A dish of contrasts. I was thinking that green kneppes would be nice. The addition of peas makes them sweet, so a sour sauce reveals them.
Blanched peas, mashed with a fork, flour, water, salt and wuxi (5 spice mix). Boiled.
For the sauce, salted new onions, later mixed with minced dill, sour yogurt (at room temperature), coriander seed, pepper, nutmeg. You can use a plant based yogurt.
Coat the very hot kneppes with the sauce and serve immediately.
A Japanese meal with tai no kabuto ni as a main.
Yes, kabuto means helmet, and the resemblance is clear. Well think about those samurai helmets that everybody wears to ride a bicycle in Japan… er, no, but that’s this type with 2 ear flaps :
source :blog from the place where they make them (click here) . Visit the page for more details. They are display models for Little Boy Festival in May.
That’s an economical dish as they sell fish heads cheaply. And they sell them ready for this dish. I mean the scales are grated (roughly), and it is split in two. Well veggie readers (I doubt you’re still here) sorry for the view. But for us that eat animals, it’s better to avoid wastes. That said I would eat fish heads anyway. Because there is a lot of flesh in it, and it is of finer texture and tastier.
Recipe :
-Rinse the fish. What you can do is put it on a grill and pour boiling water on it, just once. It makes the fish white and the scales very easy to notice, so you can finish the fismonger’s work. For myself I don’t care if I have scales in my plate, anyway, you need to pick the bones and bits.
-Then it’s a classic nitsuke sauce 1:1:1 , sake, mirin, shoyu soy sauce. And a small piece of kombu seaweed. Put these in a pan with a little water, bring slowly to a boil.
Add the fish. Make a foil cover. Pass to moderate heat. Cook about 15 minutes.
The veggies are steamed separately. Here 2 colors of carrots. And I had frozen garlic stalks. Let’s get the sides :
I had kintoki red beans, and kimchi ready.
A grated veggie salad. A soup, a drink-soup. It’s really water, veggies and black pepper. No salt as there is enough for the meal.
Genmai, brown rice.
Two small Japanese dishes, passed through the gourmande’s paws as usual. That’s not super original, but maybe you don’t know these two.
age-dofu (recipe here)
Agedashi is a classic way to prepare tofu, that means ageru (fry), then pour dashi (broth) on it. This time I made it with taro.
This is the Kyoto style taro, kyo-imo. I have peeled one, cut in a few rolls, boiled till tender. Then I’ve patted them dry and deep-fried till they get colored.
The dashi is the Japanese basic broth : DIY dashi recipe or plant-based kombu dashi.
I have left the fish flakes (you can omit them), added dry togarashi chili pepper, flavored with soy sauce and reheated slightly. I’ve added a little potato starch to thicken and poured on the hot kyo-imo.
Serve hot while it’s crunchy around.
I have used these black soy beans (kuromame) instead of the white. And I have proceeded exactly as I do for white tofu (recipes here).
It’s zaru tofu, shaped in a basket.
Topped with kezuri-katsuo (fish flakes), and at the side soy sauce to pour on it.
You’ll see the rest of the menu in the next post… (soon here)
Christmas before the Christ was the story of the longest night on Earth, grilling marrons in the fireplace. Just what we need in this cold. This colorful braised veggie dish…
… and nutty, baked chestnut croquettes.
This perfectly cooked crunchy red cabbage are a traditional Alsatian recipe, with apple, red wine and lots of time (see here).
Baked and coated in a sesame “dust”.
That’s a simple borstch, for a day still too hot to cook much or too eat complicated. It’s totally different from this Winter soup. The fresh beet is very crunchy and fruity. The balance of sweet and sour is ideal.
With very few ingredients : beetroot and Sauerkraut.
I cut the bee-st. Stir-fried in olive oil with garlic and rosemary. Added a cup of beet juiced in dashi broth, a little nutmeg, black pepper, chili. Bring to a boil, that’s already ready :
Bloody !
It’s more reassuring with bits of green ?
