Japanese food

I made a nice dinner for myself from Washoku, a new-to-me book of Japanese home cooking. Before I even opened the book I somehow gave myself a terrible papercut, I think with its very sharp cover.

I started out by making kombu-jiru, vegetarian dashi using only kombu and shiitake (I used Chinese black mushrooms instead), as it was an ingredient in my two main dishes. I used the kombu and mushroom to make Kelp and Mushroom Relish.


When I opened the konyaku packet for Carrots and Konnyaku Tossed in Creamy Tofu Sauce I was momentarily overwhelmed with its fishy smell, and had to check the ingredients on the label to be sure that I hadn't accidentally gotten some sort of fish cake. It was all down to the seaweed flecks, so I continued on to cutting the carrots and konyaku into batonnet (the recipe said matchsticks, but I was lazy). I fried them briefly, braised them with a little dashi and sake, them tossed them with the tofu sauce (tofu whizzed with dashi, miso, and mirin).

Finally, I made Miso Soup with Fried Tofu, Leafy Greens, and Scallions. I couldn't find daikon tops, so I used teenage turnip greens. I ate it all with brown rice from Chico cooked in my wonderful rice cooker, which makes brown rice better than I've managed with any other method (the trouble is, it takes 1.5 hours).