Japanese Cooking Blog with Asako Nonaka #23
Asako Nonaka ◆ November 10, 2017
Hi!
It is getting cooler and cooler in morning and evening in Japan. According to the old calendar, the winter starts on November 7th and the period from November 7th to 21st is called “Ritto (立冬)” in 24 sekki. The cold wind blows and the leaves fall from the trees.
I was so shocked to watch the news of the terror attack in lower Manhattan. I pray from the bottom of my heart that the victims may rest in peace.
Who has a right to take a human’s precious life? Nobody!!!
Life has its ups and downs. There are tons of things that don’t go well. You might feel that it is too hard to live in the world sometimes. If you hurt or injure others, how do you manage to keep calm? I feel that it makes you suffer more.
Real patient people neither blame others nor themselves. If they develop bad feelings, they are able to find the cause of it by themselves and control them to stay calm. They have some different ways to do so. Taking a bath, listening to music, chatting with friends, writing their feelings down on paper or just sleeping, and so on. I recommend that you gather several patterns and solutions to fix your emotions, and try them when things are not going well.
The simplest way to control your body and mind is by having healthy diets. Just eating healthy food is enough but cooking by yourself and eating it can help heal you much more. Cooking is a kind of meditation. You can focus on your delicious meal and feel a sense of accomplishment after cooking. Let’s have lots of nutritious food and control your body and mind well!
This time I will introduce how to make “Tonjiru,” a kind of miso soup with simmered pork and vegetables.
It uses root vegetables and helps your body warm up. I hope you will enjoy the recipe in winter!
Recipe: Tonjiru (Miso Soup with Simmered Pork and Vegetables)
★ Ingredients
- 300g of pork
- 1 burdock
- 1 carrot
- 1/4 daikon radish
- 6 taro
- 1 konjac
- 1 deep-fried tofu
- shiitake mushroom
- thin green onion
- miso paste
- 1 dashi bag (option)
★ Directions
- Cut burdock thinly and diagonally. Soak them in water to remove the scum.
- Cut konjac into bite-size pieces and boil to remove the odor.
- Put deep-fried tofu between the paper towel and remove the extra oil.
- Peel taro and cut into bite-size pieces.
- Cut daikon radish, carrot, pork, konjac, deep-fried tofu and shiitake mushroom into bite-size pieces.
- Put water, dashi bag (option) and all the ingredients in a big pot and turn on the heat.
- Once the water boils, remove the scum and simmer until the ingredients become tender.
- Turn off the heat and put an adequate amount of miso paste. Turn on the heat again and turn off the heat just before the water boils.
- Serve in a bowl and garnish with chopped green onion to your liking.
Enjoy and stay warm!
