Sansho and konbu Shojin style

Here we are with the first recipe I tried in my Shojin cuisine cookbook. Because we had plenty of sansho in the garden I decided to try this super simple recipe, that was perfect to eat with plain white rice and some raw vegetables and miso. Usually I use the leaves of sansho or kinome a lot but so far I never used the fruits. I buy them. But we had many fruits and I thought it was really time for me to use them since that was the all point of having a sansho shrub in our garden. And this recipe literally took 5 min to prepare and 15min to cook, which makes it perfect for a busy day at work.
All you need is dry konbu that you cut in little squares, fresh sansho (the seeds not the leaves) if possible but canned or packed one can do, soya sauce and sake. In a pan you put the konbu and sansho, add 1 tbs of sake and one of soya sauce, and one of water if you have fresh sansho (to remove the bitterness it’s better), then simmer under cover at low heat until most of the liquid has disappeared. It’s ready! You can serve hot or cold, perfect with rice or as a snack with a drink.. The taste is quite strong so it’s not a main dish, right!?

June 1, 2016

Baking bread!

I didn’t really bake for a few weeks and I really missed it. Kneading is a such a relaxing and nice moment that is like a ritual. The promise of delicious breakfast on top of that. I didn’t bake but I had a chance to get some nice wheat bran and oat bran so I was really looking forward trying them, in particular the wheat bran. I decided to make a whole wheat flour base to which I added the bran, and that worked perfectly well. I like the texture the bran brings to the bread and for breakfast it is perfect. Together with the passion fruit jam we found at the farmers market, I could eat breakfast 3 times a day!!!!

And now it’s time to back to work, have a good week!

May 30, 2016

Back to normal… Socca lunch

Hectic weeks, busy week ends, when we arrived in Ohara last night it felt like we haven’t come for months. Everything in the garden has grown tremendously high and green, no cat was waiting for us… Of course H. came today but we are more a food supply than anything else so far… There is such work to do in the garden that we started early this morning and work until lunch, without even going to shop for frrsh veggies. So when lunch time came and we needed energy before our afternoon tennis game I had to fix something with what I had in stock: sokka and a few vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers and avocado. Sokka is a traditional dish from Nice in the south of France. It is extremely simple to make!

Socca (chick pea flour galette)

– 100g of chickpeas flour,

– a cup of water,

– a bit of olive oil,

– salt and pepper.

Mix all the ingredients. Preheat and grease with a bit of olive oil a frying pan. Pour some dough in the pan to obtain a 3-5mm thick layer. Cook, flip, cook again, serve immediately. It is also possible to do it in the oven but the pan is much more convenient for me.

May 28, 2016

Shojin cuisine and cooking class

There aren’t too many places were you can eat vegan food in Tokyo, but recently the number of vegan cafe and vegan restaurants has dramatically increased and we’ve been trying quite a few. Yet to enjoy Shojin cuisine, there are still very few places. There is the most famous Daigo we went to last February, that provides the highest end of kaiseki shojin cuisine with a real unique experience. Then Itosho. Both being on the Michelin with respectively two and one star. Then there are a few temples providing a simpler experience, more rustic, but also interesting. Lucky enough there is one of these temples close to where I work: the Sanko-in and when I have visitors I like to take them there for lunch, for them to experience something different. At the Sanko-in you can eat some vegan buddhist cuisine in a budhist temple. Entering the temple and walking to the back building where the dining room is, is already setting the tone: quiet, simple and peaceful. The dining room is very simple, a little kitsch, but the chef and her assistant are really nice and welcoming (it’s run by two ladies). The cuisine uses seasonal ingredients of course and their famous matured tofu in miso, something close enough to a creamy cheese. The chef also prepares tea to accompany the lunch and it is a rare chance to enjoy macha and susuricha for my foreign visitors. A place I recommend if you don’t have the chance to go to Koya-san, or if you want to learn Shojin cuisine. I will enroll soon to her cooking class!

Ah! She also recommended me a book on Shojin cuisine that Soei Yoneda, the previous chef-abbess from the temple wrote. It is unfortunately not edited anymore but thanks to amazon I got my hands on one and should receive it soon!!!! Can’t wait!!!

May 25, 2016

Summer plate

The very first days of sudden hot weather always make me happy but I have a hard time adjusting with the temperature and never know what are the proper clothing. I feel kind of feverish without being sick. When this happens I like super simple a freshfood, eating melon and grapes a lot, and preparing some very simple dishes. Brown rice is a real treat in that case. Simple to prepare, both delicious warm or cold, easy to accommodate with all the vegetables and herbs. I love shiso for its fresh taste and its herbal texture, thinely chopped and mixed twith rice is just a perfect match. As for the vegetables I take what is available on the market, and because we didn’t go to Ohara, it’s not that fancy: mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, salad. The dressing is a simple olive oil plus a bit of fresh lemon and a few drops of soya sauce. Simple as can be!

May 24, 2016

Snap peas and onion risotto

We are slowly going towards the rainy season and it’s getting towards the end of the season for spring vegetables in Tokyo area, soon we will have melon, zucchini, okras… But before it ends really let’s enjoy some more spring greens!!! Snap peas are very easy to cook, they just need to be blanched, and extremely easy to accomodate with other seasonal vegetables: new potatoes, other greens, tomatoes… Today I opted for an other risotto recipe (yes, I know, we eat a lot of rice and risottos!!!). A large onion cut thinely and slightly cooked in olive oil, then I added the riso, a bit of water (no bouillon to keep the taste mild), then in the very last minute of cooking I add the snap peas cut in big chunks. I add some fresh chopped basil leaves, salt and pepper, a last touch of olive oil.

Have a nice weekend!

May 21, 2016

Quinoa salad

Nothing too fancy here but just a very simple fresh recipe that is very rapid to prepare, colorful and tasty. Perfect when the weather is warm and nice as it was yesterday. I just boil quinoa, rince it in cold water and drain it well, add the fresh vegetables I have available, here a cucumber and two tomatoes, really nothing new… And cover the whole thing with fresh herbs: mint, coriander, or what pleases you and suits the vegetables. Finish with a little of olive oil, salt and pepper.

May 20, 2016

Brown rice 💛💛💛 玄米

With a mother nutritionist, Prunellia and I have been raised in an environment where food was always important, both in gustative quality and in nutritional quality. I remember as a child playing a game called “manger juste” (eat right) where one has to built up well balanced menu with the food on the cards, depending on their nutritional value and quality. And brown rice was on the menu every week for sure. A kind of ritual every Monday’s lunch. Now brown rice is on my menu more often, in particular recently because I’ve managed to find delicious organic brown rice, and more recently, the lovely person who has adopted two of our orphan cats gave me a huge bag of brown rice from Kyushu. I find that brown rice goes very well with konbu and I love to prepare it simply in one bowl or one plate versions. Here just with 1/2 avocado, sprout, sesame seeds and konbu. A perfect lunch or dinner. One can add a bit of cucumber from crispy fresh texture.

May 19, 2016

Quick dinner fix

I left work earlier than usual on Friday to have time to boil some potatoes and prepare our bags for the weekend because I knew that once we would arrive in Ohara we will be more busy with the kittens than actually thinking of having dinner!! And it was so true!!! First I had to do a bit of cleaning, then we played until quite late in the night with our four fur balls. Only to have dinner around midnight, when my boiled potatoes just needed to be peeled and cut in quarters, add an avocado diced, a handful of baby leaves salad, onr of fresh coriander. Seasonned with olive oil, salt and curry powder. So dinner could be ready very quick!

May 14, 2016