Romanesco ganmodoki

がんもどきGanmodoki are one of the numerous tofu based specialties that you can find in Japan. You wonder how many there are ? Oh, hundreds :

The Tofu Hyakuchin (豆腐百珍 Tōfu Hyakuchin?) is a Japanese recipe book written by Ka Hitsujun (何必醇) and published in 1782 during the Edo period. It lists 100 recipes for preparing tofu. Due to its immense popularity at the time, a second volume was published the following year.

source

And they had no romanesco then, so recipes like this were added later.
We can buy different types of ganmodoki in tofu shops, at markets and supermarkets and use them in many dishes. Making yours is easy.
Romanesco is beautiful. I’m never tired of watching it.

For the detailed recipe, see on the blog of the Gourmet that lives in Shizuoka. I simply changed the garnishing vegetables.

The stalks and leaves of the romanesco. I eat them too in soups or whatever. Here, I’ve cut thin sticks and steamed them. I’ve also steamed a few kabocha pumpkin sticks.

ヒジキHijiki seaweed. We can buy them fresh or dry. That doesn’t make a big difference. Add water to the dry ones, wait 10 minutes.

I pan-fried them.

Served with steamed romanesco, raw myoga, and shikwasa lime juice as a seasoning.

A nice plant based lunch.

Mushroom ratatouille and mozuku

An autumnal ratatouille and a Japanese sea weed. モズクmozuku is a sea weed from Okinawa that looks like small leaves in a jelly. They are sold already prepared or with a sauce aside like here.

I had veggies to finish : onion, white aubergine, purple aubergine, sweet green peppers.

Mixed dry Italian mushrooms including porcini.

I soaked and stir-fried the mushrooms with garlic. Then cooked my veggies in the same oil.

I completed with tomato paste, thyme.

I mixed the mozuku sea weed with its sauce (sweet vinegar) and added a few pieces of ginger. That can be drunk like a little soup.

Cabbage, konnyaku and natto.

Brown rice.

My lunch.

Koya-dofu soup. Reviving dry food.

A Winter soup made from a good old style broth, and a selection of dry food from my pantry.

高野豆腐 kouyadoufu
These blocks are hard, a dry moss like the green one you get to pick flowers in it, but in white. It’s tofu. Dried tofu.

koya Source Koyasan HP

Mount Koya, or Koyasan, is the name of a mountain, inhabited by a community of Buddhist monks, near Nara. They had the idea (or they imported it from China) to dry the tofu on freezing days, and it seems they invented the freeze-dry technique.
The dried tofu changes of textures, becomes like a sponge and it can be stored many months. It’s also very light in weight. It’s very convenient to stock tofu, and to take some when you travel.
When rehydrated, it doubles of volume, and I could cut it slices with scissors as contrarily to fresh tofu, it doesn’t crumbles. The taste is a little different too, more milky.

Here the items of my soup. There is also wakame sea weed, not on this photo.

TIPS :
To rehydrate dry food, cover it with lukewarm liquid. If possible, the liquid should not be salted otherwise it slows the process.
To speed it up, in the case of dry plants like fruits, mushrooms, even rice, you can add a little honey or diluted sugar.
To speed it up in case of protein-rich food like this koyadofu or beans, it’s better to have alkaline water. If yours is acidic, you can add baking soda to it.

more info about dry food

Home-made broth. I have well broken the bones so they released their extract and made the broth very white, full of nutrients.
Then it’s very simple :
-put the dry items, and some fresh minced ginger in a pan/bowl. Cover with warmed broth, add a pinch of sugar.
-wait 20 minutes
-cut the tofu. Add salt to taste. Re-heat.

Mmm… a delicious soup full of juicy items.

La mer. French sea dishes ( compilation)

Menu to navigate in the sea of French main dishes…

papillote de crystal saumon et pomélo (salmon papillote)
papillote de poisson (white fish)
papillote de poisson vanillée (vanilla fish)

Winter bouillabaisse
Summer bouillabaisse
aioli aux pommes de terre nouvelles (with cod fish)
bourride de limande et amaguri
fish cassoulet
choucroute de la mer (seafood Sauerkraut)

morue parmentière (cod and potatoes)
effeuillée de morue parmentière (cod and potato gratin)

calamars au vin (wine stewed calamari)
calamar à l’armoricaine (calamari stew)

carpaccio de daurade au pamplemousse (grapefruit marinated fish)
pétoncles à la nage (mini scallop soup)
ormeaux au beurre (buttered abalone)
salade tahitienne (Tahitian raw fish)
féroce d’avocat (avocado cod)

sole meunière
Mediterranean grilled fish
saumon vapeur aux algues (steamed salmon)
daurade flambée au pastis (anise baked fish)

Brown rice natto pizza

Another very special pizza, with a brown rice crust and a natto mayonnaise sea weed topping. The taste is surely special. But if you like natto and sea weeds, that’s a nice combination.