Dinner, April 25, 2012

We are vegetable rich these days. Off the top of my head, in the fridge there are carrots, daikon radish, gairan (gailan) Chinese broccoli, regular broccoli, cauliflower, celery, asparagus, gobo burdock root, hakusai napa cabbage, cabbage, renkon lotus root, green onions, kabocha pumpkin, cabbage raab, red Russian kale, tomyo (doumiao) pea sprouts, lettuce, red peppers, pasilla peppers, jalapeno peppers, cilantro and parsley; on the kitchen counter, potatoes, satsumaimo sweet potatoes, satoimo baby taro root, nagaimo Chinese yam, ginger and onions. We also have eringi mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms and oyster mushrooms.
Too many choices? More than enough pieces to finish a menu puzzle, for sure.

There is also an open can of clams and prep-boiled usuage thin deep-fried tofu, both of which need to be eaten shortly. Moyashi bean sprouts go bad quickly, and they also have to go pretty soon. So these ingredients will determine dinner.

• Asari gohan, aamondo-iri / steamed rice with clams and toasted almonds
• Daikon to asupara no misoshiru / miso soup with daikon radish and asparagus
• Moyashi to age no sattoni / soybean sprouts with thin deep-fried tofu in broth
• Gairan no gomaae / Chinese broccoli in sesame dressing

Asari gohan is one of many rice dishes I like. Toasted almonds give a nice crunchy texture to the rice. Just like with any other mixed rice dish, it is on the heavy end in terms of taste and texture, and something light is a good choice for a soup.

Fresh daikon cut into somewhat large cubes is cooked in dashi until tender to achieve the softness of furofuki daikon. Asparagus cut in a size that matches daikon cubes is added toward the end so that it stays crisp. The miso soup has a light taste from both vegetables as well as the soft texture of melt-in-your-mouth daikon and crispness of asparagus.

Usuage thin deep-fried tofu goes wonderfully well with clams, and it is cooked with moyashi for a small side dish. Only a small piece of usuage does an excellent job of giving enough flavor to rather bland moyashi.

Gailan becomes my regular gomaae with tobanjan.

My tableware selection was too white and boring. It needed more color, as color was missing in the food. But other than that, it was a decent meal with the perfect amount of food.