Japanese dinner party

Back in mid-July we had a small Japanese dinner party at our place, attended by some of our Estonian friends and an American couple residing in Tallinn, nine adults in total.



We had a mix of Japanese dishes - no sushi, however - and everybody seemed to like the food. Somehow I never got around to sharing the photos from that night until now. I do not intend to blog about each and every dish on the table that night - I am no expert in Japanese cooking, and there are many bloggers out there who'd have much more authentic recipes to share - but if there's a particular dish that interests you, let me know in the comments.



We tried to have five different colours on the table - black/purple, white, red/orange, yellow and green; as well as five cooking methods (boiling, grilling, deep-frying, steaming and raw); and five flavours (sweet, salty, spicy, sour, bitter). Below is a "photo reportage" of the dishes we served and enjoyed that night.

A selection of Japanese crackers, sent over from Tokyo by my friend Ryoko.





Spanish mackerel sashimi with dried miso from Nobu Matsuhisa & Mark Edwards' book NOBU WEST:


Nasu dengaku or grilled aubergine/eggplant slices with miso paste and sesame seeds. I used a mix of hacho-miso and shiro-miso, and this dish was one of my favourites! It's impossible to get thin Japanese aubergines/eggplants here in Estonia, so I used a regular purple aubergine. (If I can get hold of seeds for the Japanese aubergines, I might try growing them in my new greenhouse next year :))


I couldn't get frozen edamame pods any more, only shelled ones. So instead of serving steamed edamame pods, I boiled some soy beans, drained them and dressed them with some ume plum vinegar, soy sauce and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds:


Chicken and leek yakitori skewers, a popular and well-known Japanese dish:


Another Japanese classic, tempura. We battered and deep-fried fresh chantarelles, sugarsnap pea pods and calamari rings:


Pieces of salmon marinating in teriyaki sauce. Home-made, of course!


The curiosity dessert :) I wanted to make something with matcha, the green tea powder. Matcha ice cream would have been an obvious choice, but I already had some home-made cherry ice cream sitting in the freezer. Instead I made matcha jelly, served with red azuki bean paste, from Harumi Kurihara's "Harumi's Japanese Cooking". It was definitely, umm, interesting. Not bad, but the taste and texture were really unusual, and best served in very small portions to the Estonian (and American) palate. Massimo, the 11-month old son of our American guests, really enjoyed the bitter-sweet concoction, however.

Time for soup: lentil and coconut soup

Proper autumn has come somewhat suddenly this year. I've got vague memories of enjoying the warm autumn sun and a cup of coffee on our newly installed patio only recently. But that's all history now - the winds are really chilly and strong, there's hardly been a day without rain during the last week or so. We've turned on the heating indoors and I'm wrapping our daughter into several layers whenever we're going outdoors. It's been already snowing in the south of Estonia, and we've had night frosts as well. Winter's soon here...

Which means it's a perfect time for filling and chunky soups that heat both your heart and your body. Here's something I made for dinner just few days ago.

Lentil and Coconut Soup
(Läätsesupp kookospiimaga)
Serves 4

2 cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp turmeric
200 g red lentils ("Egyptian lentils"), rinsed and drained
500 ml (half a litre or two cups) hot vegetable stock
400 g can crushed tomatoes
250 ml (one cup) coconut milk
fresh coriander/cilantro for garnish

Heat oil in a heavy saucepan, add ginger, onion and garlic and fry on a medium heat for a few minutes, stirring regularly. Do not burn!
Add turmeric, hot stock, tomatoes and rinsed lentils. Give it a stir, bring into a boil. Then reduce heat, cover the saucepan partially with a lid, and simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes, until lentils are soft.
Stir in the coconut milk, heat through.
To serve, divide into soup bowl and garnish with a coriander leaf.

Roasted Peaches with Basil Butter

I've briefly mentioned this dish before on Nami-Nami, but as I only now have a decent photo of the dish, I'm writing about it again. Hope you don't mind :)

I got the recipe from Shauna's blog back in the summer of 2005, just months into my food blogging. The original recipe is from The New York Times. I made it couple of times back then, and have been making it again and again. Roasting peaches makes them much sweeter and softer - a blessing when you can only buy long-haul fruit that have been picked way too early. The good thing, you see, is that you can successfully make this dish with slightly underripe fruit as well..

Roasted Peaches with Basil Butter
(Küpsetatud virsikud basiilikuvõiga)

peaches
fresh basil leaves
butter
brown sugar
cinnamon

Halve the peaches and remove the stone (you may wish to hollow out the centre to fit the filling better, but I must admit I've never bothered with it). Place the peaches on an oven dish, cut-side up. Tear some basil leaves into smaller pieces and place onto the "holes", alongside with a generous pinch of brown sugar, and a small piece of butter (say, half a tsp per peach half). Dust with cinnamon.

Bake in the middle of a preheated 200 C / 400 F oven for about 20-25 minutes, until the peaches are soft and the topping slightly caramelised.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of softly whipped cream.