LSAJ

Tamako Sakamoto / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

In March last year, my cousin Akiko gave birth to triplets in New York. We had worried about her health while she was pregnant, but with the help of her nice husband, who works at the United Nations, she was able to stay home until all the babies grew big enough to be delivered.

She had two girls and a boy, all adorable. The triplets were so cute that I sometimes couldn't tear myself away from their Web album--even when I should have been working on this column. Akiko looked so happy holding one baby in each arm, with another one on her back.

Although I have four children and I love babies, it is just incredible to have three babies at one time.

In February this year, Akiko came back to Japan with the triplets and spent three months with her mother. While they were here, the triplets turned 1 year old. I had a chance to visit, and was really surprised that Akiko was happily taking care of all three babies, feeding them, changing them and keeping an eye on them. Two of them were crawling and one was about to walk. I just couldn't imagine what would happen when everybody started running around!

At the end of May, Akiko moved to Laos as her husband started working at a U.N. Development Program office in Vientiane. Now they are all doing fine in their incredibly huge house, which has a garden so big that it looks like a botanical park complete with tropical trees such as mangoes and bananas. Now, Akiko has a maid and two nannies to help her look after her triplets. Reading her blog, she seems very energetic, and her triplets have started walking around, happily taking advantage of their wonderful life in Laos.

Here is a recipe for a salad I learned from Akiko. Her maid in Laos prepared the dish with green papaya, which is pale-fleshed and more like a vegetable than a fruit. Akiko suggested that I replace the papaya with shredded daikon to make the recipe easier to cook in Japan. Thanks to her idea, we have been enjoying the combination of hot and sour vegetables and crispy peanuts, which is just a perfect dish to eat at this time of year.


Hot and sour daikon salad

Serves 4


Ingredients:


400 grams daikon

50 grams ingenmame (long green beans)

50 grams carrot

1 tomato

1 clove garlic

2 tablespoons nam pla fish sauce

1/2 fresh lime

1 teaspoon powdered chicken stock

1/4 teaspoon powdered chili pepper

1 tablespoon chopped roasted peanuts


Instructions:


1. Peel and shred daikon. In a saucepan, bring water to a boil and add pinch of salt. Cook trimmed ingenmame for two or three minutes. Drain and cool in ice water. Drain again and cut into pieces three or four centimeters long. Peel and shred carrot. Peel tomato and slice into thin wedges. Peel and finely chop garlic.

2. In a bowl, combine nam pla, lime juice, powdered instant chicken stock, chili pepper and chopped garlic. Add daikon, ingenmame and carrot, and mix well. Add tomato, gently folding the slices into the mix. Place the mixture on four individual serving plates and sprinkle with peanuts.


*Instead of powdered chili pepper, a few ground fresh chilies were used in the original recipe. Fresh coriander leaves can also be added.


Sakamoto's cooking column is carried on the second and fourth Fridays of each month.

(Aug. 8, 2008)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20080808TDY15003.htm