vegetarian

Goma dofu: Sesame tofu that's not tofu

maki — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:26:09 +0200

There are some dishes in Japan that look and have a texture like tofu, but are not tofu in the traditional sense; that is, they’re not made from coagulated soy milk. One of these not-tofu tofus is goma dofu （ごま豆腐）or sesame tofu. Goma dofu is made from three simple ingredients: ground sesame paste, water, and kuzu or kudzu powder.

Goma dofu, the poster child of shoujin ryouri

Shoujin ryouri (shojin ryori) is the mostly-vegan cuisine that was developed in Buddhist monasteries in Japan, and goma dofu is one of the best known shoujin ryouri dishes. Making it from scratch is hard; kuzu powder is difficult to process from kuzu roots, and the sesame has to be ground for a very, very long time in order for it to become totally smooth. The job of grinding the sesame was assigned to low-level novice monks - the hard work was considered to be good for their character.

The lay person however can take two critical shortcuts: use readymade kuzu powder, and pre-ground sesame. In Japan pre-ground sesame paste is sold as nerigoma, but elsewhere it’s known as tahini. Granted, grinding up your own freshly toasted sesame seeds does result in a slightly more fragrant goma dofu, but tahini based goma dofu is still very good. And your elbow will be saved for playing more Wii Tennis.

Recipe: Goma dofu (sesame tofu)

Makes 12 to 16 squares.

70g (2.5 oz) tahini or nerigoma that has been stirred very well
50 g (1.75 oz) kuzu powder
500ml (2 cups plus a tablespoon) water, filtered water preferred

Equipment needed: bowl, pan, square container to mold the goma dofu

Combine the kuzu powder with a little water to make a paste. Add the rest of the water and mix well.

Put into a pan over medium heat, and add the tahini or nerigoma. Mix continuously, smooshing any lumps of sesame paste and incorporating it as well as possible into the liquid. When it heats up it will start to thicken and get a bit lumpy - keep stirring to smooth out the lumps. After a while, it will turn from milky to a bit more translucent in color and have the consistency of a thick pudding.

Wet the inside of the square container you’ll use as the mold. Pour in the hot pudding-like mixture and smooth out the top. Bang the container a few times onto a countertop or table to get rid of bubbles. Let cool to room temperature, and then put into the refrigerator to cool, about 2 hours.

Unmold and cut into squares. Serve chilled, with wasabi or grated fresh ginger and soy sauce. (The goma dofu on its own is quite bland, so it does need the sauce.) It’s really nice as a cold appetizer on a warm day. It can be stored, well covered, in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

If you want to grind your own sesame seeds

Use hulled white sesame seeds, toast lightly in a dry pan, and grind for about an hour or so in a suribachi for about an hour until totally smoooooooth. Character improving, indeed. Strain through a fine sieve before using.

Incidentally, the term goma o suru (grind sesame seeds) is a euphenism for sucking up to (or brownnosing) someone.

Variation with peanut butter

Use smooth unsweetened (and preferably unsalted) peanut butter in place of the sesame paste for a peanut tofu.

A short intro to kuzu powder

If you have gluten tolerence problems, chances are you have already encountered kuzu powder as a gluten-free thickening agent. It’s the starch produced by processing the roots of the kuzu or kudzu plant. Here’s what it looks like:

Kuzu is a very good thickener when the dish needs to have a sort of starchy-gelatinous texture and be translucent. It’s used in a variety of savory and sweet dishes in Japan. You can buy it at Japanese grocery stores or health food stores. I find that it’s usually a bit cheaper at Japanese food stores than at health food stores, but it’s still rather expensive since producing it from kuzu roots is a very laborious process.

At the moment I am rather into kuzu powder (since I found a relatively cheap source for it locally), so expect to see some more recipes using kuzu in the next few weeks here, especially since it’s very nice for cold dishes…and it’s allegedly coming up on summer (though it’s hard to tell by the weather here today!)

Read more about kuzu and how it’s made on this manufacturer’s site.

See also: kuzumochi, “mochi” squares made just from kuzu powder and sugar.

Quick take: Yogurt (yoghurt) cheese with garlic and olive oil

maki — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:04:06 +0200

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has an article about how to make yogurt (or as they spell it in the UK, yoghurt) in the Guardian. I did not want to go to the trouble of making yogurt from scratch, but I had a big pot of plain yogurt that needed to be used up so I made a sort of variation on the yogurt cheese balls further down on the page.

Yogurt cheese, in case you are unfamiliar with it, is just plain yogurt that has been drained of much of its liquid. To make it, just line a sieve with some porous cloth like cheesecloth, muslin, a coffee filter or even a couple of paper towels, spoon the yogurt in, and put the sieve with a bowl underneath in the refrigerator for at least a few hours. The more you let it sit, the drier it will become.

I strained about 2 1/2 cups of yogurt mixed with 1 teaspoon of sea salt from Friday evening to Sunday morning, by which time it had become the consistency of whipped cream cheese. I put this into a bowl, grated one garlic clove over it and drizzled on some extra virgin olive oil and mixed it up. It was the perfect spread for freshly baked hot savory scones.

I’ve never been a big fan of very sweet yogurt, so this savory yogurt spread may make more breakfast appearances.

A vegan version of nikujaga (Japanese meat and potatoes), plus how to remake Japanese recipes to make them vegan

maki — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:06:17 +0200

Nikujaga, stewed potatoes with meat, is a staple of Japanese home cooking. It’s filling and comforting, and appears quite frequently for dinner at our house. Recently though I’ve been making this vegan version more frequently, which is just as tasty as the meaty version. Thick fried tofu (atsuage) is the protein replacement, but it’s not just there for it’s nutritional benefits - I love the texture in a lot of dishes.

The recipe, plus some ideas on how to reform Japanese non-vegan recipes to make them vegan, after the jump.

Recipe: Potatoes stewed with fried tofu and green beans

Makes 4 servings as part of a Japanese meal

4 medium firm boiling type potatoes (not baking potatoes)
1 cup frozen green beans, or the equivalent amount of fresh green beans
1/2 small onion
1 to 2 squares of thick fried tofu (atsuage)
2 Tbs. sake
3 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. dark (grade B) maple syrup
1 Tbs. sesame oil

Peel and cut up the potatoes into small pieces. If using fresh green beans, cut off the tops and cut into pieces. Slice the onion.

Cover the fried tofu in boiling water, and drain. This gets rid of much of the surface oil.

Heat up a heavy-bottomed pan with the sesame oil. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the potato and tofu pieces, and sauté intil the oil coats the pieces well. Add the green beans and toss around some more.

Add just enough water to cover. Add the sake, soy sauce and maple syrup. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to about medium-low, put on a lid and let simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes. To concentrate the flavors even more, take the lid off and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes until the liquid is almost evaporated - this step is optional.

Serve hot or cold. The flavors mellow if you let it rest, which makes it very good for bento.

Notes

If you want bright green green beans, just add them in the last few minutes of cooking. I just add it with everything else because they taste better that way. (Sort of like the way green beans are cooked until they are almost falling apart in the South.)

This is even better if you use new potatoes.

Making non-vegan Japanese recipes vegan

If you compare this recipe to the classic nikujaga, the first thing you may notice is that there’s no meat. There is also no dashi stock used. Traditional dashi stock, which forms the basis of the majority of savory Japanese cooking, is not vegan, since one of the key ingredients is dried bonito (fish) flakes or niboshi (dried little sardines). Using a vegan dashi which uses just kombu seaweed and/or dried shiitake is an option. But it’s also possible in some cases to omit the dashi entirely, as in this recipe.

When you omit meat and dashi (or any soup stock), what you lose is a lot of umami. To make up for this, add ingredients that are inherently rich in umami or other flavoring ingredients. In the recipe above for example, the onion, sake, sesame oil, soy sauce and maple syrup add plenty of flavor to the dish - and without dashi the flavor of the potatoes comes through better too.

And about that maple syrup: Since Japanese recipes often call for sugar, using a flavorful sweetener instead of plain white sugar is a way to add some extra oomph. Raw cane sugar, brown sugar, palm sugar, maple syrup and honey are some options. Dark maple syrup goes very well with Japanese flavors.

(Incidentally, if you’re a North American visiting friends elsewhere, maple syrup makes a great gift because it’s really expensive over the pond!)

Time-tested vegan proteins

maki — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:57:49 +0100

More and more these days I’m getting requests for vegan and vegetarian recipes. While I’m not a vegetarian as I’ve stated here before, I like to eat a daily menu that’s light on meat, and am always interested in vegan and vegetarian protein options.

There are several what I’d call factory-manufactured vegan or vegetarian protein products out there, from TVP to quorn. I’m sure (or fairly sure) they are safe and wholesome to eat, but I’m more interested in traditional, or time-tested, vegan/vegetarian protein alternatives.

This is the list I’ve come up with so far. They are Japanese-centric, since that’s what I’m most familiar with. Do you have any others to add?

Soy bean products:
- Boiled soy beans
- Green boiled soy beans (edamame)
- Fermented soybeans (natto)
- Fermented black soy beans (mostly Chinese)
- Fermented soy bean paste (miso and related products; Japanese, Chinese, Korean)
- Tofu and tofu variations - fried, etc.
- Soy milk
- Yuba (skimmed soy milk sheets)
- Tempeh (Southeast Asian)
- Okara (soy bean bran left over from making soy milk or tofu (thx for the reminder toontz!)
- Kinako (toasted and ground soy bean powder)
Chickpeas and chickpea products:
- Hummus
- Chickpea flour
- Cooked whole chickpeas
Other beans and legumes (also often available ground)
- Lentils/ Dal
- Azuki beans (also called red beans)
- White beans or navy beans
- Black beans
- Kidney beans
- Lots of other beans
Whole grains
- Brown rice and other whole-grain rices (black rice, red rice, etc.)
- Whole wheat and products made from whole wheat flour (bread, pasta, couscous, etc)
- Quinoa (particularly high in protein)
- Millet
- Whole oats
- Buckwheat
- Amaranth
Seeds and nuts and products made from them
- Sesame seeds
- Tahini
- Flax seeds
- Peanuts
- Peanut butter
- Almonds
- Cashew nuts
- Walnuts
- Hazelnuts
- All kinds of other nuts
Other whole foods
- Chestnuts
- Chestnut flour
- Coconut
- coconut milk
- Avocado
Traditional processed proteins (other than soy bean based ones)
- Fu (toasted and dried wheat gluten, 25-30g of protein per 100g, see more)
- Seitan (also wheat gluten - since the 1960s anyway)
- Kanpyou (dried gourd strips, 7.1g protein per 100g)
Protein-rich sweets
- An or anko (sweet azuki or white bean paste)
- Annin dofu (almond jelly, made with agar-agar)
- Many Indian sweets and Persian sweets are bean, chickpea based
- Ice cream! (well it is lacto-ovo-vegetarian :))

And you also have the lacto-ovo proteins if you loosen up your rules to extend to milk and eggs:

Lacto-ovo/non-vegan proteins:
- All kinds of eggs - chicken duck, quail, ostrich…
- All kinds of milk - cow, goat, sheep, etc.
- All kinds of cheeses - from cow, goat, sheep, buffalo, etc. milk
- Other milk products: butter, yogurt/yoghurt, kefir, cream, buttermilk….

Not a good protein source

Mushrooms are not a protein source, even though they are often used in vegetarian dishes as a sort of meat substitute. They may taste meaty, especially the heartier ones like portobellos (which are just overgrown brown button mushrooms) but are basically just fiber and water with small quantities of Vitamin B1 (thiamin) and B2 (riboflavin), calcium, Vitamin C and iron. They are on the other hand tasty and very low in calories. You’re getting a lot more protein from the bun part of a portobello burger than from the ‘burger’.

Fu, the mother of seitan

maki — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:48:58 +0100

Vegetarians are probably familiar with seitan as a meat substitute. Seitan is wheat gluten that has been kneaded in such a way that the gluten threads align themselves to resemble meat. It was invented by advocates of the macrobiotic food movement in Japan, specifically as a meat substitute, in the 1960s. (Wikipedia entry.)

But way before there was a macrobiotic movement, let alone seitan, people in Japan were already eating a wheat protein product called fu (麩). Like seitan, fu is made from the gluten that is extracted from wheat flour. Sometimes the gluten is mixed with other ingredients. There are two kinds of fu: raw (namafu 生麩), which is basically fresh fu; and grilled and dried (yakifu or yakibu 焼き麩). Here I’d like to focus on the dried kind which is much easier to get a hold of for people outside of Japan. It’s also a great pantry item, since it keeps for a long time.

How yakifu is made and types of yakifu

Yakifu is traditionally made by forming raw fu into various shapes, then slowly grilling it over a flame until barely colored on the outside and totally dried out. It has various names according to how it’s made, and where it comes from. Here are three types of yakifu that I happened to have in my pantry:

From top left going clockwise, they are called komachibu, chikuwabu, and shounaifu. (Chikuwabu is called that because it resembles chikuwa, the fish paste product that’s popular in oden.)

Here’s a closeup of the komachibu, which is the kind that I find to be most versatile.

As you can see, it looks like little dried bread slices. That’s because essentially that’s what they are, except without the yeast and such.

Another kind of dried fu is kurumabu, wheel-shaped fu that are about the size of a doughnut. They are often used as meatless ‘steaks’ and such. I can’t find kurumabu at my local Japanese grocery store, but you may be able to at yours.

Here is a map of Japan showing different kinds of fu and where they come from (Japanese).

A meatless protein

100 grams of dried fu has 369 calories, almost no fat and 28 grams of protein. So like seitan, it’s a pretty good vegan protein. The only people for whom fu would not be suitable are those who are gluten intolerant. (Of course this applies to seitan as well.)

But what does it taste like?

On its own, dried fu is pretty tasteless. It’s like a soft sponge that absorbs any flavors you can throw at it. The texture when dry is like stale bread, and when reconstituted it’s soft and rather silky. If seitan has a texture a little like chicken, I’d say that fu, especially komachibu, is a bit like scallops.

How to use dried fu

The easiest way to use dried fu is to just throw some into a soup or stew. You may have already encountered them in miso soups. You don’t have to limit it to miso soup though. Put some into a hearty vegetable soup, simmer briefly, and you have a fairly nutritionally complete meal. The komachibu and chikuwabu will taste like fluffy soft quenelles; the shounaibu is just a bit more dense in texture.

You can put them in in the last few minutes into a stew as well, meatless or not. If you simmer it for too long, it will start to disintegrate. (Shounaibu is more sturdy, since it’s thinly stretched and folded.)

A slightly more advanced way is to reconsitute it first in plain water, then to stew it and so on. Fu is such a popular ingredient in sukiyaki that some people called dried fu sukiyakibu. Do remember though that the reconstituted sponge has no flavor, so you’ll have to add it in by cooking it in a bit of soup or broth or sauce first.

Modern cookbooks have devised other ways of using dried fu; for example, Yumiko Kano, a cookbook author I’ve mentioned here several times before, uses komachibu as a base for mini-canapes. I haven’t tried this myself yet but it’s an intriguing idea.

As a first step though, try adding a few to a soup and see how it goes!

(And here’s a panfried komachibu recipe over on Just Bento.)

Sidenote

Although fu is a very commonly available product, seitan is virtually unknown outside of macrobiotic circles in Japan. I actually didn’t even know it had Japanese origins - I thought it came from somewhere in southeast Asia, like tempeh! It’s ironic that seitan is much better known outside of Japan - maybe because it’s used in things like Tofukey.

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.

Some unresolved thoughts about white bean paste

maki — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:33:39 +0100

Usually when I put a recipe up here, it’s something that’s been fully resolved: that is, I’ve tried it out for myself (in most cases several times over), and I know that it works. This one is a bit different, but I thought I’d write about it in-progress, as it were, anyway.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been making batches of the same thing - white bean puree - at least once a week. This is just plain old white beans (sold around here as haricots blanc or Weissbohnen, known in the U.S. as navy beans I think) that are cooked until they are just about falling apart, drained and then whirled in a food processor until totally smooth. One reason I’ve been rather obsessed with this bean puree is because nutritionally it’s quite interesting - a balance of protein and carbohydrates, and vegan to boot. But I’m also very taken by its starchy creaminess. Oh, and it’s also really inexpensive.

I am still not sure what the best way to flavor the bean puree is. Here are some of the experiments I’ve done so far.

Sweet

White bean paste is the base of shiroan (白あん）, which is used as a pale colored alternative to azuki an, azuki (adzuki) bean paste, in traditional Japanese sweets. But the recipes I’ve seen for making shiroan call for an astonishing amount of sugar - a minimum of 2 parts sugar to 3 parts dry beans in weight. I’ve experimented with much less sugar, but the minimum amount that seems to make a difference taste-wise is about 150 grams of sugar to 500 grams of pre-cooked weight dry beans. That’s far less than the traditional recipes. Adding some salt with the sugar (about 1 1/2 tsp. for 500 grams dry weight in beans) makes it taste a lot sweeter, paradoxically.

If this is dried out enough to stiffen the puree into a paste, it can be formed into little balls. As a looser puree, it’s interesting to eat with cut up fruit like mango and banana.

Maple syrup can be used instead of white sugar, but this makes for a looser puree because of the higher water content in the syrup. (And I go up to 200 g of maple syrup to 500g of dry-weight beans). This makes the puree taste very maple-y, of course.

I’ve also tried whirring it in a food processor with tofu, to make a thicker version of this tofu pudding. This was moderately successful - the texture improved, but the tofu flavor seemed to totally take over the white beans. Adding some cocoa powder made it into a thick and fairly tasty chocolate pudding though. Adding pureed bananas made it even better.

Savory

White bean paste makes a very nice hummus, following the recipe on this page - though the traditional chickpea base is just as good, if not better.

It does make an interesting thickener for a soup - just add blobs of puree to a vegetable soup base. This could make it interesting for people with gluten problems, and certainly would is a very filling main-meal vegan soup. (Pasta e Fagioli, white beans cooked in a broth with pasta added later, is a classic Italian bean soup.)

I’m still not entirely happy that I have hit on the right combinations though. The experiments continue.

Sweet and spicy roasted kabocha squash

maki — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:34:37 +0200

I hesitated to put this recipe up, because it’s not the prettiest thing in the world. But it’s so tasty, dead easy to make, and of this season - so, here it is. As a bonus it’s full of fibre and is relatively low-calorie, low-sugar etc for people who want a bit of something sweet without going on a massive guilt trip.

Most recipes out there for using winter squash seem to involve pureeing them, but I rather like them when they are in chunks or slices. This roasted squash has a sweet, spicy and salty glaze of sorts on them, which brings out the dense sweetness of the fruit. Cut into fairly thin slices like this, it makes interesting finger food. You can vary the sugar and spice to your taste, though too much of either may overwhelm it.

You do need to use kabocha-type squash for this ideally, though butternut should work too. You will need a dense, starchy and sweet squash. Don’t use regular pumpkin, which is too watery and lacks sweetness. (Rouge d’etampes pumpkin may work, but I’ve found their sweetness to vary quite a bit.)

Sweet and spicy roasted kabocha squash

1/2 small to medium sized kabocha squash
3 Tbs light brown, natural cane, or muscovado sugar, plus a bit more for sprinkling
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper or hot chili powder, more or less to taste
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbs soy sauce
Oil for drizzling - pumpkin seed oil is preferred, or use toasted sesame oil, argan oil, or walnut oil (see notes)

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. Line a baking sheet or two with silicon baking liner or parchment paper.

De-seed and cut the squash into slices about 1/2 cm or 1/4 inch thick. (Use a sturdy knife for cutting squash or pumpkin, on a stable surface, and be careful!)

Combine all the dry ingredients. Toss the squash slices in this until coated thoroughly. Add the soy sauce and toss well again.

Spread the slices in a singler layer on the baking sheet. Drizzle over them with the oil, and optionally sprinkle more sugar on them. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then turn over, drizzle with more oil and sprinkle more sugar, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Notes

Toasted pumpkin seed oil (Kürbiskernöl) is a mainly Austrian speciality, though they make it here in Switzerland too. It’s very nutty and dark, and is terrific in dressings and marinades. Toasted sesame seed oil or walnut oil can be substituted, or even expensive argan oil.

Instead of cinnamon, nutmeg and cumin, you can use a ‘pumpkin pie seasoning’ mix (or if you are in the Germanic parts of the world, a Lebkuchen mix would do too.)

Preserving shiso, basil, lemon verbena, and other herbs

maki — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:42:40 +0200

Around here it’s already cool enough to declare that summer is over and fall is here. (Actually we had a very cold, wet summer anyway, but nevertheless.) So the summer vegetable plants in my garden are dying off, and I’m in the process of salvaging the tomatoes and eggplants, picking the last zucchini, and eyeing the winter squash to see when they will be ready.

Tender herbs like basil are on their last legs, so I’m picking and preserving those flavors of summer so that they can brighten the dark winter months. Last year I took the lazy option and froze everything, packing the picked leaves in plastic bags and throwing them in our big locker-type freezer. Freezing is okay if you’re too busy to do anything else with your herbs, but not really the optimal way all the time to keep tender herbs in the long run. So this year I’m thinking things through a bit more and considering how I want to use each herb, and preserving them accordingly. Each method is quite easy and really doesn’t take that much time.

Basil

In the summer I like to throw basil leaves into everything from soups to sauces to salads. For that though you do need fresh leaves. Frozen leaves darken and don’t really look nice in a salad. (You can keep a basil plant or two going under growlights in pots for garnishing if you’re determined to have it fresh year round.)

I rarely if ever have basil in anything but savory dishes, so a savory preserving method was the logical choice. After trying various methods I have settled on making a basil puree. This is essentially a pesto without the cheese, garlic and pine nuts.

Basil puree

For every 2 cups of fresh basil leaves (lightly packed into the measuring cup), use 1/2 cup of light olive oil (I prefer a light, relatively flavorless olive oil so that the basil flavor really shines through, but you can use an extra virgin if you prefer.) Be sure to pick the leaves only from the stems. Wash the leaves then pat them dry with kitchen towels.

If you are a purist you will mash the leaves with a mortar and pestle, but I use the food processor. Whiz up the leaves until chopped, and add the oil to make a puree. Add a few drops of lemon juice, and a little salt (1/4 tsp. or so per 2 cups of basil).

I freeze this spread thinly in plastic zip bags. To use, just break or cut off as much as you need. You can turn this into pesto by adding freshly grated Parmesan, crushed or grated garlic, and ground pine nuts. (The easy way of course is to whiz everything together in the food processor.)

For what it’s worth, I had about 16 cups of basil leaves, which turned into about 4 cups of basil puree. The puree keeps the bright flavor of basil very well.

(Basil thoughts: This year I grew a variety of basils, but next year I am going to grow mostly the classic Genovese basil or ‘sweet’ basil, and perhaps just one plant each of the small leaved basil, Thai basil, and lemon basil. The Genovese basil really is the most useful, and also makes the nicest pesto or puree.)

Lemon Verbena

I use lemon verbena mostly in drinks and desserts, so it makes sense to preserve (or conserve…I’m never sure which term is correct for what method) it with sugar. This recipe is from a wonderful book called The Herbfarm Cookbook, but I’ve adjusted it just a bit by reducing the sugar.

For every 2 cups of fresh lemon verbena leaves (lightly packed in the measuring cup), use 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup (or 1 cup as is suggested in the book) sugar. I use natural brown cane sugar, but white sugar is fine of course. Puree in the food processor until it forms a paste. Freeze in the same way as the basil puree. This stuff is wonderful sprinkled onto fruit - especially if you broil the fruit, or used as flavoring in all kinds of dishes. You can also stir in a couple of spoonfuls into boiling water for an instant lemon verbena tea. (Strain out the bits with a tea strainer.)

You can also try drying lemon verbena, but to me drying takes away much of the soul of this wonderful herb.

This method also works pretty well with mint leaves. Jamie Oliver had a recipe for pineapple slices sprinkled with mint sugar in one of his books. It should also work with lemon balm, though I haven’t tried it.

Shiso

Shiso, which I consider to be one of the most essential Japanese herbs, is used mainly in savory dishes. Red shiso leaves are used to make umeboshi (they color the plums and give them a distinct flavor). I don’t make umeboshi since I don’t have access to the plums, but shiso on its own can be enjoyed preserved. This year, I just had one red shiso plant and several green shiso plants, which I used almost every day - as garnish, tempura, in salads and more. (Shiso is a nutrition powerhouse with loads of vitamins, calcium, fiber and so on.)

The traditional way to keep either red or green shiso leaves is to preserve them in salt.

Salted shiso leaves

First, select large, unblemished leaves only. (The alternate name for green shiso leaves is ohba, which literally means ‘large leaves’.) Just wash and dry the leaves carefully, and pack down in a non-reactive container (glass, ceramic, plastic or enamel - not anything metal) sprinkled with salt between each leaf. Leave, well covered, in the refrigerator for at least a few days. The leaves will exude moisture and become a rather dark green (or darker red if you’re using the red leaves).

Don’t mix red and green leaves by the way - the red leaves will discolor the green leaves, turning them into an unattractive muddy brown. Besides, the red leaves have more bitterness and need to be rested a bit more after salting.

The salted leaves can be rinsed off a bit or used as-is. Salted shiso leaves are great onigiri wrappers - use instead of nori, and don’t salt your hands or mold when forming the balls. You can also wrap the leaves around ground pork, chicken or beef patties, or even veggie patties, and pan-fry them to make a crispy, fragrant surface. You can do this with fresh shiso leaves too (actually it’s better with fresh leaves). The leaves can also be shredded and tossed with hot pasta. Since the leaves are salty, adjust the amount of salt overall in the dish.

If you have some shiso seed heads (hojiso) they can also be salted in this manner.

Yukari is a furikake-type powder made from dried salted red shiso leaves.

Another way to preserve shiso is to marinate them in soy sauce with some garlic cloves. I first saw this method on the wonderful Japanese cooking community site Cookpad.

Shiso leaves in garlic soy sauce

Simply cut up some garlic cloves, and place with several shiso leaves in soy sauce. Leave for at least a day; store in the refrigerator.

The leaves don’t last that long in the soy sauce (about a month), though you can make them last a bit longer by quickly blanching the leaves in boiling water beforehand. The soy sauce becomes pleasantly flavored with the shiso and garlic, which makes it great to use in cooking, salad dressings and so on.

Finally, I do pack some of the small leaves in plastic bags and store them in the freezer, to use as garnish for noodles, soups and such. Still, shiso is one of the flavors of summer for me, so I can’t wait to sow some seeds next spring for fresh, green leaves in the warm months.

You can also try sprouting shiso seeds indoors and clipping the seedlings (called mejiso) - this is a rather trendy garnish at the moment. Shiso seeds do take some time to germinate though.

Other herbs: drying, freezing and flavored oils

Parsley, coriander and chives are pretty cheap to buy and much better fresh, so I don’t really bother to preserve them. If you want to though, I think the best way is to chop them all up and store pressed out thinly in plastic bags, which go in the freezer. They stay reasonably green and fragrant this way. Just break off what you need. You can also try freezing them with a little water in ice cube trays, but I find this to be too fiddly - and I never have enough ice cube trays.

Small, tough-leaved herbs such as rosemary, thyme and oregano do a lot better in their dried form than tender-leaved herbs do. I dry some sprigs by putting them in a paper bag with handles and hanging the bag on a door handle. The bag allows air circulation and catches any dropping leaves. When the leaves are completely dry, strip them off the stems and store in airtight containers. But if you live in a mild climate, these tough herbs may survive the winter for you. (Here rosemary does stay sort of green, but the other herbs die down to the ground.) If you have enough light, a pots of these tough perennial herbs may survive the winter on a sunny windowsill or under grow lights.

I’ve often seen decorative dried little bundles of thyme and bay leaves in Provence, tied up with string. If you have the patience this may be worthwhile.

You can make flavored oils with these herbs too, though they seem to fare better when you add garlic to the mix. Just fill a bottle or jar with olive oil, and pack it as full as you can with the herb of your choice plus a few cloves of garlic. Leave for at least a week, preferably longer. Strain, then optionally re-package with a decorative sprig of the same herb in the oil. This makes a very decorative present.

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.