Celery potage

Last week end at the local farmers market they had tones of super nice veggies so we came back to Tokyo with the trunk full of veggies (our car has a fairly small trunk though!). And now any time I open the fridge to cook I have plenty of ideas to prepare all these beautiful veggies. I experimented quite a bit with juices and smoothies but my equipment in Tokyo is not appropriate for that. And then I came up with the idea of having a good soup for dinner made with this huge celery I bought. Since I like the simple taste of one ingredient I didn’t mix it with any thing. I simply boiled 3 branches of celery in some veggie consommé, then blend the whole thing, add a little of cream (vegetal cream is perfect) and serve hot. For those who like you can add a slice of grilled bacon or some croutons.

November 5, 2015

Autumn meal

I love when I get back to work a bit late (which is to be honest pretty much every day) to open my veggie drawer in the fridge and to find a whole set of fresh things just waiting to be prepared. What and how just naturally flow from my mind and in less than 15min the dinner is almost ready or at least all decided!

This time my fridge had a wide choice of autumn veggies, no surprise there. And I prepared a little mix to accommodate a simple bowl of rice and some pickles. So I just just a red onion, a piece of lotus root, a carrot, a piece of kabocha, some shimeji and a few green pepper. I cooked them in a bit of oil at high heat for a few minutes then under cover at low heat for an other few minutes, finally add a little of soya sauce and serve.

October 29, 2015

Sunny Japanese autumn – 秋晴れ

I love these autumn days when the skies are so blue and the light is so bright, these “akibare” days. This is an invitation to wake up early and be outside all day long . So I spend little time cooking during the day and we need some quick fix for lunch, yet full of energy to enjoy a few more other hours out gardening, hiking, playing tennis or whatever. Pasta provide a perfect base, and since temperature are still warm if not hot at this time of the day, acold salad is perfect: penne with avocado, radish, cucumber, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, olive oil and ready!

Enjoy the autumn! It’s so beautiful outside!

October 25, 2015

Lotus root – 蓮根

As you may have noticed already I really love to cook lotus roots (renkon-蓮根) . They have a beautiful white color that goldens when cooked, a very crispy texture, a nice shape and a delicious taste. And practicaly they’re super easy to peel and cut, and don’t require a lot of cooking time. It’s quite simple to find some all year round but spring for tiny ones, and autumns for larger ones seems the best periods. They grow in many places in Japan so local lotus roots are also easy to find, though the best I’ve ever had came from Kanazawa, which is famous for lotus roots.

Lotus roots accomodate very well with other veggies and I like to cook them with carrots, shishito, kabocha… I also love them in homemade chips. This week I’ve been working late pretty much every day, so fixing dinner in a short time was quite a must. So for this recipe I simpl cut and wash the peeled lotus root, stir fry in a bit of oil, added some shishito, and in the mean time cooked some rice with sweet potatoes. I served the rice, topped with the lotus roots and shishito, added some sesame seeds and a bit of salt. Dinner’s ready!

October 24, 2015

Persimmon jam

One of our persimmon trees about 2 weeks ago

In Japan, persimmons are quite popular and common. Everywhere in the country at that season you can see their trees with little or no foliage, just magnificent orange fruits against the blue sky. And this year there are so many fruits on each tree that it is really amazing! There exist a few varieties from the very sweet used in different recipes more often in salty versions, to the sour ones (shibui kaki – 渋いカキ) used dried: hoshi kaki (干しカキ). Since the season is just starting there’s going to be many opportunities to prepare persimmons.

In our garden we have three persimmon trees, two sweet and one quite old sour one. I don’t use the sour ones I leave them to the birds, because old ladies from area told me that Ohara is too warm to dry kaki properly without them rotten. But I use the sweet ones in several recipes. And this year because there are so many I’ve decided to make jam and jelly. I used only persimmon, brown caster sugar and a bit of agar agar. I peeled a dozen of persimmons, cut them in pieces, remove the seeds, add a bit of water, brown caster dugar and cooked at low heat for 1h. In the last few minutes I added a bit of agar agar because I had no natural pectin to really make it jelly like.

I then prepared the bins and and wait until cold to try on my original bread! I’m not very much used in making jam and preserves so I’m still learning, but the persimmon jam is nice, but as expected the taste is very subtle. I may have tried to add some flavor with vanilla beans may be. I made two variations: one pure jelly, and one with large chunks of fruit as on the picture. So if like me you have plenty of persimmons that could be a good manner to use them, if not I wouldn’t buy any to make jam with, unless you have a better recipe than mine, which I’ll be very happy to try because I’ve only harvested a 10th of our persimmons yet!

October 19, 2015

Left over diner

We had friends at home for diner the other night, and I over spec the diner portions, so, rare enough, I had enough left overs for a second diner. But because I don’t like eating twice the same thing I arrange it in completely different maner.

The original dinner consisted in plain white rice, Japanese autumn veggies (sweet potatoes, litus roots, carrots, eringi mushrooms, turnips…) in dashi and sake, salt-grilled sawara, and a mushrooms and tofu miso soup.

The new version was a cha-an (sauteed rice) with sawara and sauteed veggies, with sesame. For that I fried the rice in a bit of oil, added a table spoon if sesame seeds, added the veggies, and stirred often. I removed the skin and bones of the fish and crumbled it in the rice, stirred again and served. A super delicious diner, ready in 5 min, just perfect after a long day at work!

October 16, 2015

Gingko nuts rice

There are several ways to use gingko nuts in cuisine. The simplest is probably to grill them, for that you just beed to break the hard shell roughly, grilled them in a pan and serve with salt. It’s the easiest because no need to remove the hard shell, everyone does while eating. Perfect as a snack. But definitely not the most elegant way. So first if all renoving the shell without breaking the nuts is important. It’s not too difficult. Then there is a brownish skin that you don’t want to serve. To remove it it’s easy, boil a dew minutes the nuts then roll them in a metal net or drainer. The peel will go away with the friction. Now you have the perfect yellow nuts that you can use for any recipe. One of my favorite use issimply with white rice, to accompany a Japanese dinner. Jusr add the nuts in the rice after it is cooked. Count 3 to 7 nuts per person. Finish with a bit of salt when serving to enhance the taste of the nuts.

October 13, 2015

Variation of the mushrooms tart

For a slightly more elegant plating, the mushrooms tart is also nice in individual little shapes, with simply the dough and the veggies on top. And served with a little kabocha purée in a Parmegiano millefeuilles.

The dough of the tart is again using a base of chesnut flour. For the kabocha purée I just washed and grilled under cover kabocha cut in pieces (with the skin), then mashed them with a fork. I then cut slices of vintage parmegiano and make layers of kabocha purée and parmegiano.

October 11, 2015

Pink veggies in cocotte

With the autumn settling down and the rainy day, It was high time to get the cocotte back on the cooking range! At the market there was a lot of pink and white veggies: sweet potatoes, little pink turnips, lotus roots, red onions… So I just guessed they would make a perfect and beautiful combination for a light vegan meal.

I sliced the red onion to make a thin layer at the bottom with a bit of olive oil. Then added a layer of leek finely sliced, then I just washed and halved the sweet potatoes, washed the little turnips and just removed the leaves, finally peeled the lotus root and cut it in large pieces. I cooked in the cocotte for 30 minutes at low heat and just served with a bit of salt. Super delicious!

October 10, 2015