Cooking Japanese in October

The meals in October were all delicious, but there were not so many Japanese dinners. Yom Kippur, though a day of fasting, called for some traditional foods. I took on some projects at work that preoccupied my energy, so we ate many “toss it toward the stove” dinners, and take-out ready to eat food. It remains to be seen what a Japanese Thanksgiving dinner will look like!

•• recipes from October
Traveling the world through food:
we had gefilte fish made with salmon and cooked in dashi,
a wonderful lemony meatball soup from Greece,
and a Japanese salad with a tofu-sesame dressing
called shira-ae, which means
“Dressed in White.”
how poetic
Preparing for the Yom Kippur fast, I made the Jewish gyoza: kreplach. There are an amazing number of cuisines which have dough wrapped dumplings, and I’d love to taste all of them!

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To break the fast I prepared a dairy meal for Mr. Tess.
I made a delicious, but very un-Japanese spinach and cheese strata

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and for dessert,
cheese blintzes with apple, apricot, and golden raisin sauce

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Abura age pizza is a Japanese snack or appetizer to eat with beer. This is a recipe open to variations. You could fill the pockets with many different things. Abura-age keeps well in the freezer so you always have snack potential on hand.

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Hoshi Shiitake Sûpu: Dried Shiitake Mushroom Soup
This is a delicious soup, made with home-made chicken stock.

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The panographies of the yellow walnut trees did prove to be the last warm day this autumn. I almost didn’t take the pictures, and if I’d waited even one day, I would have missed the beauty...

Classic Japanese salt-grilled fish is a fast and delicious meal.
I steamed kabacha squash and browned it in butter.

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To accompany the fish, I stir-fried cold rice with herbs and butter—a recipe I’ve mentioned before, and now it has a post of its own. It’s delicious and quick.

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Miso-Marinated Beef in an Egg-White Jacket has a poetic name, and pretty presentation. Though it involves deep-frying, this recipe is definitely worth trying. I wish I’d made a better job of taking the pictures.

Tosazu: Bonito-Flavored Rice Vinegar Dressing was a very nice dipping sauce for the beef strips. Just perfect.

Kanitama-don made with shimp is ebitama-don! It’s an omelette made with shrimp and served on top of rice. Japanese comfort food but it is reminiscent of egg fu young!

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Spicy Zucchini and Carrot Stir-Fry is an example of using a vegetable not usually found in Japan, can be cooked in a Japanese way. The original recipe uses fennel, but I had a nice zuchini! Why not?

Chawan-mushi, made with lobster. What can I say: decadent and delicious.
Mr. Tess is working in Florida for several weeks, so I’m cooking for one. Not so much fun. When he mentioned eating at a seafood restaurant the other day, I immediately got a craving for lobster.

I didn’t use all the lobster, making the chawan mushi, because what I really craved was lobster gyoza. Not that I have a recipe. This experiment was moderately successful and definitely worth working on.

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Lobster Gyoza!		Stir-Fried Chinese Chives and Liver

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