Breakfast, June 21, 2011

There are lots of hoshi-shiitake mushrooms in a jar, and we still have the last piece of astuage deep-fried tofu. A few days have been passed since its best-by date, but we won't die if it's fried.

After I chopped up ingredients for champuruu, an Okinawan-style stir-fry, I realized that I made exactly the same dish a few days ago. Oops. Not very creative.

• Steamed rice with red perilla leaf furikake
• Miso soup with satoimo baby taro root, carrot and spinach
• Atsuage to komatsuna no champuruu / Okinawan-style stir fry with deep-fried tofu and komatsuna
• Gomaae with kabocha pumpkin and snap peas

One satoimo is sliced into rounds 5-8mm thick -- thick enough to retain the texture while thin enough to cook fast. Slice carrot in rounds the same thickness. Two different sizes of rounds -- polka dots for fun. Still, the color is dull. Blanch spinach and put in bowls. Green is always nice.

What else can I make quickly? Gomaae, again? Why not? I should finish up snap peas in the fridge, and adding kabocha pumpkin would make it a bit different. Succulent and starchy combination. Mildly sweet peas paired with very sweet kabocha. Sounds OK.
Grab snap peas, kabocha, tahini paste, soy sauce and tobanjan from the fridge; put a pot of water on stove; put sake and mirin in a glass bowl and microwave; remove stingy edge of snap peas and blanch; take out sake & mirin mixture from the microwave and add tahini, soy sauce and tobanjan; cut kabocha into small pieces, microwave in plastic wrap, remove and tear the wrap to let steam go. Everything should be cool enough to combine when other dishes are ready. 

Vegetables for miso soup should be done by now. Add miso, remove pot from heat.

Start cooking champruu. Since stir-fry dishes don't take time, they are usually the last ones to be cooked to ensure hot servings.
While ingredients are in the frying pan and cooking, mix snap peas and kabocha with sesame dressing, and serve on plates; pour miso soup in bowls with spinach.
Finish up champruu and immediately serve on warmed plates.

Serve rice in bowls and sprinkle furikake topping.

Ready to eat. Not bad.