Gnocchi di zucca

I love Italy and Italian food and I’m very excited that we will spend xmas in Sicily and my birthday in Roma!!! So to get ready I working on my classics and some different variations, one I love particularly is gnocchi! So I made pumpkin gnocchi, or rather kabocha gnocchi! And because the skin of kabocha is very soft I kept it, adding a nice greenish color. I also added a potato to make the orange less vivid and more subtle and it gave something really nice, perfect with just a little of olive oil and pepper.

For 2 portions of gnocchi as main dish I used 1/2 kabocha, 2 small potatoes, as little flour as possible, 1 egg (so you’d rather make a huge amount of gnocchi so that the egg don’t moisten to much the preparation). I steamed both potatoes and kabocha, but I recommend to grill the kabocha to avoid also large quantities of moist. Then you just mix sll the ingredients and shape the gnocchi. Finally boil them in salted water, or fry them in a bit of olive oil!

November 16, 2015

Orange and chocolate sweet bread

For a rainy morning there is nothing better than a hot sweet bread just out of the oven. It’s been some time since I haven’t baked, but this rainy weekend was just the perfect moment to start again and go with some new originsl recipes. I also bought some new sourdough and natural yeast and I’m really happy with the result.

So for this first bread I wanted something sweet and fruity for breakfast so I used candied orange peels (recipe tomorrow!) and dark chocolate chips. For one bread I used 170g of whole wheat flour, 110g of water, 3g of natural yeast, 8g of dry sordough, 4g of salt, 40g of brown caster sugar, half a cup of candied orange peel and one table spoon of dark chocolate chips. I kneaded well until soft and smooth, then let it prove for 5hours (temperature is not really high in the house now). I then made two long sticks that I rolled together, I wanted to make breeds with it but reslized that 3 sticks wouldn’t be good. Then it prove the rest of the night and I baked it jn the morning, 10min at 230deg, then 20min at 210deg. I like to eat bread right out from the oven, so we had our breakfast right away.

And you know what?! The Parisian sister is back on tracks! Yeah!

November 16, 2015

Buckwheat tart

Rainy and gloomy Saturday calls for a comforting tart for lunch: 100% buckwheat dough for the base, leek, oyster mushrooms, tofu for the garnish. Simple, tasty and warm, just what we needed!

November 14, 2015

Saturday morning

After our long and busy week we were happy to go to the country and enjoy a peaceful week-end. After a nice breakfast, I decided to check my device and discovered a message from my old friend Debbie from the USA that was mentioning something that has happened in France which surprised me. I checked right away the news and discovered what was happening in Paris.

I think there’s nothing to say about it.

It has shadowed our day and made us talked a lot, and I guess it has also limited my ability to write today.

November 12, 2015

Plain and simple

Well well well… I was hoping that this week would be slightly less busy than the previous but, we’re Friday and it’s not going to happen. Running from one meeting to an other, from a lecture to an other, to solving problems in the lab, and revising papers, preparing my next talk coming much too fast, I hardly managed to squeeze in time to study Japanese and to practice kyudo but that’s all I could do. So food-wise we’ve been going for super plain and simple food: veggies, pasta, rice and beans. It’s also getting colder and a lot of people seem to have caught colds, so we’re packing on fresh fruits: tangerine, apple…

Not to say that I can’t wait to be tonight for two reasons: 1st because I’m supposed to receive a present, oh oh oh!; 2d because we should spend the week end in Ohara and I’ll have plenty of time to cook and paint (and see if Pablo is still there!)

A bowl of plain Japanese rice with soya beans and sesame

November 11, 2015

Corn pasta and veggies

I discovered corn pasta some time ago and I really like them very much, this taste of polenta, the nice texture, and easy to accomodate with plenty of things. The yellow color also is really pretty. I buy some often, and the easiest to find in Japan are penne.

I served them this time with fresh veggies and added a bit of bacon. I used 3 little leeks, 1/2 kabocha, 1 large tomato, cooked them in olive oil, and served with the boiled pasta for dinner. Simple, quick and perfect when again coming home late.

November 11, 2015

Chestnut and porcini ravioli

While browsing my ravioli pictures and recipes I found one I invented last year and that was just magnificent: chesnut and porcini ravioli. I love chesnut flour for its sweet taste and delicate flavor and I find it perfect to cook everything, bread, cake, crepes, pancake, crust for tarts or ravioli pasta. It is perfect with autumn veggies, prosciutto, parmegiano, melty cheese… I prepared porcini ravioli with a pasta made with chesnut flour. I simply replaced 3/4 of the regular flour by chestnut flour (more makes the dough hard to work). For the filling I used dried Italian porcini that I rehydrated, I chopped them and mix with a little of flour. You can add meat if you like too, or a bit of cheese. Then I filled the ravioli, boiled them and served with simply olive oil, salt and pepper. Super winner recipe that I really love! Of course if you have the chance to have fresh porcini I recommend to serve some too, just grilled in olive oil to top the ravioli!

Now wondering what will be my next ravioli!

November 10, 2015

Mushroom and chard millefeuille

No news from the TPS yesterday? Well, it seems that we’ve lost the connection with the Parisian sister… As for the Tokyoite sister I’ve been really busy with my day job, working late and whole Saturday spent at the university. I’ve had also a number of work dinners to attend. Hopefully yesterday we managed to take some time to see friends and go to the opening of the Foujita exhibition at the Tamenaga gallery (they have two drawings of cats that are sumptuous and one beautiful water painting) , and I could finally spend some time in my kitchen.

I had in my fridge this beautiful chard and some lovely kind of oyster mushroom, and I was thinking of making ravioli with it. So I slightly cooked them together in a bit if olive oil and salt, and blend half of it to obtain a creamy green paste. Then we went out, and came back right for tea time, so I made us a little cake and used up all my eggs… oups! How would I make fresh pasta without an egg? Well I decided to change my recipe into some kind of millefeuille of little chestnut flour and flour crepes. So using a mix of chestnut flour, wheat flour, water and a bit of olive oil and I made about 10 little crepes. On each I spread some green paste and layered them, I topped the whole with some mushrooms and added the remaining veggies that I didn’t blend. Add some fleur de sel and some grinned black pepper. Simply yummy, but I still want to eat ravioli…

November 9, 2015

Adopt me!

Or how to be or not to be trapped by a stray cat with a lovely fur and a cute face… Indeed, it’s been a few weeks this cat has been around our house (basically since we came back from France) but I thought it my have been some of our neighbors cat so I didn’t give her anything and anyway couldn’t approach her. But then when 3 weeks ago we learn from our old neighbor that it is indeed a stray cat I thought she might be hungry so I started to feed her with katsuobushi and she seemed to like it very much, spent most of her time with us but still was innaprochable, yet we named Pablo. Last week-end we made a move and decided to build her a little place since it’s getting colder at night, she started to answer her name or it seemed and didn’t leave the premises of the house, even more, she’s been staying literally with us while we were gardening, she tried many times to get in the house and succeeded twice, and she broke my heart when we left, since she accompanied us to the car, a place she never go with us usually. Now, this week end I’m working and we are staying in Tokyo, and I wonder if she’s waiting for us. I’m not sure we want to adopt a cat but this one is definitely trying her luck with us, and already adopted us.

November 7, 2015