Month: October 2015

Persimmmon and turnip salad

We harvested some more persimmons today and I really have a lot!! So I’m trying a few recipes with persimmons, after the not too conclusive jam experiment. Back when I was going to cha-kaiseki classes there was a really nice autumn recipe of persimmon in salad. Later I found other recipes that inspired me, and today I would like to present you my original recipe of persimmon, turnip and tofu. 

The recipe is ultra simple. For 4 servings, 1 still hard persimmon, 2 turnips or a piece of daikon, 1/2 block of hard tofu, sesame seeds, a few walnuts, salt. Start by draining the tofu, since it takes some time. Then peel the turnips and cut them in small sticks (thin slices can also work); set them in a bit of salt to remove the water. Peel the persimmon, and cut similarly to the turnips. In a bowl, roughly squeeze a tea spoon of sesame seeds and the walnuts. Once the tofu is drained, press it in a clean clothe to remove the additional water and once quite dry mix it with the sesame and the walnuts. Drain the turnips and add ghem to the tofu, add the persimmon. And serve.

Pasta dinner!

Recently I’ve been cooking Japanese a lot for dinner. For sure I love Japanese rice, but I also love pasta!!! So I come up with a little autumn recipe for some delicious fusilli: leek, tomato and kabocha, with a few cumin seeds and plenty of olive oil. A perfect dinner before my evening meeting with the other side of the world!!

I simply cut in small pieces all the veggies, cook them in a bit of oil then under cover until golden add generously pepper and cumin seeds. Boil the pasta, and serve together.

Autumn meal

I love when I get back to work a bit late (which is to be honest pretty much every day) to open my veggie drawer in the fridge and to find a whole set of fresh things just waiting to be prepared. What and how just naturally flow from my mind and in less than 15min the dinner is almost ready or at least all decided!

This time my fridge had a wide choice of autumn veggies, no surprise there. And I prepared a little mix to accommodate a simple bowl of rice and some pickles. So I just just a red onion, a piece of lotus root, a carrot, a piece of kabocha, some shimeji and a few green pepper. I cooked them in a bit of oil at high heat for a few minutes then under cover at low heat for an other few minutes, finally add a little of soya sauce and serve.

Madeleines

Since my last trial of madeleines this summer I didn’t had te time to get my molds and to try again, but now that days are really getting shorter and cooler the tea-time after gardening all afternoon requires a little complement and madeleines are perfect for that. So I went to buy some molds to Kappabashi street the other day and I just tried to make some madeleines again. I picked a different recipe than last time but I am not completely satisfied with the shape. They get a little bump, but not as big as I expeted. Taste-wise: perfect. Let me work a little on the recipe before sharing it. But if you have a good one let me know!!

More deal!!!

Remember, last week our little old neighbor gave us some of her special ginger and goya preparation. 

Since I harvested to many persimmons (and there are still plenty to come) and I don’t know what to do with all these, I gave her a few and then she came back with more of her special pickles and preparations. So this week I managed to deal with her to teach me how to prepare the goya and the ginger, so hopefully I’ll share with you that very soon. She also gave us umeboshi and pickled myoga. Super delicious with plain rice! And plum jam. I’m looking forward to June, the harvest season for plums! This time I want to try to make umeboshi too!!!

Thanks a lot Obasan!!!

By the way, if you live in Tokyo and want persimmons, let me know before the birds have them all!!

Sour myoga and shiso pickled plum
Sour myoga and shiso pickled plum

Ochanomizu-Akihabara revival

The west of Tokyo with it’s big centers like Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya, Shimokitazawa… has been for long the most lively and trendy places of Tokyo, while the east was mere old areas attracting old people, sometimes falling appart or for the tourists: Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara, Nihonbashi, Ginza… The area between Ochanomizu ad Akihabara, and the one between Asakusa and Nihonbashi (right where we live), have changed slowly in the past 5 years with a lot of cafes and craft shops opening here and there. The trend was confirmed by two big initiatives using the under-track space of the Yamanote line in Okachimachi and the Sobu line in Manseibashi: aki-oka artisan 2k540 and Maach ecute. If I knew about both for some time and have been to aki-oka quite often, I’ve never really had the chance to go to Maach which opened more recently, until yesterday. Since it is an “ecute”, the usual name for stations shopping mall I was expecting to see the same fashion and accessories brands as in every ecute, but it was a completely different thing. Under the arcades of the tracks there is a path and shop, or rather stalls continuously span, without knowing exactly what brand it is. The space is very beautiful, and since I went there around 20:30 it was extremely quiet. The majority of shops are interior and natural clothing shops, which is again the typical new image of Tokyo east side, with similar trends in Marunouchi, in Nihonbashi… There are also a number of cafes and restaurants. I went to Fukumori, because I like their food from the north of Honshu and their simple concept very much, and have been often to their other shop in Bakurocho, but there are several others cafe I’d like to try. I’ll keep you updated!

I didn’t regret paying a visit there, and I think that’d be one of my hide away for rainy days! 

The perspective in the shopping gallery
The perspective in the shopping gallery

Macrobiotic dry curry

As I was mentioning earlier, we found close to our home in Ohara, a macrobiotic local kind of small community where they have a cafe and a tiny shop. We had lunch there and it was delicious, and after we went to check out the little shop and I found this book: “whole rice & veggies on plate meals”, which was written by people from the community, and which presents seasonal recipes all gegan and somehow macrobiotic, or what they call “soft macrobi”. Perfect for me who enjoy the vegan food but don’t becessarily adhere to macrobiotics: I hate imposed rules in particular when it comes to food. I have my own, I like them and I think they suit me well. Well, this book is a treasure trive of midern Japanese recipes and I really enjoy looking at all the recipes and in particular the ones using ingredients I seldom use or buy. Coincidently, some time ago, a friend traveling to Koya brang us back some Koyadofu, a kind if dry tofu that can be rehydrated and used in several preparations. So I jumped on the occasion to prepare the first recipe I found with Koyadofu: vegetables dry curry. Dry curry mesns that there is no thick sauce like in regular Japanese curry.

The recipe is awfully simple, I had most of the ingredients but not all, so I replaced them and interpreted my way. For 2 You need 2 blocks of Koyadofu, 1 green pepper, 1 potato, 1/2 onion (I used a red onion), 1 tomato, curry powder, carvi seeds, cinnamon powder, salt, pepper, 1 tbs of miso, 1 tbs of apricot jam (I used kaki jam), a bit of soya sauce and s bit of oil. First cut all the veggies in 5mm cubes, the tomato can be cut in large chuncks. Rehydrate the tofu in hot water, drain roughly. In a pan with oil, cook atlow  heat the veggies, but the tomato, add the carvi seeds and the curry powder, the cinnamon. In a mixer, mix the tofu, the jam, the miso, salt pepper, soya sauce. Add the mixture to the veggies, cook until almost dry. Serve with rice. I serve with a mixture I made of whole rice, black rice, red rice, barley and white rice. Super delicious, but not very picturesque I reckon!!!!

Sunny Japanese autumn – 秋晴れ

I love these autumn days when the skies are so blue and the light is so bright, these “akibare” days. This is an invitation to wake up early and be outside all day long . So I spend little time cooking during the day and we need some quick fix for lunch, yet full of energy to enjoy a few more other hours out gardening, hiking, playing tennis or whatever. Pasta provide a perfect base, and since temperature are still warm if not hot at this time of the day, acold salad is perfect: penne with avocado, radish, cucumber, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, olive oil and ready!

Enjoy the autumn! It’s so beautiful outside! 

Another fig tart

Last week I made this super simple apple tart and I realized that with a good thin dough any fruit could just be a perfect match, nothing else but fruit, so I decided to try with figs this time. Usually fig tarts implies almond powder, a mixture of taste and texture, but figs are actually delicious just plain. So I made a thin sable dough and cut figs in slices, bake for 20min and enjoy just like that what was probably the last fig tart of the season. Simplicity is sometimes what we need in cuisine.

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