Nagano: local cooking class using Shinshu miso

Together with the instructor, you will make traditional Shinshu dishes such as chive rice crackers and miso rice balls using Shinshu miso. You can also enjoy pickles and seasonal side dishes.
Together with your instructor, you will create and sample two dishes using Shinshu miso, a specialty of Nagano Prefecture.
This course will use local ingredients as much as possible.
This course also includes a souvenir from Japan.

First dish: chive pancakes. This dish is made by mixing flour and water, seasoning it with Shinshu miso, adding chopped Chinese chives, and frying it in a frying pan. The flour used is from Nagano Prefecture. The taste and preparation method vary from household to household, but this time we will be trying to make chive pancakes made at the instructor's home.

Nagano Prefecture is surrounded by mountains and has many sloping land, so land suitable for rice cultivation is limited, and wheat flour and buckwheat have been cultivated extensively to make up for the grain shortage. As a result, buckwheat is also famous as a specialty product of Nagano. There are also many local dishes that use wheat flour, such as chive pancakes, oyaki, konetsuke, and suiton.

2nd dish: Miso rice balls. These are rice balls made with chilled rice and Shinshu miso. The rice is from Nagano Prefecture and cooked in a clay pot.

Onigiri is usually made with freshly cooked, warm rice, but these miso onigiri are made with cold rice. Before the invention of the electric rice cooker, we would cook rice for breakfast and eat cold rice afterwards. This is one of the onigiri that I remember my mother making for us as a snack.
Rice cooked in a clay pot is fluffy all the way to the center and has a chewy texture even when cooled. Rice cooked in a clay pot forms into onigiri without much force.

During your meal, in addition to the food you cook, you will also be served some side dishes and pickles.
We will prepare seasonal ingredients and dishes that have been carefully preserved. Please enjoy the taste of everyday home cooking.
We will also use traditional Japanese seasonings such as sake, mirin, and soy sauce for flavor.
The side dishes will be a treat for the day.

To guarantee availability book as soon as possible. Early booking is worth consideration especially if you planning the trip during high season like public holidays or weekends.

This excursion you can cancel with no cost up to 24 hours before the start of the trip. If you cancel it after 24 hours or not show up on the excursion you will still be charged the full price of the activity. Being late on pick-up or departure will be considered as not showing up.