Creamy quiche, sautéed taro, fiery miso

It’s a leftover recycling meal. I don’t know why but often when you try to finish up ingredients not meant to be served together, you obtain a better meal than if you had got the produce on purpose.

I used a lot of orange flesh of kabocha in other recipes, I had kept the skins. I’ve cut them, added a cut onion, a few leaves of laurel, covered with water. Cooked till onion is done. Add miso.

A good kabocha miso soup.

I am still eating this beast of oyaimo (satoimo/taro). I’ve peeled a bit, cut in cubes and cooked till tender in a pan with a little olive oil.

Added a few green peas to reheat.

Served with a spicy tomato sauce and parsley. Let’s find a name :
Jardinière folle au taro.

You don’t make simpler : mix 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1 tbs of potato starch, salt, pepper. Add water. Put in a mold.

The crust is pre-baked 10 minutes, then garnished.
The topping : diced onion, diced romanesco stalk, cooked in a little oil. Then I’ve added 2 tbs of sakekasu (sake lees) diluted in a cup of water with 1 ts of potato starch. Simmer till it thickens. Add salt, a little nutmeg, a drizzle of olive oil.

Creamy quiche. It’s plant-based and gluten-free.

A filling lunch, very tasty.

Oya imo taro on green sauce béchamel

The “parent” of 里芋 satoimo (Japanese taro) are on the market, they are called 親芋 oyaimo parent potato. That’s not classic sauce béchamel, but the texture is similar.
Let’s start with the beans, well the side dish :

Making pattzuki bean patties with azuki, miso, sesame, onion, parsley, kabocha skin. It is spiced by turmeric (very visible here) and paprika powder plus a few chili flakes.

Pan-fried.

The redness comes while cooking. Served with leaves of komatsuna.

Oya imo, a big taro.
Here is a photo of family of 親芋 oyaimo, the parent with its kids and grand-kids :

from this blog いきもの　は　おもしろい！

I cut and peeled a thick slice, boiled till tender.

The sauce is green as it contains lots of fresh parsley.

Fry minced onion, garlic, feet of shiitake mushroom. Blend together silky tofu, white wine, a tbs of potato starch. Add into the pan. Season with salt, pepper. Simmer.
Let cool and pass in the blender with 2 volumes of fresh parsley per volume of sauce. Reheat slowly before serving.

The oyaimo with sauce and steamed stalks of komatsuna.

Black tofu and agedashi kyo-imo taro

Two small Japanese dishes, passed through the gourmande’s paws as usual. That’s not super original, but maybe you don’t know these two.

age-dofu (recipe here)
Agedashi is a classic way to prepare tofu, that means ageru (fry), then pour dashi (broth) on it. This time I made it with taro.

This is the Kyoto style taro, kyo-imo. I have peeled one, cut in a few rolls, boiled till tender. Then I’ve patted them dry and deep-fried till they get colored.

The dashi is the Japanese basic broth : DIY dashi recipe or plant-based kombu dashi.

I have left the fish flakes (you can omit them), added dry togarashi chili pepper, flavored with soy sauce and reheated slightly. I’ve added a little potato starch to thicken and poured on the hot kyo-imo.

Serve hot while it’s crunchy around.

I have used these black soy beans (kuromame) instead of the white. And I have proceeded exactly as I do for white tofu (recipes here).
It’s zaru tofu, shaped in a basket.

Topped with kezuri-katsuo (fish flakes), and at the side soy sauce to pour on it.

You’ll see the rest of the menu in the next post… (soon here)

Soupe du jour : lumaca pace…

It cooks at the slow speed of a snail…
Because we have a weather to eat soup. As you can see, it contains pasta and many items but no lumaca (snail), only lumaca pasta (the package claims that, it should be “lumaconi” maybe).

Kabu (turnip).

Kyo-imo (kyoto potato) also called ebi-imo (shrimp potato), a kind of taro.

Kuromame black beans.

Small bits of fat pork, onion, tomato passata, garlic, chili, olive oil… then I added the pasta, some cabbage.

The creaminess comes from the addition of ground sesame.

Japanese garden creamy Winter soup

When it’s so cold inside, you need a soup every day. Yes, I wrote inside that’s not a typo, as outside the weather is mild, it’s Winter, but not freezing. In my place without heating, the day is just OK, but at night it’s a little chilly. So I put on a big sweater, my half-gloves and I get a bowl of good soup to warm me up…

It’s very quick to throw stuff in. Then, just let simmer a while. Today’s soup is a miso-minestrone. See the 3 steps at the end, but first let’s look at what is in it :

It’s full of season produce. Can you recognize them ?

Do you know that animal ? His name is taro. Well, he is a potato… and it’s usually called…

…satoimo here.

That’s the season of black soy bean kuromame. I had them boiled.

Some greens.

Shungiku, chrysanthemum leaves.

Kezuribushi, bonito fish flakes.

Koji-miso. There exist very different types of miso. The color depends on ingredients. The more rice, the whiter, the more soy, the darker. This one is light colored miso with a high content of fermented rice (komekoji), and it’s rough textured. Its taste is sweet and mild.

Step one : in some water, put to simmer some dry daikon radish skins (I keep them to make broth), a few peeled satoimo taros, a ts of pasted garlic, 2 tbs of tomato paste, a dry chili and a cup of boiled black beans with their broth. Let 20 minutes.
Step two : I made a 1/2 cup of neri-goma (tahini, white sesame paste), mixed it with a tbs of miso, a ts of fish flakes. I’ve diluted that in the soup and let 2 minutes on low heat.
Step 3 : pour the soup on shungiku greens, top with more fish flakes.
If you want it vegan, just don’t add the fish flakes, replace the topping with aonori seaweed flakes.