Modern yaki

Third dish of the hot plate fiesta at Emi’s. You’ve seen :
okonomiyaki and her yakisoba. Now we are mixing both.
That’s not something she usually does, but modan-yaki (modern yaki) is a regular offer in Osaka’s okonomiyaki places.

If you have a huge hot plate, you can make it all on it. Otherwise, you can stir-fry the noodles in a frying pan with pork breast and Worcester sauce.

Then on the plate, grill the noodles and more thin slices of pork belly.

The batter-cabbage mix is the same as for okonomiyaki (more here).

Place pork on the noodles.

Cover with batter. Add tenkasu (tempura crumbs), pickled ginger and the rest of pork. Flip.

On the other side, add an egg.

Flip again.

Garnish with sauce, mayonnaise, fish flakes and aonori seaweeds.

Kintsuba, work in progress

You have to try certain recipes yourself in order to appreciate the talent of these people in yatai (street stands).
They do that like you cook your potatoes, that seems so easy. In fact, not so much… Also, among many recipes some seem complicated with useless ingredients. In fact, maybe not so useless.

I’ve eaten them. They were good. That’s why I blog about them in spite of the ugly shape. Hey, I’ll do better next time.

That’s what a pro kintsuba looks like :
photo from Nakataya kintsuba (online shop)

It’s a juicy block of sweet azuki beans inside a transparent case of thin crepe. Kudos to the makers !

That was the model. I wondered why so many people didn’t retain the idea of full beans for their home-made version.
Now I know ! As I made that :

These are my nicest ones. LOL.

I’ve used that plastic package as a mold. That was not the brightest idea.

As they were not very regular.

I’ll look for another recipe of batter.
Then cooking them…ahem.

I’ve produced real monsters. But I’ve also got 2 that just fell into pieces.

Well, come again some time, I’ll try to improve the recipe and technique.

Lotus root and shiso tortilla

That’s a Spanish style egg based tortilla, with renkon (lotus roots) replacing the potatoes. That’s deliciously crispy under the teeth. The shiso brings a green touch.

I had slices of boiled renkon (lotus root) that I stir-fried. Then I poured beaten eggs with minced shiso leaves.

I sprinkled a little turmeric on top.

Served with goya-maki as a side and a little kimchi.

Bonus : small bites made with the rest of goya-maki filling and slices of renkon.

Opening 2013 with a Kyoto style o-zoni soup

Akemashite omedeto ! Happy New Year ! Bonne année !
Well, I’m not too much into wish-wish, my first concern this year was as usual : What do we eat in 2013 !
Ozoni ! It’s explained here.

The classic Kyoto o-zoni is caracterized by its simplicity, elegance, traditionalism and refinement. Mine is even simpler than planned… I’ve forgotten to add tofu. It was still delicious.
Kohaku, red and white are the good luck color of New Year and this soup follows this color code.

Mochi. Ozoni is mochi.

Dainty soup with a base of Saikyo miso and a dashi broth of the finest hana-katsuo, flower bonito fish shavings. I had to cheat, I’ve added a little sake kasu.

Traditional seasonal veggies. Ginnan are the gincko tree’s nuts. Kyoto’s small taro satoimo and ultra-red Kintoki carrot.

The veggies are boiled separately as they don’t go well together. These small round mochi get soft by poaching them a few minutes in boiling or near boiling water. If you had a big mochi, you’d need to slice it.

Fill the bowl with a mochi, veggies, tofu if you have. Cover with broth and top with a mount of fish flakes. Take the photo quick as the fish flakes disappear like in moving sands.

Around O-shogatsu, a few Japanese New Year specialties…

MOCHI

Mochi is Japanese New Year and Japanese New Year is mochi.
These blocks of pounded sticky rice are made in this season and used as a decoration and as food.

mochi 101
my display of kagami mochi

A soup is made with mochi. There are many very different regional or familial recipes, many lovely original ingredients…

O-zoni (mochi soup), colorful
O-zoni, Kyoto style

Soba
Noodles eaten to pass the year and symbolize continuity.

toshikiri soba (2011, explanation)
toshikiri soba (2012)
toshikiri soba (2012)

Osechi Ryori, New-Year good luck dishes are old style dishes whose names, colors or shapes are linked with good things. Most of it is prepared a few days in advance with many different ingredients and displayed in big lacquer boxes.

Here is an example of home-made full menu :

the lacquer box
the Osechi menu 2011
kuri kinton
kuro mame
Osechi 1 : kazu no ko
Osechi 2 : kintoki ninjin and daikon for namasu
Osechi 3 : building a rice paddy
Osechi 4 : kohaku kamaboko fish cakes
Osechi 5 : chicken matsukaze
Osechi 6 : the vegetable box
Osechi 7 : tamago mosaic
omedetai, lucky grilled fish