Simmered Taro / Shiroiro Koimo 白色小芋

日本語のレシピは　ビーガンサイト　”Hachidory" で　ご覧ください。

The leaves turned yellow and red has started falling.

Yes, the autumn is short, shorter than any other seasons.

May be because of that, I always feel like clinging to this season.

Seeing the falling leaves is something that does not make you feel warm.

It brings a sense of loneliness, but with a kind of solomness.

It is not so bad to see the falling leaves after all.

On the contrary to this sense of depletion, our appetite jump up in fall season.

Fortunately, it is the season of harvest too, and the nature blesses us plenty of staples.

The newly harvested rice is moist and sweet.

The ginko nuts fallen from the trees can be picked up from the ground as much as I want, and they are plump and chewy.

 

The sweet potatoes are sweet and starchy.

The carrots are getting juicier and sweeter.

It is the principle of the nature that our appetite increse when the nature produeces much staples.

So don't go for diet from the autumn to the winter !

Because our bodies unlikely want to slim down during these seasons, and resist to all the attempts made by you as they try to accumulate the fats by any means.

Anyway, believe it or not, it is such a waste not to enjoy those tasty and powerful seasonal grains and vegetables.

Today, I am sharing one of the seasonal Japanese vegetable recipe with you.

"Satoimo" is the Japanese name, and it is often translated to "taro" in English.

But unlike the taro which is the main staple in the tropical regions, satoimo is usually harvested in cold season here in Saitama.

It is very slimy, and many Japanese people enjoy this unique texture.

They are often simmered with dashi soup stock and soy sauce. 

I like to steam them and eat with various sauce that I made.

It can be a nice ingredient for Miso soup too.

These are the patties with mashed satoimo, hijiki sea vegetable and grated lotus root.

Satoimo cannot be omitted for "Konyasai no Umani "/ simmered root vegetables.

I deep-fry them once a season for my son.

Which one do you want to  learn ?

I chose the one that experimented recently and turned out very tasty.

There you go !

Simmered Taro with Japanese white sauce / Shiroiro Koimo

Ingredients

         

                    300g~400g Satoimo                        1 tsp salt

    

500ml kobudashi / dried kelp soup stock

for seasoning

from top to clockwise,

1 Tbs mirin / sweet wine

  * can be replaced with 1 Tbsp rice wine and 1/2 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp  amazake / sweetner made from rice and rice koji culture

   * can be replaced with 1 Tbsp rice syrup or 1/2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp  white miso

  * can be replaced with other type of miso and 1/2 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp shiokoji / seasoning made from rice, rice koji culture and salt

  *can be replaced with 1 tsp salt and 1/2tsp sugar.

Procedure

1.  Combine all the ingredients for seasoning.

2.  Wash, and peel the taro.  

3.  Massage salt around thier bodies, and wash off with water.

4.  Place taro in a pot with Kobudashi soup stock, and bring to a boil over

     medium heat.

   * you need to keep eyes as it often overflows when it reached to

     a boiling point.

5.  Scum off the bubbles gathered at the center when it started boiling,

     and then reduce the heat to low. 

6.  Simmer for 10 minutes until taro is half cooked.

7.  Add the combined seasoning, and simmer 10 more minutes until soft.

8.  Bring the heat to high at the end, and evaporate the liquid by coating

     the sauce around taro using the wooden spatula with your gentle care

     not to mash satoimo.

If mirin, amazake, shiokoji and white miso are not available where you live, you can replace with those seasoning written above, though the taste would be different from original one.  

But anyway, cooking is something you should create using the ingredients that are available where you live. 

So adventure your own cooking and enjoy your own food !

Below are the photos that I took a week ago near my home when the leaves were still beautiful on the trees thoguh half of them are already fallen by now.

 

Happy Cooking !

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