Renkon Pickles

Renkon no Sunomono (Marinated Lotus Root)

Makes 6 servings
8-inch piece of renkon (lotus root)
4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon salt
Finely grated lemon rind, for garnish
1. Wash the renkon thoroughly, then peel off the outer layer with a vegetable peeler, and slice into thin slices. Blanch the slices in a pot of boiling water for 1 minute and then drain.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients then toss with the renkon slices. Chill the renkon in an airtight container overnight.  To serve, garnish with finely grated lemon rind.


http://www.lafujimama.com/2011/12/renkon-no-sunomono/

*They only came out so-so. I will have to play with this recipe some more.

Daikon no Nimono, Boiled Radish

 A massively oversized radish, daikon is a popular Japanese winter root vegetable. Less spicy than Western radishes, daikon features in a lot of seasonal cooking, and boiling brings out its natural sweetness wonderfully. Today’s dish is a simple but deeply satisfying side: basically slow cooked radish with a bit of pork in a classic Japanese sauce.

Wait, pork? In a vegetable side dish? Actually yes, just a bit. Makes everything much tastier.

This is a basic (if under-appreciated) principle of Japanese cooking: almost every dish has some kind of meat or seafood in it, even the vegetable side-dishes. Usually, it’s a very small amount: more to flavor the dish than anything else. On the other hand, very few dishes are centered around a big piece of meat or fish, like they so often are in the West.

In other words, in traditional Japanese cooking we eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

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Ingredients (for four)

• Daikon – one full radish
• Pork – 100 grams

For the sauce

• Water – four cups
• Dashi – 1-teaspoon
• Ginger – a small piece
• Sugar – 4 tablespoons
• Sake – 2 tablespoons
• Salt – 1/2 a teaspoon
• Soy sauce – 5 tablespoons
• Mirin – 3 tablespoons

Preparation

• Take one whole daikon and slice it into 8-10 cm. long segments. Peel each segment
• Peel the ginger and slice it thinly
• Slice the pork into small pieces

click to enlarge

Cooking

1. Put the daikon pieces in a large pot and add just enough cold water to cover it. Set the pot on a high flame until it boils
2. Allow the daikon to boil for 30 minutes until they offer a chopstick very little resistence when you poke them
3. Drain the hot water, cool the daikon with cold water, then take them out of the pot
4. Wash the pot with soap and water, rinse
5. Return daikon to the pot and add the ingredients for sauce (four cups of water, ginger slices, pork, dashi, mirin, sake, sugar, salt and soy sauce)
6. Bring everything to a boil over a medium flame
7. Cook, covered, over a medium-low flame, for fifteen minutes. Every five minutes or so, uncover the pot, skim off the yucky scum that rises to the top as it cooks with a slotted spoon, then cover again
8. Here comes the trick: cover the simmering daikon with two layers of paper kitchen towels, making a little dome. This allows the daikon to absorb the sauce better.
9. Keep cooking under paper towels like this for another 40-45 minutes.
10. When serving, do not add the ginger slices onto the plate – those are just for flavoring

click to enlarge
For best results, you want to turn off the heat, let it cool, and then reheat a few hours later. So think about making this at lunch time to eat at dinner.

http://kanakoskitchen.com/2009/10/18/daikon-no-nimono-cooked-japanese-radish/

Kuri Kinton

Kuri Kinton (Candied Chestnut & Japanese Sweet Potato Mash)

Recipe as shared by my friend Noriko
Makes 6 to 8 servings
1 pound satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potatoes)
7 ounce bottle of kuri kanroni (candied chestnuts in syrup)
pinch of salt
mirin
sugar
1. Peel the sweet potatoes then cut them into one-inch slices and soak them in a large bowl of water for 6 to 7 hours.
2. Boil the sweet potatoes until very tender. Mash them with a fork and then push the mashed sweet potato through a sieve to remove any lumps or fiber.
3. Put the mashed sweet potato into a small pot. Add the syrup from the bottle of candied chestnuts, along with a pinch of salt, and cook the mixture over low heat. Add mirin and sugar in equal amounts if the mixture looks too dry. The kuri kinton will stiffen slightly once cooled, so be sure to take this into account when decided how much liquid to add.
4. Continue cooking over low heat, stirring to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn, until it has a slightly glossy look to it. Add the candied chestnuts and cook for several more minutes to heat through and then let cool.

http://www.lafujimama.com/2011/12/kuri-kinton/

Cinnamon Rolls

--> Sweet Roll bread

2 packages active dry yeast

½ cup warm water (105-115 degrees)

½ cup lukewarm milk (scalded and then cooled)

½ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

½ cup shortening/margerine/butter, softened

4 ½ to 5 cups all purpose flour

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and two and a half cups flour. Beat until smooth.
2. Mix in enough remaining flour to make the dough easy to handle. Turn dough onto a lightly floured board, knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
3. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. At this point dough can be refridgerated 3-4 days.
4. Cover, let rise in warm place until double, about 1 ½ hours. Dough is ready if impression remains when touched.
5. Punch the dough down. Shape dough into desired rolls and/or coffee cakes. Cover, and let rise until double, about 30 minutes.
6. Heat oven to 375 degrees, and bake as directed.

Cinnamon rolls (variation, butterscotch or pecan rolls):

½ the recipe for the traditional Sweet Roll Bread.

2 tablespoons butter/margerine, softened.

¼ cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Roll dough into rectangle, 15x9 inches, spread with butter, mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the rectangle. Roll up beginning at the wide side, pinch edge of dough into roll to seal well. Stretch roll to make even. Cut roll into 15 slices, place slightly apart on greased backing pan 13x9x2, or in greased muffin cups. Let rise until double. Back 25 to 30 minutes.

Sweet Icing:

Mix 1 cup confectioner’s sugar, 1 tbsp milk, ½ tsp vanilla until smooth.

Icing:

Add ½ cup confectioner’s sugar to the recipe above.