A little cake, made mostly of fruits, ready in a few minutes. It’s simple and natural. No cooking, no added sugar.
And it tastes really decadent.
The 3 ingredients in equal amounts, pasted into the blender, then shaped in a mold.
Coconut cream plus grated lemon zest.
Fresh cherries. Then powdered cinnamon. That’s all.
Ahem… for a nicer effect, I should have taken away the crust before filling. I broke it apart, but that was still delicious.
Second visit of kibinago fish bait.
南蛮づけ nanban zuke. It’s fried fish, then marinated in a sour sauce. The result is very light on the stomach.
kibinago (silver stripe round herring) are these small mini-fish, often to small to cut them. Perfect for frying.
Wash the fish and drain well water. Sprinkle black pepper and chili pepper or other spices (optional).
Heat frying oil. Pass the fish in potato starch, fry them.
The fried fish, onion, carrot, ginger (grated) a chili pepper.
For the sauce : 1/2 cup water, 2 tbs mirin, 1 tbs soy sauce, 2 tbs sake brought to a boil. Then add 4 tbs of black rice vinegar. Pour on fish and veggies. Cover. Let 30 minutes minimum. I prefer overnight.
The next day.
Renkon (lotus root) in black vinegar with ginger. Green beans and edamame in yuzu citrus juice.
Genmai (brown rice) and miso soup with wakame seaweed.
A fresh pasta and seafood dish. Delicious and easy. That can be done with any fresh herb you have.
Sweet onion simmered in coconut milk. Then stalks of mitsuba, black tiger shrimps, salt and pepper. Home-made pasta (colored with turmeric and paprika).
About mitsuba.
Served with the leaves of mitsuba all around, like a salad.
That’s the second part of this meal. Here are the small plates that make the charm of the Japanese table and nicely balance the diet.
More about Japanese style meals and recipe list
Suimono is the soup-drink you find in any Japanese meal. A very simple Spring time version :
In a bowl, put thin carrot slices, stalks of mitsuba, shavings of dry fish (kezuribushi), a few drops of soy sauce, hot water.
You can replace the fish with a few seaweeds (dry wakame).
Garnish with a few leaves of aromatic :
Japanese onion. A country of rice is a country of onion as they are cultivated in the rice paddies to rest the soil. Let’s make a salad.
If you don’t want a pungent onion salad that gives you a breath able to kills flies, mosquitoes, wasps, hornets… well, cut them thin, add salt, mix well, let one hour and rinse well.
My fix of natto, with baby leaf mizuna.
Kabu tsukemono. Pickled Japanese turnip. I grated turnip, cut some leaves, added salt. That’s after 24 hours.
The moon is announcing rain ?
Let’s grill moon colored fish…
Soramame (sky bean) is the Japanese name of broad beans (favas).
In the rice cooker : soaked rice, a 1 tbs of mirin and the skins of the beans. So the rice is nicely flavored. Then I take away the skins and replaces with the green inside, add a pinch of salt, and let a few minutes in the steam.
My rice looks… dirty ? Well, it’s not white, it’s polished germinated rice, a healthier version of white rice.
The flavor + the color !
Shio-yaki is so simple : salt and grill. It’s saba (mackerel) and its precious healthy omega.
Of course, 2 items for a Japanese dinner, that would be too sad.
The rest of the menu is in next post.
GOURMANDE in OSAKA 