Month: September 2017

All mixed inspirations

Sometimes that’s what happens… you have a fresh piece of sashimi red snapper, fresh baby leaf salad, homemade umeboshi and you want to eat them altogether. Now what would be the simplest carb to go with would be obviously Japanese rice. But when it’s late and hungry mouths are begging for food… rice is not such a good option: too long to cook. Pasta wouldn’t really fit, but quinoa would definitely! And yes it was a perfect match despite the very various inspirations. Here is what I did:

I simply cooked (boil/steam) a 3-color quinoa mix; I pan grilled the snapper; dressed the salad with olive oil; added an umeboshi on top. That’s it! That’s really not cooking actually but it’s a good way for me to get familiar with my new kitchen!!! 

New kitchen!

We moved in our new apartment this weekend and we have just finished emptying the last boxes. Now it starts to like home! I’m still not used to it and in particular to the kitchen. It was very difficult to find a place that checked all the boxes of our list of “must”  given the very long list and the very short time we had: the moving was motivated by A.  new job starting next week and by the fact that there is a highrise under construction right in front of our former place which would have blocked seriously our beautiful view of Mount Fuji and Nihombashi skyline. Anyway… it was time to move… after 8 years in the same place, the longuest we’ve ever been. So, I had to give away my precious terraces, the large window in the kitchen, the all white and bright interior, the 3 sides orientation and natural lighting, the no neighbors around… but we kept the view, or got even better! I got a kind of boudoir/dressing room, and a slightly larger kitchen, a new oven, but not much larger… I also kept the gaz cooking range, which is a must!!! And finding mansions where they have gaz cooking range is getting much more difficult. So I am ver very pleased with that! Would you imagine cooking on an electric range???? 

The thing I didn’t expect was a much better lighting in the kitchen to take pictures at night with much less reflections!!! So, while I’m slowly getting used to this new place, I prepared some very simple food, because when I come back to work we worked on boxes, hanging frames etc… And I prepared this a bit weird combination but really delicious dish with chickpeas, bunashimeji, butternut squash and tofu. Seasoned with papeika, salt and pepper. Each ingredient is diced (but the chickpeas) and all are pan cooked in a little of olive oil. I had the spices in the end and served right away.

oh! Yes... there's also a dishwasher... A. is so excited about it!!! 
oh! Yes… there’s also a dishwasher… A. is so excited about it!!! 

Hadaka matsuri – はだか祭り

Some time ago I wrote about Ohara main event: Hadaka matsuri, when dozens of mikoshi enter the sea and it’s a very festive and lively event on the beach. Actually, the event lasts two days, the mikoshi travel around and enter the sea on the first day, and on the second day they parade in the city and they all gather at dusk on the elementary school ground for a great final parade, where they run and throw the mikoshi up in the air. The all parade is lit up with traditional paper lanterns and candles. It’s a very beautiful moment, with each mikoshi team wearing different colors. This year I found that there were really a lot of girls in the teams and their white closes and colorful towels and haramaki were very beautiful in simplicity. I recommend anyone in the area to come to that beautiful matsuri for the two days to enjoy the full event!

Where is “home”?

It’s a bit of a weird week, with travel, changes, so I’m getting a bit lost!

We went to Shanghai for two days, where A. was working, abd I took this opportunity as a writing retreat when I was not disturbed abd could focus on my work. It was very productive, the weather very helpful to forced me inside with almost constant pouring rain. Just 30min of swimming in the morning and a rapid tour of the food corner of the nearby department store where it was funny to see so many Japanese products as luxury ones! We came back to Tokyo last night, this morning we received the keys of our new apartment and we are moving tomorrow within Tokyo and Sunday to Ohara. I also have quite some work to do at the lab with the students preparing some key presentations for their graduation. But, nothing’s better than a home cooked meal to get plenty of good energy and I prepared some very simple Japanese things: multigrain mixed with rice, eggplant and miso, scrambled eggs, and jumbo umeboshi. A good reason to take a little break!

staple food of grains and beans at Shanghai department store's food corner
staple food of grains and beans at Shanghai department store’s food corner

Harvest it – eat it!

It was a while since I haven’t seen my little neighbor so I decided to pay her a visit, and as such we usually exchange products from our respective gardens. I had nothing to offer, so I promised her plenty of gingko nuts in a few weeks, since our tree is literally covered with nuts. And in exchange she took me to her garden to show me her giant taro plants (mine are so tiny…) and then she gave me a huge shiso plant covered with buds and flowers, and we picked together some shishito. We also checked the damages of the typhoon, actually not much luckily and of course we chatted for an hour!

Once back home it was past time to prepare lunch but I wanted to try a recipe she recommended me with the shiso flowers: tempura. Of course I am not equipped for deep frying, so real tempura was out of the question, but still, I tried something. I prepared a light batter with just flour and water, I washed the shishito, a few shiso leaves and many of the flowers and buds. In a wok I heated some rice oil. I dipped the greens into the batter and then fry them on one side, than dipped it again and fry it on the other side. And with the flowers, I simply threw them in a bit of batter and cooked it like a crepe. No way without deep frying that it would stay in one puece otherwise. I also cooked some white rice, crumbled a piece of grilled salmon that was left over, and some more shiso flower buds. And I served all together, after sprinkling a bit of salt, in a kind of ten-don. 

Butternut squash…

…what would I do without you? So easy to peel and cut compared to kabocha and most pumpkin, so quick to cook, and so many recipes possible. I can’t help buying one every time I see some at the farmers market. It suits so very well all types of dishes, Italian, Japanese etc… So what did I do with last time? Some autumn spread! Enough of eggplants, chickpeas or yogurt speads summer spreads but Yes! for a butternut squash autumn version.

Butternut squash spread

– 1 butternut squash

– salt, pepper, pumpkin spices (cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, clove)

Simply peel the butternut squash and remove the seeds, cut it into large chunks and steam or boil it. Once it is soft, with a fork just mash it. Add a bit of butter if you like. Add salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and clove. Stir well to obtain a purée. That’s it!!!! Eat with freshly baked bread or crackers for a killer experience!

Chilly!

Autumn weather is finally coming to Tokyo, which means some beautiful weather mainly and also some rain when there is a typhoon. The temperature is also changing a lot and tonight is quite chilly and rainy, so a warm dinner was naturally my only option. This is the season for delicious Hokkaido autumn salmon 秋鮭, when the fishes come back to their original rivers. They sell it in quite large filet pieces, so I usually use it for two or three different recipes. This time I decided to prepare it in a kind of soup, very likely inspired by my nordic cooking book but with common Japanese ingredients.

Autumn salmon soup 

 – a piece of fresh autumn salmon

– 1/2 sweet potato  

– a large handful of mulukhiyah  – salt and pepper. 

First grill the salmon, in the pan in which you want to make the soup, on both sides. Then remove the skin and cut in pieces and pit back in the pan. Actually rather than cutting I simply used a spoon and broke the salmon. Cut the sweet potato in dice and in a pan. Add salt and pepper. Start cooking while stirring. Add 1/2L pf water. Cook under cover until the sweet potato is soft. Add the washed and cut mulukhiyah. Cook a few more minutes. Serve while hot.

Some kinds of pizza

I can’t realize that we are moving in 10 days. It’s seems so far away and so close at the same time, there is so much at work at the same time that it is hard to realize. I’m quite excited because I will have a new kitchen to play with and a bigger oven in Tokyo than my mini one. At the same time I will bring my mini oven to work, which means that I could cook more at work!!! Speaking of ovens, recently I’ve been making things that look like pizze but are not trully ones. May be I was inspired by the macrobiotic aburage (fried tofu) pizza I saw on IG by @rikako.salon_de_r. Once I made the base crust was a pie crust with whole wheat flour, topped with tomatoes, eggplants and red bell peppers, rosemary and olive oil (bottom picture). The second time I made a fougasse or focaccia preparation then topped it with blanched spinaches, cherry tomatoes and for those who like, fresh mozzarella from Isumi (top pictures).

These are perfect for still hot sunny days of September, using the last of the summer vegetables, good eaten just out of the oven or cold. 

Brown rice

When we are in Isumi I like to go to Rice Terrace restaurant for a macrobiotic lunch outdoor, but I don’t like to go when it rains because the whole place is designed to enjoy being outside and there are usually too many families and it can become very noisy. Luckily we found an other macrobiotic cafe, opened not far away, by a young guy that use to work at Rice Terrace. His cafe is a small simple and usually quiet place and he makes a wonderful colorful soup curry that I love when it rains. What I love with Japanese macrobiotic cooking is the brown rice, the herbs and spices on top of the fresh seasonal ingredients (that I cook all the time). I try sometimes to cook macrobiotic at home: ie. replace the white rice or pasta… by brown rice, and add a few more spices and herbs. This time I made a leftover preparation with the vegetables that were left on the fridge: spinach, ripe tomato, sweet potato. I just added some anis seeds and cooked everything in a pan with a very little bit of oil. Added to the cooked brown rice, that’s it… my version of macrobiotic super simple meal!!!

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