First bread of the year

When we left Japan in December it was still the end of autumn, in our garden the Japanese mapple trees were all red, the gingko had just lost all its leaves, the camelias were starting to bloom. 15 days later, the mapple leaves have all fallen, at first sight only the camelias haven’t changed, but with a closer look, the daffodils are blooming, the magnolias  and the plum trees are full of buds already big, and the garden is metamorphosing slowly towards spring. From now on it’s going to be the coldest days, but the garden needs a lot of attention to get ready for spring: tree treaming, weed removing, cutting, grooming, planting… So we spend a lot of time outside in the cold, and there’s nothing better to start such days with a warm energizing rustic bread for breakfast. My recipe is simple: 50g of rye flour, 200g of white flour, 170g of water, 14g of sordough, 4g of natural dry yeast, 6g of salt. 20min cooking at 230deg, plus 5min in the oven cooling down. Perfect with jam, honey, butter or whatever pleases you!!!

Best wishes for 2016 + TPS 1st anniversary

On January 1st last year I started Tokyo-Paris sisters. The idea came for several reasons:

  1. the need to revive the cooking and life-style part of gentianeetantoine.com, a website I started when we moved to Japan in 2004 and where pretty much everyday during 7 years I shared our discovery of Japan and our trips in Japan and abroad. The cooking part was a public space mainly dedicated to our friends and family where I shared Japanese recipes I was trying and French recipes I was preparing.
  2. I needed a cooking diary to remember year after year what I am cooking and how because, as you may have noticed I cook without books and got inspiration on the moment, and forget as quickly as the idea came, and a picture is often better than notes.
  3. I wanted to do something with my sister.

Now that we’ve been on for a year I realized it’s a lot more fun than I expected and I really like this moment I spend, mostly in the train, writing something about what I’ve cooked, or reading what Prune has been writing, I also realized that most of the posts are about food which at first was not intentional, though I wanted a cooking diary, I thought about mixing it with many more things that I am excited about or Prune is excited about, but for some reason I restrained myself and Prune may have too. Anyway, TPS is going on and starting fresh in 2016 with many more recipes, some travel and hopefully home decor and life style. Everyday brings something different, let’s enjoy that!

Best wishes for 2016!! 

Brandade

This recipe is one of our mother recipe and is a traditional Provencal recipe using the leftovers of salted cod . After the cod has been unsalted and washed, just boiled it, then add milk and stir until the milk has been all absorbed by the fish. Add pepper and olive oil, stir again.  This mixture, called “brandade” is delicious on toasted bread, with boiled potatoes, as a spread or to stuff veggies. It’s good eaten either warm or cold. Here is a preparation of stuffed cherry tomatoes, perfect for a buffet or finger food.

Kingfish with fennels, olives and capers

Making of the bouillon
Making of the bouillon

A Sicilian stay wouldn’t be complete without a recipe involving capers and olives. The delicious Mediterranean olives and Sicilian cappers are perfect for many recipes. The market has decided for us that it will be a fish recipe: December is great for kingfish. So we first prepared a bouillon with one onion and two fennels (remember we’re still cooking for our whole family!). The onion and fennels are chopped finely and golden in a bit of olive oil, then covered in water, where we add three large spooned of pruned olives in salt anc vinegar (made by our maid and really delicious), and one table spoon of large Sicilian capers. Then the fish is slighlty grilled in a frypan before being added to the bouillon and cooked under cover. We served it inlayees with the veggies of the bouillon, the fish and with some fresh tagliatelle and a touch of spinaches. 

Artichokes

In Sicily it’s easy to find delicious artichokes in December and fields covered with artichokes can be seen everywhere. They are little purple artichokes perfect for raggu and hot pot preparations. Delicious with onions, tomatoes…

They are really easy to prepare, you just need to remove the outer leaves, cut the leaves at mid height or more (until tender), cut then the artichokes in halves or quarters, add a bit of lemon juice in water to prevent the oxydation. In a large pan, heat some olive oil, add a chopped onion, then the artichokes. Cover in water and cook until completely soft. Serve warm or cold. Perfect as a side dish. Variations include adding a peeled large tomato, white wine, bacon, salty cod…

Fennel soup

Still enjoying some local Sicilian products, the fennels are, just like the cauliflowers a must of the season. Fennels are also found everywhere and are beautiful. For me in particular it’s a feast because in Japan it’s not easy to find fennels and they are usually small and not too good eaten raw. So I’m really enjoying eating plenty, raw, cooked, braised… And since soups are a big favorite for dinner in our family, the fennel soup we prepared with our mother was a big success. For 8 people we used 2 onions, 2 little tomatoes, 2 big fennels, olive oil, salt and pepper. First we cut the onions, the tomatoes, and the fennels and slightly cook them in olive oil (no need to say, Sicilian olive oil is amazing) . Then cover with water and cook for 40min. Blend and add some olive oil and serve. Simple and so delicious, perfect before the Christmas feast! 

Cauliflower soup

With all these beautiful green cauliflowers everywhere in town, sold at every shop, seen at every street corner, and in the fields, they seem to be one of Sicilian winter must eat! So it was impossible not to buy some and prepare something with. Our mother is really good with preparing soup and we prepared a cauliflower soup. The cauliflower is just boiled in little water, then blended with a little cream, salt and pepper. Served with some freshly made croutons: just old bread cut in chunks and slightly pan fried in oil. Thanks Mum for this homy-yummy soup.

Risotto with radichio and Italian sausage

Continuing our Sicilan food exploration, we bought in Castelvetrano some beautiful round radichio and decided to use it for a risotto. Cooking 6 hands now with the TPS and their mother, this recipe is really simple and delicious, always taking advantage of the quality of the ingredients. So, for that recipe for 8 people we used 2 onions, 1 round radichio, 6 cup of riso for risotto, 1 Italian sausage (chicken and parsley sausage), a good amount of olive oil, salt, pepper and some freshly gratted Parmegiano for those who like.

Gnocchi

Here we are in Sicily and the first dinner I cooked for the family wath plain gnocchi. We’ve found these beautiful potatoes in Menfi and some greens (something they said was between spinach and rucolla) so it was just simply boil and mixed with some olive oil. Of course served with some delicious Parmegiano. It was fun actually preparing gnocchi for 8 persons, usually my sizing is 2, eventually 4, so it took quite an other dimension! 

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