My garden lunch…
That’s the season for chrysanthemums, on the table too. These small ones are often seen with sashimi. They look good with any food.
Ful, broad bean hummus.
Basil pesto (basil, garlic, sesame, salt, olive oil).
菊Kiku, chrysanthemum.
A toast, bean paste, pesto and flowers.
Kimchi with yamaimo (Japanese yam) and okra, two sluggish veggies.
With coffee and a mikan orange.
Let’s complete the menu. As it’s still hot (arounf 30 degrees celcius), I’ve served the kurokke warm and the rest chilled.
You could see the making of green and orange kurokke in the previous post.
I had the skins of the broad beans and of the kabocha. I’ve put them in the blender with some komatsuna greens and a tbs of miso. That gave me a chilled green miso soup :
Myoga.
I’ve diced red bell pepper. Salted, let 15 minutes. Then poured on cubes of silky tofu. Decorate with cut myoga.
Today polenta, and as usual, a variety of season produce.
I cooked the polenta grain. Added minced and salted sweet green chili, small bits of hot chili (red). Pepper, nutmeg. Let chill overnight in a mold. Then put on a dish, paint with olive oil and pass a few minutes under the grill. Pour a little tomato juice around in the dish. Serve hot.
Frozen cotton tofu (momendofu). I froze the whole block in its water. Thawed. Press to push out the water, cut in cubes. As you can see, it has a bread like texture now.
Stir-fried frozen tofu with eringi mushroom, garlic, olive oil.
Na no hana no ohitashi (rape blossoms). They are blanched and refreshed. With tomato juice agar jelly.
Edamame pesto salad. Boiled edamame, onion, yellow pepper, the broken leaves of na no hana. I mixed in a leftover of sesame basil pesto. Let a few hours in the fridge.
Nashi. Japanese pear.
玉 tama in Japanese means sphere, ball. Like an egg (tamago), or an eggplant (=aubergine). That’s today’s topic.
Tama konnyaku. They are balls of konnyaku. At this point, they are flavorless, and zero calories. No interest except that they favor digestion. And they have a cute shape. And the texture is pleasant. And they will catch the flavor of spicing… So, it’s very interesting for me.
I bought the balls, but you can carve some from a block with a melon spoon.
After rinsing, I stir-fried them in a little oil with a few sticks of fresh ginger. Then added soy sauce, mirin, sake, powdered paprika and turmeric. Let simmer till the color is nice.
Ginger tama konnyaku, to eat hot with toothpicks. As you can see on the final photo, the inside stays white.
Natt’oats. Cooked oats with slices of ginger + kuromame black beans + natto + soy sauce + blanched spinach + hot chili + olive oil.
Arlequin aubergine :
-steam slices of aubergine, paint with olive oil, bake
-garnish with tomato paste + salt , add a tbs of pesto and bits of yellow pepper. Drizzle olive oil.Bake again.
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.
GOURMANDE in OSAKA 