An all-time favorite

This simple dish with little variations is one of my favorite quickly ready Japanese dish. I cook it from autumn to early spring in a series of variations while the seasons change. Starting with plenty of mushrooms towards green peas. Sweet potatoes, burdock, kabocha are so beautiful now that I have decided to start cooking these seasonal veggies. And with some new rice, it’s a perfect match. For the pictured dish, which is about 2-3 servings, I used 2 carrots, 1 little burdock, 5 shiitake, 1 medium sweet potato, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Heat the oiled pan, wash-peel and cut the veggies, add them to the high heated pan in order of longer cooking time, stir a bit. Once golden cover and cook at low heat until the sweet potatoes are soft, add some sesame seeds and soy sauce and serve.

Autumn colors spicy soup

The autumn vegetables are all over the place: matsutake, all the mushrooms, sweet potato and kabocha! These little pumpkins are so versatile, it’s really easy to cook them. They are good fried, steamed, boiled, simmered, in tempura, puréed… And in soup with carrots, they are perfect! I’m still largely inspired by that American cooking magazine I bought in Chicago and decided to try to make a spicy-tasty soup for our guests for dinner.  For 4, I used 3 carrots, 1/3 kabocha, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper and salt. I boiled the veggies and blended them with the spices (to your taste) and served. Surper simple, delicious and vegan!

Home sweet home

I’m so happy to be back home!!! This week in Germany has been really intense and productive for work, but being away from A., a kitchen and some oudoor activity for so long is really hard for me. As you can guess from my last post, the first thing I wanted to eat was some simple Japanese rice, and since I add some sweet potato remaining in my empty fridge I pan grilled it in a little of oil and added it to the rice (rather than cooking together. And topped with some salty konbu. Eaten together with a little cucumber (that was also remaining in the fridge) , I was the happiest girl!!!

The curse of intensive meetings

I work in a field where people loves to gather for a few days, sit and discuss all day what is the future of our field. Usually these meetings take place in close environment and from morning to night we are presence is mandatory. It gives very little opportunity for physical activity (choices are quite limited this time since I’m in a remote village in Germany) or only at the cost of sleep deprivation, and food options are also limited. Though they make efforts to have fresh local food, after 3 days there my body is now fighting for going back to normal. And by normal I mean sleeping more, being ourdoor more and eating homemade prepared food. 

I anticipated that, so our very last dinner in Tokyo I cooked some simple Japanese food with all my favorite ingredients: plain rice, salty konbu with fresh tomatoes and uneboshi salad, and okara, shiitake and carrot croquettes. Now I am craving for something like this!!!! 

Food habits

Travelling abroad and eating at some friends’ place, doing some shopping in the local organic supermarkets and trying some local products definitely impacts my food habits. Trying new delicious products or simply eating differently from what we eat in Japan everyday is really interesting. In Germany I was expecting to eat a lot of dark cereal bread like black bread, pumpernickel… and to buy flour to make some, which I did. But at our friend’s place I also tried freshly prepared porridge and I really love it. First milling the oatmeal (or spelt or whatever you want), then preparing some warm liquid: this time on the picture is homemade chai latte, then some fresh topping: plums, and finishing with linen seads and dates. Perfectly nourishing and warm for a chilly autumn morning and before a long forest hike in the Wine county. Hiking, walking being outside, if not possible, swimming, are all for me the best ways to recover from jetlag, together with a good breakfast.

Chocolate & walnuts cake

It was raining and it has gotten a bit chilly so the autumn cooking is officialy on! And I again got inspired by American cooking. I didn’t follow any specific recipe but just baked some chocolate cake with walnuts. Prunellia is a much better cook than me when it comes to brownies, chocolate cakes etc… Because she goes with the ful blast recipe of butter, dark chocolate… Of course my version is not as rich because I can’t eat that, and may seem a little dry because I don’t use a lot of butter, but for me it’s exactly how I like it. Simple and tasty to go with my tea! 

When is that rain going to stop?

I have the impression that this summer it’s been raining 9 days out of 10… Many typhoons already hit Tokyo and still continue. I miss being able to go outside to garden and to play tennis. Hopefully we are leaving for Germany tomorrow night and the weather should be much nicer. Since autumn vegetables are starting to fill the shelves of the farmers market I decided to start with sweet potatoes. I made some mashed sweet potatoes for the first time and really liked it. It’s really a nice combination with fish or pork. This time I served them with oven grilled cod, simply boiled beat and raw okra.

Gratted ginger scones

When we were in Chicago We went to Wholefood quite often, and when lining at the cashier they always have some magazines. Usually people press in which I have no interest, but also few cooking and interior magazines. And I must say that I totally get attracted to these. And I ended up buying one, with plenty of autumn recipes. I was definitely too early and too hot for thinking about pumpkin cakes and heavy preparations, but this time might come I tought (and it came quicker than expected!). Most of the recipes are too rich in butter and sugar but they provide some inspiration for sure and moveme out of my comfort cooking zone. The first recipe that inspired me is scones. Well nothing that move me too much away of my comfort zone… I love to prepare scones. They are so versatile and so easy to prepare. They can be sweet or salty, they can be prepared in advance… Pear and ginger make a good combination and pears are just starting to be in season. Funnily pears in Japan are often called “la france”, a name I’ve never investigated but that has always intrigued me! So in the classic base of scone recipe I added fresh ginger gratted, cinnamon, vanilla and grated clove. I served it with fresh pears, but you can add the pear diced in the scones too!

Vegan curry pasta

While curry rice is an institution it in Japan, I decided to try an other combination, of course with a slightly different recipe, and was very much surprised with the way it ended. As the title saus, it’s curry pasta. For two not too big servings I used 3 tomatoes, 4 okras and 1 carrots, a bit of olive oil, 1 tsp of curry powder and salt and pepper. It’s really simple. Boil some big pasta: penne or whatever you like. In a heated and greased pan I put the tomato cut in pieces, cook at high heat for 2min than at low heat. I add the carrot sliced, the salt pepper and curry and cook under cover until the carrots are almost done. Add the okras, remove the cover, cook until the moisture is almost gone. Serve with the pasta. The taste of curry must be subtle and should not hide the sweetnes of the tomatoes and carrots.

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