Squash Ragout with potato-dumplings

After yesterdays ukiyo-e exhibition we were quite hungry and it was time to feed the lions (well only two of them, but they were hungry for three).

I had planned to test a recipe from a German so-called vegetarian magazine 'Vegetarisch Fit' (they publicise Parmesan which, in Europe is never ever vegetarian and other non-vegetarian cheeses - dumb people in the editorial department, I guess), but it contained so much half raw egg yolks (and raisins, imagine: raisins! I hate raisins!) that all I used were the main ingredients, i.e. squash, oyster mushrooms, and green onions.

Here is my recipe including a mobile cam pic (I know hideous, isn't it):

Squash Ragout with potato-dumplings
serves 3 persons

 

 

 

Ingredients:

for the ragout

600 g squash (I used half butternut and half Hokkaido squash)
200 g oyster mushrooms
1 bunch green onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 sprigs rosemary
olive oil
400 ml vegetable broth
2 tablespoons grainy mustard (whole-grain mustard)
100 ml soy creme
salt, pepper, paprika
parsley

for the dumplings

potato dough, half&half (either store-bought or self made)


What to do

for the dumplings:

Prepare the dumplings according to your package or the according recipe in a large pot of boiling and salted water. Once they appear on the surface they are ready (ca. 20 min). If your timing was perfect add them to the ragout instantly, otherwise keep them warm in the oven till your ragout is finished.

for the ragout:

• Peel and cut the squash into cubes (about 2-3 cm)
• Clean the oyster mushrooms, remove tough stems and cut them about  three times across
• Clean and wash the green onions and cut into large pieces.
• Mince garlic and rosemary needles.
• Heat the oil in a large pan and fry garlic and rosemary (smells lovely, doesn't it?)
• Add the prepared vegetables and sauté for a couple of minutes.
• Then add the vegetable broth, season with salt, pepper, and paprika and let simmer for about 15minutes.
• Add the grainy mustard and soy creme, and check your seasoning.
• Add the prepared dumplings and sprinkle with parsley.



Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Today was kind of a strange day. We are living in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg (now can you pronounce this one *grin*), in a part that borders to another state of Germany. And today I had a holiday and M, who works only 20 km away (but in Hesse) had to go to work. No holiday and no free time for him. Bad for him but good for me :)

So I used my time to tend to my slipped disc (basically meaning, I slept long), made a brownie cake for M's birthday and also this wonderfully rich and smoky butternut squash soup which I will gladly share with you, since, although it might look like an ordinary sqash soup, is far from it.

And since it is nearly week-end, it is also time for souper sundays, my favourite food event. It is hosted by Deb from Kahakai Kitchen directly from paradise (i.e. Hawaii - that alone would make it my favourite event, but there are also lots of yummy soups and salads). Although I only infrequently pop in, (after all I'm not a food blog) you should seriously go and have a look at the round-ups. Lots of new ideas (not only) for soups. With winter coming, lots of hot soups are needed to survive the cold :)

 

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

These are the ingredients you will need (the olive oil escaped the photo):

 

Ingredients:

 

750 g butternut squash

fresh rosmary

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

1 litre vegetable stock

5 carrots

1 starchy potato

olive oil

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

salt, freshly ground pepper

soy creme

 

What do do:

 

Half the squash, peel, and scoop out seeds. Cut in slices and put on a baking tray with the rosmary needles and splash with olive oil. Bake for about 20 min at 180°C until the squash turns brownish at the corners.

 

 

 

Meanwhile sauté the chopped onion and minced garlic in some olive oil. When onions become translucent add diced potato and diced carrots as well as the smoky paprika. Let everything sweat for a while; then add the veggie stock and let simmer for about 10 min. Add the roasted butternut squash and simmer for a further 10 minutes. When everything is softened, turn off heat, add the soy creme and blend the soup in your blender or with the help of an immersion blender.

 

Serve with some some herbs and ideally with some croutons (forgot them though).

 

Tip: If you don't like it thick and creamy you might need to add some more veggie broth or some plant milk

 

 

I left it thick and creamy and served it with some spinach-and-blue-cheese filo pastries from an old BBC recipe (BBC Vegetarian Good Food magazine, November 1999).

 

It's got a nice filling with spinach, onions, garlic, oregano, dried apricots, and roasted pine nuts. Originally blue cheese was added, but I just left it out. You might add crumbled tofu with some spritz of lemon juice to make it more substantial.

 

After wrapping it in vegan filo pastry, I 'egg-washed' it with soy creme and sprinkled some sesame seeds on top of it. I'm not good at making nice parcels though; M said they look like unhappy fish :(

in any case ... a tasty unhappy fish :)

 

 

 

 

Poppy 'Schmarrn'

Poppy seeds again? Either there are opiates left in poppy seed and I'm already addicted or Barbara's 'Mohnschmarrn' recipe was just irresistible :) I go for the latter (unless you'll see only poppy recipes in the near future *hehe*).

But what is a 'Schmarrn'? For one a difficult to pronounce German word: 7 consonants and only one vowel. Crazy isn't it? The word is Bavarian or Austrian and means 'nonsense' but in the realms of cuisine it means a fluffy pancake which is shredded to pieces; the most famous 'Schmarrn' is the 'Kaiserschmarrn'. But Barbara choose to do a poppy seed Schmarrn *drool*

Since I had some leftover ground poppy seed and I was alone at home today, this was a very welcome, quick and satisfying dinner.

I exchanged some of the ingredients to make it vegan (a more true to the original Kaiserschmarrn and yet vegan recipe can be found here).

But let's go straight for the poppy Schmarrn recipe:

Ingredients:

for 2 pers

for the poppy mixture:

150 ml soy cream

50 g ground poppy seeds (you can use a coffee grinder to do this)

lemon zest

for the Schmarrn:

250 ml vegan milk (I used a spelt-almond drink)

1 tablespoon soy flour

5 tablespoons flour (I used spelt flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1.5 tablespoons agave nectar

vanilla

oil for frying

rapadura (dehydrated sugar cane juice) for sprinkling the finished Schmarrn

What to do:

 Heat the soy cream and bring to a boil, add the ground poppy seeds and let the mixture rest for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon zest.

Meanwhile pour the vegan milk in a high vessel and use a hand mixer (or lots of muscle power) to mix in the soy flour until you get a frothy mass.

Add flour, baking powder, agave nectar, and vanilla and mix well. Then use a wooden spoon and fold in the poppy seed mixture.



Heat the oil in a pan, add mixture (roughly as thick as an American pancake) and bake golden on one side. Then turn it over and shred into pieces with two forks. If the Schmarrn gets a bit sticky and doesn't turn over in one piece .... well, it actually doesn't matter since you are tearing it up anyway :)

 Sprinkle with rapadura and serve with fresh fruit or fruit compote.

The finished Schmarrn looked a bit darker than Barbara's but it was very yummy. So if you have the occasional sweet tooth attack, try this very German/Austrian recipe :)

Lazy Poppy-Seed Couscous Salad

And now for something completely different ..

A lot of German food blogs are posting about poppy seeds this month. This is mainly due to a German cooking event with poppy seeds as the star of the dish. Mel from Pimpi-Mel-la is hosting Zorra's LXXX - Papaver event and I'm glad this ingredient gets a little more attention, since it is not only super yummy, makes you sound hip and cool (Oh dear, I haven't had my daily intake of opium poppy today ...), but is also very healthy. It is a super rich source for calcium and B-vitamins. But, and this may be to your dissappointment, the poppy seeds are nearly free of opiates.

In Eastern Europe, Germany, and Austria it is a cherished ingredient for cakes. But rarely used in savoury dishes. So instead of baking I turned to cooking, or rather, since the weather is hot and summer-ish towards making a salad.

At first we need the poppy-seed dressing. The recipe is based on Kathy's dressing on Healthy Happy Life. However, I replaced the apple cider and maple sirup with apple balsamico and instead of whole poppy seeds I used steamed and ground poppy seeds (this is because I'm stupid; I thought I had a package of poppy seeds in my cupboard but it was this steamed and ground one and it was too late to go shopping); therefore my dressing has a much darker colour than Kathy's. But it is equally yummy

These are the ingredients:

and if you whisk everything vigorously together you will get a nice dressing:

Poppy-seed Dressing

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegan mayonaise
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1.5 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons apple balsamico vinegar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 eschalot, finely diced
1garlic clove, pressed
1 tablespoon poppy seeds or ground poppy seeds
salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

Not much really; whisk everything except the eschalot and the poppy seeds together vigorously. Then fold in eschalot and poppy seeds. Done!

Since I had leftover couscous I added some colour to it (pomegranate, rucola, yellow bell pepper, and peanuts).

Before we turn to the salad I think this it is a good opportunity to explain how a pomegranate is opened properly without leaving a mess in the kitchen and on your clothes. I first learned this from Pete's blog and ever used this method since. But there is also a youtube video of it (well, what's not on youtube?).
At first take a good look at your pomegranate; because of this fruit we have a winter season - or so the ancient Greeks said. When Persephone was 'kidnapped' by Hades she ate 6 kernels of pomegranates and whenever you eat a fruit in the otherworld you can't go back. Since she only ate 6 kernels she had to stay with her husband Hades for 6 months and for 6 months she stays with her mother Demeter. Demeter is so happy for having her daughter back that she really goes into spring mood and therefore we have a warm season until she goes back to Hades.

Hades with cornucopia and Persephone with a pomegranate seed
http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/K14.3.html

Now that you have properly appreciated the fruit, cut off with a sharp knife the top and lower part of it, like this:

With a sharp knife cut the outer layer carefully, so that it looks quartered. Don't cut too deep or you will cut into the seeds which you don't want.

Now fill up a big bowl with cold water and break the pomegranate in quarters (below the water):

Gently loosen the seeds (still under water); the inner white skin will float on top and the heavier seeds will sink to the ground of your bowl.

Remove bigger parts by hand and pour away most of the water with the white bits. Before you throw away the seeds with your water, however, use a strainer:

Now you have clean, unscathed, and beautiful pomegranade seeds which are super healthy and delicious.

Now that everything is prepared, we can have a look at the ingredients:

Combine them in a bowl:

Now add the poppy-seed dressing from above and sprinkle with some poppy-seeds:

Poppy-Seed Couscous Salad (for 2 Pers.)

Ingredients:

1 cup prepared couscous
half of a yellow bell pepper, diced
2 handful of rocket
half a cup of pomegranate seeds
2 tablespoons of peanuts (if you use salten ones be cautious with the salt, you may need none at all)
1 portion of poppy-seed dressing (see above for recipe)

What to do

Not much, mix everything gently together. Done :)

And, since this is a lazy recipe and I'm lazy during summer time, the salad also goes to a much beloved event which I (due to laziness I guess) do not frequent as much as I want should. I'm talking about Deb's Souper Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen. This event will not only accept soups for a Sunday round-up but also salads and sandwiches. Therefore I'm also sending this salad to Kahakai Kitchen. Hope you like it, Deb  :)

Germany's most favourite spring food: asparagus

In light of recent events I will delay my stories about the place where the wild things are and will turn to some more urgent food matters.

Germany’s favourite spring food is white asparagus. There is no region where they don’t have a special asparagus which is so much better than all the one from all the other areas in Germany. Even I, who am not very fond of white asparagus, have to prepare some dishes now and then; this year I made everything thinkable: from asparagus with pancakes and sauce hollandaise over asparagus lasagna and asparagus pesto to asparagus salad.  But these two recipes were my favourites from this season. The first one is a recipe from Pflanzenlust Blog. It is actually a very simple recipe, but with an astonishing twist. The asparagus is seasoned with salt and then tightly wrapped in baking paper with some butter/margarine and lemon slices. After 15-20 min in the oven it is ready and believe me, quite explosive to your taste buds. The sauce is made from a large cooked floury potato mixed with half oat milk and vegetable broth and fresh herbs (I used wild garlic). I served it with potatoes and a vegan 'schnitzel' for P and C.

 

The second one is an old friend, a recipe I posted some time ago on my blog. This time I used linguine, added some semi-dried tomatoes and used lemon instead of lime.

But back to the recent event. On June, 24th there is Midsummer's eve or Johanni (St. John's eve) and with it ends the asparagus season. 

Which isn't that bad at all. We had plenty of time to eat white and green asparagus and now new delights are ready to be transformed into delicious meals. Since it is a very old holiday which, being a festival of the sun (summer solstice), goes back beyond the Iron Age and consists of feasting (there is an abundance of food right now and in Sweden herring is also important with the fishing season in the Baltic Sea from March to April therefore even by putting it in brine it has to go now), drinking (the wine and beer cellars had to be cleared for the next harvest) and being merry (the month of March was thought to be especially favourable for giving birth). The Christian church tried to take away all these heathen happiness and made Midsummer the day for the celebration of the birth of St. John the baptist. Often the church forbade poles, bonfires, dancing, and drinking at this time of the year. However, as you can see from this IKEA video their efforts were in vain:

 

So if you are preparing a special dish for Midsummer's eve, please let me know and I will tell you

mine :)

 

Couscous Salad with Lukewarm Balsamic-wilted Spinach Salad

Spring is approaching!  When I went to the bakery, I heard a loud gaggle and to my surprise a flock of geese from the River Neckar had been coming up the hill to feast on some greens in front of an office building just opposite the bakery shop.

Well, that was for sure the sign for exchanging soups for salads :) and since I had  some leftover couscous from yesterday evening -which is of course perfect for a quick Sunday morning salad- I knew what I had to do.

Couscous itself is a very good source for B-vitamins and some added veggies and lemon make it perfectly healthy and on top a very tasty dish. I added some spinach which I wilted in the pan with some aceto balsamico and although it maybe doesn't look all that nice (wilted things never do, right?) it sure tasted delicious :)

Since the salad was an unexpected addition to breakfast there is no real recipes and I didn't measure the ingredients, but this is roughly what I put together (you have to adjust it to your liking anyway):

Couscous Salad with Lukewarm Balsamic-wilted Spinach Salad

150 g couscous

225 ml water

3 carrots

250 g cocktail tomatoes

1 handful toasted pine nuts

parsley

1 organic lemon (zest and juice)

herbal salt, black pepper

2 tablespoons of olive oil

500 g spinach

olive oil

1 onion

balsamic vinegar

salt, pepper

What to do

Boil waster and pour over couccous. Let stand for 10-15 minutes, then fluff the couscous with a fork. Add grated the carrots, halved cocktail tomatoes, pine nuts, parsley, lemon cest and juice, spices, and olive oil. Mix well.

Pull apart spinach and wash thoroughly. Heat the olive oil in a pan, add onion and fry until translucent, add spinach and fry a further minute. Deglaze with the balsamic vinegar; put on the lid and let the spinach wilt. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

To serve

Top the quinoa salad with the still lukewarm spinach salad.

I'm sending this to Souper Sundays, an event hosted by Debbie from Kahakai Kitchen, which not only collects soups but also delicious salads, and sandwiches. So don't forget to stop by and have a look at the weekly collection of recipes :)

I'm also adding this to Tobias' Kochrezepte Basar am Wochenende (Weekend Recipe Bazaar) who wants to know what was in our pots at the weekend.

Castagnaccio di Carnevale

Barbara from Barbara's Spielwiese  has called for recipes for the imminent season of carnival/carnevale/Fasching/Mardi Gras/Shrovetide....

Childhood memories came up and a salad made from raw herring rekindled my traumatised food experiences. Not that my mother was a bad cook - raw fish just disgusted me even at a tender age. The other option would have been Faschingskrapfen (jam donuts) which were the better part of my mum's carnival recipes but I'm not very fond of either very fat or very sweet things. So I had to go international and look for not so sweet alternatives. I know that the Italian cuisine has a great variety of baked carnival things but most of them are deep-fried. But then I found what I secretly was looking for, a castagnaccio!

A castagnaccio is a chestnut flour cake and originally an autumnal dish, eaten when young wine starts to be available. But in Tuscany it obviously also became typical for carnevale. Maybe because of the stories that say that if a girl gives her beloved one a piece of her castagnaccio he will love her forever. Well, the way to a man's heart is verily through his stomach. So it would also be made for Valentine's day which coincides nicely with carnival.

These are the ingredients I used for my castagnaccio:

The dough is more like a pancake dough; that's how it looks when poured into the baking dish (which ideally should have been a copper dish. Well, I used my not so posh quiche pan.

And the result fresh from the oven:

A look inside:

And here is the recipe:

Castagnaccio di Carnevale

adapted from La Tana di Mopo and the recipe collection Giallo Zafferano

Ingredients:

250 g chestnut flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup of plant-based milk (I used oat milk)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon sugar

zest from one orange (use an untreated one, you don't want pesticides and wax in your cake!)

a handful of raisins (soaked in juice from half an orange)

a handful of walnuts, chopped (leave some halves for decoration)

a handful of pine nuts

fresh rosemary

water as needed

What to do:

Sieve the flour because chestnut flour tends to lump together, add baking powder. Pour in the milk and mix. Add the rest of the ingredients apart from the walnut halves, pine nuts, and rosemary. Add water until you get a dough which is similar in consistency to pancake dough.

Grease your baking dish and dust with flour. Pour in your cake mixture. Sprinkle the walnuts, pine nuts and rosemary on top.

Bake  at 180° C for about 40 minutes. Let completely cool. Enjoy :)

Buon carnevale!

Nepalese Cuisine - Dhal Bhat and Aloo Ko Achar

I've never been to Nepal, but when I looked it up for the blog event 'Flavours of Nepal', hosted by Nupur from UK Rasoi and started by simply.food, I was really astonished about the extremely diverse biogeography of this small country.Despite its size, you have everything here, from the highest mountain peak (Mount Everest), to the deepest gorge (Kali Gandaki Gorge) on earth; from steppes to forests to eternal ice.

I really loved this photo from the Nepalese Culture, Travel & Tourism web page :)

If I will ever visit Nepal I'm gonna buy Yak wool. I could sooo need it at the moment.

Another reason to visit Nepal would be its archaeology; from temples and palaces to long abandoned high-mountain settlements; from rock art to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha. You will miss nothing while on a holiday in Nepal.

Kak Nyingba Petroglyphs

Perdita Pohle 2003, Figs. 7.1 and 7.2

As diverse as their geography and archaeology is Nepal's cuisine. Influences from India, Tibet, China and the indigenous Newari culture created a unique mixture that will challenge the most spoilt taste buds. You can find examples and recipes on many web pages, the Explore Nepal web page is just one of them with many recipes from salted butter tea to momos, which are basically Newari-style filled dumplings.

But by now you'd rather know what dishes I choose to cook for the blog event, right?

I decided on traditional staple food, a Dhal Bhat (lentils with rice) and Aloo Ko Achar (spicy potato salad).

and here are the recipes:

Dhal Bhat
adapted from Vegetarian Food Recipes

Ingredients:

• 1cup lentils (I used green ones) soaked overnight
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• a piece of fresh ginger, minced
• 1 fresh green chili, chopped (I used a red one)
• 2 garlic gloves, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt
• a pinch of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
• 1 tablespoon mustard seed oil
• 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• 1-2 teaspoons kopan masala (a sweet masala due to the high amount of cinnamon, you can easily grind it yourself)
• 2 cups Basmati rice
• cilantro for garnish

 What to do:


Bring the broth to a boil and add the soaked lentils. Simmer until lentils are tender. Add garlic, ginger and chili and blend until smooth. Return to your pot, add the salt, sugar, and tamarind concentrate and simmer until the tamarind concentrate is dissolved.
Meanwhile wash the rice and cook it in 4 cups of water.
Fry the black mustard seeds in the mustard seed oil. When they start popping pour them together with the oil over the lentils. Simmer for another couple of minutes. Stir in the masala. Cover and let it stand for a couple of minutes. Garnish with cilantro.


Aloo Ko Achar (Spicy Potato Salad)

adapted from Vegetarian Food Recipes

Ingredients:

• 750 g potatoes
• 1 green or red chili, thinly sliced
• juice of 1 lime (I actually needed two because mine were not very juicy at all)
• Himalayan salt
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds - roasted and roughly ground
• 1 teaspoon turmeric (curcuma powder)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (whole)
• dried chili (if you like it hot) to taste
• 2 teaspoons mustard seed oil
• 1/2 cup water or vegetable broth
• a small bunch of cilantro

Boil the potatoes, peel and cut into cubes. Combine the turmeric, salt, ground sesame seeds, lime juice, half of the chopped cilantro with the water and mix thoroughly. Add the cubed potatoes. In a pan heat the mustard oil, add cumin seeds and chili. Fry until the cumin starts smelling nicely and pour over the salad. Mix everything and garnish with cilantro. Enjoy!

Icy Cold Weather needs a warm soup: Singaporean Laksa

This recipe is a mix from different sources and I adjusted it to my own preferences of course. The spice paste is more or less based on Ottolenghi's recipe and I also referred heavily on this nice vegan recipe from Hunger Pangs. But there are endlessly more good Laksa recipes out there in the web.

A colourful novelty I introduced were however, black rice noodles:

The end result is a beautiful, spicy, and warming vegan Laksa (you can see the black rice noodles at about 5 o'clock on the picture below)

So first you have to make your spice paste:

• 4 shallots, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic
• a 2 cm piece of fresh ginger
• the white bulb of one stalk lemongrass (next time I will use two of them, the taste is just too lovely)
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 1 - 2 large red chillies (depending how hot you like it)
• a small bunch of french cilantro (leave some for the topping)
• half a bunch Thai basil
• some curry powder if you want to add a distinct curry flavour

I put everything in my small electric chopper and pulsed until it became a paste. But you can as well use a mortar.

Next, take one package of rice noodles (vermicelli, black rice noodles, all kinds of rice pasta is possible) and cook the pasta according to the instructions on your package. This takes only a few minutes. Strain after cooking and put them immediately in ice cold water (otherwise they will glue together and you will have one big pasta glob - you don't want to put this into your soup).

For the broth you will need

• 3 tablespoons oil (coconut oil, mild olive oil, sesame oil, canola  ... it really depends on you here. I used red coconut oil)
• the spice paste from above
• some curry leaves (fresh or dried)
• vegetable broth
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 package of firm tofu, cubed, dusted in rice flour and fried
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1 bunch of green onions
• 1 English cucumber, cut into sticks
• 1 cup mangetouts
• 2 cups carrot, cut into sticks
• lime wedges for serving
• pepper, curry, salt, sugar to taste

In a large pot heat the oil. Add the spice mix and cook for a minute or two. Don't forget to stir since the paste shouldn't burn. Add the vegetable stock, the curry leaves and adjust with salt, pepper, and sugar. Let simmer for 10 minutes, then add the coconut milk and mix well. Don't boil it any more, the coconut milk will curdle!

While the soup simmers you had time to steam or parboil your veggies (apart from the cucumber and green onions). In fact you can add all kind of veggies. You don't have to stick to my version - but you already know this :)

You assemble the soup in your bowls. First put some noodles in the bowl, top with the veggies. Then ladle the broth on top and add the tofu cubes and cilantro on top.

Serve with lime wedges and sambal oelek and enjoy.

Don't let you put off by the rather long list of ingredients. It is actually quicker done than you think and the result is so worth it.

Today is a Sunday, so what better than sending this soup to Debbie from Kahakai Kitchen which hosts the regular event  'Souper Sundays' where you can actually add not only soups but also salads and sandwiches.

There is a similar event in Germany, which is however not restricted to a certain dish. Tobias from Tobias kocht! is hosting this event for your week-end dishes, the Kochrezepte Basar am Wochenende (Weekend Recipe Bazaar). So I'm also sending this to Tobias :)

Setsubun and a monster ehou-maki

Setsubun is the day before the beginning of the Japanese spring (立春 Risshun). According to the ancient lunar calender this day falls on a different date each year. This year it is today, February 3rd. The main occupation on this day consists of driving away evil spirits, called oni (鬼) in Japanese. Here is an oni, painted by the Edo Artist Hokusai in ukiyo-e technique (woodblock printing):

wikipedia Creative Commons License

As you can see the oni is chased away by a hail of fukumame (福豆 fortune beans) which are basically roasted soybeans. This ritual lives on until today and apart from temples and shrines you can actually chase away evil-minded oni out of your own house all on your own. All you have to do is put an oni mask on a family member (you can download masks for example here) and then throw your beans at him. After you have successfully driven away the evil spirit (mostly the head of the family i.e. the father) and loudly shouted  '鬼は外！福は内' (oni wa soto - fuku wa uchi which means 'oni out! Let the fortune in!)

http://mysteriesofjapan.blogspot.com/2011/02/setsubun.html

you can start eating an 恵方巻 (ehou-maki which is a lucky long sushi roll). Of course you have to eat it uncut and in utter silence whilst facing in a certain direction. The direction has to be calculated anew every year

This may look complicated, but then, who says eating a sushi roll would be easy. The direction for 2012 is by the way North North-West. To be precise (after all there is no priest here to guide me) I looked up the exact position with a nice tool from this web page. Just scroll the underlying map around until you have found your position. The direction for this year is 壬.

When preparing your maki you have to adhere to some rules, too (of course, who said eating a sushi roll ... you know what I mean).

1. You have to use seven ingredients, because seven is a lucky number.
2. You may not cut your maki roll because you would inevitably cut off your luck for this year

So here is what I did:

First I prepared the seven fillings:

• Avocado
• sautéed spinach
• thinly sliced and slightly fried tofu because I couldn't get tofu aburaage
• salt massaged cucumber
• shiitake mushrooms, slightly boiled in tamari and mirin
• rice bran pickled radish (takuan)
• steamed carrots

Then I prepared the sushi rice and added 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon plum vinegar (ume-su), 1 teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons sugar. See, I even fanned the rice to cool it down quicker once I had added the vinegar mix!

The most difficult part was rolling up the monster maki, because you have a lot of filling in it. My first roll just fell apart; but once I put on less rice and left some space in between it was much better, though not perfect. But then who said making a sushi roll would be  ... you get my drift.

In case a monster would pop up while I was eating my maki in silence I kept some roasted soy beans ready (in my little blue bowl I bought in Abu Dhabi). Well, you never know ...

Not bad for my first setsubun ehou-maki. At least it tasted quite nice :)