Reba-sashi, but fake. What could replace the Japanese carpaccio…

レバ刺し reba sashi (liver sashimi). It’s an immensely popular food in Japan. A few years ago all the yakiniku, yakitori and izakaya restaurants proposed it. I find it delicious too.
BUT…
I guess you are wondering if it’s healthy to eat raw liver. The answer is unfortunately that it’s risky and a number of food poisoning cases have occurred, so now the delicacy has disappeared from menus. And people miss it. So food industry made “safe liver sashimi”. It’s planted based, maybe not fully vegan (I’m not sure about all coloring ingredient) but at 99%. It’s made of konnyaku.

That’s how it is in the package. The faux-liver is in a liquid, you just need to rinse it. There is a sauce to marinate or to dip and sesame seeds. Sold less than 200 yen, that’s expensive for konnyaku but cheaper that the original liver.

Perfect appearance. Taste ? None. You will only have the taste of the sauce. Let’s try.

Served with mitsuba and onions (salted, rinsed).

A dip in the sauce.

Catching toasted sesame seeds and chili flakes that I’ve added.

VERDICT : YES… but NO.
Yes for the idea. As I said, you don’t have the liver flavor, it’s lost. but the texture and freshness is pleasant and goes well with the oily dressing. That could be good… with another sauce.
No, because I don’t like their sauce, this brand’s sauce. It’s too dominated by soy sauce and onion, too salty.

The classic sauce is usually simpler : a good ra yu (flavored sesame oil, infused with garlic and chili) and very little soy sauce.

I made my version with argan oil, natural sea salt, a few drops of soy sauce, dry garlic chips, dry chili flakes. Mix, and after 15 minutes, place the faux-liver in it 5 minutes. The great taste of the oil is showcased.
You have a nice appetizer.

Willow leaf fish

Komochi shishamo. Shishamo smelts with their kids. The body is full of roes.

柳葉魚shishamo means literally “willow leaf fish”. That’s when they hang them for drying after salting that the image takes its sense. An Ainu legend says a man was complaining near the river that his daughter was suffering from hunger, and the water’s Gods heard him. They grabbed the branch of a willow, so a few leaves fell into the water and transformed themselves in fish.

I simply grilled them.

Konnyaku sashimi, with sweet chili sauce and sesame. Goya around.

Myoga. Other sides are mesclun salad and grated daikon radish.

Mountain of veggies green curry

Yeah, all those veggies inside a curry trying to recreate the mountain green curry of the mountain people in the North of Thailand and South of China. It’s very sour, very bitter, very green… and the combination is refreshing. Well, that’s my arranged version with what I had in stock, as they surely never get favas and okras, but they have many local produce I can’t get.
I think the sansho (lemony, bitter), the goya (bitter), the ginger (hot) bring the good balance.

Green sansho peppercorns (frozen), onions, ginger, bay leaves.

Goya bitter cucumber, broad beans, okras, carrots.

I used green curry paste, brown sugar, citrus juice for the broth.

Ready.

Served with jasmine rice.

A side-dish totally fusion : white sashimi konnyaku, yellow bell pepper and balsamic reduction sauce.

Red bell pepper falafels

The falafel-mania is not over… Summer is just starting. Today with flashy red bell pepper.

It’s a base of pasted soaked chick peas, with onion, green and red pepper additions. To texture it, I’ve used oatmeal. Pan-fried.

Served them with grilled bread, shredded red cabbage, lemon, a little harissa and tahini sauce.

Freshly made tahini (pasted sesame), that I dilute with lemon juice and a little water to make the sauce.

Tahini sauce on the falafels and…

…on the side-dish of red bell pepper and wakame flavored sashimi konnyaku.

For dessert, green melon and a few drop this product that is a sweet reduction of balsamico vinegar. That magically enhances fruit flavor.

It’s hokke

A Japanese dish. Multiple dishes, but simple and ready in a few minutes.

Sashimi konnyaku. Slice seaweed flavored konnyaku, to be served chilled, like sashimi fish. Here with sweet chili sauce.

Genmai (brown rice) with sesame.

Hokke (arabesque greenling) that was salted. I simply grilled it under the broiler.
About hokke.

A water soup. As the rest was already very salty, there is just hot water, wakame seaweeds, carrot and nira (garlic chives).