Japanese surprise party
My sister Emma is the inspiration behind many of my Bush “n Beach recipe creations.
I often mention filling the lunchbox and dinner table with easy meals because I am referring to Emma and her family where both parents work.
It’s nice to be able to submit some easy and healthy recipes to Bush ‘n Beach.
Easy meals means more quality time can be spent with family.
For us, weekends are an exception, especially when Emma and I get together.
We spend our precious time collectively creating a menu, gathering ingredients and enjoying our time in the kitchen, making something special for all to enjoy.
More often than not we have the help of some intrigued little people who always want to learn and are a pleasure to teach.
On my last visit to Emma’s I decided I would bring fish and a few green prawns.
I figured we could come up with a special lunch menu.
However we should have taken the ingredients out earlier and put them in the fridge to defrost.
I was certain the lunch was going to turn into dinner instead.
Emma was taking the quiet, casual approach, telling me it would be fine and to just relax.
Out of nowhere, there was a knock at the door.
It was a Japanese guy with a backpack and loads of cooking gear. Emma then had the great pleasure of introducing me to Tomohiro Akutsu, our Japanese
cook for the day.
Wow!
It was an early birthday present and an amazing surprise.
Tomo taught us how to cook and present Japanese cuisine in the comfort of our own home.
Emma had previously selected some of Tomo’s beautiful recipes for our cooking class.
She carefully chose food she knew our group of friends would take pleasure in preparing and ingesting, such as tuna tataki, salmon sashimi, pressure-cooked pork belly and gyoza.
What a remarkable choice.
If you enjoy Japanese food but don’t want to experience the hands-on approach, Tomo also offers his services as a chef and will cater for a dinner party. The highlight for us was making gyoza.
It was so much fun.
The children got involved too and helped us prepare, meaning we had extra hands
to assist in folding and pleating the dumplings to seal in the mixture.
Our dumplings were filled with pork mince and cabbage and infused with garlic and sesame oil.
Tomo then fried and steamed them to perfection.
They tasted divine and filled all our bellies.
I have experimented for this month’s recipe.
A classic gyoza is made with pork mince but I replaced the pork mince with green prawns.
It is very yummy for seafood lovers.