Tofu lasagna and farm fruits

Not the Italian lasagne. 豆腐ラザニア tofu rasaniya It’s a Japanese comfort dish. Not an homonym, it’s really inspired by the pasta dish but without the pasta. You are left with very soft tofu in Italian style sauces. Warm and tender. It’s usually served with rice.

Fruits like those you pick in the backyard. I went to the countryside. I have some from a farm, others from farmer’s market. They are the fruits you can see in local woods right now, kaki persimmons, mikan oranges, yuzu citrus. You can see two types of kaki, some rounds and some ogive ones. The latter may be shibui (tart) and the farm lady said we should guess… A bit of branch is left and if they are tart, we can do that.

That’s a quickly thrown casual meal. I had tomato sauce, silky tofu and these blanched veggies : bell peppers and ninniku no me (garlic stalks).

For the cheezy sauce as usual sake kasu, miso and this time the oil was sesame oil. I have added grated ukon (turmeric).

Alternate and bake. I topped with toasted bread crumbs.

Genmai, brown rice. I was given good farm rice too.

Serve very hot. Mmmm…

Lacquered yakitori balls and grilled kabocha

Sauce tsukune.

Sesame tsukune.
Two more variation of tsukune (meat balls) of yakitori (grilled chicken skewer bars). For simple “salt” version, see here.

Yep, they are painted…

The boiled balls (preparation here) are put on skewers, then painted several times with sauce, before, during and after being grilled under the broiler or on a brasero. I have not made my sauce, I’ve used the fruity Bulldog sauce (more here). Some yakitori shops use that, but most make their mix.
For the sesame ones, after 2 or 3 times, I stopped adding sauce but passed the skewer in a mix of white and black sesame seeds.

As I used the oven-toaster, I also grilled thin slices of kabocha pumpkin. Just like that, no salt, no oil. It’s delicious.

Vegetables (raw red onion, blanched and cooled okra and ninniku-no-me garlic stalks) and the leftover of creamy pesto dressing (preparation here). I mixed and let one hour.

Then 2 appetizers, I kept them “nature” without adding salt :

The seeds of kabocha, baked with the rest.

Edamame.

So I had a small casual dinner… well, that was a lunch.

other yakitori

‘Not dog’ garden sandwich

Weirds sausages in a green wrap. They are easy to make and really yummy.

The basic ingredients. The beans are boiled of course. I mashed them together with a fork.

Spices, lots of paprika powder, a little garlic (grated) and black miso. They have no case, just formed by hand. But they could used some support :

Ninniku no me (garlic stalks). I passed them into, on the model of sausages formed around a bone.
Then baked the sausages (painted with oil) during about 20 minutes.

Enjoy in a wrap of sanchu (Korean lettuce) with carrot, and some chunky mustard.

Vivid Spring one plate lunch

Another quick and delicious meal full of veggies.

Stir-fry in olive oil, young onion, a dry chili. Add it ninniku no me (garlic stalks), green peas, fava beans, a cucumber cut in thick slices and al dente pasta.

Add tomato sauce (passata) and turmeric powder.

When sauce is absorbed, add spinach, and cut parsley …

…as a topping, with a few ribbons of raw new onion.

It’s crunchy and so green.

Tofu no masago-age, beach sand croquettes

Masago means beach sand, and it’s used for food with a sandy texture. Here it’s fried scrambled tofu, a retro Japanese family dish. You get a golden crust, with a creamy crumbly filling and many colorful crunchy bits…

It’s cotton tofu (momen, firm). It is mashed with a fork into a sand like texture. Add 1 tbs of potato or corn starch for a cup. Flavor to taste with soy sauce and mirin (or soy sauce, sake and little sugar).

Add “pebbles”. Some recipes use minced chicken meat, some diced shrimps. You can just take blanched veggies like here : carrot, bell pepper, garlic stalks, onion, negi leeks and edamame beans.