I cook a lot of vegetarian dishes, but recently I realized I’m cooking a lot more vegan dishes. I come with new ideas all the time and this past few days I really enjoy cooking with thick fried tofu. Usually it is prepared in large pieces of 10cm by 10cm, 2cm high, this time I found this nice 一口 one byte squares of tofu that are just great to add to a salad. I prefer eating them hot so I heat them in a fry pan. It also take off a bit of the oil. This time I served them with a baby leaves salad, red quinoa, mashed avocado and green peas sprouts. As usual, super easy to fix rapidly after a long day at work, delicious and colorful!!
When traveling it’s always hectic with food for me, I don’t like eating out 3 times a day. Most portions are way too big and I get quickly bored with the amount of mix tastes that surpasses my imagination. As you may know now, I like simple delicious things. So when in the US I really enjoy organic groceries that can be found pretty easily in main cities and sometimes opened round the clock (even better for jetlag and busy working days). It seems particularly true in Boston. There, you can buy things I didn’t even imagine exist, almond milk yogurt with coconut taste, super delicious cereal bars, fresh cut fruits, natural cheese, teas (i usually pack on Chai), tons of different types of flours (well I’m not baking in my hotel room…) and my favorite drink, non organic though but from sustaible harvested ingredients: the Naked fruit smoothies, just perfect for middle-of-the-night-breakfast!
During this short stay in Boston I tried the new to me (haven’t been to the US for 2 years!) pineapple-mango-coconut water Naked, and just loved it, not as thick as the regular mango one! And I found super delicious bars from Earnest eats, my favorite is the almond trail mix. The taste of almond is really strong but it’s really good and just not too sweet. That and a bowl of fresh raspberries was my post-swimming breakfast.
Because, yes! I always pick hotels with a swimming pool. I love to swim early in the morning to recover from jetlag. Doing laps before starting a long business day, after a long trip is just making me feel really good. How do you do to keep a good balance when traveling?
Here we are, this is the 2015´s week for hanami in Tokyo. Yes, it usually don’t last much then a week because at some point it rains and the delicate flowers fade. Right now the cherry trees are in full bloom, every place is crowded and Japanese people heads are spinning with flowers, sake, and spring. There is something extremely beautiful and poetic in the air, these trees, these flowers, that moment that will be very short, it is certainly a good reflection on the shortness of life and the natural cycles. But this has turned out as being such a business, of blue plastic sheets, potato chips and cheap alcohol, and people are taking this opportunity to get massively drunk, that I found celebrating hanami almost disgusting now. Hopefully there are still a few placed where you can enjoy the calmness and beauty of spring, without getting lost in crowds of drunkards. So avoid Ueno park, Yasukuni shrine, Naka-meguro… Instead, stroll in Yanaka cemetery, in Tokyo University botanical garden, or on some universities campus (Todai, ICU, TIT, TUAT…), or walk around the imperial palace at night. But please, do it in style!
Empty alley in Yanaka cemetery at nightTUAT koganei campus
A few years ago we went to visit Hachijojima, an island down south of Tokyo in the Pacific that belongs to Tokyo actually. Besides being a lovely place, famous for their handwoven beautiful fabric used to make kimonos, their is one typical product from there: angelica, or ashitaba (明日葉).
Ashitaba is a green leaf that doesn’t smell much but once cooked as a very typical taste. Something that once you have tried you want to eat again! In France it is use to make sweets (the green slighly discusting sticks Of candied fruit on gateau des rois for example). While we were in Hachijojima we had ashitaba tempura, ashitaba sherbet and a few other variations. Completly enfatuated with this taste I bought a cooking book of ashitaba there, which presents a great variety of recipes, from rice with ashitaba to green smoothies, so not just typically Japanese recipes. They grow some ashitaba in Chiba prefecture, so when spring comes I easily can buy some in Ohara. In Tokyo, department stores and Yoshiike definitely have some. I tried a few recipes from the book at home to get used to processing ashitaba and came out with a few simple recipes on my own now. My super favorite is ashitaba-mashed potatoes. It makes a perfect combination, and it is really a great match with scrambled eggs, grilled pork…
Ashitaba mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs
An other nice combiniation is to use ashitaba as a substitute for basil. With tomatoes and olive oil, perfect to top with some pasta.
Ashitaba tomato sauce
I’m still trying new recipes while the season of ashitaba goes on, so you may from it again!
As I was telling you earlier, spring means a lot of fresh wild vegetables. After the fukinoto the bamboo shoot is probably the next to be found in Isumi area. In particular, the area close to Ohtaki is particularly great for delicious takenoko (bamboo shoot in Japanese). It’s also a great fun to go and pick them. This variety of bamboo shoot is the large one (8 to 15cm diameter), there exists a small one (1 to 3cm) that arrives later and that is even much more fun to pick.
Freshly cut bamboo shoot
Preparing fresh bamboo shoot is really easy, though a bit time consuming. First of all you need to peel the hard and hairy skin. It peels like a artichoke, so it’s really easy.
Peeled bamboo shoot
Then you need to boil it in something that would remove the bitterness of the wild shoot. In supermarket they often sells nuka (what is used for the pickles) and I was using that until I learn from an old lady at the local farmers cooperative that the first wash of rice was perfectly efficient. Since then I’ve usjng that, and believe me it’s much easier to clean than nuka. You need to boil for 30 to 60min, until soft (you can pick a toothpick easily in). Once cold you can cut and then boil in dashi for 15min. I used katsuo dashi. You can eat now, or add to rice for a “takenoko gohan”. For this I start cooking the rice as usual, then at mid cookjng time I add the bamboo shoot sliced vertically and a little of soya sauce. Delicious to accompany red snapper or bonito.
Takenoko gohan
Ideally you would serve takenokoto with leaves of “ki no me” the leaves of the mountain pepper tree (sansho), mine in the garden is not yet ready…
Finding delicious natural cheese, not industrial in Japan is not easy task. By pure chance, our country house in Ohara is very close to a cheese factory. Yes yes! a cheese factory in Japan! and not in Hokkaido! But, sadly it is impossible to just go there and buy cheese… At least all my trials didn’t success. But, at last, I have found a place where to get some: Na no hana local products shop!!! They have a selection of cheeses from Komagata and so far what I’ve tried was really good. On the picture only the fresh one, because they have a selection of wilder things that are impossible to capture with a camera! Each was a perfect match to my cereal favorite homemade bread! A French girl, even in Japan is still French!!! And if you love cheese there is still means to find some (took me 10 years though!).
And you, what are your plan to find delicious locally made cheese??
Every Saturday we spend in Ohara, the first thing we do is to go to the local JA cooperative to shop for vegetables, fruits, eggs… Every thing is locally grown in very little farms or by old folks, using no chemical, it’s super fresh, super tasty and super cheap. We’re lucky because Chiba prefecture is famous for growing a lot of things and our area is known for strawberries, nashi, tangerines in particular. There is also an amazing variety of tomatoes and cabbages. Nearby, they also produce eggs, pork and milk, and Ohara fishing port has great fresh fishes and spiny lobsters (and s fish market on Sunday once a month). It’s just fresh food heaven.
On January 7th, there is a tradition in Japan to eat a seven spring herbs rice porridge (七草がゆ). The seven herbs consist in fact in 5 sorts of greens an 2 sorts of little radishes. You don’t even have to worry gaｔhering the proper seven products they are sold as a set pretty much everywhere.
I particularly love these seven spring herbs, and because it’s a one-year chance I usually cook the traditional rice porridge or a variation.
This year I went for a very simple rice-omelette with seven spring herbs.
I just steamed for 1min the seven herbs on top of a juicy omelette and served with Japanese rice. Instead of the sauce for the rice-omelette, I’ve just added a bit of salt. Et voila!
In Japan it is more than a tradition to send new year’s card to all your friends, family, colleagues etc… Their preparation is a big business. The post office is also playing an important role, because you can post your cards anytime before January 1st, they will be strictly dispatched only on 1st and after, so no worries that you card will arrive too early!
Well, for me this year that will not happen! I was really out of idea for the design and a good brain storming was necessary to come out with something. It’s very likely that this new year Chinese animal: the sheep, didn’t inspire me much (it’s also a tradition to use the Chinese sign in your design).
Well, I’ve finally managed to design something
and to prepare the cards. Now I need to post them, oups!
