Leaving for Japan - Our Farewell Party, Part II
26 February 2008
The day of our departure to Japan is rapidly getting closer. In the midst of all the packing and various admin stuff which is currently keeping us busy we celebrated our farewell party last Saturday, for which I prepared different finger food which would probably qualify as Japanese fusion, some more and some less authentic, but in any case setting the right tone for our Japan party.
Just in time for our Japan party I discovered this cute little Japanese store close to my home. As I took my time having a thorough look through the shelves the lady offered me some green tea with some crackers and nuts, which I very much enjoyed (felt like being in Japan already...). In addition to some beautiful Japanese tableware the shop sells a lot of Japanese food specialties, and I ended up buying a bunch of key ingredients for one of the party snacks had in mind.
Besides a bunch of special spices I was delighted to discover some taro potatoes in the freezer, a sweetish root vegetable I sometimes encountered in soups during my past Japan travels. Stewed in a mixture of soy sauce and sake this was the perfect vegetable topping for my little sesame-flavoured spinach nests.
Sake-Stewed Taro Potatoes on Spinach Nests
| yields approx. 50 bites |
for the spinach: |
| 500g fresh spinach leaves |
| 2 tablespoons of dark sesame oil |
| 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds (peeled) |
| 2 dents of garlic |
| soy sauce to taste |
for the taro potatoes: |
| 250g taro potatoes (peeled and frozen) |
| 50ml sake |
| soy sauce to taste |
to serve: |
| 50 (plastic) spoons |
Wash the spinach leaves and place them in a large pot. Add a little bit of salty water, just covering the bottom of the pot and blanch the leaves, together with the mashed garlic, at moderate temperature until completely soft, which should take about 15 minutes. Drain the excess water and add the spinach with dark sesame oil (i.e. the one extracted from roasted sesame seeds) as well as the sesame seeds. Season to taste with soy sauce.
Cut the taro potatoes into little cubes of 5mm or so. Add the sake and season to taste with some soy sauce. Stew them at low temperature for about 15 minutes.
Arrange the spinach on plastic spoons and top the little “nests” with a few pieces of the taro potatoes – and ready are the little bites!
