Indian cooking

A while ago, one of my former student from India offered me a set of Indian spices… It took me a while to know what to do, and finally, upon recommendation of a Canadian friend who cooked for me an amazing Indian curry some years ago, I asked for Vij’s at Home: Relax, Honey: The Warmth and Ease of Indian Cooking as a xmas present. I browsed it several times, looking for inspiration, and was overwhelmed by the abundance of recipes I wanted to test, not knowing where to start. But when I saw beautiful cauliflowers at the farmers market on Saturday, I remembered that cauliflower recipe I saw and rush for one. We are lucky that in Chiba they also grow tomatoes that in winter are perfect for tomato sauce: large, very ripe and sweet.

So back home in front of the pantry full of bins with so many spices I don’t know about yet… I started to cook following the recipe, more or less… oups I don’t have coriander seeds… nor fresh ginger…

So here is my version of Vij’s cauliflower steak, that I served with Japanese rice, like a vegetable curry-rice. It was super delicious, so I imagine that with the two missing ingredients it is probably even better… but now who cares!

Spicy cauliflower (for 2)

– 1/2 cauliflower

– 1 large ripe tomato

– 1/2tsp of salt

– 1/2tsp of ground tumeric

– 1/2tsp of ground chilly pepper

– 1tsp of ground cumin

– 4 cloves

– 1 stick of cinnamon

– a bit of oil (I used olive oil and rice oil)

In a bit of oil I first reduce the tomato to tomato sauce. Then add all the other ingredients but the cauliflower and stir well. When it’s all creamy, I add the cauliflower cut in 4 pieces. Cook at low heat under cover until tender but not mushy.

Serve and eat immediately!!!

January 29, 2020

Steamed gyoza – 水餃子

As I was saying in my previous post, I’m a big fan of dumplings of all kind. But recently I have a crush for sui gyoza-水餃子 which are simply steamed gyoza. And because I want to make some more often, last time we went to Kappabashi (to buy bowls for my sister xmas present) A. offered me a set of bamboo steamers: two levels, that would allow preparing dinner for two in one batch. And I have been longing to test them. It’s been three weeks now that I have been on my new schedule but as A. was traveling last week, I waited for him to come back. So finally I did make steamed gyoza, and tested my new bamboo steamer. Well, it’s super easy to use and works very well, and it gives a slightly fancier look to the table to serve the gyoza directly in. It also keeps them warm. I am not a fan of cooking goodies at all and have very very few (a blender, a pasta machine, a mandoline, and two bamboo steamers) but I must admit that those steamers are not just goodies, they are actually perfect. Not only the are made just of bamboo, but they adjust easily on a pan and work like charms. Well, of course if you make steamed food only once in a while and steam in small quantities you don’t need one and a foldable stainless steamer is surely enough, but I am planning to make a lot more often sui gyoza with all the seasonal vegetables, so it is worth the investment and the space it takes. So back to sui gyoza, I opted for sweet potato for some, and shiitake/carrot for the others. A great winter vegetables option. Here is my recipe for 20 pieces.

Vegetables sui gyoza

– 20 pieces of gyoza skin ( making your own is so much better, I’ll share this next time!)

– 1/2 sweet potato

– 4 carrots

– 1 large shiitake

– soya sauce

Steam and purée the sweet potato. Add a bit of soya sauce. Keep.

Boil the carrots and puree. Dice thinly the shiitake and add to the puree.

Fill each skin with a tea spoon of filling and close tightly.

Cut kitchen paper to the steamer inner diameter and set in the bottom of each layer. Steam for 10-15 min or until the skin is translucent. Serve.

January 25, 2020

Qagħaq tal-Ħmira

I love breads of all kinds and I’m always happy to try local breads when traveling. In Malta I didn’t expect I would fell so much in love with one of their bread: Qagħaq tal-Ħmira, sesame, anis, spices rings. We had one the very first morning when we were at the Birkirkara market, and after that I wanted to have some always, but there not that easy to find actually. Pastizzi were good but these little Qagħaq tal-Ħmira were just perfect. It has a perfect balance between sweetness and not, between richness and not, between spiciness and not. The balance of clove, anis seeds, citrus zest and sesame is perfect and that was the most difficult to recreate actually. But after 3 attempts I think I’ve nailed it and can share my recipe now. We love them so much and just to be sure I tested a fourth time, they were perfect, so there will many many more times!!!

Qagħaq tal-Ħmira

– 200g of flour

– 25g of butter

– 25g of sugar

– 3g of dry yeast

– a pinch of salt

– 1 cup more or less of tepid milk

– 1/2 tsp of clove powder

– 1 tsp of anis seeds

– 2 tsp of citrus zest (official recipe says lemon and orange, I used what I had: yuzu, natsumikan…)

– sesame seeds for the toping

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, butter, add the milk slightly warmed little by little while kneading. Stop adding milk and kneading when the dough is smooth. Add the clove powder, the anis seeds, the zest of citrus. Knead just to mix well. Leave for an hour or two in a warm places. When the dough has grow a bit and is warm and fluffy, cut in 4 pieces. Make a ball of each piece and shape like a bagel: squeeze the center of the ball with your thumb and make a hole, roll around your fingers to make the hole bigger about 4-5cm wide. Roll the top in sesame. Leave to prove for 1 to 2hours.

Bake at 180deg for 15 to 20min depending on your oven. Must be slightly golden but still soft.

Enjoy warm or cold, with jam, butter, cheese… or nothing…

January 21, 2020

Cooking just for me

Whether it’s because I am working from home and I am there for lunch, or because A. has a dinner outside, or he is away on business trip, there are quite a few times when I eat alone. In these occasions it is very rare that I don’t cook something for myself. I like the simple fact of preparing something just for me, something that I usually don’t cook because A. doesn’t like it. This usually includes a lot of cheese, probably butter, and a lot of veggies, usually no meat no fish. It is also a time when I can test some new recipes, some new combinations, or some new ingredients. Cooking for one person I missed admit it’s a little bit tricky, because most of the vegetables are too big for one in finding the proper sizing is quite of a challenge for me. So overall I like this challenge and I’m always happy to take it. So this week A. was away and I had a few dinners and breakfasts to prepare for myself. The first thing I did was to make myself muesli pancakes as A. doesn’t like them much, he prefers plain ones, and I do love them.

But where I had the most fun was to make myself a cheesy stinky Parmigiano and olive oil mashed potatoes… he wouldn’t have stand the smell, which actually was quite persistent and I had to air the apartment before it came back!!! The reason for such a bad smell was actually my attempt to make a parmigiano tuile, which basically consists in grated Parmigiano grilled in the oven. I thought it was fancy looking but in the end not only was it stinky but it was not really tasting good. An experiment that I will never try again. and because I don’t neglect myself, I serve my little purée with cabbage sprouts and pancetta .

And since recently I am in a quest of using properly spices, in particular Indian spices, as I received many from an Indian researcher in my lab, I tested a recipe that came to my mind after reading Vik’d book on Indian home cooking. A simple plate of potatoes, tatsoi and tofu, spiced with turmeric, chili pepper, cumin and garam masala. I was quite happy with the result though spices dosage is something I need to work on! I guess it comes with time and experience!

What do you like to cook just for yourself??? Are you rather lazy or fancy?

January 17, 2020

Taking time

The past two years have just gone in a flash. Since A. changed jobs and we moved, it’s been a continuous flow of things: 2 jobs for A., a cross appointment for me (which is basically a new job on top of mine), we started pottery classes, we had a giant garage and workshop built, we started paddle surfing and surfing, we started a kitchen garden with less rather than more success and I got more confident at baking breads. These have been for sure 2 amazing years, but they also left me with an impression that I have done nothing but running from one work appointment to the other, from one work task to the other, and when the work week was over either we flew to the countryside or we had to stay in Tokyo because I had some work related events to attend. Business trips were plenty as well. This resulted in working days of 12 to 14h with a lot of moving here and there, spending time in trains and metros which in Tokyo can easily be an hour or more. Both of us coming back home often past 22:00 and I then start to cook for dinner, a dinner that needs to be quickly made to satisfy our empty stomachs. While I still dream of country life in a sense, I believe that by changing my habits I could just as start by improving our Tokyo life. Being sick with fever and bed ridden for the first time in more than a decade and then working at a very low speed has taught me to be super efficient again. When your efficient brain time is just a tiny portion of what it used to be you have to use it wisely! I realize I could work differently and I have started as soon as I got back last week. I need to process information on a priority base, and for that refuse all extra work that is not exciting and to help someone I care for. Being sick was a good excuse to start with, now I just need to continue. Time with my students and with my colleagues for projects I care for should be valued over administration. That said it won’t make days shorter.

So the other major change concerns cooking. I was tired of rush cooking so my new schedule is that no matter what I leave the lab between 17:30 and 18:00, go back home, start cooking dinner, and then work again from home. I am lucky enough that most of the work I do can be done everywhere. It means I can cook things that take more than 10min such as spelt, lentils, brown rice and all the others alike.

So when A. comes back dinner is ready and we can eat a much better prepared dinner and at least 30min to 60min earlier!!

This has been really great to finally cook a lot of cereals and products I bought on our trips and they end up in the fridge waiting to be cooked. For example pearled barley from our trip to Italy a year ago… This recipe is highly Mediterranean with capers from Greece that my parents bought me when they went there last spring, sun dried tomatoes from a farm in Gozo I brought back from Malta and olive oil from my home town. The fish comes from our local fishing harbor in Katsuura.

Pearled barley and bonito

– 120g of pearled barley

– 5 sun dried tomatoes

– 1tbs of capers salted or in salty water

– olive oil

– a piece of bonito or tuna

Wash and cover with water the barley. Boil under cover for 20min. If all the water didn’t go, drain it. Add a splash of olive oil. Cut the tomatoes, add to the barley, add the capers. Stir well. In a olive oil greased fry pan, grill the fish. Serve in plates with a last splash of olive oil.

So far I applied this new concept for a week and it worked very well. Let’s see how the second week will work!!

January 14, 2020

Ochazuke – お茶漬け

Those who are familiar with Yasujiro Ozu’s movies must know “The flavor of green tea over rice” or “お茶漬けの味”, while being a cinematographic beauty and a brilliant socio-cultural representation of the the Japanese society transition of the time, it also introduces to a large audience ochazuke. Literally, as in the movie, it’s a dish that consists of pouring green tea over rice. A warm and comforting dish. While for westerners this might sounds odd, this dish, well prepared is actually delicious. It is also very simple if you have the right ingredients: rice, a hot tasty liquid, some topping eventually.

Ochazuke as you can imagine, is not supposed to be eaten with freshly cooked rice, while it is ok to do so, it is rather a recipe to use rice leftovers that have cooled down. So what I usually do is cook more rice than I need once to guarantee leftovers and then keep them for the next meal. Of course I mean Japanese rice cooked the Japanese way!!! You can use white rice or brown rice, it is equally delicious.

Then you need a hot liquid. As the name may be misleading, the liquid can be, but does not limit to green tea. Of course a nice and tasty green tea will work very well, yet my favorite recipe is with a flavor-rich dashi. A dashi made from konbu and katsuo, or from shiitake for a vegan version. The liquid must be hot enough to warm the rice if you use leftovers as it might be just at room temperature.

Finally you need a topping. Something that brings in a new texture and a new flavor. The topping is in rather low quantity, about one~two table spoon for one bowl. And as the rice and the liquid have quite a fine and light flavor you can use a topping that contrasts vividly such as umeboshi, salty salmon, mitsuba or create new combinations. Well, to be honest umeboshi is one of my favorite, and it can be used with some other toppings as well.

Why is that that I suddenly I talk so much of ochazuke when in the past 15 years I barely made one and only have them in restaurants? I think its just a matter of interesting circumstances: (1) Finding a nice dashi made from natural ingredients (dashi bars and tasting are becoming more trendy but not all dashi are made from simple natural ingredients) (2) Having leftover rice (when I was sick I would cook rice for 2 or 3 meals to have always something ready in case I would be hungry) (3) Wanting to eat a warm meal (with the temperature changing rapidly and the days becoming chilly one needs a warm, light and comforting meal…)

Here are the ochazuke I made in the past couple of weeks, top to bottom: umeboshi and pickled red chiso, umeboshi and mitsuba, 7 herbs and salmon, umeboshi grilled mushrooms and salmon.

For all the principle is the same: serve the rice in a large bowl such that it uses not more than half of it. Top with the topping of your choice. I blanched the round turnips in the 7 herbs version and slightly grilled in olive oil the long ones. Same for the mushrooms, I grilled them before. Prepare the dashi of your choice and pour while hot gently to cover the rice. Eat right away!

January 8, 2020

Malta

After being in Italy several times around Christmas time, whether in Sicily, in Tuscany or in Rome, this year we decided to go a little further south and went to Malta. It was a destination that has always attracted me while in the meantime I didn’t know what to expect. And it was actually a nice discovery. First of all a place with a new language. Indeed, like the history of Malta, the language is a very surprising one mixing so many influences. Sometimes it feels like Italian, sometimes includes English with Arabic tonalities, others it looks like Greek or Eastern Europe languages. The cultural heritage is quite impregnated in the food culture as well. The proximity of Sicily provides the country with all the Italian produces I love so much, but Malta also has a cuisine of its own. Being a rather simple desolated island, and inhabited by a crowd of hunters and fishermen there is a lot of game and fish cuisine. The former that I wouldn’t try as game is not part of my diet, in particular they love rabbit and for me it is impossible to eat rabbit. For fishes that was easier. They have always nice way of cooking them, whether it’s grilled with a sauce made of tomatoes and capers or in a soup. But to be honest the thing that impressed me most and attracted me most was the Maltese breads and pastries.

We started discovering the breads at a morning market in Birkirkara, the little baker stand had so many varieties. I fell for the little sesame rings called Qagħaq tal-Ħmira.

While they look like a bagel they are so much more delicious!!! Slighly flavored with anis, cloves, and lemon, they are a little soft and slightly sweet, sonething closer to a very light brioche. I’ve already found the recipe and will try very soon making some. The other bread that was really nice was the ftira, a kind of flat bread, used often for sandwiches. It’s a bit like focaccia but much less oily. It can be served with all kind of things inside. I opted for an English contemporary version at Emma’s kitchen, a cafe recommended by my IG friend @junkikat who lived in Malta last year.

The other savory discovery was the pastizzi. A Maltese pastry filled with ricotta, or green bean puree, or sometimes chicken or meat. While the one with ricotta were super delicious, the one with green beans purée slightly spicy were just over the top! The mix of the buttery pastry dough, crunchy and light and the thick purée slightly flavored with clove and other spices… damned that was sooo…. delicious!!! Pastizzi are a big tourist thing so you can find some everywhere. Sphynx is a chain store making some, but not necessarily my favorite. The Crystal Palace in Mdina had a good selection and they were quite good. In Birkikara we had some from a small cafe that were really good. Each are different so you can try them all and find the one one you like best!!

Finally, let’s talk sweets! Maltese traditional sweets are made with honey, almonds, figs and are super delicious too. The most famous is probably Qagħaq tal-għasel. A ring with fig and honey in a little dough.

While they look rather dry and stuffy, the fig and honey filling is actually all creamy and soft. My favorite ones were from Parruċċan in Mdina. There are also sweets with almond base paste such as what they called macaroons and that can be found in any confectionary, and also the delicious Kwarezimal, normally for Lenten, but available all year round at cafe Cordina in Valetta.

Well of course we just didn’t spend all our time in Malta eating. We also visited many places, went horse riding and enjoyed the nice weather. I really loved Mdina for walking around the nicely renovated and clean city, all the places to visit, the vista of the island from up there, and the lack of touristic shops (may be because it’s winter…). There were also much fewer people than in Valetta hence it was very quiet.

January 3, 2020