Cooking contest!

And the jury + α: soya sauce association top members, Dr. Hattori, cooking specialists and chef from a big hotel restaurant, itimidating

The D-day finally arrived and I left home Saturday morning under a raging thunder storm to join the cooking contest finale at the Hattori nutrition college. I felt totally unprepared and a bit stressed. On the same day they were having entrance exam for the college and college tours so it was a bit crowded and confusing. We were 10 finalists from 75 applications. Some were people working in the cooking business, most just cooking fan like me all from different country so looking at their recipes was really interesting. The relaxed and nice atmosphere helped me a bit to cool down but seeing there recipes actually made me nervous, and seeing at how most were prepared I kind of freaked! Cooking in a pro-kitchen under cameras and photographers and a jury was really intimidating and the worst part was having to deal with ingredients I didn’t choose. I tried to do my best but I was not quite satisfied with the result. The dough was perfect I found but the filling it was not quite right… The plating was hell! I am so bad at plating. And the photoshoot of the dish afterwards was really though. I am probably not going to win that contest (I realized afterwards that my cooking habit of doing everything from the scratch with only seasonal and lical products may not suit everyone) but I really enjoyed the opportunity, the very friendly atmosphere and the very helpful staff from the college. Thanks also for the jury: Mr. Yukio HATTORI (President of Hattori Nutrition College), Ms. Remi HIRANO (Cooking expert and Chanson singer), Ms. Akiko WATANABE (Cooking expert), Mr. Isao IIMURA (Executive chef of Royal Park Hotel). It was fun to chitchat with them while cooking!! . Thanks Japanese Soya Sauce Association and I will for sure challenge myself with a new recipe next year!!!

August 22, 2016

Rehabilitation cooking

Since we came back from Canada I’ve this impression that I have forgotten how to cook and that I am in a transitional phase of rehabilitation. After such a long time not really cooking much and seeing so many ingredients that I can’t find easily in Japan and that gave me so msny ideas it’s tough for me. Though I’m very happy with the Japanese cooking I wish I had a little more time to prepare our dinner. I’ve came back exhausted and starved from work every evening because of the effects of the jetlag. Maybe also it’s the pressure of the approaching cooking contest… Yes, it’s tomorrow… I wonder if I will still be able to cook that quiche!!! So everything I have cooked this week was pure simplicity and it’s so simple I ask myself if that is actually cooking!!!!

August 19, 2016

Chocolate cheesecake

For once I tried a new recipe of chocolate cheesecake but I turn it into something mine.

For the base, you need 100g of speculos and 40-50g of salted butter. You crush the biscuit and mix with the melted butter, then put in your mold.

For the chocolate cream, you need:

– one pack of cream cheese

– 3 big spoons of white cheese or yogurt

– 3 big spoons of brown sugar

– 1 big spoon of flour

– 180g of dark chocolate

– 25-30cl of liquid cream

– 1 egg

Put the cream and the chocolate in a pan to melt them. At the same time mix all the other ingredients together. Add the chocolate. Stir well.

Put this mix in the mold on top of the biscuits and then into a hot oven (130) for 30-40 minutes.

Finally keep refrigerated for 4 hours. And add some cocoa on the top before serving.

August 18, 2016

Typhoon night

The season for typhoon has arrived. It marks the beginning of the end of summer when days are still hot and the light turns different. I have the impression that the “real” summer was really short mainly because we were away from Japan. Leaving Japan is always difficult because I love every single season and sub-season, but all are quite short. With the end of summer coming slowly summer vegetables will disappear at the farmers market and we will move on towards mushrooms, kabocha and other autumnal vegetables and fruits. So let’s enjoy the summer a little longer while the typhoon is raging outside with what I call a Japanese ratatouille made of capsicum and eggplants (white and purple) and deglazed in soya sauce, to top a simple bowl of rice. I wish you a happy Thursday!

August 17, 2016

Japanese food addict

When we are in Japan I don’t think about it, I naturally cook Japanese at least once a week sometimes more. When I say Japanese I mean rice (white or brown) and something with dashi and/or miso and/or umeboshi. These tastes have been part of our daily life now almost as much as good olive oil and basil. And when traveling I miss them, after a short while and the excitement of tasting new thing. They are simple, plain and fine at the same time, they are the promise also of fresh and simply delicious ingredients (for me) just as olive oil is too. Yet it is easier to find good olive oil and cook with olive oil (and with cooking with our friends and eating at their place several times I was really lucky!) than it is with miso, dashi, umeboshi and rice. I mean real delicious ones are still hard to find. So during this two-week trip I’ve craved for the simplicity of a bowl of Koshihikari with umeboshi, and that’s the first thing I cooked when I arrived home. I also prepared some dashi to cook some eggplants and used it for flavoring scrambled eggs. It is that simple and delicious. Is that the taste of home in Japan? Or does that make a Japanese food addict? What do you crave for when away from home?

August 16, 2016

Back to the kitchen

The perk of jetlag is to be hungry all the time and to wake up early in the morning giving plenty of time to see the sun rise and prepare breakfast!!! And if Canada is known as the mapple syrup country, it’s definitely not somethings they serve often or basically never. So I was craving for mapple syrup on pancakes, and finally prepared crumpets to have an even thicker pancake to soak with mapple syrup. It’s really easy to prepare and so delicious. I served them with fresh nashi since now it’s the best season. Have a nice week, mine is busy with work and Saturday the cooking contest finale!

August 15, 2016

Oh oh Waterloo ♫

Long time no update… Sorry for that, I’ve spent a few days in Chicago followed by almost two weeks in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada for work and friends. And it was really a good time. Starting with a sunny weather and friends willing to make us discover where they live, we were very very lucky. This Mennonites area is growing plenty of delicious vegetables and there are farmers market nearby where you can find loads of fruits like you never see in Japan: blueberries and strawberries by the kilo, peaches and apricots by the box… No wonder why our friends cook their own jams! It’s so cheap! And home made jam is so delicious!
Despite leaving in a hotel room for 2 weeks I manage to “cook” with just a knife and a spoon and eat fresh fruits and vegetables everyday. And finally cook when we spent the weekend north in French River in a lovely cottage of the Pine Cove, swimming, hiking and kayaking everyday for hours. Even with the limited ingredients we had it was so nice after so long to be in a kitchen and cook for everyone after a long outdoor day! In particular the kitchen of the cottage was super well furnished with high quality cooking ware so it was really enjoyable! Thanks A. for coming with me, thanks D. & C. for showing us around and spending so much time with us to make this Canadian experience really memorable and all the good work done too!
Now it’s time to go home!

August 12, 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

Umeboshi, you really disappoint me!

I was super excited last winter when our old neighbor (I call her Obachan) told me she will teach me how to make umeboshi. I love ume and delicious organic umeboshi ate always welcome with a simple bowl of rice. I was even more enthusiastic after she gave us some of her umeboshi, thinking that if I could made some as simply delicious I’ll be very happy. And with all the plums we can harvest every year I can have enough for a whole year and offer plenty to our friends. On the due date I harvested the plums, with the guidance of Obachan I prepared them, plenty of them. After a week the juice (umezu) started to fill the container. Everything was doing good and smelling delicious. Then a few weeks later two of the containers were covered with mold and the juice was corrupted, I threw them away. Half of my production gone… I gave extra care for the remaining ones and it looked perfect. Last weekend was beautifully sunny and windy so I decided to dry half of the remaing plums. I carefully manipulate them, dry them and put them in a bin. Again they smell delicious and I was excited about trying them. Since a few were smashed I decided to extra rhe flesh and prepare a dip of umeniku 梅肉 for cucumber and rice balls (onigiri). And then I tasted them…

They looked really good (see on the picture), they were a bit salty but I guess that is ok, but worst of all they had a little mold or rotten after taste, something earthy and not right… I threw them again. I have a last chance with the one that haven’t dried yet but I’m very skeptical.

It is very rare I mess up with food. Sometime a recipe doesn’t go as supposed but there always a work around and it is always edible but here… So many fruits wasted really pissed me off. But I not through! I will try again next year!

my umeboshi, looking good hum... tasting horrible... — my umeboshi, looking good hum… tasting horrible…

July 27, 2016