It's the end of a very extravagant month, with traveling and the purchase of many books. So during this last week I'm trying to be very economical in my cooking.
To that end, today I got two pieces of fish at the supermarket, both of which should last me at least three days: a red snapper head and a piece of yellow tail. I have been wanting to make tai-meshi (snapper and rice) forever, because I love it and I've never tried to make it on my own. The head is the best part to use to make tai-meshi.
It worked well, but next time I will use a titch more soy sauce, but other than that it was really yummy.
Here's the cooked tai-meshi.



I grilled the yellow tail, and served it with brussels sprouts and corn saute, blanched spinach, a dried daikon in a soy glaze my friend's mother made, and mekabu seaweed.



The brussels sprouts and the corn. I had to use them both, and I was a bit hesitant about combining them, but it worked.



The finished tai-meshi in my bowl. I have a lot of it, so it's lucky it's pretty good.



The yellow tail with the mekabu, daikon, and the spinach in the background.

Dinner over the past few days was a kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) stew. I added spinach, broccoli, onions, potatoes, and carrots, with a little bit of chicken. It was delicious and super-filling.



Tonight I built my dish around 2 main ingredients: fresh brussels sprouts that were still on the stalk when I bought them, and sanma (saury) that was fresh and on sale for the equivalent of 50 cents for a whole fish. I thought the brussels sprouts would make a fresh and sunny addition to the meal. I also made some braised daikon just because braised daikon and sanma taste so, so good together. Mmm.
I ate my rice with a dried fish and seaweed topping my friend's mother made me. Always delicious!



I braised the sanma with wakame and naganegi (Japanese leeks), ginger and garlic. It was rich and nice--the ginger helps balance the fat in the fish.



The sprouts were so fresh and so beautiful, I immediately thought of making a brussels sprout salad, inspired by Michael Chiarello on Top Chef Masters. I made his cirtus vinaigrette, with Japanese citrus. It was delicious.

Cleaning out leftovers from the fridge tonight. The stew is Korean-inspired, a gochujang and miso broth with a ton of vegetables. I had frozen part of a giant batch of this stew, and I found out konnyaku does not freeze well. But overall, the flavors were still OK and the gochujang is a wonderful hit of heat in such cold weather.
With the stew, I ate the matsutake takikomi rice, turnip greens (you can make radish greens the same way--this was the first time I made these greens and I used a little too much oil), braised yurine (lily root), and okara.

The greens. Fresh turnip greens braised and cooked with a little bit of aburage. This dish was a huge hit with my husband, and I enjoy using the whole vegetable instead of just throwing the tops out, so I'm glad to have this simple dish in my repertoire now.
Yurine. This vegetable intrigues me, it's rich rather than starchy (but also starchy), with a delicate but distinctive flavor. I love it, but it's tricky to cook. It dissolves into a paste so easily. This time, though, I was able to successfully braise the yurine with egg and mitsuba. It turned out really well, and I was very pleased with it. I haven't seen yurine in the stores again, though, so the season may be over. Okara--a food I find super-comforting and delicious, as well as nutritious. I usually get my okara fresh from the local tofu shop, which is absolutely unbeatable as well as cost-effective. This okara is braised with carrots, naga-negi (Japanese leek), konnyaku, and shiitake. There's a little too much braising liquid left over in this dish, but the flavor was spot-on. I ought to eat this dish much more often than I do, it's so filling, delicious, and cheap to make.

Comfort food!!!

Tonight was simple. Takikomi gohan with matsutake, carrots, aburage, and konnyaku. The mix I had made three cups, so I'm lucky it's good, because I'll be eating it for quite awhile.
And then a beef stew. I learned a secret to making meat tender, and I tried it for the first time in this beef stew... wow did it work. The meat was so tender, and delicious. A very filling, very simple stew. And now I have enough to last a few days... which might be a pretty good thing.