vegetables

Japanese country style stewed eggplant or aubergine (nasu no inakani)

maki — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:43:59 +0200

It’s hard to take an appetizing picture of this eggplant (aubergine) dish. But I promise you that it’s absolutely delicious. Plus, it’s so simple to make, requiring just 6 ingredients and water.

I found it in an old Japanese cooking magazine, which had an even worse photo of the dish than the one here. I was a bit sceptical but had bought a too-big batch of eggplant at the market, and wanted a way to use some of them up. I am so glad I tried the recipe, because it’s now one of my favorite ways to have eggplant. And it’s vegan too.

There’s a saying in Japanese, akinasu yome in kuwasuna (秋なす　嫁に食わすな). It means “Don’t let your daughter in law eat fall eggplants”. People debate what the intent of this saying is; does it mean that fall eggplant are too delicious to feed to the daughter in law, who was traditionally the lowliest member of the family? Or perhaps it’s a thought of kindness, since eggplant is supposed to be a ‘cooling’ vegetable, which is not good for a pregnant or fertile young woman. Either way, there’s no doubt that eggplant is particularily delicious in late summer to early fall, when they usually produce a second crop after a first one early on.

Country-style stewed eggplant (nasu no inaka ni 茄子の田舎煮)

I’ve adapted the recipe so that you can use large Western style eggplants as well as thin Asian-style ones. (Large Western style eggplants are known as American eggplants in Japan for some reason…maybe because anything oversized is associated with the U.S.!)

6 thin Chinese or Japanese style eggplants or 2 large Western-style eggplants - choose ones that are shiny, unblemished and hard
2 small hot red chili peppers
Salt
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (For the sugar-wary, a sugar substitute should work fine)
Sesame oil or regular vegetable oil

Cut the eggplants in half. Make thin cuts in the skin side of the eggplants about 3/4 down, so that they stay attached at the bottom. (This makes the cooking liquid penetrate the eggplant evenly, and also looks much nicer than plain chunks.) If you are using big Western style eggplants, cut in half again lengthwise; if using Asian style thin ones, you don’t have to do this. Cut into chunks crosswise.

Put the cut eggplant in a bowl of salt water (about the saltiness of water you’d cook pasta in). Put a bowl or plate on top as a weight to completely immerse the eggplant pieces, and leave for about 20 minutes. This gets rid of any bitterness in the eggplant, as well as making it easier to cook.

In the meantime, de-seed and finely chop two small red Thai chili peppers.

Drain the eggplant, and squeeze out the water. Heat up a pan with oil - you can use all sesame oil, all vegetable or olive oil, or a mixture. (Sesame oil will add a nutty flavor.) Sauté the eggplant slices until they are a little limp and coated with oil. Add the chili pepper near the end.

Put into a heavy bottomed pan, and add enough water to cover. Add the soy sauce and sugar, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer. Put an a pot lid that’s smaller than the pot (that fits inside the pot) on top of the simmering eggplant, and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes until limp but not falling apart. Let cool in the cooking liquid - it absorbs more flavor as it rests.

This keeps well for a few days in the fridge, well covered, immersed in the cooking liquid. It can be eaten hot or cold, though I think it tastes best when it is warm, eaten with a fresh bowl of rice. If you want to use it for bento, try draining off the liquid before packing.

Otoshibuta, or that small lid-inside-the-pot thing

I’ve used a small lid that fits inside the pot right on top of the simmering food. This is called an otoshibuta. Traditional Japanese otoshibuta （落としぶた）are made of wood, and I’ve sometimes seen people on some forums insisting on the necessity of a wooden otoshibuta. To that I say, nuts. Otoshibuta literally means “dropped lid”, and is put on top of cooking food so that the food cooks evenly. I usually just use a one-or-two-sizes smaller pot lid, but you can also use a heatproof plate completely wrapped in aluminum foil or kitchen paper, with a twisted ‘handle’ sticking up for easy of removal. For some delicate foods a simple layer of kitchen cooking paper or aluminum oil placed on top would be enough.

Corn on the cob with butter and soy sauce

maki — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:32:50 +0200

I have to admit that I’ve been quite taken aback by how popular the new potatoes with butter and soy sauce recipe has been. Butter and soy sauce are so familiar to me as a tasty combination that I hadn’t quite realized that it would be new and exciting to a lot of people.

Anyway, here’s another extremely simple yet delicious way of using this magic combination on another summer vegetable - sweet corn. Here in Europe, eating corn on the cob is a relatively new custom imported from the U.S. - corn around here is either dried and ground up (as polenta and so on), or used as animal feed. So it’s not always possible to buy great, very fresh sweet corn. This treatment can perk up even an ordinary supermarket-bought corn on the cob, and will really shine with corn that you’ve just picked from your own garden.

Corn on the cob with butter and soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 360°F.

Unhusk and de-silk the corn.

For every ear of corn, use about 1 to 2 Tbs. of unsalted butter. Soften the butter, and smear it all over the corn, so that it goes into all the crevices.

Wrap each ear of corn in a large piece of kitchen parchment paper (aluminum foil will work too), twisted each end tightly as if you were wrapping up a big piece of candy. Place the wrapped corn on a baking sheet. Make a small opening in one seam and pour in about 2-3 tsp. or so of soy sauce, and roll the corn around a bit to distribute the soy sauce.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn over. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes.

Serve each ear of corn on a big plate, wrapper and all. Each person opens up the paper to eat the corn. Here’s how a wrapped one looks next to a partially unwrapped one.

The butter will have penetrated into the corn kernels, while the soy sauce adds a great salty-yummy flavor. (You can dip the corn as you eat it in any residual soy sauce in the paper.)

How to cook bamboo shoots (takenoko)

maki — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:22:40 +0200

There are two Japanese vegetables that I can’t get fresh here that I miss very much. One is burdock root or gobo; the other is bamboo shoot or takenoko (竹の子 or 筍）. Bamboo shoots are very much a spring-only vegetable, much like asparagus, so around this time of year I always get a craving for the crunch and subtle flavor.

While fresh bamboo shoots haven’t made their appearance at markets and stores in Zürich, it is possible to buy precooked bamboo shoots. (And the truth is, most Japanese people nowadays use convenient precooked bamboo shoots anyway. Fresh bamboo shoots start to go hard and somewhat bitter as soon as they are dug up.)

An added bonus: boiled bamboo shoots are so low in calories that you can put them on your ‘eat as much as I want’ list. 100 grams has about 12 calories and 1 gram of fiber.

Cooking fresh bamboo shoots

If you’re lucky enough to live in an area where you can get fresh bamboo shoots, here’s how to cook them.

Select bamboo shoots that are heavy and firm, with a lively looking outer skin. (Only about 2 or 3 kinds of bamboo varieties produce edible shoots, and they are all quite large and come from fairly old bamboos. You could experiment with bamboo shoots from your garden, but you do so at your own risk.)
Cut off the pointy end and the root end.
Put in a pot with enough white rinsing water when you wash rice to cover. (Alternatively you can put in some rice bran, wrapped in a cheesecloth.) Bring to a boil, and simmer for about an hour or more, until it is tender enough to poke a skewer through. (Some suggest putting a couple of chili peppers in the simmering water.)
Let cool in the water; if you try to peel it while it’s still hot, the shoot may split.
The outer skin will peel off easily. You can then proceed and use the bamboo shoot in various dishes.

Using pre-cooked vacuum packed bamboo shoots

You can get canned bamboo shoots, but I much prefer the vacuum packed kind. They are a pale shadow of freshly cooked bamboo shoots, but they haave to do. They come packed in a little water.

Essentially they have been cooked in the manner described above, and are ready to use. You may see some white gritty stuff in the inner folds - that’s just rice residue. Rinse it out in water.

Once you’ve opened a vacuum packed bamboo shoot, try to use it up right away.

Recipe: Takenoko Gohan (Bamboo shoot rice)

Takenoko gohan is a quintessential spring dish. The rice is subtly perfumed by the bamboo shoot, which retains its crunchy texture. This can really make me homesick for Japan.

This is a method to cook it in a rice cooker. This is a vegan dish.

3 rice cooker cups (1 cup = 180ml) rice (white rice is traditional, but you could use sprouted brown rice. If using regular brown rice, soak it overnight.)
3 dried shiitake mushrooms, pre-soaked until soft
1/2 small to medium cooked bamboo shoot (about 4 oz / 120g)
1 Tbs. sake
1 Tbs. mirin
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1/2 to 1 tsp. salt (less salt if you intend to eat this as part of a Japanese meal with other salty things; more if this is served as a side-dish Western style)
The soaking liquid from the shiitake, plus added water if needed

Wash the rice and drain in a sieve.

Drain off the dried shiitake, reserving the soaking liquid. Add to the rice in the rice cooker, and top up with water if needed to bring it up to the 3-cup level mark. Add the sake, mirin, soy sauce and salt. Let the rice soak for at least 30 minutes. (Overnight if you’re using regular brown rice.)

In the meantime, chop up the shiitake and cut the bamboo shoot half into bitesize pieces. Add to the rice, and cook using regular cooking settings.

Let rest for at least 10 minutes after cooking, and them fluff up to mix.

Recipe: Bamboo shoot and snap pea stir fry with bacon

The other half of the bamboo shoot can be used in a stir-fry or a miso soup. Here’s a simple stir fry that uses another spring vegetable, snap peas. The bacon makes it not very vegetarian. You can leave it out for a vegan version.

1/2 small to medium cooked bamboo shoot (about 4 oz / 120g), sliced
2 cups snap peas, de-veined if needed and trimmed
2 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup white parts of spring or green onions sliced
1 Tbs. oil
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper
a few drops of chili oil Head up the oil in a wok. Add the bacon and cook until just about crisp. Add the onion, stir fry a couple of minutes. Add snap peas and stir fry until bright green and crisp-tender. Add bamboo shoots, soy sauce and salt and pepper, and the chili oil, and take off the heat.

Different types of Japanese tsukemono pickles, and how some may not be worth the hassle to make yourself

maki — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:24:33 +0200

Periodically, someone asks about Japanese pickles - those crunchy, salty, sweet-sour, even spicy bits of goodness that accompany a traditional meal, especially breakfast. There are a big variety of Japanese pickles, and sooner or later you might consider making them.

Some time ago I did a week-long series on making instant, or overnight pickles. These pickles can be made very quickly, usually with ingredients that are easy to get a hold of. If you want to try your hand at Japanese style pickles, I recommend starting there. There are also a couple of cookbooks in English dedicated to quick and easy pickles, both of which are quite good: Quick and Easy Tsukemono: Japanese Pickling Recipes by Ikuko Hisamatsu, and Easy Japanese Pickling in Five Minutes to One Day: 101 Full-Color Recipes for Authentic Tsukemono by Seiko Ogawa.

However, the type of pickles that you are likely to be served in a high class traditional inn in Japan, or even the type you can buy in vacuum sealed packs at a supermarket, are a bit more complicated to make, especially outside of Japan. Here are some examples.

Umeboshi or pickled plum

Umeboshi or pickled plums (the reddish lumps pictured above) are arguably the most famous Japanese pickles. The just-ripened fruit of the ume tree, which belongs to the prunus family of fruit trees (which includes the various kinds of Western plums, apricots, peaches and cherries), are pickled in a very time consuming and prolonged process. Here are the basic steps involved:

In the spring, ume fruit are carefully washed and de-stemmed, so as not to prick or damage the fruit.
The fruit are salted in lots of salt, then weighted down and left for about a month or more in a disinfected container. The weight is changed during this process according to how much liquid is extracted from the plums.
In June when red shiso leaves are out, the leaves are salted and then added to the salted ume. The whole thing is disinfected and weighted down again.
In July to early August, when the sun is hot, the ume are taken out and dried out in the sun. (This is the hoshi part of umeboshi, which means “dried”).
Sometimes the umeboshi are further marinated in a flavoring liquid. An important by-product of umeboshi making is the ume vinegar, the salty-sour liquid that is extracted from the ume.

Besides the time it takes to make umeboshi (a surprising number of people in Japan do make it, including my mother - it’s sort of like a yearly ritual) you can probably see the difficulties presented in trying to make it outside of Japan. First, where to get a hold of ume? (I’ve often thought about the possibility of using apricots as a substitute, but apricots ripen at the wrong time.) You’d have to get a hold of red shiso leaves too - the only way to do that that I know if is to grow them yourself from seed. And finally, you probably need to live in an area that gets as hot as much of Japan does in the summer for the umeboshi to dry out properly.

So, to make umeboshi, you’d have to start by planting your own ume trees. It’s often said that Tokyo and Atlanta have similar climates. Anyone in Georgia want to give it a go? :)

Other pickles that use ume vinegar

Ume vinegar is a pretty important ingredient in many other pickles. Shibazuke (pictured above) for instance, the bright purple pickles you can buy in vacuum packs, is a mixture of cucumber and eggplant (aubergine), picked in ume vinegar with additional red shiso leaves. I did try to make this once, but found that it really needs the small, firm Japanese or Asian eggplants and cucumbers. Red pickled ginger (benishouga 紅ショウガ）is also picked in ume vinegar - and requires young, tender ginger root. Ume vinegar is sold at supermarkets in Japan, and is becoming more available outside of Japan these days, so if you can get a hold of the base ingredients you can give them a try.

Nukazuke, pickling vegetables in fermented rice bran

Another major ingredient used for making pickles is rice bran or nuka (糠）. This of course is what is polished off rice grains to produce white rice. Rice bran pickles or nukazuke (糠漬け） are what you usually get at traditional restaurants, many of whom pride themselves on the quality of their homemade ＿nukazuke_.

To make rice bran pickles, a special moist rice bran bed called the nukedoko is made. This rice bran bed is the key - it’s salted, flavored with various things that hold lots of umami, and slightly fermented. Fresh vegetables are buried for a couple of days in this moist, living bed and allowed to lightly ferment themselves. Taking care of a nukadoko requires time and skill. It’s rather similar to taking care of a sourdough starter, except it’s much more high maintenance, even more so than a desem starter. You can’t easily go away on a long vacation if you want to keep a rice bran bed alive and happy. (And you must never, ever let any animal products near your nukadoko.)

Unlike umeboshi, most rice bran pickles are not long-keeping; like instant pickles, they must be refrigerated and eaten within a few days.

Dried vegetable pickles

Another category of pickle is the dried vegetable pickle. These pickles are probably very ancient in provenance. Freshly farmed whole vegetables are hung out in the open air to dry out, then they are salted and pickled. One of the most well known ones of this type are takuan or takuwan, bright yellow, slightly sweet pickles made from half-dried daikon radish (pictured above). (The yellow is not artificial food dye when made using traditional methods; it comes from turmeric, called ukon in old Japanese.) Nozawanazuke or takanazuke, dried greens that are pickled, are also of this type. These kinds of pickles require a lot of time to make, and really only make sense if you have the space to make them in bulk - like if you have a daikon radish farm.

I’ve thought off and on about making a rice bran bed (you can buy rice bran at Japanese grocery stores). But it won’t happen this year, since I have a lot of things to do, will likely be doing a lot of travelling and basically just won’t have the time. Maybe another year, when I’ll have enough time to grow lots of my own vegetables. In the meantime, I’m going to stick to storebought pickles and made-in-a-few-minutes instant pickles.

How to cook taro root or satoimo

maki — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:17:45 +0200

When I write about some ingredients or vegetables, I am usually quite confident that most people will like them. Lotus root for example may look exotic to western eyes, but is are quite neutral in taste. Taro root, or satoimo （里芋）in Japanese, are a different matter though, because it has a texture that divides people sharply into like and dislike: sliminess.

Japanese people in general, unlike most peoples of the western hemisphere, love foods with slimy textures. Whereas in the American South okra is battered and coated and deep-fried to minimize the slime as much as possible, in Japan the sliminess is even enhanced and celebrated in many okra dishes.

Taro root is not as aggressively slimy as okra innards, but it definitely has it. (It’s the base ingredient in the Hawaiian speciality poi.) In Japan taro root is most often boiled or stewed in liquid, which dissipates the sliminess somewhat. It may however take some getting used to.

On the other hand, taro root is high in fiber, lower in calories by weight than white potatoes, and very filling. It’s a good alternative starch.

Incidentally, the Japanese word for taro root, satoimo （里芋）means “potato (or starch root) of the homeland (sato)”.

Where to buy taro roots and what they look like

Taro roots are eaten all over East and South Asia, so you can find them at Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and South Asian groceries. (I get mine at an Indian grocery store in Zürich.)

Taro root looks rather hairy and intimidating, sort of like Hell’s Angel versions of potatoes.

(The top left one has just started sprouting. This can just be cut off, but try to get ones that aren’t sprouting.)

How to prepare taro root or satoimo (as they are prepared in Japan)

You will usually need to scrub them fairly well - a stiff vegetable brush does this job the best, or a tawashi if you’re in Japan - because little bits of dirt tend to get trapped in the hairy bits.

Once they are scrubbed, you can peel them as-is with a peeler or knife. However, some people with sensitive skin react to the slime of raw taro root and get itchy. (This also happens with yamaimo and nagaimo, as I explained briefly previously.) To avoid this, you can also try this microwave method:

Wash and dry the taro roots. Put on a plate and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Microwave on HIGH for 4-5 minutes if the taro roots are small or about the size of golf balls, longer if they are bigger.
Peel each root while holding it in a paper towel or kitchen towel, since they’ll be hot. The root inside will firm but cooked through more or less. You can then put them into soups, stews, etc.

The itchy substance goes away once the roots are cooked.

Recipe: Satoimo (taro root) cooked in miso with tofu

This is an extremely simple dish where the taro roots are cooked in a miso sauce, with crumbled tofu. Actually I originally wanted the tofu to stay in neat squares, but it goes crumbled during cooking. It tastes good (if you like taro root’s texture) in any case.

5-6 small to medium taro roots, peeled with the microwave method
1/2 block firm tofu
1 cup dashi stock (traditional or vegan or water
2 Tbs. white miso
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. maple syrup or 1/2 Tbs. sugar

Cut the taro root into bite-size pieces if necessary - for small ones just cut in half. Put into a pan with the dashi stock, mirin and sugar or maple syrup. Crumble in the tofu.

Bring to a boil and cook down until the liquid is almost gone. Add the soy sauce. Thin out the miso with a little water or dashi until liquid rather than a paste, and add to the pan. Let simmer for a few minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Garnish with something green to perk up the beige.

Other ways to enjoy taro root

You can add taro root to stews, soups, and so on. You can also try making taro root chips. They are very nice in a Japanese style curry, instead of white potatoes.

Other slimy foods that Japanese people love

Natto
Nameko - slimy small mushrooms
Okra - even raw! Usually boiled or deep-fried though.
Nagaimo and yamaimo - root vegetables that are slimy when raw. Often eaten grated and raw, with a raw egg for more slimy goodness.
Mekabu, a type of seaweed
Moroheiya, a tropical green vegetable, touted in recent years for its health benefits.

How to cook lotus root (renkon)

maki — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:53:53 +0200

Lotus root (renkon in Japanese) is actually the rhizome of the lotus plant. It’s a popular vegetable throughout southern and eastern Asia, but it’s still not that well known in the west. Lotus root is full of fiber and various vitamins and other nutrients. In Asia it’s believed to have various medicinal qualities, but in macro-nutrient terms it’s best to think of it as a starchy vegetable, like potato. Visually of course, it’s very appealing with all those little holes. Here I’ll explain how it’s prepared and eaten in Japan.

How to prepare lotus root

First off, this is how a raw lotus root looks like. You can buy them at an Asian (South or Eastern) grocery store. More often than not they will be vacuum packed. A nice fresh one is a light orangey-brown. The older the root the browner and darker it is.

Mature lotus root has a sort of slightly bitter or tannic quality, so should not be eaten raw. (Apparently young lotus roots can be eaten raw, but I’ve never encountered them unfortunately.) The bitter/tannic substance is most concentrated in the skin, so you should peel it. Inside, it’s a light flesh color.

(Another way to deal with a raw lotus root is to steam it whole, but peeling and slicing is easier for beginners.)

Raw lotus root will start to darken almost right away, rather like raw potato. To prevent this, put the peeled lotus root in water with a little vinegar in it. If I slice it up, I put the slices in the vinegar water.

If using the slices for a salad, or for any dish that has no further or very little more cooking, they should be boiled for a couple of minutes in vinegared water. This retains the crunchy texture but gets rid of that tannic-ness.

You can also buy lotus root in cans, which can be used straight away. However, many canned lotus roots have been bleached to make then whiter, so I prefer to use raw lotus root if I can find it. (The natural color of lotus root is a very light flesh-orange.)

Changing textures

Depending on how long it’s cooked, the texture of lotus root varies from crunchy to very starchy and a little sticky. I like it either way. Here are two ways of using lotus root in its crunchy stage.

Recipe: Lotus root, cucumber and Serrano ham salad

1/2 lotus root, sliced very thinly and the slices cut into halves
1/2 English or seedless cucumber, de-seeded and sliced thin
1-2 slices of Serrano or other dried ham, cut into thin slivers
1/2 Tbs. rice vinegar plus additional for cooking
Dash salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. mayonnaise

Put the sliced lotus root into vinegar water as you slice it, as described above. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and add a little vinegar. Boil the lotus root for a couple of minutes. Drain and cool under running water; drain well.

Mix the vegetables and seasonings except the mayonnaise together well with your hands, scrunching them a bit to let the flavors penetrate. Add the mayonnaise and ham and mix well. Serve immediately, or cool in the refrigerator until dinner time.

Recipe: Stir-fried lotus root with sesame and green onions

1/2 lotus root, sliced very thinly
1 piece of fresh ginger about 1 inch / 2 cm or so long, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloved, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 cups of roughly chopped green onions
2 Tbs. hot red chili pepper, finely chopped
Oil
Vinegar for the lotus root water
1 Tbs. sesame seeds
Pepper
1 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil

Put the sliced lotus root into vinegar water as you slice it, as described above. Drain well just before cooking.

Heat up a large frying pan with the oil. Add ginger and garlic, and stir fry until the oil is very fragrant. Add the drained lotus root slices in a single layer. Cook until the lotus root slices start to change color - they turn a bit translucent looking. Turn over and cook a couple more minutes.

Add the chili pepper and green onions, and stir-fry. Add the sesame seeds, pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil. The lotus roots should get a bit caramelized from the soy sauce. Serve hot or cold. This is very nice for bento.

Other ways to eat lotus root

Lotus root mini-cakes with sweet chili sauce. This uses the starchy, sticky quality of grated cooked lotus root.
Lotus root slices poached in dashi and vinegar - a very traditional Japanese dish
Cut up and put into soups or stews - the longer it’s cooked, the more starchy it gets
Deep-fried or baked as chips (these baked ones on jugalbandi look great)
With a batter as tempura
Sandwich some meaty filling inside and pan-fry (hasami-age)

Lotus root mini-cakes with sweet chili sauce

maki — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:11:04 +0100

I’ve lived in Switzerland on and off now for more than a decade. During that time, I’ve slowly seen more Asian grocery stores open, and more Asian ingredients become available. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a great thing.

When I saw some fresh lotus roots at my favorite Chinese grocery store in Zürich, I did a little dance of joy. I could only find it frozen or canned before. Lotus root, known as renkon (蓮根）in Japan, is an interesting vegetable, that changes its nature by how much you cook it. When it’s raw it’s rather bitter; when cooked briefly it has a very unique, crunchy texture; when stewed for some time, it turns starchy. It’s packed with fiber and various nutrients, and even used for medicinal purposes in the past. (Wikipedia entry).

This is what a raw lotus root looks like:

The outer brown skin is peeled off (a vegetable peeler works great for this task).

You may be more used to seeing lotus root served in slices:

Sliced lotus root can be boiled or blanched, steamed, stewed, deep-fried and so on. The lacy pattern adds instant flair to your dish.

Here though I grated the raw lotus root to make little pancakes out of them. When lotus root is treated like this, the texture turns quite starchy and dumpling-like, a little like rice cakes (mochi). Generous amounts of chopped fresh coriander leaves and green onion are added, for a pan-Asian flavor. They are gluten-free, vegan, and generally quite healthy, but they taste great too.

Because they are rather dense and starchy, it’s best to make them quite small, about the size of a poker chip.

Recipe: Lotus root mini-cakes

1 lotus root about 9 inches / 25cm or so in length, to yield about 1 cup of grated root
4 to 5 Tbs. potato starch or cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
1/2 cup chopped green onion
Sesame oil for cooking
Sweet chili sauce or chili jam

Peel the lotus root and grate on a fine grater. Drain lightly in a fine-mesh sieve to get rid of excess moisture, but do not squeeze. Add salt.

Add enough potato or corn starch (use a gluten-free version if you are sensitive) to just hold the dough together sufficiently to form patties with. Add the chopped coriander and green onion and mix well.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan or griddle. Drizzle with a little sesame seed oil. Make little cakes or patties from the dough, and put in the hot pan. You should get about 8 to 10 little patties.

Leave to cook over medium-high heat, until the cakes move about a bit if you shake the pan. Turn each cake over carefully with a spatula. Drizzle in a little more sesame oil if necessary.

Continue cooking, flipping over more times if necessary, until the dough changes from an opaque white to transparent pale green, and the surface is browned and crispy.

Serve hot or at room temperature, with sweet chili sauce or chili jam for dipping. Great party food, or as a tasty carb component of a bento.

2008 will be the International Year of the Potato

maki — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:56:15 +0200

Next year, the United Nations wants us to celebrate the humble potato for an entire year. I’m not certain how the UN makes its decisions about such things (why not the Year of the Tomato or the Year of the Turnip?), but I have no objections against the humble potato, one of my favorite foods. Unless you are an avowed anti-carb person, how could you not love the potato? As a matter of fact, I do wonder if someone at the UN came up with the Potato Year idea to combat the anti-potato sentiments in certain developed and weight-obsessed countries.

Potatoes are really the ultimate comfort food. For me they rank right up there with a bar of milk chocolate in the I-may-regret-it-later but boy-I-need-it category. The best bowl of comfort in the world is a creamy mound of mashed potatoes, which I’ve written about before. (I do however use a ricer now instead of a masher, for a lighter texture.) If I want a bit of texture or variation to the mash, I make it into a champ (add chopped up green onions that have been poached a bit in hot milk) or do something low-rent and add canned sweet corn and crisply fried bacon bits. Ahh, potatoes and bacon. What could be better.

Here is the official site for the International Year of the Potato, which has lots of educational facts, but inexplicably lacks any recipes. I want to know how they eat potatoes all over world, especially in the Andes where the spud originated! Let’s hope they’ll add some recipes when the Year officially kicks off.

Some other potato recipes on Just Hungry:

Besides the mashed, I wrote about Rösti and Oven-fried potatoes.
Pommes Anna - a ruinously rich, time consuming and delicious dish. Plus a variation with truffles.
Nikujaga, stewed potatoes and meat - real Japanese home cooking!
Japanese potato salad is the best potato salad.
Shepherd’s pie and a not very classic (but tasty) fish pie, both topped with mashed potatoes.
Pae de queijo the very easy way, made with potato.

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.