Showa style

Yesterday was Showa day. Showa was the governing emperor from 1926 to 1989. Of course it covers WWII events, but what is really interesting for me is the postwar development of culture and style during and after the American occupation, after Japan’s been defeated. This period has been marked by a lot of movies, a radical modern style, the development of large housing complexes in the suburbs: danchi. This is very well depicted in a few movies I love: elegant beast (1962) by Yuzo Kawashima, Tokyo drifter (1966) by Seijun Suzuki, Good morning (1959) and Tokyo twilight by Yasujiro Ozu. It is also permisible from the works of Kenzaburo Oe. For a real taste of it, it is possible to visit a reconstructed danchi unit in Matsudo museum in Chiba prefecture and a few of this kind of units are still standing. After a trend for demolishig them (the beautiful Asagaya housing complex…) there is a trend now to refurbish these units and use them as community housing where young people and old people would share space and benefit from the proximity of each other, hipster housing…

Asagaya housing complex in 2011 when we visited it, before it was demolished

And just yesterday I found this amazing photo book that covers a lot of Showa style. The pictures are really nice and gives a good idea about what it was. More than just covering architecture it really covers style and a bit of fashion and habits.

April 30, 2015

Green, green, green

Spring is really here and with it all the delicious greens. This week-end I packed up in fresh greens and couldn’t wait too cook them!

Days are getting warmer but nights are still cool, so with the horse beans I decided to make a little soup with roasted hazelnuts. The snap peas I just steamed them. And I served that with a cheese and oat bran muffins.

Oat bran muffins, snap peas and horse bean soup with grilled hazelnuts

For the soup (vegan) it’s a little of work because first you need to shell the horse beans, boil them a few minutes, then remove the thick and hard skin. The benefit for doing that is quite simple: you obtain a very creamy soup that doesn’t need to go through the blender. After that I added just a little of salt snd pepper and finished with a little of corn starch. I opted for no consommé or what so ever to keep the subtle taste if the beans. Served topped with some chopped and riasted hazelnuts.

For the oat bran muffins (vegetarian), it really simple, I mixed together some flour, oat bran, baking powder, salt, an egg and prepared in individual paper cups. I added the cheese in between two layers of dought to obtain a melting heart, and baked until golden.

April 28, 2015

Yuzu and chocolate chips cake

Yuzu is one of Japan most famous Citrus fruit, but actually there exist several varieties of yuzu: green yuzu with a thin skin, orange yuzu with a thick skin, all used at different seasons and for different recipes. The peels of orange yuzu are particularly delicious and candied it’s one of my weak points! It’s not always easy to find some natural ones, recently at the local shop in Koganei and in Isumi they have some, so I couldn’t resist. And I made a chocolate chips and yuzu cake for breakfast using the basic recipe of the pound cake, replacing the sultanas by the chocolate chips and the candied yuzu peel. A perfect start for the week! Have a good week!

April 27, 2015

Fougasse

The fougasse is one of my favourite bread. It goes back to when I was a little kid in Aix en Provence and a few days a week “le pere Richard” was making these delicious plain fougasse with little hearts to take off. Since then this olive oil base bread has gained popularity and now you can find fougasse of pretty much any taste pretty much everywhere. As part of my bread making “training” preparing some fougasse was an essential step and it’s surprisingly simple! Actually, olive oil based breads: foccacia, fougasse etc… Are extremely easy to make and to bake.

For one large fougasse I use: 166g of flour (of your choice); 9g of dry sourdough; 2g of dry yeast; 4g of salt; 105g of water; 10g of olive oil; 75g of filing of your choice: olives, herbs, dry tomatoes, anchovies, cheese, ham… or just nothing. After stirring all the ingredients for about 10 to 15 minutes, keep in a warm place for 2h, then shape the dough, wait for an extra 1 to 2h before baking at 230 deg until goden. Finish with a thin layer of olive oil applied with a brush.

April 25, 2015

Sardine and spicy tomato pasta

This week, just back from the US, has been quite crazy at work and since we haven’t been to the country our stock of fresh veg has turned short quickly, and we’ve eaten a lot of avocado, baby leaves salad, fresh sprouts and tomatoes. Recently also I wasn’t cooking pasta or risotto too much, but I must admit that I shut down a bit on cooking the last few days, and focused on simple dishes. So we’ve been eating pasta a few times! Pasta, like risotto and quiche are an amazing source of imaginative dinners, while being always different, you can make any variations and never eat twice the same thing. This time I prepared spaghetti with a slightly spicy tomato sauce and sardines. In Japan it is really easy to find good fish, and already “prepared”: 刺身用 for sashimi. Which means no fishbone, no skin, perfect cut, 100% edible, and for me something quite crucial to eat fish: no head, nor fish shape!! Depending on seasons and locations you can find different varieties of fishes, this time I found nice sardines. I prepared a tomato sauce with tomatoes, olive oil, oregano and a little of Japanese 7 spices, then grilled the sardines, and topped the spaghetti.

April 24, 2015

Vegan one-plate for dinner

I cook a lot of vegetarian dishes, but recently I realized I’m cooking a lot more vegan dishes. I come with new ideas all the time and this past few days I really enjoy cooking with thick fried tofu. Usually it is prepared in large pieces of 10cm by 10cm, 2cm high, this time I found this nice 一口 one byte squares of tofu that are just great to add to a salad. I prefer eating them hot so I heat them in a fry pan. It also take off a bit of the oil. This time I served them with a baby leaves salad, red quinoa, mashed avocado and green peas sprouts. As usual, super easy to fix rapidly after a long day at work, delicious and colorful!!

April 22, 2015

Vegan celery soup

I love simple vegetable soup in particular after traveling I need a dose of fresh fruits and vegetables to compensate for airport and plane food, and my favorite inspiration is definitely the Minestrone. My basic recipe uses vegetable consommé, tomatoes and celery, then I add whatever is available. This time was really limited: leek. But usually I add a lot of beans of different sorts, and I always season it with olive oil and pepper. When I have, I add some freshly gratted parmegiano, and sometimes some little pasta. Always delicious!

April 21, 2015

Hotel life: my American favorites

When traveling it’s always hectic with food for me, I don’t like eating out 3 times a day. Most portions are way too big and I get quickly bored with the amount of mix tastes that surpasses my imagination. As you may know now, I like simple delicious things. So when in the US I really enjoy organic groceries that can be found pretty easily in main cities and sometimes opened round the clock (even better for jetlag and busy working days). It seems particularly true in Boston. There, you can buy things I didn’t even imagine exist, almond milk yogurt with coconut taste, super delicious cereal bars, fresh cut fruits, natural cheese, teas (i usually pack on Chai), tons of different types of flours (well I’m not baking in my hotel room…) and my favorite drink, non organic though but from sustaible harvested ingredients: the Naked fruit smoothies, just perfect for middle-of-the-night-breakfast!

During this short stay in Boston I tried the new to me (haven’t been to the US for 2 years!) pineapple-mango-coconut water Naked, and just loved it, not as thick as the regular mango one! And I found super delicious bars from Earnest eats, my favorite is the almond trail mix. The taste of almond is really strong but it’s really good and just not too sweet. That and a bowl of fresh raspberries was my post-swimming breakfast.

Because, yes! I always pick hotels with a swimming pool. I love to swim early in the morning to recover from jetlag. Doing laps before starting a long business day, after a long trip is just making me feel really good. How do you do to keep a good balance when traveling?

April 20, 2015

Grilled lotus roots

I love lotus roots. The taste is very subtle, the slightly crunchy but yet moisted consistency, the beautiful shape… I like to slightly fry some as a snack when we have guests, but I hate how frying, even in a very thin layer of oil makes the kitchen all dirty and greasy. Recently I came accross a recipe of oven bake potato fry and it give me the idea that it could work for lotus roots, and skip the cleaning part. It was actually perfect! As usual I dlice finely the lotus roots, slightly marinated them in a bit of vegetal oil, and then line the slice on an oven sheet. Grilled for 10 min at high temperature, et voila!!! Bonus: no cleaning, less fat and no need to turn the slices in the frypan!! So hands free to do something else.

Now for a few days I let Prunellia take over because I’m traveling to Boston for work until Sunday! See you on Monday!

April 16, 2015