New kitchen

Last weekend we moved in our new apartment in Tokyo so the past days have been pretty busy juggling with work and getting used to our new place. While we got familiar with it quickly, the kitchen may have been the biggest change. It’s a tiny apartment so the kitchen is also tiny but it is opened on the dining/living room with a direct view through the window. It means it’s a lot more enjoyable than my previous one that, though larger, was really dark and felt isolated from the rest of the apartment. It’s been only a few days I’ve cooked in there, but already I love the late afternoon light that bathes it (the perks of working from home). I’m now getting used to the gears, and I had to give up my oven until we do proper renovations. Hopefully both our previous and new apartment are in the same building, and we still have our former apartment for 2 more weeks, so A. uses it as an office during the day, we both use it as a pilates studio in the evening, and I still go to bake there!!! Honestly, I don’t know how I will survive without an oven… I need to start thinking about pot baking and steam breads… though I usually have a lit less time in Tokyo than in Isumi to make tests. But I see it as a great opportunity to learn and test new techniques, so if you have any experience I’ll be happy to learn from you!

You may not have noticed yet, but one thing that is new also is my setup for taking pictures of the food I prepare. I used to have a straightforward cooking-plating-picturing stream… now it has gotten a little bit more complex, but I kind of like the new setup. You tell me if you do to…

Regarding food… well I must say that the past days, I have been preparing very simple things: often Japanese rice, or pasta, because every minute I had available was used to unpack something, to hang artworks, and I am happy to say that we’re almost done!! A. has worked really hard to make it happen! And cooking has been a bit rushed these days!!

But I’m happy that spring is now coming fully with it’s collection of greens, new something and the freshness that goes with it. I’ve cooked new onion a lot these days, new potatoes and snap peas too. For example altogether in a pan fried version, separately with rice, in chahan, or in a quiche version.., and they are always delicious… the pictures speak for themselves, and I assume no recipe is needed!

Bamboo shoot again!

We are moving in our new apartment tomorrow, but getting everything ready and working doesn’t mean not cooking, we have to eat 😉 Luckily we are only moving vertically so it’s quite easy to go and meet with the workers in between two online meetings, and anyway we decided not to do a lot of renovations first rather wait to see how we live in that new place. Our main idea was that since we spend most of our week days at work and most of our weekends in the countryside, our Tokyo apartment was oversized, so we wanted a downsizing. Few people want to move to a smaller place but we did. So we found a smaller version without a guest room we decided to move… well that was before Corona and simultaneous telework, so maybe not the most judicious timing… but one has to take opportunities when they come!

What does moving has to do with bamboo shoots??? Nothing… it’s spring, the soft pink of the sakura season is over and made way to the bright pink and fuchsia azaleas, and bamboos are growing growing growing. I even saw some in Kitanomaru park during one of my daily walks. But as I said before, the season is very short, so it’s better to enjoy them without delay.

I presented in the past some bamboo shoot recipes but this week I came with a few more ideas and wanted to share them with you. Both recipe today are mixing Mediterranean and Japanese cuisine, and the key is a fragrant olive oil. The first one is a chickpeas and tomatoes ragu, the second is more of a leftover type of recipe. Indeed, because we’re moving I decided to empty the fridge and the pantry as much as I could. And because we’re moving also and our view won’t be as dramatic as the actual one I shoot a few more times my lunch plate with a view…

Chickpeas and bamboo shoots ragu

– 1/2 bamboo shoot

– 2 cups of boiled chickpeas

– 1 large ripe tomato

– a few capers

– fragrant olive oil

– salt and pepper

Prepare the bamboo shoot as usual by boiling it in rice water fir as long as it needs to be soft (a tooth pick should easily enter.

Boil the chickpeas.

Wash the tomato. In a large pan generously oiled with a good olive oil add the tomato roughly cut. Cook until you obtain a smooth tomato sauce. Add salt and pepper and the capers, the chickpeas, and the sliced bamboo shoots. Stir and add a bit if olive oil, serve and eat warm or cold. That’s it!!!

Leftover bamboo salad

– 1/4 of bamboo shoot boiled

– a handful of boiled chickpeas

– 2 large boiled potatoes

– 1/2 new onion blanched

– a handful of boiled green beans

– fragrant olive oil

– 1tbs of soya sauce

Cut the bamboo, the potatoes, the onion and the green beans, dress in a bowl. Add the chickpeas, the soya sauce, sone olive oil, stir gently and eat!!!

Isn’t that super easy???

Kwarezimal, my way

When we decided to go to Malta last winter I didn’t know what to expect… the history of the island is so much different than this of the neighbouring places such as Sicily and Greece… I imagined that the landscapes and the culture would overwhelm me with beauty and mystery but I didn’t expect that the Maltese food would have such a strong impact on me and on my cooking. More than the food, in general, it’s been breads, pastries and sweets that completely bewitched me. The mix of spices: clove and cinnamon more than any, the citrus fruits, the almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts, the dates, figs and honey… well I am still under the charm and cloves have made their way back to my pantry. When we were in Valetta our friends had in mind to test many of the pastizzi, so we stopped at several places to taste some and ended up rather full, but the kids didn’t seem that full, or the adults eat all the pastizzi and left nothing to them… ??? and so when after hours of walking up and down the city we stopped at caffe Cordina, they ordered some sweets. A. ordered Kwarezimal. At first, I wasn’t much interested in them but after a pause, my appetite was back and when she offered me to try I couldn’t resist. The small pastries attracted me, with the crushed nuts topping and the promise of a taste of honey. And yes, as soon as I had a piece in my mouth, there was something else on my to-do list of things to bake when back home. The one thing special at caffe Cordina is that their Kwarezimal is made from hazelnut powder and all the recipes I found afterwards were made with almond powder. The good point for me, it’s that it is a lot easier to find almond powder than hazelnut powder in Tokyo, the bad point is that the Kwarezimal I made didn’t match my experience at caffe Cordina, but it’s a good reason to try again with hazelnut powder, would I find some!

None the less the almond base treat was truly delicious. I used a combination of recipes I found on the internet to make my Kwarezimal and I was very happy with the results. Having eaten Kwarezimal only once in my life I cannot claim that they were true to the Maltese taste, but at least taste-wise and texture-wise it was delicious. So let me share my recipe here because not only it is delicious but it is super simple to make and vegan: no butter, no egg and no yeast or baking powder… I think it could easily become an energy bar for active days!

Kwarezimal (makes 8 pieces)

– 150g of almond powder (or hazelnut powder)

– 100g of flour

– 60g of brown sugar

– 1tsp of orange blossom flower

– 1tsp of cocoa powder

– 1tsp of cinnamon

– 1tsp of clove

– 1/2tsp of cardamom

– the zest of half an orange or any other citrus fruit

For the topping:

– a handful of crushed pistachio

– some zest of citrus fruit

– 3tsp of honey

Pre-heat the oven to 180 while mixing all the ingredients (but those for the topping) together. Add a bit of water if needed until you obtain a very dense and not too sticky dough. Cut in 8 and make oblong shapes slightly flatten on top (easier for the topping!). Set on cooking paper in the oven for 20minutes. As soon as out of the oven, spread the honey on top of each Kwarezimal, sprinkle the crushed nuts and zest. Let cool down before enjoying (it’s hard to wait, it smells so good!!!!!).

Gynura bicolor – 金時草

Riding our bicycles has given us a new perspective on the neighborhood. Circling a 15km radius from home we have discovered a few new things and stopped at new places that we may have driven through many times bit didn’t really stopped by. When you cycle it’s easy to take a small street or a narrow passageway, to stop, turn back and get a bit lost… every detour is a discovery, and a surprise.

The new beach walk & ride path between Ohara beach and Misakichoizumi park

Riding we discovered a nice swamp, a reclining Buddha in a tiny temple, a new ride along the beach, a busy surfing spot, an old house with a beautiful park enclosed by walls… we also stopped for shopping in a few places: cheeses and fromage blanc at fromagerie Haru, fish at Onjuku, and vegetables at local organic place. That’s where I found these beautiful purple and dark green leaves I didn’t know about. And as usual a locally grown green I don’t know must go in my basket! So here I am with this gynusa bicolor (which name I didn’t know until a few minutes ago). Of course I always ask the local people what they do with a vegetable I don’t know and try it that way first. She said with soya sauce and okaka… which I understood as blanched and then seasoned with soya sauce and katsuobushi. And so that’s what I tried. And that was really very very delicious. So I bought some again today and I will test it again ;)!!!

Have a good weekend!

Almond treats…

The current situation is forcing us to work from home, and there are a few minor changes in our daily activities but in the meantime I don’t feel it affects us that much. One thing though has been a bit annoying, is the closure of our tennis courts in Isumi since the beginning of February. As I believe there is a season for everything, the season for surfing for me has not yet started: the ocean is yet too cold and the weather too, we are not equipped for cold water and I don’t feel like going for a dip in the ocean at the moment. Gardening kept us busy outdoors, but not enough to really free our busy minds. So one day we decided to go for a bicycle ride and just loved it, so we upgraded our foldable tiny bicycles to proper bicycles and we took on riding. Every Saturday and Sunday we go for a 25km ride in the neighborhood and run some errands… Riding, even for only 90min, makes us very hungry. And with the weather doing ups and downs having a few sweets in the pantry is not a bad idea!!! Not to mention that I forgot to refill our chocolate cabinet on an Easter weekend… oups… what was I thinking??? So I decided to prepare some financiers, A. loves them. (Well what is it he doesn’t like when it comes to sweets and treats? ;))

The problem is that financiers recipe uses only the egg whites, so I was wondering what to with the yolks, and found the recipe of helenettes, an other almond based treat that uses only the yolks. Basically the same ingredients as financiers one has the egg yolk, the other the egg white!! Both are really super easy to prepare and very quick! So was I preparing both and baking both and making every body very happy!

While I have been making financiers for a long long time, it was my first time making helenettes and even more, hearing about this little cookie so I was preparing them in a very simple manner, following almost blindly the recipe I found there (in French), I only changed very slightly. So here are my recipes of helenettes and financiers.

Helenettes (15-20 pieces 3cm each)

– 2 egg yolks
– 100g of flour
– 100g of almond powder
– 80g of sugar
– 60g of butter

Melt the butter. In a bowl mix the egg yolks and the sugar. Add the butter, stir well. Add the flour and the almond powder and stir well. Knead a little and make balls of 20g each and slightly flatten them. Set on a sheet of cooking paper and bake for 10 min at 200deg. Don’t over cook them, they will lose there softness and become really hard.

Finish with a bit of icing sugar if you want to make them really beautiful!

Financiers (25 tiny pieces)

– 40g of almond powder
– 50g of butter
– 20g of flour
– 75g of icing sugar
– 2 egg whites

Melt the butter. In a bowl mix the flour, the almond powder and the sugar. Add the egg white one after the other and stir well. Finally add the butter and stir well. If you have financiers molds this is perfect (I have very tiny ones), if you use paper molds be careful not to fill them too much as they might collapse. Fill half to 2/3 of the molds and bake at 240deg for 5 minutes then decrease the temperature to 180 and bake for another 10min. The smaller the shorter, if you use large molds, it may take a bit more time. They must be golden, but not over cooked neither undercooked.

Et voila! Have a good week!
The next almond treats are going to be some Maltese sweets… coming soon! Stay tuned!

Bamboo shoot

The short season of this delicious and subtle vegetable has started and it’s time to enjoy it now!!! Usually I would only cook it on the weekend because it requires a very long boiling, but thanks to telework this is something I can cook any day now! That’s the one good thing of working from home! Though with my new rythme since January I was already able to prepare recipes that require a longer cooking time, now I can take it to the next level: bread, Japanese brown rice, slow cooking, and bamboo shoots!!!

To celebrate that I came up with a new recipe: sautéed bamboo shoots and potatoes with olive oil and sansho. Sansho and bamboo shoot are a Japanese classic assortment, olive oil and potatoes more of a south-east French one. I mixed the two ideas. After boiling your bamboo shoot until tender, slice it. Boil a few potatoes, cut them and toss them in a pan with olive oil. Add the bamboo shoot slices and cook at high heat while stirring gently once in a while. Add a bit of salt, serve and top with fresh sansho leaves. Enjoy spring in your plate!!!
If you don’t have sansho you can use katsuobushi flakes… that’s also a great match to both potatoes and bamboo shoots!
Have a great day!

Planned leftovers…

While in Japan we are far from being locked down like many in the west, the spike in covid-19 cases in Tokyo has pushed us to action. In the lab I’ve been preparing for weeks for telework and remote access to our equipment, and also consignment out of some devices to our teams to limit the impact of a possible lockdown on our activities, the university finally decided on Monday evening to close down all research activities on campus starting the next day, and that meant telework for all students. I decided that should also apply to me and my secretaries, so since Tuesday, it’s been telework everyday! I must say that taking the train to commute didn’t make me happy, and when I could I would cycle, but going to the uni. By bicycle is not an option. So, at home I stay. A. is basically following the same regimen, so we’re two at home for breakfast, lunch, teatime and dinner! Luckily I had prepared a bit (actually I was more thinking of a city lockdown last weekend than just telework!!!) and I had packed a little more than usual on fresh vegetables at the local farmers last weekend, so we were not in need for any food. Actually, given that eating out is not recommended, and having friends over either, planning food quantities becomes a lit easier! But the logistics of it requires a bit more planning than usual, as I make lunches for two while working and A. and I didn’t have time to synchronize our agendas, our window time for lunch was quite small. When I’m alone I just eat what and when I want/can. It’s easy, it’s only me. So to avoid wasting time waiting for each other to eat, overcooking or undercooking food, rushing lunch, I decided to do something I rarely do: generate leftovers. Actually it’s not only time efficient, but probably energy efficient as well, but it requires planning ahead… and requires a bit of creativity as you use ingredients you’ve eaten the previous meal and that is no longer “freshly” cooked… I don’t talk about leftovers of a fully prepared dish (that would be totally boring to eat twice the exact same thing…) but rather leftovers of an ingredient that otherwise would take 30-120min to cook. Generally carbs: pasta, rice, brown rice (which takes the most time to cook), sometimes meat, or broth… and to cook things that can keep warm, and require little attendance once in the pan or the oven. Today I’ll share two recipes made with brown rice and rice. They are really simple and quick and provide a perfectly balanced meal. The first one is a quiche with a brown rice crust and Japanese flavors, the second is a vegan sautéed rice or chahan (top picture). I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Brown rice crust Japanese quiche: (makes a Φ28cm quiche)

For the pie crust:

– 1/2 to 1 cup of cooked brown rice

– 1/2 cup of flour

– 50g of butter

– a bit of water

– a pinch of salt

For the filling:

– a few shiitake

– a piece of lotus root

– a few spinach

– 1/2 cup of dashi

– 3 eggs

Make the pie crust by mixing all ingredients. Roll with a pin or with the hand to the size of the pie dish you have with a 2cm high edge. Bake in the oven for 10min at 200deg.

In the meantime, wash the vegetables, peel the lotus root. Cut the vegetables and cook them a bit to soften them. In a bowl, mix the dashi and the eggs, add the vegetables. Pour in the pie crust and back in the oven at 180deg for 30 to 40min. Better eaten warm for maximum crust crunchiness.

Rice sautéed (2 servings)

– 1 cup of leftover rice, white or brown

– 1 little leek

– a little piece of lotus root

– some greens: radish tops, spinach, cresson (I used the latter)

– a piece of thin aburage (leftover as well)

– a handful of snap peas

– a tsp of sesame seeds

– 2tsp of sesame oil

Wash, peel if necessary the vegetables. Cut them in thin or tiny pieces. In a pan, heat the sesame oil, add the leek. Then the lotus root, the greens, the snap peas. The aburage. Stir gently. When all warm add the sesame seeds, stir again gently. Add a little of salt if you need. Enjoy warm.

Have a good Sunday!!!

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