Carrot and Apple Salad

Somehow we ended up with a couple of kilograms of carrots and apples hanging around the fridge, and I remembered this classic salad combination. It's fast, fresh, crunchy, and it even keeps for a week in the fridge. I also like it in a sandwich, particularly with blue cheese, although I imagine cheddar would work well, too.

Ingredients

• 2-3 tbsp sesame seeds
• 4 carrots
• 1-2 sharp apples
• a handful of raisins
• juice of half a lemon
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Dry-fry the sesame seeds until they are golden and fragrant. Shred the carrots using a tower grater. You can shred the apple too, but I prefer it finely diced or julienned, and find the salad is less soggy that way. Combine the lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, salt and olive oil, and crush in the garlic clove, then whisk together until emulsified. Toss the carrots, apples, raisins, sesame seeds and dressing together; serve cold or at room temperature.

Asparagus Shiraae

Asparagus is in season, and I have a Japanese food craving. Irreconcilable? I do not think this word means what you think it means! I went out on a limb and tried the most unusual (to me) recipe from The Guardian's Top Ten Asparagus Recipes. This definitely isn't for everyone... I can imagine the texture would really be off-putting for people who don't like jelly. But if you know you like soft tofu and sesame, give this a try. The recipe said serves four... well, that was total nonsense. Served two of us, with plain boiled rice and nasu dengaku to go with.

Ingredients

• 300g soft/silken tofu
• 200g asparagus
• 4 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted and ground
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• ½ tsp miso
• Salt

Drain the tofu from the packet, wrap it in plenty of kitchen paper, put it on a plate and place a weight on top of it to squeeze the water out. Leave the tofu for 30 minutes, until it weighs around 180g. Remove the woody part of the asparagus, then cut each spear diagonally into thirds.Bring some water to the boil in a saucepan, then add a little salt and lightly cook the asparagus for a few minutes. It should still be firm when drained. Cool the spears under cold running water and pat them dry.

Put the tofu in a bowl and add the ground sesame seeds, sugar, light soy sauce and miso and mix thoroughly. Add the asparagus to the bowl and mix into the dressing, seasoning with extra salt if required. Serve!

Stir-fried Snapper with Sesame and Ginger

The other half is away orienteering (or 'rogaining' as they call it here) this weekend. For me a supper for one is a chance to experiment and buy an expensive ingredient :) I pick up a gorgeous snapper fillet from the fishmonget, bouncy to the touch with just the tiniest scent of the ocean. As this is a stir-fry it's important to prepare everything before you start, even if it feels slow. Everything happens at once at the end! For once, quantities are for one.

Ingredients:

• four tbsp sesame seeds
• a stalk and leaves of a large broccoli, or the florets if you prefer
• a good-sized snapper fillet
• a 75g bundle of udon
• an inch-long piece of ginger
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• juice of half a lemon
• 2-3 tbsp light soy sauce

Start by dry-frying the sesame seeds over a moderate heat, turning occasionally until they are golden brown and smelling gorgeous. Remove from the heat. Wash the broccoli, remove and reserve the leaves, and peel the hard skin from the stalk. Julienne the soft inside into strips. Peel and grate or finely dice the ginger. Rest the udon in some hot water to separate the noodles, or if dried, cook according to the packet instructions.

Cut the snapper fillet into bite-size pieces, and dredge in flour, shaking off the excess. Heat some vegetable oil in a shallow pan and fry the pieces of snapper for a minute or two each side, until golden brown. Meanwhile, stir-fry the broccoli with the ginger for a minute or so, until the leaves are beginning to wilt. Add the udon and the rest of the ingredients and bubble for a further minute. Stir through half of the sesame seeds, then serve, topped with the snapper and the remaining seeds, with more soy sauce to drizzle and the other half lemon to squeeze over.

Miso Soup with Shimeji Mushrooms

A slightly bulked-up variant on my previous miso soup, as I had a very long day running around getting my Indian visa sorted, suffered a flat tire on my bicycle, and had to catch up on nearly a week's worth of email. Helpful husband locked himself out of the house so I needed to put together something fairly quickly. I attempted to follow a recipe, but substituted every single ingredient. Heh.

Ingredients:

• a small handful of dried shitake mushrooms
• 3 tbsp sesame seeds
• sesame oil
• a sweet potato, daikon, carrot, or parsnip
• 1 tsp dashi or seafood stock powder
• 3 tbsp of miso paste
• a couple of pak choi or bok choi, or other leafy Chinese vegetables
• a block of shimeji or a couple of handfuls of oyster mushrooms
• two spring onions
• finely shredded nori (seaweed)

Pour enough boiling water over the shitake mushrooms to cover, and leave for at least ten minutes to fully rehydrate. Dry-fry the sesame seeds until golden, then set aside for later. Peel and cut the sweet potato (or other root vegetable) in half lengthwise, then into fat half-moons (about the only thing I kept from the original recipe). Prepare a wok with a tsp of sesame oil and a tsp of vegetable oil, and a large stock pot or sauce pan with the stock powder in the bottom. Fry the sweet potato in the wok for a few minutes, turning irregularly, so it begins to caramelise. When the half-moons have taken on a golden colour around the edges, tip them into the stock pot, and cover with boiling water. Add the miso paste, shitake mushrooms, and their soaking water (although be careful not to add any grit). Simmer for five minutes - stop as soon as the sweet potatoes begin to yield to a fork.

Meanwhile, separate the leaves from the pak choi, and cut the stalks into diagonal pieces. Stir fry for a couple of minutes, then add to the soup in the stock pot. Separate the shimeji mushrooms with your hands. Turn the wok up to a high heat, then fry the mushrooms for a minute on each side, then add them to the soup. Slice the spring onions lengthwise and roughly chop with the pak choi greens, then add them to the soup. Simmer for a minute or so to bring the soup up to temperature, finish cooking the sweet potato, and wilt the greens, then turn off the heat. Taste and add more miso or a splash of soy sauce if necessary. Serve with the sesame seeds and shredded seaweed scattered over.

Nasu Dengaku

This time, with an amazing photo:

The original recipe is here.

BBQd Lamb and Aubergines with Tahini Dressing

Another post-workout meal created by my lovely husband slaving over a hot BBQ! Simply lamb chops, sliced aubergine, and a corn on the cob BBQd to perfection, served with a sauce of 1 part tahini to 2 parts natural yoghurt, the last of the bread from yesterday, and a few leaves for colour. Way more than I could eat, even after Zumba :)

Braised Shitake Mushrooms

For years I struggled with cooking shitake mushrooms. They are very different from most other varieties: unlike oyster or enoki, they are very resilient and are never in danger of breaking up while cooking. Unlike European field, chestnut or white mushrooms, they barely sweat while cooking. Undercooked shitake is unpleasant and very chewy, so I really needed a better method than just frying and hoping.

At last I found a good method, in a recipe book I hadn't used in years, simply called 'Japanese Cooking'. I recall I bought it in a Borders sale, years before they went bust...  Anyway. The technique is to braise the mushrooms: rapidly fry them over a high heat to give some caramelisation, then add flavoured liquid, cover and cook on a low heat for at least 20 minutes. Like braising sausages or chicken, this method gives them a nice smoky outer flavour, but cooks their tough proteins all the way through, leaving them soft and succulent. The liquid reduces, leaving a delicious sauce that can be varied with whatever flavours you wish to add. The recipe below serves one person, but can easily be scaled up.

Ingredients:

• 75g sesame seeds
• 10 fresh shitake mushrooms, or dried, rehydrated for 24 hours
• 100ml hot water or stock (if you use bouillon, reduce the amount of soy sauce you add)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar

Dry-fry the sesame seeds in a non-stick, heavy-based frying pan, remove when golden, and set aside. After wiping and checking over for odd bits, slice the shitakes into thick slices, making sure to cut through the tougher stalks. (Some people remove these entirely but I think it's a bit of a waste.) Fry the mushrooms over a high heat in a little vegetable oil; they will immediately absorb it but don't be tempted to add more. They will start to hiss as the steam escapes; turn frequently for five minutes until they have taken on a golden hue.

Pour the rest of the ingredients into the pan, stir to combine, cover and immediately reduce the heat to low. Braise for 25 minutes, stirring and turning occasionally, and adding more water if the pan shows signs of going dry. Serve topped with the sesame seeds: this goes well with stir fry and salads, or you could even drop them into a broth of noodles and greens.