tataki gobo & namasu

I mentioned that I made namasu and tataki gobo for our osechi...these two are really easy to make.

Tataki Gobo adapted from Orange Page
1 "stick" gobo (burdock root) about 8-inches long, scrubbed and cut into half then into fourths.
water

1/4 cup dashi

A: 2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon mirin
1/2 tablespoon shoyu

B: 1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon shoyu
1/2 tablespoon sake
1/2 tablespoon vinegar

2 tablespoons ground sesame seeds

In a pot, put the gobo and water and when the water boils, turn down the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.
Take the gobo out then using a rolling pin (or something heavy), "roll" over the cooked gobo a couple of times (to break down the fibers).
Then put the gobo, dashi, and ingredients for "A" into a pot and cook on medium until the liquid evaporates.
After the liquid evaporates, coat the cooked gobo with "B" and the sesame seeds.

Namasu
4 inches wide daikon
4 inches long carrot
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar

Peel and shred daikon
Peel and shred carrot
Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and wait for 3 minutes.
After 3 minutes, squeeze out water from daikon and carrot
Put daikon and carrot into sugar vinegar mixture.

NOTES: after making this, I felt the daikon and carrot should be marinated separately then put together before serving to keep the white and orange colors separate.

If you try these, let me know what you think.

kashiwa-meshi

When I was learning Japanese, we learned the word for "chicken" to be "toriniku" ("tory-knee-coo"--literally bird meat).

Then while living here, I realized that it had a different name, "kashiwa". (I think even my Grandma used to call chicken, "kashiwa")

I had thought that most of Kyushu and the southern parts of Honshu called chicken, "kashiwa", but apparently, there are parts of Northern Honshu that call chicken, "kashiwa" too.

Anyway, since I had gobo and some leftover dashi in my fridge, I made some kashiwa-meshi for dinner last night.

I've made this once before and thought I posted about it, but couldn't find it on my blog...

Kashiwa-meshi adapted from "Bento no hon by Yorino Masami" makes 4 servings--more or less depending on your servings.

2 cups rice, washed
2 cups dashi (cold brewed stock)

150 grams chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
gobo (burdock root) 1 piece about 12 inches long, cleaned and whittled or peeled with peeler, soak in water after whittling/peeling for a couple of minutes
maitake (1 package), torn apart with hands

1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon sake
2 tablespoons shoyu

Cook rice with dashi in rice cooker.
In a frying pan, heat sesame oil
Drain water from gobo
Add chicken and gobo, sauteeing in the oil
Add the maitake
Add the sugar, mirin, sake and shoyu, stir fry everything for about 5 minutes
When the rice is finished cooking, add the chicken mixture to the rice and mix gently without smooshing the rice.
Serve and enjoy!

NOTES: a bit tedious to make, but delicious. Plus, you can just add a salad like I did.
I actually made half the recipe of the rice (1 cup rice, 1 cup dashi) and the full recipe of the chicken mixture and am thinking to put the other half of the chicken mixture into oyakodon...

roca's okara gobo hamburger

Another recipe I tried from the Roca book was their hamburger.

The picture in the book looks way better than how mine turned out, but it was delicious all the same.

Okara Gobo Hamburger Steak from "Roca no Teishoku" makes 2 patties
1/4 onion (50 grams), minced
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 gobo (burdock) (35 grams), whittled
black & brown sesame seeds to coat

100 grams minced meat (pork/beef mixture)
50 grams okara (soy lees)
1.5 tablespoons panko (bread crumbs)
1/4 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper
1 tablespoon oil

Sauce:
pinch of sugar
2 teaspoons shoyu
2 teaspoons sake (rice wine)
2 teaspoons vinegar

Mince your onion and pan fry until transparent, set aside to cool
Whittle your gobo and soak in water for at least 10 minutes. Drain.
When your onions are cool, add them to a bowl.
Add the gobo and the meat, okara, panko, egg, milk, salt, pepper
Mix well
Form into 2 patties
Coat one side with the sesame seeds
Add 1 tablespoon oil to a heated pan and fry the patties with the sesame seed side down first.
Turn over and when cooked through
Add the ingredients for the sauce into the pan
As the pan sizzles turn the patties over to coat well with the sauce.

NOTES: the hardest part of this recipe was whittling the gobo. When I whittled my gobo, some of my pieces were thick, so these stuck out of the patty. I also omitted the salt.

The recipe makes 2 large patties, so instead I made 4 small ones.

Also, the sauce evaporates quickly, so you need to work fast to coat both sides of the patties with the sauce.

I liked this dish because it incorporates okara and gobo.

I'm making this again.

gobo salad

So, you've made the Kabayaki Sauce, and made the donburi with the grilled eggplant, but you're still left with some (a lot) of the sauce, what else can you do with it?

How about making some gobo salad?! Previously I gave you this recipe.

With a little additions, you can make a nice creamy sesame dressing from the kabayaki sauce, here's how.

1/2 teaspoon ground black sesame seeds
1 tablespoon kabayaki sauce
2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Mix everything well.

NOTES: I boiled the gobo for 10 minutes then cooled it.

In a bowl, I added the gobo, cooked broccoli, sliced red bell peppers and tomatoes.

Drizzled some of the dressing over the whole salad.

Delicious.

p.s. I am bummed that I had to throw out half a bottle of Best Foods mayo, it was only over the expiry date by a little over a year...it smelled rancid so I didn't want to take any chances...I thought mayo lasted semi-forever?!

p.p.s. It is Friday here, I hope you have a nice weekend!

soup & soup

Well, we ended up not going to visit MIL yesterday. It seems she will be moved to a bigger hospital soon, so Satoshi thought we should wait until she has moved.

Apparently the hospital she is in now, does not have the proper facilities to treat her injuries.

Will keep you posted...

As you can see from my posts over the past couple of days, I've been playing around with my immersion blender/food processor.

One of the things I've made is soup.

Sometimes when we eat out they serve gobo (burdock) potage. Creamy and earthy.

Since I had gobo and satsumaimo (sweet potato) in my refridge, I thought it would be nice to try two different soups instead of just one.

I found a recipe online and split the liquid part of the soup between the two ingredients.

The results were delicious...sort of.

Here is the recipe I followed: from the internet
125 grams gobo (burdock), cleaned and cooked
125 grams satsumaimo (sweet potato), skinned, cleaned and cooked
1/2 onion, chopped
1 consomme cube
500 cc water (2.5 cups)
400 cc milk (2 cups)
20 grams butter (about 2 pats)
2 tablespoons flour

Prepare the gobo and satsumaimo--clean, cook and cut into small pieces, set aside.
Chop onion and heat in a pan with the butter, cook until translucent.
Add the flour and make a roux
Add the water, milk & consomme, cook until heated, do not boil.
Measure out 450 cc of this liquid and put into 2 separate pots.
Whizz with immersion blender until smooth.

NOTES: I steamed the sweet potato and boiled the gobo.

If you do try the gobo soup, I would definitely recommend straining it, it was really gritty. Though I guess you know you are getting all the fiber from it.

The sweet potato soup was on the sweet side but had a smoother texture than the gobo one.

I used skim milk, but you could also sub with soy milk or even cream.

When cooking the onions, you can also add some salt, but I didn't because I used salted butter.

I also ground some pepper on each cup and decorated with some flat leaf parsley.

Aside from the grittiness, these two soups were really nice and perfect for the nip in the air.

I will send these soups to Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sundays.

tako meshi (the other half)

With the other half of the dried tako, I made another pot of tako meshi. This time adding some gobo (burdock). I "whittled" the gobo and added it to the tako and rice.

I had frozen the other half of the stock thinking I could use it for the batch of tako meshi mentioned above, but one of my bottles (the one with more stock in it) cracked in the freezer, so I threw it out.

(Satoshi actually thought we could salvage the stock, but I didn't want to take any chances.)

So instead of making more stock, I just used the amount of stock that was okay and added some water. Also, I didn't add the sugar, just shoyu and mirin.

Whittling the gobo was a good method too, the gobo came out tender.

Despite the cracked bottle of stock, the tako meshi with gobo was delicious.

kinpira

Usually when Satoshi eats dinner out, I buy something because I don't want to cook for one.

Actually the recipe I used, only uses carrot peelings, but I added gobo (since I had some that needed using), the whole carrot (unpeeled) & konnyaku (jellied devil's tongue).

This dish is easy to make because I use OXO's julienne gadget. Of course when I get close to the end of the piece I am shredding, I cut it myself, which results in some uneven pieces.

Looking through my archives I noticed that I have used different recipes to make kinpira.

For dinner, I bought some chicken and heated up some leftover rice. I topped my rice with some chirimen sansho (dried anchovies with Japanese pepper) and had some rakkyo (pickled scallions). A simple yet delicious dinner.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try making kinpira. (You can also look through my archives to see other recipes for kinpira.)

Kinpira adapted from "Soshoku no susume-Autumn" by Makuuchi Hideo.
Serves 2 (depending on your serving size)

1 gobo (burdock) about 8 inches long, scrubbed
1 carrot about 8 inches long, rinsed, unpeeled
1 package of konnyaku (100 grams)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
some sliced red chili
sesame seeds

Cut gobo and carrot to about the same length (about 3 inches long)
Julienne
Soak gobo in some water for a couple of minutes to take out bitterness, drain well
Rinse konnyaku, drain well
Heat a pan and add oil
Toss gobo, carrot, konnyaku in oil and coat
Add sugar, shoyu, sake, and chili
Cook until all liquid evaporates
Top with sesame seeds

Enjoy!

eat your veggies (and some fish)

Dinner for the past couple of days was an assortment of different fish and veggies.

On my bowl of rice was kugini (which literally means simmered nails), ikanago (Japanese sand lance) is simmered in shoyu (soy sauce), ginger, sugar, mirin (sweet rice wine), sake (rice wine) & mizuame (starch syrup, like corn syrup) until it is caramelized.

This is a famous dish in Kobe, many families have their own variation of the dish. This is usually seen in the stores during Spring. Apparently there was a large oil spill in the waters off of Kobe recently, so the ikanago is quite sparse this year and the price of kugini is said to be expensive.

With some gobo (burdock) I had sitting in the refrig, I made kinpira. The hardest and most time consuming part of this recipe was whittling the gobo.

Kinpira from Hideo Makuuchi's "Soshoku no susume": Spring recipes : Serves 2 or more depending on your serving size

1 gobo (burdock), about 40 cm long (about 15 in) whittled
1 carrot, julienned
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
sliced chili pepper
sesame seeds

Heat a pan, add oil
Add the gobo and carrots, coat well in oil
Add sake, mirin, shoyu and chili and cook until liquid evaporates.
Top with sesame seeds.

The second dish I found on Obachan's blog. She has lots of delicious adventures in Kochi, Shikoku. If you have a chance you should check her site out.

This recipe uses Spring cabbage which is in season now. Spring cabbage is different from the normal cabbage you see in the store because the leaves are tender. Her recipe uses the microwave but since I don't normally use the microwave, I made this on the stove.

Spring Cabbage Tuna Salad : Serves 2 or more depending on your serving size.
1/4 spring cabbage
1 can tuna, drained
2 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
ra-yu (chili oil), to taste
sesame seed

Cut cabbage into bite sized pieces and wash.
Add to a heated non-stick pan and cook for about 3 minutes.
During the 3 minutes, cover to steam, stir and check until cabbage starts to wilt.
Add the tuna, honey, shoyu and mix well.
Add ra-yu, I added about 7 drops.
Top with sesame seeds.

In the small dish was rakkyo. Lately we've been hooked on these bambucha (huge) rakkyo (pickled scallions) from Miyazaki prefecture.

I liked these dishes, it was a great way to get in my veggies and some fish.

It is Spring, though the temperature here feels more like Winter...what have you been eating for dinner?

amakara buta gobo and rant

I get frustrated when people work somewhere and don't really know their job. Not that I would know their job, but I feel that if you work somewhere you are representing the company, so whatever you do, is a reflection of that company.

Anyway, a couple of months ago, I went to a photo shop near the supermarket to pick up some photos (because the one I used to go to, went out of business) , there was a woman working there and she helped me. When it came time to pay, I wanted to use the points from my point card to pay for the photos (because at most places in Japan shops allow you to redeem your points that are collected on their point cards), but she didn't know how to process the sale that way and insisted I pay cash. I didn't have much cash on me which is the reason why I wanted to use my points. But she apologized (which is supposed to make things all better in Japan) and re-insisted I pay cash. So I paid, but it was like pulling teeth for me.

Last month, I went to the same shop to get some photos processed. This time, the same lady helped me. I had a bad feeling about the whole interaction and when I got the photos back, they were lighter than the photos I had taken. If I take a photo of Mount Fuji shouldn't I be able to see Mount Fuji? In Japan, there is an unwritten rule that you can't return things, it just isn't heard of. So, I went out to the electronics store and picked up photograph paper. Now, I print my own photos.

So now that I print my own photos, I was still going to the shop to have my pics downloaded to a CD-ROM. Again, the same lady helped me (why is she still working there?), this time, she didn't know how to operate the machine. She didn't say, "come back later when someone knowledgeable can help you" or "I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm doing". So, again fed up with this shop, I bought writable CD and have been downloading my own. I think it is sad that these shops don't have more knowledgeable people (kind of like the people at the information counters in stores, but that is a different rant all together), it may help them from going out of business.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, I want to tell you about a really simple dish.

I had some gobo (burdock) and konnyaku (devil tongue jelly) sitting in the fridge for awhile and discovered some thinly sliced pork in the freezer.

Then while I was shopping for groceries, I saw a bento with thinly sliced beef and gobo which was seasoned and put over rice, which gave me an idea.

When I got home I surfed the internet for a recipe and found one again on Cookpad and adapted it.

250 grams pork, thinly sliced
1 block (about 100 grams) of konnyaku with chili flakes in it, thinly sliced
1 or 2 sticks of gobo, piece before whittling about 8 inches long each, cleaned then whittled
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon shoyu
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
some ground sesame seeds

Heat a pan and add the oil.
Drain the gobo and konnyaku well.
Add the meat, gobo and konnyaku and coat everything with the oil.
When the meat is browned, add the seasonings and let cook until most of the liquid evaporates.
Sprinkle some ground sesame seed and serve over rice.

This is a great dish with beer or in your bento.

odds & ends

I planted this tomato yesterday. The others from the same vine were so sweet. I hope to show you some tomatoes this summer. (Plus, they were so cute, they reminded me of hearts.)

Last night, I made the dressing part of the gobo salad recipe, used fresh peas, which I boiled until tender and combined it with the "fried gobo". It was really good. UPDATE: the combination was even better with bits of crispy bacon added to it this morning....

Can someone tell me the portions to make vietnamese coffee? The directions in the package said to put a tablespoon of coffee and screw the top on.

Pour some water in, then loosen the top. Please tell me how to do this without burning my fingers? I've been using a piece of paper towel as an oven mitt...

Hope you have a nice weekend!

odds & ends

I tried the fried gobo recipe again. This time, I whittled my own. The gobo comes out really crispy, like potato chips. Also, when you add it to the sauce, let the sauce kind of evaporate and really caramelize on the gobo, this adds to the flavor.









With the leftover gomoku mame, I added it to our morning omlette. After you put your scrambled egg into the pan, add the beans without any of the sauce. And cook the eggs to your liking.

I recently bought this nougat, made in Belgium by Vital. It has almonds and hazelnuts. It was a bit harder than the one I like from South Africa, but still worth it.

Another chagashi (sweet for tea), this one is made by Owariya. We had some soba wafers before. This one is called soba mochi, the outside is made from buckwheat flour.

This wagashi (Japanese confection) is made by Mamemasa and is called Tsukishiro. Sweet bean paste is flattened to a circle then dipped in a light sugary coating.

Hope you have a great weekend!

fried gobo (without frying)

Remember I showed you this fried gobo?

Well, I found a recipe to make it. (Have I told you how much I love the internet? I think I have...)

The best part about this recipe, is that you don't have to deep fry anything! (yah!) And it only uses 1 teaspoon of oil, which cuts some calories and keeps you from messing up your kitchen.

This recipe was adapted from Cookpad : Serves 2
1/2 a stick of gobo (burdock) (about 6-inches)
1.5 teaspoons of cornstarch
1 teaspoon olive oil

Sauce: 1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)

pinch or two of sesame seeds

Wash the gobo, and peel with the back of your knife.
Cut as thin as possible, cut pieces again in half so that pieces are about 3 inches long.
Wash the gobo and dry well.
Put the gobo in a plastic bag with the cornstarch and shake it!
Add the oil and shake it some more, coating it well.
Spread gobo out onto foil and put into toaster oven for 15 minutes.
In a saucepan, bring the ingredients for the sauce to a boil.
Add the toasted gobo into the sauce and coat well.
Take out of saucepan and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

NOTE: The original recipe was really vague, so I kind of had to ad-lib here and there. It also said not to peel the gobo, but the gobo I had was really dirty, so I peeled it with the back of my knife. I didn't use a plastic bag, I used the ziploc container to shake the gobo. Also, all toaster ovens aren't alike--you may have to lessen the time. I think the next time I try this recipe I'll try whittling the gobo so that the pieces come out thinner and also maybe add some chili flake for heat.

gobo salad

Found a recipe for the gobo salad that I like...I love the internet!

Adapted it a bit...from Cookpad--Serves 2

1 package for kinpira (100g) pre-cut gobo (burdock), carrots
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
4 grinds of black pepper)
1 dash of shichimi (Japanese 7-pepper)
2 tablespoons of canned corn, rinsed
1 package (50g) of chickpeas, kidney beans and peas, rinsed
3 pinches of black sesame seeds

If you do use a kinpira mix, separate the carrots from the gobo.
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil.
Cook gobo for 5 minutes.
During last minute, add carrots.
Drain well.
While hot, sprinkle vinegar over gobo and carrots and mix.
Add rest of ingredients and mix well.
Chill and serve.

NOTES: The original recipe calls for you to "whittle" the gobo, but I took the lazy way out and bought the pre-"whittled" package. I think the next time I'll add thinly sliced red onion and maybe some cooked, shelled soybeans. Add whatever veggies you have in your fridge or your favorites! Also, if the texture is too watery for you, you could add a bit more mayo.

tuesday

Tuesday's breakfast started off with some leftover carrot salad, strawberries and cake that my mother-in-law received from a neighbor, then gave to us, oh and cafe latte/cappucino.

Since I had to run an errand for Satoshi at the city office, I stopped in to my favorite bakery, Abientot, and picked up a basil chicken sandwich and a coffee custard brioche for lunch. The coffee custard was too sweet for my liking.

Dinner was szechuan salt and pepper shrimp on some baby rocket, and some fried gobo (burdock) coated with a sweet but spicy sauce (also bought...I gotta figure out the recipe for this one too, I love this too!) and rice.