Culinary Challenge day 3

Rice Overload

After 3 days of solid rice eating this morning I needed a change. I am still enjoying the miso style broth so I decided to add a few extras and make a miso stew. I thought a simple combination of potatoes, spinach and tofu would be both satisfying to the hunger and desirable to the tastebuds. As well as miso I added some sake (don't worry, all alcohol will evaporate) and mirin to the broth which proved the perfect combination. The recipe for this combination will be printed in the upcoming newsletter.

Stringy Seaweed Tastes so Fine!

Lunch was out and about so I grabbed some rice and a seaweed salad from a Japanese takeway in the city. Seaweed salad has always intruiged me. The seaweed used is the thin, lime green, luminescent variety which often gets stuck annoyingly between my teeth. However I love the flavour of this salad so much I am willing to overlook this problem. The dressing is slighlty sweet, from the addition of rice wine vinegar and a little sugar and it contrasts nicely with the toasted sesame seeds. Pure, simple flavours so brilliantly combined!

Perfect Pancakes

I was really feeling like some new flavours by dinnertime tonight - in all honesty I was really hanging out for pasta, not noodles or rice, or please no more soy! Instead however I made my favourite Japanese snackfood Ominyaki or Japanese pancakes. The panckes are made with a simple egg and flour batter into which grated carrots and shredded cabbage are added. Sometime seafood is added to the batter as well. They are then pan fried and served with a spicy, barbequed flavoured mayonnaise. To make the mayonnise I added some hoisin sauce to some Japanese mayonnaise which worked really well. These pancakes are best served hot so it is good to keep the oven warm while you are cooking them and keep them warm in the oven once they are cooked. By the end of my dinner I felt satisfied that I could face another day of Japanese food again. This challenge has certainly made me realise how much I vary what I eat each day and expose my tastebuds to a large variety of flavours. It truly is a luxury to live the way we do in Western countries choosing from an endless list of cuisine types, often not restricted by season or cost.