Sashimi lunch

A classic Japanese meal around a dish of sashimi. I prepared the sides.

Steamed kabocha pumpkin and ninniku no me garlic stalks. With soy sauce.

**I simply place the veggies in a steaming basket on top of a boiling water pot, or in the steaming mode of the microwave. Thin kabocha slices take 8 to 10 minutes. Garlic stalks only need 3 o 4 minutes to be at my taste. I add sesame seeds and soy sauce when I serve them.

The sashimi : ika (calamari), buri (yellow tail) and ama ebi (nordic shrimps).

An umeboshi (salted plum).

Tofu with oboro kombu (seaweed), seasoned with the soy sauce left after the sashimi dipping.

**How to choose or make tofu.

The miso soup with hijiki seaweed, shimeji mushrooms and kintoki red carrots.

Making miso soup

Add rice. That’s a complete Japanese menu.

**Cooking Japanese rice

Vitamin Holiday appetizer trio

What about starting the party with a jab of colorful nutrients ? That could make a little week-day lunch too. That was the first round of a rich holiday meal. Servings are small to allow guests to last the distance…

Which soup ? Do you want your greens or your carotene ? Let’s have both. They are like hot smoothies.

Boiled carrot, kabocha squash, nutmeg, coriander seeds and a melt cheese square.

Spinach briefly “heated” in boiling water, fresh tarragon, melt cheese.

Raviole de crevettes en sauce rose.

Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of the inside. It’s a big spoon of quickly poached Nordic shrimps (amaebi) in an open raviole made of fresh egg pasta.

They are coated with the same sauce. The sauce is a Brandy tomato sauce base, flavored with the shrimp shells and creamed. Decorated with pink peppercorns.

Pasta Thai, amaebi pad Thai

Thai style stir-fried rice noodles… as *we* have a tsunami in Japan as they had in Thailand. And well, it’s a coincidence it’s today’s menu. I eat as usual.
There is no problem at all in Osaka. As say *we*, but in most of the country, we see the damages at the news.

Local ingredients : carrot, amaebi (nordic shrimps), shiitake, negi leeks, cabbage, bell pepper, okra.

Peanuts. Coriander and the chili are friend.

Pad Thai seasoning, egg, fish sauce, sugar…

Ama-ebi bis : Nordic style

Second day, the sweet shrimps make their come-back on a bed of bread…

I ate only half Japanese style (see here)

On German whole grain rye bread, a little cream cheese. Then a mix of shrimps, raw fava beans, celery and sudachi lemon peel + the juice of sudachi lemon (marinated 15 minutes). Spread the mix on the sands.

Cal 304 F11.8g C32.7g P20.5g

Ama-ebi, Hokkaido sweet shrimps, with radish sushi

Ama-ebi is a small cold water shrimp. The Japanese name means “sweet shrimp” and they have a sweet taste when eaten raw. I think they are called “Nordic shrimps” in English.
The best is to eat them fresh and raw, simply. Just let the tip of the tail.

That’s not very filling, so I made a radish chirashi-zushi (plate sushi).

Cook genmai (brown rice), shred and salt the radish greens. Add Japanese 2/3 black vinegar, 1/3 sake. In a big bowl, mix the liquid into the rice while you ventilate with a fan. That makes the rice shiny. Add black sesame seeds.
Garnish with the radish root cut as you like.