Kinpira Gobo (Braised burdock root)

Gobo is a burdock root, very common in Japan.  We use for miso soup(I make cream gobo soup as well), cook with butabara(pork belly) with soy sauce etc.  But the most common dish of Gobo is Kinpira Gobo.

Ingredients:
1 Gobo
Half Carrot (cut short and thin strips)
Mirin 2 Tbs
Sugar 2 Tbs
Sake 1 Tbs
Soy sauce 2Tbs
Sesame Seeds 2 Tbs
Vegetable Oil 2 Tbs

Just peel gobo skin and cut in thin strips.  Soak the strips in water for about 10-15 minutes then drain it.  Heat vegetable oil in a pan and cook about 5 minutes.  Add carrot strips and cook. Add cooking wine or sake, mirin, sugar, soy sauce and put cover on a pan with low heat.  Check occasionally until it becomes no watery.  Put on a bowl and sprinkle sesame seeds.

If you like spicy one, put a chili pepper in a pan before putting gobo.

Sugar Peas with Sesame sauce

This is "Sugar Peas with Sesame sauce".  It is the same method of Spinach Sesame sauce, but Sugar Peas are a bit more easier to make as you can just boil it before mixing with sauce and taste sweet.

Herring

The most popular fish in Holland is herring.  It's now in a season so you can eat the most fresh one in Holland.  We love herring in Holland, especially eat with chopped onions. 

We also have herring(Nishin) in Japan, but usually we eat cooked one with other vegetables such as bamboo shoot or Kombu and soy sauce.  Personally I like Dutch herring much better!

Cold Somen

Somen are very thin, white Japanese noodles made of wheat flour.   The noodles are usually served cold with a light flavored dipping sauce or tsuyu and sometimes with Tempura.  Somen is a bit like a Cappellini, Italian Pasta, very thin so it takes only 2-3 minutes to boil and it is very suitable on a hot summer day.

My children are still on school holiday and they are hungry for lunch.
As we had a lot of potatoes, bread in Europe, I made this somen lunch for them.

Boil somen 2-3 minutes and wash with cold running water.  While boiling somen, you can make sauce as follows:

1. Chopped Tomato, cucumber mix with Natto in a small bowl.
2. In bigger bowl, put 6 tsp tsuyu(you can buy at an Asian section of the most supermarket) and 1tsp vinegar.
3. When somen are ready, put them in 2's bowl and mix well.
4. Put 1 and mix very well.
5. Put on the plate and sprinkle white sesame and parsley on top.  You can put wasabi if you like.

Yummy:)

Europe

I was in Europe last 3 weeks so I couldn't update my blog.

We were in The Netherlands, France, and Germany.  Food is different in each countries and I love them all!

This is in TGV to Paris.  The lunch in there was great!  You can buy a lunch called Ekiben(Station bento)in Japan and it is usually very yummy, but this lunch in TGV was really delicious.

Omotenashi

Last Saturday I had 8 people came over for dinner at my house.  Now our dining table is close to a garden so that we can see outside while having dinner.

I light up with candles in front of the water feature.  Not only Food or table settings, but to make a good atmosphere outside is also very important to entertain guests. 

Zakkokumai (Mixed grains rice)

Zakkokumai has become increasingly popular in Japan recently. Zakkoku just means “mixed grains”, and mai is rice.
Zakkoku is sold in convenient packets at a Japanese super market or Japanese section at a local market.   Each pack is meant to be used for 2 to 3 cups (rice cooker cups) of white rice. You simply throw in the contents after you’ve washed the white rice and put in the water for cooking.  It has black beans (kuromame), azuki beans, mung beans, pressed barley, black rice (kokumai), another kind of millet (mochikibi), yet another kind of millet (mochi hie) and amaranth. It colors the rice when cooked a slight reddish-purple.

You can eat as it is or with curry or gravy are great. I ate with a topping which contains, Zasai, Dried prawn, Spring Onion, Myoga and a soy sauce.