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.

Hokke quick lunch

Prepared in 10 minutes, a grilled fish lunch. Let’s start with sides.

Seaweed konnyaku (eaten with sweet chili sauce).

Daikon radish.

Leftover of rice (white + black + sorghum), recooked with onion, garlic, eggs.

Boiled sweet potatoes. And grilled salted hokke.

Fresh wasabi Spring rolls

Heat wave lunch ! The weather is cooking us. Wasabi is a refreshing spice, ideal for the season.

A root of wasabi.

Dices of wasabi.

Chirimen-jako (small dried fish).

Mixed in with natto and tsuyu sauce.

Inside full veggie Spring rolls.

Served with tomato juice.

Left over make over

A meal to empty the fridge around a big piece : a roast of white sweet corn. OK, that’s not a Christmas dinner. The idea was to use all the parts of veggies I had around before going shopping for fresher produce.

White cucumbers, salted. Rinsed after 20 minutes. They are juicy like melon.

A chilled kabocha and sesame soup. It’s deliciously creamy.

I had used the flesh of steamed kabocha for a salad. The skin is edible. So I used it in the soup.
I’ve added sesame seeds, miso, green chili, yellow paprika. Blended.

Boiled green soy beans and romanesco were in the freezer. Simply with yuzu lemon and chili flakes.

Grated daikon, goji berries, cashew nuts and black pepper.

I steamed the corn cob, then grilled in the oven toaster.

Willow leaf fish

Komochi shishamo. Shishamo smelts with their kids. The body is full of roes.

柳葉魚shishamo means literally “willow leaf fish”. That’s when they hang them for drying after salting that the image takes its sense. An Ainu legend says a man was complaining near the river that his daughter was suffering from hunger, and the water’s Gods heard him. They grabbed the branch of a willow, so a few leaves fell into the water and transformed themselves in fish.