Vegetables with arame and lemony kuzu sauce from Sweetveg

Today I am just going to link to a post from one great macro blog with recipes you should definitely try! This time the Sweetveg blog inspired me to try a modified version of the “Vegetables with arame and lemony kuzu sauce“.

I followed it quite closely, except I didn´t have celery stalks, so I just omitted those, and instead of the rutabaga (which you cannot find here) I used parsley root. I also used dried/soaked lotus root slices and dried/soaked/sliced shiitake mushrooms (both are suggested at the end of the original post to be used in this recipe). I´m not sure which cabbage was used in the original recipe, but I had the “curly” savoy variety which works great in stews. I  didn´t have daikon so I used black radish, which is just another member of the radish family and has a more sharp and earthy taste than the daikon.  The sauce I followed exactly. As a sidedish I made a rice/amaranth mixture with roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Sauteed kohlrabi and celery root with lemon

This is such a simple meal but still something you probably never thought of! I certainly didn´t and I was surprised how two vegetables can create such a satisfying dish.

First you have to grate your two vegetables: one medium celery root (grate fine) and one bigger kohlrabi (grate coarse). Pour a couple tablespoons of oil in a deeper pan or pot, place the celery root inside, turn on the flame and sautee the celery root until lightly browned and fragrant, adding a pinch of salt at the beginning. Add the grated kohlrabi and stir-fry until it is softened as well. At the end sprinkle with lemon juice to your liking – the lemon adds a great final touch so you don´t have to be afraid of it!

I had the veggies with some rice and dulse seaweed flakes sprinkled on top.

Fish tempura with onions and raisins

I think that I found my favourite fish dish!  It takes some time to prepare and is very rich, but worth the time and effort.
I had a fillet of black pollock which I cut into bite-sized pieces and dipped them in a glutenfree tempura batter: white rice flour (you could use brown rice flour, but this makes for a much lighter batter), some arrowroot starch, salt, water and a pinch of aluminum-free baking powder. I used about half half of the starch and flour and added enough water to make a batter that is not too thick but also doesn´t slide easily from the fish chunks – you really have to experiment with this one to get the right consistency. I deep-fried the coated chunks until light golden and let them drip excess oil on a paper towel.

Then I sauteed a large onion cut into big rings on some olive oil with a pinch of salt until soft and shiny. At that point I added a handful of raisins and some water and covered the pan with a lid to allow the raisins to absorb some water. When the raisins soaked up the liquid, I added a good splash of mirin and continued to cook for a while under the lid, on a low flame. The mirin makes anything cook really fast!

I arranged the fried fish chunks in a baking dish and covered each with a slice of organic lemon, peel included. Then I spooned on top the onion/raisin mixture and baked the dish in an oven on about 170°C, some 10-15 minutes, just until the lemons shrink and the onion starts to caramelize. The raisins should not get burnt!

The meal was served with a dip of tamari soy sauce, water, lemon juice and wasabi powder, with some blanched greens and with steamed rice sprouts.

Sour spring meals

Today I again tried out two recipes from Wieke´s cookbook – Daikon in lemon and Carrots sweet and sour, both with a very fresh tangy spring taste. It would have been a better idea not to combine two quite sour dishes on one plate, but well, now I know 🙂 They were pretty delish anyway, and together with some fresh wild rucola they sure must have given a boost to my detoxing liver…

They are (yes, again…) very simple and quick 🙂 For the Daikon in lemon just slice a 10 cm chunk of daikon into thin rounds, grate 1/2 tsp of organic fresh lemon peel, squeeze out one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (or just half a tablespoon if you like less sour), mix all together in a small pot with a thick bottom and stir over a low flame for a few minutes. The daikon should not be too soft. Add 1/4 tsp of salt to get the daikon´s juices out and you can add a bit of water if necessary, to prevent burning.

For the Carrots sweet and sour slice one big carrot into matchsticks, combine in a small pot with 2 tablespoons (or 1 or 1 1/2 tbsp if you like less sour) of ume plum vinegar and stir for a few minutes over medium flame until the carrot softens up a bit, then stir in one tablespoon of rice malt. At the end you can mix in about one tablespoon of roasted sesame seeds.

I served these meals with rucola and a side of brown rice+wild rice mixture (with stirred in dried shiitake which I soaked, cooked first in a bit of water, and then, when the water was almost gone, added one tablespoon of shoyu and cooked again until all liquid evaporated). Garnished with black sesame/brown sesame gomasio. For protein I had cooked split peas reheated with salt, fresh celery leaves and sliced parsnip.