Tag Archives: cooking

Strawberry Season

Oooh mah goodness, soooo good!

Strawberries, Balsamic and Cream

We seldom make dessert at home. I’m not a baker, and would rather prefer to spend my time cooking up savouries rather than sweet things.  But the husband has a sweet tooth, and this has helped us get creative with some quick-to-make items that can easily satisfy that after-dinner craving.   Continue reading

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Tonjiru and Nanohana

Tonjiru and Nanohana, Rice and Pickles

The Asian recipe for this week is Tonjiru – or, Japanese pork and miso soup with root  vegetables.  I’ve made it a couple of times and love its ease, tastiness and generally healthy (are pork belly and “healthy” allowed in the same context?) contents.   I also like this soup since it’s so flexible, and you can add or subtract ingredients to your liking and taste.  For instance, the version below uses sato imo, or taro root instead of potatoes, and omits goubou (burdock root). Instead of just using Akamiso (red miso), add a little of the sweeter Shiromiso (white miso) for balance.  Also, the amounts below are estimates, so please adjust as necessary.   The rest of the meal included nanohana no karashi, or broccoli rabe/ rape flower with mustard dressing, rice of course, and pickles. Continue reading

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Goma Dofu

Goma Dofu at the Hug Hovel

How can a dish with no sugar in it be such a stunningly tasty dessert?  We fell in love with a number of things while in Japan, one of them being a fantastic dish called Goma-dofu, or sesame dofu.  It had a creamy, savory-nutty sweetness that was terribly addictive.  Note that it’s not actually soy-based tofu though; it’s made of ground sesame seeds and kuzu starch, and makes for a great vegan dish.  Kuzu (or Kudzu) is a perennial ornamental vine that’s a member of the pea family, and originally hails from Asia where its root starch is used primarily as a thickener for soups, stews, and sauces.  In Japan it’s used in both savory and sweet treatments.

We ate a number of tasty goma dofu dishes while we were in Japan, and before we had even returned to the states I vowed that I would try to replicate it at home.

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