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Steamed eggplants (aubergines) with spicy peanut sauce

maki — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:44:48 +0200

[From the archives: This eggplant/aubergine dish is really nice served cold, though it can be served warm too. It doesn’t heat up the kitchen since it’s made in the microwave (yes, the microwave, and it works great!) so it’s great to make on a steamy hot summer evening, with in-season eggplant. Originally published July 2007.]

Here is another summer dish. I love eggplants (aubergines), but cooking them without using a lot of oil can be a bit tricky. I read about this method of steam-cooking eggplants in the microwave in a Japanese magazine some time ago, and ever since it’s one of my favorite ways of preparing these rather spongy vegetables - they’re done in just 5 minutes without heating up the kitchen, which is hard to beat on a hot summer’s day. The whole dish takes less than 10 minutes to prepare.

Here they are served cold with a spicy peanut sauce, which makes it a very nice vegetarian/vegan main dish. Serve with rice or cold noodles.

Microwave-steamed eggplants (aubergines) with spicy peanut sauce

This makes two servings as a side dish, or one main vegan dish.

4 slim Asian style eggplants (aubergines)
2 Tbs. chunky style peanut butter (or more if you want it very peanutty)
1 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. mirin
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. red chili paste (Korean chili paste, or Harisa. If you don’t have chili paste you can add some dry chili powder)

Peel the eggplants with a vegetable peeler. Take off the tops. Wrap each one loosely in microwave-safe plastic wrap and place in a circular pattern around the edges of a round plate. Place the plate in the microwave on the rotating plate and microwave on high for about 5 minutes. (If you don’t have a rotating plate in your microwave, nuke on high for 2 1/2 minutes, then turn the plate about halfway and nuke for an additional 2 1/2 minutes.)

In the meantime, mix together the rest of the ingredients in a small pan; bring to a simmer to dissolve the sugar and amalgamate everything, then let cool. Make ready a large bowl of cold water.

Once the eggplants are soft, carefully drop them, plastic and all, into the bowl of cold water so they rapidly cool. Take them out of the water and take off the plastic; drain the eggplants if necessary.

Cut them on the diagonal into bitesize pieces and arrange them on a plate with some green garnish (here I’ve used shiso leaves). If you’ve made them in advance, chill in the refrigerator until it’s time to eat.

To serve, spoon the peanut sauce over the eggplant. Mix well with the sauce to eat.

Notes

The microwave steaming method works best with slim Asian style eggplants, but you can use the big Western style ones too - just cut them up into large cubes, and adjust the microwaving time.
The eggplants are peeled because the skins turn rather dark and grey-looking when steamed like this. The peel can be used in another dish if you want to be frugal.

Mugicha (barley tea) is the flavor of summer in Japan

maki — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:14:08 +0200

From the archives: We’ve had a really cold spring so far, but the weather has finally warmed up and I’ve started to make mugicha again. Here is a slightly updated article about mugicha, or toasted barley tea, my favorite non-alcoholic summer drink. Originally published on May 10, 2007.

When we were growing up, my mother frowned upon most sugary drinks for us kids. So things like sodas were generally not stocked in the house - an ice-filled cup of Coke was a great treat whenever we went out to eat. Things like Calpis, or when we lived in the U.S. Kool-Aid, were strictly rationed. The cool drink we always had in the refrigerator was mugicha, or barley tea. Even when we lived in White Plains, New York, there were always a couple of jugs of mugicha in the large American refrigerator.

Mugicha is traditionally made by briefly simmering roasted barley grains. It has a toasty taste, with slight bitter undertones, but much less so than tea made from tea leaves. To me, it’s much more refreshing to drink than plain water.

My anti-sugar mother always made sugarless mugicha, but my younger self craved the sweetened mugicha that most of my friends’ mothers seemed to make. I always begged my mother to make sweet mugicha, but she always refused. Some day, when I am the one making mugicha, I’ll put all the sugar I want in it, I used to think. So, when I reached my teen years, and my mother was back working full time, I used to pour rivers of sugar into the mugicha. My little sisters loved it. I’m not sure if it made them more hyper than usual, though I have vague memories of my younger sister sitting on my head when she got bored.

Now that I am nominally an adult, I much prefer unsweetened mugicha. I’m growing more like my mother as I get older, a rather scary thought.

How to make mugicha

You can buy mugicha in three formats. The most traditional kind is just loose barley grains that have been roasted to a deep, dark brown. The second, and most popular are mugicha tea bags meant for cold brewing. Then there are ‘hybrid’ type tea bags, which can be simmered or cold brewed.

Simmering makes the most robust tasting and dark mugicha. To make mugicha this way, bring water up to a boil, throw in the loose grains or a tea bag, lower the heat and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Turn the heat off and let cool in the pan to room temperature, then strain and chill in the fridge. Allow one tea bag or 2-3 tablespoons of loose grains per liter (about a quart) of water.

Cold brewing is so convenient though that I tend to make mugicha this way most of the time. It’s lighter in color and taste, but refreshing to drink nonetheless. Just put a mugicha tea bag in a jug of cold water and put it in the fridge; when it’s nicely chilled, the tea is ready. You can also brew it in the sun, like sun tea, if you prefer.

As I’ve noted above, mugicha can be sweetened or unsweetened, to your taste.

Health benefits of mugicha

Many people in Japan believe that mugicha helps to cleanse the body. There have been studies done that may indicate that it helps to reduce stress and so on. I sort of tend to think that the rehydration factor plays a large part in this but it doesn’t hurt anyway. Mugicha is naturally caffeine free.

One word of warning though - mugicha could be an acquired taste. The Resident Guy (who is not Japanese) for instance can’t stand it - he says it tastes like hay to him. (He prefers fermented barley drinks (that’d be beer).)

Since barley does contain gluten, gluten-sensitive people should probably avoid mugicha. (I am not sure how much gluten is released into the water during the brewing process, but it may be better to be on the safe side if you have serious allergy issues.)

Buying and storing mugicha

Mugicha (or boricha as it’s called in Korean) can be purchased at any Japanese or Korean grocery store, though some may only stock it in the warm months.

The one thing to watch for is freshness - since it uses whole barley grains, it can turn rancid. Once I open one of the foil packs, I put it in a plastic bag and use it up as soon as possible. Any left over is stored in the freezer. I try to use up any opened packs before the summer is over.

For U.S. readers: The reliable Uwajimaya sells House (that’s a manufacturer called House, not Uwajimaya’s ‘house brand’) brand cold brew type mugicha and simmering type mugicha via Amazon. You can also get mugicha that’s been blended with regular tea and/or other herbs with various health or weight loss claims on them. For UK/Europe: Japan Centre stocks the House cold brew type. And elsewhere, you can order cold brew type tea bags from J-List, who ships worldwide.

You can buy bottled mugicha too, even a Hello Kitty one. You may want to try a bottle of mugicha first to see if you like the flavor, before going for the tea bags.

April will be lighter around here

maki — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:59:58 +0200

Incidentally, I plan to do a lot more vegetable-oriented/lighter cooking, so you’ll most likely see the results of that on Just Hungry and Just Bento. This means I’m going to give the yohshoku series a rest for awhile (breaded and deep fried hamburgers tend to stick to the waistline and all.) Besides, we’re finally starting to see reasonably locally grown vegetables that aren’t cabbage or broccoli! This kind of thing over on Just Bento is what I’ll be eating more of. I lost a bunch of weight when I couldn’t eat after my surgery, but almost all of it has come right back since my appetite returned! Must. Stem. Belly rebound.

Cod marinated in miso and kochujang

maki — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:31:39 +0100

I have not featured many fish recipes here on Just Hungry. This is because at the moment I live in a landlocked country, where sea fish must be shipped in, and is expensive to boot. When I do buy some fish, I savor it as a treat. (I may be preparing myself for something that all fish eating people might have to endure soon, given the problems of overfishing.)

This is a classic miso marinade with a spicy twist. Instead of using just miso, I’ve added a little bit of kochujang, spicy Korean bean paste. I’ve used cod for this, but you could use any firm, flaky white fish instead - or even an oily fish such as salmon or swordfish. The pieces of fish should have a certain thickness, so thin fish like flounder won’t do.

Cod marinated in miso and kochujang

450g / about 1 lb cod or other fish
3 Tbs. white miso
1 Tbs. kochujang
3 Tbs. shaoxing wine (see notes) or mirin
2 Tbs. raw cane sugar or any sugar

Mix together all the ingredients except the fish until combined.

Put down a large piece of plastic. Spread the plastic with a layer of the marinate that is bigger than the surface area of the fish. Put a piece of cheesecloth or a single layer of paper towel on top of the marinade, then put the fish on top of that. Wrap the cheesecloth or paper towel around the fish, then smear more marinade on top.

Wrap the fish up in the plastic securely - you may want to double-wrap it. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least several hours, or overnight.

Peel away the plastic and paper towel or cheesecloth. Heat up a grill pan or a large frying pan, brushed with a little oil. Cook on both sides until the fish is cooked through. (The cooking time depends on the thickness of the fish.)

This will serve 4 people as part of a Japanese meal, with one or two other dishes besides rice and miso soup. It’s also great in a bento.

Notes

Shaoxing wine (called sho-ko-shu in Japan) is a rice wine from the Shaoxing province of China. It has a sweet flavor like mirin, but is more assertive. You can use mirin or a sweet sherry instead, or even just plain sake.

[Edit: added for clarification] The reason why you would use paper towels or cheesecloth between the fish and the miso marinade is that the marinade is rather too salty to leave on, so it needs to removed anyway. By wrapping the fish in a porous material before applying the marinade paste, you make removal of the paste easier. You can just scrape or even lightly wash off the marinade if you want to too. This, by the way, is fairly standard for many miso or sake lees (sake kasu) marinated recipes.

You can freeze the fish while wrapped in the marinade, but if you do so, defrost it slowly in the refrigerator, not in the microwave.

The marinade can’t be re-used, since it’s full of fish-juice!

Brown rice and green tea porridge (genmai chagayu)

maki — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:16:33 +0100

A traditional custom in Japan is to eat nanakusa gayu, or seven greens rice porridge, after the New Year’s feasting period, to rest the stomach and bring the body back into balance. At any time of the year, kayu or okayu are eaten when the body is weakened by sickness, fatigue or overeating.

Chagayu or tea rice porridge is a speciality of the ancient city of Nara and the surrounding area. (Nara was briefly the capital of Japan in the 8th century A.D., and is one of the most historical cities in the country). Chagayu is usually made with white rice, but I used brown rice (genmai) instead, plus a small amount of firm green puy lentils from France. The lentils are not traditional, but I like the contrasting texture.

This has been my breakfast for about a week now. It’s not in the same category as eggs and bacon or a stack of pancakes, but I find my body needs something like this sometimes to bring it back into balance. It’s filling and warming, yet feels very cleansing to the body. A cup of this has less than 100 calories, and is high in fiber.

The fragrance of the tea is wonderful as you inhale the warm vapors rising up from the bowl.

This is not the same thing as ochazuke by the way, since the rice is cooked with tea.

Brown rice and tea porridge with green lentils (renzu mame iri genmai chagayu)

This amount makes 5-6 cups of kayu. Just store in the refrigerator and heat up in the morning.

1 cup (220ml) short grain brown rice
1/4 cup firm green or brown lentils; puy lentils are best. Don’t use red lentils, which will turn into mush. You can omit this if you like.
3 green tea bags - use bancha, kukicha or ho-ji cha. No need to use expensive tea here. (In Nara they usually use bancha.) If you don’t have tea bags, use about 1 heaping tablespoonful of green tea in a tea ball or a piece of cheesecloth. (Hint: tea bags are the easiest!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Water

Rinse the brown rice in cold water. Put in a heavy pan with 6 cups of water and the salt. Bring up to a boil, then lower the heat to low (it should barely simmer) and add the tea bags and lentils. Put on a lid and let slowly simmer for about an hour or more. (You can do this in a slow cooker.) Stir occasionally.

Take out the tea bags. If the consistency seems too watery to you, turn up the heat a tiny bit and simmer with the lid off, to allow some of the water to evaporate.

You can eat this as is, for a very subtly flavored porridge. You may want to add something salty to it like umeboshi (as pictured), furikake (maybe a homemade one), gomashio (sesame seed and salt), or just some plain sea salt.

Notes

It’s more traditional to brew the tea first, cool it then cool the rice in the tea. I find that just throwing in the tea bags is easier (and it doesn’t get bitter).

Leftover kayu stored in the refrigerator will get a little gluey. If it thickens up too much, add a little bit of water before heating up.

You could also add some greens to it and simmer a little bit more - try spinach, komatsuna, turnip greens, and so on. (Actually, one of the tastier toppings is well drained and crumbled bacon…and it doesn’t make it that unhealthy. :))

(Don’t forget to cast your vote in the chicken poll if you haven’t done so already.)

Black bean vegan mini-burgers

maki — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:43:36 +0100

Over the past couple of years as I’ve pursued largely vegetarian eating, I’ve gradually accumulated a small arsenal of small, round bean patties or balls, which are great as snacks, for bento boxes, and just for dinner, in my regular rotation. This one was inspired by one of the first beany-round thing I made, the samosa-like lentil snacks from The Hungry Tiger, and a Japanese vegan cooking book called Saisai Gohan (Vegetable Meals) by Yumiko Kano. (Yumiko Kano is currently my favorite cookbook author in any language, and I’ll talk more about her down the line.) I’ve adjusted a few things to make them gluten-free.

These have the earthy, deep flavor of the black beans that is enhanced by the spices and the sauce, and they are delicious hot or at room temperature. Even diehard carnivores like them. They’re really perfect for bento lunches, and I’ve used it in the all-vegan Bento no. 5 on Just Bento. I also used them as a pita-sandwich filling in Bento no. 6.

I have described two methods of cooking these: in the oven, which is good for making them in quantity, and in a frying pan, which is perfect for making a few at a time.

Black bean vegan mini burgers

This amount makes about 12 tiny or 8 small burgers; multiply to suit your needs proportionately. It keeps pretty well in the refrigerator for a few days, and freezes well too, so it makes sense to make in some quantity.

For the burgers:

2 cups (500ml) of cooked or canned black beans, drained
3 tsp. fermented black beans, or 2 tsp. miso
1 small piece ginger, finely chopped to produce about 2 tsp. chopped ginger
Green onions, to produce about 3 Tbs. chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
2 Tbs. chopped walnuts
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tsp falafel spice mix, or cumin powder
2 Tbs. or so of olive oil

For the sauce:

4 Tbs. tomato paste
a few drops of Tabasco
1 Tbs. maple syrup
A little hot water to thin out the sauce, if needed

Suggested equipment: a food processor

If you’re going to be baking them, preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F.

Chop up the ginger, green onions and mushrooms finely, and sauté in about half of the olive oil until the mushrooms are wilted and brownish.

In the meantime, chop up the nuts. Add to the sauté pan to toast a bit.

If using the fermented black beans, chop finely until they’re almost a paste.

Reserve a couple of spoonfuls of the beans. Mash up the rest of the beans with a masher or in the food processor. Put the fermented black beans in and process until it’s fairly smooth. Add the spice and rice flour and process again. Add the sautéed vegetables, the reserved beans and the nuts, and pulse-process until mixed (you want some of the texture to remain).

Divide the mixture into 8 to 12 portions. With moistened hands, make into flat little patties.

If baking in the oven, oil a baking sheet and then brush the tops with a bit more oil. Bake for about 10 minutes, flip then bake 5 minutes more.

If cooking in a frying pan, heat up the pan with the rest of the oil. Fry the burgers until crispy, carefully flip over and fry the other side.

In the meantime, mix the sauce. Brush the sauce onto the hot burgers, or serve separately for dipping.

Good hot or at room temperature.

Notes

Fermented black beans (dul see) are actually black soy beans. You can get them at any general Asian or Chinese grocery store. You can use miso instead if you have that on hand, though it will be a bit less salty and well, different. Black bean sauce can be used also, but be aware that that has some wheat flour in it if you’re gluten-conscious.

If you don’t want to bother with making the sauce, use your favorite ketchup with a few drops of Tabasco added.

These keep well for a few days in the fridge, though they are better if you re-heat them to take the chill off before eating. They also freeze well.

Rice flour is available at Indian grocery stores (red rice flour is a bit different and interesting to use here), or in Japanese grocery stores where it’s known as joushinko. It’s mainly used here as a binder, so you can use regular wheat flour instead if gluten-sensitivity is not an issue.

Variation: Add fresh chopped coriander.

Lemon verbena and honey granita

maki — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:07:10 +0200

The lemon verbena plant that I planted last year and almost lost to a summer storm, is now firmly established and positively thriving. Whenever I pass it I can’t resist rubbing a leaf, because it smells so wonderful.

Transferring that wonderful lemony scent to taste is quite easy - simply steeping it in some boiling water for about 10 to 15 minutes does the trick. This granita is infused with the aroma of lemon verbena, soured with a little lemon juice, and sweetened with a delicate acacia honey. Any light colored honey will work here instead. It makes a wonderful light dessert or palate cleanser, or cooling summer snack.

Lemon verbena and honey granita

About 8 large sprigs of fresh lemon verbena
3 Tbs. acacia honey, or a similar light-colored runny honey
1 small organic lemon
500 ml / 2 cups boiling water
Additional honey for drizzling
Additional lemon verbena leaves for garnish

Wash the lemon verbena if needed under cold water. Zest the lemon (peel off the yellow part only with a vegetable peeler). Juice the lemon.

Bring the water to a boil and put into a pan with the verbena and lemon zest. Smash the leaves down a bit if they are floating above the water. Let infuse for 10-15 minutes.

Take out the leaves and zest, and put in the lemon juice and honey (add more if you want it sweeter). Strain through a sieve to take out any leaf bits or lemon seeds. Let cool to room temperature.

Put into a flat plastic container and cover. Place in freezer for about 2 hours. Take it out and mash and scrape it into a slush with a fork. You can serve this right away, or put it back in the freezer to serve later. (If it turns into a block of ice, microwave it on the Defrost setting for about 3 minutes, and mash up with a fork.)

To serve, mound into a glass and garnish with a fresh lemon verbena sprig. Drizzle about 1/2 teaspoon of honey per glass on top (Drizzling the honey on the leaves makes it look like there are dew drops on the leaves.)

Variations

You can try this formula with any fragrant herb that you think would make a good granita base. Lemon balm would work fine of course, as would mint.

To turn the granita into an interesting cocktail, add some chilled vodka.

Deconstructed Tomato: Tomato gelée with tomato coulis

maki — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:05:13 +0200

Have you ever made tomato water? It’s the clear liquid strained gently from a ripe tomato, and one of the best treats of summer. When made from juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes, it has a sweet yet green-tomatoey taste that is so intense that a little goes a very long way.

Making tomato water is very simple. All it requires is a blender or food processor, a fine mesh sieve, paper towels, and patience. What you do with the resulting water is up to your imagination. Here I have added a little gelatin to make it into a tomato gelée (or, to be non-fancy, jelly). Served on top is a tomato coulis made from the pulp that is left over after the water is strained. The only heat-adding cooking involved is in melting the gelatin. It fits in well with my minimal-cooking mood this summer.

This would make a very interesting first course for a summer meal, or an amuse-bouche if served in tiny portions. It would be a great in-between courses palate cleanser too, if you are having an elaborate meal.

The amounts given will yield about 4 small first course portions.

Tomato water

4 large, ripe and juicy tomatoes, heirloom variety preferred (my two favorite varieties available widely here to use for this are Berner Rosen and Coeur du Boeuf. I’d also use Brandywines if I had them.)
Large pinch of sea salt

Equipment needed: a fine mesh colander or sieve, non-dyed paper towels, a large bowl over which the sieve can sit, food processor or blender

De-stem and roughly cut up the tomatoes; place in the food processor or blender, seeds and all. Add the salt, and liquify.

Line the sieve or colander with about 3 thicknesses of paper towel; place over the bowl. Carefully pour the liquified tomato into the sieve. Leave in refrigerator for several hours or over night, until the water has drained into the bowl. Don’t try to squeeze any liquid through, or the water will become cloudy.

Tomato gelée

About 300ml / 1 1/4 cups of tomato water
3 leafs of leaf gelatin
Water

Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water until soft. Drain.

Put about 1/3rd of the tomato water in a small pan with the softened gelatin. Stir over low heat until completely dissolved. Add the rest of the tomato water.

Chill in the fridge until set. (If you have more or less tomato water than the amount here, adjust the amount of gelatin - you should have a rather soft set, not something you could bounce off a hard surface.)

Tomato coulis

Pass the leftover pulp from making the tomato water through a fine sieve to get rid of all the seeds and skin bits. That’s it! You can optionally add a bit of cream, but I find that the tomato alone has a creamy, intense quality.

This can all be made a day ahead and kept in the fridge, well covered.

To assemble the Deconstructed Tomato (do this just before serving to preserve the clarity of the tomato jelly), break up the set tomato jelly with a fork into small bits. Make a small mound, and carefully put a teaspoonful of the coulis on top. Garnish with a small basil leaf.

Other uses for tomato water and coulis

Serve the tomato water with a bit of vodka, very well chilled, in shot glasses as an interesting shooter.
Add finely chopped cucumber, celery, tomato, etc. to the jelly to make a salad.
Serve the coulis or jelly or both with boiled shrimp.
Leftover coulis can be made into a (warm) tomato sauce - just use instead of or in addition to canned crushed tomatoes.

Zucchini and chickpea pancakes

maki — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:56:25 +0200

Continuing with my light and quick summer dishes:

This year we got a bit more serious than usual about our garden, and planted three zucchini plants. If you have a garden with zucchinis, you know that sometime around midsummer they start to produce babies like crazy. We’ve had a rather cold and rainy summer here up until now, but this week our three innocent looking zucchini plants have gone into high gear, and we’re picking them as fast as we can before they turn into seedy, tasteless baseball bat sized monsters.

Zucchini pancakes are one way to use up a lot at once. This version uses chickpea flour instead of wheat flour or eggs, with a little bit of spice in it. It’s great hot or cold, and is a perfect snack, side dish or complete vegan main dish, since the chickpea flour is such a terrific source of protein and carbs (nutritional info). Serve it with a salsa, curry, or just on its own. Here I just served them with some super-ripe tomato wedges. The shredded zucchini adds moisture and a rather creamy texture, which I love.

Chickpea flour is used in Mediterranean and Indian cooking. I get mine from a local Indian grocery store, where it’s sold as gram flour; it’s also known as besan, ceci flour, and so on.

Zucchini and chickpea pancakes

Makes 2 large pancakes, which make 2 main dish servings or 4 appetizer/side dish servings

3 medium zucchini, or about 4 cups shredded
2 zucchini flowers (optional; adds a bit of color)
Some coriander or basil leaves (optional: adds flavor)
1 cup chickpea flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. hot red chili powder
1/2 tsp. curry powder
Olive oil for cooking

Equipment needed: a non-stick frying pan

Finely shred the zucchini - I use a food processor for this. Julienne the zucchini flowers and the herbs. Put all into a large bowl; add the salt, spices and the chickpea flour. Mix well - the moisture that comes out of the zucchini may be enough to turn this into a batter, but if not add a tiny bit of water, just so that it turns moist but not runny.

Heat up a small (8 inch / 20cm) non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add some olive oil and spread around. Put in about half of the batter and spread around to form a circle. Cook for about 5 minutes, then turn and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until it’s cooked all the way through. (You can slice into the middle a bit to see if there’s any batter oozing still; if so, cook a bit more.) Repeat for the other half of the batter.

Cut into wedges, and serve hot or at room temperature.

Note: If you want a crispy outside, use more oil in the pan; if you want it soft (and less caloric) add less. You can use ghee or butter instead of the olive oil.

Tabbouleh with heirloom tomatoes and shiso

maki — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:33:50 +0200

I haven’t been posting a lot of recipes here recently. This is mainly because I haven’t actually been doing a lot of full-on cooking, as in hauling out a lot of pots and pans and having the oven full blast and so on. It’s summer after all, and I’ve been enjoying fruits and vegetables as close to their natural, fresh, ripe state as possible. So this week I’ll be posting a few such recipes - requiring minimal active cooking, full of fresh summer vegetables, and nice to have on a warm summer day or evening.

The first one is my standard recipe for tabbouleh, with a twist - instead of using mint, I use shiso (perilla). Shiso has a slightly minty but wholly unique flavor which I really like in just about anything. I also make it with a lot less olive oil than most recipes call for, which I think adds to the fresh taste. We love to have a bowl of tabbouleh in the fridge for easy self-service lunch and snacks throughout the day - it tastes so healthy and is quite filling. It’s also a great side dish for a barbeque.

Fresh tomatoes are the key to a great tabbouleh in my opinion. You need ones that are ripe and full of flavor, yet firm. One of my favorite tomatoes at the moment are an heirloom Swiss variety called Berner Rosen - they are a rosy pink when ripe, and full of juice and flavor. (If you’re in Switzerland, Berner Rosen are all over the place at the markets right now.) If you can’t get hold of a good heirloom variety like this, use cherry tomatoes, which are usually reliably firm yet flavorful.

Tabbouleh with heirloom tomatoes and shiso

Makes about 6-7 cups

220g / about 8 oz (or about 1 1/2 cups) bulgur
250g / about 9 oz finely cubed cucumber (or one large English type cucumber, deseeded)
500g / about 1lb 2 oz chopped up tomato (or 6-8 medium to large ripe tomatoes, deseeded)
250g / about 9 oz finely chopped red onion (or 3 medium onions)
2 cups of flat leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
1 large handful of shiso leaves, or a very small handful of mint leaves, finely shredded (go easy if you are using mint)
Juice of 3 large lemons
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Soak the bulgur in enough water to come about 1 cm or 1/2 inch above the surface. Cover and let soak for at least 1 hour.

While the bulgur is soaking, chop up the vegetables. It’s better to do this by hand, but if you use a food processor be very careful that it doesn’t all turn into a pulp.

When deseeding the cucumbers and tomatoes, reserve the seed part and pass through a sieve to take out the actual seeds but extract the watery pulp around them. This pulp is full of flavor and it will be added to the tabbouleh later. (Skip this step if you don’t want to bother.)

Drain the soaked bulgur very well and put into a bowl. Add all the vegetables and herbs, the sieved seed pulp, lemon juice, oil, and salt and pepper; mix well. Taste to see if it needs more salt (remember the saltiness will mellow a bit). Cover well and refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.

This will keep for several days in the fridge, mellowing every day. If you want to keep it longer than a few days, omit the onions. You may want to add more parsley leaves and/or shiso leaves when serving.