Vegetables with Garlic-scented Miso Sauce
Miso is one of my favourite Japanese flavours and is created by adding salt and yeast to steamed soybeans and letting it ferment and ripen. Varying the salt content and duration of the ripening process creates different types of either white or red miso while rice, barley and bean miso varieties are made depending on the yeast used. (Read more about Miso here).
Ingredients:
1 Tomato
2 Baby carrots
Broccolini
Cauliflower
Red Capsicum
Sugar snaps
Snow peas
3 Eggplant
Zucchini
4 Daikon Radish Turnip
King Prawn
Calamari
*The numbers denote the 4 different cooking methods for the types of vegetables shown in the 'Method' below.
Seasoning:
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea Salt
Black pepper
WHite pepper
Greek basil
Sauce:
200g White Miso
200ml Mirin
40g sugar
50ml Soy Sauce
100g White onion
20g Garlic
Pinch of chilli Powder
Method:
1) Cut the vegetables to preferred size but not too small so they retain their natural taste.
2) Begin cooking the vegetables/seafood with the following methods for:
'1' Grill or cook the vegetables in a frying pan so the surface is roasted.
'2' Add salt to boiling water and cook vegetables until they are slightly chewy.
'3' Heat oil to 170 degrees and deep fry until they are slightly coloured.
'4' Fill a pot with water and add a handful of uncooked rice and the vegetables (peeled) and cook through. Be careful not to let water boil.
When a chopstick passes through the vegetables easily, cool under running water.
Once vegetables are cooked, lightly dress with a little olive oil, salt, blakc and white pepper to your taste.
3) Cook the prawns and calamari like the vegetables using method '2' and season with olive oil, salt and black pepper.
4) Make the garlic-scented miso sauce. Put the ingredients in a food processor and mix until onion and garlicpieces are no longer visible. Transfer the mixture into a pot and cook over medium heat until the spiciness of the onion and garlic disappear.
5) Carefully arrange the vegetables from method '2' and '3' on a plate. Sprinkle some Greek basil and pour the sauce over them.
