Month: September 2017

Red quinoa

I’m on a mission to finish every single pack of rice, pasta, cereals and legumes that is opened and sitting on a shelf or in the fridge half empty. Yes! I keep pretty much everything in the fridge: flour, cereals, rice… to keep them longer (it prevents damages from high humidity and high temperatures in the summer, and low temperatures in the winter) and it allows to avoid pests since they are all organic or natural products and I am tired of food with bugs (more generally in the food that I buy in France…). I’m trying to empty my shelves as much as possible before we move to our new apartment in Tokyo, and same in the country house, just to clean my cupborads and fridge.

So I had a half pack of red quinoa to use. One thing I love to do with quinoa is some kind of croquettes. I cook the quinoa and then mix it with 2 eggs, some chopped vegetables: spinach, bell pepper, zucchini… and whatever else. This time it was some yellow bell pepper and a piece of Hokkaido salmon that was leftover from the previous day. I added some curry powder and some nutmeg, salt and pepper and cooked on both side in a greased frypan until crispy. I served them with some blanched okra, but any green is great. A light yogurt sauce with herbs can also be great.

And I was still having some extra quinoa, so for the next meal I prepared a vegan soup. Simply quinoa, sweet potato, butternut squash and shiitake, and again a bit of curry powder.  Finished with two shishito.

Chestnut rice – 栗ご飯

We are lucky to have a chestnut tree in the garden, but for the past 5 years I never managed to harvest any chestnut because it was too late once they’ve fallen and bugs git them, they were falling to early with typhoons… This year I miraculously managed to harvest about half a dozen of beautiful ones. Nothing much, but enough to make a classic Japanese recipe: chestnut rice. It os a simple autumn delight and it is very easy to prepare. First boil the chestnut for about 30min to 45min. Then peel them completely. In a pan, or a rice cooker, wash the desired quantity of rice (I usually cook 1cup for 2), add 3 boiled and peeled chestnut per serving. You can keep them entire or break them in smaller pieces. Cook the rice as usual. Once cooked stir and add a bit of salt. That’s it!

Baking bread

I haven’t posted any bread recipe recently but that doesn’t mean I haven’t baked any! I have baked a lit of fougasses this summer for our visiting friends. Of course for breakfast I have cooked more pancakes than ever, but bread is still one of my favorite. All warm, just out of the oven, the smells that mixes with A. freshly ground coffee is that of perfect Sunday mornings. After almost 3 years of making bread regularly now I rarely use my recipe book anymore, unless I am doing something fancy, and I just mix my various flours and seeds… in different combinations that all end up being perfectly delicious. Recently I bought a lot of organic whole wheat flour and some local spelt, buckwheat… flours so I’m enjoying making some mixes, to obtain a rich dark bread that suits very well jam, honey, butter, cheese and ham. Adding seeds: flax, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame; nuts or bran: oat or wheat add a lot of texture to the bread and is also very nice. This time I made a very simple 80% whole wheat-20% spelt and it was really delicious. For the rest of the recipe details please check that post, or look for “bread” in the search tool. You can also click on “bread” in the list of tags just below.

Butternut squash…

Since last autumn there has been a lot of butternut squash on the shelves at the farmers market, really a lot! I love to cook it because the taste is more subtle than that of kabocha. So since we came back from the summer holidays I have cooked plenty: in lasagna, in cold soup, in risotto, there is also ravioli… Since the summer seems to be completely finished: no very hot days anymore and the nights are almost chilly, it is a perfect ingredient to make the transition to autumn cooking. Last night I prepared it in a new variation. Instead of steaming it I cut it and cooked it in a bit of butter in frypan with fresh sage from the garden. I used it to accomodate some simple tagliatelle. Of course you can replace butter by olive oil, but sometimes it feels like cooking with butter. Add some fresh sage of top and some black pepper.

I wish you a happy September and a great week!

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