Konnyaku in garlic miso

Konnyaku jelly is quite firm and has very little taste but will absorb the flavours of whatever is cooked in. It features quite a bit in Japanese cooking, mainly in nabe (hotpot) dishes where the konnyaku is simmered in a broth for quite a while allowing it to absorb the broth's flavour. Konnyaku is high in fibre and minerals but low in kilojoules (a popular diet food).

I had some leftover from when I cooked takikomi gohan so I decided to try my hand at doing something different with it to serve as a side dish. Since konnyaku is pretty tasteless by itself, the sauce has to be quite strong to give it flavour. I kept the flavour simple, using only garlic and miso paste.

Ingredients

Some oil
200g kuro konnyaku, cubed
3 cloves garlic, garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon miso paste
some water
lots of roasted sesame seeds

Method

Marinate the konnyaku cubes for 30minutes in half the garlic, soy sauce and mirin. Saute the remaining garlic in some oil for a couple of minutes until it is slightly brown, then add the miso and cook for less than one minute until it imparts a lovely aroma. Add the konnyaku (reserving the marinade) and stirfry for a minute. Add the reserved marinade to deglaze, and simmer the konnyaku for a few minutes, adding a little bit of water now and then to deglaze the pan as needed. Turn off heat and sprinkle with sesame seeds.