Et voila!
Packing done. Everything’s ready. This time I’m traveling to France for work for about 10 days. I’m sure I’ll come back with tones of things, food, fashion and interior related probably!
I’ll be back on 17th!
Healthy and easy breakfast
You know how we like seeds with Gentiane, we use them all the time and can put some of them everywhere.
For this quick breakfast, I need yogurt (or creamy fromage blanc), a drop of brown sugar, blackberries, raspberries and of course many different kinds of seeds. I use goji berries, sunflower seeds, pine seeds. You can add some homemade granola. And tada!
Breakfast is ready.
Smoked tofu one-plate
I was about to buy momendofu (firm tofu) for this one plate dish when a pack of smoked tofu attracted my sight and I ended up with it. All the way back home I was wondering when I had smoked tofu last and how it was, but I couldn’t really reacall. Probably in a vegan preparation back in France, but I wasn’t even sure. Since I had in mind a one-plate with half-brown rice from Camargue, avocado and salad, I decided that I would just dice it and add it to the plate. Well, it was a nice combination, smoked tofu has a very strong and particular cheesy taste which suited well the other ingredients. I still think it would suit better smaller quantities or different preparations. Fresh tofu in Japan is so delicious that the smoke version doesn’t make too much sense I felt.
What are your recipes with smoked tofu?
The end of summer
After days of rain and gloomy weather and some chilly days I am slowly accepting that summer is over. It is also noticeable at our local farmers market: new rice is there and with it sweet potatoes and kabocha little pumpkin) are now taking over. Tomatoes are more rare, nashi tend to be more ripe…
So there is no choice than to move forward and start cooking with new seasonal ingredients. For this dish of grilled tuna I prepared a summer/autumn mix of veggies: tomato and okra for the summer, sweet potatoe, carrot and leek for the autumn. Simply grilled in a greased pan.
Souvenir from Kobe – 神戸のお土産
I just travelled one day to Kobe, which means that I’ve spent half of the day in the train. You could imagine that working seated in my office most of the day or working seated on a train is the same but actually the feeling is completely different. In the train I can’t open the windows to breath fresh air nor change the settings of the aircon/heater, neither the neon over lighting. So I feel dry, cold and oppressed, my eyes hurt and I feel exhausted… Anyway… The good thing, except that work was good, is that Kobe is famous for a delicious and somehow strange German cake: the baumkuchen. It’s a layer cake baked while rolling. The kind of thing hard to try at home. And the famous brand Juchheim (the first to introduce the cake in Japan) has plenty of shops in the city and of course at the shinkansen train station. So I couldn’t help but bringing back a little souvenir for our breakfast and some for my students (the tradition of bringing some food souvenir or omiyage in Japanese (お土産) is one important tradition at work).
There are many different brands of baumkuchen of all quality, you can even find some in supermarkets. There are also different flavors of cakes, the most common are plain, macha, chocolate… There is also a number of limited seasonal editions such as yuzu… My favorite for breakfast is the plain one, and I like the one from Juchheim more than the others because of it’s thin outer layer made of ice sugar and butter, which a lot of other brands don’t have.
New rice – 新米
Today I’m traveling to Kobe for work and most of the way from the train window iT’s just rice paddies. Actually, the season for harvesting rice has started a few weeks ago in Isumi, but not everywhere yet in Japan. The beautiful yellow-green rice paddies that undulate in the wind are one by one being cut short. The smell is also changing. When this season starts it is also the end of summer, and this year it’s pretty bad with a lot of rain. Really a lot! And it is also the season for new rice or shin-kome (新米). As new tea in spring, new rice is an important ingredient for Japanese. The taste of new rice is subtle and more refined than usual rice, but it is as much for its gustative properties than for its signification as a the mark of the beginning of autumn, which in Japan is usually long, warm and beautiful.
Almost every year I buy a bag of new rice that lasts pretty much a year in Ohara. I only buy organic rice or Eco rice (the yellow Eco mark on the right side of the bag on the picture). There are also many types of rice (kind of breeds) depending on regions, usually I like Koshihikari type (an habit I got from traveling to Tsunan where they mainly grow Koshihikari), but this time I picked a different type since it seems the Koshihikari has not been harvested yet. When still very new I use it mainly for plain white rice or little preparation, after a few months, I don’t bother anymore.
Okaka yaki onigiri – おかか焼おにぎり
Out of the multitude of recipes and usage of katsuobushi, one thing I love is okaka. Okaka is basically a mix of katsuobushi flakes and soya sauce, sometimes a few sesame seeds. It is often used as a filling of onigiri (rice ball). Today I tried a slightly different manner to serve these onigiri. Instead of using The okaka as a filling I decided to mix it directly with the rice and they grill the balls in a fry pan (small oven or grill can do too) to make yaki-onigiri. I served them with grilled vegetables: tomatoes, okras, shiitake, and with some marinated mackerel.
I baked 1 cup of rice, added 4g of katsuobushi flakes and a tea spoon of soya sauce, stirred well. Them I prepare the balls and flattened them in patties and grilled them in a greased fry pan until golden.
Week-end power lunch
As usual, after our two hours tennis game in the morning we’re just starving and we need a good source of carb and proteins. I love the Japanese combo rice and meat balls. This time sweet potato rice, chicken and soua sauce balls, and pickled myoga in plum vinegar. Perfect!
I bake the rice in a regular pot, add the potatoes sliced at mid time; mix the chicken meat with rice flour and a bit of soya sauce and cook in a fry pan with a bit of vegetal oil. Simple. I got the picled myoga from our local farmers market.
Beetroot risotto
Last year when we went back to France for Christmas we had several time beetroot, mainly in winter style salads, and I realized that in Japan this is not a common vegetable, just like fennel, kale or so many other vegetables that are common in the west (celery was hard to find a few years ago and outrageously expensive). So the other day when I spotted a beautiful beetroot I just couldn’t resist. But to be honest it was the first time ever I bought a beetroot! Back in the time we lived in Paris my mother in law would give me beetroot from her garden but she would cook them before. And usually I would prepare them in salad, since I’ve never been a big fan of it until last year!! I guess it is mainly due to the fact that in France the classic way is to boil or steam them and them make plain beetroot salads… It’s notvery attractive.
Well then, I ended up with a fresh beetroom, and it took me a couple of days to figure out what to do with it. First of all grilling it in the oven. I search for a few recipes, but them I decided to start with the simplest way: a small oven dish, the beetroot inside, baked at 180deg for about 80min. Then once cold I peeled it. Everywhere on the web I found recipes about goat cheese, beetroot, walnuts salad… Sounded nice to me but a little straighforward and anyway my husband don’t eat cheese and doesn’t really like walnuts unless it is in a delicious cake or cookie!!! So I passed this recommendation, next were soups and bortch… And finally I found a picture of a beetroot risotto: that’s it! I have bought the same day I bought the beetroot at Eataly a nice piece of vintage Parmegianno and a beautiful piece of pancetta. All set!
I used half a leek (the white part) cut in tiny pieces, and butter. Cut the pancetta and added it to the leek in the frypan. Once soft, I added a little more butter, the risotto, and finally added some chicken broth, and cooked until almost all the liquid was gone. I diced half of my beetroot and finally added it. When stirring the rice takes this beautiful pink color. I served and gratted the vintage Parmegianno on top.
