Tag: vegetarian

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Japanese eggplant recipes

Was just talking about eggplant recipes with a friend and thought I’d post them here as well.
If sodium is a consideration they do sell lower sodium lite soy sauce and miso paste.

Easy eggplant and cucumber pickles my aunt taught me
(good as a side veggie with a rice dish)
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Slice eggplant into 4-5mm disks. Salt eggplant. Mix marinade in a baggie or container: 3 TBSP soy sauce, 3 TBSP vinegar (preferably rice wine vinegar), a little sugar. Marinate eggplant in refrigerator for 2-3 hours, shaking occasionally.
If desired, serve slices with a little hot chinese mustard.

Cucumber pickles: Long thin japanese cukes work best but I’ve used regular or english cucumbers as well
Mostly peel cucumber, cut into 3″ lengths, then lengthwise into quarters. Mix marinade as above, but add a couple of shakes of sesame oil.
Marinate in refrigerator 2-3 hours, shaking occasionally.
Continue reading Japanese eggplant recipes

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Yum! Green Beans in Sesame Dressing (Ingen no goma-ae)

My fave! My mom used to make this for us growing up, we grew a lot of green beans in our veggie garden. (I used konbu dashi packets, so my version is veggie.)

From Bento.com:
Green Beans in Sesame Dressing (Ingen no goma-ae)

Ingredients:

  • 175g (6 oz.) frozen whole green beans*
  • a pinch of salt

For the dressing:

  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar **
  • 2/3 tablespoon dashi stock ***
  • 1/2 tablespoon miso paste
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Directions

1. Boil the beans in a pan of water for 5 minutes or until tender.

2. Finely grind the sesame seeds in a pestle and mortar or in a coffee grinder. Add the sugar, dashi, miso paste and soy sauce and mix together well.

3. Toss the green beans in the sesame dressing and serve as a side dish.

* I really prefer using fresh green beans, and I parboil (submerge in boiling water) for a few minutes, drain and then “shock” them with cold water and ice to stop the cooking. Recipe is yummier when the beans still have a bit of crispness.

** Caster sugar is superfine granulated sugar.

*** See the recipe for dashi (Japanese fish stock); you can also make instant dashi from freeze-dried granules, available in many Asian grocery stores. Dashi is used in so many Japanese recipes, it’s good always have the granules on hand or konbu dashi granules or packets if you prefer those.