No sweat. Literally. It's both hot and humid in NYC today. 94F (34C) and 64% humidity. Vile weather for heating up the kitchen. The Japanese are masters of the seasons, and they know from hot and humid. They're brilliant at refreshing hot weather meals. There was so little heat and sweat involved in making this that I was able to have fun and fuss with the plating. Part of the convenience was planning, part serendipity. I had boiled the spinach a few nights ago, by happy coincidence. It was a bag of spinach that needed to be cooked or it would wilt, and I wasn't sure what it was going into, maybe an omelet? As I was planning this meal, it hit me that oshitashi (Japanese cold spinach with a simple sesame dressing) would be absolutely perfect. I had planned days ago looking at the forecast to make cold noodles. A few hours back, I did the main thing that would heat the kitchen - boiled the noodles. No big pasta pot though, I cooked a single serving in a 3 qt saucepan so it came to a boil quickly and didn't make the kitchen a steam bath. Right after cooling the noodles in ice water, and fluffing them a bit with my fingers to keep them from sticking too much, I made the dipping sauce in the same pot (water, soy sauce, dashi powder, mirin, sugar) and both went in the refrigerator. At supper time, I used the stove for a few minutes to toast the sesame seeds and make a tiny omelet from egg I had leftover from making tonkatsu yesterday (the other part went in waffles this morning). If I had thought first, I would have toasted the sesame seeds first - they require a dry pan - but I had already put in oil for the omelet, so I used two pans instead of one. Always toast sesame seeds first - you can then use that pan if you wish for whatever you're doing next. The rest was cutting components into julienne, and grinding the dressing for oshitashi, so I could fuss while being cool, calm and collected. Clockwise from top, the toppings are shredded omelet, radish, leftover baked chicken thigh, carrot, iceberg lettuce, ham, cucumber and pickled red onion. The side dishes and garnishes, clockwise, pickled cucumber, shichimi togarashi (a spice mix with chili, sesame seeds and orange peel), Japanese mustard and scallion, dipping sauce, oshitashi.
