Tofu cheese cake

About 10 years ago, my parents came to spend some time with us and my mother absolutely wanted to cook some Japanese dessert. I didn’t have much Japanese cooking books that were not in Japanese, so the best I could offer was this book I already introduced some time ago.

There are very few recipes of desserts but one that pleased everyone: tofu cheese cake. Of course we didn’t really follow the recipe, and add different flavoring. But the basic recipe was simple and the result never disappointing. Last night I was looking for a dessert recipe, and when I saw some tofu in the fridge, I remembered that recipe and decided to try it again. And this time was not different. A simple tasty and healthy dessert!!!

Tofu cheese cake (for 4-6 people)

– one block of tofu drained, recipe said momendofu (hard), but I used kinudofu (silky tofu)

– 5tbs of flour or cornstarch

– 3 eggs

– 6tbs of sugar

– flavoring: vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest or macha or spices of your choice (I tried with cardamom)

Preheat the oven to 180deg. In a bowl, mix the tofu with the flour, the egg yolks, and 3tbs of sugar, the flavoring. In an other bowl beat the whites until stiff and the sugar and continue beating until silky. Add this mix to the previous one delicately.

Line a pie dish or an oven dish with cooking paper, and then pour the preparation in. Cook in the oven about 30min or until golden.

August 29, 2017

Butternut squash lasagna

With a tight schedule: in Nagoya yesterday, a rehearsal for the show next Tuesday where our robot appears, a few lectures and talks to prepare and the preparation for moving in less than a month, days are pretty short! But I am always happy to prepare a dinner for friends and never cancel an invitation! And with a bit of planning and organization and waking up 30min earlier to have the time to prepare the vegetables and start cooking nothing is impossible. Of course for week days dinner I usually cook simpler recipes, and to celebrate A. new job and our new life I prepared an Italian inspired dinner. In that case, lasagna are a very good option (though they are hard to plate!!!). This time, I had a beautiful butternut squash and used it as the base. I only added a bit of chicken breast and rosemary and topped with gratted mozzarella. Everybody loved it!!!

Butternut squash lasagna

– 1 butternut squash

– 2 skinned chicken breast

– 1 or 2 branches of fresh or dried rosemary

– lasagna pasta ( homemade, fresh or dry)

– some cream

– some olive oil

– salt and pepper

– mozzarella to grat

First cut the butternut squash and steam it with the rosemary. Once it has cooled down, peel it and remove the seeds. In a pan greased with olive oil cook the chicken breast until golden. In a blender mix the chicken and the butternut squash, add a few leaves of rosemary, and a little of cream. It must not be liquid but rather a purée. If you use dry lasagna pasta poached them. In a large oven dish greased with olive oil lay a layer of pasta, cover with a layer of the chicken-butternut mix, add a bit of cream, add a layer of pasta, then of mix then a bit of cream… up to where you want. Finish with a layer of pasta, and cover with gratted mozzarella. Bake in the oven at 150 deg until the mozzarella is golden!

Enjoy!

August 25, 2017

Cold corn soup

As I was mentioning in my earlier post, I didn’t grow in a family where eating corn or cooking corn is a tradition. I am still quite unable to cook it in many ways, and I usually limit myself to boiled corn, rice & corn, or corn soup. Since the weather is very hot and humid these days in Tokyo I really like to prepare cold soups. And since the corn season is going to end soon, I bought a few more corn and prepared some cold soup. Similarly to the hot one it is simple and very nice as a starter. The only “problem” with cold soups made from ingredients that must be cooked (contrarily to gaspacho) is that you have to plan a bit ahead (2-3h) to have time to cool it.

Cold corn soup (for 2 bowls)

– 2 corns

– soya milk

– salt and pepper

First remove the leaves and hairs from the corn and boil until soft. Wash under running cold water to cool them. Take all the grains out and blend until smooth (adding no other liquid help obtaining a really smooth texture), add salt and pepper. Add soya milk to obtain the desired texture. Again, when cooled the texture will be slightly thicker, so think about it to obtain the texture you really want. Blend a little longer. Cool in the fridge or the freezer before serving.

Have a nice week!

August 22, 2017

Green beans salad

For very hot and humid days like it was today, I like to prepare extremely simple, fresh meals with mainly vegetables. A green beans salad is a classic for me, but instead of preparing it with potatoes like I would usually do I prepared it with hard boiled eggs and fresh ginger and myoga thinely chopped. It gives a very interesting twist to the whole recipe. I guess adding potatoes is still possible.

August 19, 2017

Cold soup

How is your summer? In Tokyo these days summer looks like the rainy season… and it’s even not too hot! Which is perfect for this first week back to work, except that I was expecting having dinner on the terrace (maybe for the last season since we might move to a new place without a terrace) with our guests but rain didn’t stop for the last week more than just a few minutes. Anyway, this doesn’t affect much my cooking! And after eating out in so many cafes I really enjoyed having a little soup to start with and a cold one for the summer. So for our guests last night (one allergic to lactose) I prepared a potato-leek soup. You know this all-time classic that is so warming in winter… but in a cold version. The only problem with cold soup os that you need to prepare them at least 6h before eating so that they really are really cold when eating.

Vegan cold leek-potato soup: (4 servings)

– 1 leek

– 2-5 potatoes depending on the size

– olive oil, salt, pepper

Wash and chop the leek. In a pan, heat some olive oil and add the leek. Peel the potatoes and cut them. Add to the pan and cook at medium heat until slightly golden, stir every once in a while. Cover with 1L of water and cook until the potatoes are really soft. Blend to obtain a creamy soup (add first the vegetables and then the water little by little in the blender to be sure to have the right consistency. It must slightly more liquid than desired since the cooling will densify the mixture). Add olive oil, salt, pepper. Cool in the fridge for a few hours. Stir the mix before serving to make it homogeneous. Enjoy!

August 17, 2017

Summer butternut squash

If two or three years ago it was not so easy to find butternut squash (see my previous post about it), now it is almost on possible to find it all year round at the farmers market… and since it is so easy to cut and peel and so quick to cook I’ve thought that it would be perfect even in summer. Of course no pumpkin spice or warm and rich preparation in summer, but rather a very simple one: cold soup.

Butter cold soup:

– 1 butternut squash

– water

– salt

– pepper black and pink

– curcuma

Simply peel and cut the butternut and remove the seeds. Boil it in water until very soft. Remove the water to have the butternut just covered. Smash and stir with a spoon or a fork until almost smooth (or blend). Add salt and curcuma. Cool in the fridge before serving. When dressing the plates add some black and pink pepper.

July 25, 2017

Salsola – okahijiki

Trying new vegetables is always fun! In particular when you can easily imagine how to prepare them! So when we went to the farmers market and I found okahijiki-おかひじき I simply couldn’t wait to cook them. And with the super hot weather I thought of a simple Japanese meal again with rice, grilled fish and umeboshi, and I wanted to have some miso soup with red miso (the one more appropriate for the summer). And to make it more country-like I didn’t use katsuo bushi but rather niboshi from sardines -鰯 for the soup base. I simply added the okahijiki after washing them and removing the hardest parts to the broth and cooked them 2min. I added the red miso as usual in the end, just before serving.

Have a beautiful week!!!

July 24, 2017

Simple Japanese meal

With friends at home for the whole weekend I ended up not cooking Japanese at all, and since Friday I was still craving for some simple Japanese taste. Finally last night I got it done! A. is good at preparing Japanese rice, which saves a bit of time when I am finishing work rather late, and I had some perfect fresh Japanese vegetables for a simple meal: onion for Shirako, white carrots and new lotus roots. I simply wash/peel and cut all the vegetables, heat a bit if oil in a pan and cook them under cover until almost done (the onion being probably the most critical) then I remive the cover, add some soya sauce and cook at high heat for 2 minutes, and serve with the rice. It’s not very elaborated but it tastes perfectly Japanese!

July 19, 2017

Summer salad

Well well summer is really here and it’s just the beginning, temperature are going to rise even further I guess. So preparing simple fresh food is really my main cooking focus, yet each time I want to prepare something different, new, even if most of the basic ingredients are the same: new potatoes, green beans, zucchini, cucumber, okra, tomatoes…

So for this simple salad I pan fried a few new potatoes, then added some boiled green beans, a cucumber, some beautiful tomatoes and, finished with hard boiled eggs and sesame seeds. Dressed with some olive oil and sesame oil. That’s it!!!

Today I am going to Ngoya for work where it’s going to be even hotter!

July 6, 2017