A Healthy Dinner

Wednesday, 27 Jan 10

Okay, so I know I haven’t uploaded any examples of this, but we found the majority our dinners in New Zealand to be really heavy, meat-based formal dinners, which meant by the end of it, we were craving simple, rice-based light dishes, particularly upon returning to Sydney’s oppressive summer heat. So we swore to have a healthy meat-free week, and organised that one of us would cook a different cuisine each day. I was thinking about documenting it in full, but a lot of the meals weren’t very photogenic, so I gave up. This particular Japanese-themed dinner was Thursday night’s dinner (i was cooking), and wonderfully summery and relatively easy.

I served braised vegetables, nasu dengaku, and cold tofu in a garlic-ponzu edamame sauce with rice. If you’re interested to learn how I made the pretty carrot flowers, I was given ‘The Decorative Art of Japanese Food Carving: Elegant Garnishes for All Occasions’ by Hiroshi Nagashima for Christmas, and spent a good lazy 3 hours cutting the 2 carrots by hand – I can do a step-by-step tutorial if anyone wants, but it’ll need to wait for a day where I have an extra pair of hands in the kitchen to take photos or model!

The cold tofu dish is a mish-mash of recipes found here and there… Essentially, it is cold, soft silken tofu with a simple garlic ponzu dressing poured over, boiled edamame and spring onions scattered atop and enjoyed. It’s refreshing, and perfect for avoiding the heat of cooking this summer. I especially love the nuttiness the edamame give to the dish, contrasting with the creamy silkiness of the tofu.

Garlic-Ponzu sauce

Prepare the night before, and it will keep, after straining, in the fridge for up to a week. Makes a great salad dressing or even a dipping sauce for steak.

1 tsp sugar

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1/4 tsp dashi granules

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp water

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 lemon, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced finely

1 tsp szechuan peppers

Dissolve a teaspoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of dashi granules in the water and mirin in a small pan, until bubbling. Add the soysauce and take off the heat.

Pour over the sliced lemons in a sealable, non-reactive container. Add the minced garlic and peppers, stir and mash the lemons a little to release some juice. Refrigerate overnight.

To serve, strain, squeezing as much of the juice from the lemons as possible, so that a nice citrusy tang is added.

Boil and shell some frozen edamame, according to package instructions, and serve over silken tofu, with chopped spring onions and sauce.

5 Comments

1. mm always on the look out for healthy cooking. Mid week i eat like a rabbit. Usually when I feel like ive eaten too much meat i go vegetarian for a week.

   Tofu looks great! i cant understand how people can hate tofu! i love it soo much I can never get sick of it.

   Comment by Leona — January 27, 2010 @ 10:24 pm

2. That eggplant looks divine. Was the tofu steamed or cooked in any way at all, or is it eaten straight from the packaging?

   Comment by Rose — January 29, 2010 @ 8:23 am

3. I would never think to eat cold tofu, but yours looks delicious. And the carrot flowers are lovely – soon you will be carving temples and dragons and stuff!

   Comment by Belle@OohLook — January 29, 2010 @ 9:28 am

4. dude now i want eggplant!

   Comment by chocolatesuze — February 1, 2010 @ 11:15 am

5. […] you want to go beyond this for a more decorative look, such as in here, make shallow cuts from the centre of the carrot to Cut A, following what you imagine would be the […]

   Pingback by the way it crumbles » Carrot Flower Tutorial — February 24, 2010 @ 6:52 pm

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