Croquettes and bonito

I really love cereals and grains but I don’t cook some often enough because usually their cooking is too long for my short cooking time and it’s often difficult for me to plan long ahead. So when I have time to, I can try some new ideas and recipes. Inspired by a picture in one of my cookbooks I wanted to test some vegan croquettes and to do it with quinoa and millet. For the veggies I used in season veggies: carrots and topinamburs. And because the bonito is still in season I seeved it with grilled bonito that was simply rolledin curry powder before, and a few radishes for the color and freshness.

So for the croquettes here’s what I did: first I boiled some millet, then some quinoa. I mixed both. I then boiled topinamburs chopped thinly, and I also chopped thinly a few little carrots (that I didn’t boil). I put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Their shouldn’t be too much moisture in the mixture. If it’s the case add some flour I used rice flour). Add salt and pepper. In a greased and heated frypan make little balls of the mixture and flatten then to obtain little galettes. Cook until golden. Can be eaten with just a salad too, or dip in a curry-yogurt dressing…

February 29, 2016

Marmalade and muffins

The other day seeing the natsumikan trees plowing under the weight of their fruits I decided we needed to harvest them. Our garden is an intricate mess of trees and access to all the fruits was not possible, hopefully the birds will eat some (though with the thick skin it’s not one of the birds favorite). Yet we managed to harvest about 100 fruits!!! This year has been incredible for harvesting fruits: plum, ginko nuts, tangerines, and now natsumikan. They are also super delicious. Usually they be quite sour but this year it’s pure sweetness!!! Yet, it’s too much for just for us. So I’ve given away 2/3 of the fruits, made marmalade with half of the remaining fruits, and kept the rest for eating raw. For the marmalade I used the seeds of an apple to gelify and it worked super well. And since we have now delicious marmalade to eat, We just needed something to spread it on, so this morning I made English muffins. So simple and so delicious!!!

February 27, 2016

Weekend one-plate

Sunny weekend, fresh food from the market and the beginning of spring vegetables: na no hana. So I prepared a simple one plate with white and green rice, boiled daikon in dashi with yuzu miso, boiled na no hana in dashi with soya sauce and katsuobushi, grilled fresh bonito, and some little radish. All simple all delicious!

February 26, 2016

Shojin cuisine – 精進料理

I love kaiseki cuisine (懐石料理) and in particular cha-kaiseki (茶懐石). I’ve learned it for a year and it helped me a lot understand Japanese cuisine and cooking, it also helped me to train my palate. But what I really troubles with kaiseki because it includes quite a lot of raw fish, shellfish, fish eggs etc… And so it is when you go to kaiseki restautants. In particular it is always a fixed seasonal menu, and it kind of doesn’t really make sense to go to a high end kaiseki restaurant and pass on the half of the courses, or ask for a special menu. But hopefully there is Shojin cuisine! You may think of Shojin cuisine as the rustic vegetarian they serve at Mount Koya, but actually there are several places where it is treated as kaiseki and this is just awesome. I know I can eat everything without worrying and it shows the potential of vegetarian or vegan cooking to be super high cuisine. Shojin cuisine is related to Zen Budhism and is meat-fish free, while being very ingenious in using gluten, soya beans etc.., it is also a seasonal food, so somehow the precursor of Japanese macrobiotic eating in its original meaning. I’ve planning to learn Shojin cuisine for a few years but my lab kept me to busy. I’m hoping that I can start this spring.

Example of seasonal dish served at Daigo (from Daigo wesite)

Our dessert last night and the view to the garden

In the meantime while we were looking for a place to celebrate our anniversary I suggested we could try a kaiseki Shojin cuisine restaurant that I randomly found while looking for vegan places in Tokyo. So we booked at Daigo (http://www.atago-daigo.jp), near Atago shrine in Tokyo. The place has something a bit magical, since it is a little Japanese heaven in a high rise with the service expected from any high standard ryotei. The food was amazing as expected (and as usual I won’t show you badly taken pictures of this deliciously and beautifully designed food, you’d rather try yourself) and once back home we realized it is actually a 2-star Michelin restaurant. I can only but recommend the experience when visiting Tokyo!

The most impressive dish from our menu is hard to choose but I was impressed by the bamboo shoots with kinome dressing (or for the fashionable word “pesto”), which take both ingredient to perfection. Something I will definitely try my way very soon!!!

Individual dining room at Daigo (from Daigo website)

February 25, 2016

Oups! I made some ravioli again!

“Yahhari” as we say in Japanese, I made some ravioli again! We love ravioli so much I could have some every day! This time spinach ricotta with some spinach in the pasta for a green finish. I just over-steamed some spinach and add some off the green leaves in the dough. For the filling chopped steamed spinaches with 1 large spoon of fresh ricotta, salt and pepper. Boiled and served with olive oil, salt and pepper, as simple can be!

February 23, 2016

Donburi

Ashitaba are in season and this little green is delicious with grilled pork, and nothing easier then puttibg the mix on top of rice and add some sesame. I just cut in little pieces thin slices of pork cutlet from which I remove all the fat. Then add the ashitaba chopped. Cook everything in a pan under cover and serve on top of freshly cooked rice. Simple & delicious as usual!!

February 23, 2016

Breakfast time

When we were in Karuizawa, they would serve delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast, so this morning when I asked A. What he wanted to eat he asked for creamy scrambled eggs to accompany the dried tomatoes fougasse I was making. Perfect since I just bought fresh eggs. For the fougasse I used my classic recipe, just add Sicilian dried tomatoes. For the eggs, simple, pre-heat a small pan and grease it a bit, keep a low heat during the whole process, add 2 eggs per personne in the pan, and with cooking chopstick start to mix gently, to obtain an homogenous batter. Then anytime the bottom and the edges start to harden mix again and again until the eggs have the consistency you like. Serve immediately, add a bit of salt and pepper on top. Have a good Sunday!!!

February 21, 2016

Winter→Spring salad

One day warm, one day cold, it’s hard to know which season we are, already spring or still winter? So for the food it’s the same, I crave for new veggies one day, the other I dream of hot soup and hot veggies pot. To solve this problem I prepared a salad with hot boiled potatoes and thick fried tofu, and finely chopped raw red cabbage, radishes, mini tomatoes, ice plant and walnuts, with just olive oil. A perfect winter & spring option!

February 20, 2016

A little Japanese dinner

I love Japanese food but because it always requires several preparation steps: preparing a good dashi, marinating ingredients, multiple cooking… It is rare I prepare a genuine Japanese dinner, unless it is some donburi, like veggies on rice etc… But I really like cooking Japanese and with a bit of organization in 30min it is possible to have someting ready.

First, start with preparing dashi by boiling katsuobushi in water. I put the flakes in a net so that it is simple to use the dashi. Then prepare the rice and start to cook it. Finally start marinating what ever needs too, here for me fish in soya sauce. While everything above is set, prepare the veggies or other ingredients: here wash the spinach, cut the mitsuba, prepare the miso… Once the dashi is ready you can cook the veggies. I picked spinaches because they don’t need much time to cook. I just boiled them in a little dashi and drained them well. Then grill the fish, some fresh cod from Aomori, add the miso to the soup, set the mitsuba in the bowls, and when the rice is ready, serve the miso soup, prepare the spinaches balls, add some delicious yuzu-miso bought in Karuizawa (the whole purpose of this dinner was to try this miso!), served the rice and finish with the fish. Ready!!!

And the miso from Karuizawa was just awesome, sweet tasty and with the perfect yuzu taste. When it possible to buy some of these delicious products locally I see really no reason to try to make some!

February 19, 2016