Grating wasabi

Grating wasabi for a refreshing tofu dish. That’s a combination of two interesting textures.

A fresh wasabi root. I’ve simple grated it. That’s very different from the product in the tube. More flavored and less strong.

Okra (gombos). They have a huge jelly strength hidden in them. Like this :

Okra tororo : blanched okra, chilled, pasted in the blender. Flavored to taste with grated wasabi and soy sauce.

You can, for instance, serve okra tororo with soba.

Frozen cotton tofu (momendofu). I froze the whole block in its water. Thawed. Press to push out the water, cut in cubes. As you can see, it has a bread like texture now.

In small cubes.

I’ve poured the tororo on the tofu.

a Summer choucroute

A choucroute (sauerkraut) salad for the hot days. It is so strong that it cleans beyond your sinuses, even your brain…
Yes : mustard + horseradish.

First let’s make mustard and horseradish condiment :

See this post.

Let’s make the Sauerkraut rémoulade :

Remoulade is a classic sauce made with… everything. There should be horseradish in it ? Or not. This one is yogurt based, flavored with the horse’n mustard, garnished with walnuts and raifort condiment.

A good side-dish for fleischnacka. It’s better to not input too much “fire” in the mix in the kitchen and propose to guests to add condiment or mustard at their taste.

All about mustard, raifort, horseradish, wasabi…

Let’s start with mustard…
Making your mustard is not necessarily economic, but it’s fun and you can customize it. La moutarde au raifort (horseradish mustard) is a fancy Alsacian variation, probably of recent invention for the bobo market. I love bobo food…

I can’t find the black mustard seeds, nor the fresh horseradish.

So this is my moutarde au raifort (horseradish mustard). Yum…. ouuuuchhhh. Refreshing !

le raifort :

The horseradish condiment is something people, well civilized ones, always keep in the fridge in Lorraine. It’s nice to propose this condiment with pot-au-feu or cold meat or smoked fish, or whatever.
But they usually buy it. I can’t get it in Osaka. Or that would cost the moon.

We have karai daikon. Mini daikon with super strength.

Clearing vocabulary confusions.
I. In French this root is sometimes called raifort. And horseradish is called raifort. And no, that’s not the same but close enough.

raifort/horseradish from wikipedia

II. In Japanese, horseradish is called wasabi, but real wasabi is not horseradish and maybe your wasabi is not real wasabi.
Well, there exist hon-wasabi (本わさび, real-wasabi）is Japanese wasabi, an aquatic plant, it is naturally green :

fresh daikon root

And seiyou-wasabi (西洋わさび, Western-wasabi) is horseradish, it’s white, unless they add coloring :

(Letters moved by themselves at reformating… grrr)
The composition of this powder is “horseradish, food coloring, vitamin C”.
The reason is producing wasabi is more costly than producing horseradish, so cheaper products are imitation…
In powder that’s always horseradish. In tube, in Japan, it’s often real wasabi, but in other countries it’s horseradish most of the time. Check the labels.

Conclusion : I have powdered horseradish. Yeah !

So this is my “raifort”, made with a little real horseradish powder, my “mustard” and grated strong daikon.

Nordic

It’s hooooot ! Take me to the North Pole now ! Well maybe not. A Nordic country like Denmark would do. Let’s travel in the flying kitchen…

I can eat tons of raw veggies. Red cabbage, ribbons of cucumbers, daikon radish.

The Nordic plate : raw fish (tuna), Vollkornbrot with butter, horseradish (“wasabi” from a tube, it’s colored horseradish in most brands, you knew that ?), lemon…

Well, a Japanese touch : konnyaku. Served with lemon and capers.
A great exotic fresh dinner.

Leaves of Wasabi (via Gourmande in Osaka)

Last year

This is not a meal… This morning, I went to this market place and they taught us how to make *tsukemono* (pickles) with leaves of wasabi. Wasabi is the green Japanese horseradish. The grated root is often presented with sushi. … Read More