Creamy quiche, sautéed taro, fiery miso

It’s a leftover recycling meal. I don’t know why but often when you try to finish up ingredients not meant to be served together, you obtain a better meal than if you had got the produce on purpose.

I used a lot of orange flesh of kabocha in other recipes, I had kept the skins. I’ve cut them, added a cut onion, a few leaves of laurel, covered with water. Cooked till onion is done. Add miso.

A good kabocha miso soup.

I am still eating this beast of oyaimo (satoimo/taro). I’ve peeled a bit, cut in cubes and cooked till tender in a pan with a little olive oil.

Added a few green peas to reheat.

Served with a spicy tomato sauce and parsley. Let’s find a name :
Jardinière folle au taro.

You don’t make simpler : mix 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1 tbs of potato starch, salt, pepper. Add water. Put in a mold.

The crust is pre-baked 10 minutes, then garnished.
The topping : diced onion, diced romanesco stalk, cooked in a little oil. Then I’ve added 2 tbs of sakekasu (sake lees) diluted in a cup of water with 1 ts of potato starch. Simmer till it thickens. Add salt, a little nutmeg, a drizzle of olive oil.

Creamy quiche. It’s plant-based and gluten-free.

A filling lunch, very tasty.

Oya imo taro on green sauce béchamel

The “parent” of 里芋 satoimo (Japanese taro) are on the market, they are called 親芋 oyaimo parent potato. That’s not classic sauce béchamel, but the texture is similar.
Let’s start with the beans, well the side dish :

Making pattzuki bean patties with azuki, miso, sesame, onion, parsley, kabocha skin. It is spiced by turmeric (very visible here) and paprika powder plus a few chili flakes.

Pan-fried.

The redness comes while cooking. Served with leaves of komatsuna.

Oya imo, a big taro.
Here is a photo of family of 親芋 oyaimo, the parent with its kids and grand-kids :

from this blog いきもの　は　おもしろい！

I cut and peeled a thick slice, boiled till tender.

The sauce is green as it contains lots of fresh parsley.

Fry minced onion, garlic, feet of shiitake mushroom. Blend together silky tofu, white wine, a tbs of potato starch. Add into the pan. Season with salt, pepper. Simmer.
Let cool and pass in the blender with 2 volumes of fresh parsley per volume of sauce. Reheat slowly before serving.

The oyaimo with sauce and steamed stalks of komatsuna.

Japanese garden creamy Winter soup

When it’s so cold inside, you need a soup every day. Yes, I wrote inside that’s not a typo, as outside the weather is mild, it’s Winter, but not freezing. In my place without heating, the day is just OK, but at night it’s a little chilly. So I put on a big sweater, my half-gloves and I get a bowl of good soup to warm me up…

It’s very quick to throw stuff in. Then, just let simmer a while. Today’s soup is a miso-minestrone. See the 3 steps at the end, but first let’s look at what is in it :

It’s full of season produce. Can you recognize them ?

Do you know that animal ? His name is taro. Well, he is a potato… and it’s usually called…

…satoimo here.

That’s the season of black soy bean kuromame. I had them boiled.

Some greens.

Shungiku, chrysanthemum leaves.

Kezuribushi, bonito fish flakes.

Koji-miso. There exist very different types of miso. The color depends on ingredients. The more rice, the whiter, the more soy, the darker. This one is light colored miso with a high content of fermented rice (komekoji), and it’s rough textured. Its taste is sweet and mild.

Step one : in some water, put to simmer some dry daikon radish skins (I keep them to make broth), a few peeled satoimo taros, a ts of pasted garlic, 2 tbs of tomato paste, a dry chili and a cup of boiled black beans with their broth. Let 20 minutes.
Step two : I made a 1/2 cup of neri-goma (tahini, white sesame paste), mixed it with a tbs of miso, a ts of fish flakes. I’ve diluted that in the soup and let 2 minutes on low heat.
Step 3 : pour the soup on shungiku greens, top with more fish flakes.
If you want it vegan, just don’t add the fish flakes, replace the topping with aonori seaweed flakes.

Opening 2013 with a Kyoto style o-zoni soup

Akemashite omedeto ! Happy New Year ! Bonne année !
Well, I’m not too much into wish-wish, my first concern this year was as usual : What do we eat in 2013 !
Ozoni ! It’s explained here.

The classic Kyoto o-zoni is caracterized by its simplicity, elegance, traditionalism and refinement. Mine is even simpler than planned… I’ve forgotten to add tofu. It was still delicious.
Kohaku, red and white are the good luck color of New Year and this soup follows this color code.

Mochi. Ozoni is mochi.

Dainty soup with a base of Saikyo miso and a dashi broth of the finest hana-katsuo, flower bonito fish shavings. I had to cheat, I’ve added a little sake kasu.

Traditional seasonal veggies. Ginnan are the gincko tree’s nuts. Kyoto’s small taro satoimo and ultra-red Kintoki carrot.

The veggies are boiled separately as they don’t go well together. These small round mochi get soft by poaching them a few minutes in boiling or near boiling water. If you had a big mochi, you’d need to slice it.

Fill the bowl with a mochi, veggies, tofu if you have. Cover with broth and top with a mount of fish flakes. Take the photo quick as the fish flakes disappear like in moving sands.

Herbed roasted season veggies with oyaimo (taro)

That’s true that it’s delicious, a good platter of oven roast vegetables, caramelised and crunchy.

A big satoimo (taro), it’s the parent type oyaimo. They taste better than the small ones.

The potato needs to be pre-boiled otherwise it dries too much. Meanwhile, I roasted the onions. I’ve added the potato and at the end some shishito pepper. Each vegetable was coated in olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary.