Aka endo mame tortilla, and veggie plate

A nice plant-based brunch to enjoy season local produce.

Do you remember these aka endo mame red peas ? I soaked them and made this batter :

Adding hijiki seaweed, grated turmeric, chili pepper and soy sauce.

Cooked like a pancake. It’s possible to flip it, but it breaks when you fold it.

That’s it. On top, drizzles of balsamico sauce.

The red carrots of Kyoto.

Just grated them. They have a sweeter and fruitier taste than average carrots.

Leafy daikon radish.

Just steamed.

Big daikon. I cut, salted, let 30 minutes and rinsed.

Yuzu dressing : yuzu citrus juice, grated peel, salt and sesame oil.

Crunchy, yummy, filling…

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.

Romanesco ganmodoki

がんもどきGanmodoki are one of the numerous tofu based specialties that you can find in Japan. You wonder how many there are ? Oh, hundreds :

The Tofu Hyakuchin (豆腐百珍 Tōfu Hyakuchin?) is a Japanese recipe book written by Ka Hitsujun (何必醇) and published in 1782 during the Edo period. It lists 100 recipes for preparing tofu. Due to its immense popularity at the time, a second volume was published the following year.

source

And they had no romanesco then, so recipes like this were added later.
We can buy different types of ganmodoki in tofu shops, at markets and supermarkets and use them in many dishes. Making yours is easy.
Romanesco is beautiful. I’m never tired of watching it.

For the detailed recipe, see on the blog of the Gourmet that lives in Shizuoka. I simply changed the garnishing vegetables.

The stalks and leaves of the romanesco. I eat them too in soups or whatever. Here, I’ve cut thin sticks and steamed them. I’ve also steamed a few kabocha pumpkin sticks.

ヒジキHijiki seaweed. We can buy them fresh or dry. That doesn’t make a big difference. Add water to the dry ones, wait 10 minutes.

I pan-fried them.

Served with steamed romanesco, raw myoga, and shikwasa lime juice as a seasoning.

A nice plant based lunch.

Saba no misoni (miso mackerel)

鯖の味噌煮 saba no misoni, mackerel simmered in miso.
Mackerel is a smelly fish, isn’t it ? Not in this recipe. The rich sauce perfectly show-cases this rich fish.

I first bring to boil 1/2 cup of sake with a few slices of ginger and a piece of chili pepper. On low hear, add the fish, cover. When the fish is done, add 1 tbs of miso, 1/2 tbs of brown sugar, simmer a little.

Serve with fresh ginger on top.

Renkon, lotus root. It’s a common vegetable in Asia. It is sold fresh or pre-boiled. That’s very different.

It has to be well washed, peeled. Then you can cook like a carrot, in multiple ways.

I stir-fried it. I sprinkled on it sudachi lime juice, and cut skin of sudachi.

4 sides : steamed green peppers,
wakame konnyaku with fresh wasabi,
suimono (soup of shiitake mushroom,
hijiki seaweed and goji berries),
silky tofu.

A multi-dish quick lunch.

Two bouquets of flower beans, konnyaku curry…

Two dishes with these huge murasaki hanamame, the flower beans. Then a curry and a pasta salad. That makes a pleasant little lunch.

Konnyaku, boiled kabocha skins, onions, hijiki sea weeds and curry spices reheated together. The kabocha flesh makes the sauce and brings sweeteness. That’s a good match.