Sesame sweet and sour tofu

Tasty tofu. Good tofu is tasty. A tasty tofu dish.
I don’t like when people say “it’s a recipe for people that don’t like such ingredient”. If you don’t like tofu, there is no obligation to eat some. But,but… Let’s say this is a recipe that makes tofu taste and feel differently. It is marinated and prepared in a Chinese style sauce.

It’s very firm momendoufu (cotton tofu). I’ve put a plate on the block during 15 minutes to squeeze out excess water.
Cut, and mixed with a marinade (1 tbs soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, 2 tbs Chinese wine, 1/2 ts wuxi 5 spices mix) and let 1/2 hour.
Then I passed the cubes in a plate of potato starch and stir-fried till golden.

For the sauce :
Heat 1 tbs of sugar (here kurozato black cane sugar), when it’s getting into caramel.
On lower heat, add in water, paprika powder or paste, grated garlic, the rest of the plate of starch and the plate of marinade.
Stir till it takes texture. Add some black rice vinegar. Check salt, add chili pepper to taste, more water if you want.
Reheat the tofu in the sauce.

Top with a little fragrant sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds.
Yuummmmm….

As a side a salad of lettuce, onion, parsley and umi-budo “sea grapes”.

umi-budo (more here)

Served with genmai (brown rice).

Carotene lunch

Baked paprika, carotene powered.
I am not sure the body tells what it needs, but I wanted to eat this yellow orange color. I like thinking these food bring a lot of antioxidant β-carotene that I need now. Even if I’m wrong, I’ve eaten something good.

A yellow paprika and carrot *okara*. I made carrot juice, they are the grounds.

The filling is azuki beans, new onion, the carrot *okara*, turmeric, garlic, chili pepper, salt.

Baked. I’ve put a drizzle of olive oil on top. That favors vitamin absorption.

Today’s salad : chrysanthemum, young onion (salted, let 20 minutes, rinsed), parsley and ninniku no me (garlic stalks).

Dessert : citrus flavored torta di riso (see here).

A nice little three course meal, ready in few minute. The dessert was made a few days ago.

Lotus and edamame eggs in a soba nest

As Spring arrives, I have to cook my quota of Easter eggs.
What comes first ? The egg or the nest ?

Let’s say it’s the egg. Some eggs, like those of quail are irregular in colors, just like that.

The eggs are made of pasted edamame beans and broken renkon lotus root. There is also onion, garlic, white miso and for a cheezy touch some bits of sake kasu. I have cooked the paste then shaped.

The nest.

I had seen some “cookies” made from soba noodles, so I knew they were tasted after being dried.
I have simply baked fresh soba buckwheat noodles under the grill of the oven toaster. The noodles are boiled, but cold. I have not added any flavoring, they are delicious that way.

It’s crispy around and soft inside.

Tsubomina and lotus root stir-fry as a side.

Sakura okowa as a second side (details here).

That’s a Spring lunch for me.

Buta no shogayaki – Ginger pork

Two easy and tasty Japanese dishes.

Of course, the most important ingredient is ginger.

You can use any cut of pork that can be cooked quickly in a pan, but the easiest is to use these very thin slices.

Here are the proportions of the sauce. You need about 1 tbs per person, but use as much as you wish. The ginger is peeled and grate, you can also mince it thinly. Just mix.
First, you can stir fry onions, and keep them aside.

Cook the meat fully on both sides. Add the sauce, and a little water, let simmer about 10 minutes. Put back the onions. Reheat together.

Serve with raw veggies. Here cabbage and kintoki red carrot.

Furikake is a dry powder mix used to give flavor to white rice, or other plain food. There exist many types. This one is called yukari (purple), it is made of mostly dried akashiso (red shiso). The other ingredients of the mix vary. Here : umesu (pickled plum vinegar), salt, sugar, yuzu lemo. It’s ready to use. So just put on boiled spaghetti and that’s a side dish.