With Spring, there are the "new" veggies...like shinjagaimo (new potatoes), these are tiny fingerling type (the photo shows the difference).
And shintamanegi (literally new onions), these are tender and sweet. I tried making caramelized onions (more on this in a later post). Both are great for roasting.
With the weather sort-of warming up, we've been eating more veggies as salads lately. We also had hummus with tandoori chicken wraps.
Greek salad.Roasted veggies with grilled chicken.
A small rant on asparagus. Would you pay 258 yen (about US$2.58) for 3 asparagus stalks from Japan or 99 yen (about US$.99) for 8 asparagus stalks from Mexico? I know neither is really a choice, but I really like to buy Japan when I can, but 3 versus 8....price wise and amount wise, I chose the Mexican asparagus.
Dark beer beef stew.
I found the recipe for the stew in a gas pamphlet at my MIL's.500 grams gyumomo (beef top round)
salt/pepper
flour to coat
oil to brown
250 grams onion, sliced
150 grams carrot, chopped
1 celery, chopped
1 package shimeji (tricoloma)
celery leaf
350 ml dark beer
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(a)
2 cup bouillon
100 grams tomato puree
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon sugar
1 bay leaf
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40 grams butter
salt/pepper
Italian parsley
1. Cut meat into 4 cm cubes, salt and pepper and coat with flour, brown in oil.
2. Cut vegetables, wash shimeji
3. After browning beef, add veggies and coat with oil, add beer and let alcohol burn off (about 10 minutes).
4. Add (a), celery leaf, scrape off scum.
5. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.
6. Add butter, turn off heat.
7. Top with parsley.
NOTES: this is rich and delicious, I used 1.5 onions, 1 carrot, 250 grams meat and only 12 grams butter (40 grams of butter seemed too much). I also used Yebisu black beer.
8 comments:
You have been eating well--everything looks delicious! I share your frustration on trying to buy local but having the stores sometims sell the shipped in stuff for much cheaper. I'd be sunk without the farmer's market and my CSA box.
when I lived on Oahu, I had the same challenge regarding buying local. Now, living on the Big Island, there is much more of a local selection...but still don't understand why we don't grow asparagus, artichokes, more variety of mushrooms, maybe based on consumerism? Or just the struggle of local farmers..Mahalo for your great blog, makes me feel like I am in Japan!
Thanks Deb, I wish there were more farmer's markets nearby, most are in places where I would need a car to get to them.
Thanks CGC, I wonder if asparagus and artichokes are hard to grow?
Take care you two.
Kat
How I'd like to grow our own potatoes, but I think for now, what I'm already planting should be enough. About the asparagus, I hear your dilemma. It becomes difficult when you want to buy local yet it costs ridiculously so much. In this case, if it isn't something that you'll be buying all the time, the mexican asparagus could be considered as a taste test. I'm shocked that the japanese crop cost so darn much. I mean seriously, those must have been very thick asparagus!
It all looks so good!
The asparagus from Japan was so thick, I thought it would definitely be a waste Rowena.
Thanks JennDZ!
Take care you two.
Kat
Sounds good kat. We just tried that Yebisu black beer at the Yebisu Museum last week. There was a nice sampler of 4 beers you could get - very fun to try!
Exciting that you went to the museum Lori, we should explore it some time :)
Take care.
Kat
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