When there is a spot of sun, the BBQ beckons! It had been a while since we visited the local butcher, but they were eager to sell us anything except rabbit (which wasn’t quite available yet). As we hadn’t eaten sirloin in a while, we figured that should be remedied with a dose of sun and backyard work.
The tomatoes don’t seem terribly happy – Yvan suspects blight – but some fruit seem to be forming.. perhaps. The three plants appear to be capable of only maturing a single fruit at a time; hopefully with some internet-knowledge our self-pollinating trick may rectify this.
Sweet & Frugal
Living off the crop in the garden would make us rather slim, so we grabbed some veg to supplement. A somewhat aging specimen of a broccoli didn’t quite make the BBQ dinner so it ended up in my lunch instead. In the spirit of daigaku imo (literally “university potatoes”: deep-fried sweet potoatoes with honey and sesame, a snack that probably gained popularity among cash-strapped university students) I decided that I should make use of the large thick stem of the broccoli.
Top tier
Bottom tier
Top tier contents: daigaku imo (honey & sesame sweet potatoes), steamed broccoli, steamed baby carrots, cherry tomato garnished with parsley and buckler-leaf sorrel, broccoli stem kimpira.
Bottom tier contents: sliced BBQ sirloin beef, rice with perilla leaf.
The ‘sweetened’ sweet potatoes are far too sweet for Yvan’s taste buds, but I can see how I could of been happy in my university days munching on these. I didn’t deep fry my version – I steamed them up with the ‘gyoza’ method to cook them through – as the days of my youthful metabolism are far behind me.
