vegan

Strawberries, tsubuan, ice cream

maki — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:31:44 +0200

There are some food combinations that you think just shouldn’t belong together, but do so well. Strawberries with sweet beans? Surely not, you think, until you taste an ichigo daifuku - a strawberry wrapped in some azuki an and thin gyuuhi, a dough made of rice. I’ve had ichigo daifuku on my mind lately but have been too lazy to make the dumplings. This is a very easy alternative. Arguably it’s even better.

You need some tsubuan, sweet azuki beans that have been roughly mashed. I recommend my not-so-sweet tsubuan, which is easy to make in batches; extras can be frozen. Or use storebought—you can find it at Japanese groceries.

You also need some ripe strawberries, which are in season now around here, marinating them in balsamic vinegar.

Put about 2 tablespoons of tsubuan in a bowl, and top with about 4 (or more) spoonfuls of sliced strawberries, with plenty of the syrup that it’s in. Top with a little, or a lot, of vanilla ice cream, made with soy milk or cow’s milk, whichever you prefer. (In this case I prefer a soymilk ice cream, which seems to fit better.) Let the ice cream melt over everything while you eat.

It’s a cool yet quite filling snack for a warm day.

Kuzumochi, a cool sweet summer dessert

maki — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:11:04 +0200

I wrote about the use of kuzu powder in the goma dofu (sesame tofu) recipe. This time it’s a very traditional, simple sweet dish using kuzu.

Kuzumochi are sticky ‘mochi’ cakes made with just kuzu powder, sugar and water. The texture is somewhere in between gelatin and mochi made from rice flour - wobbly but not too sticky. It’s traditionally served chilled, so it makes an interesting, gluten free (and vegan) summer dessert.

Recipe: Kuzumochi

100g (3 1/2 oz.) kuzu powder (you really can’t substitute anything else here, e.g. arrowroot or cornstarch - neither have enough body)
50g (1 3/4 oz.) white sugar
500ml (2 1/2 cups + 2 Tbs.) water

Mix together all the ingredients in a small pan. It starts out as an opaque white liquid.

Heat over medium-low heat, stirring consistently. As it heats up, it will start to clump up. Keep stirring.

It will get more translucent and clumpy. Keep stirring quite vigorously.

When it turns transclucent all over and quite thick, and clears the bottom of the pan, it’s done.

Wet the inside of a square container, and pour in the goo. Smooth out the top as well as you can with a wet spatula. It will be quite clear when hot, but will get more cloudy white as it cools. Let it cool down to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least an hour, or until completely cold.

Take it out of the container (it will slip out easily) and cut into cubes.

The traditional way to serve kuzumochi is with plenty of molasses or black sugar syrup and kinako, toasted and ground soybean powder, as in the top photo. I like it with lots of kinako. (If you don’t have molasses, dissolve 1 cup of dark brown sugar in 1/2 cup of water.)

Since the kuzumochi is mildly sweet and quite bland, you can try all kinds of toppings. Try some fruit preserves, fresh fruit with honey or syrup, even condensed milk and strawberries.

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.

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.

Cooking whole dried soybeans

maki — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:53:24 +0200

Until fairly recently I had a blind spot when it came to the humble soybean. I regularly consume soy products like soy milk, tofu and okara, not to mention fermented soybean products like natto and tempeh. And green soybeans or edamame are always a great snack.

But for some reason, I didn’t really get into eating the whole dried (and cooked) soybean. It’s not that they are that much harder to cook than other dried beans either.

In any case, I’ve rectified that situation and now I cook up a batch of soybeans quite regularly and store them in the freezer. Plain boiled soybeans are amazingly delicious, and just packed with nutrition. The cooking liquid is so rich that it can be used as a very nutritious stock or dashi for making soups and such.

There are a couple of points to watch out for when cooking whole soybeans, which are noted below in copious detail.

Step 1: Wash and pick over

Rinse the dried soybeans, rubbing them together gently to remove any surface powdery residue , and pick out any dark or discolored beans. These will not cook properly. If any of the hulls work themselves loose while you’re washing, pick those out too.

Step 2: Soak overnight

Soak the beans in water to cover for several hours or overnight. You may need to soak them a bit longer than other types of beans. Also, the bring to a boil then let sit for an hour method of speeding up bean cooking does’t really work well for some reason.

After soaking, you can optionally split the beans by squeezing them gently. (An alternative is to use a food mill to split the dried beans, but I don’t have such a device so if I want the beans split I do it after they are saturated with water.)

Step 3: Use a big pot

Just like soy milk foams up like crazy while it’s being cooked, soybean cooking liquid will bubble up quite enthusiastically, all over your stovetop if you don’t watch out. So the dried soybeans should not come up to more than 1/4th of the height of your cooking pot, and the cooking water should only come up to about 1/3rd of the height maximum. In other words, use a big pot, or cook less. This is particularly true if you’re using a pressure cooker - the viscous cooking liquid may even clog up the works, so be careful. (My pressure cooker can handle about 3 cups of dried beans.)

Step 4: Bring to a boil, then skim off the grey stuff

Whether you are using a pressure cooker or a regular pot, you should first bring the soybeans to a boil, then skim off the greyish stuff that will rise to the surface of the water.

Step 5a: Using a pressure cooker

After you’ve skimmed off the initial grey stuff, put a heat-safe plate that is a smaller than the circumference of the pot on top of the beans. This plate helps to keep the beans from dancing around, and also prevents any loose hulls from rising up and possibly clogging the pressure valves. Once it’s reached pressure, lower the heat and cook for 20-25 minutes. Turn off and let cool naturally until de-pressurized.

Step 5b: Using a regular pot

Heat up to a boil, then put a heat-safe plate or an otoshibuta on top of the beans. Cooking time is about 3 hours, but don’t worry, you don’t have to watch it continuously for that time. Top up with additional water from time to time if it seems to be cooking off, and skim off any grey stuff. A slow cooker would work too. The beans are done if you press one between your finger and thumb and it’s soft, not crunchy. (Or just eat one!)

Step 6: Draining and removing the hulls

Once the beans are cooked using either method, stir then let them sit a bit - the loose hulls will rise to the surface. Skim these off. Strain the beans, reserving the liquid to use as a vegan stock. (Don’t get too concerned about a few loose hulls left in. Removing those hulls is just a good idea because they tend to end up undigested and loose in your innards, which may cause you to rooty-toot-toot a bit more than you may want to and such.)

Step 7: Optional oven drying

The beans at this stage are pale and rather soft. You can use them as-is, but one thing I like to do to at least half the beans is to slow-dry them in the oven. This makes the beans firmer and meatier, and more suited to use as a meat substitute.

Just spread out the well drained and cooked beans on a baking sheet, and put into your oven at the lowest possible heated setting. On my oven that’s 50°C or 122°F. Leave the sheet of beans in there for about 2 hours, turning occasionally. They will shrink to about 20% and turn a light reddish brown. If you taste one it should be just a bit chewy but not hard.

You can use these dried soybeans coarsely ground in a food processor as a ground meat substitute in pasta sauces and such, or to make soy burgers and so on. (You can dry canned soybeans in this way too.)

Storing and freezing

I store un-dried soybeans in freezer bags with a little bit of the cooking liquid. These are used in stewed dishes, soups and such. The dried beans are stored on their own in freezer bags. The cooking liquid can be frozen too.

So there you have it. It may seem complicated, but it really isn’t once you’ve done it once. And the results are worth it especially if you are a vegan/vegetarian. And it’s wonderfully cheap too.

Now, of course you can turn these boiled soybeans into fun things like tempeh and natto. That’s for another day….

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!)

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)

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’.