Category: Cooking

Wax gourd – 冬瓜

A few years ago (or in an other life… when I was managing time differently) I used to go to 茶懐石 chakaiseki cooking classes once a month. I learned a lot there, about classic Japanese cooking techniques, about Japanese sweets and about some ingredients I was never cooking. Wax gourd is one of them. It is a very delicious vegetable but when you don’t know what to do with it… you just don’t buy it… until this class of July where I was in charge of cooking some, to be served with somen (thin noodles eaten in the summer) and red snapper. And I lived that dish so much that I remember preparing it for friends coming over for dinner.

The season for wax gourd has come again and I bought some. I was fancying preparing the same recipe but the heat and our busy schedule changed the plans and I decided to invent a new recipe using the same base. No somen (too heavy for the very hot days) and instead of red snapper (no big one found) I decided to prepare Isumin pork meat balls. Still served with a great dashi. It was super delicious. Here is the detailed recipe.

Wax gourd and meat balls (for 2 people)

– 1/2 wax gourd or 冬瓜

– 100g of pork ground meat

– 40g of potato starch or katagiriko

– 1/2L of katsuobushi dashi

– 2tbs of soya sauce

– 2tbs of sake

– cooking oil

Cut and peel the wax gourd and cook in the dashi with the soya sauce and the sake until a toothpick enters smoothly.

Heat the oil in a frypan. In a bowl mix the meat and the potato starch. Form small balls and fry them until golden.

In bowls serve the wax gourd, the meat balls, then add some of the wax gourd cooking liquid. Top with a few sesame seeds. Enjoy!

Malabar spinach & okra

Now that the summer is blasting the green vegetables options are narrowing. Over the zucchini and the French beans… cucumber, jute mallow and okra are the most important green staples for me… but the Malabar spinach is curiously still on the market stands. I love Malabar spinach so much that I continue buying some anytime I see some… and I just discovered that Malabar spinach and okra are a perfect match, and even better when you add shiso.

I simply wash and cut the Malabar spinach and the okra and cook them at medium to high heat in a greased frypan. They both must stay crisp. I then add a few leaves of shiso chopped thinly. I serve it with soba or with falafel, but it can be used with anything else: grilled fish, grilled chicken, plain rice, grilled eggplants…

Have a great Sunday!!

Figs are back!!

This year I have the impression that everything is earlier than usual.

Blueberries are almost finished and figs are already ripening and are quite delicious. Farmers are getting ready to harvest rice in Chiba. Even Sarusuberi trees are blossoming almost 1month earlier than usual… So with the figs ready I was thinking of rich almond powder and fig tarts… but them I changed my mind because I wanted something less buttery and less sweet for breakfast, and without eggs. I then opted for a new recipe of scones with fresh figs.

In the regular scone dough I added half of a big fig to the mixture and almond powder. Then I topped each scone with a quarter of fig before baking. The result was a delicious breakfast. Nourishing and full of summer flavors, but not as rich as a fig tart. It’s too hot for such rich food now!

I’m looking for new ideas of recipes with fig, so any idea is welcome!!!

Goya chanpuru

In Okinawa cuisine they use a lot of pork meat and of goya, a bitter melon. Goya in Okinawa is delicious, but goya is a vegetable I never buy in Tokyo, because the ones you find in supermarkets are usually horribly bitter and hard (I did try a few times a long time ago…). There are a few tricks to remove the bitterness but normally you shouldn’t even need it… When someone give me one from their garden they are usually very delicious and not bitter at all, then I am more than happy to cook it. And one of the most classic recipe is goya chapuru ゴヤチャンプル. A traditional recipe from Okinawa with goya, tofu, pork meat and eggs. Sometimes moyashi (sprouted soya beans) are added… the pork meat is usually thin slices of pork belly or ribs, or in cheap version Spam. And it is seasoned with sesame oil usually but not always.

Since I received a beautiful goya And it’s been a really long time I haven’t I was really happy to cook it. With the heat and beautiful weather an Okinawa style preparation was perfectly adequate. Except that I didn’t have tofu and wanted some carbs to make the meal nourishing. I opted for a version of whole wheat penne with a goya, sausage and eggs preparation very similar to goya chanpuru. I used olive oil though rather than sesame oil. I simply cut the sausages in bites, grilled them in a frypan slightly greased, then added the goya, halved and sliced (and the seeds removed) and once they have soften with the heat I had 4 eggs beaten and stir regularly. I served it on top of the boiled penne and added olive oil, salt and pepper to finish.

Caponata

When you are super pleased to invent a new recipe that looks like delicious… and talk about it over the phone with your mom and she tells you that your brilliant idea not only already exists but is actually a classic Sicilian recipe!!! I must have Italian blood at some point!!!!

Anyway, this brilliant and delicious summer recipe is caponata! Serve with giant pasta and a bit of salad on the side. Here is my recipe.

Caponata (for 2 people)

– 3 Japanese eggplants

– 1 branch of celery

– 1tsp of capers

– olive oil

– 1tsp of vinegar

Dice in small cubes the eggplants. In a pan heated with olive oil cooked them at medium to high heat until golden. Stir often. Wash and dice the celery, up to the leaves. Add to the eggplants. Cook for 5-10 min at medium heat. Add the capers, and finish with the vinegar. Eat like that or with pasta as presented in the picture. Also good with grated Parmigiano.

Wafu pasta

The way of preparing pasta is unlimited and using Japanese ingredients with pasta may be really strange at first but it is not at all so strange in the end, it’s actually rather good. They are called wafu pasta (和風パスタ) and are actually quite common in Japan, they are regular pasta (most often spaghetti) with a dressing that uses Japanese typical ingredients such as meitaiko, nori… At first I didn’t like this mix too much, probably because it is often served in old not so nice cafe places, but I slowly got used to the idea and actually now enjoy preparing some.

I prepared a summer wafu pasta recipe with crushed edamame, jute mallow and tomatoes with olive oil. It is so simple but so fresh and summer like that I’m thinking I will prepare more wafu pasta in the future!

In the mean a typhoon is coming to Tokyo, keep dry and safe and have a nice weekend!

Spicy tomato sauce

While in Nasu we discovered a nice little restaurant called Cu-eri which is run by a couple of Japanese chefs, one of them trained in France. Their cuisine uses local ingredients in French inspired recipes and even some classic recipes very well realized. One thing that I really enjoyed was the way they used soft spices in their cuisine, particularly paprika and cinnamon, and it really inspired me to add some in my cooking. The first thing I tried was a soft spices tomato sauce to eat with plain polenta, grilled eggplants and cumin chickpeas and chicken balls. Here is the recipe of my tomato sauce.

Spicy tomato sauce (for a small dip quantity)

– 3 big fresh ripen tomatoes

– cinnamon grounded

– nutmeg

– chai spice

Wash and peel the tomatoes. In a pan put the tomatoes roughly diced, add the cinnamon and the nutmeg to your liking. In my case I put 1tbs well packed of cinnamon and 1/2tsp of nutmeg. Cook at low heat under cover until the juice of the tomatoes has almost dried off, the slower the better to have the spice infused and the sweetness of the tomatoes enhanced. A few minutes before finishing cooking add a pinch of chai spice.

Serve with what pleases you. It was perfect for accompanying polenta!

Anchovies and grapefruit pasta

The weather in Kanto area has been quite amazing these past weeks. The summer is blasting with a real summer heat and sunny days or with just a few clouds are following each other without a drop of rain. Even the evening storms are not really coming… with such heat cooking is becoming more complicated because the kitchen quickly becomes very hot and one would usually prefer preparing raw food: salads and salads. But I don’t mind cooking in the heat if it is for preparing something new and good. So largely inspired by the classic Italian gremolata recipe I prepared a new recipe using fresh anchovies (I found anchovies prepared for sashimi!!!), grapefruit (I got from our neighbor garden) and fresh tomatoes, to serve with pasta. And it was fresh and nourishing, exactly what I wanted!

Anchovies and grapefruit pasta (2 people)

– 1/2 grapefruit (we use both juice and zest)

– 2 large ripen tomatoes

– a dozen of anchovies, fresh, boned etc…

– olive oil

– salt and pepper

– 125g of dry pasta of your choice

Boil water for the pasta and cook the pasta.

In a pan heated add olive and the tomatoes washed and diced (if the skin is thick, remove the skin by plunging the tomatoes in the boiling water for the pasta). Cook at high heat and stir once in a while. Once the juice has reduced add the juice of the grapefruit, the zest of 1/4 of the grapefruit and the anchovies, stir a little bit. Add salt and pepper. Add the drained pasta and stir well.

Serve and add a bit more zest for plating. Enjoy!

Sea day

I really like that in Japan there is a holiday for the sea day (and now one for the mountain too!!!). I think it is beautiful to celebrate things from the nature that concern everyone and that is not even nationalist. Sea day also marks the debut of the beach season, that lasts only a short month. Beach season meaning that this the time when there are lifeguards and protected swimming areas, and beaches get more crowded (though it has nothing to do with French crowded beaches in the riviera!!!). But for us it means that we avoid the beach between 8:30 and 16:30 and go early in the morning or at dusk when it is much less crowded. And it’s been good this year as it synchronizes with the high tides.

Sea day usually also marks the end of the rainy season but this year actually it was over much before and we’re having a heat stroke earlier than usual. This completely decreases my wish for cooking because all I long for is chilled melon, tropical fruits (they grow delicious passion fruits in Isumi!!!!)… and simple fruits clafoutis.

I found some beautifully ripen apricots from Nagano and plenty of blueberries from Isumi and made a simple clafoutis for our breakfasts that we can eat in looking at the garden or take with us to the beach after our morning swimming and bodyboarding, not that the waves are too good though…

What is your favorite recipe for the hot summer mornings?

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