Red daikon, red mochi.

A colorful version of the Chinese snack that is called in Japan daikon mochi and I can’t pronounce any of its names in Chinese dialects… Well, radish cake.

I washed and grated my red skin daikon radish. It’s white inside as usual.

I steamed the daikon. Added an equivalent volume of mochiko (sticky rice flour) with enough water to get it creamy. For flavoring : salt, chili pepper flakes, dry shiitake mushroom, fish flakes (skip for vegan version). And fried slices of garlic.

I steamed the cakes. Let them chill.

Then pan-fried cuts of very cold cakes in sesame oil. They become creamy inside, crispy around. The flower is a slice of raw daikon.

For sauce : sweet chili sauce + Bulldog Worcester style sauce.

Sesame and sesame ramen

A warm ramen lunch to fight the chilly weather.Nothing goes better with pork broth than the nuttiness of toasted sesame.

I bought the noddles and the soup (tonkotsu pork broth).

The reheat noddles and toppings. Sliced ginger and kujo negi leeks. Toasted sesame and kiku chrysanthemum. And on top of that, a little mix of miso, toasted sesame and garlic, pasted together.

A very filling side dish : veggies in gochujang Korean sauce. There are okra, kuromame black soy beans, ninniku no me garlic stalks…

…slices of ukon turmeric.

Autumn lasagne

Lasagne with season ingredients : kabocha pumpkin, mushrooms, mature sakekasu (sake lees)…
First, I’ve made the pasta with durum semolina.

Steamed kabocha pumpkin. Silky tofu, crumbled and mixed with a little olive oil, thyme, salt, pepper, chili flakes.

On the boiled pasta, I’ve layered kabocha, tofu and sauce.

For the sauce, I’ve pasted the nuts, garlic, sakekasu.

Added the paste to the soaked fungi. Added a tbs of potato starch to thicken slightly. Let a few minutes on low heat. Seasoned with salt and pepper.

Top sauce : I’ve pasted sakekasu, miso, water, olive oil, then added broken walnuts.

A newly created Japanese citrus. キノス kinosu, from 木の酢, which means “vinegar from trees”. It has a very fruity flavor.

Blanched okra with negi leeks and kinosu juice as a green side.

Gifu squash and fondue-pa’

A little early Autumn party around cheese fondue ! There is a special guest, here is :

宿儺かぼちゃ suguna kabocha. , from Gifu Prefecture. This monster makes about 3 kg. Inside, it’s kabocha pumpkin, a potimarron and it does taste very chestnutty.

We are far away from the fondue savoyarde with mountain cheeses. Today : pumpkin, red wine and… processed cheese.

The result is incredibly yummy…

Dip in bread. Or toasted bread.

Or veggies.

Easy little carbonade, with early Autumn market’s basket…

The inspiration is the Belgian dish carbonade flamande, a beef stew with dark beer. It’s hugely adapted to my local ingredients. I had that alcohol free beer to finish and some frozen beef meat leftover. And season’s produce waiting to be cooked. All that took us away from the rich original Winter dish, but that’s ideal for now as weather is hot (versus sooo hot before).

I’ve started by pan-frying a sliced onion till they get a golden color. Added beef thinly cut (2/3 defrost), a chunk of kurozato black sugar, thyme, a little fresh ginger, a piece of dry chili pepper and 2/3 of a can of beer (alcohol free). Covered. Let 15 minutes on low heat. The meat is so thin that it cuts very quickly.

I’ve added croutons made of toasted abura age (fried tofu pockets) with mustard spread on it, a little water, salt, pepper. Let 15 more minutes.

Served with more croutons and thyme on top. And I had veggies :

Small long satsuma imo sweet potatoes.

I steamed them with kabocha pumpkin and small potatoes.

Freshly boiled black edamame.