Aka endo mame tortilla, and veggie plate

A nice plant-based brunch to enjoy season local produce.

Do you remember these aka endo mame red peas ? I soaked them and made this batter :

Adding hijiki seaweed, grated turmeric, chili pepper and soy sauce.

Cooked like a pancake. It’s possible to flip it, but it breaks when you fold it.

That’s it. On top, drizzles of balsamico sauce.

The red carrots of Kyoto.

Just grated them. They have a sweeter and fruitier taste than average carrots.

Leafy daikon radish.

Just steamed.

Big daikon. I cut, salted, let 30 minutes and rinsed.

Yuzu dressing : yuzu citrus juice, grated peel, salt and sesame oil.

Crunchy, yummy, filling…

Bochan kabocha cocotte eggs and Autumn turmeric side

Oeufs cocotte are French baked eggs. They are baked in a dish that is called in French, guess what ? A ramequin, a bol, etc. It’s never called a cocotte. Because a cocotte, it’s hen, it’s a woman sometimes, well in the kitchen, it’s a big stew pot. So baking eggs in that over-sized pot, that’s like quail eggs inside a pumpkin. Well, today exceptionally we’ll do that.

Botchan kabocha (little boy pumpkin) is the smaller Japanese pumpkin. It’s perfect to make individual stuffed pumpkin dishes. For instance :

okowa sticky rice kabocha

Thai steamed custard

Open and empty the kabocha, steam it till the flesh is soft. Fill with quail eggs and a mix of soy milk, argan oil, salt and pepper. Bake till the egg whites are stuck and the yolks still soft.

Served with toasted home-made whole-wheat bread.

Turmeric. In Japan, they cultivate a few types. Autumn turmeric is the most common. Spring turmeric (in English “wild turmeric” ) is the second most common. This plant is believed to have great medicinal properties.
This one is only a little bitter, perfect for cooking.

Stir-fried gently a few slices of turmeric and of dry apricot. On low heat, added in daikon radish leaves, stirring till they get wilted. Added salt, walnuts and chrysanthemum flower.

A nice Autumn brunch.

A step into Autumn adzuki beans

We’re stepping into Autumn seriously now. That seems late, I guess but that’s really from mid-November that the nature of Kansai takes its fire colors, and there are still many warm days.

I needed some red on the plate too. I restocked boiled azuki red beans. As usual, I made a ton and I froze portions.

I’ve eaten a serving just boiled, adding tomato sauce, Cayenne pepper.

Leaves… stalks of mini daikon. All that is warmed together.

And a few balls of cream cheese bring a refreshing contrast. Miam ! Miam !

Kitty-chan in the duck pond

A childish soup. This is Kitty-chan, the ubiquitous Japanese cat-racter.

kitty

As you can see, they also make pasta. For little kids. For big gourmandes. And they are very good. Thick enough to stay al dente in the soup.

In duck broth (click here), with shimeji mushrooms and leaves of daikon radish.

Leafy daikon in 5 dishes

Eat your greens. Eat your radish greens…

Japanese big radish daikon is now very well known over the world. What fewer people know is, like other radishes, they have delicious leaves. In Osaka too, many people cut out the pompom of their daikon and let in the shop… so I can have that for free. Arigato ! These are cultivated for the leaves. It’s not free, but still very cheap. They are often prepared in tsukemono (the whole root + leaves), but this time the root is a bit small for that.

That could be this type of tsukemono :
wasabi leave tsukemono

You can use leaves of small radish or of big daikon for the following recipes, if you can get enough green.
I like having many variations for an ingredient.

So we can have 2 hot dishes :

Mini-daikon miso soup
Nameko eggs with daikon leaves

3 cold dishes :

Daikon sesame unohana (click here for recipe).
Leafy miso
Water tsukemono of leafy daikon

I am stupid… as I wanted to make a chart showing what part I used to make each dish. I did, and for the 3, there are 2 wrong.
On top, you can see : leaves only (for leafy miso), tender stalks (for unohana) and the last is correct, the whole plant for the water tsukemono.

Leafy miso :

Take small or big leaves of daikon. Cut them if necessary. Rince, let dry. In a wok or a frying pan, without oil or anything, put the leaves and stir-them till they lose 1/2 volume. Add white sesame seeds, stir a little. Add brown miso, and mix in on moderate heat.
You can use this as a topping for rice, veggies, etc…

Water tsukemono :

No fuss : cut the cleaned whole plant, radish and leaves. Cut fresh hot chili. Add sea salt and fresh water. As you can see on photos, water was absorbed after a few minutes, I add to add some. Let 2 hours on the counter, then keep refrigerated. Wait 1 day. Keep 2 to 5 days.