Category: Cooking

Little breads for breakfast

There is nothing as such as a good breakfast, prepared just in time and served just when it’s done. In particular, I can’t help but love bread that is just out from the oven, with a good cup of a hot drink and a fresh fruit (from the garden any time it’s possible). It makes the perfect start. Of course baking requires a bit of organization and time but in the end it’s not so difficult and incomparable with anything else you can buy the day before!

As you may have noticed I bske pretty much anything. Even if I am not master in making croissants yet and naad to work on that, I start to be pretty confident on making rye and whole wheat breads. So here is an other variation of the basic recipe, where I mixed 250g of flour: half rye and half whole wheat flours, 120g of water, 14g of sourdough, 3g of yeast, 6g of salt, knead until soft and smooth, then added dry raisins and chocolate chips in part of the dough only. Waited until it has almost doubled, then shaped it and leave all night in a cool place. Before going to bed I scedule a delayed start of the oven so that In the morning I just have to bake them for 10-12min and breakfast is ready!!! Have a nice weekend!

Plum jelly – 梅羊羹

It is extremely rare I cook something sweet for dessert, or I cook dessert at all. Unless we have guests for dinner our meals end sometimes with a fruit, sometimes a yogurt but most often with just a little piece of chocolate. In the trading with our neighbor, fruits from our garden in exchange whatever she has, the other day she gave some plum jam and she told me: “you know, it’s sour, but it’s really good in plum jelly!”. OK then, let’s make some plum jelly (梅羊羹-ume youkan)… Well it’s really simple and it works also with any jam you like (I trued also with my natsumikan jam). You need only a flat recipient, some jam, 1/2L of water and a little bag of agar-agar or 寒天-kanten. Boil the water in a pan, add the jam, then the kanten, stir well while still heating for a few minutes. Set in the flat recipient  and wait for the liquid to cool down, then refregirate. Before serving cut in pieces of the shape you fancy.

Winter → Spring risotto

Warm days with sometimes cold wind and chilly evenings follow each other, the end of the winter veggies overlaps with the beginning of spring veggies so my cooking is largely influenced by the envy of spring food, but the warmth of winter food. So I came up with new vegan risotto recipe with winter red cabbage and spring new onions. The new onions are just starting and are perfect just slightly rolled in olive oil and heated slowly. For the risotto a veggies consomme add the perfect juice and taste. Then just add the onions cooked and the red cabbage and cook 2 minutes under cover before serving while still hot, and add some freshly grated Parmegiano for those who like.

Na no hana quiche – 菜の花キッシュ

With some ricotta I wanted to finish and some na no hana that are just in season I was thinking about making some kind of pasta but finally I suddenly changed my mind and went for a tart. Indeed recently I have made so many ravioli but so little tart that it was time for a change. So I made a simple dough with buckwheat flour, then I prepared a base with egg, soya milk and ricotta cheese, and lay it on the dough, and finally added raw, just washed, na no hana on top, and cooked until just golden.

Croquettes and bonito

I really love cereals and grains but I don’t cook some often enough because usually their cooking is too long for my short cooking time and it’s often difficult for me to plan long ahead. So when I have time to, I can try some new ideas and recipes. Inspired by a picture in one of my cookbooks I wanted to test some vegan croquettes and to do it with quinoa and millet. For the veggies I used in season veggies: carrots and topinamburs. And because the bonito is still in season I seeved it with grilled bonito that was simply rolledin curry powder before, and a few radishes for the color and freshness.

So for the croquettes here’s what I did: first I boiled some millet, then some quinoa. I mixed both. I then boiled topinamburs chopped thinly, and I also chopped thinly a few little carrots (that I didn’t boil). I put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Their shouldn’t be too much moisture in the mixture. If it’s the case add some flour I used rice flour). Add salt and pepper. In a greased and heated frypan make little balls of the mixture and flatten then to obtain little galettes. Cook until golden. Can be eaten with just a salad too, or dip in a curry-yogurt dressing…

Marmalade and muffins

The other day seeing the natsumikan trees plowing under the weight of their fruits I decided we needed to harvest them. Our garden is an intricate mess of trees and access to all the fruits was not possible, hopefully the birds will eat some (though with the thick skin it’s not one of the birds favorite). Yet we managed to harvest about 100 fruits!!! This year has been incredible for harvesting fruits: plum, ginko nuts, tangerines, and now natsumikan. They are also super delicious. Usually they be quite sour but this year it’s pure sweetness!!! Yet, it’s too much for just for us. So I’ve given away 2/3 of the fruits, made marmalade with half of the remaining fruits, and kept the rest for eating raw. For the marmalade I used the seeds of an apple to gelify and it worked super well. And since we have now delicious marmalade to eat, We just needed something to spread it on, so this morning I made English muffins. So simple and so delicious!!!

Weekend one-plate

Sunny weekend, fresh food from the market and the beginning of spring vegetables: na no hana. So I prepared a simple one plate with white and green rice, boiled daikon in dashi with yuzu miso, boiled na no hana in dashi with soya sauce and katsuobushi, grilled fresh bonito, and some little radish. All simple all delicious!

Oups! I made some ravioli again!

“Yahhari”  as we say in Japanese, I made some ravioli again! We love ravioli so much I could have some every day! This time spinach ricotta with some spinach in the pasta for a green finish. I just over-steamed some spinach and add some off the green leaves in the dough. For the filling chopped steamed spinaches with 1 large spoon of fresh ricotta, salt and pepper. Boiled and served with olive oil, salt and pepper, as simple can be! 

Donburi

Ashitaba are in season and this little green is delicious with grilled pork, and nothing easier then puttibg the mix on top of rice and add some sesame. I just cut in little pieces thin slices of pork cutlet from which I remove all the fat. Then add the ashitaba chopped. Cook everything in a pan under cover and serve on top of freshly cooked rice. Simple & delicious as usual!!

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