September 16, 2009

Miso flavor Gratin




















This picture is a dish of Zucchini/Tomato Gratin. I cooked Zucchini/Spinach Gratin for them.
Both of them are good. If you have eggplant (sliced, fried and salted,) you can make Zucchini/Tomato/Eggplant Gratin.*
It would be good!


comment from Mrs. P.
m-m-m-m-m......
It was amazing!
My husband couldn't stop eating.
Soy-milk and Miso?
It browns just like cheese.

ingredients
2 medium zucchini sliced in 1/4" rounds
1 bunch of spinach (or, 1 tomato diced)
1/4 onion minced
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tablespoon mushroom powder*
1/2 teaspoon of kombu tea powder or 1/2 teaspoon of kombu dashi powder*
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of flour
1.5 cup of soy milk
2 tablespoons of white miso*
2 tablespoons of bread crumbs
extra virgin olive oil, (some fresh basil,) salt and black pepper
*See notes below.

directions
Fry zucchini with 1 tablespoon of olive oil until translucent on both sides. Remove from pan and lightly salt.
Boil your spinach for 1 minute, immerse in cold water and squeeze dry. Dress it with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt and black pepper.
(or dress diced tomato with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, bit of basil, a pinch of salt and black pepper.)
Spread 1 teaspoon of olive oil on your medium size baking dish.
Alternate layers using 1/2 of the zucchini, the spinach, and remaining zucchini.
Stir shitake powder and kombu tea powder into the water.
Dissolve miso in the soy milk.
Bring a frying pan to medium heat. Cook the onion with 1 tablespoons olive oil until soft but not brown. Add the garlic and fry lightly. Stir in the flour. Add the shitake/kombu water and stir. Put in the miso/soy milk and simmer while stirring until it thickens. (Season with salt and pepper if you need after tasted.) Pour it into your baking dish over the vegetables.
Sprinkle the bread crumbs on the top.
Drizzle a bit of olive oil on it.
Bake it in a 450 degree oven for about 15 min
or until golden .

* If you make Zucchini/Tomato/Eggplant Gratin, you need 1 medium zucchini, 1 tomato and 1 small eggplant.
In this case, it is good to put the eggplant on the bottom, the tomato on the middle and the zucchini on the top.

about Japanese foods
*The white miso is called "saikyo-white miso." It is a little bit sweet and smooth.
This is the one which I used. Very good!
If not available locally it may be purchased from:http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/product/saikyo-white-miso-18-oz

*It isn't easy to get kombu-tea in US. However, you can get Kombu-dashi powder easily from:
http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/product/riken-dashi-kombu-1-4-oz

*If you get Japanese dried shitake mushrooms, let's make the powder with your food processor and keep it on hand s
o you can make beautiful soup stock easily.
If you don't have dried shitake mushrooms, you can choose fresh mushrooms. Mince some and put it into the pan with garlic.