Rice-lentils and baked spicy azuki lunch

Another nutritious and delicious plant-based lunch, doubly boosted in plant proteins with two types of pulses : beans and lentils. And a dynamic salad.
That’s ready very quickly if you plan a little. As faithful readers know, I cook beans in big batches and freeze in small portions, in muffin molds. Then you have to think about soaking the rice and lentils the night before (you can do without in case you forgot, but that’s better to do it right most of the time).

Azuki beans (boiled, I had them frozen), with gochujang and kimchi, two Korean products. I mixed, covered with bread crumbs.

Baked and sprinkled a little fragrant sesame oil and chili flakes on top.

Brown rice and lentils, soaked overnight and cooked in the rice-cooker together.

I stir-fried an onion, a little garlic, ginger slices, added the rice, turmeric, a little garam masala spice mix.

Kabocha salad made in last post.

Warm mushroom soba soup

The weather is getting a little chilly. The time of warm soup is back. The official season of sake kasu is open, even if I didn’t wait.

Asian cuisines are very careful about seasons of dishes. You’ll say that’s everywhere that wise people try to eat season produce. True, but they have kept a concern that was important in European Medieval cuisines and has since been neglected, which is the effect of food, whether they are cooling or warming. So these are two food said to be “warming” :

Sake kasu (sake lees). The soup made with it, kasujiru, is present all along the cold season in Kansai.

Buckwheat, here in soba noodles. It’s also seen in sobagaki.

I soaked a good handful of mixed dry mushrooms, then added onion, frozen and thawed tofu, garlic, soy sauce. Simmered.

For the sides, I’ve steamed kabocha and reheated hana mame (flower beans) with soy sauce and a little sugar.

I’ve added the soba and sake kasu in the soup, more soy sauce to make it saltier.

And to spice it up a tonic mix : diced ginger, garlic, negi leeks, and chili pepper. Just mixed in, reheated and served.

Kimchi in the kabocha.

A flower on the beans. Lunch is ready.

All tones of red

Scarlet and purple in the veggie patties for lunch today. Served with red apple, red kimchi and…nope, for contrast, it’s green shiso, white cabbage. The flavors are Korean, even if it’s free style.

Gochujang, the Korean sweet and hot paste.

Red onion.

Boiled azuki beans (frozen).

The dough : azuki beans, gochujang, bread crumbs, onion, ginger, shiso, potato starch. Mix and mash with a fork, let 15 minutes.

Make wheat wraps, shred cabbage. If you want it vegan, well make your own kimchi.

Cooking the patties with slices of apples.

Mmmm….

Today’s bibinbap

Korean lunch : bibinbap, the colorful rice bowl.
Put rice to cook in the cooker and let’s go :

Namul veggies (preparation here)

Azuki-natto : I heated onion and cooked azuki beans with a little oil. When the onions were cooked, added a little miso and natto and mashed roughly.

The soup is soaking water of shiitake mushrooms (those used for the namul), in it, I cooked mini-radish and added cubes of silky tofu.
Also get some kimchi, a egg yolk and fragrant sesame oil.

Put all the garnishing veggies on very hot rice, add a egg yolk, a drizzle of sesame oil. Serve with the hot soup.

Add a little broth in the bowl, mix and enjoy :

Hot purple marron pie

That’s a Japanese meal. Yes, you can see natto. That’s not the criteria as I’d fusion natto into any cuisine style. Well, I have rice, a soup, okazu dish, sides. The rice is part of the pie, which is a azuki bean and chestnut toasted rice tart, with hidden fire. That’s a long title but that was really yummy.

These are sorts of hot Habanero hot peppers cultivated in Kyoto and they are hot. Yes, I’m repeating because they are made of fire. I used 2 mm of one and I like my food spicy. I really wish I could use more as they have a really charming flavor.

The base of the pie is freshly cooked brown rice. I’ve added a little potato starch, a little water, squeezed between 2 molds to shape and toasted with the molds, then without.
The filling is made in the mortar : a little dry garlic, miso, very small bits of hot chili, azuki beans (boiled)…

And wined chestnuts.

You could see on the tray a bowl of greens, it’s kikuna, chrysanthemum greens. I have slightly steamed them, just to warm. On the plate, you can see natto, with shiso, ika shiokarai, walnuts. All this is mixed and eaten with the greens. This salad is not plant-based as it contains seafood.

The rest is salty, I wanted a neutral soup. I’ve put dry mushroom (mix) in lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar, let 30 minutes. Then reheated and added sesame seeds.
Oboro kombu seaweed ribons completes it. It’s on the side :

As soon as you put the oboro kombu into the soup, it softens and becomes like this.