Stir fried zenmai

There are some interesting movies at cinemas this summer. The cinema I often go is TOHO cinemas in Roppongi Hills(map). I like the luxury facility and also the caramel pop corn!

But also it has a green day where they offset the cinema's producing electricity by buying green energy certificates. That means that indirectly we can enjoy movies run by green energy.


It's a really great idea not to ignore the energy issue especially when you are enjoying activities like cinema. Because the fact is often too inconvenient to face in those situations.

Ingredients:

zenmai (dried→boiled)

carrot

bacon

sugar

soy sauce

mirin

salt

sesame

1- Cut the zenmai, carrot and bacon.

2- Stir fry 1. Add sugar, mirin, soy sauce and a bit of salt.

3- Finish when there is less water. Put some sesame on top.

Itadakimasu.

Stir fried fuki

Yesterday the Chinese government announced that around 200 people were victims of the rains in South China. If you have never lived in rainy places, maybe it's difficult to understand how dangerous   heavy rain is. Those places are subject to flooding, landslides, high waves, rockfalls and dangerous driving conditions.

Recently in Kyusyu (the southern part of Japan) also had a record rains over 800mm in 6 days. They are in a dangerous situation now as the land has absorbed a lot of water.

Today I will cook fuki (a type of wild vegetables). This type of fuki is called 'rawan buki' which is from Hokkaido.

Ingredients;

fuki (pickled with salt)

age

sesame

sesame oil

soy sauce

mirin

sugar

salt

1- Boil fuki to desalinate. Cut the fuki and age thinly.

2- Stir fry 1 with sesame oil. When it's cooked, adjust the taste with soy sauce, sugar, mirin and salt.

3- Put some sesame and chili (if you like).

Itadakimasu.

Zenmai rice

The Soccer World Cup is on now in South Africa! Which team are you going for?

Many of my Japanese friends don't seem to be interested. One reason could be that the Japanese team had never been good enough to get into the tournament.

By the way, do you know what the black plant is? (see the following picture) It is a dried mountain vegetable called zenmai. A nice person I met in Akita sent it to us last month. If you gather zenmai and dry it like this, you can keep it for a long time and boil it whenever you want to cook. Then it gets back like fresh ones. Very clever!

I didn't expect that it could become so big when I boiled, so I gave some to my friend.

Ingredients:

zenmai (boiled)

carrot

age- fried tofu

soy sauce (1tbsp)

sake (2tbsps)

mirin (2tbsps)

salt (1/2tsp)

konbu- dried seaweed

Japanese rice (3cups)

Japanese mochi rice (1cup)

1- Mix two types of rice, wash both types and keep the mixture in a strainer for ~30 minutes.

2- Cut the zenmai, carrot and age.

3- Put the rice with the right amount of water in the pot. Then add all the other ingredients.

4- Don't open the lid until the end. When it's finished cooking, steam it for a little. Stir it roughly.

Itadakimasu!

Stir fried warabi from Akita

Last weekend, I went to Akita prefecture(map) to plant rice. One of my co-workers' family is from Akita and invited me to their place for two days. It was the first time for me to plant rice so I was very excited to have the new experience.

I realized that to grow rice (and other things) takes a lot of work and patience so that all the young people go to cities and none of the farmers in the area have successors. It is very sad. However, there is a famous project where young girls from Tokyo grow rice in Akita to promote farming for young people.

The place is so beautiful and the people are extremely friendly. Everyone helps each other and looks after the environment. One of them helped us to find some sansai (mountain vegetables), so let's eat sansai today!

If you get fresh warabi, you must boil it with baking soda and keep it in the water for 1- 2 days before cooking.

Ingredients:

warabi (a type of mountain vegetables- refer the photo)

konjac

canned tuna

soy sauce

sesame

mirin

sugar

1- Stir fry the cut warabi and konjac with some oil. Add the canned tuna and fry well.

2- Add sugar, mirin and soy sauce and boil until it has no water.

3- Put some sesame and finish.

Itadakimasu.