deep fried – Goboroot.com

It’s kind of late for “Happy New Year” but I wish all of you fantastic readers out there a great year with lots of love, peace, great health and of course, good food!

Since we came back from our trip to Japan almost a week ago, things have finally started to settle down. Although I’m still lingering over the vibrant memories that we created with our friends and family during the trip, I am refreshed and very much looking forward to another exciting year to come.

I meant to upload some photos during the trip in Japan, but then there was so much happening in the city, so many materials to see and so much scenery to observe. So I decided to live in the moment, completely abandoning the idea of posting news, totally cutting myself off from emails and online activities and soaking up the culture that I had truly missed. This act really helped me a great deal to feel rejuvenated and renewed. No computers, no Internet. I even enjoyed using pay phones everywhere we went; however, it was very hard to spot them! I appreciated the simple things in such a technologically advanced country.

As I was wondering what I would post for goboroot’s 1-year anniversary, I received an email in the nick of time from one of my readers asking if I had a recipe for gobo “French fries” in my archives. He was on a business trip to Japan last week and seemed to have enjoyed lots of gobo in many different dishes. What better way to celebrate the website’s anniversary than to share this delicious recipe! I quickly went into my kitchen and used the last batch of gobos I had saved from last year, turning them into these mouthwatering snacks. Oh, it was a worthy usage of my precious gobos!

So thank you for the great inspiration, Mike. Comments like this from readers have always kept me inspired to update my blog and have encouraged me to pursue my journey. So a big THANK YOU to everyone who supported me along the way!

I will post some photos from the Japan trip with some news very soon. So stay tuned!

Deep Fried Gobo

Serves 4

1 lb gobo, preferably organic

Sea salt

All purpose flour

Cornstarch

Vegetable oil

Wash gobo root thoroughly to remove the dirt. Using the back of a knife, remove coarse hair and skin. You can leave some skin on, as it is said by Japanese culinary experts that the skin contains more nutrients.

Cut into ¼ to ½ inch strips and soak in cold water for 10 minutes. Continue to change water until it becomes clean.

Fill a large pot with water and cook the gobo on high heat until tender (but it should still have a bite to it), for about 10 minutes. Drain well and pat dry.

Heat the vegetable oil in a deep frying pan to 180C. Combine the salt, flour and starch in a large bowl. Add the gobo, coat well with flour mixture and then remove excess flour.

Deep fry until the gobo turns a golden colour. Sprinkle salt over top if you like. Serve hot.

Caramelized Sweet and Salty Gobo

If you have any leftovers, try this recipe, as we frequently devoured them with a big bowl of rice for breakfast while in Japan. Thanks to my auntie, who enthusiastically introduced this dish to us along with mentaiko (spicy raw Pollock eggs) and nori in the morning.

Leftover deep fried gobos

1 tablespoon brown sugar (I used Okinawa black sugar and loved the rich flavour)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Roasted white sesame seeds

In a medium pan, heat the sugar and soy sauce over medium heat until bubbling. Add the gobos and stir continuously to mix until the texture of the sauce is sticky. Sprinkle sesame seeds over top. Serve hot or at room temperature with some rice.

I was inspired when I saw this recipe by Crispy Bits and Burnt Ends on Noshing with the Nolands. I had just been looking for a way to rescue our badly bruised and scratched pumpkin after rolling it on a steep gravel road at a local pumpkin (technically winter squash) rolling contest. We didn’t win the prize but were amazed how fast, straight and far it rolled from the shoot!

I have been collecting seeds from pumpkins I have grown over the last three years, and now some of my pumpkins have started becoming somewhat strange looking and less sweet to taste. If you have a goal to save seeds, don’t be greedy like me planting kabocha, Uchiki red kuri, Marina Di Chioggia and so on in one garden. I would recommend that you grow one cultivar or type from each species so as to prevent them from cross-pollinating, which ends up producing seeds whose traits are unknown to us. A good idea would be to pick one cultivar “Marina Di Chioggia” from Cucurbita maxima, delicata from Cucurbita pepo and butternut squash from Cucurbita moschata; that way you will be able to harvest pure seeds to grow during the next season. If you have planted mish mash this summer, then the seeds from those fruits are not suited for saving but make great snacks when roasted with spices!

Thankfully, I received inspiration in the nick of time and decided to turn my glorious leftover pumpkin (the one from the pure seed back, not from the abovementioned Frankenseeds) into doughnuts. We had these doughnuts in the darkness of evening after coming back from a long, soggy walk with our two dogs. They didn’t seem to like this much rain. Since it was Halloween night, we saw groups of poor kids out and about in costumes hidden under their raincoats. As we reached home and dried off, we were looking forward to welcoming the next morning, rain or shine, because we knew that the rest of doughnuts were awaiting us for breakfast. It would be a nice way to start another otherwise miserable rainy day.

As a side note, besides beating the autumn rain blues with the power of delicious doughnuts, I have also picked up some beautiful handspun linen from Heather Ross; I absolutely love its colour and cloud-like texture that suddenly brought some much-needed sunshine to my soul and to our table. What is your pick-me-up for your soul on wet, cold, dark, gray, rainy days?

Pumpkin Doughnuts

My grandma, my twin sister and I used to make shredded carrot and parsley doughnuts together in her kitchen as part of my grandma’s effort to introduce us to vegetables at a very young age. This time, I used a homegrown pumpkin and froze the rest in a single portion for soup, lasagne, croquettes, bread, buns, dog cookies and so forth.

Yields about 2 ½ dozen with a 2.5 inch doughnut cutter

1 pumpkin or winter squash to extract ¾ cup puree

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup whole wheat flour

2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon cardamom

2 tablespoons butter, softened

½ cup white sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup milk, room temperature

Grape seed or canola oil

Extra sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut a pumpkin in half, discard the seeds and roast on a baking sheet until soft, about 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool and spoon out the meat. Puree when the pumpkin is completely cooled.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and spices all together.

Cream the butter and add sugar gradually until fluffy. Add the egg and combine well. Add vanilla, milk and pumpkin and stir until incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture.

Heat the oil over medium low heat to reach 370F. The oil’s height should be around 1 ½ inches in a deep skillet. In the meantime, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to ½ inch thickness and cut out rings. Transfer to a floured baking sheet.

Fry the doughnuts until golden brown, about 2 minutes each side. Rest the doughnuts on a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Make sure the oil temperature stays the same before adding another batch.

Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture.

Adapted from Crispy Bits and Burnt Ends

Tag: deep fried

Goboroot Turns 1 Year Old!

Pumpkin Doughnuts