The autumn is here for sure now, and despite the lot of rain, the typhoons etc… there are a few very beautiful sunny days like today. And it is great to enjoy yuzu in the recipes with the fruits starting to appear at the farmers market. I love to use the skin of the yuzu in many recipes and this uear I have been totally in love with Malabar spinach (ツルムラサキ) and I’ve been cooking some a lot. The yuzu goes very well with it and so dowa the lorus root. So naturally I prepared this little dish with grilled lotus roots, blanched Malabar spinach and fresh yuzu peels. A perfect combination to eat with rice of course. And stay dry in Tokyo since the rain is back again!
Two simple Japanese recipes
With some guests from France at home this weekend I cooked some simple Japanese recipes that they could reproduce back home. And because the weather was really terrible I could take all the time needed to chop thinly the vegetables and prepare recipes I usually don’t.
The two recipes I prepared were daikon and miso, and some kinpira gobo (without the red pepper).
Daikon and miso:
– 1/2 daikon
– 2 tbs of miso of your choice
– 1/2L of dashi of your choice: konbu, katsuo, niboshi…
Cut the daikon in 3cm slices, peel them. Prepare the dashi and when boiling cook the daikon. It is ready when a toothpick enters smoothly. In a small bowl put the miso, add 2 or 3 tbs of dashi and stir to obtain a creamy paste. At this stage you can add yuzu peels… for a slightly enhanced version of the recipe. One the daikon is cooked, drain and top with the miso preparation. Eat while still warm.
Kinpira gobo :
– 1 burdock
– 1 carrot
– a small piece of lotus root (optional)
– 300ml of dashi of your choice
– 1tbs of soya sauce
– 1tbs of sake
– 1tsp of sugar
– 1 red pepper
Peel the vegetables. Cut the burdock and gobo in thin matches sticks. Cut the lotus root and the red pepper in thin slices. In a pan boil the vegetables in the dashi. When reduced, add the sake, the red pepper, the sugar, and the soya sauce. Cook until almost dry. Add a few sesame seeds to decorate eventually.
Lotus root sushi – 蓮根寿司
When we were in Fuefukigawa, our ryokan had a very nice library where we enjoyed spending some time. It’s very nice to go to someone else library because you can discover many things through others books. That’s how I discovered a little cook book with some inspiring recipes. And I tried one of the inspiration as soon as we got back home. It was a recipe of lotus root sushi. So basically vinegared rice and vinegared lotus roots, served with ginger and sesame. It’s been many years I haven’t made sushi rice so I was happy to prepare some again. Since it was served with the vinegared lotus root I didn’t make it too sour, and I served it with some ginger-pork sautéed.
So here is the lotus-root sushi recipe. It is quite simple if you can find fresh lotus roots (which in Japan is obviously very easy) and it has a very Japanese flair.
Lotus-root sushi:
– 1 cup of Japanese rice (I always use Koshihikari but choose your favorite one)
– 1 large lotus root, fresh
– a bulb of fresh ginger, not too big
– 2 or 3 myoga
– 3 tbs of golden sesame
– 3 tbs of white vinegar
– 1 tbs of natural sugar
– 1 tsp of salt
– 2 tbs of sake (optional)
First wash the rice, and cover with 1cup of water, the sake and cook as usual. While the rice is cooking, peel and wash carefully the lotus root. Cut in very thin slices (I used the mandolin for that). Set in a bowl, add some water to almost cover, but don’t put too much. Add most of the sugar, the salt and 2tbs of white vinegar. Stir with the hands, and let rest. Stir once in a while. Peel and cut thinely the ginger and the myoga. In a frypan roast the sesame until it starts to smell. Once the rice is cooked and has cooled down a bit add the remaining 1tbs of vinegar and the remaining sugar, stir well. Add the ginger, the sesame to the rice, stir; add the lotus root drained. Add the myoga. That’s it!!!
Simple Japanese meal
With friends at home for the whole weekend I ended up not cooking Japanese at all, and since Friday I was still craving for some simple Japanese taste. Finally last night I got it done! A. is good at preparing Japanese rice, which saves a bit of time when I am finishing work rather late, and I had some perfect fresh Japanese vegetables for a simple meal: onion for Shirako, white carrots and new lotus roots. I simply wash/peel and cut all the vegetables, heat a bit if oil in a pan and cook them under cover until almost done (the onion being probably the most critical) then I remive the cover, add some soya sauce and cook at high heat for 2 minutes, and serve with the rice. It’s not very elaborated but it tastes perfectly Japanese!
Vegetarian quiche
We love quiches and I think I don’t cook some too often! There are so many variations that I can’t do twice the same one! Recently I’ve been using a lot of wheat bran in my breads, cakes, pancakes and quiche or tart doughs. It gives a fibery texture that I really love on top of being rich in nutrients. I simply add two large table spoon of wheat bran to the dough when kneading. For this very simple quiche with lotus root and shiitake I used also tried using okara in the egg base instead of tofu, which is also rich in fibers and protein and it gives a drier texture, a bit that of a fish cake that I really loved. So simple and delicious!
Curry-quinoa
Here is again a recipe based on quinoa. Because it cooks rather quickly, quinoa is always a good option when running short of time and a good alternative to rice and pasta. Since I discovered this quinoa soup recipe last year in my vegetarian cookbook I have found new ideas to use quinoa rather than simply boiling it. I also find that it goes very very well with lotus roots. This time I prepared it in a spicy version. Simple, warm and tasty.
Vegan curry-quinoa:
– 100g of quinoa (adjust depending on the size of your portions, mine are usually not big)
– 1 large lotus root or 2 or 3 small ones
– 1 large sato imo or if not available 1 potato
– 1 large carrot
– 2 tomatoes
– 1tbs of curry powder
– a pinch of nutmeg
– a pinch of cardamom
– a pinch of salt and pepper
optional: fresh lemon and fresh ginger
In a large pan set the quinoa, cover with water with about 1cm more water. Start cooking. Peel the carrot, the lotus root, the sato imo, cut in the shape/size you like and add to the quinoa. Add salt. Add the spices and the fresh ginger. Then add the tomatoes. By then the water should have almost disappeared. Check with a tooth pick for the sato imo (or potato) if cooked. Serve immediately with the juice of the lemon. Have a beautiful week!
Cocotte cooking
I really love to cook with my Staub cocotte. It suits a lot of ingredients but I’m still a novice so I learn little by little how it works. I am always very happy with the result. It’s very tasty and delicious, but I find that it makes plating really hard because all the ingredients tend to mix and color the same. So I need to work on that a lot. My basic recipe is plenty of veggies and a little of meat, pork usually. For today’s recipe I used lotus roots, carrots and sato imo, and for the base leeks. Olive oil and rosemary. That’s it! How do you use your cocotte? Tell us about your recipes!!!
Canola with miso
It is nice to change shopping place once in a while because different markets have different products and it opens up to new opportunity for trying new recipes or new combinations. So this weekend instead of shopping in Ohara I shopped in Kuniyoshi, a small village 10km away. I love their coop shop because they have many different products in particular for fish and meat. So I got a beautiful sashimi of sabre fish and prepared it very simply with white rice, canola boiled in dashi and served with miso (one classic use of canola in Japanese cuisine), and I pan fried some tiny lotus roots and the fish. That’s it!
Canola with miso – 味噌和え菜の花
– 1 bundle of canola
– 1 small handful of katsuobushi
– 1 tbsp of miso of your choice
Wash quickly the canola under running water, remove the hardest parts if any. In a pan boil 1/3L of water, add the katsuobushi in a dashi bag. Bring to a boil. Add the canola and cook for 5min. Drain and rince with cold water. Squeeze them gently to remove all the water. Cut in 3 or 4 the whole bundle. Serve woth miso on top. (You can also mix the miso with it but it might break the leaves and flowers, so I prefer not to)
A little soup
With some yellow carots, red carrots and normal carrots, some lotus root, some potatoes, and with some Italian beans soup mix that I cooked for lunch, I made for dinner this warm and rich vegan soup. Very very simple and so quick if you have cooked the beans before (optimally leftovers). In a large pan I put the cooked beans, water, quite a lot, and then cut the veggies and add them. I like both when it’s overcooked and veggies melt in the mouth, or when they are still crunchy, in particular the carrots, so I adjust the insertion time in the pan and the cooking time depending on that. I served warm, optionally with some gratted parmegiano, a good preparation foe our stay in Sicily!!!
