Modern yaki

Third dish of the hot plate fiesta at Emi’s. You’ve seen :
okonomiyaki and her yakisoba. Now we are mixing both.
That’s not something she usually does, but modan-yaki (modern yaki) is a regular offer in Osaka’s okonomiyaki places.

If you have a huge hot plate, you can make it all on it. Otherwise, you can stir-fry the noodles in a frying pan with pork breast and Worcester sauce.

Then on the plate, grill the noodles and more thin slices of pork belly.

The batter-cabbage mix is the same as for okonomiyaki (more here).

Place pork on the noodles.

Cover with batter. Add tenkasu (tempura crumbs), pickled ginger and the rest of pork. Flip.

On the other side, add an egg.

Flip again.

Garnish with sauce, mayonnaise, fish flakes and aonori seaweeds.

Hot plate yakisoba with pickled ginger

Yakisoba, Japanese fried noodles. They are often made on the hot plate like their cousin okonomiyaki and actually that was the same day as this. Emi is the chef.
What gives flavor to the dish is often beni shooga, red pickled ginger. Look at this :

Emi’s homemade. You can see the ginger roots in vinegar with leaves of red shiso that bring the color.

The cut ginger.

Ingredients are common with okomiyaki : cabbage (cut in squares), pork breast… and it’s the same okonomiyaki/Worcester sauce. Add to this negi leeks.

And the noodles. They are home-made egg noodles.

Simple and delicious.

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.

Okomeyaki, brown rice okonomiyaki

Mid-way between yaki-onigiri and okonomiyaki, a tasty and healthy lunch. That’s really interesting to enjoy together the crusty flavor of grilled rice and the cabbage soft feel of okonomiyaki.

A triple base : cooked brown rice (leftovers), dry mushrooms and cabbage.

For the batter : 1/3 cup of cooked rice, 1/2 rice flour, the soaking water of mushrooms, salt. In the blender 1 minute.
For the filling : cabbage, ninnniku no me (garlic stalks), minced fresh ginger, 2/3 cup of cooked rice.
Mix, cook one side in an oiled pan.

Flip, add sesame oil, flip again…

With sauce (here Bulldog Worcester style sauce). Then aonori seaweed flakes and chili flakes :

Mini pumpkin patch and crunchy kabocha salad

I have a little collection of mini-pumpkin. So I made a kabocha sarada, a pumpkin salad. That’s a healthier alternative to potato salad.
It’s the ideal way to get a refill of vitamins in the darker season.

First, this is my basket :

4 minis. There don’t all have names. Well all pumpkins are called kabocha in Japanese.

A baby butternut.

The smallest is called a botchan kabocha. Botchan, it’s the last youngest son of a family, the spoiled brat.

If you want ideas to use pumpkins, browse :
my pinterest selection
and
Dissection of a Summer kabocha, no waste
and
Cinderella gourmande, recipes of golden carriage
and
kabocha keyword

So take any sweet pumpkin, steam it and take the flesh. Add the white part of negi leeks, a small onion thinly sliced, a little fresh ginger thinly minced. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Add the juice and grated zest of 2 sudachi limes.

Renkon, lotus root. I buy them already peeled, sliced, cleaned and blanched, but you can do it yourself

Small cucumbers, cut in sticks. Add the cucumber and lotus into the kabocha mix. You may need to add water. Cover and let a few hours in the fridge.

The next day, flavors have mixed harmoniously.

I eat it over 2 or 3 days as a side dish, or as an item to fill a lunch box.