SHIWASU ( = December...the busiest season ) comes here, too. Christmas is almost here, but there are still lots of things I haven't done yet !!! I finally put up Christmas tree several days ago !!! Count down everyday !!!
Here in the southern hemisphere, it's summer season and nearly the longest day of the year which means it doesn't get dark until 10pm. So I have different feeling of Christmas here from one in the winter season. Beach, BBQ, cold beer, instead of warm fireplace, candle lights, beautiful illumination here and there.
Talking about the customs of New Year's Eve in the class, I was reminded of sounds of "Joya-no-Kane"(= tolling of temple bells through the midnight). The 108-times of bell sounds in a quite air, the sacred moment of approaching New Year... I missed it, the Japanese New Year.
Japanese cooking class information is : 料理教室の詳細は下記をクリックしてください ： Japanese Cooking Class in Wanaka **************************************************************************************
Here comes the school holidays, my daughter Renon came back from Nelson.
4学期が終わって、 いよいよサマーホリデー。 本日の便で我が家の娘、 レノンが帰ってきました。
After several times of traveling by herself (with flight assistant), she looked like an independent passenger now. I was so glad to see her smiley face at Queenstown airport, but her suitcase!! It was so heavy, and both front side of casters were broken and didn't work, The suitcase surface was broken as well with duck-tape on. The lock part was also broken !!
I toasted Renon's happy face and the school which she is attending. Special Sake with gold dusts in it...
The wonderful news came to us a few days ago that "Salisbury School" in Nelson won a suit against the Ministry of Education's decision of school closure. The school will stay open for girls for 2013 as well, and Renon can attend again! We highly appreciate everyone who has been supporting us. Thank you so much for caring about us. We hope deeply that such a precious school could be kept open for long after 2013 as well.
Got a couple today who were on their way traveling around the world. After visiting the Asian countries, they arrived here in NZ early December. Because the day (8th Dec.) was the wife's birthday, I got a special dinner request, as a surprise, by her husband in advance.
・・・The parcel dish was one of cooking menu at cooking class this month. I cooked this with birthday arrangement for them. (Whoops! I forgot to take a picture inside of the parcel.)
We enjoyed sharing time and the talking was continued until late as usual. How was our lecture about " Living in NZ "... hopefully good references. The couple is going to stay for several months or more in this beautiful country, with prepared their working holiday visa.
Lamb rack & Pinot Noir, the royal combination. I tried to add a Japanese essence to this delicate & tender lamb meat, using Ume-boshi (Dried salted plum) tonight.
Ume-boshi is : one of traditional Japanese pickles and is extremely sour and salty. It's popular as a side dish for plain rice, also popular as a ingredient inside of rice-ball.
So exciting to use this Ume-boshi to be combined with lamb!
And...tried to match this dish with Wanaka local wine, HAZLEDINE BROTHERS Pinot Noir 2011, which recently I had been interested in the taste of.
Oven baked, crumbed lamb rack (cutlets), which is popular dish here. I made the variation used Ume-plum paste, instead of herb pesto, this time. Then served with sauce of "Yukari" (dried Shiso-japanese-herb). How was the result...?
****(Ume-plum paste) 1/2~1 Ume-boshi 1/2~1t Mirin (Japanese sweet condiment) a few drop of Soy sauce Remove pit and chop Ume-boshi by knife, then mix with Mirin & soy sauce. Each amount should be adjusted depends strength of the Ume-boshi taste.
Season both sides of lamb cutlets with ground black pepper. Spread Ume-plum paste on top side of each cutlets, and place Yukari-crumbs on top. Fan-bake at 180C for 10-12min.until the crumb become golden brown. Serve with Yukari-mayonnaise sauce.
Wonderful! Mirin made strong Ume-boshi taste milder and it fitted into delicate taste of lamb. Yukari sauce added delicious Shiso flavor. Fresh Shiso leaves must be great if they were available. Rich, solidity, and deep complexity of Pinot Noir taste was well matching to the dish successfully.
Ladder was needed to decorate
Also made paper bags 
Topic of short lecture was
