Mission : you have 10 minutes to throw a hanami (cherry blossom viewing) lunch.
Pick stuff in the fridge. Clean and cut if needed.
A cheezy sauce : miso, sakekasu, rice vinegar.
There were still crumbs of sesame in the mixer.
Wrap everything in rice paper. I usually keep the sauce out and I let one side open, but this style is more convenient to transport.
Pack with leaves of spinach. And a thermos of tea.
Go to the blossoms…
Find a comfy tree trunk and enjoy lunch.
Two flowers and a dish of spaghetti. Happy !
My beloved nanohana are back on the market. They are the unopened blossoms of rape (the plant to make rapeseed/canola oil) and the greens around.
Lots of leaves… They sell some like that, with lots of stalk, cheaply. It’s possible to buy only the blossom part and the first leaves, and it’s more expensive.
The pasta dish is very simple. I blanched the nanohana in the pasta water (1 minute before the end). Then added on the pasta, with parsley, salt, olive oil.
There are still some edible miniature chrysanthemum. I think it’s good to eat flowers to fight pollen allergy. So I just placed them as toppings.
A side dish : natto, kimchi, and cut shungiku (chrysanthemum leaves).
This blog is pacifist, throw away the sword, fight with soba noodles. As every year, I’ve eaten these noodles to pass safely into the next year. You need some kind of rope to retain you in case you’d fall in that calendar gap…
Well that’s not as if I need a pretext to eat soba, it’s more that I won’t miss any.
More Japanese New Year traditions here…/a>
Well the chrysanthemum is the symbol of the Imperial family, thus of Japan… And it’s season food. You have seen some on sashimi plates probably. Leaves are called shungiku (Spring chrysanthemum) are available in this season to add to hot pots.
This type has particularly wide leaves.
They make so big discounts on fresh soba on the last day that I had enough for a decade. I could remake some in daylight for photos.
This year’s ingredients. There are often shrimps in New Year dishes.
The noodles are boiled apart. The shrimps and shungiku greens poached in tsuyu (dashi, mirin, soy sauce). Then add the colorful stuff on top :
Yummy !
Mignonne, allons voir si la rose…
Poetic inspiration came for today’s brunch.
Spaghetti squash.
Petals of rose on sunny rice.
Petals of beetroot.
That’s very simple. The rice is cooked hatsuga genmai (germinated brown rice) colored and spiced with turmeric, oil, black pepper and fennel seeds. On top, all the parts, last leaves, petals and all of a few mini-roses.
Ground azuki beans, with miso, garlic, lots pounded of white sesame. Reheated with steamed spaghetti squash.
Powered up spaghetti squash. Topped with negi leeks.
Beet slices are grilled in the oven toaster.
With grated ginger. These 2 go well together. Grilling really changes the beetroot. The inside is still very juicy. It’s very crunchy, there is matter to chew.
That’s the whole meal. A table !
Just a hot soup and toasts.
Red lentils boiled with leaves of laurel, Chinese tobanjan hot bean sauce, flowers.
Sourdough bread with “aged” cream cheese.
GOURMANDE in OSAKA 