Xmas ravioli

Celebrating Xmas with our families in Sicily I prepared an Italian x French ravioli to be served in a little herbs bouillon prepard by my mother. Cooking together we come up with mew odeas snd new tastes. The ravioli are foie-gras ravioli for everyone but me, mine are ricotta. For that it is really easy. I used my classic pasta recipe: 100g of flour, 1 egg, a pinch of salt and olive oil. I don’t have a pasta machine, so I rolled the dough manually. For the filling: fresh foie-gras made by my mother (she is very good at preparing fresh foie-gras). But you can use some foie-gras you buy. You need one dice of 1cm height for one ravioli. For my ravioli, just fresh sicilian ricotta. I bought in Catania a new ravioli rack for large ravioli and used it. For the bouillon it’s super simple. We used some greens of fresh onion, but you can use the green of a leek, some fresh parsley, a slice of orange peel, and a bit of the foie-gras fat. In a large pan, heat a little bit of the foie-gras fat, cut in thin filaments the fresh onion/leek green, add it in the pan, stir in the fat at low heat until soften, add water, add the parsley, the orange peel. Boil for 10min. Keep to serve. Boil the ravioli and serve together.

December 26, 2016

Quenelles sequel

So once you have made some oven grilled quenelles, the next thing you can do is a green soup. for that green soup, as I mentioned yesterday it is very simple, green leaves of any kind work perfectly: spinach, radish tops, turnip tops, salad… and since I found beautiful radishes with perfect green and yound tops, I simply used that. After washing thoroughly the leaves to remove soil I boil them in a 3/4L of salted water. Once well boiled I blend them thinely and add some cream (vegetal or not), some pepper. I slice the quenelles add them to the soup and cook for 10min. Then serve. The dish, because of the quenelles is quite rich and is a full dinner for me if you count one quenelle per person.

November 21, 2016

Quenelles

Quenelles are a French traditional recipe that comes from Lyon. Though I am not usually a big fan or connaisseur of the cuisine from that area (usually too meaty for me). Quenelles are one of the rare preparations from that region I love. It’s usually vegetarian, except for chicken or fish quenelles, it’s versatile and super easy to prepare. In France most peole would buy already prepared quenelles in supermarkets, but it’s really simple to make them at home. You only need 150 flour, 2 eggs, 50g of butter, a bit of water, a bit of milk, salt and nutmeg. You can add mushroom, white fish, chicken breast etc… but personally I like them plain. In a pan set the water and the butter. Heat until the butter has melted. Add the milk and then the flour, and cook at low heat for 8min. Cool down a bit and add the eggs, the salt, the nutmeg, and stir well. You should obtain a smooth dought that doesn’t stick. If it sticks add a little more flour. Cut the dough in 8 pieces and form the quenelles as shown in the picture bel ow. Boil a large amount of water and poach the quenelles until they float. Now they are ready for any preparation you want! My favorite are the following: (1) oven grilled with vegetables: mushroom and cream, tomato sauce, this time I tried super moisted butternut squash slightly spicy purée… for the oven grill you need some moisture.

(2) slice and grilled in a frypan with a bit of kosher salt.

(3) in a soup of green leaves vegetables: lettuce, spinach, radish tops… more details in my next post!!!

Oven grilled quenelles covered in butternut squash purée

November 20, 2016

Bread making

The temperature is getting low at night these days; and mornings, though sunny are quite chilly. I love then more than ever to have hot bread, freshly baked, for breakfast. But because temperature in the house is much lower controlling the bread making is also much difficult. Yet, with more experience each year, I start to really manage to make bread with a more consistent result. A. loves white breads for breakfast so I prepared a big gâche bread this time. just 250gof white flour, 175g of water, 7g of salt and 5g of dry yeast. Kneaded until soft and smooth, then proven for a few hours (the house is barely 15deg inside) and shaped as a flat ball. I bake it the following morning for 30min (or until golden) at 230deg.

November 7, 2016

Quiche!

I think this recipe base is becoming my all-time favorite for the quiche: it’s simple and it mixes Japanese and French flavors perfectly. The quiche is a traditional dish in France, simple to prepare and accomodate with everyone taste. The twist comes from the ingredients I use in the egg base: bonito flakes (katsuobushi) and soya sauce. It gives a subtle flavor of dashi and Japan. For the dough you can use whatever flour you like or have around. I change all the time: white wheat, whole wheat, spelt, buckwheat, rice… A combination of the above mentioned is good too. I usually prepare a sable dough because I like it better, but brise dough works well too. Veggies are only seasonal fresh veggies and this time I pocked some end of summer mushrooms: shiitake (well you can fond them all year round!) and bunashimeji, a white smooth version of shimeji. That’s it!

September 1, 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

2-way stuffed zucchini flowers

The last recipe from this little stay at my parents’ place. As I was telling you yesterday, my mother is really good at preparing zucchini flowers and she not only prepared tempura she also prepared stuffed zucchini flowers. One way is with cheese and mint (vegetarian; on the right of the picture), the other with only vegetables (100% vegan; on the left of the picture). Both are delicious and worth trying!

For the cheese stuffed recipe you need zucchini flowers, cheese like goat cheese, ricotta cheese or sheep cheese, fresh mint, a bitten egg, salt, pepper that’s all. Mix the cheese with chopped mint the bitten egg (you may need only half of it if you stuff only 4 to 6 flowers. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Wash softly the flowers and stuff them with the preparation, set then in oven dish. Bake until golden.

For the vegetables filled zucchini flowers you need zucchini flowers, a carrot, an onion and a small zucchini. Cut the vegetables in brunoise (small dice), in a heated pan with olive oil, cook the vegetables until golden and dry. Wash the flowers, stuff them with the brunoise. Set in an oven dish and bake until golden. Enjoy hot or atroom temperature.

July 18, 2016

Zucchini flowers tempura

After the bouillabaisse the second thing I really wanted to eat while in Provence was zucchini flowers. My mother is really good at preparing them. She has several recipes for them and I gonna share three with you. Zucchini flowers are really hard to find in Japan and it’s a pity but it is not impossible and they are really easy to prepare. The first recipe is a Japanese inspired recipe it’s simply zucchini flowers tempura. The flowers are cut delicately into long strips and then dipped into tempura dough before being fried. This simple preparation is perfect for the flowers to enjoy their very subtle texture and taste. They are served here with little green bell peppers from Marseille, something that ressembles a lot the Japanese green bell peppers.

July 17, 2016

Aix en Provence

As you may have noticed I am not in Tokyo now but in France after two days in Paris we went south and are now spending a few days in my hometown: Aix en Provence, at my parents’ place. Prunellia and I grew up in a beautiful environment. Prunellia probably didn’t enjoyed it as much as I did but we were very lucky. And now that time has passed I see myself even luckier because we can stills enjoy that. A large family house in the middle of pines and oaks, a pool in the middle of lush greens, a tennis court, friends nearby and always ready for a coffee, and nearby the moutain Sainte Victoire and a little (touristic and posh) city with plenty of history.

The museum hotel the Caumont in Aix city center

There are plenty of things to do in Aix en Provence, starting with walking around the city center, its gothic cathedral, the narrow streets of the old center, the farmers markets, the hotels particuliers or mansions with their typical architecture and the numerous foutains. Then there is Cezanne and all the painters, the atelier and the beautiful landscapes around that inspired them with amazing little hikes (not always possible in summer because of forest fire prevention). Recently a few new museums have opened one in the countryside, in a vineyard: chateau Lacoste, contemporary art outdoor, a must see place. The other one in one of the old mansions in the city and the renovation and exhibition are really nice: hotel de Caumont (don’t misunderstand with a hotel where to spend the night!!!).

That said, being in my hometown means a lot of local products for cooking and traditional recipes prepared both by my mother and I: soupe au pistou, bouillabaisse, fig tarts, flan (pudding), zucchini flowers… Many of the recipes have already been posted in the past because they are real classics and I cook them in Tokyo too, but some are just not possible. I will still share them with you in the next few days.

July 15, 2016