Pakuchi som tam papaya, and baby corn

I took my mortar to prepare a little Thai style lunch around cilantro/coriander green papaya salad.

So now we have local green papaya, let’s grate it.

Garlic, green hot chili. Then red hot hot hot chili (very little, it’s so hot), ami ebi salty shrimps, toasted peanuts, kabosu lime juice, a little sugar, nam pla fish sauce. Then red sweet chili, green papaya, coriander leaves and stalks.

Tam ! Tam ! Tam ! Tam !

Fresh baby corn from Thailand.

I’ve used it for a stir-fry. Just oil and a little garlic, to cook the white parts of negi leeks, shishito green peppers, edamame beans, then the baby corn. I garnished with sweet chili sauce.

Brown rice.

A nice 3 dish meal.

Yakisoba with eringii and abura-age

Today, yakisoba, the Japanese version of Chinese fried noodles. Well, that’s my version of it… well, one of them. See others at the end of this post.

Yakisoba is fast-food normally. It’s often sold cheaply on street stalls, at festivals and the teppanyaki (hot plate) shops propose it too. The basic version is made mostly with :

-chuka soba (fresh Chinese noodles that are sold fresh and cooked, they look like thick spaghetti and if you have none, cooked thick spaghetti can be used)
-oil

That’s why we said it’s fried noodles, no mystery. And low amounts of :

-cabbage (cut in big squares)
-additional veggies (cut in thin slices), few and cheap ones (bean sprouts, onion, carrot, some kind of leeks…)
-a little raw meat (thin slices of pork), or cheap seafood, or ham…
-sauce (specific sauce or thickened Worcester sauce or a mix of Worcester + ketchup…), plus additional ketchup or mayo if you want
-pickled ginger, toppings…

My version uses what I have in my fridge, and it’s usually healthier.

So, I had abura age (fried tofu) as meat.

A few Eringi mushrooms as meat too.

I had a leftover of green papaya.

I first toasted the abura-age (fried tofu pockets), set aside. Then with a little garlic and ginger : onion, eringi mushrooms, green papaya, cabbage and shishito green peppers. To the veggies, I’ve added fresh Chinese noodles (chuka soba), sauce (Bulldog).

I’ve added the abura-age to the rest. I have about half of veggies, less than one third of noodles. That’s how I like it.

On top, a little more sauce, shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix) and cut green negi leeks.

Baked hana mame beans, buckwheat berry flan

Beans and grains, simply. Baked beans with huge beans and a twist, spicy buckwheat flans with balsamico icing.

I had a leftover of cooked buckwheat groats, so I’ve added minced onion, garlic and feet of shiitake mushrooms, pasted parsley, turmeric, a little massala spice mix, water and potato starch. I’ve steamed the mix in a muffin tray till that became solid. On top, it’s (bought) balsamic reduction sauce. I know it’s cheating, but as I have this product, I use it.

Hana mame. The name literally means ‘flower bean’, but in English that’s runner bean. The Japanese ones are really huge. These are 紫花豆 murasaki hanamame (purple flower beans) and there exist some white ones too.
This photo was taken after soaking.

Other posts about murasaki haname beans.

After soaking the beans overnight, I boiled them of course. Then in a pottery, I’ve put beans, simple passata tomato sauce, and a mix of bean cooking broth + miso + sakekasu (sake lees)+ olive oil. And baked.
Beside, I steamed and cut a mizu nasu aubergine, to serve with these beans.

The sauce gets creamy thanks to the sakekasu.

Island shred : green papaya, goya bitter squash, shikwasa lime juice and peel and pinch of salt. Mix and let 30 minutes.

Another delicious and filling plant-based meal…

So let’s mix in the aubergines…

Green papaya Spring rolls

Fresh fruity salad Spring rolls.

A green papaya from… the North. It’s produced in Aichi prefecture. Well, with these long hot Summers, they can easily grow tropical fruits.

As you can see, the fruit “sweats” a milky liquid. I was surprised to find so few grains in it.

Cress greens, cucumber sticks, the grated papaya (mixed with kabosu lime juice). The powder is sesame, goji berries and a little salt.

Wrapped in rice paper.

Served with sweet chili sauce.

As a side : abura age (fried tofu pockets) filled with kurigohan (chestnut rice), then toasted.

Som tam ripe : sunny papaya salad

The idea was to make a som tam, a Thai green papaya salad with the ingredients I get here.

The drama : that’s the greenest papaya at the local market. Greener are sold much further, in Kobe’s Chinatown for instance. I hoped it was no so advanced in age inside…