Category: Life-style

What about la galette des rois???

If there is one traditional food I don’t care much about it’s the Epiphany kings’ galette, the “galette des rois”. Whether the brioche or the frangipane, I don’t care much about them. Not that I dislike them but I don’t like them either. They are not part of my must-eat food. And since I am bad at making puff pastry, that’s even easier to forget about it… but this year IG was covered with galettes and though I was insensitive to them A. wasn’t… and he asked me why we never have galette though he loves it so much!

What???? Why on earth would you wait more than 20 years to tell me???

How could I have not imagined he would love galette. He who doesn’t like almonds but loves calisson and financiers, he who doesn’t love butter but loves croissants and brioches… of course he loves galette… of course I ignored that…

Well then… I took all the courage it takes to make an attempt at puff pastry when I have failed so often.

So here I am folding and rolling and turning every hour my puff pastry by the book, hoping it will become something… probably because of the cold temperature inside it is not as tedious as I remembered, and no butter spill.

For the frangipane I used a standard recipe: almond powder plenty, 1 egg, a bit of sugar and a tiny bit of butter, stirred into a dense pomade.

The rest is just simple. I decided for a square galette, rolled one layer of dough, topped with frangipane, leaving enough room to close it. Rolled another layer of dough to put on top, sealed the borders well. Paint an egg batter. Made a little seasonal drawing: blooming camellia japonica as we have so many in the garden, and 30min at 200deg. Until just golden. A. couldn’t wait any longer!!!

The result was surprisingly delicious. It didn’t have the sticky sugary top it too often has in shops, it was not too sweet, actually very nice, and the puff pastry worked well! Beginner’s luck!!!

Snowy day gets bright with the warmth of golden rice

Many of you may be familiar with golden milk, this Indian drink with turmeric and milk, rooted in Ayurveda. Not that I am a fan of it, but borrowing the idea, I prepared myself a warming and bright lunch on a snowy day. Snow doesn’t fall often in Tokyo. Usually once or twice a year in January and March. It is very sudden, it snows a lot for a few hours to cover everything under a beautiful white blanket, and then the next minute is sunny and the blanket melts into a mess of mud and ice. But for a few hours it is magic. The city becomes suddenly quiet.

So before going outside for a walk, what best then having a warm lunch? A what if it is not only warm, it is also bright and full of flavors? That’s how I came up with this golden sautéed rice recipe.

Golden rice (2 servings as main dish)

  • 1 cup of brown rice
  • 1 or 2 leaks
  • 3 little turnips or 1 large
  • 1 little lotus root
  • 1tsp pf curry powder
  • 2tsp of ground turmeric
  • Ground black pepper
  • A punch of salt
  • 1tsp of vegetal oil
  • 6 rakkyo (optional)

Cook the rice. Wash and cut the vegetables. In a pan large enough, heat the oil, add the vegetables and cook while steering. Add the rice, the spices and pepper and steer very well. Serve and top with the rakkyo. Eat while watching the cold outside!!

Welcoming another new year…

I am not good at welcoming new years… Probably because it is too close to my birthday, and I just myself turned one more year and still try to understand what it means… also we celebrate more personal events than any other: birthdays, anniversaries… For many it is a time to look back at achievements and look forward to goals. I have no regrets , and as long as I can remember I never made a good resolutions list. I have no bucket list, nor list of things I want to fix in my life, bad habits I need to get rid of, diets I need to start, addictions I need to quit or things I could do better. Not that I am perfect of course not, but I don’t make lists. Usually when I need to do something I just do it and organize myself to stick to it! January 1st wouldn’t be the time I would particularly change and set goals for myself. So the welcoming of the new year is not so important for me. And for the past 17 years we’ve spent a lot of the new year eves either in a plane or with a big jet lag in the countryside, when it is cold and we usually go early to bed and wake up early too. Though I like the Japanese celebration of new year at a nearby temple or shrine for the festive simplicity of hatsumode 初詣, the first visit of the year to a shrine or temple, and have nice memories of so many spent with friends or family in so many different places in Japan they are also often memories of hours in the cold, waiting in crowded lines for the time to arrive, with bonfire to warm us once in a while. So we now often skip the midnight visit and go later in the day, when it’s less crowded.

Even though we don’t celebrate much, I prepare a nice dinner (as I do every day ;)) and we spend a quiet evening together, as we always do. Nothing fancy… and I like it that way very much.

This year is just the same. At the time I write, everything is quiet outside, though the shrine is all lit up to welcome a few visitors during the night. A. is fast asleep, I am struggling to keep an eye open. We will wake up when the day breaks tomorrow. It will be cold and sunny. I have already baked the bread for our breakfast as I tested a new (to me) baking method using a cast iron pot, which has helped me understand why my breads are often too pale. I have an issue with moisture when I bake them. The cast iron pot just solved the problem and I finally could bake a golden bread, with a crust crunchy outside and well balanced crumbs.

So now I can sleep tight, wish you a good end of the year and see you in 2022!

Faraway from the Christmas frenzy

I always feel excited when the days are becoming short and colder. Spending time outside when the sun is high, and as soon as the sun sets down, it is time to sit for hot spicy tea, a slice of cake or a piece of something comforting. I bake Provencal pompes a l’huile, panettone, or brioches. This is an habit I took when we were in Florence, and I cherish it very much. I also like to go for a walk at night and see the illuminations. Tokyo is really good at creating a festive atmosphere, would it be for the new year, the cherry tree blooming, the summer fireworks… there is always a good reason to decorate and makes us feel like little children.

Christmas decorations at Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi

But when I look at western magazines and IG feeds, it is all about festive food, or so-called, but it is just an accumulation of decadent food, that I must say is a mood killer for me. Rich buche de Noel or Christmas cakes, menus with heavy terrible food such as foie gras, or very creamy things I am just running away from these. I don’t like most of the fancy food: truffles, caviar, oysters, foie gras. and all these pictures instead of appalling to me they only make me crave for simple food, nourishing and warming yet elegant.

This is when I make more often than ever ochazuke and soups with vegetables and grains. I really love a warm bouillon with some nourishing pasta or rice or chickpeas, lentils, spelt, beans… Today I came up with a super delicious recipe, so I am very happy to share it now!

Farro winter soup

  • 1cup of farro
  • 1/4 of Chinese cabbage
  • 1/4 of butternut squash
  • 8 shiitake
  • 1tsp of turmeric
  • 1/2tsp of ground cumin
  • 1/2tsp of cumin seeds

Wash the cabbage and chop it. Same with the shiitake. Peel and cut the butternut. Put them all in a pan and amply cover with water. Add the farro. Cook at high heat to bring to a boil, then cook for 30min at medium to low heat. Verify that there is still enough liquid, add some if necessary. Add the turmeric, the cumin powder and seeds, a big of salt and pepper. Give a good but gentle stir and serve. Eat hot. No need for an drizzle of olive oil in my opinion but you can add one if you want !

Spinach ragoût and flat breads

There are things I love I don’t make often enough. Among them are cha-kaiseki cuisine, ravioli, steamed buns and flat breads. Even though they are easy enough to make I just get distracted, or don’t have the right ingredients, or prepare something else. So last night when time to prepare dinner came I had my mind set on flat breads and couldn’t change it. But with what??? It took me a bit of time to come up with something that would be a good match, but suddenly spinach and sweet potatoes ragoût appeared as the only option. A bit pf spice and I knew it would be a hit! And damned it was!!! As simple as it you can improvise your own recipe, just in case, I share mine.

Flat breads (8 15cn pieces)

  • 150g of flour
  • A pinch of salt
  • A pinch of baking soda
  • Water

Mix the flour, salt and baking soda together. Add water little by little while kneading until you have a smooth dough. Leave aside.

After you have prepared the veggies (see below) cut the dough in 8 pieces. Roll each to a 15cm and cook them in a pan on both side until golden.

Spinach ragoût (2 serving)

  • 2 large bundles of fresh spinach
  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 cardamom pods
  • 1tbs of carvi seeds
  • 3tbs of olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Wash the vegetables. Cut the sweet potato in bite size. In a large pan heat the olive oil. Add the vegetables, and cover with water. Cook slowly. Add the spices. Let cook at low heat until all the liquid is gone. Stir sometimes.

Eat altogether and enjoy!!!

I hope you love lemons!!!

As much as I do!!! I’ve always loved lemons, and lemon juice. In France and in Italy when every one goes to the cafe to have an expresso, I would either have a freshly squeezed lemon, when it’s cold in winter, with some hot water in it. That’s really something I love about cafes, and that, with freshly squeezed orange, is probably the only fresh thing you can have.

Our lemon tree this year had a lot of flowers but none went to maturity so we’ll have no fruits. So when my secretary sent me a giant box filled with giant lemons from her garden, I can only be thankful, and super happy. Who doesn’t love no chemical at all grown vegetables or fruits???

It took me a bit of time to think about what to cook… I love lemon tarts, lemon cakes, lemon squares… but I wanted to try something else… so while sipping hot lemon, I browsed the net for some recipes and found a lemon brownie recipe. Buttery and sweet, that would be a hit with A. No doubt!

Except that the recipe I found was a little odd: they didn’t say when to put the sugar, the proportion of butter was just too much and all sounded a bit awkward, so while using a classic chocolate recipe I came up with my own lemon brownie recipe, and it was great (lucky I cut the butter by a fourth, it is already very buttery!!!)

Enjoy! It is really super easy!!!

Lemon brownie (makes a large pie dish for at least 6 pieces)

  • 180g of flour
  • 150g of sugar
  • 150g of butter
  • 4 eggs
  • The zest of one large lemon or two small
  • The juice of one large juicy lemon or two smaller or less juicy
  • A pinch of sal
  • A pinch of baking soda

Melt the butter. In a large bowl mix the flour, the salt, the baking soda and the lemon zest, add the butter and stir.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, the sugar and the lemon juice. Add to the previous bowl and stir. Set in a buttered and floured pie dish to have about 1.5cm thickness.

Bake 30min at 180degrees. That’s it!!!

The disappointing fruit: akebi

Every day brings surprises, those you’ve worked hard for, those you were dreaming of and those that the cherry on the top, but also its share of disappointments. For example, after almost 3 years since our stray cat Holly disappeared and the little Ephy very brief passage, what a surprise to see that stray cats are back and we have three coming now. They are very shy and still scared of us, but one now arrives when hearing us parking home for the weekend and waits to be fed… It took us 6 months to be able to approach and touch Pablo, so I am expecting not less for these ones too… though Pablo was more interested by company than food… time will tell us…

Other surprises are often in the small things of daily routine… and when the other day at a local products store I found a fruit I never saw before but knew about and immediately identified; akebi あけび, chocolate vine. I couldn’t help remembering Little Forest when they put so much efforts in trying to harvest akebi and then delightfully eat them (watch here!!)… so I grabbed the bag of fruits and went to the cashier, and back to A. who was waiting outside, so proud of my finding!!!

It was the first time ever to see akebi for real, so I did my homework and studied how to eat it and possibly cook it. I also searched a bit why it is bot so common in Chiba… then opened the first fruit. the skin was not too thick and the inside less white than I imagined it would. And the first fruit was really tedious to eat, so tedious that A. said he would not eat a second akebi in his life ever!!!!! I persisted and became more fluent at eating them, but the promised sweetness etc… was definitely not here. So over all it is a huge disappointing experience.

Recipe book also said that the skin is good in tempura, but looking at the one of my fruits, I lost confidence and decided I wouldn’t try further…

So overall, akebi is a beautiful fruit, but not as delicious I expected it would be, so either the fruits from Chiba are very much less good than those from Yamagata, or Someone is lying about akebi deliciousness!!!

In any case have a very good weekend!!!!

Cruising in the kitchen

Not that I have been more busy than usual, nor that I have less inspiration these days… but I’ve been cruising in the kitchen… probably because of the season sudden change and this in between moment when you don’t want to shit to the new seasonal staples too quick, but yet you have explored enough with the past season ones… eggplants, okras and cucumbers are slowly making way to pumpkins, carrots and lotus roots.

And by cruising I mean Saturday ravioli, Sunday quiche, Monday chocolate cream, Wednesday steam buns etc… etc… hopefully Sunday was rainy, so after a nice bodyboarding session in a rough ocean I spent the afternoon browsing some of my very old cookbooks that were left in Paris 20years ago, and that I just received with our cargo…

The Reboul, a must for Provencal cooking, the first edition dating back to the 19th century, that I have been using to check basic recipes when my grandmother or mother were not available… I read it with a new eye and learned many many things!

Les recettes faciles, also plenty of basic ressources that help a lot for remembering how to make a good roux, or a creamy sauce… it’s nice to go back to the basics again once in a while.

Les recettes de la table franc-comtoise is probably the most alien to me. It was a gift from A. grand mother who was from Franche-Comte, a place in France I have never stepped foot, and where cooking is based on cream… but there are some great recipes and inspirations to gather from there too and the food A. grand mother would prepare for us!

In the meantime, Japanese seasonal cooking has never been more attractive to me and I have been thinking about how to level up… while I don’t feel like going to in-person cooking class yet, I still think about Shojin cuisine…

I tested new ways of using Koyadofu, I mean new may not be the right word, but at least without any cookbook nor guidelines and made this soya sauce based stew of vegetables and koyadofu that was just a hit! The recipe yet needs a bit of polishing before I can share it with you.

The other big hit this week was my classic persimmon and cucumber tofuae. A. often complains about all these persimmons we have in our garden… and doesn’t seem too happy when I serve one for dessert, but with the less ripe ones when I make this simple dish I learned at my Chakaiseki classes, he surprisingly always asks for more!!!

I’m hopping to be able to share a few new recipes in the coming days/weeks and in the meantime I’ll continue to cruise in the kitchen with all the classic recipes and the new ones that’ll pop in my head!

See you soon!

Autumn ravioli

Last Friday a strong windy typhoon passed nearby, and we had a few things to fix in the garden Saturday when we went on our usual inspection. The wind chopped a palm tree in two, many dried branches felt and a bit of cleaning was more than necessary. While doing so, A. found a few chestnuts fallen from our tree that animals haven’t had time to touch yet. A few meaning exactly 5.

But that was perfect. With the butternut squash I had and the dried porcini I just bought at an Italian grocery store newly found in Tokyo, dinner was all decided. It would be ravioli. And that came to a more satisfying recipe for A. when I told him I could use some local sausages too. We were so hungry and happy with ravioli for dinner that I didn’t even take 1min to take a picture!!! The only I had taken was the ravioli before cooking them.

So here is my recipe, simple as usual and very very tasty! I opted for super jumbo ravioli to enjoy the filling, but you can make smaller ones too.

Autumn ravioli (2 servings)

  • Same as usual for the pasta: 100g of flour, 1 egg, water
  • 5 chestnuts
  • 200g of raw pumpkin, butternut squash…
  • Dry of fresh porcini (10 pieces dry, 2 mushrooms fresh)
  • optional: fresh sausage (I use local sausage)
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Start by boiling the chestnuts. While they gently do, prepare the dough for the pasta, and let it rest while you prepare the rest. Which is to peel and chop the butternut and boil it with very little water or best steam it, until soft. Return the dry porcini in tepid water, or if you use fresh ones, wash and slice them. By then the chestnuts should be ready, and after cooling down a bit peel them. If you use sausage, remove the skin if the sausage. Then in a pan mix together he butternut, the chestnuts chopped, the sausage, salt and pepper, cook at low heat while stirring, mashing to obtain a rather puréed filling.

Roll your dough, and make the ravioli.

Boil enough water for the ravioli (if you used dried porcini add the water used to returning them in there too). In the meantime in a large pan sautéed in olive oil the porcini, add salt and pepper. Boil the ravioli and add to the pan. Stir gently and serve in the plates for immediate enjoyment!!!! Et voila!!!

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