Baked hana mame beans, buckwheat berry flan

Beans and grains, simply. Baked beans with huge beans and a twist, spicy buckwheat flans with balsamico icing.

I had a leftover of cooked buckwheat groats, so I’ve added minced onion, garlic and feet of shiitake mushrooms, pasted parsley, turmeric, a little massala spice mix, water and potato starch. I’ve steamed the mix in a muffin tray till that became solid. On top, it’s (bought) balsamic reduction sauce. I know it’s cheating, but as I have this product, I use it.

Hana mame. The name literally means ‘flower bean’, but in English that’s runner bean. The Japanese ones are really huge. These are 紫花豆 murasaki hanamame (purple flower beans) and there exist some white ones too.
This photo was taken after soaking.

Other posts about murasaki haname beans.

After soaking the beans overnight, I boiled them of course. Then in a pottery, I’ve put beans, simple passata tomato sauce, and a mix of bean cooking broth + miso + sakekasu (sake lees)+ olive oil. And baked.
Beside, I steamed and cut a mizu nasu aubergine, to serve with these beans.

The sauce gets creamy thanks to the sakekasu.

Island shred : green papaya, goya bitter squash, shikwasa lime juice and peel and pinch of salt. Mix and let 30 minutes.

Another delicious and filling plant-based meal…

So let’s mix in the aubergines…

Two bouquets of flower beans, konnyaku curry…

Two dishes with these huge murasaki hanamame, the flower beans. Then a curry and a pasta salad. That makes a pleasant little lunch.

Konnyaku, boiled kabocha skins, onions, hijiki sea weeds and curry spices reheated together. The kabocha flesh makes the sauce and brings sweeteness. That’s a good match.

A quick pasta salad : tomato sauce pasta l.o. plus cabbage, red sweet chili and black Chinese vinegar.

I’ve added natto in the beans’ cooking broth. Then salt and toasted sesame.

For dessert : honey sweetened beans (see here).

Purple hana mame, sweet giant beans

That’s the season for new dry beans. So here are the first hanamame (flower beans ) of the season.

They are that big. They need long soaking time in spite of freshness.

After 24 hours.

Boiled till they get tender.

Then I soaked them one night in a syrup (honey plus a litte mirin and soy sauce). And I get those delicious dessert beans.

Soba chic sauce… (via Gourmande in Osaka)

Last year…

Hot 10-wari (100% buckwheat) soba nooddles in creamy sauce (chick peas, garlic, vinegar, white sesame oil), topped with fresh edamame beans, and murasaki flower beans. Soup is made using as a the broth the cooking water of noodles, it's quite thick for whole noodles. Just added wakame seaweed, flakes of bonito fish, soy sauce. Fresh fruits, tomato and kiwi, eaten with freshly ground flax seeds. Cal 615.3 F13.8g C92.5g P27.5g Fr : Nouilles de soba … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

No-rules no-cooking dinner for hot weather (yeah !)…

The weather was cold this year and suddenly, it’s like Summer… OK, that doesn’t look like a dinner. I wanted something fresh. No cooking required, just adding things.

Mizuna leaves, mango, purple flower beans, lime (fruit and juice), white ribbons of sashimi konnyaku, petals of carnations, pepper…

Fresh dessert.
Sweet tofu and (frozen) blueberries. The hand-made momen tofu (“cotton”) is irregular. After pressing out the water, vanilla extract and the juice of blueberries can get inside. I have sweetened the juice with a little kurozato (black sugar), and the berries with “lakanto” natural sweetener.