Month: September 2019

Perilla – shiso

If you like Japanese food or have traveled to Japan you that green leaf for sure!! Perilla, or shiso 紫蘇, or ooba 大葉 grows very easily and spreads like weed in both planters and the garden. It requires very little maintenance and grows every year with more and more plants, only the caterpillars seems to like it. I never planted any in our garden but it’s been growing steadily every year. It blooms in the early autumn and the flowers are really delicious. And this year I harvested plenty of flowers so it’s time to prepare them. So far I was using them always the same way: in miso and to make some kind of tempura. I call them fake tempura because they are deep fried, but I use a simple mixture of flour and cold water just like for tempura.

This year I am also trying something new: I want to make syrup. For that my plan is to use the same recipe as the lavender syrup and replace the lavender flowers by shiso flowers. I’ll update you in a few days when it’s ready!!

In the meantime have a good week!!

Pumpkin

At last… the beautiful autumn days have arrived and with them the most typical autumn vegetables (with mushrooms): the pumpkins!!!

While in Tokyo supermarkets you may find only Japanese kabocha, the one with the soft dark green skin and the vibrant orange flesh, that is also found all year round… In the countryside, in farmers markets and local cooperatives you can find many more varieties. Of course the butternut squash is now a classic, but not only. And last week one of our friend gave us a beautiful little pumpkin. It was so cute that I was sad to cut it open, but there are a few recipes I really enjoy and at some point I decided it was time to eat it.

One of my favorite Japanese style to cook kabocha of all kind is to boil them in dashi, add a bit of soya sauce… serve that with rice and I am more than happy. I shared that recipe before but just to make sure, I share it again. It is so simple.

Simmered kabocha in dashi

– a piece of kabocha/pumpkin (200-300g)

– 2 tbs of soya sauce

– a handful of katsuobushi flakes

Wash the pumpkin/kabocha. If it is a Japanese kabocha you don’t need to peel it. Otherwise peel it. Cut in bite size. In a pan put the cut kabocha, cover with water. Add the katsuobushi flakes. Bring to a boil and boil for 5min. When the kabocha is almost soft (use a bamboo toothpick), if there is a lot of water remaining drain. Otherwise just increase the heat for 20sec to make the liquid evaporate.

Add the soya sauce and roll the kabocha in by gently shaking and turning the pan. Don’t be violent or you’ll end with a purée!! Serve warm or cold.

The point in this recipe is that I don’t remove the katsuobushi flakes after using them in the dashi, on the contrary. Mixed with the soya sauce they are delicious.

Lemongrass

With the terrible summer the garden hasn’t produced much since August. My eggplants are having a hard time growing, same for the celeriac, and the ukon. The beets have disappeared… only the peanuts, the celery branch, and the herbs are doing fine. Regarding the fruits… the jujube are few and very tiny, the persimmons are very small too, I have no lemons and a dozen of yuzu that are not yet mature so will see how this ends up. But little is not nothing so let’s enjoy what we got! And among the harvested products I kind of enjoyed a lot the lemongrass. It was my first year planting some and it easily picked up and produce quite a bit. Well for a plant that loves water must have been satisfied this summer!!!!

I have not a lot of experience cooking with lemongrass and my favorite preparation it definitely herb tea. I found it simple to harvest and dry lemongrass naturally. I just cut in 3cm long the leaves and they dried in 2 days. I use a pinch for a large mug of drink.

In food, I remembered using quite a lot lemongrass back then when we lived in Paris and also getting tired with the too strong flavor. But a few things I remember loving it for was in clear soups and in vegetables preparations. Remembering that last one I prepared us a very simple meal with simmered chickpeas, carrots, kabocha and I using lemongrass to give a nice fresh flavor to eat. Served with a fresh leaves salad, and a bit of olive oil… it was very nice!

Enjoy the autumn, it’s official now!

Butternut squash ravioli

It’s been a while I didn’t make pasta! It was too hot and the summer vegetables don’t go to well for making ravioli filling. But now that autumn is here, hey! Hey! It’s time to get the pasta machine out and roll some pasta!!!

As the title indicates, I made butternut squash ravioli. It’s not my first time of course, and you can find different recipes already here and here, but this time I decided to try making tiny ravioli and add some spices: nutmeg and cinnamon, and a bit more salt and pepper than usual. And serve them with roasted pine nuts and olive oil… and you know what? It was delicious!!! The cinnamon adds a really nice twist of sweetness and is much better than just the nutmeg alone. So here is the filling recipe and the sauce, for the pasta just as usual…

Butternut squash ravioli

For the filling:

– 1/2 butternut squash

– 1 pinch of nutmeg

– 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

– a pinch of salt

– freshly ground pepper

For the sauce:

– a handful of pine nuts

– olive oil

Boil or steam the butternut peeled.

Drain well and remove all the water, seeds and fibers. Let cool down. Add all the other ingredients and stir well. Fill the ravioli.

In a frypan roast the pine nuts.

Boil the ravioli, dress the plates with ravioli, pine nuts and a bit of olive oil. That’s it!!!

Autumn days

With the sudden change in weather, my inspiration is back! Though I’m still tired of the rainy weekends and sunny week days (when at work… when I’d rather be in my garden…), I’ve been busy with some sewing projects, perfect for the weather. A. has challenged me to make a cover for his surfboard, and I think I did something quite great, that needs just the final touch. In the meantime, my neighbor came to me last week with some cotton fabric to make a yukata for A. and I’ve taken up the challenge!! I’ve completed it!!

Cooking-wise, with the almost cool evenings, it’s been really agreeable to cook and knead. And I’ve come up with a new ravioli recipe (coming later this week), salmon croquettes and other delights for the palate!!!

Let’s start today with the salmon croquettes! This is the season for autumn salmon 秋鮭 and I really like it. It goes well with fresh ginger which is also in season. I bought half a salmon and we ate it grilled first, but with so much I could definitely do another meal! So here is my recipe:

Salmon and coriander croquettes

– 150-200g of fresh salmon, better if grilled and leftover

– a handful of fresh coriander leaves

– 1tbs of panko

– 1 egg

Remove the skin and bones of the fish (if not grilled then grill it first). Crumble it in a bowl. Add the egg and panko. Wash and chop the coriander. Add and stir well. In a greased heated pan make small balls with the mix and cook until golden on each side. Serve with grated ginger and with whatever you like!

Lack of inspiration

I don’t know if it’s the super hot and humid weather, the hard time we’ve had with jetlag (it took almost two weeks to recover with a permanent impression of being tired, feverish, and to have a cold), or the impression that the summer is over and somebody (Mr. bad weather) still it from me… as it was way too short… but I have difficulties in finding inspirations to cook. For I don’t know how many days our meals have consisted of pasta and vegetables. Not that I don’t like them… but still… or of rice and umeboshi… But even if I have time to cook I don’t have the energy or the inspiration… because nothing attracts me anymore. I reject the autumn vegetables, too early!, and I am not enthused with the late summer ones anymore…

So last night I decided to cook something I don’t cook often but we love: a potato salad with fresh greens, a rich yogurt dressing and herbs plenty. And this morning, the first autumn day was here! Temperature under 30 and a nice breeze… so now I will start cooking a lot more butternut squash, kabocha, shiitake and other mushrooms! But still, here is the potato salad recipe, because what is good is good!!!

End of summer potato salad

– 3 or 4 potatoes

– 1/2 branch of celery

– 1 cucumber

– fresh coriander leaves

– fresh sprouts: broccoli, soya…

– 1/2 cup of greek or nordic yogurt, drained

– olive oil, salt, pepper

Boil the potatoes and peel them. Slice them. Wash and cut in thin slices the cucumber. Cut in 5mm cubes the celery. Wash the sprouts and the coriander.

In a bowl, put the potatoes, the yogurt and the olive oil, salt and pepper, stir well. It doesn’t matter if you crush the potatoes. Add the vegetables, stir again, the sprouts, stir and serve! That’s it!

Panisse

Probably very few of you know what panisse are… you only know if you’ve been to Provence long enough or have a specific interest in regional cooking… Panisse are an other traditional recipe based on chickpea flour and that cones from Italy apparently, but is also famous as far as Marseille. I’ve already shared the recipe of socca from Nice, panisse are something different. They are thicker and fluffier. Most recipes I’ve found are just using the same ingredients as socca but cook it in a pan with a lot more water, and then wait for it to cool down before frying them. I wasn’t too happy with these recipes and tried one I found in one of my vegetarian cookbook. The reason I was interested in that recipe is because you need to add a bit of baking soda to the mix… and you can cook it immediately and eat it immediately too. I still cooked it in a frypan like the socca but it resemble a giant fluffy pancake.

So here is my recipe.

Panisse

– 100g of chickpea flour

– a pinch of salt

– 1tbs of olive oil

– 1tsp of baking powder

– water

In a bowl mix all the ingredients and add water little by little until the mix is thick but not dry.

Heat a frypan of 15cm diameter, grease slightly with olive oil, pour the mix and cook at low heat, under cover, until it’s almost dry on top. Flip, and cook 2more minutes. Cut and eat!

You can use a lot more oil when cooking the panisse, but this is not mandatory… you can also add a bit of salt after too… enjoy!

Ginger

For most people outside of Asia, ginger is this wrinkled beige root that can be found all the time, but in Asia, even if you can find more or less fresh ginger all year round in supermarket, there is still a season for harvesting fresh new ginger, and it’s now!

Ginger is often use as condiment in cooking, with tofu, pork… or even more often pickled or candied in a savory preparation. In Japan contrarily to other Asian countries it is rarely used in sweets: not savory candied ginger is not so easy to find. I made some, quite a long time ago and plan to make some again this weekend. There is one thing I particularly love ginger for it’s for preparing drinks. Remember the apple ginger cider? And the honey ginger? Well these are some classics and honey ginger is so easy to make. Well this time I mage a variation of it. It’s ginger milk and honey. It’s of course richer then the herb tea but it has something less stringent and more comforting. For making it, it’s simple. You need a piece of juicy fresh ginger, milk and honey. Wash the ginger and slice it thinly. New ginger skin is so thin you can keep it. In a pan pour the milk and add the ginger. Let sit for one hour. Then boil the milk, serve and add honey. You can serve without filtering and enjoy the ginger while drinking.

One other way to do it is to extract the juice of the ginger by grinding it, add to the milk and boil immediately. This method is faster but I find that extracting the juice of ginger is quite messy… or maybe it’s just me!

And did you know that ginger is good for sore throat and when you are tired too?

Umeboshi tasting

Remember, I told you about my pathetic failure with one batch of umeboshi a few weeks ago… well when we came back to Tokyo I had a little surprise: I had a tasting set of umeboshi!!! Three types of red shiso umeboshi, with slightly different preparations and different kinds of plums all prepared by K. san. I think she was sympathizing with my failure… Her recipes are slightly different than mines so it was interesting to try them. One is very juicy and pink, the two others are more traditional, yet delicious and juicy. Of course they are umeboshi from the year nothing to compare with the 25year old umeboshi I got from my neighbor which are much drier. All to say that umeboshi may be something that seems first weird, too salty or too sour… But they are a very traditional Japanese food, rather unique, super healthy and side products have many virtues. I am sure that among the many varieties there must be one for everyone’s palate! If you don’t like the juicy and flush flesh jumbo ones, try the small and crunchy: karikari ume カリカリ梅. They are personally not my favorite but I like them too.

Also to get used with the taste maybe try ume flavored food. I use to like the ume potato chips, but I stopped buying potato chips 5 years ago… I’m sure there exist other snacks of the like: age mochi, kaki no tane with ume flavor, it can be a good introduction. I any case never buy cheap ones and those with non natural coloring or other ingredients than just salt and plum and shiso.

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