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Showing posts with the label Seaweed

Japanese Vegan bento

Leftovers  from Japanese dinner make good a  bento  (lunchbox). Here from the bottom right there is tofu, pan fried with vegetable oil and sesame oil, then finished with soy sauce (gluten free, use tamari) and lemon juice. The Asian eggplants had a similar treatment (minus the sesame oil): at home we just love the  soy sauce + lemon juice combo ! Next to it some seaweed salad, this was bought ready made, something that I would happy do more often if I didn't think that they overdo it with artificial colouring! But I love  seaweed  and you can use the dried types - dried wakame soaked in water will make a nice salad. Finally there is leftover rice, topped with vegetable, nori and sesame seeds furikake (Japanese seasoning for rice, look for it in Asian stores, and choose the one without fish or other animal products). Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Finto Pesce (fake fish)

When I brought this plate to the table everybody laughed, and it is a fun recipe!  Finto pesce  means fake fish, the original recipe is a kind of pate made with potatoes, mayonnaise, capers and canned tuna (I think very 1960s!). My Mother made it, we lived in the mountains far from the sea, so fish was rare (and frozen or canned). Of course being a vegetarian I don't use tuna for this recipe, but seaweed. Brush and wash (but don't peel) 1 kg of mashing potatoes, then peel them and pass them through a potato ricer. Add a tbsp of capers, some nori seaweed, shredded, and a few tbsp of mayonnaise (to taste). Mix well. Shape into a fish and decorate with veggies and more nori ( I cut my nori with a flower cutter). Perfect for summer, and for kids! Do you have a dish that makes everyone laugh? Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Ochazuke, Japanese comfort food

When I was teaching Italian in Japan I once asked my students to tell me what was the typical Japanese dish they had for dinner, one answered ochazuke, and everybody laughed! Ochazuke meant that you lived alone, or your mum/wife was out for the night and you couldn't cook. Or that you run out of money! For homework they had to write a description of Ochazuke (in Italian) and the week after they came with their recipes and, most surprising for me, they all brought a sachet of flavoring for ochazuke, for me to try. The basic idea is to use leftover plain rice and top it with hot green tea, and then some toppings (and these where the sachets, a bit like  furikake , but with green tea added, so that you just needed hot water). Most of the students in that class were young and lived by themselves, thus the need of quick comfort food, and they always had left over rice, and possibly a sachet of seasoning. I got to love ochazuke, but rather than seasoning from a sachet I use some cho...

A quick Bibimbap after sailing

Bibimbap is a Koran dish based on rice, and possibly Korea's most famous 'comfort food'. Plain rice is topped with a variety of ingredients, then the diners add chili paste and mix it just before eating. There are many types of bibimbap, some quite complex, other just made with left-overs. This is a very simple one, made quickly after the boy came home for sailing, starving! I cooked some short grain rice, then added some spinach sautéed with sesame oil and a pinch of salt on the side. Topped with a fried egg and some nori seaweed (this nori has been cut to resemble cherry blossom). I usually add some grated cucumber but I didn't have any. To finish add chili paste or sauce to taste, mix and dig in! Quick, delicious and filling! Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Cutting nori seaweed with a pasta machine!

I had an idea! Instead of cutting nori seaweed with scissors (like I usually do) I tried with a pasta machine, with the tagliolini setting. And it works really well! Next time I'll show you how I used it, but for now I just wanted to share the idea! Anyway, great to top rice, soba, soups, salads... so pretty too! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Fried Mochi and capsicums served with soba, seaweed salad, avocado and Japanese pickles

I really like the  mochi cakes , the Japanese glutinous rice blocks that are traditionally found in the traditional New Year soup ( zoni ). Mochi is usually grilled before going into the soup, but I don't have a grill for it, and tend to just boil it into it for a little. I love it. My family less so. And they don't like the idea of mochi in any our miso soups. So I tried to pan-fry it, thinking that they like everything fried, and guess what? Fried mochi is a new favourite! Now I add a block of pan-fried mochi in almost every Japanese meal I make (that is, while my mochi stock last: it is not so easy to find it in New Zealand!).  In my (short) experience one of the best ways is to pan-fry mochi is with something that will also give it a bit of flavour, like capsicums. These are the little capsicums from my garden, small but tasty! Heat the oil in the frying pan, add slices of capsicum and mochi, turn everything a few times (I like to turn the mochi blocks on all six side...

Two Recipes: Onigiri and Soba with Furikake

When times are busy it is good to take out same ready make furikake. Furikake is a Japanese style seasoning, usually used to top rice, but useful for other dishes as well. I found one that I really like:  Citrus Furikake from Pacific Harvest , (FYI, I have not been endorsed, payed or given free products by the company, but hey, if you have any free samples - vegetarian of course, do send them this way! :-). I love seaweed and this furikake is  a mixture of 5 seaweeds: naturally flavoured kelp, karengo, sea lettuce, ao-nori, wakame, plus sesame seeds and a nice citrus touch. At home usually we sprinkle it directly on rice, or make onigiri (rice balls), or use it on noodles, vegetables, and a variety of dishes. Here are two examples. Onigiri with furikake To make the onigiri cook some Japanese (or sushi) rice (rinse it first until the water runs clear). When the rice is still warm wet your hands with water, rub them with just a little salt, and shape the rice b...

Easy Japanese Vegan Lunch

This is easy even if it looks complex. I made a stock using some dried shitake mushrooms, some seaweed (kombu strips, a softer type that can be eaten in salad) and some carrots. But (check this out) I cooked the veggies in three separate pots with just a little water, then I kept the veggies and kombu aside, I mixed the three 'broths' and added some white miso paste. This was my soup. The carrots were cut like flowers, and then arranged with some seaweed 'leaves'. I mixed the remaining carrots and kombu with the mushrooms and pass them quickly in a frying pan with a little soy sauce, lemon juice, and sesame seeds. No oil. I used the same pan, but added a little sesame oil and a little vegetable oil, to quickly cook some broccolini and bok choy (both from my garden) and added more soy sauce and lemon juice. For the rest... the rice was just plain, to be served with umeboshi plums, plus I had some ready made Japanese pickles (takuan, pickled daikon) and so...

How to cook Zaru Soba

Kazuyo brought back some  soba  from Japan, three packs for me :-)! I love soba, the Japanese buckwheat noodles that can be eaten cold or hot. When we were living in Japan my husband did a lot of editorial work for   Kodansha International, and among the books he worked on there was this one:   The Book of Soba   by James Udesky. The book tells you how to make your fresh soba, but also how to cook the dry one, plus it has some recipes, some history and nutritional info. I like it. This is my soba set: plates with fitting straw mats (zaru soba is served in baskets or on mats, to keep it fresh and drained), plus some matching soba dipping bowls. I also have some tea cups with the same pattern: dragonflies! Zaru soba is cold soba topped with nori (I cut a sheet of nori in small pieces with a pair of scissor) and served with a simple dipping sauce and garnish. One thing that I learned form   The Book of Soba   is that soba is ...

Twilight Menu: New Moon Sushi Rolls

This is the second of 4 courses I made for a Twilight menu (inspired by Stephenie Meyer's books) : New Moon 'Rice' (or sushi rolls) Tomato and Red Chili Sushi Rolls Photos by Alessandra Zecchini © Nori seaweed looks black and shiny. And Sushi rolls are round like the moon, but I needed a red moon! Actually, the red rice in the photo is not very clear, these looked much redder to the naked eye. I wanted to add chili because I thought that one of the dishes needed a little 'bite'. These tasted great, I even surprised myself, as I never though of combining tomato and chili with nori seaweed! I had a few left for the day after, so I fried them with a little oil, like for rice croquettes. Even better!!!! Ingredients Short grain rice Fresh tomatoes garlic red chili Olive oil salt Nori seaweed I didn't measure the rice, I used what I had left. I washed it and cooked it by absorption. In the meantime I fried some fresh chopped tomatoes with garlic and 1 red chili using ...

Seaweed soup

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini © Ingridients: 1 sheet kombu seaweed 1 l water 1 tbsp dried wakame seaweed Gently scrape the kombu seaweed with the tip of a knife. Place it in a saucepan with 1 litre of water and gently simmer (simmering, not boiling) for 30 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the soup stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour (the longer the better), then remove and discard the kombu. Gently bring the soup back to a gentle simmering and add the wakame. Simmer for 5 more minutes, and serve. This soup doesn't need salt, or anything else, the broth remains clear and the taste is delicious! Of course you can also add some miso when you add the wakame, but don't let it boil!

Sushi rice

I find cooking rice for sushi challenging: you need to buy proper sushi rice and then wash it several times in cold water, until the water runs clear. And then cook it by absorption. The doses are about 1 and 3/4 (three quarters) cups of sushi rice for 2 cups of water, but that depends on the type of pot. You need a pot with a good lid, or you will loose too much steam. I kind of regulate myself by ear now, since I know my pots and pans. Bring the pot to boiling point, lower the heat and simmer until all the water has been absorbed. Once the rice is ready pour it into a bowl and stir it with a wooden spatula, cooling it with a fan if you can. I then add some ready made sushi vinegar, about 2 tablespoons, but this is my personal taste. If I don't have sushi vinegar I use 2 tbsp of rice vinegar, a little sugar and a little salt (to taste, and I don't like to use too much sugar or salt!). I used the rice to fill some inari (Japanese tofu pockets), which you can buy already made fr...

Japanese Seaweed Salad

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini © I found a punnet of seaweed salad in the Asian store, ready to eat. I think it is called Hiyashi Wakame in Japanese, but I am not sure and they didn't know the name in the shop, they just told me "Seaweed - good for salad!". I rinsed it (just in case), and I made a dressing with: 2 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar 1 tbsp Mirin (sweet cooking sake) 1 tsp toasted sesamy seeds and decorated the salad with calendula petals. But you can also add a tablespoon of light Japanese Soy sauce (I didn't because it was part of a Japanese meal with many dishes and there was Soy sauce on the side). If you don't have, or like seaweed, you can substitute it with cucumber cut into thin Julienne strips (or as a combination of seaweed and cucumber).