Category: Cooking

Plum plum plum…

June is the time for the rainy season, and every day the weather reminds us that, but it is also the season for plum harvesting and plum pickling.

Even though I trimmed many of our plum trees this winter, the amount of fruits they produce it still enormous and it’s also time for giveaways. 1Kg here, 3Kg there… yet the harvesting is tedious and with one rainy day following the previous one, it doesn’t make things easy.

Once harvested I pickled quite a bit of our plums. I usually make plum wine and plum syrup with the green plums and umeboshi with the yellow ones (which is about 7 to 15 days after harvesting the green plums).

But because only our visitors drink umeshu and I still have plenty from last year, and we drink little syrup and again last year I made plenty, I decided to try new recipes. One new syrup recipe and one of savory plums in soya sauce. Because the preparation has to sit for three months I have no idea what it would taste like but just wanted to share that recipe because it looks really nice.

Soya sauce pickled plums

– 1kg of green Japanese plums

– 1/2L of soya sauce

– 4tbs of brown sugar

– 2 pieces of dry konbu (4x4cm)

– a handful of katsuobushi flakes.

Wash the plums and remove the stems. Dry them well. Pick them to make a few small holes in. In a clean and sterile bin, set the plums, add the sugar, the konbu pieces cut in four, the katsuobushi flakes. Cover with the soya sauce. Set to rest for 3 months. Turn the bin every week. We’ll see in the results together in 3 months!!

Have a good week!

Chocolate focaccia

Yes! You read well… I told you I was back to back to baking… When I was a first year PhD student the first international conference I attended and presented at was a huge conference held in Barcelona. At that time A. had plenty of holidays and surely plenty of time to take them, so we were always traveling together. We spent one week in Barcelona and a couple of days in Sitges. And one culinary thing that stayed for ever in our mind was the dinner, or more the dessert, we had on lovely terrace nearby the museum of contemporary art. The museum was still fairly young and the surroundings all in development. Using the base of the traditional pan con tomate it was a pan con chocolate. You can imagine with bread and chocolate in the same dish we would go for it, and this has surpassed our expectations by its simplicity and its tastiness. It was simply the same as pan con tomate replacing literally the tomatoes by dark chocolate: a toasted slice of bread with melting dark chocolate topped with fragrant olive oil and salt sprinkled. Back home I remember cooking some once in a while and always enjoying it. So this time while I was making the dough for my rosemary focaccia, I decided to keep a bit of the dough to test a chocolate focaccia. And like I though it would be, it was delicious. I’m sure you’ll see some more soon, in particular the picture doesn’t give a fair idea of how delicious it was!!

Sugar bread

When I was a child we use to spend part of August in my parents country house on the Causse Mejean, France. It was a long drive to go there, we would often stop have breakfast or lunch on the way, have a swim in Gard, and then start the winding road that goes up and down and up and down and finally up. This road is the Corniche des Cevennes and is definitely a beautiful one I would recommend to everyone who likes driving. Once up in our house, the nearest shop is a mere 30min drive. By then their would be food trucks coming with bread, meat and some groceries. I remember the fouace that we would buy and then have for breakfast. It was a heavy kind of brioche but nit buttery, with a sticky crust. After I was 10, this bread wasn’t sell anymore, so it’s been some time I haven’t had any. You can then imagine my surprise the first time I cooked sugar bread from Kayser bread book. It was exactly that. I made sugar bread a few times, and each time it took me back there. So now I want to share this recipe with you. If you think about it, it a classic bread recipe in which you add a bit of sugar, and finish with a syrup to have the sticky soft crust.

Sugar bread (500g bread)

– 250g of white flour

– 160g of tepid water

– 5g of yeast

-5g of salt

– 40g of brown sugar

– 3tbs of sugar and a bit of water for the syrup

Mix all the ingredients together except those for the syrup. Knead until soft. Prove for 2h. Shape as you like. I made a ball but I could also have made a braid. Leave to rest for 1h. Then bake at 200deg for 30min.

Make the syrup by mixing the sugar and water in a bowl. Apply the syrup everywhere and let cool down before eating.

Enjoy your week!!

Fava beans gyoza

I could have started a “fava beans week” and write everyday a new recipe using them, whether Japanese, Italian or French… but I was alone these days, A. traveling again for work, and my work is kind of busy… a lot of things have suddenly started to move forward since February, after months if not years waiting for that… yet everything decided to move at the same time so my hands are more than full… but I cannot complain too much, can I? So the fave beans week ended up being nothing… sorry for that, but you can check my past recipes here and here.

But while work keeps me busy, it doesn’t prevent for my mind to wander and invent new recipes. And this recipe is something that I have thought about for quite a bit now. I first thought about ravioli, but guessed it would be too common, and reminding myself (1) how much we love gyoza; (2) how delicious the butternut gyoza I made were; (3) how easy it is to make, I could only try.

Let me share with you this delicious recipe!

Fava beans gyoza (makes about 16 pieces)

For the gyoza dough:

– 50g of bread flour

– 50g of pastry flour

– a pinch of salt

– 50cl of tepid water

For the filling:

– 20 pods of large fava beans

– salt and pepper

For the dressing:

– 20 sansho leaves (kinome) or a small piece of fresh ginger

– 2tsp of soya sauce

– 3tsp of olive oil

Prepare the dough by mixing the ingredients. Make a ball and leave to rest for 30min.

In the meantime boil the fava beans and peel them. Crush them and add salt and pepper.

Chop finely the kinome leaves (or the ginger if you use ginger). In a small bowl mix with the soya sauce and the olive oil.

Now 30min should have passed. Make a stick with the dough and cut in 16 equal parts. Make 16 small balls, and roll them in a 1mm thick round of dough.

I each round set a tsp of the crushed fava beans and close the gyoza with a bit of water on each side of the dough.

In a large greased frypan, add about 5mm of water and cook at high heat the gyoza. When the water is gone reduce a bit the heat and then flip the gyoza.

Serve with the dressing in a side bowl to dip them in. Enjoy!!

Spring greens

My kitchen garden seems to be doing ok! Every week I harvest something, and recently it’s been focused on snap peas and herbs. Two plants of peas actually have been producing a handful of snap peas every week, which is just the perfect amount for us so far, as I used them mixed with other vegetables. The mint and coriander are doing good and I’ve harvesting quite some too for daily use, same with some kind of salads my neighbor gave me (we exchange crops). I like the idea to just walk down in the garden and pick what is needed for preparing a meal. I’ve also checked that potatoes are coming, though I am worried the soil may be too rich… we’ll see… it’s not easy to be a beginner gardener and not to be able to check every day!!! I’ll learn from my mistakes and successes I guess and do better next year!

With all this greens, not only from my kitchen garden but also from the farmers market I was thinking of new recipes and inspired by Giula’s zucchini and saffron pasta recipe (that was super delicious) I prepared a fava beans and greens pasta sauce. The kind that is so delicious that you want more!!! Here’s my recipe.

Fava beans pasta (for two servings)

– 125g of dry penne or macaroni or some similar pasta

– a handful of fresh fave beans shelled

– a handful of fresh snap peas

– a handful of green beans

– a handful of shelled greens peas if you have some (I couldn’t wait and already had eaten up all mine!!)

– 5-10 leaves of fresh mint

– olive oil, salt and pepper

Boil the pasta. When al dente drain and keep.

In the meantime, blanche the fava beans and peel them. Blanche the green beans, the green beans and the snap peas. Puree the fava beans, add olive oil generously, salt and pepper. In a large pan at low heat, heat the fava beans purée and then add the pasta, and the other vegetables, stir well, add the mint washed and chopped. Serve and eat immediately!!

Have a great week!!

Bacalau – すきみ鱈

Bacalau, salted cod, is something I have been eating for ever. It is part of the traditional aïoli from Provence and also from the French Caribbean islands the Antilles, acra and in féroce d’avocat, a delicious avocado base recipe. Seeing how much cod is a popular fish in Japan, and sun-dried fishes himono-干物, are also very popular, I wasn’t surprised that they also have bacalau. In Japan it is called sukimitara すきみ鱈, and though it is also salted cod, fishes used for that preparation are much smaller than in France, but it is all the same delicious. The best place usually to find some from Hokkaido is Yoshihike-吉池 in Ueno. I wonder how Japanese eat it as so far I have seen no recipe using some and a rapid browsing was rather common ways: grilled, meunière… nothing that had a Japanese flair, but I myself have a few recipes I like to prepare in addition to the above mentioned ones, these recipes are largely inspired by my mother’s cooking and re-crafted a bit. The only “issue” with salted cod is that except is some rare cases like in feroce where the cod is used as it, you need a few hours or more to remove the salt thus recipes cannot be improvised.

Today I made a simple potatoes ragout with fresh tomatoes, the last of the leeks from my neighbor’s garden, new carrots (or not), slightly desalinated cod and plenty of anis seeds. I peeled and cut all the vegetables, in a bit of olive I first reduce the leek, add the potatoes. Stir at high heat a bit, then add the tomato (a large one is enough for two), cover with water, add the cod chopped, some black pepper, and a table spoon full of anis seeds. I cook until the water has reduced and it’s ready to serve!

I love the balance of flavor and texture. The creamy vegetables, the chewy cod, and the crunchy seeds.

You can change the leeks for a new onion, all the same creamy and soft.

Have a good end of the week!

Kitchen garden

Since we bought a house in the countryside, I’ve been fancying a kitchen garden. The first year the whole garden was such a jungle, after being unattended for almost two years, that we decided to focus on fixing the existing trees, shrubs and plants. The second year we finally decided to start something. My mother sent me a book on square tiny but efficient gardens. I liked the idea of a contained space and the permaculture approach, so we started by making the squares and planting a few endemic species: cucumbers, eggplants mixed with some flowers, herbs and a sansho tree. Despite the summer heat, the fact that at this time we wouldn’t go every weekend we had a modest harvest, nothing exceptional but we were proud of it. Enthuse with the experience we decided to continue it with more flowers and some winter vegetables: cabbages of different kinds. That’s when things got tricky. First we had the snails, but the cabbages survived, then we had the kion, or barking dogs, these little deers, that eat literally everything you could could care for in particular what is soft or has flower. And that was it… after a couple of weeks all that remained of our cabbages was a mere stick with chewing marks… but kion are quite cute and fun, and I reckon that our baby cabbages looked delicious… so that was it… we also realize that our production wasn’t worth the investment of seeds and time, as you can by very nice vegetables for the a 10th of the price… so except for herbs (that kion didn’t eat) and that I like to use freshly harvested our kitchen garden turned into a nursery for the ever growing number of plants in the garden. Indeed the Japanese weather is so incredible and the endemic species just grow, grow, grow and multiple themselves at an impressive rate.

But last autumn when we went to pick bamboos I had in mind to make fences for fun, and then to use them to make a fully protected enclosed kitchen garden to protect my crops from kion, inoshishi (wild boar) and most of the other animals. The idea was for it to be small, navigable and easy to maintain, while various. I used the same strategy as the square garden.

I first tested its animal proof ability with some flowers I know kion love very much. After two weeks they were untouched so we started planting. A bit of herbs, as usual, broccoli (that failed being edible but grew into nice flowers), peas, potatoes, celery, ukon… but what I am really interested in growing is things that I usually can’t find at the farmers market: fennel, beets, salsifies, celery root. Again I got the seeds from France and I am now seeing them slowly growing. We’ll see how I succeed… in the mean time I started harvesting my first peas and they were good!

And what did I cooked?

A very singular recipe that I invented on the spot and turned out to be terrific!!!

So here it is… it starts a bit like a socca but it is a little twisted…

– 100g of chickpea flour

– water

– olive oil

– ground pork meat (optional)

– fava beans

– snap peas

– black pepper and salt

In a bowl mix the chickpea flour with the water to obtain a creamy paste.

In a fry pan heated cook the pork until well done. Add olive oil generously and pour the chickpea flour mix in to make a large pancake 3-5mm thick. Cook at medium low heat until the top is dry and the bottom is crispy. In the mean time blanche the vegetables and peel the fava beans. Cut the pancake in four, serve. Top with the vegetables, ground black pepper and salt. Finish with a bit of olive oil.

You’ll see it’s divine!

Urui

In the series of spring greens now is the time to talk about urui – うるい or hosta in English is not really a wild plant but rather something that grows freely in gardens. Their beautiful leaves and flowers are a nice ornament but what is most interesting is the leaves right after sprouting as they are edible and particularly delicious.

In Kanto area the season is much past for that and I don’t recall seeing any at the farmers market, and we don’t have any (yet) in our garden, however our friend K. in the Niigata mountains has plenty in her garden, so we left her with a huge bundle of freshly cut leaves.

After removing corollas and washing the leaves carefully they are ready to be prepared.

My favorite way of eating them to enjoy their fresh and crispy texture is to simply cut them in 4cm parts and cook them first in a little of olive oil while stirring, then add a bit of water and a few pink peppercorn and stop cooking when they are a vibrant green. Served as a side dish they are perfect.

Wild mountain plants

More than 10 years ago our friends K. and S. invited us to their home in the Niigata mountains to go picking wild plants – 山菜 – sansai with them, and to cook and eat them together. Of course we couldn’t say no, and we had an amazing time with them walking deep in the forest, picking all the different kinds of wild plants, seeing wild animals and then learning how to prepare them…

With the super long golden week, we decided to go and visit K. for a short trip to Tsunan and to go wild plants picking again. Since S. has past, we didn’t go as deep in the woods as we did before but we went for a long walk in the woods and picked enough wild plants for a nice lunch. The winter has stretched rather late in April with huge snowfalls and there was still quite a bit of snow, so we were a week or so too early. Here is an illustrated list of what we found though:

– つくし – tsukushi – horsetail

This little white flower can be easily found everywhere. Always take those that have no pollen. For preparation see my post here.

– こごみ – kogomi – fern sprouts

They are easy to spot, easy to pick and super easy to cook. I find them as easy to prepare than wild asparagus: in omelets, with pasta… they are really the simplest of the sansai and the more accessible in terms of flavor and texture.

– タラノメ – taranome – angelica buds

They grow at the head of wood sticks. The one in the picture is a little young and they need to have a few leaves out. These ones are really delicious in tempura and require little handling.

– 木の芽 – kinome – chocolate vine

This little green sprout that grows in the midst of other trees sprouting is the hardest to find, but once you’ve spotted a tree, easily recognized by its leaves, it is easy to find the sprouts. Washed and eaten raw, or cook, it is fresh and crunchy.

– 蕗の薹 – fukinoto

In the mountain fukinoto grow right after a patch of snow has melted. So spot a patch of snow, and look at the edges. They are best when just sprouting. They can be as big as a ping pong ball. There taste is very strong and specific. Probably the most difficult to accommodate and cook of all. See my posts on fukinoto here.

There are many others wild plants such as zenmai – 薇 – osmunda japonica (with me on the below picture), yama udo – 山ウド, tori ashi shouma – 鶏足升麻… we also harvested a bit of some, so some others… we also found morels. we had taranome, fukinoto and kogomi tempura, kinome salad and tsukushi just heated in soya sauce and dashi.

Now the golden week is getting to its end… time to go back to work soon!

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