Japanese cooking class

Ever since getting back from Japan, one of the (many) things I've been pining for is the food. Simple, light, fresh and nearly always delicious, it's a fantastic cuisine. I've read two books on it in quick succession and have attempted a few dishes using tofu and miso paste. The results have been nice and tasty - with the bonus of being very quick to prepare - but probably not very authentic.



Luckily Josh bought me a course of 5 Japanese cooking classes at Atsuko's Kitchen for my birthday, so I could learn how to do it properly. The first class was last night and it was so much fun.

It's held in the lovely Grocery store in Dalston and taught by Atsuko, who has travelled all over the world teaching classes. Her enthusiasm really came through as she talked through all the ingredients and processes at the basis of Japanese cuisine.


Guess which are Atsuko's egg rolls and which are the students' attempt!

She expertly showed us how to make sticky rice, miso soup, egg rolls and wakame-sesame salad - and we got to have a go ourselves - then we sat down to a delicious meal of the results at the end of the class.

Finally we made a rice ball each to take home in our bento boxes. I can't wait for the next class.

What Katie Eats

I go through phases with cooking.. sometimes it's a dull chore when I get in from work, I'm uninspired as to what to cook and usually end up with packet pasta with jarred pesto. But at the moment I'm finding it really fun and exciting. I signed up to the BBC Good Food site which has loads of great recipes and lets you add your favourite ones to a folder so you can check it for quick inspiration. You can also search by ingredient which is great if you have some random things in the house and can't be bothered going out. For the mushroom Wellington (above), I only had to buy in the field mushrooms, everything else was in the storecupboard or freezer, and it tasted great.


I just started a tumblr site of my more successful cooking adventures (along with a few nice meals out), mostly to serve as a reminder to myself for the next time I'm feeling uninspired. Check it out here.

I'm also really excited because tonight I start the Japanese cooking classes that Josh bought me for my birthday. Big post on Japanese food - with a review of my class I'm sure - coming later this week!

Fffflckr

Ffffl*ckr is a really great new site for finding images you might like on Flickr. It loads in your favourited images and by clicking one you can see the favourited images of that user - the idea being that if you like someone's photo, you'll probably like what they like too! Much better than the Flickr Explore channel which generally contains overdone faux-vintage Photoshoppery and horridly chesy HDR style landscapes of mountains. Have a play and see what you find.

Kidioms

A fantastic set of idioms (figurative expressions of speech) as drawn by kids. Some are literal, some are kind of cryptic and some are plain weird - but they're all adorable. See if you can guess what phrases these represent.. answers under the jump. And see loads more drawings on the site.

Read more...

Cramique

Until recently, I thought that Cramique was something dreamed up by my Belgian great-grandma, a delicious treat of slightly sweet, crumbly bread that my grandma still bakes for breakfast every Christmas. But actually I realised it's a national Belgian dish. Similar to a brioche but more buttery and with a denser crumb, it's delicious with a slick of butter eaten with tea or hot chocolate. It traditionally has raisins in, but our family recipe is done without.


My version is of course not as good as my grandma's - it didn't rise much - but better than my last attempt at baking. I might get booted out of her inheritance for sharing this, but here's our family recipe (click to enlarge).

Hype Machine Music Blog Zeitgeist

I love this project by music-streaming site Hype Machine. They asked 50 graphic artists to create a piece of work inspired by their most popular 50 artists of last year. Here are some of my favourites.


Chromeo by Julia Sonmi Heglund


Friendly Fires by Jaime Calayo


Miike Snow by Blake Suarez and Steph Davlantes


The Big Pink by Noah Kalina and Staynice

Check them all out here.