Kuromame no shiso-ni : black beans, shiso and rice

Rice and beans, Japanese style. I think the shiso flavor is a nice companion for black beans and I had already paired them :

shiso bean empanadas

Kuromame, black soy beans. Soaked and boiled. They take lots of time to cook… depending on size and how old they are. Hard to predict, but don’t start now and expect serving them for next meal. Cook them the day before.

So I recooked the boiled beans in an oiled pan with onion, garlic, cumin seeds, a little paprika, salt. When the onions were cooked I’ve covered with bean cooking broth, let simmer. At the end, added cut shiso leaves in the beans, and some on top.

It’s a mix of genmai (brown rice) and akamai (red rice).

A simple soup : nameko mushrooms, hijiki seaweeds (dried), water. Then a little soy sauce when it’s cooked.

Steamed mizunasu aubergines and shiitake mushrooms.

Komatsuna no ohitashi (boiled and refreshed) with gomadare sesame dressing.

Chilled shirataki noodles with black gomadare sauce

And advantage of shirataki (konnyaku noodles) is unlike other noodles, you don’t need to boil them again then chill. All you need is rinsing them in clear water.

The 4 elements of my dish.

A : rinse the shirataki noodles.

B : cut cubes of fresh tofu.

C : prepare veggies like bell pepper, red chili, goya, onion and coriander.

D : make the dressing.
Gomadare is the classic sesame dressing. Today it’s black as I’ve used black sesame and the black douchi :

Douchi, Chinese fermented black soy beans.

banbanji and green soy

A variation around banbanji, the Chinese cold chicken dish. I’m using a bean not so common, even here in Japan :

緑大豆midori daizu. Green soy beans. Also called 青大豆 ao daizu. Blue soy beans.
They are dry soy beans that are green/blue, while the regular ones are white, and sometimes black :

They are not edamame, the fresh (not dry) soy beans.

Edamame. See this post about preparing them.

Cooked. The process is the same as for other beans, soaking, boiling…

The base of banbanji is chicken slowly boiled in water with ginger and leek, then let cool in the broth. Later the meat is very tender. Then mungo bean sprouts, maitake mushrooms, red bell pepper, grated ginger…all are raw.
Plus the green soy beans.

Soaked, and boiled.

The sauce is goma dare (sesame, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, a little sugar).

Dill veg’ burger

A quickie : azuki patties with dill gomadare sauce. It’s delicious.
Herbs are expensive in Winter, but when they have too much at the end of the day, the stores discount : at the condition that you take 4 packs of dill, you pay like 1/2 a pack. Oh, I’ll find something to do with it. I’ll just put some in everything.

Azuki beans. Well, you have to soak and boil them first.

The burger is made of half-mashed boiled azuki beans, onion and ginger cubes, powdered sesame, minced dill stalks, ninniku no me (garlic stalks).
It is flavored with salt and wuxi (Chinese 5 spices).

The sauce gomadare (sesame sauce) is pasted sesame seed, white miso and rice vinegar in equal amount. Plus a pinch of sugar. I’ve added dill in it and some water to make it liquid.

Enjoy the burger with the sauce. And some freshly baked bread to clean the plate.

Hijiki seaweed, kabocha…

A more Japanese meal today. Several small items compose it. There is nothing classic. I switched rice for fancy bread (but many Japanese do that) and it’s vegan, which is a rarity in this country.

Let’s start simple : kinudofu, creamy silky tofu with sweet chili peppers and green lemon.

I get these seaweed fresh, so I just need to rinse and cook. If you buy them dried (most Japanese grocers have them), you need to soak them about 20 minutes, use lukewarm water with a little honey or sugar for better result.

I fried cut red onion in a little oil, added the hijiki, stir-fried, then seasoned with a little shoyu soy sauce and sugar, simmered 2 minutes.
They can be served cold (like here) or hot.