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!

February 22, 2017

Japanese style pasta

In Japan there are plenty of Italian restaurants but many serve not a genuine Italian company cuisine, but rather pasta, or more spaghetti, with a strong Japanese touch. The much classic would be mentaiko – 明太子, some kind of poutargue, or spucy fish eggs, with nori. But it goes much beyond that. At first it is a bit strange to eat spaghetti with Japanese flavours, but there are some really nice combinations. In particular, I find that the nori goes very well with pasta. So I prepared some Japanese style pasta for lunch. I didn’t have spaghetti, so I used penne. And because I had some pickled Chinese cabbage to finish, I prepared some tomato sauce and serve the whole thing together. Deliciously confusing!

Penne Japanese style:

– 200 of penne

– 3 tomatoes very ripe

– 1/8 of pickled Chinese cabbage, if not pickled, you will need a little of white vinegar of your choice in addition, and a pinch of salt

– 1tbs of rice oil, or vegetal snd neutral oil

– 1 handfull of thinly cut nori

– black pepper

Boil water for the pasta, in the meantime in a saucer set the tomatoes diced. Cook at medium heat until it reduces. Cut the cabbage in bite size and add to the tomatoes. If you are using non-pickled Chinese cabbage do the same but add 1tsp oc vinegar and a pinch of salt. Add the ground black pepper to your liking. Once the penne are cooked, deain and serve in the plates. Add the tomatoes-cabbage sauce and complete with a topping of nori. Serve immediately.

February 20, 2017

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…

February 19, 2017

Hummingbirg @Hakuba

As I was writing two years ago, when you live in Tokyo, Hakuba is the ultimate place for winter sports. The snow condition is amazing, they have wonderful tracks of all levels both for skiers and snowboarders in Happo-one, some back country options, even in Iwatake a cross country course (though it’s not easy to find equipment) and some snow shoeing options now. My favorite hotel is still La neige. But today I want to focus on my favorite restaurant there: the “Hummingbird”. Every time we go to Hakuba we go there and it is always perfect. The chef: Hidefumi Hasui, after working in the largest Japanese restaurant in New York during the 70’s and 80’s and working as graphic designer, he now cooks alone in his kitchen very delicious simple, home style cuisine with simple local fresh products. Exactly the kind of cuisine you want to eat after a day outdoor in the cold and the little variety of food in ski resort cafeterias (Japanese typical ski food being udon and curry rice, and now with the foreign crowd from Australia they’ve added pizza, French fries and fried chicken… so there’s a lot of room for improvement here!). His pickles are a must, as well as the grilled salmon and the zosui – 雑炊, something that is in between rice soup rice porridge and risotto, I also love his tofu salad with tones of herbs, salad and tomatoes. The restaurant is very tiny and only a dozen of people can have dinner there every night, served by the only waitress, so booking is mandatory. With his popularity increasing every year, during the winter pick season booking one week ahead or more is now timely. During the lowest season the restaurant is open only for reservations so again, call a few days before going. Whenever you go to Hakuba, go to the hummingbird absolutely, but give a call first!

Restaurant info: Hummingbird

〒399-9301 Nagano-ken, Kitaazumi-gun, Hakuba-mura, Hokujō

長野県北安曇郡白馬村和田野の森4715-1

tel: 026-172-7788

February 18, 2017

Treasures from Nagano & soba recipe

One of the thing I love in traveling is to find new products or locally produced natural products that are not easy to find otherwise. Shinshu – 信州, the region of Nagano, is quite well known for the production of apricots, apple and buckwheat. So after our weekend in Hakuba I could not come back without some of these local products, bought on the way between Nagano and Hakuba (that’s when it comes handy to rent a car!). Of course the season for apples and apricots is way past but I found some dried fruits, which are perfect for breakfast or snacks and will perfectly accompany my Sicilian almonds. I also found some natural honey and some wheat meal.

Soba (buckwheat noodles) are something I really love but finding good soba is not always easy, so I barely cook some. And I haven’t tried to make some yet. But in Nagano, it is quite easy to find hand made noodles. And since spring is in the air these days I cooked them in a very simple fresh and green manner.

Soba with tofu and spinach:

– 180g of dried buckwheat noodles

– 1 small bundle of fresh spinach

– 1 pack of baby spinach salad

– 1 block of thick fried tofu – 厚揚げ

– some broccoli sprouts or some pumpkin or sunflower seeds

– 1/4 of lemon juice

– 1tbs of soya sauce

In a large pan boil water. Wash the bundle of spinach and cut them in 2cm pieces. Add to the boiling water, add the noodles. Cook them until al dente or as you like them. Drain them.

While the noodles are boiling, cut the tofu and wash the baby spinach. Set the baby spinach in the plates. Heat the tofu in a fry pan for a few minutes at medium heat. Serve the noodles mixed with the spinach, add the lemon juice, the soya sauce, the tofu. Finish with the broccoli sprouts or the seeds.

And have a beautiful Friday!

February 16, 2017

Chinese cabbage pickles

Earlier in Autumn you may have seen some recipes with pickled Chinese cabbage that my nice old neighbor gave me. She also promised at that time to teach me how to make some and last Sunday she came suddenly home with all (the four) ingredients necessary to make this delicious pickled cabbage. And we prepared it together. I like her way of cooking very much because it is very intuitive like mine. No need of a scale or precise measurements, just feeling. So my cabbage is now on it’s second day being pressed and I can’t wait to try it tonight!

Mrs K. pickled Chinese cabbage:

– one Chinese cabbage

– 1/2 cup of salt

– 1/4 of yuzu zest or yuzu peel cut thinely

– 1/2 red pepper (togarashi – 唐辛子) cut thinely

You also need a large tupperware box or dish where the whole cabbage can fit, and a lid to put pressure on it (ideal a cutting bord that fits in the tupperware and a stone)

The process takes 3 days so don’t expect to it right away!!!

Wash and dry the cabbage, then cut it in 6 or 8 depending on its size, along the long side. Wash the tupperware and dry it. In a bowl mix the salt with the yuzu peels and the red pepper. Throw some of the sslt mic in the bottom of the tupperware, then lay your cabbage pieces in one row with the outer leaves towards the bottom. All in one single layer. Add some more salt mix a bit everywhere insisting more at the root if the leaves where it’s white and hard. Then top with your cutting board and apply weight on it. After 24h water would have come out. Then flip the cabbage, outer leaves up, and apply some more pressure for another 24-36h. Be careful that the water may overflow! Remove some if it might. It’s impressive how much water can come out! After the 2nd night and during the 3rd day you can start to eat your cabbage. Rinse under water and dry it in cooking paper before serving. Delicious with rice, rice porridge, or pasta soup.

February 6, 2017

Continuing with Japanese one-plates

For weekend lunches I love to prepare one-plate or one-bowl lunches. They are simple to prepare, well balanced and fun to eat. Since we spend most of our weekend outdoors they are a perfect break. I usually use Japanese rice as the starting point and decline with two or free more items. For this plate I prepared rice served with umeboshi, a tomato-avocado-sesame salad, and kabocha croquettes. I served it with grilled sausages for A. who likes meat.

Kabocha and wheat bran croquettes:

– 1/3 of kabocha, steamed

– 3tbs of wheat bran

– 3tbs of vegetal oil for cooking

Once the kabocha is steamed, mash it to a thick purée. Split the quantity in four and make balls or oblong shapes. Roll them in the wheat bran. Heat the oil in a fry pan and cook the croquettes at high heat, turn them regularly until golden everywhere. Have a beautiful Sunday!

February 4, 2017

Plum trees start to bloom

It’s been a few weeks that the red plum trees in the garden were boiling to bloom, now it’s official plum flower season has started. Even some if the white plum trees have started to bloom too. It is one of my favorite moment in the year. It is still cold but spring is already showing up. I like the beautiful little flowers against the crisp blue sky. So using the plum as a base I prepared a one-plate lunch with pink small radishes for the color, plain white rice shaped in plum flower (I made 5 little balls that I then compacted together using a piece of cooking wrap), an umeboshi on top. Then scrambled eggs with nori and grilled shiitake with sesame and a drop of sesame oil and soya sauce. And everything ready in 20min (when in a rush cooking rice in a pan is much faster than the rice cooker). And shaping the rice took me the most time because I had no clue how to do it, but I’m quite proud I managed! Happy Setsubun!!!

February 3, 2017

Canola with miso

It is nice to change shopping place once in a while because different markets have different products and it opens up to new opportunity for trying new recipes or new combinations. So this weekend instead of shopping in Ohara I shopped in Kuniyoshi, a small village 10km away. I love their coop shop because they have many different products in particular for fish and meat. So I got a beautiful sashimi of sabre fish and prepared it very simply with white rice, canola boiled in dashi and served with miso (one classic use of canola in Japanese cuisine), and I pan fried some tiny lotus roots and the fish. That’s it!

Canola with miso – 味噌和え菜の花

– 1 bundle of canola

– 1 small handful of katsuobushi

– 1 tbsp of miso of your choice

Wash quickly the canola under running water, remove the hardest parts if any. In a pan boil 1/3L of water, add the katsuobushi in a dashi bag. Bring to a boil. Add the canola and cook for 5min. Drain and rince with cold water. Squeeze them gently to remove all the water. Cut in 3 or 4 the whole bundle. Serve woth miso on top. (You can also mix the miso with it but it might break the leaves and flowers, so I prefer not to)

January 29, 2017