Tag: autumn

Simply simpler

No time to fix dinner? Don’t worry, I’ve just found a new preparation for sweet potatoes, and it’s so simple and delicious that it surprised myself. This is a sweet potato soup. But usually sweet potato soup means, that first you cook the potatoes, then blend them, add some cream or whatever and then eat. Last night I didn’t want a soupy soup, but rather something with a mix of textures. So here is what I did and turned superb! 

Sweet potato rough soup   2 servings

– 2 sweet potatoes

– black pepper

– parmegiano (optional) 

I washed 2 sweet potatoes and sliced them. Then in a pan I started to cook them, with just a bit of water to cover. I cooked them at high heat under cover without touching them once until all the water had disappeared and the potatoes started caramelizing in their own juice. Only then I stirred well and started to break them with a wooden spoon. Finally added water again to cover them, and bring to a boil. Add some black pepper, and served. Topped with parmigiano slices.

Kabocha soup

Autumn seems to have arrived. Mornings and evenings are much chillier and days are getting really shorter already. So it’s time to prepare some warm simple soups. After eating so many butternut squash, now I have started to cook kabocha. This little Japanese pumpkin with very green skin that can be eaten too. And making soup with it is really simple and it always make a good starter or a whole meal if accomodated a bit with crouton or grilled bacon. Here is my basic recipe. 

Kabocha soup for 2 or 3 people. 

– 1/2 kabocha

– 1L of water

– 1 little pack of fresh cream

– 1tbs of soya sauce

If you want your soup orange remove the skin, if greenish is ok for you wash the kabocha and keep the skin. Remove the seeds and cut in pieces. Boil in 1L of water under cover. Check the cooking with a toothpick. When very soft stop. With a wood pestle work directly in the pan and purée the kabocha (you can use a blender also if you want!). Add the cream, the soya sauce. Heat before eating. Add black pepper, bacon, parmegiano or whatever you like!!!

Persimmons harvest

Together with the gingko nuts, the season for persimmons has also started, and our two trees in the garden are literally covered with fruits this year. Since this is way to much to eat them all, that pretty much everyone has a persimmon tree in their garden, contrarily to gingko nuts, they are difficult to give away. I tried jam but it was not a huge success, and I run out of ideas on how to preserve them. These are not really persimmons you would dry, like shibui kaki… So I harvest a few, give a few to friends who don’t have a garden, and usually offer the rest to the birds, bees and butterflies who seems to be loving their sweetness and juiciness. 

One of my favorite recipe with persimmons is in salad with cucumber, turnip, sesame and tofu. This time I had no turnip so it was just persimmon and cucumber. 

Persimmon, cucumber and tofu salad: 

– 1 persimmon still a bit hard

– 1 Japanese cucumber  

– 1 small block of drained hard tofu

– 1tbs of sesame seeds, or sesame powder

– a bit of salt

Peel and dice the persimmon, sluce the cucumber. Grind the sesame seeds, mix with the tofu and the salt. Add the persimmon and the cucumber. Stir well and it is ready to serve.

persimmons on the tree, with giant bee and tiny frog!
persimmons on the tree, with giant bee and tiny frog!

Harvest it – eat it!

It was a while since I haven’t seen my little neighbor so I decided to pay her a visit, and as such we usually exchange products from our respective gardens. I had nothing to offer, so I promised her plenty of gingko nuts in a few weeks, since our tree is literally covered with nuts. And in exchange she took me to her garden to show me her giant taro plants (mine are so tiny…) and then she gave me a huge shiso plant covered with buds and flowers, and we picked together some shishito. We also checked the damages of the typhoon, actually not much luckily and of course we chatted for an hour!

Once back home it was past time to prepare lunch but I wanted to try a recipe she recommended me with the shiso flowers: tempura. Of course I am not equipped for deep frying, so real tempura was out of the question, but still, I tried something. I prepared a light batter with just flour and water, I washed the shishito, a few shiso leaves and many of the flowers and buds. In a wok I heated some rice oil. I dipped the greens into the batter and then fry them on one side, than dipped it again and fry it on the other side. And with the flowers, I simply threw them in a bit of batter and cooked it like a crepe. No way without deep frying that it would stay in one puece otherwise. I also cooked some white rice, crumbled a piece of grilled salmon that was left over, and some more shiso flower buds. And I served all together, after sprinkling a bit of salt, in a kind of ten-don. 

Butternut squash…

…what would I do without you? So easy to peel and cut compared to kabocha and most pumpkin, so quick to cook, and so many recipes possible. I can’t help buying one every time I see some at the farmers market. It suits so very well all types of dishes, Italian, Japanese etc… So what did I do with last time? Some autumn spread! Enough of eggplants, chickpeas or yogurt speads summer spreads but Yes! for a butternut squash autumn version.

Butternut squash spread

– 1 butternut squash

– salt, pepper, pumpkin spices (cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, clove)

Simply peel the butternut squash and remove the seeds, cut it into large chunks and steam or boil it. Once it is soft, with a fork just mash it. Add a bit of butter if you like. Add salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and clove. Stir well to obtain a purée. That’s it!!!! Eat with freshly baked bread or crackers for a killer experience!

Chilly!

Autumn weather is finally coming to Tokyo, which means some beautiful weather mainly and also some rain when there is a typhoon. The temperature is also changing a lot and tonight is quite chilly and rainy, so a warm dinner was naturally my only option. This is the season for delicious Hokkaido autumn salmon 秋鮭, when the fishes come back to their original rivers. They sell it in quite large filet pieces, so I usually use it for two or three different recipes. This time I decided to prepare it in a kind of soup, very likely inspired by my nordic cooking book but with common Japanese ingredients.

Autumn salmon soup 

 – a piece of fresh autumn salmon

– 1/2 sweet potato  

– a large handful of mulukhiyah  – salt and pepper. 

First grill the salmon, in the pan in which you want to make the soup, on both sides. Then remove the skin and cut in pieces and pit back in the pan. Actually rather than cutting I simply used a spoon and broke the salmon. Cut the sweet potato in dice and in a pan. Add salt and pepper. Start cooking while stirring. Add 1/2L pf water. Cook under cover until the sweet potato is soft. Add the washed and cut mulukhiyah. Cook a few more minutes. Serve while hot.

Back to “normal”

After one full week of reunited Tokyo Paris sisters, it is time to part again, not for too long, since we’ll reunite with our whole family for another Christmas in Sicily, which I am very much looking forward too!!!

Shibamata
Shibamata

One week with guests at home and usual work is always quite intense. Dining out, waking up earlier to spend sometime together in the morning, and using our days off to travel the city. Yesterday was Culture day 文化の日 and we had quite a full day to enjoy the beautiful autumnal weather: we went to Shibamata to see some old shopping street and beautiful temple, then head to the new Otani hotel for a teppanyaki lunch and stroll in the Japanese garden. Spent part of the early afternoon at Dailanyama T-site, stopped on the way back at the Aman hotel, and finish shopper in Asakusa for some order-made paper lantern P. wanted for a very long time. Back home just in time for sunset and mount Fuji!!! (Don’t think of this kind of schedule if you are not motorized!)

And then by dinner our guests were gone, going back to Paris. And a sudden emptiness and quietness st home! Time for us to catch-up with our regular habits and in particular with our veggie-based dinner! So I prepared a very simple soup with butternut squash, potatoes, burdock, lotus root, cabbage, a large piece of konbu for the broth and finished with a little of soya sauce and sesame seeds. So simple and very Japanese in flavors.

My new favorite desktop lunch

After reading that the trend for avocado as an healthy food (like we didn’t know that before, stupid magazines that said for so long it was too fatty… pfiuu) and the resulting worlwide frenzy for avocado toast and other recipe based on avocado  (stupid magazines again), is causing deforestation in Mexico, one of the major producers of avocado, and as caused local avocado prices to skyrocket, I had to change my 7 year long habit of eating a lit of avocados. It is not easy to compete with such ingredient: super easy to find, super easy to prepare, versatile and delicious. But recently with the chilly autumn days I’ve started to use mushrooms quite intensively. Mushrooms are good raw or cooked, they require little preparation and are quite versatile too. Right now my favorite lunch is rice with melted cheese and mushrooms sliced on top, finished with a few pumpkin seeds, salt and pepper. 

To prepare that lunch I usually use leftover rice I’ve cooked for dinner. If I opt for a warm option, to cook the mushrooms I use a microwave (though I hate microwave, that’s the only “cooking” gear I have at work). I wash them and slice them, then cook them for one minute in a plate in the microwave, remove the water (don’t cook them directly while warming the rice, you’ll end with a rather disgusting soup!!!), warm the rice and cheese, add the mushrooms, salt, pepper and pumpkin seeds. It’s ready in less than 5min, warm, melty, crunchy, tasty!!! What is your favorite desktop lunch in autumn???

More butternut squash!!!

This autumn I am all about butternut squash and A. loves it too, so I cook some many times a week as you can have seen already. The parisian sister is coming to Tokyo tomorrow for a week and so we had to prepare space for her at home, move a lot of furniture here and there, arrange lighting and make a cosy tiny space for her. It kept us busy for a long part of the evening before I started thinking about dinner, and so I needed a very easy and quick meal. In these situations, packed gnocchi (of course I prefer my homemade gnocchi but it is not always compatible with my schedule) are very handy, they cook very quickly and it is easy to accommodate them with any type of veggies. And of course butternut squash is no exception!!! So I prepared some gnocchi with a butternut squash and spices sauce: in a hot pan I put a bit of olive oil, add a large piece of butternut squash peeled and cut in big chunks, a ripe large tomato, black pepper, cardamon, nutmeg and cinnamon (for those who like some bacon). Cook until the juice is almost all gone. Boil the gnocchi in the mean time and serve, add just a few drops of olive oil. How do you like your gnocchi?

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