Mapple butter

Beautiful Saturday morning, blue sky, big Mount Fuji covered in snow, it could have been a perfect day if only I were not obliged to spend the best of the day stuck inside doing my duty as department secretary. One beautiful day lost is nothing you can make up for. ..

At least to cheer me this morning I baked us pancake to eat with the amazing Canadian mapple butter our friends from Canada, now visiting Japan, brang us. Mapple butter is made with 100% of mapple syrup and has the creamy consistence of honey. I find it’s the perfect spread for breakfast with wholewheat breads or fluffy pancakes. This mirning I made simple vanilla pancakes to go with. Deliciously simple. Thanks Dana & Chris!

December 3, 2015

Kidney beans and cod

Monday is workout day! To start the week in shape and full of energy, on Monday evening, before dinner, I practise 1h of Pilates. Once I am done, it’s way time to think about dinner, and if we want to eat before 22:30, it’d rather be quick to prepare. One plates are usually what I go for, but tonight I was more in the mood for a warming dish. I had this beautiful piece of cod from Hokkaido, so I prepared a very simple kidney beans raggu.

In a heated pan I added olive oil, a big ripe tomato diced, 2 little laurel leaves, salt and pepper, once the tomato was soft enough I added the cod cut in big chucks, pepper again, and cooked under cover for 3-5min at medium heat. I rarely use canned food but I must admit that when in a hurry canned beans are really handy, so I almost always have a can of chick peas, a can of red beans and a can of kidney beans, these cans are also my emergency food in case of natural disaster, i.e. earthquake because in 2011 when the big earthquake stroked we didn’t have any ready-to-eat food (neither anything to eat because I was shopping day to day) in case it would be necessary, so I’ve learned my lessons. So back to our dinner recipe, I drained the kidney beans and rinced them, then in a heated pan with olive oil I cooked them quickly. I added two or three spoons of the water from the tomato. Then I served. On the side I prepared sautéed leek and shiitake.

December 1, 2015

Macrobiotic Sunday lunch

Beautiful weather this Sunday morning, so we woke early and spend most of the morning in the garden cleaning and grooming shrubs, by the time we were hungry it was cloudy and chilly, so I decided to cook us a warm lunch and got once again inspiration from my macrobiotic recipe book. It’s a simple collection of veggies and koyadofu that are first cooked in water and soya sauce, then lightly fried and serve with rice.

In my version for 2, it is 2 pieces of koyadofu, 1 carrot, 1 purple sweet potato, 1 shiitake, and the rice is brown rice to which I added red rice, black rice and barley. I cut the veggies in four and boiled them for 7min in one cup of water where I added 1 table spoon of soya sauce, I also cook the koyadofu with the veggies. Then I removed them from the water and let them rest on kitchen paper to drain the excess of water. Then I roll them in rice flour and lightly fry them, and serve them directly with the rice.

November 29, 2015

Energy macrobiotic lunch

With chillier days we try to play tennis not in the morning anymore but in the afternoon, so before we go we need a good lunch full of energy. Inspired by the book of macrobiotic recipes, I came up with a nice one-bowl recipe using a base of brown rice, some seasonal sautéed veggies: kabocha, purple sweet potato, turnip in sesame oil, and a piece of Koya-dofu diced in the veggies. I topped the whole with fresh purple mizuna.

Simple, light and full of good energy before our game!

November 22, 2015

Midnight dinner

There are days like that… When from morning to evening I have not even a minute break (literally), I swallow my lunch in one bite between two meetings and I finish the day my head spinning with things I still have to do and I may forget… So when finally home we take off to the country I’m still completely hyper!

There’s nothing better then once arrived to ho for a midnight stroll in the garden, pick some fresh basil and prepare for a peaceful (at last) yet late dinner with energizing gnocchi and fresh veggies (tomato, broccoli), basil and a delicious olive oil. Simple but really efficient!

Have a nice week end!

November 21, 2015

Orange and chocolate sweet bread

For a rainy morning there is nothing better than a hot sweet bread just out of the oven. It’s been some time since I haven’t baked, but this rainy weekend was just the perfect moment to start again and go with some new originsl recipes. I also bought some new sourdough and natural yeast and I’m really happy with the result.

So for this first bread I wanted something sweet and fruity for breakfast so I used candied orange peels (recipe tomorrow!) and dark chocolate chips. For one bread I used 170g of whole wheat flour, 110g of water, 3g of natural yeast, 8g of dry sordough, 4g of salt, 40g of brown caster sugar, half a cup of candied orange peel and one table spoon of dark chocolate chips. I kneaded well until soft and smooth, then let it prove for 5hours (temperature is not really high in the house now). I then made two long sticks that I rolled together, I wanted to make breeds with it but reslized that 3 sticks wouldn’t be good. Then it prove the rest of the night and I baked it jn the morning, 10min at 230deg, then 20min at 210deg. I like to eat bread right out from the oven, so we had our breakfast right away.

And you know what?! The Parisian sister is back on tracks! Yeah!

November 16, 2015

Saturday morning

After our long and busy week we were happy to go to the country and enjoy a peaceful week-end. After a nice breakfast, I decided to check my device and discovered a message from my old friend Debbie from the USA that was mentioning something that has happened in France which surprised me. I checked right away the news and discovered what was happening in Paris.

I think there’s nothing to say about it.

It has shadowed our day and made us talked a lot, and I guess it has also limited my ability to write today.

November 12, 2015

Plain and simple

Well well well… I was hoping that this week would be slightly less busy than the previous but, we’re Friday and it’s not going to happen. Running from one meeting to an other, from a lecture to an other, to solving problems in the lab, and revising papers, preparing my next talk coming much too fast, I hardly managed to squeeze in time to study Japanese and to practice kyudo but that’s all I could do. So food-wise we’ve been going for super plain and simple food: veggies, pasta, rice and beans. It’s also getting colder and a lot of people seem to have caught colds, so we’re packing on fresh fruits: tangerine, apple…

Not to say that I can’t wait to be tonight for two reasons: 1st because I’m supposed to receive a present, oh oh oh!; 2d because we should spend the week end in Ohara and I’ll have plenty of time to cook and paint (and see if Pablo is still there!)

A bowl of plain Japanese rice with soya beans and sesame

November 11, 2015

Corn pasta and veggies

I discovered corn pasta some time ago and I really like them very much, this taste of polenta, the nice texture, and easy to accomodate with plenty of things. The yellow color also is really pretty. I buy some often, and the easiest to find in Japan are penne.

I served them this time with fresh veggies and added a bit of bacon. I used 3 little leeks, 1/2 kabocha, 1 large tomato, cooked them in olive oil, and served with the boiled pasta for dinner. Simple, quick and perfect when again coming home late.

November 11, 2015