Broccoli, turnips, potato, shiitake for a good meal after work, there’s nothing better. Add a little of pork filet diced if you like it, sautéed in a pan with olive oil!
The avocado curse
This morning I went back to work. I hate when the clock rings, but when it rang this morning I was dreaming that it would rang as many times as there are fountains in Rome, and I just didn’t bother… But after a while I had to go back to real life… to open the curtains and see a beautiful blue sky and mount Fuji in the background. Hum… Not too bad after 17 days of the same weather to have another one. In the train, surprisingly empty I was thinking about writing something about Sicily, or about Rome, and share some of these beautiful things we’ve seen and amazing places we’ve been, but I quickly got immersed in my emails and forget to write anything. When the train arrived in Koganei, I got off mechanically and headed to the supermarket to grad something for my lunch later. That’s when I got stricken by the fact that really in winter the only thing I find suitable enough to eat is the sandwiches I make with wholewheat and seeds bread, cream cheese and avocado. I got a bonus apple for my snack and then I realized that I AM going back to work and that I NEED to break this avocado-sandwich routine to something else, but right now I’m unable to figure out which substitute could work for me and I have the impression to be under the avocado curse (like in Kid Icarus, a game I used to play on my gameboy when I was a kid where you get cursed by an eggplant!!) … What do you have for lunch at work? I’m open to ideas… Pleazzzz
First bread of the year
When we left Japan in December it was still the end of autumn, in our garden the Japanese mapple trees were all red, the gingko had just lost all its leaves, the camelias were starting to bloom. 15 days later, the mapple leaves have all fallen, at first sight only the camelias haven’t changed, but with a closer look, the daffodils are blooming, the magnolias and the plum trees are full of buds already big, and the garden is metamorphosing slowly towards spring. From now on it’s going to be the coldest days, but the garden needs a lot of attention to get ready for spring: tree treaming, weed removing, cutting, grooming, planting… So we spend a lot of time outside in the cold, and there’s nothing better to start such days with a warm energizing rustic bread for breakfast. My recipe is simple: 50g of rye flour, 200g of white flour, 170g of water, 14g of sordough, 4g of natural dry yeast, 6g of salt. 20min cooking at 230deg, plus 5min in the oven cooling down. Perfect with jam, honey, butter or whatever pleases you!!!
Best wishes for 2016 + TPS 1st anniversary
On January 1st last year I started Tokyo-Paris sisters. The idea came for several reasons:
- the need to revive the cooking and life-style part of gentianeetantoine.com, a website I started when we moved to Japan in 2004 and where pretty much everyday during 7 years I shared our discovery of Japan and our trips in Japan and abroad. The cooking part was a public space mainly dedicated to our friends and family where I shared Japanese recipes I was trying and French recipes I was preparing.
- I needed a cooking diary to remember year after year what I am cooking and how because, as you may have noticed I cook without books and got inspiration on the moment, and forget as quickly as the idea came, and a picture is often better than notes.
- I wanted to do something with my sister.
Now that we’ve been on for a year I realized it’s a lot more fun than I expected and I really like this moment I spend, mostly in the train, writing something about what I’ve cooked, or reading what Prune has been writing, I also realized that most of the posts are about food which at first was not intentional, though I wanted a cooking diary, I thought about mixing it with many more things that I am excited about or Prune is excited about, but for some reason I restrained myself and Prune may have too. Anyway, TPS is going on and starting fresh in 2016 with many more recipes, some travel and hopefully home decor and life style. Everyday brings something different, let’s enjoy that!
Best wishes for 2016!!
Brandade
This recipe is one of our mother recipe and is a traditional Provencal recipe using the leftovers of salted cod . After the cod has been unsalted and washed, just boiled it, then add milk and stir until the milk has been all absorbed by the fish. Add pepper and olive oil, stir again. This mixture, called “brandade” is delicious on toasted bread, with boiled potatoes, as a spread or to stuff veggies. It’s good eaten either warm or cold. Here is a preparation of stuffed cherry tomatoes, perfect for a buffet or finger food.
Late after-work dinner
This week is the last one before flying to Italy, so there’s quite a number of things I want to finish to be sure that I’m leaving with everything sorted out. Days at the lab have been extremely long and busy juggling with meeting, students, lectures and administrative work. So when back home I want to prepare aome light and comforting food. These little tortellini are just perfect. But rather than simply boiling them and serving them with olive oil, this time I opted for a fresh veggies broth made with leek, carrots and carrot leaves. After boiling the veggies in water for 3min I added the tortellini and boiled them for about 10min (you don’t want to over-cook them). I served it as a soup and for those who like it I served with some gratted Parmegiano.
Mushrooms, yuzu pasta
Sorry for this little break from TPS. Work has been really busy in the past weeks, often coming back home pretty late and I’ve also had some end of the year parties, and dinner out with friends, so these last days have been pretty low on cooking. I’m happy to spend the weekend in the country and to have time to cook. So today, for our post tennis game I prepared these nice fusilli with grilled mushrooms: shimeji and shiitake with fresh yuzu peel and yuzu juice, dressed with a little of olive oil, sea salt and pepper. A perfect lunch to continue with a few hours in the garden trimming trees and preparing for winter. Have a good weekend!!
Red cabbage salad
Nothing here too experimental with this recipe, but I’ve been craving for red cabbage salad. And it makes a perfect Monday fix for dinner when I’m in a rush.
So I just sliced thinly about 1/4 or less of red cabbage, added some fresh baby leaf salad or just a few leaves of salad and fresh spinach also cut, I added some olive oil, some pumpkin seeds, some walnuts and some okara, a bit of salt and a pepper and finished with a little curcuma. Additional some cubes of gruyere cheese, and a slice of bread.
Another version of the kabocha tart
Spending the weekend in Tokyo we often eat out, so at last I wanted a simple dinner at home on Sunday evening. I hesitated between risotto and tart and finally we opted for the tart. As for the veggies to put in it was all decided: leek, tomato and kabocha, I had also some nice bacon that I added to the mix but it is optional.
So, in a pan with a little of olive oil I grilled the leek cut in slices, the bacon, then added the kabocha and the tomato. I cooked until all the moisture from the tomato was gone. I also added 2 beaten eggs, salt and pepper before putting it in the dough. For the dough I opted for an olive oil base half-half white flour and buckwheat flour. II baked 20min at 180deg. Ready to serve.
