Cardamom and vanilla madeleines

I am still looking for the perfect madeleine recipe, so I have tried a new one. And because it’s getting cold and I wanted something really sweet I opted for adding vanilla and cardamom to the madeleines and finished with a sugar frost where I added cinnamon.

Taste-wise the cardamom and vanilla is always amazing, the additional cinnamon in the sugar frost, made the final taste something like sweet chai, which was exactly what I wanted. As for the madeleine, I won’t share with you my recipe because I didn’t find it satisfactory enough. The delicious taste was unfortunately not accompanied by the madeleines typical shape and was disappointing in that respect. A good reason to try again!!!

November 30, 2015

Macrobiotic Sunday lunch

Beautiful weather this Sunday morning, so we woke early and spend most of the morning in the garden cleaning and grooming shrubs, by the time we were hungry it was cloudy and chilly, so I decided to cook us a warm lunch and got once again inspiration from my macrobiotic recipe book. It’s a simple collection of veggies and koyadofu that are first cooked in water and soya sauce, then lightly fried and serve with rice.

In my version for 2, it is 2 pieces of koyadofu, 1 carrot, 1 purple sweet potato, 1 shiitake, and the rice is brown rice to which I added red rice, black rice and barley. I cut the veggies in four and boiled them for 7min in one cup of water where I added 1 table spoon of soya sauce, I also cook the koyadofu with the veggies. Then I removed them from the water and let them rest on kitchen paper to drain the excess of water. Then I roll them in rice flour and lightly fry them, and serve them directly with the rice.

November 29, 2015

Donburi

The donburi or one rice bowl is a very convenient alternative to one-plate, and I like the rice base lunch because it provides tons of good energy necessary to stay outside all day long, now that it’s gotten colder.

For this donburi I cooked plain white Japanese rice that I topped with sautéed purple sweet potato, carrot brocoli, and finished with some proteins croquettes: I mixed rice flour with a mix of seeds, an egg and dome chicken meat. The egg and meat can be replaced by tofu for a vegan option.

November 28, 2015

Sesame fougasse

Oil base breads are probably what I am best at and what I enjoy the most to knead. After I’ve through the classis foccacia, fougasses etc, I wanted to invent my own recipes. My first one is a sesame fougasse. I used 250g of flour, 120g of water, 14g of sordough, 3g of dry natural yeast, 50g of sesame (grilled and soaked in water), 5g of salt, 10g of sesame oil, 10g of olive oil. I proceed exctly as for regular fougasse. And once baked I applied sesame oil instead of olive oil. Delicious with pretty much anything, sesame suits well cheese like brie, and salads.

November 23, 2015

Purple salad

At the local farmers market I found this beautiful purple mizuna that I already used in a recipe Sunday. I love mizuna because it’s fresh, crunchy and easy to prepare, and this purple one is particularly pretty. I also found some beautiful purple sweet potatoes (紫芋-murasaki imo) and decided to prepare a big salad for our guests visiting us. I baked the potatoes in the oven wrapped in aluminum foil until soft, then I peeled them and cut them in small pieces. I washed a lettuce, a tomato and some mizuna, cut all in bites, and added some black sesame, olive oil, salt. Additionally you can add grilled tuna, smoked chicken…

November 22, 2015

Kabocha and mushrooms tart

An other tart with another composition, and another tart crust.

This one is largely inspired by chef Georges Ennis (@chefgygglz) kale-nutternut-shiitake tart last week, but my recipe is much lighter, quicker and features no cheese (not that I wouldn’t like, but my husband yes). I like very much the addition of the kabocha, first visually, then tastewise because it’s soft and sweet.

For the dough I prepared a classic simple sable dough that I rolled thinly in a large circle to fit my tart dish. I washed and sliced the mushrooms: shiitake, shimeji, oyster mushrooms and cooked them in a bit of olive oil and salt. I then topped the pie crust with them. Added 1/4 of kabocha thinly sliced. I finally prepared a batter with eggs, soya milk, salt and pepper and added to the rest of the tart. I baked the tart 30min at 180deg. You can serve warm or cold, both are delicious!

November 22, 2015

Energy macrobiotic lunch

With chillier days we try to play tennis not in the morning anymore but in the afternoon, so before we go we need a good lunch full of energy. Inspired by the book of macrobiotic recipes, I came up with a nice one-bowl recipe using a base of brown rice, some seasonal sautéed veggies: kabocha, purple sweet potato, turnip in sesame oil, and a piece of Koya-dofu diced in the veggies. I topped the whole with fresh purple mizuna.

Simple, light and full of good energy before our game!

November 22, 2015

Midnight dinner

There are days like that… When from morning to evening I have not even a minute break (literally), I swallow my lunch in one bite between two meetings and I finish the day my head spinning with things I still have to do and I may forget… So when finally home we take off to the country I’m still completely hyper!

There’s nothing better then once arrived to ho for a midnight stroll in the garden, pick some fresh basil and prepare for a peaceful (at last) yet late dinner with energizing gnocchi and fresh veggies (tomato, broccoli), basil and a delicious olive oil. Simple but really efficient!

Have a nice week end!

November 21, 2015

Okonomiyaki-お好み焼き

The okonomiyaki is a preparation from the Kansai area. A straightforward translation of the work means “grill what you like”, and it is well rendered with the profusion of recipes and variations. In the Kanto area the equivalent would be Monja-yaki, but what I prefer with okonomiyaki is the consistence of the crepe rather then a kind of weird porridge! Okonomiyaki includes a base of Chinese cabbage (hakusai 白菜), some grinded pork meat, a preparation of flour, water and egg like a crepe, then a toping of mayonnaise and Bulldog sauce, finished with katsuobushi. Any addition of veggies, meat, seafood etc is possible, just as you like it!!!

Mine is the simplest. Chop on small Chinese cabbage or 1/4 of a large one. In a frypan put a little of oil and the cabbage, stir often untill soft; add some grinded pork meat (150g), and continue to stir. In a batter prepare a mix with flour and 2 eggs to obtain a thick dough, add a bit of water to liquefy (it should be slightly more liquid than pancake dough). Add in the fry pan, cover and cook at low heat, then flip and cook again a lityle more. Serve and top with what you like: usually bulldog sauce, mayonnaise, and katsuobushi but I removed the mayonnaise and bulldog sauce topping, just the katsuobushi remained in my version (I reckon that the white mayo and the dark bulldog sauce make a much prettier finish). You can make individual cute okonomiyaki or large one that you cut to serve. Tonight I was a bit running out if time so I went for the second option.

There is one extraordinary strange thing I love with katsuobushi toping on hot food, it’s when it’s moving like if it were alive, though of course it’s just dry flakes!!!

November 19, 2015