Visit to Dojima Sake Brewery (part 1)

  On a cold day before the Christmas holidays, a thought popped into my head...

"I want to eat Kasu soup!"

I read in a Japanese article a long time ago that a Japanese sake brewery had opened in Cambridge, and if they make sake, they must have sake lees! And quite a lot of it...

I was born and grown up in a hometown not too far from the eastern part of Kobe, where are many large sake breweries, so sake lees have been quite familiar to me. And soon after I thought about the sake Kasu (lees) soup, I have a ridiculous craving for sake-kasu steamed cake.

First of all, we inquired whether they sell sake lees.

It's not easy to get any short holiday " I knew it's short notice, but can I come and buy some sake lees during the Christmas holidays?" I asked, and they kindly said that I could come.

Then my son got sick, and I thought it might be COVID... so I gave up the visit during the Christmas holiday, as it got too busy for preparing the New Year's Osechi. (It wasn't COVID after all, just a cold💦 so No one else in my family fell ill...).

At the same time, the brewery posted me 1kg of sake lees and the invitation for the private viewing of the woodblock print exhibition in February. (Thanks for her kindness. I really appreciate it!!)

The sake lees I received was very beautiful! I mean, the sakekasu I know is in the form of a very hard plate, but the sakekasu from Dojima brewery contains so much sake in it that I thought I could still squeeze sake out!

Using this, we devised a recipe, adjusting the various flours and steaming times. The result was a delicious steamed cake.

And with this, we visited them the other day on the 12th of February for the event of the print exhibition.

To be continue to part 2.

ー－－－

This is the link to Dojima Sake Brewery website.

You can order their Sake leese by mail.

Dojima sake brewery

Visit to Dojima Sake Brewery (part 2)

Dojima Sake Brewery is located in Fordum Abbey, a manor house with extensive grounds, including a Japanese garden, a studio for In-house potters to create their works and a tea room under construction.

Mrs Sachiko Purser, a print artist, led us through an exhibition of her woodblock prints in the Manor House, and although not a large collection, there were many interesting stories to tell about each prints.

Mrs Purser used to be a woodblock print artist and I could not hide my excitement as I have sturdied and written essay about Ukiyoe in my Uni days. We were very much artists of the manual work and we enjoy it. Pen to paper, knives to curve the wood... We talked about how recent art require more and more a digital skills. 

In the living room with the fireplace lit, hostes of the tea ceremony made cups of tea and served sweets to all the guests. It was very dignifying atmosphere in the calm manner. I learnt about the tea lessons held three times a week at the House. If I lived a bit closer, I would really join the lesson! 
I have to mention eveyone in Kimono looked so beautiful. (I couldn't take the photo because it was too solemn. Sorry!)

At the end of the day, we were given a special tour of the sake brewery, which we thought we had missed booking. This year's brewing had not started yet, which was convenient for me as I get drunk from the smell of sake.

A small group of 6 (3 young guests joind us) followed Kumiko san, who is the Marketing Director of Dojima Sake brewery.

During the tour I was struck by how difficult it is to reconstruct Japanese traditional way to produce Japanese traditional food on the other side of the world.  I fully understood about the difficulties and differences in food hygiene laws, water and distributions in the UK.

(Left) The rice is very polished and the grains are much smaller than the rice we normally eat.

(Right) This is the koji (bacteria grows on rice) breeding room. Only the Toji (master brewer) is allowed to enter this room. This is where the Toji takes care of the koji for three days and three nights.

Two types of rice are used to make sake. One is Akita Sakekomachi, which is used to ferment the sake, and the other is Yamada Nishiki, which is used to grow the koji. Speaking of Yamada Nishiki, it is very famouse rice for making Sake in Hyogo Prefecture...we share the same hometown! As I was saying so, two of the young people on the tour with us told me they were also from Hyogo Prefecture! They are neighbours, from Takarazuka and Amagasaki, next town to Kobe city. It really is a small world. We were talking about how we miss kasu-jiru, Lees soup! 

These are brewing vessels. You can see how large it is to compare with the gentleman, who is really tall! In the each brewing vessel, rice, water and koji are brewed in three stages. This is called San-Dan-Shikomi

Our guide Kumiko san told me she is also focusing the Sake Lees. It will be more interesting aspect of promoting the UK brewed Japanese Sake. 

For example, 300 to 400 kgs of Sake leese produced to make 1000 bottoles for Sake. As long as Sake is produced, Sake leese will be produced. So, we can make as many Saka steamed cakes as we want!!!

Finally, we had a sake tasting session. Oh, to compare ￡1,000 per bottle worth of sake!

What a luxury!

I can't tell you how much I regretted to have Alcohol intolerance then!  I only had a small sip of the sake I liked best, called "Kake hashi (can be pronounced Ken-Bridge, too)" it means a Bridge to bring together. I brought most of it home with me. I drank it before I went to bed and fell into bed with it. Heavenly!  This sake is fermented not with water, but with Dojima, a pure rice wine that has already been made. It was very rich, fruity and delicious. This Kakehashi can age like wines. 

From left to right: "Dojima" 2021, "Dojima" 2020 and my favourite, "Kakehashi".

And on the way back, we were allowed to buy a lot of sake lees.

Now I have a fridge full of sake lees, mmmmm💓.

Now, I'm going to make a lot of steamed cake, and then I'm going to make a sweet sake to serve at Ohinasama... Now I have to find some peach petals!

ー－－－－

You can find more about Sake and Sake leese on their website.

Dojima Sake Brewery is starting a tour.
You can apply here!

It's a bit far from Brighton, but from London it's just over an hour away.
The Japanese garden with cold cherry blossoms and snowdrops was lovely💓

Celebration for Setsubun!

"Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!"

We throw some roasted beans in and out of house. Beans ward off all the evils.

We celebrate the eve of first Spring by eating Eho－Maki (an uncut big Sushi rolls) towards facing to the North-north East, the direction where this year's god from.

We prepare 4 kinds of Eho-maki. Please eat up the Eho-maki with filled up with all the happiness to come. 

One miso soup will come with each Eho-maki

*******************
Kaisen Seafood Eho-maki  £9
(Steamed prawns, raw squid, raw salmon, seasoned tobiko, smoked mackerel, sea sticks, and cucumber)

Classic Eho-maki  £8 

(Steamed prawns, smoked mackerel, cucumber, Japanese omelette, Koya-Tofu, sea sticks, shiitake mushrooms)

Salad Eho-maki  £8 
(Breaded prawns, Lettuce, cucumber, sprouts, carrot, Japanese omelette, spinach)

Vegetable Eho-maki  £7 
(Japanese omelette, Ko-ya tofu, cucumber, spinach, red pepper, shiitake mushrooms, cooked radish)

*We will exchange the non-vegetarian/vegan filling to avocado and Inari skins

******************

Roasted soy beans are also on sale. By eating the number of soy beans of your age, you will ward off evils in your body. 

Happy New Year!!!

 " New Year's Day is the best time to make the whole year's plans. "

But I'm doing it today, on the 2nd.

(This in itself shows the inadequacy of time management in the future 💦.)

Well, no matter. In fact, every New Year's Day has been a day for me to sleep in and get my strength back to a normal level.

Here are some of my resolutions.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

1) Revival of the Japanese A-futa-nun-tee
　　　　In the last few months, traditional Japanese sweets (not the ice-cream and chocolate-covered ones) have suddenly started to attract attention. In my opinion, wagashi is a simplified version of Japanese culture and customs. Yes. That's why I want to focus on wagashi in the future.

2) Change the course of Japanese cafe an-an
　　　　We've been doing too many things, so we wanted to reorganise a bit.
　　　　I've also been getting requests from people all over the UK to give talks and sell wagashi. I am very grateful for that. I would like to respond to them somehow.

3) Reviving the Okonomiyaki event
　　　　We had a lot of help from everyone to buy the trailer. We cooked okonomiyaki once at the end of September last year and it was very popular. In the spring and summer, when we can sit outside more often, we would like to have more okonomiyaki events.

4) Support for Japanese language exchange study groups and Japanese craft groups　　　
                 Thankfully, we get a lot of customers who are interested in Japanese culture and language. So if we could get together with other customers who share the same interest, it would be a great opportunity for us to exchange knowledge with each other.

5) Repaire the damage from the pandemic.
　　　　　Be kind to the environment as well as people. Think all the time before moving to action "There should be a better way" all the time. 

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

That's about it for now. There's so much more I want to do, but there's no end to it!

And my personal resolutions for this year are...

Not using car (as much as possible) !

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

I'm looking forward to seeing you all again this year. Let's do lots of fun things💓

Mini-Osechi Box Booking start！

 It's December and getting colder and colder.

Due to Corona and Brexit, we are struggling to get ingredients from Japan.

So I was wondering if I could make the "Ohitori-sama Nanchatte Osechi (Mini-New Year Dinner Box for one)" again this year, which I make every year and you all love.  I had a customers inquire about it and said "I would like to have some Osechi Box, even if it's only what you can make." By then, I've already had a couple of customers asked me same, so I've decided to give it a go.

So please understand that the contents may be a little different from the Osechi in the photo.  I will make sure the changes only to something of a same or semilar value.

So, this is our annual Osechi.

This can be eaten by two people as one meal, and two meals for one person, morning and evening on New Year's Day.

Ojuu(layered box)

 is not included in this price. 

Kraft box will be used.

However, please note that from this year, we no longer serving into the Ojyu box. Last year we had an accident which a customer's precious Ojyu was broken, and due to our reasonable pricing not allowing us to have it's specific insurance, we have decided to discontinue the Ojyu service.

￡25.00 per box

（This year we are including two single packets of Mochi from Sato!

You can use them to make ozoni, etc.）

Closing date: Wednesday 15 December 2021

　How to register : By mobile message only

       07923 900344

Orders by phone, email or verbally will not be accepted as it is first come, first served.

We will be handing over Osechi and New Year's Eve Soba (Eat in and Take Away) from 12pm on Friday 31 December, but this may change according to the government's decision on Covid-19. If there are any changes, we will announce them on Facebook and Instagram by 29th December.

Please note that we don't do outbound deliveries, so you can only order if you can pick up your order from the cafe between 12pm and 6pm on 31 December.

Let's all have a happy Christmas and New Year by wearing masks, washing hands and observing social distance.

Thank you!

November Newsletter!

 

It is now November and the leaves are changing colour beautifully in the UK.

Unfortunately, unlike in Japan, we don't get many sudden drops in temperature, so the ginkgoes and the autumn leaves are slowly changing colour.

It's been an incredibly busy October and we've been away a lot. I'll be writing more about the events at Kew Gardens in the next newsletter.

With Halloween over, it's easy to get caught up in the month of November when we're preparing for December, but we're also busy with 🌰chestnuts.

I'll be busy peeling chestnuts one by one to spend the long autumn nights. We hope you have already enjoyed the first chestnut daifuku of the year, but after the "Boar's Day 亥の日" on the 11th, we are getting ready for the chestnut manju and the chestnut steamed yokan in December.

Don't miss out on our Boar Rice Cake which is only available until the 11th of November!

＊＊＊＊＊
Sweets in November and December

Sweet potato Mont Blanc
A soft and fluffy sponge baked with brown sugar and filled with purple sweet potato cream. The sweetened apples with a surprising sourness and a hint of cinnamon come out from inside, making this cake twice or thrice as delicious.

Chestnut Mont Blanc
This is a classic. However, the chestnuts are made from Japanese sweet chestnuts, so they are less sweet and more flavorful. The cake is made of fluffy white sponge and chestnut cream, decorated in white. This one is a little more mature and has a touch of sake. Please be careful.

Spiced Toffee Apple Cake
A spicy sponge filled with apple. And a generous amount of toffee on top.... Warm or cold... as you like.

＊＊＊＊＊

Inoko Mochi (Baby boar Mochi) 

A rice cake in the shape of a baby boar, eaten on the first Boar's Day in November. The rice cake is made in the shape of a baby boar. The inside of the rice cake is filled with koshi-an (sweet red bean paste) and the rice cake is kneaded with tsubuan (sweet red bean paste) and covered with fragrant home-roasted yellow soybean flour. *It is made from soybeans.

Chestnuts Mochi
Yes, Daifuku mochi filled with chestnuts and smooth adzuki bean paste.

Satsuma Mochi

The month of December brings the Christmas spirit. Christmas is all about tangerines and cinnamon (IMO ^-^). When it comes to health, vitamin C and cinnamon just make sense, don't they? So, in December we will start making it!

Baked Chestnuts Cake

These buns are filled with chestnuts and baked in the oven. It is very popular with green tea and coffee. Contains eggs, dairy products and wheat flour. Contains gluten

Steamed Chestnuts cake

This yokan is steamed with a lot of chestnuts. *Contains wheat flour. Contains gluten

We also have Daifuku (sweet bean paste), Tsubukusa Daifuku and three kinds of Dorayaki.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

November Events

Please note that we will continue to be closed on Sundays and Mondays. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

We are planning to have a Christmas market on the last weekend of November.

If you would like to set up a stall and sell your goods, please contact us at info@an-an.co.uk. Please note that only Japan-related items will be allowed.

Also, from mid-November we will start taking pre-orders for our annual "Ohitori-nyu-teki-otte-obushi". We are still not sure how many ingredients we will have available, so please wait a little longer. Please note that from this year onwards, we will not be able to take care of the Ojyu.

Cafe is closed on Saturday 4th September

 

It's already 3rd day into September and we would love to write our September newsletter, but the catering job for the first Saturday in September has become bigger than we planned and we are not able to keep up with the workload, even though we are working at full capacity.

Therefore, we are sorry to inform you that the café will be closed on Saturday the 4th of September.

This is short notice and may have upset your schedule.

Sorry.

However, we are so short-staffed that we may have to open fewer days for a little while.

We will let you know about this in the newsletter on Sunday when we will be issuing loyalty cards to those who donate in the kitchen trailers, as well as our plans for the future.

This year's Moon Festival is 25th September.

We will be making some sweets to mark the occasion.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)