Tonight I had a friend over for dinner--again, these are her photographic skills on display, not mine (although she did use my camera, does that count?)
I liked oka-hijiki so much when I made it the other day that when I finally saw it in the grocery store again I bought a few packs. It's only available as fresh local produce, so I get the feeling I've only got a few weeks of it left until next year. So I better get my fill while I can! I served it blanched tonight with raw naga-imo (but I soaked it in vinegar water to get the bitterness out), topped with a soy-vinegar dressing. It was quite yummy.



After the oka-hijiki and the naga-imo were mixed up:
The main dish tonight was chawan-mushi. I know it's an autumn dish, but I make it sometimes with vegetables in the summer. I had just bought a steamer and chawan-mushi cups so I had to try them out. It worked well, and I was so happy. The first chawan-mushi I served my friend was a bit underdone, but the rest were fine.
My chawan-mushi had shimeji, carrots, zucchini, and chicken in them, topped off with a few leaves of mitsuba. I think it's the mitsuba that really makes the chawan-mushi. The zucchini was a bit weird, but overall I think it was quite good and rather summery. I'll make it again in the fall with ginnan (ginko nuts)--I can't wait!

And the chawan-mushi served up! The mitsuba was a little bit out of control--I need to chop it up more next time. This dish was the most questionable of the evening. I had some cauliflower and some cream I needed to use, so I tried to make the mousse I have posted earlier in this blog. It's quite delicious when it's made right... but I didn't have a blender. So I tried to smoosh up the cauliflower using my large-size suribachi (yes, I have three sizes, and I love them all and use them constantly). It was not quite the success I hoped it would be. It wasn't bad... but it wasn't to die for, either. I can think of better things to do with cauliflower next time I get some.