Dinner, April 23, 2012

I love shopping for vegetables, especially tender leafy ones. A few days ago I was on a veggie shopping high, and with that momentum I made a purchase error – a large fillet of previously frozen salmon. It was a good piece for previously frozen fish, but we ended up eating salmon every day since then. There are many ways to prepare salmon, but eating the same fish every day is tiresome. With the last uncooked portion, I made yet another saute as an easy solution.

• Rice
• Gobo, ninjin, enoki no misoshiru / miso soup with burdock root, carrot and enoki mushrooms, with julienned Japanese turnip leaves
• Sake no sotee, kabu to mizuna-zoe, remonjoyu / salmon saute, topped with mizuna and Japanese turnip, with lemon soy sauce
• Rutabaga to jagaimono, sumookusaamon no korokke, shungiku soosu-zoe / baked rutabaga and potato croquettes with smoked salmon, with garland chrysanthemum sauce
• Shungiku to mizuna no namuru / garland chrysanthemum and mizuna namul

The salmon was intended to be meuniere, but I forgot to add butter, which made it turn out light and pleasant. Mizuna and julienned kabu turnip lightened up the dish. Kabu has diastase and amylase -- the same digestive enzymes contained in daikon radish – and helps your body to digest oil. A simple mix of soy sauce and lemon is always great with sauteed or grilled fish. Still, a 110-130 g (approx. 1/4 lb) piece each was a bit too much to eat.

For the miso soup, gobo and carrot were cut thinly sasagaki style and julienned to match the skinny enoki mushrooms. Sasakagi sliced or julienned root vegetables cook fast and taste lighter than, say, those cut rangiri style. Since we have been eating heavily for the last few days, a lighter soup with lots of fiber seemed desirable.

Rutabaga and potato croquettes were a test. They were baked instead of deep-fried. It was decent in terms of taste, but the outside wasn't crispy enough and it was disappointing. Oh well. More panko with a little more oil and a higher baking temperature might help. Well see what works next time.

Leftover namul from the day before had too much flavor from shungiku and garlic to be eaten together with other dishes. At very least, finishing it gave us more space for vegetables in the fridge.

Salmon, miso soup and rice would have been enough. Once again, I was reminded that having too much isn't always a good thing.