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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Slow and Steady Nishime



It's midnight.
The only light in the kitchen is the fridge.
I've got a chocolate pie slice. 
And a microwave.  
The whole world is asleep.  
I'm in fuzzy jammies.

Are you with me?

Okay, we're going to do a complete 180.  It's 4:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, my fridge is packed with random crap ranging from dijon mustard to old white rice, I'm starving, and I think my blood sugar is about to render me insensate.  Let's slow-cook a crock pot of whole root vegetables for an hour.

What is nishime?

In the macrobiotic definition, it's a slow-cooking root vegetable dish that has grounding and gentle balancing energy.  It's great for people with excessive yin conditions going on.  I like it because it curbs my sugar and salt cravings.

It's not chocolate pie.  I'm not in fuzzy jammies.  But I also pay approximately $0 in medication, down from a previous $200 per-month, so I think I'll go cry about it into my very expensive sweater.

What vegetables can I put in nishime?


- daikon
- carrot
- turnip
- rutabaga
- parsnip
- celeriac
- celery

And just to be wild and crazy, today I accented my nishime with...  fiddlehead fern!


nishime with sweet + sour sauce
 Select your veggies.  Today I'm making my small dish of nishime (2 servings) with turnip, parsnip, daikon, carrots, and celery.

Roll cut your cylindrical veggies (in my case, parsnip, daikon, and carrots).  To do this, cut at a diagonal, slicing each previous diagonal in half to get chunky, uneven slices.  I'm posting a video on how to do this later this week.

This is my bowl of roll-cut daikon.  Each piece is about 2"x 2"x2"

As you roll-cut your veggies, the most important thing is NOT shape.  It's size.  If your pieces are uneven, they'll cook unevenly.  Try to get them all the same size.

My finished veggies.  I like to finish all my cutting first and place my ingredients in separate bowls so I know what I have.

Layer veggies in a soup pot.  I placed these in circles so you can see what went on bottom (outer rings) to the top (middle of the pot).  Daikon and parsnip on bottom, followed by carrots, turnips, and my lightest veggie, celery, on top.

Add about 1/2 to 1 inch of filtered water, bring to a boil, cover, lower heat, and simmer for 40 minutes to an hour, until vegetables are bright but soft enough to eat without chomping.

It was my friend's first time eating nishime, so I made a sauce out of 1 tsp. kuzu, 1 tbsp. ume vinegar, and 1 tsp. brown rice syrup, mixed with a little cold water and poured over the finished veggies.  

Enjoy with a grain, a quick veggie, and a smile!

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