Kumquat and carrot salad

Fresh, simple, delicious and just a Japanese twist for the white miso dressing for this salad, that was inspired by my IG watching. 

You need a few carrots, a few kumquats, a tbsp of white miso, and a bit ofkonbu dashi or water. Slice or grat the carrots, cut the kumquats in quarters, and stir the carrots and the kumquats in a bowl. In a small bowl, mix the miso with a tsp of dashi or water. Add with the vegetables, and stir. Ready to eat!

I wish you a very good week! 

Risotto “fond de frigo”

Sometimes there are a few things remaining in the bottom of your vegetables drawer in your fridge, and you don’t know what to do with them… typically a leek, a little piece of kabocha, a tomato, a little piece of cauliflower… well it makes a very nice base for a vegan risotto. 

First, a bit of olive oil in a large frypan, add the leek cut just the way you like, and stir at low-medium heat until it is all soft and melty. Add the riso: arborio or carnaroli and raise the heat. Stir. Once the rice is translucent add water to cover the rice and salt and pepper, some herbs if you like: thyme or rosemary. Cook at low heat. When the water is half gone add the kabocha cut in small bites and the tomato, diced. When there is almost no water add the cauliflower (I personally like it crisp rather than too soft), and finish the cooking under cover. Serve and season with pink pepper, you can additionally add grated cheese. Have a nice weekend!!!

Kumquat-shiitake-pork pasta

A new video testing with the preparation of a a singular recipe: pasta with a sauce made with shiitake, kumquats and thin slices of pork. A very nice and surprising combination that puts a bit of warmth and colors in a gloomy rainy day. Tell me how you like the video or what you would like to see. I’m testing several options.

Ricotta-basil-prosciutto ravioli

I can’t help making ravioli. And even more when I have fresh ricotta. But because A. doesn’t like cheese too much I added prosciutto to the basic ricotta-basil filling. And I prepared a tomato-basil-prosciutto sauce to go with it. It was a very simple dinner to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary enjoyed in our country house after a very intense week. 

For the ravioli pasta, same recipe as usual (100g of flour, 1egg, a bit of salt and olive oil), for the filling I used a pack of fresh ricotta, 3 branches of fresh basil, a few slices of prosciutto. In a bowl mix the ricotta, the basil washed and cut, salt and pepper. After making the pasta and setting one layer in the ravioli shapes, I put a few pieces of prosciutto in each ravioli then cover with the ricotta mix. Add the second layer of pasta and finish the ravioli. Boil in a large amount of water. Fresh pasta takes only a few minutes to be ready, once they float remove and drain. Serve immediately.

For the sauce I used 2 tomatoes, 2 branches of fresh basil, a few slices of prosciutto. Wash and cut the tomatoes and the basil. In a heated frypan or a pan, add some olive oil, the tomatoes, salt and pepper, stir until most of the juice is gone. Then the basil. In the very last minute of cooking add the prosciutto, you don’t want to cook to much. Use to top the ravioli. 

 

Japanese spikenard – 山ウド

Japanese spikenard – 山ウド is one of the mountain wild vegetables that sprout in spring together with fukinoto, kinome, taranome, kogomi (fiddlehead fern) etc… it is very tasty and ressembles artichokes, chards or cardoons. I find it really delicious eaten cold with a miso and vinegar mix. So here is my recipe.

Japanese spikenard with sour miso and kumquat: 

– 1 Japanese spikenard (like on the picture)

– 2tbs of miso of your choice

– 1tsp of sugar  

– 1tsp of vinegar (white wine…)

– 2 kumquats

Peal the spikenard and cut it in 4cm long pieces, then cut them in the height in 2mm thick pieces. Blanche once, then change the water and blanch again. Then drain and wash in cold water. In a bowl mix the miso, the vinegar and the sugar. Add the juice and a bit of zest of the kumquats (zest is hard to get!). Mix and add the spikenard. It’s ready!!! 

I served it with some tofu, pickled vegetables and white rice.

Strawberry tart, coconut custard

There is almost nothing as simple as making a strawberry tart, yet as delicious and pretty. It may look like a lot of work but it is not. I have my strawberry tart ready in 20min all included: from making the pie crust to washing the strawberries, including some nice new versions. In addition I’m trying some new features to share more ecperience, with a new youtube channel, where you will be able to see how to prepare some classic recipes. It is all new so I’m still trying to find the proper angle and tools, and sometimes I forgot to turn on the camera, but of you like it, I’ll put more. 

Strawberry tart with coconut custard

For one large tart for 6 people 

For the pie crust: same recipe as the plain petits sables lasr week

For the filling

– a little basket of strawberries  

– a pack of coconut milk or coconut cream (200ml) 

– 2tbs of sugar

– 2 egg yolks  

– 2tbs of flour

 In a pan heat the coconut cream/milk. In a bowl mix the sugar and the egg yolks. Add the heated milk. Stir well, then add the flour. Stir well again. Move back in the pan and cook at low heat until it gets thick.

Set in the pie crust a 5mm layer and thn add the strawberries on top. Ready to be eaten!!! 

Cauliflower

How do you like your cauliflower? For me it’s raw, steamed, boiled, grilled, in gratin, in soup, in purée, with olive oil, with butter, with lemon juice, with just a pinch of salt… yes, you’ve got it. We love cauliflower at home, as well as his friends broccoli and romanesco and it is just the pick season for these versatile and easy to cook vegetables in Chiba. So I’ve got some beautiful ones at the farmers market, youpi!!! The question was what will I do with them, how could I cook them? Because I came back from work very late and it was very cold I wanted a very quick solution so I decided to cook (steam and grill) them with spices.

 Spicy romanesco and cauliflower:

I wash and cut the romanesco and the cauliflower and put them in a pan and I grilled them at high heat then I add 1mm of water. Add a tsp of curcuma powder, 1tsp of curry powder, 1tsp of cardamom powder, salt and black pepper. Serve and eat while hot! 

A French basic

One things that is a bit my Proust’s madeleine as we say in French is a cery simple skillet if spinach with cream ir béchamel, poached eggs and bread croutons. A large part if the good memories about are the croutons. For some reason (probably because we have very little bread leftover) I very rarely make fried croutons, but these are so delicious with a cauliflower soup, a pumpkin soup or with spinach. Now I almost bever cook with cream or béchamel but spinach and croutons are always a good combination. I served them with pan grilled flounder and shiitake. 

Fried croutons: 

– a piece of bread, it doesn’t have to be fresh, but you still need to br sbke to cug it!  It can be white, whole or whatever, it’s slways good!

– 2tbs of vegetal oil

Cut the bread in 5mm to 1cm dices. In a frypan hest the oil. Add the bread and turn regurlarly at medium heat, until each side of the bread is golden. Simple and delicious! 

One-plate lunch from the country

I love to prepare one-plate for lunch, in particular when we have friends visiting. It is easy to prepare and to serveat anytime because the vegetables can be cooked very quickly and the rice, the meat etc… can be kept warm or re-heated very easily. So when the time comes to eat I just need a few minutes to prepare the plates. So simple with some seasonal vegetables grilled and deglazed in soya sauce, a piece of pork filet for the meat eaters, rice, and of course some umeboshi, some pickled Chinese cabbage…

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