Dinner, June 25, 2011

A salted, small sockeye salmon fillet is waiting to be grilled. Tom has been curious what I am going to with the small piece. I only need 1/4 of the small piece to make a light side dish.

• Mame gohan /steamed rice with English peas, topped with toasted sesame seeds
• Miso soup with egg and kabu turnip stems
• Shiozake no oroshiae / grilled salted salmon with grated daikon radish
• Konsai no gomani / root vegetables in sesame-flavored broth

Grilled salted salmon is good to eat as is, but let's dress it up with white daikon radish and bright green kabu leaves.

Daikon is grated with an onioroshi into chunky pieces for a more substantial texture that's slightly crisp. It's not soggy at all. Still, the dish tastes very light and needs a heavier taste and texture to strike a balance.

Root vegetables are sauteed with sesame oil and cooked in water, soy sauce, sake and mirin, finished with coarsely ground toasted sesame seeds. Although it tastes rich, thin slices lighten up the naturally solid texture of root vegetables. A combination of several different vegetables deepens the flavor, which is further enhanced by toasty, deep, aromatic sesame magic.

Simple rice and soup would be quite satisfying. Yet it is still cool enough to eat something reminding of spring, and one ingredient keeps coming back from the store -- English peas. So we'll have yet another rice with English peas. The miso soup has egg and the stems of kabu turnip. The stems or firm sections of kabu leaves stay relatively firm and succulent in hot soup. It also retains the mild pungent taste of kabu, a cool-climate vegetable.

I'm glad to live where kabu grows well.