Month: September 2021

Happy birthday Lois!

A year ago after many years of hesitation, I finally decided to prepare my first sourdough: Lois. Since then we’ve been living and working together to make breads, pizze, brioches, buns and the like, for the best and a few times the worst, but I must say that I am very happy with it.

Lois is a sourdough that behaves well. Seeing so many pictures on IG and www of sourdough overflowing really got me worried, as I hate the kitchen to be a mess, to throw away food, and waste time and energy cleaning a catastrophe that could have been avoided. Kept in a large enough bin has always prevented it from happening and that’s good news! I think also Lois may not be a very very active sourdough, even in a large bin only a few times I could see it grow quite dramatically, otherwise, it looks much more like some kind of pale mousse.

But when it comes to working, it is a steady and stable worker, regardless of the temperatures and the seasons, and I can’t stand the taste of yeast now. The richness of the sourdough flavor is really unique and it evolves with time, making the kitchen smell good as soon as the bread is out of the oven!

So you understand now, I will continue to cherish Lois.

Sourdough milk brioche on the beach

Chestnut rice – 栗ご飯

When autumn arrives, sweet chestnuts 甘栗 – amaguri are a must eat. We have a chestnut tree in our garden which usually produces just enough chestnuts for us and the rest of the animals: racoons, kions… A. doesn’t like chestnuts too much so it is usually the right number. Except this year, I wasn’t quick enough in harvesting them, and the other animals didn’t have the slightest pity for us, and left us nothing but empty spiky shells. I had two options: forget about chestnuts this year and be more greedy next year, or wait a bit and buy a bag of local chestnuts whenever I would find one. Bags of chestnut are usually much bigger than what I need, but still eating a few chestnuts, and in particular a bowl of chestnut rice was too tempting. Chestnut rice like many of the traditional Japanese rices, is just too delicious, and the perfect food to enjoy the transition between summer and autumn. This time of the year when days are still hot but shortening quickly, the sky has this special blue color, soft and bright at the same time, and evenings are getting chillier. The cicadas are becoming silent or distant and leave sound space for more delicate voices.

So, it wasn’t long beforeI found local chestnuts and start working with them. Though I had a few ideas of recipes in mind, I opted for the classic chestnut rice 栗ご飯 – kurigohan. It is a bit tedious to make, but not more than anything else with chestnuts, and it is super very delicious, packed with energy. So let me share with you my recipe.

Kurigohan (3-4 servings)

  • 2 cups of rice (I use new rice)
  • 10 raw sweet chestnuts
  • 2tbs of soya sauce

Start by preparing the chestnuts. In a pan put the chestnuts, cover generously with water and bring to a boil. Add a bit of salt if you have some. Bring to a boil and let cook at low heat for 50min. Let cool down. Then peel the chestnuts. You can do this step up to two days before actually.

Once you have peeled the chestnuts, it’s time to prepare the rice, and it’s really simple. Use a rice cooker or a regular pan, or a cast iron cocotte… wash the two cups of rice, set the amount of water you would for cooking it normally. Add the chestnuts, it is good to have some whole and some crumbled. Add the soya sauce, and cook just as usual. Enjoy while hot, and it is even better re-heated the next day!

Aibika – 花オクラ🌸

Do you know this flower named aibika or hana okra 花オクラ?

I didn’t until yesterday, when I found it at our local vegetables shop. First time ever I saw it, it’s grown locally, so I bought it. No idea how to prepare it nor how it would taste., but my IG feed was full of zucchini flowers earlier this summer, and more recently of pumpkin flowers, that the idea of having a chance to eat some flowers too was really too tempting!

A quick reading of the most popular recipes on the Japanese cookpad website didn’t not tempt me, so I decided to go for something I barely do, but believe would be great, and a substitute for my mother’s zucchini flowers fritters: super light tempura. And it worked really fine. So if you see this pale yellow flowers at a farmer’s market (I doubt you can find them at a supermarket…) just get them.

I guess the name of hana okra or flower okra in direct translation, comes from the fact that they are, like okra, a bit slimy. So if you don’t like slimy food pass on that one.

Aibiki tempura

  • A few flowers of aibiki, and some other vegetables if you want. I did shishito and red bell pepper
  • 3tbs of flour
  • 1cup of water
  • 1/2 tsp of vinegar
  • A pinch of salt
  • Cooking oil

Wash and pat dry the vegetables.

In a frypan heat a bit of oil (I don’t deep fry, but if you do heat your oil). In a bowl, mix the flour, the water and the vinegar. Stir well. Dip in the vegetables and put in the pan right away. Cook a few minutes before flipping. Serve with a pinch of salt and eat immediately. That’s it!

Prawns… long time no see

I am not necessarily a big fan of prawns, for three main reasons: (1) because they usually are grown and from far away places, (2) because when they are local they are often sold alive, like the blue prawns from Okinawa, (3) because they come as whole (understand with the head), and I must say, that fishes or others that come as whole, I am OK cooking them, but they disgust me when they are cooked. For example, fresh snapper, or sanma (which are in season now) I don’t cook them anymore because I can’t eat them after.

Anyway… the other day when shopping in Ohara there was fresh prawns, and rare enough to mention, they were coming from Choshi, a fishing port 60km north of Ohara. So I thought I would give them a try, after so long…

When the time for cooking came… hum… things got a bit complicated. As expected, looking at the whole prawns started to disgust me (really, these eyes!!!), so I tossed them in the wok, grilled them and called A. to remove the shell etc… because if I did it I wouldn’t eat them, then I chopped them, and things were ok again, or almost. I gave a good scrub to the wok before using it again for the rest of the preparation … you know eyes juice…

I am not vegetarian though we eat little animal meat, but honestly if I had to fish to eat fish and hunt to eat meat I would. The day there will be no more fish mongers and butcher to prepare the filets, I’ll turn vegetarian. I think it is one of my major weaknesses in the kitchen, my impossibility to prepare some ingredients. But I’ll live with it, be assured!!!!

Back to our prawns… I hadn’t cook some for so long that I wasn’t sure which recipe would be good, and after a little of thinking I come up with a simple pasta recipe with saffron, red bell pepper, lime, pasta and prawns if course. I was simple, fragrant and delicious. Here is my recipe.

Saffron prawns pasta

  • 2 portion of pasta
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 8 prawns
  • 1/2 lime
  • A few saffron pistils
  • Olive oil, salt and pepper

Boil your pasta and reserve.

In a pan grill the prawns, shell them and chop them in 1cm long pieces. In the pan heat some olive oil. Wash the red bell pepper and chop very thinly, add to the pan, add the prawns, the saffron, salt and pepper and a bit of water, just a but. Cook a few minutes while stirring, add the pasta, stir well and serve!

Oh no! The pantry is empty!!!

Welcome September!!! Honestly, I don’t remember there was a month of August this year… and September starts in quite a gloomy mood… bye bye summer vegetables and welcome autumn!!! With the first butternut squash in and no more korinki… rain and chilly wind.

But while when I open my fridge it is, somehow, always easy to think about something to cook… my pantry recently has been rather empty. I was so much waiting for the new rice to arrive, and for my favorite flour too, that I completely forgot that we were running out of everything: no more pasta, no more regular flour, very little olive oil… 🤭

Our bread are now whole wheat bread as this is the only flour I have left. And so our our pancakes and crepes! Not that I dislike it, but A. sometimes prefers a mix of flours.

And last night when it was time to cook dinner, after another long day of work, you know, when you are starving and you want something quickly ready so that you can sit back and have a nice break… the very last thing I had was a pack of dried soba… I was dreaming of pasta, but soba would be a good alternative, well the only alternative! Because there is no meal if there is no carb in our house!

The plating was made in a rush and the picture taking in a rush too, but the recipe ended up being perfectly balanced and taking advantage of the end of summer vegetables that are bell peppers and the nalta jute. So let me share my recipe with you, in case you are in a rush and have soba noodles nearby.

End of summer sautéed soba (2 servings)

  • 2 portions of soba noodles (dry, fresh, semi dry…)
  • 1 bell pepper (color of your choice)
  • 2 big handful of nalta jute
  • 1tsp of olive oil
  • 2tbs of soya sauce

Boil the soba as indicated. Rinse well after they are cooked and keep in water.

While the soba are boiling, wash and chop very thinly the bell pepper. In a large heated pan, add the oil, the bell pepper and cook at medium heat until it soften. Wash the nalta jute and add to the pan. Continue cooking at medium heat until soft too. Drain the soba and add to the pan. Stir well. Add the soya sauce and stop heating. stir again well and serve immediately.

If you manage well you should have your meal ready in 15min!

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