今日の夕食kは、居酒屋風のお料理でおうち居酒屋。メニューは、

• 枝豆のペペロンチーノ
• フムスとクリュディテ
• 豆腐ステーキ、中華風ドレッシング
• 茄子田楽
• 焼きとうもろこし
• 餃子

Today’s dinner was Japanese Izakaya style.  Izakaya is small (though there are larger places, too, but more small than large ones) casual restaurants, where you would go typically with your friends or collegues, order various small dishes to share and drink beer or sake, or these days I guess wine.  There is no equivallent place in western countries, so it’s hard to explain.  Spanish tapas bars are the closest I can think of but not quite the same.

The menu was:

• Edamame Peperoncino
• Hummous with crudite
• Tofu steak with Chinese style warm dressing
• Nasu Dengaku (Aubergine grilled with miso sauce topping)
• Grilled sweet corn
• Gyoza

簡単なものばかりなのに思っていたより時間がかかりましたが、どれも美味しかったです。居酒屋ではご飯はあまり食べませんが、茄子田楽や餃子はご飯が欲しくなるのでご飯もいただきました。

Although all the dishes we prepared are quite easy ones, it took more time to prepare than I expected.  You don’t in general have a bowl of rice in Izakaya but we did as some of the dishes go with rice so well.

枝豆のペペロンチーノは冷凍の枝豆を温まるまでフライパンで温めて、水分が無くなったらオリーブオイル、唐辛子、「食べるオリーブオイル」を加えてさっと温めて出来上がり。いつもは茹でるだけですが、ピリ辛で美味しかったです。

Edamame Peperoncino.  Just cooked edamame (from frozen) in a frying pan with very little water.  When there was no water left and they were cooked through, we added olive oil, dried chilli and some garlic olive oil (store bought fried garlic in oil), and let all mix together.  I usually just boil the Edamame but I think I like this way better, a little spicy and garlicky.

今日はフムスは市販のものを使いました。

Hommouse is store bought this time.

お豆腐は粉をつけてオイルで焼いてから取り出し、同じフライパンにごま油、お酒、米酢、お醤油を加えた暖かいドレッシングで。青ネギと生姜をトッピング。

I sliced tofu, dusted in flour and seared outside in oil in a frying pan.  When both sides were nice and brown, I took them out, added a little sesame oil, sake, rice vinegar and soy sauce to make a Chinese style warm dressing.  Topped them with green onion and grated ginger.

茄子田楽の茄子はオーブンで焼きました。田楽味噌はお味噌大さじ１、お酒大さじ１、お砂糖大さじ２分の１を混ぜたもの。２２０度のオーブンで柔らかくなるまで２０分ほど焼いて、田楽味噌をのせてからあと５分オーブンで焼いて、青ネギを散らして出来あがり。こちらの茄子は皮が硬いので皮は残しましたが、美味しかったです。

I cooked aubergine in the oven at 220C for about 20 minutes.  The miso sauce is made of 1 tbsp miso, 1 tbsp sake and 1/2 sugar.  When aubergine was cooked through I put the miso sauce on top and put it back in the oven for 5 more minutes, then topped it with green onions.  Unfortunately the skin of aubergine in England is very tough so we sort of scraped the flesh off but it was very tasty.

とうもろこしは茄子と一緒に焼いて、途中で上下を返しました。焼き上がってからバターをのせただけですが、甘くてとても美味しかったです。

We also cooked sweet corn with aubergine in the oven at the same time, just turned them halfway through then put some butter on. It was very sweet and delicious.

餃子は１人６個ずつ。

And 6 gyoza each.