A quick veggie side for Japanese meals.
You already saw this red Kyoto turnip. I used one there. The other, I cleaned well, sliced the root, picked the leaves.
In salted water. I keep it covered, in the fridge. Good from the next day, for a few days.
After 3 days, the leaves.
The root.
My green fix, with nanohana (rape blossoms.
With some râpées (grated potatoes, with cut of nanohana and parsley).
The soup is made of the stalks and bigger leaves of the nanohana, juiced. And some fresh sakekasu (sake lees). The soup is cooked a few minutes till it thickens.
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That’s a new one. It’s less sweet than the Autumn one, but still sweet and mellow. That balances the bitterness of the vegetable.
Steamed blossoms to complete. That’s a a very green lunch.
We’re stepping into Autumn seriously now. That seems late, I guess but that’s really from mid-November that the nature of Kansai takes its fire colors, and there are still many warm days.
I needed some red on the plate too. I restocked boiled azuki red beans. As usual, I made a ton and I froze portions.
I’ve eaten a serving just boiled, adding tomato sauce, Cayenne pepper.
Leaves… stalks of mini daikon. All that is warmed together.
And a few balls of cream cheese bring a refreshing contrast. Miam ! Miam !
That’s simply the Asian cousin of the Italian basil pesto. The recipe is the same, but the taste is totally different. I had bought a huge pack of shiso leaves that I couldn’t use in time, so that was the tasty solution to prolongate their live.
I’ve used it to garnish a few dishes this week.
You’ll see these noodles soon.
I’ve kept the olive oil and sea salt.
A layer of oil on top to keep it a few days in the fridge. It looks muddy, but under the green freshness is intact.
It did not last long. You never made enough shiso pesto.
Eat your greens. Eat your radish greens…
Japanese big radish daikon is now very well known over the world. What fewer people know is, like other radishes, they have delicious leaves. In Osaka too, many people cut out the pompom of their daikon and let in the shop… so I can have that for free. Arigato ! These are cultivated for the leaves. It’s not free, but still very cheap. They are often prepared in tsukemono (the whole root + leaves), but this time the root is a bit small for that.
That could be this type of tsukemono :
wasabi leave tsukemono
You can use leaves of small radish or of big daikon for the following recipes, if you can get enough green.
I like having many variations for an ingredient.
So we can have 2 hot dishes :
Mini-daikon miso soup
Nameko eggs with daikon leaves
3 cold dishes :
Daikon sesame unohana (click here for recipe).
Leafy miso
Water tsukemono of leafy daikon
I am stupid… as I wanted to make a chart showing what part I used to make each dish. I did, and for the 3, there are 2 wrong.
On top, you can see : leaves only (for leafy miso), tender stalks (for unohana) and the last is correct, the whole plant for the water tsukemono.
Leafy miso :
Take small or big leaves of daikon. Cut them if necessary. Rince, let dry. In a wok or a frying pan, without oil or anything, put the leaves and stir-them till they lose 1/2 volume. Add white sesame seeds, stir a little. Add brown miso, and mix in on moderate heat.
You can use this as a topping for rice, veggies, etc…
Water tsukemono :
No fuss : cut the cleaned whole plant, radish and leaves. Cut fresh hot chili. Add sea salt and fresh water. As you can see on photos, water was absorbed after a few minutes, I add to add some. Let 2 hours on the counter, then keep refrigerated. Wait 1 day. Keep 2 to 5 days.
Nanakusa o-kayu, the New Year porridge is made with that type of daikon too.
GOURMANDE in OSAKA 