Goodies

Meatball  Miso soup

We are having warm days lately – last Saturday it reached 80 degrees – and not a good time to find out the air-conditioning in your car is not working properly. I was on a last minute shopping spree before going to Japan. Frantic and rushed, I don’t think I was enjoying the sunshine as much as I should be grateful to feel. 

I must use up all the left over goodies like drying up burdock roots, green onion that was wilting, limp carrots, new-shooting potatoes before the trip and it had to be quick to prepare. Warm soup on a hot day is not ideal but this gives me some breather. Goody! I can cross out something from my travel check list…only 8 more to go.

The recipe I loosely followed was found in a old Japanese magazine and I like the ginger flavor in meatball and no need for dashi stock. The butter is optional yet adds depth and fat of course to it.

Ingredients and instruction Serves 4

• Ground beef 1/2 pound
• Ground pork 1/2 pound
• Grated ginger 1-1/2 Tablespoon
• Green onion 2 stalks finely chopped
• Potato starch or corn starch 2 Tablespoons
• Sake 2 Tablespoons
• Soy sauce or Tamari sauce 1 Tablespoon
• Burdock about 6 inches length peeled and thinly sliced diagonally. Soak in cold water for 5-8 minutes.
  
• 1 small carrot slice into half rounds
• 2 small potato peeled and chopped then soak in cold water for 3-4 minutes.
  
• Miso paste 4-6 Tablespoons
• Broccoli 1 adult-sized fist worth; divide into individual florets 
• Butter 1 teaspoon

1. Put meats, ginger, green onion, starch, sake and soy sauce in large bowl and knead well then make1-1/2 inch balls. Set aside .
2. Boil 5 cups of water in pan. Gently slide the meat balls in and simmer for 1-2 minutes.
   
3. Put burdock, carrots and potatoes into the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes at medium heat. Scoop off white scum that appears on top.
4. Dissolve miso paste in the ladle with little bit of cooking liquid from #3 before adding to the pan. Do the taste test. Add more miso paste if necessary. If it’s too salty, pour some water in.
5. Add broccoli florets and cook for about 1 minute.
6. Add butter (optional) and serve hot.
   

We must consume cucumber also. Made quick pickled cucumber.Cut cucumber in chunks and put in the Ziploc bag. Add vinegar, salt and chili pepper to taste. Push air out, close tight and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. 

We had a wonderful Easter service at our church. What a blessing!The Easter basket/nest plus blue chocolate eggs are from William Sonoma. Very pretty but the chocolate is overly sweet. I hope I could re-use next year, not the eggs.A friend brought me this candle holder filled with Easter candies. So nice of her!Easter dinner made easy by purchasing the honey baked ham.

My son’s friends were here for last games over pizza. My son is concentrating on his own game. Do-over birthday cake- Strawberry short cake for real.I started to make some kind of design yet I couldn’t finish it. I figured that those guys don’t care how the cake looks so I stopped caring like whatever.’Thumbs-up’ taste for sure!And we had some left over for Easter. Spring came in full force.The weeping cherry tree. We didn’t know it’s pink when we planted it.Asian pear tree

Neighbor's cherry blossom. Can you say gorgeous?Hey, you on the right, your days are Round-Up!

Neighbor’s lawn ornament – This is so cute, right?

I’m  hoping to see cherry blossoms in Japan too. My blog will resume sometime in April. Y’all comeback and see me now, ya hear?