Friday, May 1, 2009

Shojin Cauliflower and Peas


I've been enjoying cooking with the fresh English peas this week. Here's another dish made with the peas. The dish was inspired by Zenkoji Temple's shojin recipe. Shojin is Buddhist-style vegan cuisine. So the dashi I made tonight to use for this dish is infused with konbu (kelp) and dry shiitake.

Cauliflower and Peas

Ingredients
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into smaller pieces
1/2 cup peas
1.5 cup dashi stock
2 tablespoons sake
1.5 tablespoon mirin
1.5 tablespoon soy sauce
a pinch of salt, if necessary
1/2 tablespoon of each kuzuko (arrowroot powder) and dashi stock, stirred together
2 ea. egg white, beaten
mitsuba (Japanese parsley), chopped

Procedure
Combine the dashi stock, sake, mirin and soy sauce in a pot and set over medium heat. Once it's heated up, add the cauliflower and simmer for about 3 minutes.

Add the peas and simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust the flavor of the broth with a pinch of salt if necessary. Drizzle the kuzuko-dashi mixture into the pot and stir well. Drizzle the egg white into the pot cook until the egg white is settled.

Trasfer the mixture to individual serving bowls and garnish with chopped mitsuba.