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 kintoki red bean terrine, with creamy yellow sauce

Today a red veggieful terrine served warm with a creamy sunny sauce that sparkles on the tongue. For a contrast of texture, I ate it with crunchy boiled renkon (lotus root) and a fresh quick tsukemono (grated cabbage, turnip, onion, salt, combined 30 minutes before).
You’ve seen bean terrines before on this blog and you’ll see more because they are very convenient. I can prepare several different ones, bake them together and I have a little stock.

Today’s bean, already boiled of course :

Taisho kintoki mame

This terrine is made of : mashed beans with onion, garlic, miso, paprika and oats for the binding mass.
Inside : whole beans, dices of red and yellow bell pepper, minced onions.

Then, it’s baked and let cool 48 hours before cutting thick slices. They can be reheated in a steamer or the micro-wave.

The sauce is extremely easy to prepare and surpringly refined :
Mix : 1/2 coconut cream, 1/2 coconut milk, a little potato starch, a pinch of curry spice mix (powdered), a good amount of powdered turmeric, 1/4 cup of cut yellow paprika.
Heat 2 minutes in the micro-wave.
Add very strong fine mustard to taste.

Pressed tofu from beans, the Okinawan way (day 2)

Let’s make this delicious 島豆腐 Shima tofu. Okinawan tofu, so we can eat it in 15 minutes.

You have all the material and ingredients ready ? If not, read the previous post. Let’s make that tofu in 15 minutes.

1 : rinse the soaked beans, place them in a blender, add 2 or 3 volumes of clear water (what is easier for your blender, anyway the water won’t stay)
2 : juice it (not too thinly if your blender is powerful)
3 : transfer in a sauce pan, bring slowly to near-boiling heat and cook 1 or 2 minutes
4 : pour into the cloth, squeeze to extract as much milk as possible*
5 : add a little amount of nigari (about 1 ts per liter) and stir a little
6 : wait till the milk curds well (about 5 minutes)
7 : pour into the box and cloth, let the water pass, fold the cloth on top and add the lid of the box
8 : press very strongly during 2 minutes. DONE !

*the grounds left in the cloth are okara (click here for ideas to use it).

You can open, it’s ready. It’s flat. Well, I have made only a small amount for the tutorial, but your can make big blocks with the same recipe.

As you can see, it takes exactly the shape of the fabric.

Inside, it’s very grainy. It’s firm too. You can use it to cook an Okinawan dish.
Or just pour a little soy sauce and enjoy :

More info about tofu in this compil’

Pressed tofu from beans, the Okinawan way (day 1)

That’s a tutorial to make VERY firm tofu. (read about tofu texture, types, recipe of soft tofu, click here)

In Osaka, this tofu from Okinawa is quite expensive as it seems it travels by plane in first class, or just because it is uncommon so there is a rarity tax. I wanted to make mine. It’s not complicate, that takes 5 minutes to soak the beans and 15 minutes to make it later. I wonder why I have not done it years ago.

This is not a personal recipe, I have taken it here and even if it’s in Japanese you should go to see the photos. The author is the owner of a store selling Okinawan products.

Shopping list :

-Dry soy beans
–Nigari, the curding product
-Cotton gauze or cheese cloth

-Pressing box (optional)

You will also need a simple blender (or a very good hand-cranked vegetable mill).

I use medical cotton gauze (sterile, pure cotton, no added product) because they sell it cheaply in any pharmacy. Cheese clothes, well tofu clothes or similar pieces of fabric work too.

The box is optional. You can squeeze the tofu in the gauze and press it in any spring form mold for cake or whatever box you have. And if you have no box, squeeze the cloth strongly, and you will get a ball of tofu.
Mine is not a specific tofu press, it’s a box to make oshizushi (pressed sushi) and I already had it. It’s very similar to a wooden tofu press :

shop

These days makers also use metal boxes.
This, below, is a vegetable press, to make tsukemono (Japanese pickles), Sauerkraut, etc.
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I don’t think that would be the most convenient in this case as you can’t close it with the cloth. I’d buy it for the pickles. Confidence: I own one that I have never used in years as I squeeze them with my hands and then I remember the existence of the gadget.

Ingredients :

You need soy beans, of course. They are called 大豆 daizu in Japanese. Here GMO plants are totally forbidden, and unless they are cheating us, all those we buy are non-GMO.

Soaking :

The night before, rinse some, and place them in a bowl with 4 or 5 volumes of clean water. The time depends on the weather and age of the beans. They double of volume and take a longer bean shape.

にがり Nigari is made traditionally from sea water. We buy it in bottles. It mostly contains magnesium chloride. From wikipedia :

Magnesium chloride is an important coagulant used in the preparation of tofu from soy milk. In Japan it is sold as nigari (にがり, derived from the Japanese word for “bitter”), a white powder produced from seawater after the sodium chloride has been removed, and the water evaporated. In China, it is called lushui (卤水). Nigari or lushui consists mostly of magnesium chloride, with some magnesium sulfate and other trace elements. It is also an ingredient in baby formula milk.

Convenient set-up :

That’s to make the soy milk : I place a cloth in a metallic sieve, an prepare a salad bowl.

That’s to shape the tofu : I wash my box (or whatever) and a cloth, and I install them in a dish-washing basin.

So put the beans to soak and come back tomorrow (or jump here if you are reading from the future).

Convenient bamboo steamer menu : chicken, noodles with Korean sauce

A whole many around fragrant steamed chicken. That takes 4 minutes to prepare in a Chinese bamboo basket (or any steamer you improvise).

-Steam on medium heat the chicken breast with a few chunks of ginger. That takes about 30 minutes.
-Grate some cabbage, cut shiso leaves.
-Prepare the sauce by mixing : gochujang Korean sauce, rice vinegar, ground sesame and a little sesame oil. You can add sugar if you like it sweeter.
-In the second basket, add the noodles and the cabbage to steam them briefly.

The steamed chicken on top of the cabbage, with shiso, and the sauce. The meat stays very tender.

Nothing is lost. The chunks of ginger, the little juice from the saucer where the chicken was steamed, the stalks of shiso, sesame seeds and fresh wakame seaweed make a little soup.

The hot noodles with shiso leaves, kimchi and aonori seaweed.