My first original recipe for bread

It’s been some time now that I’m baking bread following thoroughly recipes from books, but this time I felt like I can change that and start thinking about my own mix and recipes without opening a book. once you’ve learned the basic proportions and you know what kind of texture you need to achieve after kneading it’s not difficult at all.

So my first original recipe is a warming whole wheat and rye bread. I used 160g of rye flour, 90g of whole wheat flour, 180g of water, 12g of sourdough, 5g of salt, 3g of yeast, knead until smooth and soft. After the dough has taken enough volume I shaped it, leave again a few hours, and finally baked it at 235deg for 10min, then at 220deg for 20min.

October 19, 2015

Persimmon jam

One of our persimmon trees about 2 weeks ago

In Japan, persimmons are quite popular and common. Everywhere in the country at that season you can see their trees with little or no foliage, just magnificent orange fruits against the blue sky. And this year there are so many fruits on each tree that it is really amazing! There exist a few varieties from the very sweet used in different recipes more often in salty versions, to the sour ones (shibui kaki – 渋いカキ) used dried: hoshi kaki (干しカキ). Since the season is just starting there’s going to be many opportunities to prepare persimmons.

In our garden we have three persimmon trees, two sweet and one quite old sour one. I don’t use the sour ones I leave them to the birds, because old ladies from area told me that Ohara is too warm to dry kaki properly without them rotten. But I use the sweet ones in several recipes. And this year because there are so many I’ve decided to make jam and jelly. I used only persimmon, brown caster sugar and a bit of agar agar. I peeled a dozen of persimmons, cut them in pieces, remove the seeds, add a bit of water, brown caster dugar and cooked at low heat for 1h. In the last few minutes I added a bit of agar agar because I had no natural pectin to really make it jelly like.

I then prepared the bins and and wait until cold to try on my original bread! I’m not very much used in making jam and preserves so I’m still learning, but the persimmon jam is nice, but as expected the taste is very subtle. I may have tried to add some flavor with vanilla beans may be. I made two variations: one pure jelly, and one with large chunks of fruit as on the picture. So if like me you have plenty of persimmons that could be a good manner to use them, if not I wouldn’t buy any to make jam with, unless you have a better recipe than mine, which I’ll be very happy to try because I’ve only harvested a 10th of our persimmons yet!

October 19, 2015

Experimental tart

I was running out of flour and wanted to prepare a leek tart, so I made a little experiment for the dough and give a Japanese twist to my tart. I prepared the dough with rice flour (2/3) and soy flour (1/3), vegetal oil and soy sauce, and of course water. The mixture was incredibly soft and nice to work, so I made a rather thin dough. For the leek it’s Japanese thin ones, so I just halved them and set them in the dough. I baked for 30min at 180deg.

The result? Taste-wise it was just somptuous, a mix of crispy, melty, juicy and dry. Amazing! Plating and eating wise: the sides of dough were really crispy, so hard to make a clean cut. The whole length leeks are difficult to cut, so not optimal. Need some work here, but couldn’t help sharing the recipe of that delicious dough, very likely perfect with shiitake and other Japanese vegetables.

October 15, 2015

Rye baguette

It’s been some time I haven’t posted a simple bread recipe. Not that I haven’t made any, on the contrary! But I made a lot of my classical breads: whole grains… Now that it’s becoming chilly it’s going to be difficult to control accurately the proving time. For this rye baguette for example the recommended proving time was 1h, but the house is now about 18-19deg so I had it prove for 5h. The result was perfect.

The basic ingredients are: 175g of rye flour, 75g of flour, 13g of dry sordough, 180g of water, 5g of salt, 2g of yeast. The process is just as usual. I shaped my bread as a baguette, but any shape can do. For the baking, 30min at 225deg.

October 14, 2015

Gingko nuts rice

There are several ways to use gingko nuts in cuisine. The simplest is probably to grill them, for that you just beed to break the hard shell roughly, grilled them in a pan and serve with salt. It’s the easiest because no need to remove the hard shell, everyone does while eating. Perfect as a snack. But definitely not the most elegant way. So first if all renoving the shell without breaking the nuts is important. It’s not too difficult. Then there is a brownish skin that you don’t want to serve. To remove it it’s easy, boil a dew minutes the nuts then roll them in a metal net or drainer. The peel will go away with the friction. Now you have the perfect yellow nuts that you can use for any recipe. One of my favorite use issimply with white rice, to accompany a Japanese dinner. Jusr add the nuts in the rice after it is cooked. Count 3 to 7 nuts per person. Finish with a bit of salt when serving to enhance the taste of the nuts.

October 13, 2015

Pink veggies in cocotte

With the autumn settling down and the rainy day, It was high time to get the cocotte back on the cooking range! At the market there was a lot of pink and white veggies: sweet potatoes, little pink turnips, lotus roots, red onions… So I just guessed they would make a perfect and beautiful combination for a light vegan meal.

I sliced the red onion to make a thin layer at the bottom with a bit of olive oil. Then added a layer of leek finely sliced, then I just washed and halved the sweet potatoes, washed the little turnips and just removed the leaves, finally peeled the lotus root and cut it in large pieces. I cooked in the cocotte for 30 minutes at low heat and just served with a bit of salt. Super delicious!

October 10, 2015

Autumn is here!

Perfectly sunny days, chilly wind in the morning and in the evening, warm temperature during the day, beautiful colors and beautiful light,

Yes! Autumn is here and it’s beautiful in Japan! Before the leaves turn red there is yet so much to enjoy! While Europe is turning gloomy, rainy and cold, Japan is bright, quiet and perfectly warm. Probably the best season to visit the country.

And with autumn coming fruits and veggies are slightly changing, fish too. Sanma, green yuzu, matsutake, lotus roots, sweet potato, kabocha, kaki… are now the most available seasonal ingredients and I love to cook them!

I love to prepare autumn veggies sautéed in a wok for lazy lunch or dinner. So simple, so colorful and so yummy. The one on the picture is just made out one sweet potato, one carrot, a quarter of kabocha, and a handful of shimeji, a bit of oil and salt. Served alone or to accompany something, all option are possible!

October 7, 2015

Pompe à l’huile

We are weeks before Christmas and this year again I plan to bake the traditional pompe à l’huile for everyone. So right now once in a while I bake one just to polish my recipe. And I think I got it right this time! The pompe à l’huile is a traditional Christmas dessert in Provence. It is often mistaken with Gibassier. Pretty much every family has a recipe or a preference. Pompe brioche, with orange, with neroli, with anise… In our family we like a thin rather dry one, with neroli and a bit of orange peels.

Since it is an olive oil base dough it is extremely easy to knead and with the neroli it smells extremely good. A real pleasure to prepare!

For a 30cm pompe à l’huile I used: 180g of flour (regular flour not the strong one), 6g of dry yeast, 3g of salt, 35g of brown caster sugar, 60g of water, 75g of olive oil, 1 table spoon of neroli, a few candied orange peels, or a zest of orange.

I mix all the ingredients and add the orange peels in the last few minutes of kneading. I knead until the dough is smooth and soft as usual. Then I wait for 2 to 4 hours depending on the room temperature before shaping it. I roll the dough in a circle, cut and if you want you can strech the dough so that the cuts open loose for 1 cm. Then wait for a few hours before baking at 180deg until it goldens. While still hot with a cooking brush apply a thin layer of olive oil.

October 6, 2015

So what did I get for dinner this week?

Refraining myself from cooking and letting my husband take over I feared that my dinners would invariably be pasta-steak. Hum… Not really my cup of tea… But hopefully with a fridge full of delicious veggies I got plenty of nice things and he cheated once by taking me out. Probably the most elaborated dinner was this soba one-plate with sautéed zucchini and sweet pepper, green beans and tomato, just seasonned with soy sauce. Thanks darling for this week!

October 3, 2015