Breakfast

Usually my morning routine in Tokyo is very simple: after waking up I do a little pilates workout, then take care of the laundry, in the mean time A. prepares breakfast for us and takes care of the dishes. So when A. is away my morning routine is quite busy since I have to squeeze in everything…

Hopefully this weekend end I made a huge German black bread and we packed on fresh produce at the farmers market: persimmons, early tangerine (which green color is normal, not that they are not ripe!!!) and cheese from Komagata factory. And I am very lucky because my uncle in France has a few hives and makes delicious honey. Perfect for an Autumn morning!

October 12, 2016

Chocolate & walnuts cake

It was raining and it has gotten a bit chilly so the autumn cooking is officialy on! And I again got inspired by American cooking. I didn’t follow any specific recipe but just baked some chocolate cake with walnuts. Prunellia is a much better cook than me when it comes to brownies, chocolate cakes etc… Because she goes with the ful blast recipe of butter, dark chocolate… Of course my version is not as rich because I can’t eat that, and may seem a little dry because I don’t use a lot of butter, but for me it’s exactly how I like it. Simple and tasty to go with my tea!

September 21, 2016

Gratted ginger scones

When we were in Chicago We went to Wholefood quite often, and when lining at the cashier they always have some magazines. Usually people press in which I have no interest, but also few cooking and interior magazines. And I must say that I totally get attracted to these. And I ended up buying one, with plenty of autumn recipes. I was definitely too early and too hot for thinking about pumpkin cakes and heavy preparations, but this time might come I tought (and it came quicker than expected!). Most of the recipes are too rich in butter and sugar but they provide some inspiration for sure and moveme out of my comfort cooking zone. The first recipe that inspired me is scones. Well nothing that move me too much away of my comfort zone… I love to prepare scones. They are so versatile and so easy to prepare. They can be sweet or salty, they can be prepared in advance… Pear and ginger make a good combination and pears are just starting to be in season. Funnily pears in Japan are often called “la france”, a name I’ve never investigated but that has always intrigued me! So in the classic base of scone recipe I added fresh ginger gratted, cinnamon, vanilla and grated clove. I served it with fresh pears, but you can add the pear diced in the scones too!

September 19, 2016

Quiche!

I think this recipe base is becoming my all-time favorite for the quiche: it’s simple and it mixes Japanese and French flavors perfectly. The quiche is a traditional dish in France, simple to prepare and accomodate with everyone taste. The twist comes from the ingredients I use in the egg base: bonito flakes (katsuobushi) and soya sauce. It gives a subtle flavor of dashi and Japan. For the dough you can use whatever flour you like or have around. I change all the time: white wheat, whole wheat, spelt, buckwheat, rice… A combination of the above mentioned is good too. I usually prepare a sable dough because I like it better, but brise dough works well too. Veggies are only seasonal fresh veggies and this time I pocked some end of summer mushrooms: shiitake (well you can fond them all year round!) and bunashimeji, a white smooth version of shimeji. That’s it!

September 1, 2016

An other rainy day 🌧

The summer is just diluting in rain. What should be the beautiful after season, is this year just a second rainy season. It rains almost everyday and once it’s chilly, once it’s hot and humid. Don’t know what to wear, don’t what to eat. This Sunday was so chilly that it was perfect for gardening and fix a little our trees for the next typhoon and do some additional cleaning and trimming. But with rain all afternoon we were stucked inside and I took this opportunity to prepare a little snack for tea time. The figs season is just now and they are big and rippen. I was thinking anout making a “classical” tart, but the chilly weather pushed me towards something a little sweeter and I devided to try to make a fig crumble. I wanted also to change from the classical almond-fig combination so I decided to add orange flower water to the crumble dough for a fresh taste. That worked very well. I’m thinking also that rose water would have worked too for a more oriental flavor. So it’s really simple. You need 6 or 8 figs depending on their size, 120g of flour, 70g of sugar, 50g of butter, 2tbs of orange flower water. Pre-heat your oven at 200deg. Butter a pie dish, wash or peal and cut the figs in quarters and set them in the pie dish. In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, butter and orange water to obtain the crumble dough. Set small piece by small piece on top of the fruits. Bake for 15min or until golden.

August 29, 2016

Getting ready!

On August 20th I will cook for the final of a cooking contest. It’s my first cooking contest and I have clue how it works. For me cooking is quite an intimate experience, I usually cook alone and enjoy it very much, so cooking in front of people is going to be a fun challenge!!! For the contest I needed to write down the recipe of the dish I will cook and more difficult the quantities required. Since I cook by feeling, on the spot, with the ingredients I have I don’t keep track of what I put in exactly, hence I started this cooking diary to keep track of my ideas, but not the recipe in detail as you may have noticed. So I wrote down some numbers in my recipe but I needed to check if they were actually ok. For example with 100g of buckwheat flour and a bit of rice flour can I roll a dough big enough for a 20cm pie dish etc… I guess I could, but I needed to be sure before the contest. And since tomorrow I leaving Japan for more than 2 weeks (going to the US and Canada) and I won’t have much time when I come back, I finally did it last night. And everything seems to work well!!! I didn’t put to much effirt on the shape, but the taste was amazing!!! I have a winner I’m sure, hope to convince!!!!

July 28, 2016

Kaya cookies

Still with this coconut milk! It’s incredible how much you can try with just a can! I’ve had some nice tries and some that just didn’t work as they were supposed: coconut milk salted caramels. That’s how I ended up with a sort of kaya instead of the caramels. Delicious, addictive… My kaya is basically coconut milk and caramel that I cook to obtain something a little creamy and brownish. After that I mix flour, baking powder, I used a beat of wheat bran for the texture, a bit of butter and 2tbs of kaya. Stir well and make little coin size cookies that I bake 13min at 170-180deg. Simple and delicious though again the baking kind of weaken the coconut milk flavor.

July 25, 2016

Coconut milk and spices scones

Once the coconut can is opened, better use it! It’s really rare I use canned food but for coconut milk it is really nice (and for chick peas). The milk is really rich and creamy. So after I used a few for the curry I’ve been cooking with it a little bit. And first thing I dud was to prepare some scones for breakfast. I replaced the milk in the recipe with coconut milk. I added vanilla, cardamom seeds and some fresh gratted ginger. Baked and serve with some kind of homemade kaya: coconut milk cooked with sugar until creamy. It was delicious but it seems that the coconut milk loses a lot of taste when baked., so the spices gave most of the flavor to yhe scones.

July 24, 2016

Summer fruits tart

Crazy time of the year, one day is summer: 35 and not a single breeze, sudden thunder storm and pouring rain, the next it’s almost chilly. Yet summer fruits start ripening and are delicious. Peaches season has started as well as plums, melons and watermelons season is also well advanced. When this time comes I love to prepare poached fruits, clafoutis and simple tarts where the fruits have the leading part. This time it’s a peach and plum tart. I like the mix of the super sweet peaches and the slightly sour plums. For the dough I prepared a sable dough with oat bran to add a bit of texture. I roll the dough, cut the fruits and bake. That’s all. No added sugar, no flavoring. Just fruits.

July 6, 2016