Sesame and sesame ramen

A warm ramen lunch to fight the chilly weather.Nothing goes better with pork broth than the nuttiness of toasted sesame.

I bought the noddles and the soup (tonkotsu pork broth).

The reheat noddles and toppings. Sliced ginger and kujo negi leeks. Toasted sesame and kiku chrysanthemum. And on top of that, a little mix of miso, toasted sesame and garlic, pasted together.

A very filling side dish : veggies in gochujang Korean sauce. There are okra, kuromame black soy beans, ninniku no me garlic stalks…

…slices of ukon turmeric.

Black natto brunch

Tororo on my bowl of natto…

A nagaimo, a long yamaimo or Japanese yam. Naga means long. We often buy only a cut, but the root is 60 cm long or more.

Grated. Tororo tuto.

Like an apple or an avocado, grated yamaimo tends to oxidate and darken in color. Or not, and that’s not previsible. But that was the case with this one so I’ve added juice of sudachi lime to keep it relatively creamy in color. That’s also a nice flavor addition.

Black natto (fermented soy beans). It’s often paired with grated wasabi.

Natto with rice is a regular breakfast item in Japan. So just that with tororo and green tea. A nice simple brunch.

Summer salad with argan oil and black beans

Black beans have a Winter image… I refreshed them with greens and juicy items for a nutritive Summer salad meal.

Fragrant argan oil from Morocco, a little garlic, salt and balsamic vinegar for the dressing.

The companions of the kuromame (black soy beans, that were boiled and frozen) are edamame, sliced okra, shimeji mushrooms and green sweet chilis. I’ve added a little minced hot chili. I’ve steamed all that together. Added the dressing, let cool.

Chilled shirataki noodles with black gomadare sauce

And advantage of shirataki (konnyaku noodles) is unlike other noodles, you don’t need to boil them again then chill. All you need is rinsing them in clear water.

The 4 elements of my dish.

A : rinse the shirataki noodles.

B : cut cubes of fresh tofu.

C : prepare veggies like bell pepper, red chili, goya, onion and coriander.

D : make the dressing.
Gomadare is the classic sesame dressing. Today it’s black as I’ve used black sesame and the black douchi :

Douchi, Chinese fermented black soy beans.

Kabocha nems

A free variation of nems (Vietnamese fried Spring rolls) to empty my fridge and rejoice my tastebuds.

I had green soy beans (read more here) to use.

Steamed kabocha, boiled green soy beans, onion… plus a good amount of turmeric and curry spices.

Rolled in rice-paper, painted with oil all over.

Grilled in the oven toaster, served with parsley.

A dip of black rice vinegar, chili pepper, a little soy sauce.