breakinner and radishes.

yikes! it's been a while! i've been pretty busy with school and now i have a weekend job cooking at biwa. (http://www.biwarestaurant.com/) things are going quite well i must say.

to bring you up to speed...first week of school covered potatoes, grains and pasta, while the second week entailed soups and stocks. this week, we are finally getting to vegetable cookery. it's a bit of a relief to not have to eat fettucine alfredo, clam chowder (and the like) for 2 weeks straight!

vegetables are good.

with that being said, i haven't been cooking very much at home the last few weeks because i have been stuffed all day from eating starch and cream. yum.

the last few nights, however, i've been doing a little "breakfast for dinner" type deal and working on some "homework."

"the breakinner scramble"
(serves 1 hungry person)

2 eggs
1/4 lb of italian sausage
1 red potato, diced small
1/2 cup tomatoes, diced (de-pulped)
1/4 cup red onions, chopped
1 stalk of green onion, chopped
grated mozzarella cheese
slice (or 2) of toasted bread

heat your pan, throw in a bit of olive oil. brown the sausage (break it up into chunks). when that's done, remove and set aside. throw in the potatoes and red onions and saute in the sausage fat until tender. put the sausage and tomatoes in and combine well with the potato/onion mix. throw the eggs in, fold, and combine. place in a bowl/plate and garnish with green onions and grated mozzarella. serve with toast. (and of course, you can always top it with your favorite hot sauce!)

it's hearty. what's better than breakfast for dinner?

next up...homework.

since we are covering vegetables this week, the class has been assigned to do presentations on a specific vegetable. i have radishes and spinach.  i had my presentation yesterday so i opted to bring in a couple of japanese radish dishes (i used daikon, of course).  nethertheless, i think it went well, but the classroom ended up smelling like funk from the daikon (a typical odor of cut/prepared daikon) and i had to promptly remove my stuff from the classroom after the presentation was over (hahaha!). i think, over all, everyone enjoyed the stuff i brought in.

pickled daikon (shiozuke, "salt pickled") otsukemono

1 daikon, thinly sliced (1/16")
salt

after it's been sliced (you can use a mandoline if you have one), douse with copious amounts of salt and massage it into the daikon, being careful not to break the pieces. place something heavy on top to press. i had the daikon slices in a bowl and then placed a plate on top, with a bowl on top of that, filled with water. let it sit for about an hour. after an hour or so, rinse the slices to remove any excess salt and then squeeze out the rest of the excess water. eat alone or serve with a bowl of rice or on the side of a bowl of curry rice.
you can use this method with cucumbers and carrots. just make sure to slice it thin!

namasu (daikon and carrot salad)
(a traditional japanese new year's dish)

1 lb daikon, julienned
1 lb carrots, julienned

dressing:
3 tblspns, mirin
2 tblspns, sugar
2 tblspns, rice vinegar
salt
toasted sesame seeds

cut the daikon and carrots thinly on the diagonal and then julienne (japanese style cut). toss it with a little salt and rinse (to pull a little excess moisture and bitterness out). dress the daikon/carrot mix and adjust the seasonings to taste. it should be light and not too sweet. add a small pinch of salt. garnish with sesame seeds.

ba bam!

well, spinach is my next presentation for this week, so i'll tell you how it goes. i'll probably end up making gomae (see past entry for recipe).

on another note, it's frickin freezing over here so i'm going to go make some miso soup...