waste not

Searching the net for what to do with my radish leaves. Was initally thinking of making a pickle but after washing and sorting, the leaves turned out to be quite tender (despite a week in the fridge) so may end up stir frying like this:

The chopped daikon radish leaves turned into this dish to accompany boiled rice.Quickly fry the leaves in a little oil and season with some soy sauce,sugar and sesame oil.Add dried bonito flakes and sesame seeds and serve.So dangerously delicious that you could fill up on plain rice!

But I stumbled across what looks like a fab food blog, just hungry, that looks at japanese recipes and is not in japanese. Their pickles look amazing...

tooooofuuuu

An attempt at my grandmother's sweet black pork, minestrone soup last sunday and today's lunch - cold tofu, stewed pumpkin and lightly sauteed veggies. The weather has turned hot (33C) again, so cold tofu is wonderful. The last week in the kitchen has been productive - made a brilliant fig and ginger cake because i keep reading these fig tart recipies but I am too lazy to make pastry from scratch.

cold tofu
a block of tofu, pre cooked and chilled or there are some that you can eat right out of the packet.

sauce
ginger
shallots (I didn't have any)
spring onion

In a teeny saucepan, stir fry the above with toasted sesame oil. Add soya sauce or shoyu, mirin or sake. Garnish with coriander leaves, sesame seeds. This is the Japanese version, for a sort of Shanghai version add a good glug of black vinegar.

The green stuff - kale on toast with mushies

The peach stuff - peaches from the neighbour's garden. Not exactly the same as a stolen serville orange from a monastery, these were hanging over the fence. Sweeter than they look, and organic to boot (I had to make a worm homeless).

The wine stuff: Decided to try and make spag with mussels and white wine. Was amazed how much it tasted like something you ordered at a restaurant despite how easy it was to make. Only trouble was it was too salty - and I didn't put any salt in! It might have been the bacon, or just the saltiness of the mussels.

Fresh mussels - they are tiny, so allocate 10-15 mussels per person.
Wash them, scrub the shells, cut the beards. Chuck them in a pot with a bit of oil, garlic and white wine to cover. Don't be stingy with the wine, cos you get to use it as a stock. Steam for 5 min, or until they open. I shelled all of mine as it is easier to eat but you can leave them on for effect. Strain the stock and add it to the pasta later. It can be quite salty so you may have to dilute it. Or serve it as a mussel soup.

Cook the pasta.

In a seperate pan, heat garlic, bacon, freshly cut parsley or celery leaves. Stir in the cooked pasta, cooked mussels and a bit of the stock. You can grate parmesan over to serve.

kale is kool

I went to the shops near by to get some salad, but I walked out with a lot more, as you can see. I love kale, so when I saw this I had to pick it up... and guess the price. Just $1.99... for the whole thing! How not to buy?

I've never seen anything so huge. So it's not organic, but until Australia goes nuclear, I think everything is safe.

Of course, part of the unwritten price is the stares I got from everyone on the walk home. It even came in handy as an umbrella as the sun was pretty hot.

But what is more disappointing is that no one seems to know what it is or what to do with it.
The only other person who might appreciate kale as much as I do is up in Darwin on holiday, so it looks I might have to embark on a kale show-n-tell.

It's got a nice green taste like kailan or chye sim, and the texture is similar to cabbage or broccoli leaves.

Anyhow, here are a couple of good ideas:
kale with chickpeas and lemon juice
done like spinach on toast

You can also make a mean minestrone with the stalks for stock and the leaves in place of cabbage.