Category: Japanese food

Japanese food addict

When we are in Japan I don’t think about it, I naturally cook Japanese at least once a week sometimes more. When I say Japanese I mean rice (white or brown) and something with dashi and/or miso and/or umeboshi. These tastes have been part of our daily life now almost as much as good olive oil and basil. And when traveling I miss them, after a short while and the excitement of tasting new thing. They are simple, plain and fine at the same time, they are the promise also of fresh and simply delicious ingredients (for me) just as olive oil is too. Yet it is easier to find good olive oil and cook with olive oil (and with cooking with our friends and eating at their place several times I was really lucky!) than it is with miso, dashi, umeboshi and rice. I mean real delicious ones are still hard to find. So during this two-week trip I’ve craved for the simplicity of a bowl of Koshihikari with umeboshi, and that’s the first thing I cooked when I arrived home. I also prepared some dashi to cook some eggplants and used it for flavoring scrambled eggs. It is that simple and delicious. Is that the taste of home in Japan? Or does that make a Japanese food addict? What do you crave for when away from home?

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!!!!

Umeboshi, you really disappoint me!

I was super excited last winter when our old neighbor (I call her Obachan) told me she will teach me how to make umeboshi. I love ume and delicious organic umeboshi ate always welcome with a simple bowl of rice. I was even more enthusiastic after she gave us some of her umeboshi, thinking that if I could made some as simply delicious I’ll be very happy. And with all the plums we can harvest every year I can have enough for a whole year and offer plenty to our friends. On the due date I harvested the plums, with the guidance of Obachan I prepared them, plenty of them. After a week the juice (umezu) started to fill the container. Everything was doing good and smelling delicious. Then a few weeks later two of the containers were covered with mold and the juice was corrupted, I threw them away. Half of my production gone… I gave extra care for the remaining ones and it looked perfect. Last weekend was beautifully sunny and windy so I decided to dry half of the remaing plums. I carefully manipulate them, dry them and put them in a bin. Again they smell delicious and I was excited about trying them. Since a few were smashed I decided to extra rhe flesh and prepare a dip of umeniku 梅肉 for cucumber and rice balls (onigiri). And then I tasted them…

They looked really good (see on the picture), they were a bit salty but I guess that is ok, but worst of all they had a little mold or rotten after taste, something earthy and not right… I threw them again. I have a last chance with the one that haven’t dried yet but I’m very skeptical. 

It is very rare I mess up with food. Sometime a recipe doesn’t go as supposed but there always a work around and it is always edible but here… So many fruits wasted really pissed me off. But I not through! I will try again next year!

my umeboshi, looking good hum... tasting horrible...
my umeboshi, looking good hum… tasting horrible…

Simple Japanese one-plate

Well, Japanese is may be a little to much but at least it’s Japanese taste and local products! I don’t like fatty meat but I must say that pork belly is always perfect to flavor simple vegetables. It’s very easy to find thin slices of pork belly in Japan, they ressemble a lot bacon slices. They are perfect for cocotte cooking for the bottom layer. Once they are cooked and the fat has melted it is a perfect base for cooking vegetables. It goves an incredible taste. Most of the time I use it mainly as flavoring and don’t eat the meat myself (A. does) but when the fat has completely disappeared and the meat gets crunchy then I don’t mind eating it! I actually find it quite good!!! It’s nice also because it’s perfect any time with seasonal vegetables. This time I cooked capsicums and in the end of the cooking added green beans cut in 3cm bites and finally deglazed in soya sauce. Delicious with plain white rice!

Back to normal

The quick trip to France followed by a weekend in Ohara to recover from the jetlag, enjoy the fresher air in the country, see friends and celebrate Sea day with a swim in a warm and beautiful ocean, it’s time to go to the lab again, stay seated 12h in front of my computer and regret there is no outdoor pool nearby (why on earth would they shutdown the beautiful pool we had on campus just when I arrived????)… Hopefully there are the colorful one-plate full of Japanese tastes with fresh shiso, soya sauce, rice, grilled tuns and raw summer veggies! While everyone here and there will go on holiday, we will keep working and moving: next biz trip already planned and departure in 10 days!

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.

Rice salad Japanese style

Japanese purists would hang me for that recipe!!! In the edamame gohan I’ve added boiled chick peas, and served this “mame gohan” with blanched green beans, cherry tomatoes and hard boiled egg. A sort of “salade de riz” as we call it in France, (so 70’s tupperware cooking!!!) but with a Japanese touch. Of course for the dressing it’s just a little of soya sauce if the green beans and tomatoes, the sacrilege doesn’t go that far!

Speaking of soya sauce, I’ve been selected as a finalist for a cooking contest organized by the soya sauce association! The finale is on August 20th… Let’s see what I can do. It’s my first cooking contest. I have no idea how it is gonna look like… 

Edamame gohan

There is something that I love in summer in Japan, it’s fresh edamame. A few weeks ago they’ve appeared on the market stands and I’ve already introduced one recipe with eggplants from the shojin cuisine tradition. Of course with just salt they are perfect too. One other way I love them it’s with rice. It’s better to peel them but not an obligation. I prefer to as much as I can. The flavour and texture is better. It melts with the rice. I cook the rice and the edamame separately and only add them a few minutes before serving. I always add a pinch of salt. Here it is served with a katsuobushi-soya sauce omelette and 25year old umeboshi. 

Simple Japanese dinner

A simple piece of horse mackerel marinated in soya sauce and oven grilled; dashi blanched green beans and eggplants, white rice and umeboshi make for a perfect dinner in this rainy season period. Simple, tasty and colorful. I wish you a nice end of week! 

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