Sesame Vegetables

I am often asked for tips to help kids eat vegetables. One of my favorite quick and easy recipes is this sesame dressing. Crush some toasted sesame seeds (white or black) in a mortar and pestle. Add a bit of sugar and soy sauce to taste. That's it. This can be used to top any steamed vegetable. Most often I use it for greens like spinach, broccoli, and green beans but it also works for carrots.

When making Shinji's bento I try and incorporate five colors. Red, white, yellow, green, and black. Black can be hard to incorporate if you don't make hijiki. This sesame dressing with black sesame seeds is a good way to include black.

Sesame Dressing

Simmered Kabocha 南瓜の煮物

Kabocha is one of my favorite Japanese vegetables. Much like a pumpkin, but with a denser, sweeter flavor. This dish is a bit labor intensive in prep, but definitely worth the few extra steps. I remember at culinary school, at the French Culinary Institute, chef Jacques Pepin talking about taking the extra steps to make a good dish. I don't remember if he said we do this because we are chefs, or this is what makes chefs different from home cooks, or if we just should not take shortcuts if we know that there is a better dish to be made. Regardless, the dish will be better if you can do full prep.

Cut the kabocha into bite size pieces. Cut the inside of the kabocha, to rid of the soft spot where the seeds were. Then cut the four edges of the skin. This is the key step not to skip. It will soften the edges which may be off-putting when eating later after it is simmered. Finally, score the skin to rid of any rough spots and to create areas to help the kabocha simmer.

1/2 kabocha
3 1/2 cups dashi
1/2 cup sake
1/2 cup mirin
1/4 cup sugar

In a pot combine all of the ingredients. Cook until the kabocha is tender. Will keep for several days.

This dish is often served at room temperature.

Kabocha

Vietnamese Spring Roll Salad

Our favorite neighborhood restaurant is Nha Trang, a Vietnamese restaurant introduced to me by a dear Vietnamese friend. Most of the customers are Vietnamese and the menu is long and diverse. But, I always tend to go back to the same dish, a salad that is topped with spring rolls or caramelized pork, or a combination of the two.

We often make fresh spring rolls at home but was inspired to trying to recreate the salad at home the other day. And, were surprised at the success.

The recipe came from Corrine Trang's Authentic Vietnamese Cooking - a great resource for many Vietnamese dishes.

Fried Spring Rolls

Walnut Dressing for Vegetables

I often make a dressing for vegetables using toasted sesame seeds, sugar, and soy sauce. Toasted walnuts also work very well.

Toast some walnuts in a dry pan.

Put into a mortar and pestle and crush.

Add a bit of soy sauce and sugar to taste.

To the dressing add some vegetables like steamed green beans, broccoli, spinach, or carrots.

Okra and Natto Rice

One of my favorite Japanese foods is natto, fermented soybeans. Here we have it for breakfast with okra. A kaiseki chef taught me how he treats okra. He quickly blanches it in hot water, then opens up the pods and removes the bitter seeds, then chops up the okra. The sticky texture of the okra with the slimy texture of the natto is a great combination, especially over a bowl of hot rice.

Natto

Okra

Fava Beans and Rice 空豆ご飯

A nice contrast to always having white rice is to steam some vegetables in the rice pot when cooking rice. Fava beans are placed on top of uncooked rice and the rice is cooked as usual. This same dish is also nice with green peas.

Takikomigohan

Fava Beans

Video - Japanese Cuisine (Gifts from the Forest)

This video, from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries highlights the bounty of the mountains (yama no sachi).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zHdtxZiXpU

Video - Japanese Cuisine (Vegetables)

This video by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is on Japanese vegetables.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PhLmoxi56A

Recipe - Simmered Hijiki ひじきの煮物

Cooking with sea vegetables is a wonderful way to add minerals and nutrients to any diet. Low in calories and rich in fiber, I always feel better after eating some sea vegetables. In our kitchen we use kombu, wakame, nori, aosa, aonori, kanten, and hijiki.

This simmered hijiki dish is relatively easy to prepare and will keep for several days in the fridge. It has a prominent place in Shinji's bento box, adding both black and orange to a colorful bento.

Simmered Hijiki
1/4 cup hijiki (dried)
2 pieces deep-fried tofu (abura-age)
1 small carrot
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup dashi
2 Tablespoons mirin
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons soy sauce

Rehydrate the hijiki in water until tender (follow instructions on package). Boil some water and pour over the deep-fried tofu to rid of excess oil. Julienne carrot. Cut deep-fried tofu into small pieces. After the hijiki is rehydrated, drain of excess water.

In a saute pan saute the carrots until color changes or until the texture changes. Add to the pan the hijki and deep-fried tofu and saute for about 2 minutes.

Add dashi, mirin, sugar, and soy sauce.

Simmer until most of the liquid dissipates. As it is simmering taste the broth and adjust flavors as you like.

Allow to cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge. Can be eaten at room temperature.


Note on bento contents:
Salmon rice in top half.
Bottom half from left to right: simmered hijiki, tamagoyaki, kinpira gobo, pickled cucumbers, carrots, and turnips, and some grilled fish (not sure which one).

Hijiki

Aburage

Hijiki Nimono

Nagaimo

Recently at the French Culinary Institute in NYC there was a presentation on nagaimo at a four day conference promoting Japanese ingredients.

It is said that nagaimo has been eaten by the Japanese and other Asian cultures since 2000 BC. Nagaimo is rich in potassium, magnesium, zinc, and vitamin B1.

Nagaimo is also rich in mucin (the sticky and slippery texture). Mucin helps promote metabolism. Also, rich in deoscoran, polyphenol, lectin, peroxidase, and dietary fiber.

There is a very informational website for more details on nagaimo and some great recipes by chef Marcus Yip of 148 Hiroo.

www.nagaimo-aomori.com

Recipe - Nagaimo Omelette

Nagaimo is a long stocky potato that when grated becomes a thick slurry that is slippery and dare I say slimy. I love it simply grated and poured over a bowl of hot rice. My friend, chef and cookbook author, Yumiko Kano, has several cookbooks on cooking with vegetables. The cover of one of her cookbooks has a nagaimo omelette. Basically the nagaimo potato is grated and cooked in a saute pan until the outside becomes crispy and the inside remains juicy. This is simply seasoned with soy sauce when served. I make the same dish, but very thin so there is more crispy bits to it.