It's food, Jim...

[owned_by_a_cat]

The impromptu Japanese(ish) New Year's Day Dinner!



Rice
Seaweed salad with roasted sesame dressing
Gyoza Dumplings with Teriyaki sauce or Ponzu & Sesame seed sauce
Ginger Broccoli with toasted sesame oil

For pudding (sorry, European - need pudding) I made sweet coconut rice and served it with pineapple chunks marinaded in maple syrup and lemon juice.

I wanted to add miso soup to the set, but really need to get some decently sized soup bowls first. (mine are decidedly indecent in size!) Still, all things considered, dinner was a hit - with the people who were eating it!

Comments

[owned-by-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Was scrumptious, too - though the pudding was overkill. Need to 'reinvent' Ponzu sauce next, as our Japanese store only stocks the non-Veggie version online. Excuse for a trip to the zoo called London...

[sardonicista.livejournal.com]

I'm about to reveal my culinary ignorance...again...

I didn't realize there was a non-non-Veggie version of Ponzu; what typically comprises the sauce available to you?

Admittedly, if I had to go to London to fetch certain ingredients, my pantry would be even more poorly stocked than it already is. Whatever you manage, please take more pictures; they're wonderful!

[owned-by-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Experiment in kitchen chemistry well underway... Our Japanese grocery store stocks two types of Kikkoman Ponzu sauce. Kikkoman Saiguchi Ponzu (with the green label and lid) has a base of kelp & bonito flake dashi, so it's not something I can use. The yellow labelled and lidded Kikkoman Yuzuka Ponzu uses kombu dashi, but it unfortunately not available online. And since Steve has taken a liking to it... I'm brewing. So far, I can report that a mix of 2 limes and 1 lemon replicates the yuzu taste quite well. But by itself it overwhelms the dashi base.
The Kikkoman version lists apple vinegar on the label, so I'm supposing that mellows the citrus kick a little. We'll see...