Dish 20. Kinpira Gobo: This is a very home-y dish made with burdock roots and carrots. I actually took a short cut by buying the frozen package of unflavored but cut up burdock root and carrots. This meant I didn't have to peel, or cut vegetables- what a time saver! I then flavored it with a little red chili, soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and dashi. I thought it turned out really well, even though it was a little spicier than I originally intended to make it. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and voila, a yummy and quick side dish!
Dish 21. Katsudon: We still had some chicken katsu left over, so I decided to make katsudon, which is basically a rice bowl dish. Start with sauteed onions, then simmer in a sweet soy sauce flavored dashi broth. After it simmers for a while, add the katsu, and then finish off with a beaten egg poured on top. The egg puts a nice covering on top to seal in all the goodness... well in my case I may not have had enough egg to cover it all so some of it mixed into the broth. Overall, Jeremy liked it even though I thought the flavor could have been stronger. My initial broth tasting and finished product didn't quite taste the same! I further added to the flavor after we grabbed our dinner, to improve for Jeremy's round two and tomorrow's lunch. He liked it enough for seconds and lunch, woohoo!
Dish 22. Sugar Snap Pea Goma-ae: Gomaae literally just means mixed with sesame, but you can make this with any vegetable. I wanted to use something other than sugar snap peas since sugar snap peas are so good plain, but I didn't feel like going to the store so peas it was! (My laziness at its best even during my food project.) It's a very simple but delicious side dish that is really just a sauce mix of sugar, soy sauce and ground sesame seeds. Jeremy liked it, but of course he likes all things sweet, so I think this was right up his alley. Plus we're both big fans of sugar snap peas, so can't go wrong there! This sauce is actually really good with baked plain mochi too... mochi with sweet soy sauce, wrapped in seaweed... yummm... ok I digress but you get the drift that this sauce can be used for many other things!
On a side note, I also made a practice batch of cookies yesterday to take to dinner as well as to test for the bake off coming up at work. I made regular chocolate chip as well as nutella walnut with chocolate chips. I think these were a hit but I'm going to experiment some more before the bake off.Overall, today was a success- I also didn't try too much that was new but I actually hadn't made the kinpira gobo myself so that was good. It was almost like my Mom's! I still have a ways to go before my katsudon tastes like my Mom's though!
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