Category: Cooking

Orange and chocolate sweet bread

For a rainy morning there is nothing better than a hot sweet bread just out of the oven. It’s been some time since I haven’t baked, but this rainy weekend was just the perfect moment to start again and go with some new originsl recipes. I also bought some new sourdough and natural yeast and I’m really happy with the result. 

So for this first bread I wanted something sweet and fruity for breakfast so I used candied orange peels (recipe tomorrow!) and dark chocolate chips. For one bread I used 170g of whole wheat flour, 110g of water, 3g of natural yeast, 8g of dry sordough, 4g of salt, 40g of brown caster sugar, half a cup of candied orange peel and one table spoon of dark chocolate chips. I kneaded well until soft and smooth, then let it prove for 5hours (temperature is not really high in the house now). I then made two long sticks that I rolled together, I wanted to make breeds with it but reslized that 3 sticks wouldn’t be good. Then it prove the rest of the night and I baked it jn the morning, 10min at 230deg, then 20min at 210deg. I like to eat bread right out from the oven, so we had our breakfast right away.

And you know what?! The Parisian sister is back on tracks! Yeah!

Buckwheat tart

Rainy and gloomy Saturday calls for a comforting tart for lunch: 100% buckwheat dough for the base, leek, oyster mushrooms, tofu for the garnish. Simple, tasty and warm, just what we needed! 

Corn pasta and veggies

I discovered corn pasta some time ago and I really like them very much, this taste of polenta, the nice texture, and easy to accomodate with plenty of things. The yellow color also is really pretty. I buy some often, and the easiest to find in Japan are penne.

I served them this time with fresh veggies and added a bit of bacon. I used 3 little leeks, 1/2 kabocha, 1 large tomato, cooked them in olive oil, and served with the boiled pasta for dinner. Simple, quick and perfect when again coming home late.

Chestnut and porcini ravioli

While browsing my ravioli pictures and recipes I found one I invented last year and that was just magnificent: chesnut and porcini ravioli. I love chesnut flour for its sweet taste and delicate flavor and I find it perfect to cook everything, bread, cake, crepes, pancake, crust for tarts or ravioli pasta. It is perfect with autumn veggies, prosciutto, parmegiano, melty cheese… I prepared porcini ravioli with a pasta made with chesnut flour. I simply replaced 3/4 of the regular flour by chestnut flour (more makes the dough hard to work). For the filling I used dried Italian porcini that I rehydrated, I chopped them and mix with a little of flour. You can add meat if you like too, or a bit of cheese. Then I filled the ravioli, boiled them and served with simply olive oil, salt and pepper. Super winner recipe that I really love! Of course if you have the chance to have fresh porcini I recommend to serve some too, just grilled in olive oil to top the ravioli! 

Now wondering what will be my next ravioli! 

Mushroom and chard millefeuille

No news from the TPS yesterday? Well, it seems that we’ve lost the connection with the Parisian sister… As for the Tokyoite sister I’ve been really busy with my day job, working late and whole Saturday spent at the university. I’ve had also a number of work dinners to attend. Hopefully yesterday we managed to take some time to see friends and go to the opening of the Foujita exhibition at the Tamenaga gallery (they have two drawings of cats that are sumptuous and one beautiful water painting) , and I could finally spend some time in my kitchen.

 I had in my fridge this beautiful chard and some lovely kind of oyster mushroom, and I was thinking of making ravioli with it. So I slightly cooked them together in a bit if olive oil and salt, and blend half of it to obtain a creamy green paste. Then we went out, and came back right for tea time, so I made us a little cake and used up all my eggs… oups! How would I make fresh pasta without an egg? Well I decided to change my recipe into some kind of millefeuille of little chestnut flour and flour crepes. So using a mix of chestnut flour, wheat flour, water and a bit of olive oil and I made about 10 little crepes. On each I spread some green paste and layered them, I topped the whole with some mushrooms and added the remaining veggies that I didn’t blend. Add some fleur de sel and some grinned black pepper. Simply yummy, but I still want to eat ravioli…

A dinner with guests

The other night we had some guests at home, and when we do I need to be super-well organized to squeeze one hour to prepare dinner in my schedule, this usually my target time. So I need to think carefully the menu, the ingredients and once I enter the kitchen I know exactly what I’m doing. Usually I have some extra time or a few ideas on the fly, so that it turns I always improvise something. This time was no exception!

For the dinner it was simple: grilled delicious wild snapper with a little of sesame oil, rice with katsuobushi, white and pink turnip tofu salad with pumpkin seeds (similar recipe with the persimmon salad, but I replaced the persimmon with a little cucumber and the walnuts by kabocha seeds) and some pickled sweet ginger.

Then I realized that we didn’t have too much to snack while drinking so I decided to make a little extra, because it’s nice when you have dinner after work with friends to hang out and chat, to release the oressure of a long day at work. Well, with what I had in the fridge the best option was to make some kabocha chips, so I thinly sliced half a kobocha and cooked it in a bit of oil. Add some salt and served. That was a hit! Everyone loved it! 

Celery potage

Last week end at the local farmers market they had tones of super nice veggies so we came back to Tokyo with the trunk full of veggies (our car has a fairly small trunk though!). And now any time I open the fridge to cook I have plenty of ideas to prepare all these beautiful veggies.  I experimented quite a bit with juices and smoothies but my equipment in Tokyo is not appropriate for that. And then I came up with the idea of having a good soup for dinner made with this huge celery I bought. Since I like the simple taste of one ingredient I didn’t mix it with any thing. I simply boiled 3 branches of celery in some veggie consommé, then blend the whole thing, add a little of cream (vegetal cream is perfect) and serve hot. For those who like you can add a slice of grilled bacon or some croutons. 

Pie

This something that I never cook but that I actually love a lot. Pies are so delicious and so easy to make. And just like tarts there are so many variations that everything works! What I like very much with pies compared to tarts is that 1. You don’t need the egg base, 2. The filling is kind of steamed in the pie so it doesn’t dry, 3. The double layer of dough!! When I started this recipe I was thinking of a tart first but I changed my mind on the way and decided to make a kind of coca or calzone, and finally it turned out being a pie! That’s why the shape is not very pretty because I was rolling the dough in a different shape at first.

For the filling I used hard tofu, drained, shiitake cut in cubes, and chicory leaves (well I am not perfectly sure about what it is actually, but it something like chard). For the dough I used spelt flour, water and butter (which can be replaced by vegetal oil). I split the dough in two and rolled quite thin, but not too thin. I set one in a pie dish, add the veggies and the tofu (as on the picture) then cover with the second one, close tightly the edges together, made a small hole in the middle and added a little cheminey in cooking paper. I baked in the oven for 40min at 170 deg. Serve while it’s still hot. Bon appetite!

Autumn mode breakfast

What best after a perfect week-end to start a rainy Monday with a good apple and cinnamon cake, a hot chai and some fresh fruits? We’re heading to autumn a its full and slowly evenings are getting dark early and chilly, so I have plenty of time to spend in the kitchen. Yesterday I decided to prepare a treat for our breakfast with a very simple apple cake. It’s a basic yogurt cake recipe without yogurt, and I use very little brown sugar because I don’t like too sweet breakfasts and instead plenty of cinnamon, which suits perfectly my morning chai tea. 

I wish you a good week!

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