Smoked oysters and kimchi pasta

A simple colorful pasta lunch, really delicious. Bonus : a quick tsukemono (Japanese pickle).

A can of smoked oysters in oil, kimchi, soy bean sprouts and Japanese kabu turnips. These kabu are appreciated for their greens as much as for the root. Let’s use both in this meal.

Stir-frying the oysters.

Then add kimchi, al dente pasta, the sprouts. Serve on the blanched turnip greens. Sprinkle with sudachi lime juice.

Kabu. Peel, slice very thinly. You should be able to read a newspaper through a slice. I use a peeler.Place the slices in salted fresh water, let 15 minutes. Mince a small amount of greens. Drain the slices, squeeze well, add the greens, black pepper and broken walnuts. Mix well.

You have a nice veggie side dish, fresh and crunchy.

A delicious dragon fruit (from Philippines).

A nice meal.

Asari shellfish and tagliatelle

A colorful pasta, veggie, seafood one-dish meal.

Tagliatelle made with durum semolina plus a little matcha green tea powder.

Asari shellfish.

Cooked with garlic, chili, white wine, tomato paste…

…konnyaku, capers, favas (broad beans)

… stalks on mitsuba. The leaves decorate the serving plate.

Autumn lasagne

Lasagne with season ingredients : kabocha pumpkin, mushrooms, mature sakekasu (sake lees)…
First, I’ve made the pasta with durum semolina.

Steamed kabocha pumpkin. Silky tofu, crumbled and mixed with a little olive oil, thyme, salt, pepper, chili flakes.

On the boiled pasta, I’ve layered kabocha, tofu and sauce.

For the sauce, I’ve pasted the nuts, garlic, sakekasu.

Added the paste to the soaked fungi. Added a tbs of potato starch to thicken slightly. Let a few minutes on low heat. Seasoned with salt and pepper.

Top sauce : I’ve pasted sakekasu, miso, water, olive oil, then added broken walnuts.

A newly created Japanese citrus. キノス kinosu, from 木の酢, which means “vinegar from trees”. It has a very fruity flavor.

Blanched okra with negi leeks and kinosu juice as a green side.

Gnocchi x gnocchi

Gnocchi di patata ? Gnocchi di polenta ?

That’s the Daring Cook’s challenge of this month : potato gnocchi.

Todd, who is The Daring Kitchen’s AWESOME webmaster and an amazing cook, is our September Daring Cooks’ host! Todd challenged us to make light and fluffy potato Gnocchi and encouraged us to flavor the lil pillows of goodness and go wild with a sauce to top them with!

As I had already made some and I wanted a fresher Summer version, I tried to combine polenta gnocchi and potato gnocchi recipes :

It’s gluten free. I didn’t add flour. I cooked the polenta, and made mashed potato. I mixed about 60% potato, 40% polenta. Flavored with salt, nutmeg, black pepper, a little olive oil. Let cool a few hours.

Prepared a sauce (tomato, garlic, olive oil) and stir-fried peppers and onions with garlic and rosemary.

Formed gnocchi with the chilled dough, coated them in sauce.
They can’t be boiled or they would fall apart (yep, I tried). It’s not a problem, they can reheated in the sauce.

Actually, I ate the second serving not reheated and the dish is as good hot as cold. It’s great for this hot season.

Pesto and chirimen-jako

Pesto spaghetti with a Japanese twist.

A base of spaghetti in a basil sesame pesto I had as a leftover of the day before.

ちりめんじゃこ chirimen-jako are fish bait of the anchovy and sardine family. They are dried under the sun and can be kept a few days. That’s salty and tasting of fish of course.

The other topping : boiled and skinned favas (broad beans). And a few ribbons of basil leaves.

Side dish : ginger cukes.
A quick tsukemono : Sliced, cut, rinsed white cucumber. Added sea salt and minced ginger. Mixed well. Let one hour in the fridge.