Renkon no ebi hasami-age, lotus root with shiso

So, I've taken a liking to renkon, lotus root. I bought fresh one this spring and used it all for chips, but I picked up a pack of frozen renkon as well. It's been sitting in my freezer waiting for inspiration... Then I got 2 renkon recipes from my Japanese friend Ryoko (thanks!), and yesterday I tried out one of them in a moderated form.
The recipe calls for a shrimp mixture to be put inside the renkon "sandwiches", but I decided to do it as a vegetarian side dish as I had no shrimps.
Update: I made it again with shrimps! Also good, and I took new pictures for this post.

Here's the recipe (including shrimps):

Deep-Fried Lotus Root and Shrimp Sandwiches

4 lotus roots (or frozen pieces to double to the number of shiso leaves)
6 - 8 shiso leaves
1/2 sheet nori, cut into strips

7 oz/200g shrimps
4 inch naga-negi onion (or spring onion)
1/2 knob ginger
1 tbsp katakuriko starch (or potato/corn starch)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sake
1/2 lemon

hakurikiko flour (normal flour)
oil for deep frying

Eat with ponzu, soy sauce with ginger, sansho salt or lime juice.

How to make it:
Shrimp filling:
De-vein the shrimps, and rinse them in cold water. Chop the onion and ginger finely. Place it in a food processor with the katakuriko starch, salt and sake. Run it until it becomes a fine mixture.

Cut the lotus root into 1/8 inch pieces, if too big, into half moons again. Soak them in water with vinegar for 4-5 minutes.

Dust the lotus root with flour and put a shiso leaf on one piece. Add shrimp mixture, if using, put another lotus root on top. Seal with a nori band. Sprinkle with more flour.

Deep fry in hot oil until crisp, but not brown. Turn once.
Garnish with lemon. Serve with dressing of choice.

Happy times in my garden, except for some bugs..

Bok choi, daikon and green shiso outside.

My plants have finally moved outside, all except the small aka-shiso's
that are happy in the window of my kitchen for now.
The mini bok choi is growing fast and happy, and the green shiso is quite
large now. My daikons and sugar snaps are also coming along.

There's a small problem though --- bugs.... some small insects have attacked
a few plants and left stripes in the green leaves. So Monday, I'm off to the store
to get something to protect my plants. No toxic stuff, but I hope there's something
I can do... My kitchen will be pretty crowded if I'd have to move it all inside...

Todays dinner for Mr. Linuz was salmon sashimi with ponzu dressing and fresh
shiso. Served with rice and carrot wedges. No photo of that I'm afraid...

Birthday bento

My quick bento made with whatever was in the fridge;

inari filled with rice mixed with furikake
aloe vera segments in juice
pickles
tofu with shiso and soya (soya not added yet)

jum-jum!

Quick dinner and homemade furikake

A quick sunday dinner, maybe not entirely Japanese, but we try... Sake shiso - salmon with fresh shiso baked in the oven and served with rice, pickles, miso soup and salad.
Here's the lovely salmon ready for the oven: Topped with sweet soya, salt and shiso:









And for the rice I've made homemade furikake (rice topping):
Nori (in strips)
Black and white sesame seeds
Salt
Sugar
Shaved bonito (fish)

Mix together and put on top of your cooked rice!
Or mix with rice inside onigri or inari...

More planting..

Oh boy, I do enjoy having a small garden! Well, at least a large terrace and a small piece of soil next to my kitchen wall..
Last week I received my parcel from Oriental Vegetable Seeds (fast service, good selection). I've ordered seeds of shiso (3 types), daikon (4 types), a bok choi variety and Japanese cucumber.
This week I've planted baby bok choi, aka-shiso (red shiso) and one daikon variety called Daebu summer. Daikon and bok choi surfaced after 2-3 days, I'm still vaiting for the shiso to sprout.

Both daikon and bok choi grow easily, just plant them right under the surface in moist soil, keep it fairly moist and warm and they'll grow fast.

Pictures coming!

Hijiki no nimoto

Today I've made hijiki for the 2nd time, this time I included konnyaku as well. It came out good, half was for dinner, the other is for bento box tomorrow, with rice, ume, egg and chicken. What a nice start to the week!

I'm including the recipe and some action shots:

Hijiki no nimoto (simmered hijiki sea vegetable)

1/3 cup dried hijiki (rinse and soak for 20 minutes in cold water)
1 piece abura age (oil removed and cut into small strips)
1/3 block of konnyaku cake (cut in slices)
1/2 large carrot (in julienne)
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

stock:
1 1/2 cups dashi
2 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tbsp soya
1 tbsp mirin or sake with sugar

Prepare everything while the hijiki is soaking in cold water for at least 20 minutes.
The abura age needs to be rinsed with boiling hot water and rolled on a clean towel with a chopstick to remove excess oil.





Fry the carrot strips in the vegetable oil until tender. Add konnyaku and abura age and cook for another 2-3 minutes, without burning the vegetables.







Add hijiki (without soaking water), fry for a minute and add the stock. Simmer everything in the stock until it has boiled down to aprox. half of the quantity. Serve hot in a bowl or cool down and add to your bento box.

Happy shiso

My happy, little shiso is growing... and soon it will come out in the garden! Notice the daikon in the background - growing way to fast!

Shiso replanted

The shiso is coming along and today it was replanted in larger pots. I expect them to grow faster now, hoping for sunny, warm days to come... This is the 3 pots I'm keeping, I've got another 5 for friends.

I also test-seeded some daikon today to check seeding dept, how long it will take for them to surface and so on. Because daikon needs deeper pots (it grows downwards..), I'll have to wait until weather gets good enough to plant them outdoors. My kitchen is already crowded with shisoplants!

My window

sugar, wakame, tempura flour, shiitake, bonito, sesame seeds, tea

Stocking up on necessities!

Sauteed chicken and tamago yaki

One of our everyday Japanese meals; chicken marinated in soya, mirin, sake, salt and sugar.

It's about 500 gr of chicken thighs with skin on, marinating in a tbsp each of the above mentioned ingredients. Fried in wok with the excess marinade, and that's it!

Served with shredded cabbage, rice, soup, pickles. The soup is chicken stock from the chicken bones with a bit of white miso, wakame and shiitake mushrooms.

As a starter we had salmon sashimi with ponzu dressing and carrots.

Oh, and for my sister I'm posting recipe for tamago yaki:
This is for a large omelet, feel free to halve it, I usually do, as I have a small pan:

Tamago yaki

6 eggs
1,25 dl dashi (Japanese fish stock)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin (or replace with sugar)

1 tbsp oil

Mix eggs with the other ingredients, heat a pan. Oil the pan with a paper towel dipped in oil.
Pour in 1/3 of the mixture. When it sets, fold the omelet as a roll towards one end of the pan.
Pour in another 1/3 of mixture, lift the rolled omelet to let mixture under, let it set. Repeat with the last part of mixture. Leave to cool and cut in shape if you're using a circular pan.