Black natto brunch

Tororo on my bowl of natto…

A nagaimo, a long yamaimo or Japanese yam. Naga means long. We often buy only a cut, but the root is 60 cm long or more.

Grated. Tororo tuto.

Like an apple or an avocado, grated yamaimo tends to oxidate and darken in color. Or not, and that’s not previsible. But that was the case with this one so I’ve added juice of sudachi lime to keep it relatively creamy in color. That’s also a nice flavor addition.

Black natto (fermented soy beans). It’s often paired with grated wasabi.

Natto with rice is a regular breakfast item in Japan. So just that with tororo and green tea. A nice simple brunch.

Okomeyaki, brown rice okonomiyaki

Mid-way between yaki-onigiri and okonomiyaki, a tasty and healthy lunch. That’s really interesting to enjoy together the crusty flavor of grilled rice and the cabbage soft feel of okonomiyaki.

A triple base : cooked brown rice (leftovers), dry mushrooms and cabbage.

For the batter : 1/3 cup of cooked rice, 1/2 rice flour, the soaking water of mushrooms, salt. In the blender 1 minute.
For the filling : cabbage, ninnniku no me (garlic stalks), minced fresh ginger, 2/3 cup of cooked rice.
Mix, cook one side in an oiled pan.

Flip, add sesame oil, flip again…

With sauce (here Bulldog Worcester style sauce). Then aonori seaweed flakes and chili flakes :

Rice-lentils and baked spicy azuki lunch

Another nutritious and delicious plant-based lunch, doubly boosted in plant proteins with two types of pulses : beans and lentils. And a dynamic salad.
That’s ready very quickly if you plan a little. As faithful readers know, I cook beans in big batches and freeze in small portions, in muffin molds. Then you have to think about soaking the rice and lentils the night before (you can do without in case you forgot, but that’s better to do it right most of the time).

Azuki beans (boiled, I had them frozen), with gochujang and kimchi, two Korean products. I mixed, covered with bread crumbs.

Baked and sprinkled a little fragrant sesame oil and chili flakes on top.

Brown rice and lentils, soaked overnight and cooked in the rice-cooker together.

I stir-fried an onion, a little garlic, ginger slices, added the rice, turmeric, a little garam masala spice mix.

Kabocha salad made in last post.

Plant-based how-to : Tofunaise

It’s fresh, tart and silky.
Here is a light plant-based sauce, resembling mayonnaise.

Silky tofu, that you buy or make yourself.
It’s the base.

Sudachi citrus as a flavor.

Recipe :

A :
1/2 cup silky tofu
B :
1/4 ts hot mustard
1/8 ts turmeric for color (optional)
juice of a sudachi lime (or 1/3 lime, or other citrus)
salt, pepper to taste

Poach the tofu in hot water 2 minutes or cook in microwave, let water out. When it’s cooled, add in a blender with other ingredients listed as B.
Keep refrigerated up to a week. If the texture has changed, you just need to stir it with a spoon a little before using.

Rem : you can replace up to 2/3 of the tofu by more olive oil to get a fatter mayo closer to the classic version. That depends on your goal, it will still be vegan. I do it mostly to get a lighter sauce so I have oil just enough for flavoring.

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.