spring veggies

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.