Japanese food at cooking school

I finally made a completely, almost completely, Japanese meal at cooking school! On the menu was steamed rice, miso soup, tofu/cabbage salad, beef, croquettes, and plain yogurt with mango jam. I made this menu last friday afternoon and it was good!

So we actually steamed the rice this time. Usually they have rice made in the rice cooker and we just go get some. The dessert was easy, put some yogurt in a bowl and top with some mango jam. The cabbage/tofu salad was pretty easy as well. We steamed the cabbage and tofu in the microwave. Then we made a dressing, kind of, of salty soy, brown sugar, and bonito flakes. They we tossed the cabbage and tofu in it. Now for the good stuff!

Croquettes are traditional here and we made 2. The first one was chicken. So we butterflied a chicken tender. In a piece of seaweed, we put 2 long strips of cheese and some pink fish eggs (they were small) and then wrapped it up. We placed the seaweed in the chicken tender and then wrapped that up. We covered it in flour, eggs, and the bread crumbs. Time to fry.
The other one was of mashed potatoes and minced beef with onions. Make some mashed potatoes, but don't add anything to them. The beef mixture is used twice. So we sauted beef and added in some brown sugar, cooking sake, mirin, and soy. We let it cook and then divided about 1/3 of it to put into the potatoes with some of the juice. To the potato/meat mixture, we added the microwaved onions and mixed thoroughly. We divided it up into 4 sections for each one of us. Again, we floured, egged it, and put some bread crumbs and into the frying oil.
To the rest of the beef, we added some thinly sliced ginger and sesame seeds. then it was ready.

As for the miso soup, we didn't do it the traditional way, but it was an easier version b/c of time. In a pot we boiled some water and bonito flakes (katsuobushi) and then added in some diced pork. We took it off the heat and added in some chinese leeks (which look like green onions), some miso paste, and ume (jap. ingred). We stirred it around and the miso was ready. The stuff on the side is the bonito flakes (just for you Jeff).


This meal was really good and I was happy I had to walk to return a book and then home, because I ate too much and didn't have my fat pants with me! The beef mixture was really good and they serve as a staple here, beef bowl for like 400 yen, and its huge. The chicken croquette was good even though I was not so sure about those fish eggs. However, I didn't get sick, so its good.
Mike complained why I hadn't cooked anything from school and I told him some of the menus just weren't awe inspiring. However, he said he likes this menu, so I am going to take a stab about cooking Japanese food sometime next week. Wish me luck, i'll let you know how it goes.