Category: Cooking

More of the little red beans!

I hesitated in doing an adzuki week but thought I would come dry of ideas quickly except from the many sweets… but we don’t eat so many. But discovering more and more recipes, maybe I should have had… another time!

So to change a bit from sweets I wanted a savory recipe to test and when browsing a Japanese cooking website I discovered recently I was immediately convinced that it was a perfect recipe for me: brown rice, sweet potato and adzuki! The simplicity of the ingredients, the seasonality of sweet potatoes 🍠 and the timeliness of me buying and cooking adzuki for the first time. (Really!! Can you imagine it took me 16 years to buy dry adzuki and cook with them!!!!)

The most common and popular recipe of savory adzuki is probably sekihan 赤飯 or literally red rice. The rice used for this preparation is usually mochi rice (sticky rice). It is served topped with black sesame and salt. It is often served for special occasions, but I think the most often I have had it was in bento bought in Tokyo or Ueno station… so for me it’s associated with train travel! 😉 That could still count as special occasions, more now that we haven’t traveled for a year, neither plane nor train… As I don’t buy normally mochi rice (but that too may change soon…) this option of recipe was excluded. Of course using regular Japanese rice would work too by slightly steaming longer… but the idea of adding sweet potatoes was just too tempting, I love sweet potatoes so much!!! So here is the recipe, easy as can be and each ingredient perfectly balanced and the flavors harmoniously enhanced. You can replace the brown rice with white rice, but it will change the texture balance of the overall. Taste will still be ok of course!

Sweet potato and adzuki rice (2 servings)

  • 1go (150g) of brown rice
  • 10-15g of dry adzuki
  • 1 sweet potato (not a big one!)
  • a pinch of salt
  • a pinch of sesame seeds

Rince the adzuki, set in a pan (that can be used for cooking the rice as well, so non sticky is nice), and cover with 1.5cm of water, bring to a boil and boil at medium heat for 5min. Wash and dice the sweet potato. Add the brown rice and the sweet potato and the salt to the adzuki pan, stir a bit and cover with water to obtain enough liquid to cook the brown rice (that will depend on your pan, your cooking range and the lid you are using. I usually add water to double the height in the pan, plus a bit for brown rice, but I do every thing about). Cook under a lid at low heat until the liquid is all absorbed and the rice is soft. Serve and top with a bit of sesame seeds.

Kintsuba

Sorry for the delay! I was hoping to publish it much earlier but then I got busy with work and I am struggling with wordpress and jetpack… technical issues that are getting more and more annoying.

So to continue with adzuki, there are a few more recipes I would like to share, and as promised on IG, kintsuba was one of them. It’s a slightly more elaborated recipe of wagashi than those with just anko and mochi or shiratama. I like it very much for the variations that exist, it can be with sweet potatoes, including walnuts etc… so many options… I like it also for its very graphic visual. It’s a little square “cake”. Kintsuba consists of a soft and melting jelly and a thin cooked skin. Making kintsuba is simple but takes a bit of rest time as it uses agar agar and it takes 2h for it to solidify. Then there is a frypan cooking step to finalize them. But they are really delicious and worth trying.

Kintsuba also uses an ingredient that is often used in Japanese sweets: shiratamako. It’sa kind of rice flour but made from cooked mochi rice.

Kintsuba (4 pieces)

For the beans jelly

  • 100g of tsubuan or anko
  • 25ml of water
  • 1g of agar agar

For the skin

  • 25g of wheat flour
  • 5g of shiratamako
  • 60ml of water
  • A bit of cooking oil to grease the pan

First of all the jelly. It’s quick to make but as I said it takes about 2h for the agar agar to stiffen so better do this step ahead. Once you have the rest is rather quick.

In a pan heat the water and the agar agar, stir well, when it comes to a boil lower the heat and continue stirring for 2min. Add the anko or tsubuan prepared before hand as in the recipe here. Continue stirring for 5min at low heat. Then move the paste into a dish that is square ideally. I use a Japanese tofu and jelly stainless steel dish for that specific use (see below picture). The jelly should be 1-2cm thick in the dish. Let cool down and refrigerate for 2h. That’s it for the jelly. You can eat it once it has stiffen as a jelly.

Once the jelly is stiff, take it out of the fridge, cut it into 4 pieces of 4x4cm approximately. In a bowl mix the ingredients for the skin. If you use shirotamako, you will need to crush it to powder it. It’s very easy. Stir well. Heat a fry pan and grease it. Now dip one face of a square in the skin dough and put this face down in the pan. Cook until that side is dry and no longer sticky. Repeat for each side. If you think your skin is too thin, apply a second layer. You can eat right away or keep a few days in the fridge.

  • Preparing the jelly
  • Jelly stiff and skin dough ready
  • Cooking the skin
  • Ready to eat!

The magic of the little red beans

One thing I have very rarely talked about here is adzuki – 小豆 literally small bean. They are present in many Japanese recipes and in most of the Japanese sweets. In fact beans are an important staple in Japanese cuisine: to name only a few the soya beans or daizu 大豆 literally big beans, the traditional jumbo black beans or kuromame 黒豆 for new year and of course the tiny adzuki!

raw adzuki beans

These little beans are usually cooked with sugar and salt to make tsubuan 粒あん when the beans are kept almost whole, or anko あんこ when the beans are puréed into an homogenous paste. The paste of tsubuan and anko is then used in many preparations: yokan, dorayaki, daifuku, ohagi, kintsuba, oshiruko…

Today let me introduce the basic recipe for anko and tsubuan and of oshiruko お汁粉, one of the traditional new year “soup”. Even though adzuki are dried beans they cook in 1h only so they are surprisingly easy to use.

Anko and tsubuan (makes 500g which is a lot!)

  • 200g of dry adzuki
  • 200g of brown sugar
  • Water
  • A pinch of salt

Rince the beans and put them in a pan, cover with water, bring to a boil, then decrease the heat to keep a steady boiling for 5min. Then drain the beans and throw the water. Return the beans to the pan and cover with ample water and bring to a boil again. Cook at medium heat for 40min, until the beans are almost soft. Drain the beans, throw the water, return the beans to the pan, add the sugar and cook at low heat and stir gently until the remaining moisture is gone. Add a pinch of salt. For the tsubuan that’s it. For anko you need to purée to obtain a paste.

Oshiruko (1 serving)

  • 50g of anko or tsubuan
  • 15cl of water
  • A small piece of semi-dry mochi to grill

In a pan heat the bean paste and the water to obtain a kind of thick soup. In the meantime grill the mochi. Serve the soup, add the mochi and enjoy!!! Beware that the soup, because of the sugar can be really hot.

The holidays…

Or I rather write “THE holidays”… as this year we didn’t take any real holidays until this week, rather a few days here and there to make long weekends and get away from the city. But for the new year, both the university and A.’s company are getting in a real slow mood, so it’s easier to take a few more days. Usually we would spend this period in Europe or travel in Japan, but this year things were obviously different. 10 days in a row in the countryside in winter was a first for us, and without any jet lag. Before the holidays start I was full of ideas of recipes, sewing projects, gardening tasks and other activities. Because the days are shorter, because it’s cold, days have vanished one after the other with only half of the things I wanted to do done, and it’s now the last few hours of the holidays and I realized I didn’t post any new recipe since my birthday, and can’t even remember what I cooked without browsing my picture gallery!!! Though I did cook, and bake every single day 3 or 4 meals (more often 4 ;)). But there was so much in my to do list that I feel like I did nothing. Literally nothing. Though the garden has never been neater than this year, in every corner, the trees are trimmed, the fallen leaves wiped away nicely, the house clean and sorted. But what did I cook???

First I did a bit of Christmas bread cooking. On Christmas day I decided I would try to do a world tour of Christmas bread: a Christmas bread a day. But after baking three on three days, I realize that since these breads are meant to be large, for just the two of us they are too much to eat. So after the pompe à l’huile, the panettone and the julekake it was time to move towards smaller sizes.

And then it was my birthday. As we went for a 12km hike, I prepared a picnic lunch to eat during the hike and baked bagels for that, to eat with eggs and radishes. It was months I didn’t bake bagels and I’m always surprised how much I like them and how little I cook them… Then came the lemon squares… and the yuzu scones, the buns, the breads, the scones again… a long and continuous series of baking in fact, and my sourdough has been behaving very well despite the cold temperatures at night in the house (5-9 degrees). When it’s dark at 17:00 and the house is getting cold, working in the kitchen with the oven at full blast is damn sweet! More so if you have spent most of the day outside being active.

Birthday hike

And so the last day arrived and I haven’t had time to cook my azuki, you know the famous Japanese red beans. So this evening I hurried up to bake a bread for dinner, some scones for tea and finally, in-extremis, I made anko from the scratch, which means from the beans, to make kintsuba, a very simple yet delicious Japanese sweet, oshiruko, a traditional new year sweet soup and probably if any left some dorayaki. It was my first time doing both anko and kintsuba but I found it really easy, more than I imagined it would be.

Recipes with anko will come very soon for the very first time! I realise I never posted any recipe of Japanese sweets.
In the meantime I wish you a good new year, and a good week! I hope, if you were on holiday that you had a good one.

Lemon squares for my birthday

It’s a kind of rule at home that A. cooks only when I am too sick to cook, which happens every 5-10 years or so, and for my birthday tea-time. I would select a cake and he would make it, usually with a little help of my mother when we are together at this time, or with mine when that’s the only help he can get. My favorite birthday cakes involve usually fruits: apples 🍎 or lemons 🍋. This year our lemon tree gave only one lemon, which we preciously watched growing and yellowing until we could harvest it just for my birthday. A recipe that would use the whole fruit was my target, and I have seen many but never tried lemon squares so I opted for it. Difficulty minimum, preparation quick enough for A. to get through it. The basic idea of the recipe comes from this french website, with a few adjustments made on the spot as we were not satisfied with it. So here is my version of it. For those who have never had lemon squares (like me until yesterday, as it hasn’t really made its way to Japan) or seen any (they are everywhere so I hardly can believe it!!!), they consist on a sweet sable dough topped with a kind on custard made with the whole eggs. So it’s kind of close to a lemon tart but a lot easier to make… maybe it could be called lazy lemon tart.

Lemon squares (9 large squares, 16 medium)

  • 1 lemon
  • 100g of brown sugar
  • 150g+40g of flour
  • 125g of butter at room temperature is easier
  • 2 eggs
  • 40g of icing sugar plus a bit to sprinkle for finishing

First task is to prepare the sable dough. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees. In a bowl put 150g of flour, the icing sugar and the butter and knead to obtain an homogeneous mix. It maybe rather sticky. Try making a bowl of it and move to a sheet of cooking paper 30cmx30cm. Gently squeeze flat and lay another similar sheet of cooking paper on top. Roll to a 25x25cm square and set on oven proof receptacle of that size (mine is Pyrex). If you don’t have a square oven dish of that size you can use a rectangle one. The sharper the edges the nicer the cuts will be. Bake in the oven until it starts to slightly become golden. It should take 15-20min.

While the first layer is baking prepare the second one. Take the zest of the lemon, the juice. In a bowl beat the eggs and the sugar, add the lemon zest (keep just a bit for decor )and juice, the 40g of flour and stir well. As soon as the first layer is baked, take out the oven, add the second layer evenly and bake for 18min or so. If you overcook it’s going to be dry, undercooked it will be hard to have clean cuts.

Wait until it has cooled down to move to a cutting board, sprinkle with icing sugar and a few zests, and cut to squares the size you like. Enjoy!!!

Christmas crazy, no more…

The frenzy of Christmas leaves me more and more perplexed and this year, having the opportunity (if one can says so) to spend it at home, just like a normal day off was actually more than welcome. Since we’ve been in Japan, rare are the years we haven’t spent Christmas with our families in Europe. While a family reunion is nice, Christmas is a time I dislike being in Paris, it’s dark, gloomy and cold. We are always suffering from jetlag, waking up at 5:00am when it’s pitch black outside and it will stay so for another 3 hours… better yet when we spend Christmas in the south of France, or even better in Italy. I love so much better the Italian spirit… But jetlag and dark mornings are not the only reason why I dislike so much this period, what I fear the most about Christmas are the long dinner and lunch that go with it, the sudden abundance in food like it were the only day we can eat and we have to eat them all from the appetizers to the mignardises… in magazines, instagram and wherever else… giant turkeys, creamy cakes, chocolate overdosed buches…

This is millions miles away from my conception of good food and good eating. Why shall you wait for Christmas or new year eve for champagne, caviar, foie gras and truffle and presents??? For fine chocolates and treats??? Why on earth would you get them all on one day??? For me, everyday is a cooking feast and every day is worth a present, I love the concept of unbirthday we should have an unchristmas too! I can’t wait 365 days and then just have to take it all in a snap! This is too ridiculous. Maybe also because my birthday is so closed from Christmas. Also, for me, a festive good meal doesn’t need to have fancy ingredients (actually I dislike most of them…), it just needs love in the kitchen and at the table and a few basic products. So the very best part of a European Christmas is undeniably the breakfast, really early, in the kitchen overlooking the garden still in the darkness: pieces of pompe a l’huile or slices of panettone dipped in a cup of hot black tea and tangerines peeled carefully and eaten slowly🍊 is what makes me the happiest. When all is still quiet.

Pompe a l’huile and tangerines

This year, no travel, no jetlag, no dark morning , no family reunion, and no Christmas party with friends, it was just the two of us in our country house. Perfect. I prepared rustic potatoes and smoked ham ravioli for Christmas eve, and pompe a l’huile for the morning breakfast, which wasn’t dark as in Japan the sun sets early, and early enough to catch up with family still on Christmas eve. Luckily Isumi is well stocked in tangerines groves, so it’s really easy to find some good ones… ours from our tree are long eaten! And that was a perfect Christmas.

I wish you all a happy holiday season!

Christmas ravioli, just the usual ravioli filled with smoked ham and potatoes, dressed with onion and shiitake

Koyadofu simmered with winter vegetables

You may remember that in October I introduced a very Japanese ingredient: Koyadofu-高野豆腐 in a post with a very simple recipe of curry. This was just one of the many examples of using koyadofu. Some may definitely claim that it is spongious and tasteless, I wouldn’t argue much, but I could also say that it is packed with proteins and it adds a very interesting texture to many preparations. The recipe I want to present today is a very simple recipe of Koyadofu first slightly fried and then simmered. It is basically a preparation that could be done with hard tofu as well. The vegetables I chose for the recipe are those I had around but you can also change slightly and add greens or vegetables of your choice. I must admit that lotus root and shiitake are really perfect for this preparation: the fresh shiitake are soft and a bit chewy, the renkon is crunchy, and the koyadofu just perfectly spongy, but the prior frying avoids it from sucking all the juice.

So without further delay, let me share this recipe, that is really simple but holds all the best Japanese flavours.

Simmered Koyadofu (serve 2 people as a side of rice)

  • 5cm of lotus root, a bit big
  • 10 cubes of 1~2cm of koyadofu. If you use large blocks of koyadofu 2 should enough
  • 10 little shiitake, or 5 large
  • a 1cm piece of fresh ginger
  • 3tbs of soya sauce
  • 3tbs of cooking sake
  • 1/2 of water
  • some katakuriko 片栗粉 or potato starch
  • a bit of oil for frying

First of all return the koyadofu to a soft texture by bathing it into water for a few minutes. Drain well by squeezing it like a sponge. If you use large blocks cut them in 1~2 cm cubes. Roll them in the katakuriko. In a oiled and heated frypan fry the cubes until white golden.
Peel the lotus root and cut in 5~10mm slices, cut in 2 if the root is really large. Add to the pan and cook in the remaining oil. Wash the shiitake, remove the stem, cut them in 2 or 4 if large. Add to the pan. Grate the ginger, add to the pan, add the soya sauce, the sake and the water and simmer for 10min or until the liquid is almost gone. Serve with a bowl of rice for example.

Kwarezimal… again and perfect!

A few months ago I made Kwarezimal and posted the recipe. Kwarezimal are these Maltese vegan treats usually for easter that we had in Valetta last year when visiting. My first attempt at recreating these delicious sweets was tasty but I wasn’t quite happy. The recipe posted reflected the slight modifications needed to improve it but I haven’t tested it fully: a little overcooked and not enough moist from the honey. Also a slightly too strong taste of almond compared to what I wanted and the other ingredients. As these treats are rather rich and nourishing they are perfect in winter with a hot tea after working outside in the cold in the garden or after playing tennis, or both. So I decided to prepare them when the thermometer hit the 5degrees in the house in the morning. What best than working in the kitchen near the oven while the house warms up. I used the recipe posted earlier this year with a few modifications in the process, the shaping (made a smaller double bite size, faster cooking) and the topping: honey dip + hazelnut + pistachio. And made one slight change in the ingredients amount: double tap of cocoa powder. So here is the new recipe. To be honest it was perfectly delicious. Hard to stop eating them!!!

Kwarezimal (makes 18 double-bite size pieces)

  • 150g of almond powder (or hazelnut powder)
  • 100g of flour
  • 60g of brown sugar
  • 1tsp of orange blossom flower
  • 2tsp of cocoa powder
  • 1tsp of cinnamon
  • 1tsp of clove
  • 1/2tsp of cardamom
  • the zest of half an orange or any other citrus fruit (I used yuzu this time)
  • a bit of water

For the topping:

  • a small handful of pistachios
  • a small handful of hazelnuts
  • 3tbp of fragrant honey

Pre-heat the oven to 180 while mixing all the ingredients (but those for the topping) together. Add a bit of water and knead until you obtain a dense but not sticky dough.

Roll the dough to a 5-7mm thick and cut the double-bite size with a shape or with a knife. Other option is to take small balls and shape them the way you want. A flat surface is better for the topping. Set on cooking paper in the oven for 15minutes.

In the meantime, crush the pistachios and hazelnuts of the topping, and set in the plate. In another plate a bit deep, put the honey. As soon as the Kwarezimal are baked and out of the oven, flip a few of them in the plate with the honey, and leave for a couple of minutes. Then dip the sticky side in the pistachio-hazelnut mix and flip on a dish or back on the cooking paper, repeat with the others and let cool down before enjoying!!

New local cheeses 🧀

On rainy days when we can be outside in the garden, in the ocean or elsewhere there are a few things we like to do. One of them is to look at real estate agencies websites (that’s actually how we found our house), and simultaneously look at google map satellite view and see the properties, the local terrain… and usually find new things around, hiking spots or roads to explore by bicycle. That’s exactly what happened the other day. While we were searching for woods to acquire (without success) we found the cheese factory called Ikagawa that is just 8km away from home on a nice small road, so a perfect short ride by bicycle. Not that Ikagawa farm is new. They’ve been around for at least 10 years. Just we never found out before…

As soon as the weather got better we took out bicycles, went up and down the hills inland and found the place. From the website it seemed tiny, but it looked like the cows were there. They weren’t, they are in the farm 10min ride away, and as it was late and getting dark we didn’t go. We only saw a very friendly dog and a goat. And the tiniest “shop” that is barely a counter. We were nicely welcomed and presented with the cheeses. A few varieties, but the ones I came for were the hard cheeses 🧀. They have two varieties of hard cheese. I got both.

I baked a sourdough bread back home. Oh! Yes! Sourdough… you read well. I cook everything sourdough now and I am very pleased with it. I start to get things well now!!! And breakfast for the next day was all set! Both cheese were delicious and we’ll be back for sure! We are so lucky that Isumi has such delicious cheeses factories and it is really great to see that there are many farms doing different cheeses. If you come around Isumi, I recommend you get a cheese factory tour!!!

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