Category: Vegetarian

Lemon cake

For my birthday for the past 6 or 7 years, when possible, A. bakes me a birthday cake of my choice. The season is such that it involves often lemon or apple. This year the tradition went on and he prepared on my request a lemon cake. With the lemon just harvested in the garden. These lemons I have seen slowly growing and are totally free of pesticides, wax and other things that make you think twice before using the zest. The cake he made was super delicious, on of the best I have had! I wonder why he doesn’t bake more often!! And because he used the recipe he found online and didn’t want to halve the quantities, we obtained 2 cakes of perfect size for tea and breakfast for two. I slightly ask him to modify the recipe to be less buttery, so here is the actual recipe he used:

Lemon cake

– 200g of flour

– 120g of brown sugar

– 80g of butter

– 4eggs

– 1tbs of baking powder

– 1 lemon (free of chemical)

Melt the butter. Wash the lemon and extract both the zests and the juice.

In a bowl, mix the flour, the baking powder, the sugar, add the eggs, the butter and end with the lemon juice and the zest. Pour in a cake dish (one 30cm or two 20 or less).

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180deg for 35min to 45min

When ready eat right away or once is has cooled down.

Have a beautiful end of 2018!!

Moyashi – soya sprouts

Soya sprouts (or moyashi) are one of these things I love but I hardly buy and cook because it’s hard to find some that are made properly. I remember reading about how they were made and stopped eating some. So last night when We went shopping after flying back from France, and I found organic moyashi at our local Seijo Ishi supermarket I couldn’t help buying them. Moyashi is a super food: easy to prepare, packed on protein and nutrients, and also it is very very cheap!!!! One of my favorite combination is moyashi and fried tofu. I love the mix of the crunchy and watery moyashi, with the soft oily tofu. This goes super well with simple rice or in chahan (fried rice). Here is one version of my recipe, it’s a vegetarian option that can be turned in a vegan one by removing the eggs or turned into a plain one if adding thinly cut chicken breast or pork slices.

Sautéed moyashi (for 3 small portions or 2 large portions)

– a bag of organic moyashi

– 2 slices of aburage

– 1tbs of sesame oil

– 1tsp of sesame seeds

– 2tbs of soya sauce (light colored recommended)

Optional: 2 eggs, 1 chicken breast or 5 thin slices of pork meat

Wash and drain the moyashi. In a pan greased with the sesame oil and heated add the moyashi. Cut the tofu in thin strips, add to the pan. Stir and cook at medium heat until l the moyashi is getting softer. Add the eggs or the meat if you want, and stir very well. Finish with the sesame seeds. Serve warm with rice.

A week in the clouds – yogurt cake

December is going in a flash this year… busy days leave room to busier days and the gloomy and cold weather adds to the impression of being overwhelmed. The weather reminded more of Parisian winter than that of Tokyo, giving an awkward feeling, and missing the fireplace very much. My head has been in the clouds lately, a lot to think about at work, the plan for constructing something on our new plot of land, the cat that we haven’t seen in 3 weeks and who haunts my dreams… but finally today the bright sun, the Mount Fuji fully covered with snow now, and the crispy morning air seem to remind me that we are in Japan and that things ought to be taken as they come. Nonetheless, a healthy, warming and nourishing breakfast is always a great way to start the day, and with all the big apples I had seating on my kitchen counter I wanted to use them. After debating about an apple pie, an apple tart or an apple cake, I finally opted for a lighter and healthier option: an apple compote and a yogurt cake. The compote with me is easy, I peel and chop the apples, put them in a pan with a very little bit of water and cook at low heat until they have soften. I don’t add sugar, sometimes a bit of vanilla or spice, but I was in the mood for simplicity, so added nothing. The yogurt cake is like the pound cake, of of this recipe that I have learned at primary school and I have kept making ever since. It is so simple and so easy to eat and it keeps well, I love it for breakfast when in a rush. Here is my recipe as I remember it… the units are the yogurt packaging.

Yogurt cake

– 1 yogurt (100-125g)

– 3 units of flour

– 1 unit of sugar

– 2/3 unit of vegetal oil

– 3 eggs

– 1tps of baking powder

– vanilla

In a bowl stir all the ingredients until creamy. In a greased pue dish pour the mix. Preheat the oven to 140, bake at 140 for 15 minutes, than raise to 160 and bake another 15min or until a knife comes out clean. That’s it!!!

Angst

Today I was reading some articles and stumbled upon the word “angst”. If I understood the general meaning so that my reading wasn’t impeded, I still wanted a clear definition. It’s not hard to search and find the answer and I started immediately to like this word very much, it described so well what I often feel and the awkward position I feel I am in. Enough to make it the title of this post. I feel angst in particular about the so many questions to which I cannot find answers… of course growth has been a long time one, urbanism too, more recently it was about legacy, heredity and filial pity…

All these questions of course don’t prevent from cooking and from experimenting new recipes. When I was a child Laura Todd cookies opened a shop in Aix en Provence. I loved these cookies very much but the shop didn’t last long and soon replaced by a pizza shop… I was surprised in 1999 to discover a decade after that there was a shop in Paris nearby our house (shop that since then as closed too). A. and I would go there once in a while to buy a cookie. A. loved them even more than I did. Laura Todd cookies are very soft but not oily with always melting chocolate chips of a very generous size. A while ago he asked me to make some cookies that would ressemble that. I didn’t try right away, but finally did and made white chocolate chips cookies and raisin cookies. And it worked out very fine. I prepared a recipe in between cookies and scones. Now I just found that Laura Todd cookies recipe is online on their website… (in French) so now I need to try it!!!

I’ll let you know soon how it is and if it is better than my recipe!

Have a great week… mine is busy and lonely…

14

Last week we celebrated thanksgiving but also 14 years in Tokyo. Time flew so quickly, in particular this year with all the ups and downs and the business that it seems almost yesterday we arrived with rudimentary knowledge of hiragana and katakana, Pimsleur lessons fresh in our heads and one suitcase each…

Timing was perfect to celebrate with the new acquisition of a little plot of land adjacent to our property and start afresh like we did 6 years ago: pulling weeds and cleaning to see what we can do with it. Plans have overflown our heads from the simplest to the craziest… time will tell.

We also celebrated with friends visiting us. And cooking for friends is always a nice moment, recalling when we last meet, what I cooked then, what I will cook this time and what we will do. For this time I prepared a brocoli quiche with katsuobushi and iwanori. But since I had leftovers of the pie crust dough I decided to make some iwanori crackers, and it was really a great match. We took them to Yorokeikoku to see the fall colors and even enjoyed seeing wild monkeys!!

Here is my recipe:

Iwanori crackers

– 100g of flour of your choice, I used whole wheat

– 50g of butter

– a bit of water

– 20g of oat bran

– 50g of iwanori or just nori roughly cut

– 5g of salt

Mix the flour, the butter, the water and the oat bran to obtain a smooth dough. The quantity of water will vary, so as usual add little by little and knead well in between. Then add the iwanori and roll. Sprinkle the salt on top and roll once to fix it. Cut into bite size and bake at 180deg until almost golden. Don’t over cook them. Eat as snack or with a salad.

Vegetables quiche

Every season has its delicious vegetables and every season has therefore a possibility of cooking quiches that is infinite. For this autumn or early winter version I used all the vegetables I love for their déclinaison of white to green: cauliflower, leek and spinach. Coupled with a rich pie crust made of soya bean flours, whole flour and wheat bran it gave the perfect balance of flavor and texture, and of colors.

Tell me about what you like on IG!

Cake

When I was in primary school once in a while on Monday afternoon we would have a class where we would do pottery and other crafts and 2 times we cooked: once yogurt cake, and once pound cake. My mom kept these recipes in her classic cookbook for easy recipes that we would use when I was a child to cook together. I did so many of these yogurt cakes, pound cakes and clafoutis, far breton etc… but pound cake was one of my favorite. I love infusing the raisins with rum and drink the remaining juice. It was always a great family hit for tea time. Now I don’t infuse raisins in rum anymore because I can stand alcohol, and it’s been a while I didn’t bake a proper pound cake. But the other day I was planning to make a panettone and bought some raisins for that but then postponed the idea… yet I thought it was stupid to have bought this panettone mold in Italy last year and not using it… so I decided to bake something that would/could pretend being a panettone but that takes so much less time! The pound cake then appeared as the best option! Perfect for a breakfast on the run, as we had to go to sign for our new piece of land!!

Pound cake

– 200g of flour

– 100g of sugar

– 1tsp of baking powder

– a cup of raisins

– 80g of butter melted

– 3eggs

Rehydrate the raisins in hot water, then drain.

In a bowl mix the flour and the baking powder, then add the raisins and coat them well with the mix. Add the sugar, the butter, the eggs and stir well to obtain a creamy dough. In a greased mold pour the dough and bake for 30min at 150deg then at 180 until a knife comes out clean.

Chickpeas flour

Chickpeas flour is a very typical staple in the south east of France, in Provence we use it for panisses, more east on the Cote d’Azur for socca, and it is always delicious!!!

I always have chickpeas flour in my pantry, I use it to prepare socca and panisses for sure but not only! I use it for making pasta and pie crust. For this quiche recipe, with shiitake and spinach, I wanted an oriental flair so I added cumin powder. Here is my super simple recipe:

Chickpeas flour, shiitake and spinach quiche

For the pie crust (vegan)

– 80g of chickpeas flour

– 80g of regular flour

– 1/3 cup of olive oil

– water

– 2tbs of cumin powder

In a bowl mix the two flours, add the olive oil, stir. Add a bit of water at the time while kneading to obtain a smooth dough. Add the cumin powder and knead a little more. Roll and set in the pie dish. Bake at 180deg for 7min.

For the filling

– 4 fresh shiitake

– a bundle of spinach

– 3 eggs

– 1/3 cup of milk (I used almond milk)

Wash and dice the shiitake, wash and chop the spinach. Cook quickly in their own water in a large pan to soften the vegetables. In a bowl mix the eggs and the milk, add the cooked vegetables. Pour in the pie crust and bake for 30min.

Butternut squash love

Since the very first I saw this season I have bought butternut squash every week and I am not yet tired of it. Whether it is with Japanese rice, risotto, faro, pasta or quinoa, it is always great. In jumbo ravioli also it is perfect. I love the taste and the texture and I love it because it cooks super quickly, it keeps quite long even after cut open. It is the perfect ingredient for me this week since A. is away on business and I cook only for myself. Oh! And I was forgetting that it suits very well melty cheese be it cheddar, Parmigiano or gruyère.

So I’ve tried faro risotto style pure and simple. Topped with plenty of grated red cheddar. For that I first boiled the faro a bit before cooking the butternut squash in olive oil and added the faro.

I did tagliatelle with butternut squash, when it was really late and needed to eat quickly. For that I added the butternut squash cut in bites to the boiling water of the pasta 5min before they were supposed to be done. Topped with grated Parmigiano and a bit of olive oil.

And finally I added it to some quinoa soup, a recipe that over the years has been a classic of the chilly season. I just tossed the quinoa with a carrot, a piece of lotus root, chunks of butternut squash and winged beans in gently boiling water, in order of cooking time. Added some curcuma, salt and pepper and ate all warm.

There are still a few more recipes I want to try with butternut squash, but it will be next week until I buy a new one…

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