Category: Life-style

Yukata

A summer classic in Japan is to wear yukata to go to a summer festival – natsu matsuri – 夏祭り. Both boys and girls can wear yukata, and besides the obi they quite comfortable to wear and it’s much easier to wear it than a “full” kimono. I was lucky enough to have learned how to wear kimono the very first year we lived in Japan and since then to practice once or twice a year. But I have less opportunities to wear yukata as we often went to matsuri after work and I didn’t have time to change.

Last year with some friends from Isumi we all decided to wear yukata and go to Brownsfield matsuri and bon odori. I guess my neighbor caught me on my way there and remember, she decided to teach me how to sew a yukata. Because I was unsure of the result I picked a simple local cotton fabric. The whole sewing took me a lot more time than I thought it would and my neighbor was probably desperate by my slowness and poor sewing skills, she who would sew 3 yukata in one night!!! But hey! I managed to have it ready for the summer and I was very excited to wear it. I choose the Ohara Hanabi Beach matsuri for that: bon odori, minyo live and of course fireworks, on the beach. A very lovely and casual evening… in my new yukata!

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I will try to make a memo of the fabrication of the yukata, but I think I need a lot more practice, so if you are interested in having a hand sewed yukata made just for you, let me know! I’ll be happy to make you one!!!

Bonito

Not far away from our house is Katsuura 勝浦, a city on the ocean with a fishing harbor, a fish market, a few nice street to browse and a sea front further south where we paddle surf (or least try to!!).

Katsuura is quite famous as a bonito fishing harbor in the area and they indeed have delicious fresh bonito in season, which is basically from spring to mid summer. We’ve eating quite a bit of bonito, and one of my classic way of preparing it is either pan grilled or in a sort of ragù with vegetables. But after a few times eating it that way always, I wanted a new recipe.

Inspired by the pies and other yummy pictures I saw on IG, I decided to try making a bonito pie. The shape of the filet is perfect to fit in a cake dish and with the season of bell peppers starting, I had a perfect combination. The pie cooking is quite interesting as all the juices and flavors are trapped in the pie and reveals when you cut it, guaranteeing a very interesting tasting experience. Though I could have worked a bit more on how to shape and plate it (as usual), the taste was amazing. Definitely a recipe that will go to my favorite recipes of the moment.

Bonito pie (2-3 servings)

For the pie crust

– 200g of flour (I used whole wheat)

– 4tbs of olive oil

– water

– a pinch of salt

For the filling

– 1 bonito filet (for sashimi)

– 2-3 bell peppers red, yellow, orange… you name it

– 2 leaves of laurel

– olive oil, salt and pepper

Prepared the pue crust. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt and olive oil. Add water little by little and knead until you have a smooth dough. Roll it in a rectangular shape to fit your cake dish, yet twice bigger.

Set it in the cake dish. Add the laurel leaves in the bottom of the pie, then add the bonito on top. Wash and slice the bell peppers. Arrange them around and on top of the bonito. Add salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil. Close the pie with the dough. Make a small hole on the top and make a small chimney with baking paper. Bake at 180deg for 40min. Or until golden.

Potatoes and green beans

If there is one combination I love it’s potatoes and greens: green peas, green beans, broad beans… usually I would prepare them with new onions blanched and olive oil. Today I decided to try for new sauce, a lazy mayonnaise. Mayonnaise requires that you emulsion the oil, the egg yolk and the mustard together. It requires a lot of beating, and a lot of oil. A lighter and lazier option actually exists, and plus you use a whole egg so no wondering what to do with the remaining white. Here is my recipe. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Oh! We’ve also eaten up all the potatoes I’ve harvested last week. I’ll harvest some more tomorrow if the weather is not as bad as today… so there’s gonna be potatoes recipe coming again very likely…

Potatoes, green beans and lazy mayonnaise

– 3 new potatoes (billiard ball size) per person if a main dish, less if a side

– a handful of green beans

– 1 egg

– 2tsp of mustard

– olive oil

– pepper

Wash the vegetables. Boil the potatoes until just soft. Boil the egg for 6min. Blanche the green beans. Peel the egg.

In a bowl, crush the egg, the mustard and the oil until the mixture is creamy. It’s ok if the white is roughly crushed. Dressing is ready!

Cut the potatoes in four, cut the bean in two if they are long. Add the dressing, stir well and it’s all ready. It warm, at room temperature or refrigerated.

Sautéed new potatoes and green sweet peppers

That is not much of a recipe I reckon!!! Who needs a cook book to make sautéed new potatoes honestly??? But in the meantime, as I cook to enjoy the ingredients I have around me and to sustain our bodies, not just to make pictures on instagram, I believed it was cheating not to mention sautéed new potatoes as they are one of my favorite ways of eating new potatoes, even though I prefer them tiny tiny, but I failed in growing my potatoes properly for that.

To twist them just a bit I added green sweet pepper or shishito -シシトウ in Japanese. And because I didn’t have much, I served them with scrambled eggs. It could be breakfast, lunch or dinner, you have the choice!

Tonight we have guests at home so I not sure I’ll have a new recipe for you, but I’ll for sure serve some of my kitchen garden potatoes!!!

Have a good day!

Purple potatoes soup

Continuing the week with a recipe that this time uses only purple ratte potatoes, that is simple, delicious and beautiful: a cold creamy soup.

All you need is a few purple potatoes, some fresh cream or milk, salt and pepper. Yes! That’s the only ingredients in my recipe.

Cold potatoes soup

– 3 purple ratte potatoes (vitellote)

– 150ml of cream or cream

– salt and pepper

Wash the potatoes and boil them until very soft (actually if you do it a couple of hours before it is even better as the potatoes will cool down naturally and you won’t have to cool them under excessive water or in the fridge!).

Blend the potatoes with 300ml the cooking water, or just water, add the cream or milk, blend again. If too thick add a bit of water and blend again. Repeat until it has a creamy texture. Serve, top with salt and pepper.

That’s it!!

Potatoes Japanese style

Day 2 for this week of freshly harvested potatoes. Today it’s a Japanese simple recipe that can be made everywhere, every time. Of course it is much tastier with new potatoes but it can work with old ones too. It has all the distinguishable flavors of Japanese cuisine: the cooked sake, the soya sauce, the sweetness, and the katsuobushi, well the umami as it’s called and as it’s all over cooking and gourmet magazines.

Simmered potatoes Japanese style

– a few (new) potatoes. Pick 3 midsize (billiard ball size) new potatoes per person for a main dish, 2 for a side.

– 3tbs of soya sauce

– 3tbs of sake

– 2tbs of brown sugar

– some katsuobushi, optimally ultra-thin cut (see below)

Wash the potatoes and cut them in four. In a pan, set the potatoes and cover with water. Start boiling under cover. When the potatoes are almost done, add the soya sauce, the sake and the brown sugar. Simmer a little and turn the pan so that all the sauce will pass over all the potatoes. Do not stir!! You may break the potatoes and end up with a purée!!

Cook at high heat will turning the pan once in a while. When the sauce is almost gone move in serving plates or a bowl. Top with ultra thin cut katsuobushi (itogiri katsuobushi – 糸切り鰹節). Eat right away or after it has cooled down. Enjoy!!!

Colorful potato salad

The first recipe for this potatoes week is very simple. I wanted a preparation that would let us enjoy the difference between the two types of potatoes we grew and would be a full lunch. Well… I simply decided on a self grown plate with only staples from our kitchen garden. Well the choice is still quite limited but here is what I had: salad, celery branches, snap peas, overgrown snap peas that turned into green peas, basil, mint, rosemary, fennel leaves, parsley. The beats are struggling after a bird and a bug attack, the passion fruit is just having flowers…

So celery and peas appeared as the best options. Olive oil, salt and pepper as the best dressing.

I simply washed and steamed (or boiled) 4 small purple ratte and 4 small potatoes, blanched the peas and, and wash and cut the celery, then dressed the plates, topped with olive oil, salt and pepper, and lunch was ready.

Steaming the potatoes allows for a simple tasting where the flavors and texture are untouched, but don’t over cook them. As soon as they are cooked plunge them in cold water.

Have a good week!!

Potatoes week

In March we planted potatoes in our new kitchen garden. We went for two species: some melty white potatoes and some purple ratte potatoes. It was our first time ever growing potatoes on our own, so I guess we made some mistakes: soil too rich and too compact, lack of leaves clearing… but I still harvested a few plants and we got a decent amount of potatoes. Enough for the two of us, to eat fresh and new (I am not good with preserving food for long). So I’ve decided this week will be a potato week! And I’ll share with you some of my favorite recipes. Stay tuned for the first recipe!!!

Blind Donkey

It is difficult to find new nice restaurants in Tokyo, not that there is none but rather that the offer is to wide. And because of our busy schedules, finishing work late pretty much every day, the idea of eating out is rarely an option. But we have guests or visitors we’re always happy to take them out and on these occasions we usually postpone a bit of work to finish early. That’s exactly what happened this week with P. and E. staying at our place. And in March we were recommended a restaurant in Tokyo, very close to our place actually, by a friend working in permaculture in Isumi. She emphasized the background of the chef and the sourcing of the products they use in the kitchen. We tried to go when we had visitors in April, but the restaurant was closed for a month for some rework of the menu or so, and finally I got a reservation for June. I have standards for restaurants that are not necessarily easy to meet. I’m picky with the food for sure, but also service, decor and overall atmosphere. I like places that are not packed, not too noisy, and where the staff is nice since being overly obsequious or marketed. And well… to be honest the Blind Donkey met all my expectations. I like the location, the space and the food, service was a bit rushed but nice and friendly, space between tables is nice, and you can have a conversation with your party without feeling you have to shout and becoming deaf. The food was great. The ingredients, the preparation, and the plating. All was simple but delicious. No extra.

So if you are in town you should try it.

The blind donkey

3-17-4 Uchikanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Pictures are from the restaurant instagram.

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