Make-up cooking class

Today I was making up my cooking class that I missed 2 weeks ago because I forgot about it. I was excited because it was all Japanese cuisine and my cooking friend, Helen Tso, was also in the class. Our class started promptly and in total there were 5 students. I didn't enjoy this cooking class as much because our teacher let the Japanese girls cook most of the stuff and Helen and I didn't do much. We did have alot to cook, but come on. Anywho, we helped out here and there, but they mainly did everything. So we made a total of 8 dishes.

First we started out with alot of soy milk. We heated it and added some sugar and other stuff. Then ladled it into little bowls and put it in the fridge. It was a pudding. Next we cut all of our veggies. We were having daikon as a dish and then veggies in a soup. We steamed the daikon with some bay leafs and then on top of it we, put in a bowl of cut veggies, mushrooms, eggplant, onion, carrots, pumpkin. They all were pressured cooked for about 10-15 minutes. For the daikon, we made a sauce that you poured over it. We started out with some sake and ground chicken, white miso powder, brown sugar and water. We mixed it all together until it started to get sticky and then turned off the heat. Right before we served it, we added some fresh lemon juice to it to keep the tasted. I was good and didn't eat any of the sauce because of the chicken, which means I only ate half of my daikon.
Our next dish had two uses. To the soy milk that we had left, we heated it until it boiled and then gathered all top boiled stuff. It was served with some soy sauce and wasabi. With the rest of the soy milk, we added some dashi powder (Japanese ingredient), white miso, and then poured it over the veggies we had cooked.
The next dish was some boiled broccoli. After the boiling, we made a sauce that we tossed them in. The sauce consisted of soy sauce, water, nairin (japanese ingredient), and karashi (spicy Japanese mustard).
Next we mixed some carrots, mushrooms, and daikon leaves into tofu mush. The teacher described it as the left over product after you squeeze the soy beans to make tofu. not really sure, but it was pretty bland, so good thing we added in some stuff. Next we added some water, salt, brown sugar, and dashi powder. Lastly we added the okara (jap. ingred) and a bit more water. It was ready.
Our last dish, which we finished first was super easy. We microwaved some yurine (like a potato) in water and salt. Then we mixed it with some white rice and yukari (a sweet/sour seasoning).
The next dish was eggplant and fish. We cooked the eggplant, skin side down, for a little bit. Next we added some water, brown sugar, soy sauce, Japanese sake (the sweet kind), melein (Japanese ingredient). Next we added the pieces of fish and fresh ginger to the mix. We let it boil for 10 minutes on medium heat. Afterward, the majority of the sauce should soak into the eggplant and fish.

As usual, there was too much food, but I did try everything. I liked the rice with potato like veggie. That seasoning was pinkish in color, but definitely added flavor. The tofu mix was ok, but not the greatest. Then again, I am not a fan of tofu anything, but at least I tried it. It was really was mush! The broccoli appetizer was not good. The spicy mustard sauce was waaayyyy too spicy and it popped in your mouth. Needless to say, I didn't finish that one. I liked the steamed daikon, but can't comment on the sauce. The fish and eggplant dish was really good and I enjoyed the sauce that we cooked it in. However, I was sure if they left the bones in the fish and I just don't eat bones, so I picked at the fish. I did eat all the eggplant! The soup had to be my favorite. The soy milk was really rich and added the veggies to it was another comlexity, but reallyl good. The soup was just thick enough and not overly thick or too thin. The top of the boiled soy milk was not good. Lastly, for dessert, we had the pudding that was topped with some Japanese black syrup. The pudding was good, but the syrup was way too sweet and took away from the actual pudding. Oh well.

Overall, definitely a good meal and I will be re-creating the fish/eggplant dish minus the bones. I also didn't like that so many people were in the class b/c Helen and I didn't get to do much. After class Helen and I were talking and she mentioned that our teacher likes to book her classes earlier so she can pack them with as many people. This made me annoyed especially since the class after ours was the same class, but with only 2 people. I don't like to be annoyed, as you all know.
Anywho, Helen and I had a good time and she gave me some dried mango that she brought back with her from Taiwan. I've had dried mango before and it's good.

My next cooking class won't be for a couple of weeks. We are leaving next week, the following week our friends come to visit, so cooking is on hold. The March menus look good, so hopefully they will be and let's hope not so many people.