Okonomiyaki

“Grill what you like” could be a direct translation for okonomiyaki, this very popular Japanese dish from Kansai as I explained in a previous post. And it is one of the first Japanese dish I’ve ever prepared after we first travel to Japan. Indeed, okonomiyaki is easily found as stall food for festival and is always high impact with the bonito flakes that seems to dance feverishly on top, the white and black stripes of the mayonnaise and the bulldog sauce, and the base so easy to eat! And it is very easy to make at home and always impresses foreign visitors! For one okonomiyaki for 4 people here is my recipe again: you need half a cabbage or chinese cabbage shredded, some pork meat, ground and seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper, 4 eggs, 1/2 to 1 cup of flour depending how thick you want the base, mayonnaise, bulldog sauce, and two handful of bonito flakes. In a hot and greased pan cook the cabbage until soft; add the meat, stir well. In a bowl mix the eggs snd the flour. Add the mixture in the pan and even the surface. Cook at low heat under cover, flip when the surface is almost done. Cook a few more minutes, serve in a dish, add crisscross mayonnaise and bulldog sauce, finish with bonito flakes topping. Enjoy the motion of the flakes while it’s still hot.

November 6, 2016

Back to “normal”

After one full week of reunited Tokyo Paris sisters, it is time to part again, not for too long, since we’ll reunite with our whole family for another Christmas in Sicily, which I am very much looking forward too!!!

One week with guests at home and usual work is always quite intense. Dining out, waking up earlier to spend sometime together in the morning, and using our days off to travel the city. Yesterday was Culture day 文化の日 and we had quite a full day to enjoy the beautiful autumnal weather: we went to Shibamata to see some old shopping street and beautiful temple, then head to the new Otani hotel for a teppanyaki lunch and stroll in the Japanese garden. Spent part of the early afternoon at Dailanyama T-site, stopped on the way back at the Aman hotel, and finish shopper in Asakusa for some order-made paper lantern P. wanted for a very long time. Back home just in time for sunset and mount Fuji!!! (Don’t think of this kind of schedule if you are not motorized!)

And then by dinner our guests were gone, going back to Paris. And a sudden emptiness and quietness st home! Time for us to catch-up with our regular habits and in particular with our veggie-based dinner! So I prepared a very simple soup with butternut squash, potatoes, burdock, lotus root, cabbage, a large piece of konbu for the broth and finished with a little of soya sauce and sesame seeds. So simple and very Japanese in flavors.

November 4, 2016

TPS Paris is in Tokyo

It’s not too often it happens but my sister is visiting Tokyo this week. It means a lot of eating out and some cooking too, mainly Japanese for lunch and dinner. It also means a lot of going here and there. We spent the Saturday in the countryside, blessed with an amazing weather on Saturday morning that allowed us to go swimming in the ocean, just before the temperature dropped and felt like it’s winter. So to warm ourselves in the evening I first prepared a simple miso soup with tofu for me and clams for the others, seasoned with a bit of yuzu peels, some simply grilled bonito and a few nuka pickles.

And while dinner is getting ready, what’s better than some little slices of lotus root slightly fried in a heated and greased pan? May be cucumbers and miso… well I’m just cooking all my favorite ingredients for her!!!

October 30, 2016

Butternut squash + shiitake = perfect combo

There are ingredients like these that are a perfect match and a perfect seasonal signature. Butternut squash and shiitake are one of these pairs. Funnily in Japanese butternut squash is called nippon kabocha ニホンカボチャ, which means basically Japanese kabocha. Yet until very recently it was impossible to find something else than regular kabocha, the small pumpkin with a green skin. But recently I have found butternut squash at the farmers market and I love it. Shiitake is very easy to find too, but this time I have found tiny ones, really cute and delicious. So I have used them quite intensively. Using the same pair of veggies I have prepared two different variations one Japanese one more western. The first one is takikomi rice. Which is a preparation where vegetables and rice are cooked together, at the same time. And the cooking base can be either dashi, warer or a seasoned one. I love simple water seasoned with soya sauce. So I cut a piece of butternut squash in cubes, use the shiitake as whole or cut in halves, put them on top of the rice and water, season with a large table spoon of soya sauce. And cook as usual.

The second version is as simple. It’s with pasta. In a pan I cook the butternut squash and the shiitake in olice oil, add some pork slices, season with pepper and a bit of salt. Boil some pasta of your choice. And serve. That’s it!!! Really simple!!

How do you like your autumn veggies?

October 24, 2016

Kabocha here, kabocha there!

Autumnal weather with cool evenings and beautiful days calls for some autumnal ingredients. Kabocha is one I love. As you can have seen from my previous posts, it is in almost all my recipes these days: soup, sauteed… and it goes perfectly well with Japanese food, western food… And bonus it cooks very quickly which for me is a must.

Today’s recipe is just so simple: kabocha and eggplant grilled at high heat and then seasoned with some soya sauce, served with plain white rice and dry konbu. Dinner can be ready really quick!

October 21, 2016

Want a Japanese twist for your pasta salad?

Since I have bought some different types of miso at the miso shop in Kichijoji (see Saturday’s post), I am using quite extensively. Mainly with raw veggies as a dip but finally last night I decided to try an original mix: a pasta salad with a white miso dressing. And it was a real nice experience! And super simple to prepare. I boiled some farfalle, then cut some okra, tomato and cucumber in small dices and add them to the pasta. And for the dressing I used 2 tsp of white miso, 2 tsp of olive oil and 1 tsp of sesame seeds, stir well and add it on top of the salad, add a little more sesame seeds for the decoration. The white miso mixed with olive oil is perfectly creamy and almost cheesy and suits perfectly the vegetables in the salad and the farfalle! A very good wa-yo taste and texture!

October 18, 2016

Miso, miso, miso

Miso is usually sold in large containers in Japan (it is with rice one of the rare ingredients that comes in large packaging compared to Western countries). It is a real pity because I love different types of miso depending on what I am cooking and I usually don’t keep several sorts because I don’t use it every day. In summer I like red miso, in winter white miso, but I also love miso with grains inside, and miso made of barley or of soy beans… So you can imagine how much happy I was when last night with D. we found a little place in Kichijoji that is both a restaurant and a miso shop where you can by miso by 100g units. Let’s first talk about miso, then about the restaurant.
The shop is ran by a single person (土平哲生さん), the elder son and 4th generation of miso makers, that does everything. His shop has a collection of miso coming from different places in Japan and made of the different ingredients, is has also some spicy miso and other fancy ones. It covers all the possible different tastes: very salty to very sweet, creamy to crumbly. And of course you can try all of them before deciding which ones you want to buy. I decided to go with miso made of 100% barley with a crumbly texture, and for a creamy but not too sweet white miso. I am now looking forward to cooking with these new miso.
The restaurant is a bare 10 seats place, with a little kitchen. Since D. is alergic to dairies and doesn’t eat meat at all we asked him if he could prepare something for us that would accommodate us, and he just prepared on the spot some dishes for us. I really like the idea that he could basically cook whatever we wanted with the ingredients he had, it reminded me of “深夜食堂”, a Japanese TV drama where “master” cooks whatever people want in is tiny restaurant. So we first asked for raw cabbage with different types of miso to try some of the different options, then he prepared for us some simmered eggplant with white miso, onigiri with vegetables pickled in miso (I found that not only his miso is delicious, his rice was also amazing!), and we finished with a salad of tofu, fried eggplant, tomato, green beans, with a miso dressing of course! Everything was simple and delicious and so simply prepared that it tasted like home!

Soy Bean Fram – ソイビーンファーム
Open everyday from 11:30 to 22:00
5min walk from Kichijoji JR station, north exit
Tokyo Musashino-shi Kichijoji Honmachi 2-15-2
東京都武蔵野市吉祥寺本町2-15-2

October 14, 2016

Fresh ginger!

It is now the season for fresh ginger. Fresh ginger looks very much like “old” ginger that is commonly found in supermarkets all over the world, but instead of a dry and thick skin and a very rooty aspect, fresh ginger has a whitish-pinkish color with a very thin skin and a much softer structure with much less fibers in it. It is quite juicy and slightly less spicy in taste. Ideal for any recipe involving ginger, perfect just sliced or grated for the juice. And since the weather is getting chillier these days a hot honey-ginger or ginger-tangerine drink is perfect!!!!

Making these drinks is very easy, you need a piece of ginger, honey and/or 1 or 2 tangerines. Boil water, peel and cut the ginger in slices, squeeze the tangerines for juice. In a tea pot put the sliced ginger, the tangerine juice, 2 tsp of honey, add the water. Let infuse 5 to 10min depending on your taste and drink while hot! Perfect to prevent colds and season fatigue.

October 13, 2016

A long week ahead…

After this nice weekend in the country, cooking and baking simple yet delicious food, we’re now back in Tokyo, but A. is leaving for a business trip for the whole week and I’m staying in Tokyo, with quite a work agenda, starting lectures for the new term and having some important deadline tomorrow. This means that this week cooking is going to be slightly different than usual. I don’t mind cooking for myself but most vegetables when combined together are too big for one person and I don’t really like eating twice the same things. I will have to find some new ideas of recipes to accomodate. Donburi are a real good option and I love them. I may eat donburi for the whole week! Or soup since it has become much chillier than it was last week and now it feels like autumn.

This donburi on the picture is one I cooked this weekend and I love it’s simplicity: new rice from Isumi topped with grilled lotus roots and shiitake. Finished with a little of soy sauce. The perfect dish as a side or a whole for an easy quick meal, tasty and full of different textures.

October 10, 2016