Today’s bibinbap

Korean lunch : bibinbap, the colorful rice bowl.
Put rice to cook in the cooker and let’s go :

Azuki-natto : I heated onion and cooked azuki beans with a little oil. When the onions were cooked, added a little miso and natto and mashed roughly.

The soup is soaking water of shiitake mushrooms (those used for the namul), in it, I cooked mini-radish and added cubes of silky tofu.
Also get some kimchi, a egg yolk and fragrant sesame oil.

Put all the garnishing veggies on very hot rice, add a egg yolk, a drizzle of sesame oil. Serve with the hot soup.

Add a little broth in the bowl, mix and enjoy :

Autumn namul

Namul is the name of Korean style blanched veggies.

The boring supermarket version, all year round the same :
namul set
Boiled spinach, soy bean sprouts, zenmai fern and daikon radish.

Home-made version, in Spring.
So this time with Autumn produce :

I had suguna kabocha. I grated and steamed it, added only sesame oil and garlic.

Soy bean sprouts, steamed, with soy sauce, a little hot chili, garlic, sesame oil.

Konnyaku. I’ve added re-hydrated shiitake mushrooms. with soy sauce, a little hot chili, garlic, sesame oil. Let overnight.

Leafy radish. Blanched and refreshed the greens in cold water. Added garlic and sesame oil.

The 4 dishes :

Konnyaku and eringii in ginger nikomi

An easy Japanese dish.

Konnyaku (konjac). You can use blocks too, just cut them in slices or cubes.

Eringi mushrooms, cut in cubes.

Ginger. Minced. I put a good amount.

Kombu seaweed. A small cut. Later after cooking, I cut it into ribbons.
Soy sauce and mirin (or sake + sugar), 3 tbs of each. A little red hot chili if you want. Cover with water. Let simmer. I cooked 30 minutes.

Reheat the next day. Enjoy as a rice topping, a side dish or in negiyaki.

Tama konnyaku, tama aubergine

玉 tama in Japanese means sphere, ball. Like an egg (tamago), or an eggplant (=aubergine). That’s today’s topic.

Tama konnyaku. They are balls of konnyaku. At this point, they are flavorless, and zero calories. No interest except that they favor digestion. And they have a cute shape. And the texture is pleasant. And they will catch the flavor of spicing… So, it’s very interesting for me.
I bought the balls, but you can carve some from a block with a melon spoon.

After rinsing, I stir-fried them in a little oil with a few sticks of fresh ginger. Then added soy sauce, mirin, sake, powdered paprika and turmeric. Let simmer till the color is nice.

Ginger tama konnyaku, to eat hot with toothpicks. As you can see on the final photo, the inside stays white.

Natt’oats. Cooked oats with slices of ginger + kuromame black beans + natto + soy sauce + blanched spinach + hot chili + olive oil.

Arlequin aubergine :
-steam slices of aubergine, paint with olive oil, bake
-garnish with tomato paste + salt , add a tbs of pesto and bits of yellow pepper. Drizzle olive oil.Bake again.

Reba-sashi, but fake. What could replace the Japanese carpaccio…

レバ刺し reba sashi (liver sashimi). It’s an immensely popular food in Japan. A few years ago all the yakiniku, yakitori and izakaya restaurants proposed it. I find it delicious too.
BUT…
I guess you are wondering if it’s healthy to eat raw liver. The answer is unfortunately that it’s risky and a number of food poisoning cases have occurred, so now the delicacy has disappeared from menus. And people miss it. So food industry made “safe liver sashimi”. It’s planted based, maybe not fully vegan (I’m not sure about all coloring ingredient) but at 99%. It’s made of konnyaku.

That’s how it is in the package. The faux-liver is in a liquid, you just need to rinse it. There is a sauce to marinate or to dip and sesame seeds. Sold less than 200 yen, that’s expensive for konnyaku but cheaper that the original liver.

Perfect appearance. Taste ? None. You will only have the taste of the sauce. Let’s try.

Served with mitsuba and onions (salted, rinsed).

A dip in the sauce.

Catching toasted sesame seeds and chili flakes that I’ve added.

VERDICT : YES… but NO.
Yes for the idea. As I said, you don’t have the liver flavor, it’s lost. but the texture and freshness is pleasant and goes well with the oily dressing. That could be good… with another sauce.
No, because I don’t like their sauce, this brand’s sauce. It’s too dominated by soy sauce and onion, too salty.

The classic sauce is usually simpler : a good ra yu (flavored sesame oil, infused with garlic and chili) and very little soy sauce.

I made my version with argan oil, natural sea salt, a few drops of soy sauce, dry garlic chips, dry chili flakes. Mix, and after 15 minutes, place the faux-liver in it 5 minutes. The great taste of the oil is showcased.
You have a nice appetizer.