VeganMoFo 2018 #22: Menu: Fall or Year-Round Menu from Japanese Cooking

I love Japanese food, and Japanese Cooking: Contemporary & Traditional, by Miyoko Schinner, has been a great resource to make some simple but delicious food at home. This is another book I have rediscovered by working through some older cookbooks, and I can't believe that I let it languish for so long! The book has a number of menus, organised by suggested season or year-round. The menu today is for 'Fall or Year-Round'. You can see what else I have cooked from this book here.

Miso Soup with Daikon Radish and Tofu Pouches: Think of a Japanese meal, and you probably thing of miso soup being included. This version uses homemade kombu dashi (very easy), lots of miso (I used a blend of red and white), daikon, and abura-age (fried tofu pouches, look for them in the freezer section of your Japanese or Asian food market). I made a half recipe, which was a perfect three small bowls for three people.
Rating: :)



Carrot and Tofu Scramble: I made this with Japanese-style firm tofu, which is softer than the firm or extra-firm Chinese-style I normally use for scrambles. I had a 300g block (rather than 450g), so I adjusted the recipe accordingly. The recipe calls for the same weight in carrots, but 300g of shredded carrots is actually a huge amount. I ended up using about 250g. It is simply flavoured with soy sauce and sesame oil.
Rating: :)



Spinach with Sesame Sauce: I couldn't find any bunches of spinach on this particular day, so I used about 350g of baby spinach. Instead of steaming it, I just wilted it in the microwave. The sesame sauce is very easy to make sesame seeds, sugar, and soy. It is quite salty, so definitely use the full amount of sugar suggested. I blitzed my sesame seeds in a mini food processor, rather than using a traditional suribachi or mortar.
Rating: :)



Stewed Vegetables: This seems simple, a mix of vegetables and mushrooms simmered in a four ingredient liquid. But oh my god it is delicious! I used a blend of kabocha, carrots, daikon, and dried sliced shiitake (which I just added in dry as they were sliced thin to reconstitute during simmering). The simmering liquid is made from kombu broth, sweetener (I used sugar), mirin, and soy and by the time all the vegetables have simmered, softened, and released their juices it is absolutely drinkable!
Rating: :D



And here it is all together (minus the soup), served with some steamed white Japanese rice (of course!). Also some pickles that I made from a different book. It was a lovely combination. The sweet, simple scramble was great against the strong flavours of the sesame sauce on the spinach, and you know how I feel about that vegetable dish!



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I promise there are two kitties in this photo. Sahara is obvious, but can you see Dim Sim?