I have passion toward the making of Umeboshi, of course!
Fresh ume arrived the other day. I got "NANKO-UME" (which is known as a high quality ume in Japan) from YUMESATO FARM near Christchurch. Yes, I make Umeboshi this season again.
After a couple of days while I waited it gets ripen a bit more, I started. Washed them carefully, took the calyx from each piece, then divided them into three portions to make separately in zip lock bags.
～ Seasonings for making UME-BOSHI ～ just salt or salt & "Shochu" (Japanese distilled liquor) are used commonly, however I use a little of sugar to add to this. The purpose is to make the taste round and deep, not to make it sweet.
***** SALT 塩 ***** I used "Marlborough Sea Salt (Flakes)" for one portion, and "Himalayan pick rock salt" for other two. Because the rock salt was too coarse to use, I ground it.
***** SUGAR 砂糖 ***** Brown sugar or raw sugar?? I used raw sugar for one portion, and brown sugar for other two, using with only 4% of weight of the Ume.
I put all ingredients in each bag and tried to mix them carefully to blend gently. But there is no sign that they are blending in, even if time passes for a while. Is everything too dry...?
When the various spring vegetables became available at the local stores in October, I started "Nukazuke" (rice bran pickles) again after an interval of over 2 years.
I got a packet of rice bran mixture, which was imported from Japan, at an Asian market near Queenstown airport. The mixture was handy, and suitable for beginners I think, because it was already mixed with some ingredients (powdered Kombu-kelp, chilli, egg-shell, etc) to make it easy. I decided to use a large cookie jar as the pickles container.
More than 300years ago (the times when rice was eaten as main meal, and not much other foods were eaten), Japanese people who continued brown rice (unpolished rice) meal for long became to eat white rice (inside soft part of rice) by the development of the polishing technology. Then the diserses that there was not by then increased gradually. Though most nutrients were included in the outside part of the rice, people didn't notice that they removed it before eating in those days. The people had been healthy in the times when food was poor simply because they had continued to eat unpolished rice. If we eat white rice habitually, we must supplement the nutrient which we lost from other food.
But I didn't seem that people waste the part (rice bran) which they dropped. They reused it. They let it ferment and pickled vegetables there! The vegetables which were pickled in the rice bran paste get a lactic acid bacterium, and nutritive value rises. And daily consumption of the fermented food brings a large effect to maintain the health of the bowels. "Food circulation" was there, and we Japanese must have got the benefit of it.
Here are different usages using the Nuka paste. Not only for vegetables, fish or chicken can be marinated in it separately. We can enjoy the deep deliciousness of those after grilling.
旬の美味しい食材を糠床に埋めて、翌日宝を掘りおこすように出して食べる。 野菜に限らず、魚や鶏肉も糠味噌マリネして、グリルすると滋味深い味になりますよ。 （魚・肉を漬け込む場合は、糠を一部袋に取り分けて、野菜とは別にします） After applying a little-some salt to the pieces of fish fillet, marinate in the paste (in a bag) for over night, then grill.
魚の切り身に振り塩してから 一晩漬けて、翌日グリル。
Oily textured fish is better finish than light and delicate textured fish. Moki was more delicious than Warehou, in this method.
After applying salt, marinate wings in the paste (in a bag) for a day, then grill. Crispy finish!
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I tried it with spring lamb as well the other day. It was another delicious dish, nice and unique style, I thought. But my husband said "New Zealand lamb should be taste like the New Zealand". It's pros and cons between us for the moment. What do you think?
In calm spring sunlight, the cherry trees of my garden made the blooming of the blossoms look beautiful. And, the others in different kinds did in sequence afterwords.
穏やかな春の日差しの中、 今年も庭の桜がきれいな姿 を見せてくれました
最初の桜が散り始めて まもなく、他の品種が満開！
When Yae-zakura （a kind of "Sakura" cherry blossoms with double flowerd petals of real pink color）starts blooming in October, it's time to start my seasonal work to make the SAKURA-PICKLES.
Just then, a message arrived from "Sakura-Bruce". " Cherry trees begin to bloom! " There were rows of trees in the area that he maintained. I could pick fully enough the blossoms there as he admitted for me to doing that again as last year.
After wash them, marinade in Ume-vinegar for a week, airing for two days, then put it in jars with salt. It looks like the factory again now.
梅酢漬けして一週間、 2日間干して、 塩と共に瓶詰め。 家の中は、今年もまた 桜工場になってます。
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Meanwhile, the cherry blossoms outside were already coming to the end and the petals begins to be gone. It's the time to pick, again, to make the sweet one PETAL-PRESERVES this time. Wash, dry with towel, soak with sugar and squeezed juice of lemon, then do pasteurization.
For the meantime, I enjoyed Matcha Latte I made Matcha tea of Tea ceremony, but thicker than usual, in a bowl. Poured foamed sweet milk in, then sprinkled Sakura flakes on top. The pretty color pleased the appearance, and the aroma reminded me to the Japanese sweets "Sakura-mochi". It was the special seasonal teatime.
CHA-TSUMI 
Making Gyuhi-mochi / 求肥作り
Baking pikelets / 生地作り
NURE-TSUBAME
Sakura cherry tree has now 
I finally got some 
Perfect timing!
赤紫蘇がないので、白梅干しですが、
今回はブラウンシュガーかローシュガーで
I put all ingredients in each bag and 
After wash them,
Wash, dry with towel, soak with sugar and squeezed juice of lemon, then do pasteurization.
