It is a new month, I want to tell what I did with the veggies in my fridge.Last week, I had several vegetables in my fridge that really needed to be used.
The first was part of a head of red leaf.
I flipped through one of my Japanese cookbooks and found this really easy recipe.
This is based on what I did: (Serves 2)
1/2 head of red leaf, cleaned and washed, spin in salad spinner
2 eggs, scrambled
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
grinds of pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pan
Scramble the eggs with the sesame oil and pepper
Pour eggs onto heated pan
As eggs begin to harden, throw on lettuce
Mix everything around
When lettuce begins to wilt take everything off
Top with oyster sauce
Serve with rice
Enjoy!
NOTES: this was delicious! It was the first time for me to "cook" lettuce. I love the crispness of the lettuce even though it was slightly heated and the flavors of the oyster sauce and sesame oil went nicely with the egg.
Another easy recipe I found in the same book was for pumpkin. The pumpkin I had wasn't too sweet to begin with, maybe because it was imported? Anyway, I used this recipe and simmered it according to the recipe for 10 minutes. How easy is that?This is again based on what I did: (serves 2)
5 pieces of pumpkin (about 3 cm cubes), seeded and washed
2/3 cups water
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1.5 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon mirin
Put everything into a pot and bring to a boil.
When it comes to a boil, turn down to simmer, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Enjoy!
NOTES: this was so easy and the pumpkin came out very tender and flavorful.
The pumpkin I had bought was pre-cut and cleaned so I just washed it and threw them into the pot. The original recipe also serves 2 but called for 300 grams (about 10 ounces) of pumpkin. I think if I used 300 grams, most of the sauce would have been soaked up by the pumpkin, in my case, I had some sauce leftover.
The last recipe was to use up gobo (burdock). This "guy" had been in my fridge for sometime now.I used an old stand-by recipe for kinpira gobo and added some meat.
Serves 2
1/2 stalk gobo, washed, cut thinly
1/3 carrot, washed, cut thinly
100 grams thinly sliced beef (about 3.5 ounces)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds
In a heated pan, add sesame oil, gobo, carrot & beef
Toss to coat everything with oil
Add sugar, shoyu and sake, cook until most of the liquid evaporates
Top with sesame seeds
Enjoy!
NOTES: I got the idea to add meat when I saw a bento in the supermarket--Beef and gobo donburi. Since I knew I had to use up the gobo in my fridge, I picked up some beef to re-create the bento. It was a delicious variation to kinpira gobo!
These were several easy recipes and I am glad I was able to use up those veggies.
It is a new month, what will you be cooking?
10 comments:
I find it really fun and challenging when fridge food is begging to be cooked. ^^
good you caught the veggies in time! I'm usually not so lucky.. I thought the kabocha here wasn't as sweet as in Japan but I thought it was just me..
Cooked lettuce? How interesting! I love your other recipes too.
You always have such encouraging comments Mikuru :)
I hear it all depends on the size of the seeds Dennis, the smaller they are the less sweet, or something like that.
I know, Jalna, different right?
Take care everyone!
Kat
It all looks delicious. I have had grilled romaine--which is delicious and the lettuce dish you made sounds equally good. I keep meaning to buy burdock root and do something with it. ;-)
Yum! Looks like you've been cooking up a storm! I might try that pumpkin one. Sounds nice and easy!
Thank you Debinhawaii, who knows, maybe they will give you some burdock in your CSA box one day :)
Take care.
Kat
Kat, I have been experimenting with living off the grid for a while now. That means I try to reduce gas, electricity and other stuff. Of course we cannot easily go totally "off-grid" as some try to do. But I found that I could turn off my fridge. I actually didn't need the darn thing to be plugged in for about 3-4 months a year here in Japan. It is a good place to store veggies and milk, and I keep it near the entrance, where it is usually 8-10 C.
I do change my shopping habits a bit from November, what do you think about that?
It makes sense or is it impossible for you to imagine?
I've seen several times on cooking shows where they use some sort of cooked lettuce that is pureed into an accompanying sauce for the main dish (pasta usually). I admit that every once in a while my vegs go bad because I forget about them...but then we have the compost, so it's all recycled in a good way.
not so sure that I could "go off grid" Martin. I give you credit for trying to though!
I'm glad you can compost the veggies that go bad Rowena, would definitely be a shame if you just had to throw them out.
Take care you two.
Kat
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