Cooking with Yuki Gomi and Yutaka and a copy of Yuki's cook book to giveaway

I have known Yuki Gomi for a couple of years now. She is a lovely and very talented Japanese chef and cookbook writer and now also a mother to a lovely little girl. Yuki works with Yutaka ingredients, authentic Japanese ingredients since 1995 allowing home cooks to re-create fresh and delicious Japanese food as found in homes and restaurants all over Japan.  Yutaka means 'good harvest' allowing specialist products to be available.  They are here in the UK in most major supermarkets for anyone who likes Japanese cooking to buy.

We were invited to cook four recipes with Yuki that were quick and simple and incredibly delicious and after a quick introduction by Mr Ken Furukawa, Managing Director of the Tazaki Foods Ltd of which Yutaka is part we were shown by Yuki how to get started producing our 4 dishes.

Working in small groups we chopped, measured, sautéed our way through the recipes to make our meal for the evening.  I worked in a group with friend and fellow blogger Manjiri and Lebinh.

Getting messy is always good fun!

The soup was so full of flavour and really easy to make plus it was filling and comforting.

The side dish of green beans had so much flavour and really, really easy to prepare.  The flavours just seemed to pop in your mouth as you chewed.

We had the best quality salmon to work with and made a really simple and effective ceviche.  The longer you leave the salmon in the marinade the more 'cooked' it becomes and you control the temperature by deciding to use the chilli seeds or not.

The finished sweet potato croquettes and an amazing dipping sauce.  The dipping sauce was made with ingredients readily available in most adventurous kitchens and I thought with the addition of crunchy peanut butter would make the best BBQ sauce I could imagine.  I will be using this sauce a lot this summer and may even add chopped pineapple!

The table was laid and places set for us to enjoy the dishes we had prepared.  There was so much food that we were provided with take-away containers to have some for lunch the following day!

Yutaka products give you all the help you need to re-create these and other authentic Japanese dishes at home giving you the confidence to step out of your comfort zone. Close your eyes and you could be eating in a Tokyo restaurant!

If you would like to win a copy of Yuki's book 'Sushi at Home' then follow the rafflecopter instructions below and fingers crossed.  This giveaway is open to residents of the UK only.

I was a guest of Yutaka and Yumi Gomi and was not paid or required to write a positive review - all photos and opinions are my own.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Birthday to KitchenTalk!

Happy Birthday to Kitchen Talk.  Two years old today! 

Who would have thought two years ago that I would have written so much about food, cook books, cooking equipment, attended events, cooked with my food heroes and much more.

When I published my first post I never thought anyone would be reading it, I was just writing because I felt I had something to say and wanted to record it and not forget.

But lo and behold, people read my meandering thoughts, my opinions on food that I have cooked, eaten out, shared with family and friends.

I have attended some fantastic PR events, met and cooked with some great chefs - some of them my heroes. I have had the pleasure to cook with Reza Mahammad, Eric Lanlard, Lisa Faulkner, Alex Mackay, Vanessa Kimbell, Paul Merrett and The Fabulous Baker Brothers to name but a few.

A Day spent making a video with Lisa Faulkner

Cooking with Chef Paul Merrett and Total Greek Yoghurt

 

The Fabulous Baker Brothers

Cake making with Eric Lanlard at Total Greek Yoghurt's 30th Birthday Party

I have learned to make sushi with Yuki Gomi and Mexican with Omar Abilhoy.

My first sushi making lesson with Yuki Gomi

I have met Heston Blumenthal, Claudia Fulvio, James Martin, Dan Leppard, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry and loads of others!

Talking Christmas with Heston Blumenthal at Waitrose Christmas event.

I have been invited to some wine events, tasted wines I wouldn't have ever know about before, blended my own Campo Viejo Rioja and even met Olly Smith and Oz Clarke a few months ago.

Wine Blending with Campo Viejo

I met Olly Smith at a Canadian Wine Event at Canada House

I have eaten in some great restaurants, some that always wanted to try and some that I would never have thought I would attend. I have made some great friends in the past two years as well. And I have had the time of my life!!

My husband has become known as Mr R and has made several appearances on my blog and given the family something to giggle about when they see him referred to.

Hard Life of Mr R!

So what about the future you may ask?

I hope to keep up the momentum of meeting and cooking with my food heroes.  I would like to do some travelling and write about the food of my travels. I would like to make more videos of my cooking and would even like to make some television appearances. There I said that out loud!

I would like to run more competitions and have some guest bloggers appear. If you fancy guesting on my blog please let me know.

As for my blog, I plan to work on taking better photos, put into practice some of the tips I learned at Food Blogger Connect a couple of weekends ago. My feature called 'Today's coffee break is brought to you by ...' will be re-named 'Kitchen Talk'.

I plan to keep having fun and learning and having great experiences.

Please re-post, re-tweet or Facebook share this as a birthday present and leave a comment on the blog, I thank you in advance.

 I love getting loads of lovely comments so please keep on commenting. Thanks for reading this and all my other posts.