A random selections of favorite 2013 savory posts… Most are plant-based, all were yummy ! Thanks for visiting. I hope to see you again in 2014
Romanesco and cauliflower green quiche
My experiments in plant based milks and yogurts
Simple nori okaki. Make your own Japanese rice crackers.
Avocado edamame breakfast croquettes, my simple recipe
Green gnocchi in yellow curry soup
As Christmas is approaching, I wish you a nice holiday season. So let’s have a sukiyaki party !
It’s a party meal designed to showcase delicious premium Japanese beef and season produce. A hot pot to cook and share on the table.
The ingredients are cut, cleaned, prepared and presented on big trays on the table.
First tray : fungi, konnyaku noodles and grilled tofu.
There were 4 types of mushrooms : shimeji, enoki, dry and soaked maitake and fresh kikurage.
Second tray : negi leeks, onions, soaked yakifu (gluten croutons) and kikuna (chrysanthemum greens).
Third tray : the beef. Wagyu, Japanese traditionally raised cows. Beside you can see cubes of beef fat.
Each eater is given a bowl with a good fresh egg. Whisk your egg with the chopsticks and get ready to dip you ingredients in this sauce.
First step : greasing the pot with fat and roasting the first slices. They can be enjoyed this way as the beef is delicious, just on its own.
That’s the technique : melt some fat, add some meat, pour a little sugar, then a little shoyu (sauce sauce), a little sake. Mix and cook.
All the other ingredients are added in small batches…
For dessert… well, there are no desserts for Japanese meal. So that’s a French tarte Tatin, made with Japanese apples.
A classic Japanese meal around a dish of sashimi. I prepared the sides.
Steamed kabocha pumpkin and ninniku no me garlic stalks. With soy sauce.
**I simply place the veggies in a steaming basket on top of a boiling water pot, or in the steaming mode of the microwave. Thin kabocha slices take 8 to 10 minutes. Garlic stalks only need 3 o 4 minutes to be at my taste. I add sesame seeds and soy sauce when I serve them.
The sashimi : ika (calamari), buri (yellow tail) and ama ebi (nordic shrimps).
An umeboshi (salted plum).
Tofu with oboro kombu (seaweed), seasoned with the soy sauce left after the sashimi dipping.
The miso soup with hijiki seaweed, shimeji mushrooms and kintoki red carrots.
Add rice. That’s a complete Japanese menu.
Okayu, rice porridge. An many pickles. It’s simple, colorful, feeling and very tasty.
I had a cold, not much appetite. That was perfect.
Umeboshi, salty plum, with the red shiso that comes together.
Aka kabu, red Kyoto turnip tsukemono.
Cornichons à l’estragon, with the onion from the same jar. Behind, a few capers.
Toasted abrura-age (fried tofu) and 2 sesames.
All the topping are ready.
And the rice. Just good brown rice, longly simmered in water.
Not the Italian lasagne. 豆腐ラザニア tofu rasaniya It’s a Japanese comfort dish. Not an homonym, it’s really inspired by the pasta dish but without the pasta. You are left with very soft tofu in Italian style sauces. Warm and tender. It’s usually served with rice.
Fruits like those you pick in the backyard. I went to the countryside. I have some from a farm, others from farmer’s market. They are the fruits you can see in local woods right now, kaki persimmons, mikan oranges, yuzu citrus. You can see two types of kaki, some rounds and some ogive ones. The latter may be shibui (tart) and the farm lady said we should guess… A bit of branch is left and if they are tart, we can do that.
That’s a quickly thrown casual meal. I had tomato sauce, silky tofu and these blanched veggies : bell peppers and ninniku no me (garlic stalks).
For the cheezy sauce as usual sake kasu, miso and this time the oil was sesame oil. I have added grated ukon (turmeric).
Alternate and bake. I topped with toasted bread crumbs.
Genmai, brown rice. I was given good farm rice too.
Serve very hot. Mmmm…
GOURMANDE in OSAKA 