Baba Osaka

Today’s baba is very Japanese. The biscuit is soaked in matcha green tea, and it is topped with an anko sweet bean paste.
I had a few mini-savarin left, getting stale (see recipe here).

I soaked the babas in thick sweetened matcha (green tea for ceremony). Let overnight.

I had no azuki beans in stock, so I’ve used other red beans (taisho kintoki beans), sweetened with vanilla sugar.

That’s it. I’ve sprinkled a little more matcha and sugar on top.

The baba was fully soaked, but weirdly the color didn’t pass everywhere.

Warm kintoki red bean terrine, with creamy yellow sauce

Today a red veggieful terrine served warm with a creamy sunny sauce that sparkles on the tongue. For a contrast of texture, I ate it with crunchy boiled renkon (lotus root) and a fresh quick tsukemono (grated cabbage, turnip, onion, salt, combined 30 minutes before).
You’ve seen bean terrines before on this blog and you’ll see more because they are very convenient. I can prepare several different ones, bake them together and I have a little stock.

Today’s bean, already boiled of course :

Taisho kintoki mame

This terrine is made of : mashed beans with onion, garlic, miso, paprika and oats for the binding mass.
Inside : whole beans, dices of red and yellow bell pepper, minced onions.

Then, it’s baked and let cool 48 hours before cutting thick slices. They can be reheated in a steamer or the micro-wave.

The sauce is extremely easy to prepare and surpringly refined :
Mix : 1/2 coconut cream, 1/2 coconut milk, a little potato starch, a pinch of curry spice mix (powdered), a good amount of powdered turmeric, 1/4 cup of cut yellow paprika.
Heat 2 minutes in the micro-wave.
Add very strong fine mustard to taste.

Scarlet lunch

Another simple meal.

Main: Bonito tataki, with yuzu ponzu. And crudites.

Hijiki seaweeds.

Pasta.

Kintoki beans and kabocha.

A delicious apple.

Hijiki seaweed, kabocha…

A more Japanese meal today. Several small items compose it. There is nothing classic. I switched rice for fancy bread (but many Japanese do that) and it’s vegan, which is a rarity in this country.

Let’s start simple : kinudofu, creamy silky tofu with sweet chili peppers and green lemon.

I get these seaweed fresh, so I just need to rinse and cook. If you buy them dried (most Japanese grocers have them), you need to soak them about 20 minutes, use lukewarm water with a little honey or sugar for better result.

I fried cut red onion in a little oil, added the hijiki, stir-fried, then seasoned with a little shoyu soy sauce and sugar, simmered 2 minutes.
They can be served cold (like here) or hot.

Boiled kabocha pumpkin skins. That’s a leftover, I reheated and covered with sesame sauce gomadare.

When you mix, it get really yummy.

Taisho kintoki beans. I boiled a big batch recently as the 2012 crop of dry beans arrived. They are superb.

With tomato chili sauce, and parsley.

Red delight.

Something to clean the sauce : pumpkin bread.

Toasted.
Thankies gods and sacrified veggies.Itatakimasu !

August veg’ lunch plate

Colors and vitamins with season veggies.

This Kintoki red bean waffle (like this) is a bit broken. Well, it’s totally broken. It’s necessary to add some potato or corn starch as a binder. Not much, but the amount depends on the beans and these needed more than the small adzuki. It’s flavored with Chinese miso, turmeric, garlic, sesame and cubes of goya bitter squash.

With a sauce made of tomato, olive oil, cumin, spices, chili.

Finely grated raw kabocha pumpkin.

Steamed taasai greens. It’s called B. rapa var. narinosa in vegetable patch Latin. It’s spelled like that in Asian hieroglyphs : 搨菜. And in English ? No idea. Well, greens are always good to take. I got them for a song at the market.