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.

Momo mitsu-nyu, a plant based tres leches with peach

Freshly invented, this is the Japanese tres leches. Momo, the peach. Mitsu-nyu, 3 milks. It is vegan, gluten free, and oishii !

More about “tres leches” cake and basic recipe.

This is okara, the fiber left after you squeeze out soy milk. I often make cakes with it.

I’ve made a very simple vanilla okara cake, very simple :
1 cup of okara, 2 tbs of potato starch, 2 tbs of cane sugar, 1 tbs of dry coconut, vanilla powder, enough water to get a sticky dough. Baked on low heat in 2 round molds.

Next day, I’ve soaked the dried cooled cakes.
Syrup : coconut milk + coconut cream + 1 small chunk of kurozako black sugar.
I consider soy creaminess from the okara makes the 3rd milk.

That’s the texture you obtain.

A few hours later, I’ve piled the 2 rounds and garnished.
Cream : coconut cream, powder sugar and green kinako (a grilled soy powder). I’ve completed with slices of peach.

A fresh creamy cake that will live long enough to take and photo and then disappear into the paradise of great food memories…

New ginger carrot okara cookies

I made these savory cookies to use leftovers. They ended up like heath store cookies, full of fibers and good nutrients.

Carrot lees, what is left from juicing.

Okara, the leftover from making tofu and soy milk.

New ginger, still pink like a little baby. It’s available in Summer. Ginger pickles are made with it.

Carrot + okara + minced ginger. I’ve added miso and powdered sesame for flavor, potato starch for binding.

Spread on cooking paper, with more sesame seeds.

After baking, they are still soft. The next day, they hardened and flavors have combined.

My yogurt is green… but it’s pink.

Yogurt is the topic of this month’s Daring Cook’s challenge.

The lovely Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler was our July Daring Cooks’ hostess and she asked us to create homemade yogurt in our own kitchens! No incubators needed, no expensive equipment or ingredients, just a few items and we had delicious yogurt for a fraction of the cost and a whole lot healthier than what you buy in the stores!

Well, everything is relative. Fresh cow milk costs the same or more than yogurts. Those they sell are not different than home-made (using the same yogurts as ferment, my only option). Then, I don’t know in other countries but yogurt makers, electric and thermos can be found at bargain price, and my oven can do “incubator”. So the equipment is less an issue than the ingredients.

I had already made a lot of dairy yogurts and a few experiments in dairy free ones (about my dairy free adventures). So I tried a new variations with black soy beans.

Previous yogurt dishes :
Osaka yogurt cake – Keftas in yogurt sauce
Coconut yogurt lassi– Soy yogurt choco cake– Soy-yo carrot cake

I have used black soy beans to make :

milk from black soy

And this milk (recipe here) gave this :

Oh surprise ! It’s pink. I simply enjoyed it with berry jam.

Summer inari-zushi

Inari is the type of sushi contained in a sweetly soaked pouch of fried tofu. The pronunciation is Zushi in this word, inarizushi.
With season produce, they make a pleasant plant-based lunch.

I told you that so far the rainy season was a dry one, but that’s changing as we are reaching the end : It rains seriously !

I bought this. 油揚げ, abura age. They are slices of tofu, deep-fried.

Cut and they become little bags to contain your sushi.

My rice is a mix of mochigome (sticky rice) and genmai (brown rice) . Flavored with kurosu (black rice vinegar), very little salt and grated carrot.

I rinsed the abura age pouches with hot water to eliminate the excess of oil, then simmered them in a little sweet broth (shoyu soy sauce, kurozato black sugar, chili pepper and laurel). I don’t want mine too sweet.
Toppings : edamame fresh soy beans, fresh sweet corn, sweet green chili, carrot.

Served with kaiware daikon sprouts.