I had a cooking marathon last night. Right after work I went to the grocery store, picked up ingredients, and immediately started cooking all the way until 9 PM. Didn't even sit down. It was crazy. I ended up making 3 separate dishes, but I'll just be focusing on the kinpira for this post. I was just really stuck on the thought that I haven't been terribly adventurous with my bento, so why not go all out and make a bunch of Japanese food? I'm really glad I did, actually, because it all turned out to be way more delicious than whatever I was eating before.
For the curious, in addition to the carrot and onion kinpira I also made pork shumai and shoyu tamago (soy sauce eggs). I'll probably discuss the eggs in another post, but I don't even want to talk about my experience making the shumai. They tasted great in the end, but the look of them....yikes. My grocery store doesn't carry wonton or shumai wrappers, so I thought maybe I could just use rice paper instead. No. No I cannot. Maybe I just didn't do it right, but the wrappers just totally fell apart once I started steaming them. Anyway, lesson learned.
I mostly wanted to make this because I had leftover baby carrots and I knew I'd have half an onion leftover from making the shumai. Yay, waste reduction! This is a great way to cook any type of root vegetable like carrots, parsnips, onions, and even potatoes! You can also cook up things like broccoli stalks, celery, cabbage...it's a very versatile recipe! I really am a fan after trying it. It's a little nutty, a little salty, a little crunchy, and just a smidgen sweet and spicy.
I mostly wanted to make this because I had leftover baby carrots and I knew I'd have half an onion leftover from making the shumai. Yay, waste reduction! This is a great way to cook any type of root vegetable like carrots, parsnips, onions, and even potatoes! You can also cook up things like broccoli stalks, celery, cabbage...it's a very versatile recipe! I really am a fan after trying it. It's a little nutty, a little salty, a little crunchy, and just a smidgen sweet and spicy.
Servings: 3 servings or 4 small servings
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
Directions:
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3 medium carrots
- 1/2 medium yellow onion
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar or 1 tsp mirin
- Crushed red pepper flakes to taste
- Sesame seeds
Directions:
- Cut the carrots into matchsticks. Slice the onion into strips.
- Heat sesame oil in a frying pan or wok to medium heat.
- Put carrots in pan and toss to coat with the oil. Stir occasionally and cook until carrots become tender, about 5 minutes. The heat should be high enough to see some browning on the carrots.
- Put onions in pan and toss to coat with oil. Cook until almost clear, about 4 minutes.
- Add the sugar/mirin and red pepper flakes. Toss to coat, then add the soy sauce after about a minute. Stir or toss to coat and let cook for one minute.
- Add sesame seeds and stir or toss. Cook for one minute.