After a week away from home and the last three days eating out, we were missing some simple homemade food, with no dressing but just a few drops of olive oil, and some Japanese rice. I was also missing to cook, so the first thing I did once home was to go shopping for fresh vegetables and fruits and prepare a very simple one-plate dinner with all we love: avocado, cucumber, radished, baby leaves salad, Japanese rice, konbu, and a sunny side egg. A mix of simple fresh tastes and Japanese tastes. I wish you a very good week, mine is busy with the beginning of the new teaching term and many courses to prepare!
White asparagus with parmigiano cream
One ingredient again that is not that easily found in Japan and that you can find everywhere at farmers markets in France at this time of the year: white asparagus! Indeed, in Japan green asparagus are quite common but white are rather rare and most of the time imported, so I never buy some. But in France in spring it is really common.
One recipe I love that I tried when eating at Thoumieux (not the Brasserie, the Hotel Thoumieux restaurant) and prepared by chef Jean-Francois Piege, was white asparagus with just melted comte cheese. The dish was normally served with black truffle (a common pairing with white asparagus), which I don’t like so mine didn’t have it. And the balance between the creamy asparagus and the salty cheese was perfect. I really loved it. But white asparagus also go very well with creamy sauce. I had a delicious combination at Piere in Osaka the other day. But my mother had her own recipe that she taught me. Very simple, and a good combination: parmegiano cream! For that she first clean the asparagus and peel them, removing the hardest parts. Then simply steam them. In a little pan she warm some cream and add gratted parmegiano, about 1tbs per person. Once the parmegiano has melted she serves on the hot asparagus. Add a little bit of black pepper for the color if you want.
Now I am back to Paris, and hotel life so no more cooking in the next days..
Mum’s artichokes barigoule
Every time I go back to my parents’ place in Aix-en-Provence and the season allows for it, my mother would cook one of my favorite artichokes recipe (I love artichokes!! ), and that I cannot eat in Japan because finding the proper ingredients is very difficult or impossible. This recipe of artichokes barigoule is a classic recipe from Provence. Except that preparing the artichokes themselves is a bit time consuming, the recipe is extremely simple and can be a full meal. It is originally not a vegetarian or vegan dish but it can be made so by symply not using the bacon in the recipe.
Artichokes barigoule:
– 1kg of fresh tiny artichokes
– 1 large ripe tomato or two smaller
– 1 onion or 1 leek
– 3 medium size potatoes
– a piece of bacon, thick is better
– 1 bouquet garni: thyme, laurel…
– 1/2 lemon to prevent artichokes to oxyde.
Prepare the raw artichokes by removing the hardest parts, please check there for more detail.
Dice the onion or the leek, the tomato and the bacon.
In a heated pan greased with olive oil, start with the onion/leek, the bacon then the tomato at medium heat. It has to get soft but not golden. Stir often. Then adf the artichokes, cover with water and add the bouquet gatni, salt and pepper. Then add the potatoes. Cook under cover for 30minutes at low heat. And it’s ready to eat!!!
Sakura rice v2
Now that I understand a bit better how to use the salted sakura, I decided to prepare a new version of sakura rice (the fridge being almost empty before our departure to Europe today). I decided to prepare it not with greens as I did last time but with sweet potatoes. So I basically prepared a sweet potato rice in which I added salted sakura flowers from the beginning of cooking. I didn’t washed them this time because I wanted to keep the salty flavor. What happened and was amazingly surprising is that the flavor of the sakura transferred a lot to the sweet potatoes and gave them a very flowery taste very close to rose. It was really delicious. A combination that has given me new ideas of recipes! Coming soon probably! In the meantime enjoy spring and blossoms every where!
Vegetarian quiche
We love quiches and I think I don’t cook some too often! There are so many variations that I can’t do twice the same one! Recently I’ve been using a lot of wheat bran in my breads, cakes, pancakes and quiche or tart doughs. It gives a fibery texture that I really love on top of being rich in nutrients. I simply add two large table spoon of wheat bran to the dough when kneading. For this very simple quiche with lotus root and shiitake I used also tried using okara in the egg base instead of tofu, which is also rich in fibers and protein and it gives a drier texture, a bit that of a fish cake that I really loved. So simple and delicious!
Soya milk curry rice
Curry-rice is always good to eat whether it is warm or cold, I love the creamy sauce with the veggies and the rice. All the textures, the colors and the flavors… yet I often find curry is too spicy for me. One way to soften it is to use soya milk instead of water to prepare the sauce. The soya milk add a good balance in the mouth without damaging the spice taste, but simply by softening the hot part of the spices. It also gives a beautiful pale shade to the sauce.
I used potatoes, sweet potatoes, lotus roots and carrots for the vegetables. 2tsp of curry powder, 3 cloves, 1tsp of cardamom, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. A 20cl pack of soya milk. In a greased heated pan I first roast the vegetables before adding the spices, salt and pepper and 1/3 glass of water and 2tbs of flour. Stir well. Then I add the soya milk and cook under cover for 5-10min, then remove the cover and continue until it has exactly the creamy texture I want. I serve immediately with rice.
Green salad
Winter and spring continue their little twists. My cooking is thus following the same pace. And for a warm spring day I prepared a nice little green salad with fresh lettuce, cucumber, okara and plenty of fresh coriander. Very simple and fresh. For the dressing I simply used a tbs of soya sauce. This salad is perfect to eat with rice, grilled fish or just on its own. Have a beautiful week!
Eclair ⚡️
With this horrible rainy and cold Saturday there was nothing else to do than cook some sweets and drink hot tea. After browsing a few recipes of things I wanted to cook, the unanimous choice was chocolate eclairs! And here I am in my kitchen, preparing pate a chou and custard. Of course chocolate eclair is not just enough so I also prepared two other variations: macha and chai. Each was just perfectly delicious. So here is my recipe. Eclairs consist in three preparations: the pate a chou, the custard and the coating.
For the pate a chou:
10cl of water; 10cl of milk; 3 eggs; 70g of butter; 110g of flour; a bit of salt and a tea spoon of sugar.
In a pan heat the milk and the water. Add the butter, the sugar and the salt. When the butter has melted add the flour all at once and stir well. Continue cooking and stirring until the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick. Cool down a bit and add one egg. Stir until the dough is smooth again. Add the second egg and do the same and then the third egg and repeat again.
Pre-heat your oven at 180 deg. Use a pipping bag to shape the eclairs. Remember they will double almost size so tiny is better. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes.
For the custard:
30g of flour; 50g of sugar; 2 egg yolks; 25cl of milk.
In a pan heat the milk. In a bowl mix the eggs with the sugat, add the flour all at once and mix well. Add half ofthe milk and stir well. Add the mix to ghe rest of the milk in the pan and cook at low heat while stirring for 5min, or until it thickens. Add the flavoring of your choice: cacao powder (2 tbs); macha powder (1tsp); chai spices: cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg… up to your liking. I personally like it with a lot of cardamom.
Cut the eclairs from the previous step in halves and fill with the custard.
For the coating:
I didn’t use the usual butter cream but rather a simple sugar coating made with ice sugar, water and macha or cacao powder for the coloring. Add water little by little to obtain a rather thick mix, and apply with a spoon.
Keep refrigerated.
Soumen primavera
I can’t believe that yesterday I was preparing soumen with spring vegetables and that today I dream of a hor rich soup. Yesterday was spring today is winter! Anyway, spring is just to arrive for sure soon, so a little spring recipe is always good, in particular when it’s that simple and tasty. I have received soumen-素麺, thin wheat noodles from a colleague and I prepared them in my primavera style: tons of greens, fried tofu, a little bit of soya sauce. That’s it!
I used fava beans (blanched), asparagus (blanched), cucumber and fresh chopped coriander. Thick fried tofu heated in a pan and a few mm of water to remove some of the oil. And the simply boiled soumen. For the dressing soya sauce cut with dashi or water. Have a nice weekend!
