Tropical cream beet soup

A healthy reinvention of the Mitteleuropa pink delight. It’s full of Asian Summer veggies and the sour cream is replaced by coconut and lemon.

Shopping surprise : those 2 Nagano grown beets for 100 yen. It’s extremely cheap for Japan as I usually say tiny beets for 500 yen a piece. And is it not a Winter plant ? Well, I’m not a gardener. I only know beets from feeding the pigs. I guess the season is long and they can be store months, which is why I had the image of a cold weather food.

But there is no reason to shun them, even in extreme heat. Raw and chilled, they are very refreshing.

Garnish : cucumber, Kintoki red beans, nagaimo yam, enoki mushrooms.
The beans are cooked of course. The rest is raw.

Soup : beet root, creamy coconut milk, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, ice cubes.
Just throw into the blender.

One more spoon of coconut cream (solidified in the fridge).
Mmmm… it’s deliciously sweet, nearly a dessert. And it’s fun to discover the crunchy bits.

Kuro-natto, shira-ae. Black beans and white harmony. (via Gourmande in Osaka)

Black and white menu. Two Japanese classics. Natto is cooked soy beans, that are then fermented (originally they were wrapped in rice straw and getting ferment from it, not it's cultivated like yogurt). Natto is usually brown. This one is make with black soy beans. It's less strong in taste, more flavorful. With wasabi. Grated fresh wasabi root. I put the hot rice on the natto. Shira-ae, white harmony… White dressing if you prefer. It's a commo … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Soupe du jour : garlic blossom (via Gourmande in Osaka)

One more good soup. Green, spicy, filling. I used the veggies left from the soupe au pistou. la pistou The veggies in the blender with Thai green curry paste. A little grated ginger. Garlic blossoms. … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Dengaku tofu, kabocha and sweet potato

田楽豆腐 dengaku tofu. It’s a nice name. “den” is a rice paddy, and “gaku” is bliss…
It’s tofu skewers.

There exist flat 2-stick fork shaped bamboo skewers that you find easily in Japan… or not easily, or not yesterday. So 2 regular skewers are OK.
Use the firmest momen (cotton) or yaki (roast) tofu you can find.
First, you need to “squeeze” your tofu. Simply place the block on a plate, cover by something flat on it (another plate, I use the mini cutting sheet) and something heavy on that (my kettle). Forget it 10 minutes, discard excess water. You can cut bands of tofu with a large knife and do the skewers. If it’s yaki, cut out the colored skin. Spread dengaku miso on them, broil.

The spread is made of hatcho miso, red miso, it’s actually a black paste. It is diluted in sake, mirin, and sugar. The proportion is… as you like. If you want little sweetness, only sake. Very sweet, only mirin. Extremely sweet, mirin + sugar. Balance is about (in volume) : 1 miso – 2 sake – 2 mirin

I broil them in the oven-toaster, about 15 minutes. I added toppings after 10 minutes.

One is white poppy seed (keshi no mi). The other, can you tell ?

Saveur boisee – Wood flavor

I also roasted kabocha and sweet potato. I steamed them to half-cook point previously, otherwise they would take longer than the tofu. And I roasted them without spread.
I added chili pepper flakes and sesame to the rest of dengaku miso, heated it and added the hot mix on veggies on the plate.

Bite the tofu directly on the skewer. The contrast of the neutrality of tofu, and the strength of the sauce is very pleasant.