Zu zu zu lemon tartelette : yuzu, kuzu, anzu

A delicious fresh dessert for all the lovers of sour sweetness.

Why zu zu zu ?

Zu or su, is sourness. Many acidic ingredients have this sound in Japanese. Today :
Anzu : Apricot.
Yuzu : yuzu citrus.
Kuzu : kudzu is a root resembling arrow-root and similarly used as a jelly starch.

About 1 volume of dry apricot for two of oat meal in the blender, then just a little water. Put in the mold, dried in the oven.

Yuzu. I’ve really discovered something here : yuzu and apricot are one of those rare matches made in even. Paired they become something else, a richer fruit flavor.

Kudzu as it is sold. It is 本葛 Honkuzu, pure kuzu. There exist others (explanation here).

For more : kudzu recipes.

I mixed the kuzu powder with the juice and zest of a yuzu, a little yellow cane sugar, enough water (as suggested on the package of kuzu) and cooked while stirring, till it became transparent.

Filled the crust. Let cool a few hours. Garnished with whipped coconut cream, toasted sesame seeds and yellow cane sugar.

Purple, golden, sweet. Just potatoes.

A simple pleasure when it’s cold : eating a yaki-imo, a hot baked sweet potatoes.

Satsuma imo, Japanese sweet potato are more common in the red skin and pale yellow version.

There exist blue purple ones too.

Veggie kurokke with walnut kabosu creamy pesto

Let’s make crispy kurokke (Japanese croquettes) of kabocha and green veggies, with a creamy pesto dip. That’s quick, easy, healthy, yummy.

Green : I mashed steamed favas (broad beans) with a fork, added diced steamed broccoli stalks, salt, pepper, a little kabosu lime zest.
Orange : I mashed the flesh of steamed kabocha pumpkin with salt and paper. Added boiled black edamame beans.

I’ve toasted bread crumbs, added black pepper and a few chili flakes. Rolled the balls in it.
NB : you can sprinkle oil on the crumbs before toasting for a more fried taste.

They can be eaten cold, in a bento lunch box. Or reheated.

In the blender : basil, salt, garlic, walnut, a little grated zest of kabosu lime, a little juice. Then I’ve added silky tofu to get the creamy texture.

Serve the sauce as a dip for the kurokke.

Kuromame bean is the new black

黒豆
This is a compilation about ideas to cook kuromame (black soy beans). First, you need to boil them, go to the end of this post for instructions.

SIDE DISH

As a side dish for :
kare raisu (Japanese curry)
Korean wind lunch
Rum vanilla apple black beans, in fragrant tortilla

WITH RICE

Rice and beans.

Black rice
Same recipe as seki-han, red rice (red rice), but with kuromame…

Salade de riz Méditerranée

BEAN BALLS

A variation to burger or croquette.

Tama (green lemon big bean ball)

Swedish bean balls
Dark green curry with bean balls

OTHERS :

Marron berry chunky terrine (France)

Feijoada with pig trotter (Brazil)

Enfrijoladas frescas (Mexico)

kuromame shiso empanadas

also in :
Japanese garden creamy Winter soup
four bean gumbo
‘lumaca’ soup

SWEET :

Recooked in a syrup of sugar and grated fresh ginger.

Sweetened with syrup of kurozato (black sugar). They are floating with black sesame on top a bowl of sweet potato okayu

PREPARATION OF DRIED BEANS :

Cooking them is quite long, that can take 3 or 4 hours, after soaking them 24 hours. The time is hard to “predict” as it depends on the size of beans and their age (this year’s crop, or older…).

Process :
-Anyway, rinse them and soak them. You can add baking soda or not (I don’t but Japanese water is not harsh).
-Bring them to boil, you use the soaking water or change. In the first case, color will be more vivid. Boil them at least 10 minutes and take away the foam on surface (the toxic substance of beans).
-Continue on low heat, in a crock pot if you want. Beans are cooked when they are soft.
I cook a batch of 250g without any flavoring, and I freeze most in cups (silicone cupcake molds) for further use.

Tip (that I don’t use) : to keep the color, you can add some nails or other iron objects that are rusted.

Japan’s most common recipe is to cook them with sugar (same weight as the beans) added from the soaking water, or from the low heat simmering… or like I do later. The sweet black beans are one item of the New Year good luck dishes. For savory recipes, you can add a piece of kombu seaweed in the water.

Koya-dofu soup. Reviving dry food.

A Winter soup made from a good old style broth, and a selection of dry food from my pantry.

高野豆腐 kouyadoufu
These blocks are hard, a dry moss like the green one you get to pick flowers in it, but in white. It’s tofu. Dried tofu.

koya Source Koyasan HP

Mount Koya, or Koyasan, is the name of a mountain, inhabited by a community of Buddhist monks, near Nara. They had the idea (or they imported it from China) to dry the tofu on freezing days, and it seems they invented the freeze-dry technique.
The dried tofu changes of textures, becomes like a sponge and it can be stored many months. It’s also very light in weight. It’s very convenient to stock tofu, and to take some when you travel.
When rehydrated, it doubles of volume, and I could cut it slices with scissors as contrarily to fresh tofu, it doesn’t crumbles. The taste is a little different too, more milky.

Here the items of my soup. There is also wakame sea weed, not on this photo.

TIPS :
To rehydrate dry food, cover it with lukewarm liquid. If possible, the liquid should not be salted otherwise it slows the process.
To speed it up, in the case of dry plants like fruits, mushrooms, even rice, you can add a little honey or diluted sugar.
To speed it up in case of protein-rich food like this koyadofu or beans, it’s better to have alkaline water. If yours is acidic, you can add baking soda to it.

more info about dry food

Home-made broth. I have well broken the bones so they released their extract and made the broth very white, full of nutrients.
Then it’s very simple :
-put the dry items, and some fresh minced ginger in a pan/bowl. Cover with warmed broth, add a pinch of sugar.
-wait 20 minutes
-cut the tofu. Add salt to taste. Re-heat.