Breakfast

Usually my morning routine in Tokyo is very simple: after waking up I do a little pilates workout, then take care of the laundry, in the mean time A. prepares breakfast for us and takes care of the dishes.  So when A. is away my morning routine is quite busy since I have to squeeze in everything… 

Hopefully this weekend end I made a huge German black bread and we packed on fresh produce at the farmers market: persimmons, early tangerine (which green color is normal, not that they are not ripe!!!) and cheese from Komagata factory. And I am very lucky because my uncle in France has a few hives and makes delicious honey. Perfect for an Autumn morning!

A long week ahead…

After this nice weekend in the country, cooking and baking simple yet delicious food, we’re now back in Tokyo, but A. is leaving for a business trip for the whole week and I’m staying in Tokyo, with quite a work agenda, starting lectures for the new term and having some important deadline tomorrow. This means that this week cooking is going to be slightly different than usual. I don’t mind cooking for myself but most vegetables when combined together are too big for one person and I don’t really like eating twice the same things. I will have to find some new ideas of recipes to accomodate. Donburi are a real good option and I love them. I may eat donburi for the whole week! Or soup since it has become much chillier than it was last week and now it feels like autumn.

This donburi on the picture is one I cooked this weekend and I love it’s simplicity: new rice from Isumi topped with grilled lotus roots and shiitake. Finished with a little of soy sauce. The perfect dish as a side or a whole for an easy quick meal, tasty and full of different textures.

Leftovers dinner

Spending the weekend in the country after three weeks is just so nice! Even if the weather is not up to my expectations, I enjoy cooking some really nice fresh vegetables and fruits for A. and our friend D. who is staying with us for the weekend. Hopefully we manage to play tennis and to go for a small hike in Yorokeikoku in between the rain. In terms of cooking I chose to prepare very simple dishes that take advantage of the quality of the food we find in Ohara. Mostly now it’s kabocha, it’s sweet potatoes, it’s persimmons of course that are central. Since I’ve cooked slightly more rice than usual, I’ve had leftovers and decided to use them for some cha-han with vegetables. I ised 1 carrot, 1 sweet potato, 1 piece of lotus root, 1 small leek and kabocha, added the rice, and in the very end added a tsp of soya sauce. Have a good “sports’ day”!

Home cooking again at last!

I made it through! I was organizing with some colleagues and friends a conference in Tokyo and it was quite an intense week to be sure that everything would work right and attendees will be pleased. Of course this kind of work is not my main work and it’s just on the side of regular work, so my days have been pretty busy and on top of that I’ve had plenty of lunch/dinners out and some official events to attend on the side. So when it was over yesterday afternoon I passed out in the train back home and it took me a good hour to be able to do something again! But most of all I was impatient of eating some homemade food. Not that eating out in Tokyo is bad, it is usually easy to find healthy food, but I always find that it lacks vegetables or fruits. But of course I was facing an empty fridge and had no strength to go out too far for shopping, so my only option was the small supermarket down the house. They have very little choice of decent quality products (couldn’t find any domestic tofu, it had to be American or Canadian…) so I passed on that one, and so the only things that were good enough were some mushrooms and some leeks. Good enough to make a meal for two with enough options. Then tart? pasta? or risotto? It ended being a risotto. And I was the happiest in my kitchen cooking for A.. Now one more day at work before we can head to the country with our friend D. visiting. Expecting a lot of good work done, good chat and good cooking!!!!
Have a nice end of the week! 

An all-time favorite

This simple dish with little variations is one of my favorite quickly ready Japanese dish. I cook it from autumn to early spring in a series of variations while the seasons change. Starting with plenty of mushrooms towards green peas. Sweet potatoes, burdock, kabocha are so beautiful now that I have decided to start cooking these seasonal veggies. And with some new rice, it’s a perfect match. For the pictured dish, which is about 2-3 servings, I used 2 carrots, 1 little burdock, 5 shiitake, 1 medium sweet potato, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Heat the oiled pan, wash-peel and cut the veggies, add them to the high heated pan in order of longer cooking time, stir a bit. Once golden cover and cook at low heat until the sweet potatoes are soft, add some sesame seeds and soy sauce and serve.

Autumn colors spicy soup

The autumn vegetables are all over the place: matsutake, all the mushrooms, sweet potato and kabocha! These little pumpkins are so versatile, it’s really easy to cook them. They are good fried, steamed, boiled, simmered, in tempura, puréed… And in soup with carrots, they are perfect! I’m still largely inspired by that American cooking magazine I bought in Chicago and decided to try to make a spicy-tasty soup for our guests for dinner.  For 4, I used 3 carrots, 1/3 kabocha, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper and salt. I boiled the veggies and blended them with the spices (to your taste) and served. Surper simple, delicious and vegan!

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