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.

Sakura kit

I’m equipped for the cherry blossom season that is looming… It’s really early this year. I’ve seen only pink ones so far, but within a few days, the country will be white.

Japanese sakura sweets are flavored with pickles made the year before. I should make mines maybe, but well I’ve bought some. さくらの花(塩漬け), cherry blossom, pickled in salt.

The leaves are also pickled but less salty.

The flowers in the bin.

They need a rinsing.

Then you add petals to some food, let a pair of hours and they are magically flavored. You’ll see that in future posts.

干菓子higashi (dry sweets) to go with matcha. I didn’t make those either.

Wagashi Saga : Japanese sweet posts and tutorials.

Miso gold yolks

ran-ou no misozuke (卵黄の味噌漬).
They are egg yolks, pickled in miso. It’s a popular delicacy to enjoy as a salty snack with sake, or on your hot rice.

I have used eggs from the butcher’s… Well, they sell the eggs found inside the hens, that have no shell yet. They are excellent. Whenever my grandma would kill a hen, I was volunteering for the job (everything but the fatal stroke) and in exchange, the eggs were my lunch. In some places in Italy, they use them to make premium pasta. These are covered with a skin, which makes them easier to smear with miso, they don’t break. Also, I don’t need the whites.
The recipe can be done with standard yolks. For instance, see Shizuoka Gourmet’s technique for tamago misozuke.

1 cup of miso, 1 tbs of mirin, 1 tbs of sake. I just place the eggs with miso all over, cover and keep in the fridge. You can use any color of miso.

After 24 hours, the small ones are done. The big ones will mature in a few more days. I can eat them progressively.

You can take out the outer skin. The yolk is solid. Serve only one per person. I have more because they are minis. It’s delicious. Try it some day.

Ryori, a Japanese classic menu… (compilation by cooking techniques)

Quick list of Japanese “classics” to help you navigate on this site. That’s not complete at all. I tried to make it representative. I often make them with a twist, but I tell you in the post.

Short memo about the Japanese meal

-all dishes are brought at the same time, ideally served in individual dishes, one plate per item.
-there is rice + soup + three items. Or more.

The items, called okazu tend to be side-dish sized. On the menu in restaurants, traditional style was to present the okazu by cooking technique.

ONE :

GOHAN, rice
rice cuisine list ***** sushi list

and ONE :

吸い物,SUIMONO
A soup to drink !

DASHI (basic stock tutorial)
vegan dashi tuto
misoshiru (miso soup, in many posts)
shijimi miso soup
clear soup
O-zoni New Year soup
sake kasu Winter white soup

And THREE, FOUR, FIVE… many :

OKAZU LIST

お造り o-tsukuri
Normally, that’s a term for seafood sashimi, raw seafood. I don’t *cook* it of course.

scallop sashimi
calamari sashimi noodles
hamo no aburi (flamed sashimi)
hiya yakko (chilled tofu cubes)
konnyaku faux-sashimi

和え物,aemono
Cold dish with sauce.

shira-ae veggies
goma-ae kogomi (sesame fiddle heads)
snappy beans and shrimps in kimizu-ae (yolk sauce)

蒸し物, mushimono
Steamed.
egg tofu
dobin mushi (steamed soup)
okowa kabocha (steamed pumpkin with rice)
steamed scallop

御浸し, o-hitashi
Blanched.
mustard green o-hitashi
green leaf maki
reishabu (poached meat)

揚げ物 agemono
Fried dishes.

tempura (tutorial)
kakiage (mixed tempura)
karaage fish
agedofu, fried tofu DIY
kaki-furai (fried oysters)

焼き物, yakimono
Grilled dishes.

shioyaki (salt grilled fish)
kabayaki conger eel
yakiniku, beef BBQ
yakitori (chicken skewers)
teriyaki chicken(the “real” thing, recipe)
teriyaki fish
miso yaki chicken
miso yaki fish
dengaku (skewers)

鉄板焼き,teppanyaki
Grilled on the hot plate.
Beef liver teppanyaki
okonomiyaki (compilation)
ika-yaki (calamari)

煮物, nimono
Simmered.

pumpkin kabocha no nitsuke
kakuni (pork)
beef shigure
buri daikon (fish and radish)

炒め物 itamemono
Stir-fried.

champuru (Okinawan scramble)
kinpira

漬物, tsukemono
pickles
wasabi leaf tsukemono
daikon radish leave tsukemono
dashi’t, Obanazawa pickle
pink lotus root tsukemono

酢の物, sunomono
Quick vinegar pickles. Salads with lots of vinegar.

potato sarada
daikon ume sarada
kabocha sarada

Korean style Taisho kintoki beans

These marinated beans have an extremely sharp and fragrant shiso flavor that lighten them extraordinarily.
This not an existing Korean dish. I arrange that with Korean ingredients.

Bean cooking day. Azuki beans. And the big ones are 大正金時豆 (Taisho Kintoki Mame). They are beans… red beans, less red than kidney beans. Like all beans, they are used in Japan, for savory dishes, sweet dishes and sweet desserts. Here it’s a sweet-savory side dish.