Aka endo mame tortilla, and veggie plate

A nice plant-based brunch to enjoy season local produce.

Do you remember these aka endo mame red peas ? I soaked them and made this batter :

Adding hijiki seaweed, grated turmeric, chili pepper and soy sauce.

Cooked like a pancake. It’s possible to flip it, but it breaks when you fold it.

That’s it. On top, drizzles of balsamico sauce.

The red carrots of Kyoto.

Just grated them. They have a sweeter and fruitier taste than average carrots.

Leafy daikon radish.

Just steamed.

Big daikon. I cut, salted, let 30 minutes and rinsed.

Yuzu dressing : yuzu citrus juice, grated peel, salt and sesame oil.

Crunchy, yummy, filling…

Zu zu zu lemon tartelette : yuzu, kuzu, anzu

A delicious fresh dessert for all the lovers of sour sweetness.

Why zu zu zu ?

Zu or su, is sourness. Many acidic ingredients have this sound in Japanese. Today :
Anzu : Apricot.
Yuzu : yuzu citrus.
Kuzu : kudzu is a root resembling arrow-root and similarly used as a jelly starch.

About 1 volume of dry apricot for two of oat meal in the blender, then just a little water. Put in the mold, dried in the oven.

Yuzu. I’ve really discovered something here : yuzu and apricot are one of those rare matches made in even. Paired they become something else, a richer fruit flavor.

Kudzu as it is sold. It is 本葛 Honkuzu, pure kuzu. There exist others (explanation here).

For more : kudzu recipes.

I mixed the kuzu powder with the juice and zest of a yuzu, a little yellow cane sugar, enough water (as suggested on the package of kuzu) and cooked while stirring, till it became transparent.

Filled the crust. Let cool a few hours. Garnished with whipped coconut cream, toasted sesame seeds and yellow cane sugar.

Left over make over

A meal to empty the fridge around a big piece : a roast of white sweet corn. OK, that’s not a Christmas dinner. The idea was to use all the parts of veggies I had around before going shopping for fresher produce.

White cucumbers, salted. Rinsed after 20 minutes. They are juicy like melon.

A chilled kabocha and sesame soup. It’s deliciously creamy.

I had used the flesh of steamed kabocha for a salad. The skin is edible. So I used it in the soup.
I’ve added sesame seeds, miso, green chili, yellow paprika. Blended.

Boiled green soy beans and romanesco were in the freezer. Simply with yuzu lemon and chili flakes.

Grated daikon, goji berries, cashew nuts and black pepper.

I steamed the corn cob, then grilled in the oven toaster.

Vitamin colors

Three refreshing dishes to munch over hot days. Mix and wait. They served as side for several meals.

Step 1 : leafy tabouleh

Grating ginger.

Grating yuzu peel.

Cutting molokheya. Adding the ginger, citrus peel, leaves, turmeric, onion (grated too), garlic (grated too), salt and water to couscous.

Mix and wait.

Step 2 : green purple coleslaw

Just red cabbage, green bell pepper, daikon radish (grated in threads), yuzu citrus juice. Mix and wait.

Step 3 : grilled Summer salad

Aubergine, red bell pepper and green bell pepper roasted in the oven toaster. Then seasoned with olive oil, rosemary, chili flakes, salt. Mix and wait.

White waterfall (konnyaku noodles, shirataki)

糸こんにゃく (itokonnyaku) or しらたき(shirataki). They are noddles made of konnyaku. Shirataki means white waterfall as that’s what they look like. And who doesn’t want to eat a fresh mountain torrent in this season ?

Myoga, a veggie related to ginger. Delicious raw.

The noodles are sold in bundles that can unfold or not if you want to cook them in a hot pot. I simply rinsed them in cold water.

That’s a food without calories and it’s popular in the West some diet extremists. I don’t eat konnyaku in order to stuff my face without getting the calories. The food is appreciated in Japan for its texture and the lack of flavor that allows you to match to any flavorful food. A perk is konnyaku fiber favors smooth digestion.
These noddles, served chilled are very refreshing.

The tsuyu (dip sauce : dashi broth + soy sauce + mirin) with grated daikon radish. All the flavor comes from it so the tsuyu has to be coarse. I added green yuzu slices and the myoga.