Konnyaku and vegetables with Japanese dressing

The other day I had a crazy craving for gomadofu, the 'tofu' made with sesame seeds. But I couldn't find it anywhere in Auckland! If anyone can help (or tell me how to make it at home!) please do!

Anyway, I ended up buying konnyaku, a Japanese starchy-jelly food made from Konjak yam plant.

It has nothing to do with gomadofu but perhaps the colour (a little) and to satisfy my goma (sesame) craving I thought of serving it with a sesame dressing.

You don't need to do anything with the konnyaku except taking it out of the packet and slice it! For the veggies i steamed some cauliflowers florets and carrots (separately) and cooked some spinach. The spinach were rolled in a nori seaweed sheet (like a sushi roll, but with spinach instead of rice). For the dressing, usually I make this miso dressing, but this time I tried to make Nami's miso dressing, from Just One Cookbook, mostly because I have never tried to put rice vinegar in my dressing and I wanted to have a go! Nami, the only thing that I didn't put in here is the miring (didn't have any at home!) and my sesame seeds were already ground. But yes, it was delicious! Thank you!

Now, do you know how to make gomadofu? :-)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Japanese Vegetables with Miso and Sesame Dressing

Japanese Vegetable Market, Kyoto. Photo by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Japanese Vegetables with Miso and Sesame Dressing

Ingredients:
For the dressing:
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon miso paste
A little dashi (vegetable or kombu seaweed stock).

For the vegetables:
1) Choose one vegetable among the ‘white Group’:
Potato, Daikon (available in Asian stores), cauliflower…
2) One vegetable among the ‘orange/yellow group’:
Carrot, pumpkin, kumara…
3) One vegetable among the ‘green group’:
Broccoli, spinach, snow peas, asparagus…
4) Cherry tomatoes to decorate (optional)

To make the dressing grind the toasted sesame seeds with mortar and pestle, then add the miso paste and mix. Slowly add enough dashi (stock, hot or cold) to make a smooth and runny paste. Set aside.

Choose your vegetables, one from each colour group (considering that Japanese food must also be beautiful to look at), and cut into pretty slices. Boil the potatoes, kumara and daikon, but just steam or blanch all other vegetables, as they still need to be crunchy and colourful.

Arrange the vegetables in individual bowls as nicely as you can (for example, one small potato, two carrot slices, and 3 snow peas) and drizzle over the dressing. Decorate with a cherry tomato and serve, cold or at room temperature.

Suggestions

It is important to boil or steam the vegetables separately, or they will all taste the same. The leftover dressing can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

Make this salad into a main by adding a boiled egg or a square of Japanese soft tofu (the type that can be eaten row).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Vegan Japanese Dinner part four, and my favourite miso soup is with eggplant, plus the winner of the gluten free cookbook giveaway

These are the final dishes of my Vegan Japanese dinner. For those of you who missed some 'episodes', the antipasto was raw avocado sashimi, and the main Fried tofu puffs simmered in vegetable broth, and by clicking here you can find the side vegetables, Broccoli and cauliflowers with easy miso sauce, and Quick Japanese Cucumber and Radish Pickles.

So, how do you finish a Japanese meal? Usually with soup and rice (dessert is optional really, a little seasonal fruit is preferred, like in this Autumn meal, where the fruit was persimmon, this fancy Japanese picnic basket, with mandarins - they are easy to carry, or this Summer meal, where dessert was... berries). 

But not fruit tonight, we just finished with rice and soup. Rice is served at the end to fill  the stomach, and diners eat what they need according to their body mass (this, I was told by a Ryokan chef in Kyoto, Nami, is it true?). By the time I served the rice and soup the light was gone, so apologies for the bad photos. Also, I had to hurry before the soup got cold! The rice is short grain and needs to be rinsed a few times, and then cooked by absorption. Usually I don't add salt to it. When ready I just put a umeboshi (pickled plum) on top, something usually done for breakfast in Japan, but I don't eat rice for breakfast so I use my umeboshi for lunch or dinner :-). And for the miso soup? Well, I like all types, but miso with eggplant is my favourite!

Miso soup with eggplant, tofu and onion weed

First you have to go back for a moment to the Fried tofu puffs simmered in vegetable broth, I used some light vegetable stock to cook the tofu puffs, and the leftover broth after draining the tofu was the base for my miso soup. Then I cut two long eggplants into six pieces each. I took the stock back to simmering point and I added the eggplants and four small cubes of Japanese freeze dried tofu (available in Japanese shops - but I have Japanese friends who send it to me by post regularly. Thank you Hideko and Atsuko!). I simmered everything for 30 minutes, then I took the miso paste left over from Broccoli and cauliflowers with easy miso sauce (in Japanese Zen cuisine everything is recycled!), and added a bit more miso paste to get the amount I wanted - personal taste here, and mixed it well. With chopstick I picked up the eggplant pieces and tofu and divided them between four bowl (3 pieces of eggplant and 1 small block of tofu for each bowl) then I quickly mixed the miso paste with the broth, and poured it into the bowls. To finish I topped the soups with some chopped onion weed. I love miso soup with eggplants! Did I said that already? :-)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©



And now for the winner of the beautiful book by Sarah King:

The Family-friendly Gluten-free Cookbook  (RRP $39.99), courtesy of New Holland Publishers NZ. The winner has been chosen with random.org and....

List Randomizer

There were 16 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1.             Robyn

2.             Arfi

3.             Jane

4.             JT

5.             Anonymos ,

6.             Rebecca

7.             Emma

8.             Anita

9.             Rochelle Harrison

10.         Laura

11.         Ashley

12.         Claire

13.         Lucy

14.         Leanne

15.         Simo

16.         Mel

Timestamp: 2012-09-14 19:35:36 UTC

Congratulation Robyn! Please send me your address by email at alessandra at clear dot net dot nz

Some Gluten Free Variations

Rice croquettes and ramen soup are some of my favourite quick meals, these versions are gluten free.

Gluten free rice croquettes

I always make croquettes with leftover risotto or other cooked rice, and I thought that they would be a lovely vegetarian gluten free dish if I didn't use breadcrumbs. So I started to coat the croquettes with instant polenta flour instead, for a golden and crispy 'crust'.

Ingredients: Leftover risotto (any type) or cooked rice with vegetables, 1 egg to bind everything together, some instant polenta flour to roll the croquettes in, vegetable oil for frying (I use rice bran oil).

Mix the rice with the egg and then shape into small croquettes (this is easier to do if you wet your hands with water first). Roll the croquettes in the polenta flour and fry. I served these coquettes hot with mashed potatoes, but they are also good cold and can be put in the lunch box.

Miso Ramen with Rice Vermicelli

I collected the last bok choy from the garden, they were just baby bock choy, but the snails weren't going to wait for them to grow up! Baby bok choy is perfect for ramen soup.

Ingredients for 4 bowls of ramen: 8 dried shitake mushrooms, 1 small carrot, 4 baby bok choy, 1 pinch salt, 1 pack rice vermicelli, miso paste, 4 eggs.

I cooked the shitake mushrooms first in 1 litre of water with a small pinch of salt, when they were soft I added the carrot, sliced, and the bok choy. I simmered everything for 5 more minuted and then I collected the vegetables and kept the stock in the pot. I added the miso to the stock and kept it hot but not boiling.
In the meantime I cooked the rice vermicelli in hot water (they just take a couple of minutes) drained them and divided them between 4 bowls. I arranged the vegetables on top and then I added a raw egg for each bowl. I poured the hot miso over and served immediately. The egg white will cook with the hot stock, but the yolk will remain soft. If you prefer not to eat raw egg just add a boiled egg (halved) instead, or for a Vegan variation substitute soft tofu for the eggs.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©