This rice sandwich called Onigirazu is really fun to make, but the best part is to cut it and line them up.
It looks so cool!
The tricky part is that you have to put the right amount inside the seaweed sheet.
You don’t want too little, and you don’t want too much.
You can basically add anything you want in your sandwich.
This time I used vegan smoked salmon, scrambled tofu, and cucumber.
The color combination turned out great.
Yum!
Have a great week everyone.
It took me a long time to decide to purchase this tiered tray.
But when I made the decision, I told myself to use it.
To use it often, not once a year.
Here, https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2020/05/09/vegan-afternoon-teaヴィーガンアフタヌーンティー/ was my first homemade afternoon tea.
Since my first one was quite traditional, this weekend I wanted to make something a bit different, with an Asian flair.
On the bottom tray you’ll find red and green sushi rolls and smoked V-salmon Temari sushi balls.
On the second tray are mango, red cabbage, v-bacon spring rolls and rice paper egg rolls.
The top tray is a dessert tray, of course!
Strawberry mochi daifuku.
Butter and red bean mini pancake sandwiches.
This is what an individual plate looks like.
Yes, I eat dessert first sometimes.
Since it’s called afternoon tea, I have to have tea (well, I have green tea for almost every meal).
Don’t they look pretty?
They almost look like chocolate truffles, but they are actually miso balls.
You combine miso and other things and make it into balls.
It’s kind of like instant miso soup.
You just put a ball in a bowl and pour hot water over it.
Voila, you’ll have delicious miso soup in seconds.
You can use any type of miso, but this time I used super dark, called Haccho (left) and white (right) miso.
We use this very dark type of miso in the region where I’m from, but it’s hard to find in the U.S.
So when I saw it at the local Asian market, I was so excited.
Now when it comes to other ingredients, you get to pick what you like in your miso soup.
But you do need to add something like dried fish flakes (for non-vegans) or dried salted seaweed called “Shio-kombu”, something that works as the soup base.
I also like to add some sweetener (e.g., sugar) just to give some “umami.”
Other than that almost anything that typically tastes good when frozen-and-thawed is a good choice.
Easy, right?
↑ I couldn’t wait for them to be frozen, so I tried one right away.
It was so good!
But I did freeze the rest of them for the future use.
Put them in a container and freeze them.
This is how they looked after placed in the freezer for a few hours.
They were still somewhat soft but hard enough to be handled easily and not stick with one another.
Now we can have miso soup without any hassle whenever we want!
We had a Japanese style meal for dinner tonight, per my husband’s request.
We both enjoy this kind of meal, but we usually don’t eat like this.
It’s not that it takes time to prepare, but I make a western style meal out of habit.
It was nice that he asked me, because when I do prepare a meal like this, I really enjoy the whole process, from cooking, choosing dishes, plating, and to of course eating.
I don’t have a lot of Japanese dishes, but many of what I have are white x blue.
I have a small collection of chopstick rests.
This is a new addition.
I got it from our recent trip to Japan.
Can you tell what it is?
It’s a slice of bitter melon.
My husband ate the same thing, except for Natto.
White rice.
Garbanzo bean, pea, scallion miso soup.
Sesame carrots.
Lemon feta zucchini.
Hiya-yakko (cold tofu) with tomato, fried onion, scallion, and a drizzle of soy sauce.
NHK is a Japanese national TV station, and they now make a program called NHK World, which is broadcasted in English from Japan.
My husband really likes it, and we often have the channel on in the background.
The other day, they were making “Shokupan Art” (art on Japanese Pullman bread slices), and when I saw the watermelon version, I was intrigued.
They were using cream cheese as aspread, but I used homemade vegan mayo instead.
The “watermelon” is made with cucumber, strawberry jam, and black sesame seeds.
Surprisingly, this was not only cute, but also very tasty!
The strange combination of mayo, strawberry jam, and fresh cucumber somehow works.
Teriyaki rice bowl is one of my favorite meals.
This time I used Kuruma-Fu, a Japanese gluten product.
White rice, salad leaves, Shiso Daikon radish salad, Teriyaki Kuruma-Fu, and Vegan mayo.
Yum!
You must have guessed that I was going to post this.
Well, if you make Chashu (previous post), you are almost obligated to make ramen!
I was going to make my own noodles too, but since flour is hard to come by right now, I decided to go with store-bought ones.
These noodles are not specifically for ramen, but I like them because of its right wideness and color (slightly yellow).
And you know what?
The ingredients are good too.
Other similar noodles I found at the same store contain yellow #5 and 6, but this one uses turmeric to add the yellow color.
So much better.
I was super happy with the result.
Doesn’t my vegan Chashu look great?
Chashu is Japanese braised pork, which is a popular topping option for ramen.
I used Kuruma-Fu, which is a Japanese gluten product and has been used for many many years.
They are sold dry like this.
You soak them in water for about 30 minutes.
You remove excess water from them, coat with corn starch, and fry with oil.
They have a wonderful meat-like texture.
Chashu glaze: 2 tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1~1.5 tablespoon sugar, 1/2~1 teaspoon vegetable bouillon paste, grated garlic from 2 cloves
Our fridge was getting empty, and I definitely needed to go grocery shopping today.
But I wanted to eat lunch before doing so.
I usually used pre-cooked pouches, but today I cooked those myself.
Stuff the pouches with Sushi rice.
The toppings were decided based on what was in my fridge.
Carrot sesame.
Cucumber and crunchy salted seaweed.
Shiso tomato.
Very happy with the result!
Sweet bean and butter sandwich.
This combination of sweet beans and butter may sound odd to many westerners, but it’s extremely popular in Japan.
A few weeks ago I showed you how to make sweet beans using canned beans.
This is so easy to make.
At that time I used black beans, but this time I decided to use dark red kidney beans.
I made this the same way as I did with the black beans.
You squeeze the extra liquid using a cloth; make sure the beans are quite dry at this stage.
Then add sugar and a little salt and cook until it achieves the texture you prefer.
This turned out great.
It’s pretty close to the traditional Japanese sweet red beans which are made of Azuki beans.
Homemade bread, homemade vegan butter, sweet beans, and salted sakura cherry flowers.
Pretty and tasty!
