I present to you: Japanese style onion garden

Onions is one of my favourite ingredients to be used. There are so many way I would cook the onions and ever way has its own unique characteristics. Apart from being versatile, the cheap and adds good flavour to the overall dish.

When I think onions, first thing in my mind is French onion soup. And when I think what goes well with onions I think garlic. Somehow these two ingredients just makes me wanna create another Japanese dish. I always goes with my guts feeling so I made a Japanese dish.

what's in it.

charred, baked onion petal

This element will act as a cup for my onion soup, it will gives a little crunch while you mix the onions with the soup. As all of us know, raw onions are very spicy and and upset the stomach. Therefore, I have slice the onions in half with the skin on and charred in on a cast iron pan. To get rid for the unpleasant spiciness, I baked it in a low temperatures oven just enough to mellow down the hash spiciness while maintaining its structure. The outcome is a onion that has raw onion flavour but a mellower spiciness and juicy crunchy texture.

homemade soft seaweed bean curd

Bean curd by its own is pretty plain, however that's a good thing if you know how to make use of that. It absorbs flavour like a sponge and it has a pleasantly smooth mouthfeel. To make the bean curd more flavourful and savoury, I added dried seaweed into the soy milk.

Don't get confused with the regular firm soupy bean curd with this soft bean curd. Soft bean curd is much more simpleir to make. All you need is to make soy milk from soaked soy bean. This is done by blending the soaked soy bean and cook them with water while skimming the foam on the top. Filter the mixture with cheesecloth and add gypsum powder dissolved in water. At this stage I added the dried seaweed. Pour it into a mold and let it chill and set.

braised shiitake mushrooms

This is to give the dish a stronger savoury taste, contributing its mushroom scent and of course for the bouncy mouthfeel. Its prepared by cooking it with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, mirin, Spring onions, kombu and soy sauce. The braising liquid is reserved for the onion broth.

onion soup consume

Inspired by the French onion soup, but the French version is usually made with beef broth. Inorder to make it vegetarian friendly, instead of beef broth I used the reserved braising liquid from braising the mushroom. Procedure are the same as the traditional French onion soup. Firstly sweat the chopped onions until it's brown and sticky, then add the reserved braising liquid. Let it simmer for 30 minutes then strain it though a cheesecloth to remove all the solid ingredients leaving behind a clear soup.

fried shallots

Fried shallots are one of the most used ingredients in Chinese cuisine. It's used to flavour dishes. For me I used it to add that caramelized flavour as well as giving a crispy texture to the dish.

top: baked onion purée

this is mainly to give intense sweetness to the dish at the same time contributing its lighter onion flavour. It's made by baking the whole onion in it skin in a 200c oven for 45minutes. Ones it's done baking, blend it in a smooth purée. Pass it though a Steive to make it smoother. This will be piped into the soup and beside the soft soy-seaweed bean curd.

bottom: black garlic oil, seaweed vegetarian mayonnaise

Black onion oil may be usually to many especially when you see how's made. But I promise you it's actually one of the flavouring agent used in Japan for their ramen broth.

Mayonnaise is made from emulsifying oil with liquid with a emulsifier. So first is to make the black garlic oil. This may me surprising to many, but to make the black garlic oil you must first fry the chopped garlic until it's slightly burned. Blend with the oil it's been cooked in and you have the black garlic oil. For the liquid part I infused dried seaweed into soy milk I reserve from the soft soy bean curd. I add soy lecithin into the seaweed-soy milk and slowly pouring the black garlic oil into it while whisking with a balloon whisk. Once reach my desire viscosity then it's considered done.

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