Veggies and grain

This week A. is very busy with work, with visitors from his headquarters, meaning dining out for him and dinner alone for me, and also taking care of the house chores. When it’s the case I usually come back late from work too and cook some rather simple meals that while it cooks give me free hands for the laundry… With the fridge full of fresh summer vegetables, it was even easier: grains and vegetables every day!!!! Brown rice, barley… with bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini, green beans… and topped with some gratted cheese, or some fresh mozzarella, or nothing…

It is always the same base: first in a pan I heat some olive oil, add the vegetables that need a bit of roasting or are longer to cook (eggplant, carrot…), then the main grain, the herbs (mainly rosemary from the garden this week)… then I cover with water, cook under cover, add the vegetables that need less cooking (green beans, zucchini…) and remove the cover for the last minutes of cooking. That’s it! And the weekend is almost there, with a hot Sunday apparently! Take care

 brown rice, zucchini, eggplant and rosemary
brown rice, zucchini, eggplant and rosemary

Sewing DIY

 Meisen fabric from Chichibu
Meisen fabric from Chichibu

It’s the rainy season so I cannot spend as much time outdoors as I would like to, so I keep myself busy indoors with some cooking, working and some DIY projects. Indeed, it’s been a few years now that I have wanted to sew and buy myself a sewing machine. So far I was hand sewing and doing some basic embroidery but for a lot of the things I do, actually a sewing machine would have been much better. I don’t do very difficult things, rather fixing clothes: shape and size and interior goods: mainly pillow covers, table clothes etc… In Tokyo we live in an area where there are a few fabric shops and I can’t resist buying some regularly, but the real trigger was all the meisen fabric I bought for super cheap in Chichibu when we visited a friend a few weeks ago. So last week, I finally got a sewing machine. Since I’m a total beginner I went fir the simplest one and it’s been really easy to use. I’ve done a few simple projects to start with: pillow covers, button holes… yesterday I tried a very ambitious project but it was really over my abilities, so I will have to work on it again, I made many mistakes because of the lack of technique and small equipment. I’ll do better next time. Anyway, enjoying myself very much learning something new and decorating the house!!!

 Decorating the guest room with some new meisen pillows
Decorating the guest room with some new meisen pillows

Tiny new potatoes

When I was a kid my grandfather had a terraced kitchen garden where he would grow in the summer green beans, tomatoes, salads, radishes, strawberries, raspberries, red currants, herbs, there was also a fig tree, a verbena tree etc… I have vivid memories of eating the tomatoes on the plant while warm from the sun and full of the smells of the tomato leaves, of picking red currants and eating half of them before they even reach the basket… one thing that I really loved was picking potatoes with him, not only because it was fun picking them, but because of the promise of one of my favorite dish at that time: new potatoes sautéed. The main difference with new potatoes you can find on the farmers market is the size pf the potatoes. My grandfather never waited until the potatoes where big to harvest them, he harvested them whem most where still very tiny, and the tiniest was always in my plate. Today, I went to visit our old neighbor. Since her dog has passed she doesn’t come mear our place as often as she used too so I meet her much less. And she was in her kitchen garden harvesting potatoes. She offered to give me some and while discussing she told me that most people criticize her for harvesting also tiny potatoes but I told they were my favorite so she gave me plenty and I was very happy. It is rare to find tiny new potatoes and they are really delicious. I washed and brushed them and cooked them with some pork belly slices and rosemary. A very simple meal, very nostalgic. Thanks Mrs. K. For the tiny potatoes!!!!

Brown rice risotto

Summer is here right? We’re past June 21st already! But in Japan June is not summer as westerners could imagine it, rather I could say that the rainy season has finally started, with pouring rain one day, and humidity level increasing noticeably. Summer will start later in July for us! In the meantime the summer vegetables are  getting better every day, more ripe, more tasty. And I love to make summer risotto that can be eaten hot or lukewarm with all the summer vegetables, in particular zucchini!

A. doesn’t like brown rice as much as I do, or rather I would say he loves as much brown rice than white rice so I have to cook both evenly! What is nice with Japanese brown rice is that it is easy to cook in many ways, much more than white rice I find. In particular pilaf and risotto suit it very well. With fresh summer yellow zucchini, red onions, and sage from the garden, the dinner was all set. Simply chop the onion and cook until soft in olive oil. I’ve added some thin slice of pork because I had them, but it’s optional. Add the brown rice, stir. Add water, sage chopped, salt and pepper. Finally when most of the water is gone add the yellow zucchini diced. Cook and stir for 3min. Serve, add more sage, gratted cheese… as you like. 

The weekend is arriving soon, but before TV shooting this afternoon about my research work and the exhibition at the museum. I have a huge stage fright for TV shootings as I find it deforms us so much and spaking in Japanese to TV is going to be even worse… 🙁

Curry soup

A few weeks ago, one day when the weather was awfully rainy, we went out for lunch in a new place we haven’t tried before: Green +. It’s a small cafe a bit remote with a chef that cooks vegan local food using tones of herbs and mild spices. The lunch menu is rather simple: curry soup, or a choice of 3 little dishes. All served with fresh salad, miso soup, brown rice and homemade pickles. Everything is delicious, but the curry soup was a real discovery. I like tasty soup but not too spicy. With the summer settling in, I thought that I won’t make any curry soup anytime soon, but last Sunday the weather was again very rainy and windy and chilly, and I was also sad and worried because our cat didn’t show up for the whole weekend. A warm spicy tasty vegetables soup was perfect for a warming dinner.

I used vegetables I just bought at the farmers market: a few baby corns, a handful of green beans, three little potatoes. one carrot, and one big ripe tomato. All in a big pot, covered woth water. I then added a tea spoon of curry powder, sprinkled a bit od cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg, added just a bit of black pepper. Cooked under cover for 30min, and served right away.

Fougasse bacon-mustard

I make fougasse regularly, and I regularly change the ingredients and try new recipes: fougasse, sesame  fougasse, olive fougasse… This time I tested a new recipe with smoked bacon and mustard. Simply delicious for a quick bite! I used my reguler recipe base with plain white flour. And when shaping the fougasse I added bacon that I cut in small cubes and mustard. Then folded the dough and rolled it to trap the bacon and the mustard mainly inside. And shaped it as usual. Same baking time, same olive oil brushing after baking.

Have a great week! 

A nice custom

In Japan when you go to a bice restaurant there a nice custom of leaving the restaurant with a present, generally food present. Many of the Japanese restaurants we jave been practice this custom, but I don’t know where it comes from. I need to investigate more!!!! 

I remember some delicious pound cake from Robuchon, sometimes so breads or some cookies or chocolates in French restaurants. In Japanese restaurant it is often some pickles or some rice and this time we had again dinner at Itosho, a Shojin cuisine restaurant, it was some nice green peas rice. To which I added a scrambled egg to make a perfect quick dinner the next day! A very nice way to prolong the experience!

Have a beautiful Sunday! 

Fresh corn

Yesterday one of my students at the university brang some fresh corn he has received from his family and he gave me one. Corn for me immediately calls for Tex-Mex food, why I don’t know… and when I say Tex-Mex it is a bit of an extrapolation. It just mean tomatoes, spices and sometimes avocado and beans. So back home with my corn I first boiled it, then separated all the grains and in a pan I cooked the corn with fresh tomatoes and pork for A., added chilly pepper, all spice and salt; and for me I cooked the corn with tomatoes, hard tofu drained and cheese and the same spices. Just before serving both I added a bit of olive oil. Served with a few nacho chips just for the fun (I didn’t have corn flour to make some)

Colorful salad

Sometimes a very simple meal is welcome, but something different than usual. And for no specific reason I don’t cook potato salad very often, even though it’s super easy and delicious. I don’t mean mayonnaise base potato salad that is very common here in Japan, but rather olive oil base. Something with plenty of fresh vegetables. This time I had red cabbage and celery, so I simple shredded the cabbage, cut the celery, boiled and peeled the potatoes. Added some black sesame, a dressing with olive oil and white miso. And here was my vegan salad. For those who like, you can add pan grilled bonito to it. Super delicious. Have a great week!!!

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