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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.

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Posted at 12:42 pm in Recipes, Savouries | Respond?

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