Sashimi lunch

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.

**How to choose or make tofu.

The miso soup with hijiki seaweed, shimeji mushrooms and kintoki red carrots.

Making miso soup

Add rice. That’s a complete Japanese menu.

**Cooking Japanese rice

Genmai okayu, brown rice brunch soup

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.

Soba no mi, buckwheat as rice

Buckwheat groats (sometimes called buckwheat berries) are called 蕎麦の実 soba no mi in Japanese. Mi means fruit/nut, and maybe that’s not too far from the botanical reality as that’s not really a grain. They are often added to cook together with rice. And they can simply replace rice.

Raw.

Cooked in the rice cooker on brown rice program.

I’ve added a few drops of sesame oil and black sesame for even more nutty flavor. No salt because I add it with :

Umeboshi natto.

Satsuma imo (sweet potato) and mizu nasu.

Platter of steamed veggies : suguna kabocha, satsuma imo, bok choi and chestnuts.

Not a pretty dish… This type of aubergine mizu nasu is usually served raw. I’ve sliced (I did) and cut in ribbons (roughly) the flesh. Salted. Rinsed after 19 minutes and sprinkles shikwasa lime juice.

A nice old fashioned meal.

Arare rice crackers : zarame ume + shoyu

Shoyu arare (soy sauce caramel rice cracker).

Ume zarame arare (plum and sugar rice cracker).
They are 2 classic flavors for Japanese rice crackers.
You had already seen :

savory arare
matcha arare

Let’s make 2 new types of Japanese rice crackers. Here is my simplified recipe :

Cut a mochi in cubes.
Everything about mochi (click)

Let dry 2 days.

Toast till golden in the oven toaster.

ザラメ This square candy sugar is called zarame.

umeboshi pickled plum

For the plum sugar flavor, pass in a mix of pasted umeboshi flesh and sarame sugar, dry in the toaster a few minutes, add more sarame sugar.

For the shoyu, put a block or a tbs of kurozato black sugar in a sauce pan with a little water. When sugar has melted add some soy sauce, simmer till it gets syrupy. Coat the arare.

I have no idea about how long you can keep them. They disappear immediately after the photos are taken.

Aka endo-mame okayu, red pea rice porridge

Here is an okayu, a congee, a rice porridge.

Brown rice, soaked. Red peas boiled (Hokkaido aka endomame). A little salt. Lots of water. 3 hours simmering slowly in a rice cooker, a crockpot, or on a stove.