With Chinese miso, and why the pattzukis…

I’m trying a new condiment. Well, it’s new for me. I’ve used it to give a Chinese flavor the patties of azuki beans.

Yes, again, those patties. I really love them. I should give them a name. pattzukis ? Why the obsession ? Oh, you don’t know who is posting. The truth I am an American teen, in someone else’s body, and I eat burgers all the time. And I’ve found I like liked the azuki ones better than the those made of beef ? dog ? donkey ? Well what do they give us in fast-food ? We prefer not knowing. And azuki beans are ideal for me. I get them dry cheaply since they are local. Prices really depend on geography. Exotic beans are overpriced. For instance, I buy kidney beans for occasions as they are about 10 times the price of my azuki beans.
They are not soy, so no overdose of phyto hormones. Bonus : azuki means “small beans” as they are tiny like lentils. They cook quicker that most others, in about 20 minutes (after 24 hours of soaking).

click for other posts with pattzukis

Chinese miso made with soybeans. The color of miso depends on the ingredients to make it, that goes from nearly white (rice), to nearly black (soy beans) with all shades of brown (mix of rice, soy, wheat, other grains). This one is a cousin of Japanese hatcho miso, that is also very dark, but usually firmer and not so sweet, by it’s related.

The batter (azuki, ground sesame, potato starch) is flavored with the Chinese miso, grated garlic, ginger, chili pepper and cumin. I added the minced feet of the shrooms.

Stir-fried shiitake mushrooms.

Edamame and sesame mushipan steamed bread complete the meal.

Sakurambo to koke – cherry chicken, spinach moss and tororo kombu seaweed soup

Vegetal inspiration for this Japanese (freestyle) dinner. Sakurambo means cherry, it flavors the chicken and it’s the sunomono (vinegar pickle). And koke is moss, a plant that looks like the spinach mousse and the seaweed in the soup.
It’s not long at all to prepare.

Walnut spinach mousse. It’s very easy and quick.
In the blender : 100 g of tofu, about 1 cup of spinach leaves, one egg white and salt. When it’s creamy add a few walnuts, blend a few seconds to break the walnuts without shmashing them too much. Pour in a glass, coook 4 minutes at 200 watt microwave. Toppings are more walnuts, shichimi togarashi (4 spice mix) and negi leeks.
It’s a delight of lightness and green flavor.

Sour cherry chicken : Chicken breast, pan-roast without more fat. Then I poured vinegar from the jar of homemade pickled sour cherries (click for the recipe). A few cherries at the side. White chicken meat goes so well with sour cherries.

A classic hatcho miso (black miso) soup, plus tororo kombu. This is made with kombu seaweed and vinegar. This cotton-like product melts when you pour the soup on it and it becomes foamy like a moss. Hard to describe. It gives an interesting texture to the soup, you have to try it.
More about tororo kombu (click).

Genmai brown rice with aonori seaweed, and simple salad as sides.

Eating out of the box – Indoor picnic

It’s still too cold to eat a bento box under the cherry blossoms… that are not yet opened here.

Top floor : hot silky tofu with borstch. Garnished by shiso leaves.

Haccho miso and green chili soup.

Base : rice and kinpira.

Making kinpira

Brown rice with a umeboshi (pickled plum).

Left-over of carrot and hijiki kinpira.

Leftover of a stir-fry kinpira : spinach renkon (lotus root) cut in big chunks, garlic, chili pepper, soy sauce.

As a dessert : a few litchis (frozen).

Home-made condiments : karashi miso for jajamen.

Gourmande’s green chili karashi miso. The sauce to make :

Jajamen (click here).

How many sauces and sauce bases do you need in your kitchen ? Er… 476, 477… It’s endless.
You run all over town to find them, they won’t be cheap, and/or you get will them in a bucket and to use it up before it’s stale, you would have cook with it daily for 6 persons. And the list of ingredients can be scary.

The thing is there are some sauces that can’t make at home. I am not making my soy sauce nor my nuoc nam. Some are not so quick and easy to make. I don’t make my vinegars, but I could.
Many are a combination of simpler ingredients that you already have in your closet. Or if you buy the ingredients, you can use them in many different recipes.

Note that there “karashi” means mustard usually, but it can mean “hot spice”. “Togarashi” means chili pepper. You don’t care… but well, if you eat Japanese food, they may serve you a mustard based sauce also called “karashi miso”.

Togarashi . It’s a frozen Korean chili. A hot one.

Gourmande’s green chili karashi miso

2 tbs of brown chunky wheat miso
1 tbs of black hatcho miso
1 fresh green hot chili
1 tbs of kurozato (Okinawan black cane sugar)
1 cup of sake
2 cups of water

+ 2 tbs of fragrant sesame oil

Open the chili, get rid of the seeds and white parts. Mince finely the flesh. Put all the ingredients except the oil in a sauce pan. With a spatula, mix well the miso. Bring to boil, simmer about 20 minutes, till half of water is gone.
Add the oil, continue 2 minutes on low it while stirring.
You can use immediately or keep it a while in a jar in your fridge.

I find it convenient to prepare it for 1 chili, but it doesn’t matter how much you make in a batch. You get about 1 cup. It’s well for a dozen of servings.

Use : jajamen, and to flavor stir-fries, Asian sauces, etc. It is closed to Chinese sauce doubanjang (tobanjan), so it can replace it in most recipes.

Of course, you can substitute chili pepper, sugar, sake (alcohol)… to adapt to the ingredients you can find.

MISO

Miso is a salty paste of longly fermented grains, and soy. It’s often mix. They are not all equivalent. The ingredients differ greatly and taste too.
They are often sold in boxes/packs of 500g. They can last one year in the fridge if you close well the package. If you buy only one, take it brown. With one of each of these 3, you can do most Japanese recipes :

White colored = sweet

White miso (chunky).
It contains lots of rice, a little soy. It is naturally very sweet. The higher % of rice, the sweeter and whiter. Some smooth version have even added sweetener.

Brown colored = a little strong

Wheat miso. This one contains wheat and soy. Other brown ones contain rice and soy.

Black color = strong

Hatcho miso, hacho miso. Only soy. The paste is black. It is used to make “red” miso soup. On the photo, it is “diluted”. You buy it as a thick paste.

The ones that appear to be black and dark beige to brown have some bitterness that you want for this sauce. The very light colored types of miso are very sweet, not so well here. The texture of miso, chunky or smooth matters less as they pound or pass the chunky in a blender, it’s the same thing. I like my sauce with chunky texture.

SOBA ike-men (noodle arrangement)

Soba : Japanese buckwheat noodles made of pure buckwheat, buckwheat and wheat, or wheat and tea for matcha soba. Do not confuse with *chuka soba* and *yaki soba* which are ramen (Chinese style noodles).

More about noodle types :
Guided tour of my soba closet