Tag: bell pepper

Oh no! The pantry is empty!!!

Welcome September!!! Honestly, I don’t remember there was a month of August this year… and September starts in quite a gloomy mood… bye bye summer vegetables and welcome autumn!!! With the first butternut squash in and no more korinki… rain and chilly wind.

But while when I open my fridge it is, somehow, always easy to think about something to cook… my pantry recently has been rather empty. I was so much waiting for the new rice to arrive, and for my favorite flour too, that I completely forgot that we were running out of everything: no more pasta, no more regular flour, very little olive oil… 🤭

Our bread are now whole wheat bread as this is the only flour I have left. And so our our pancakes and crepes! Not that I dislike it, but A. sometimes prefers a mix of flours.

And last night when it was time to cook dinner, after another long day of work, you know, when you are starving and you want something quickly ready so that you can sit back and have a nice break… the very last thing I had was a pack of dried soba… I was dreaming of pasta, but soba would be a good alternative, well the only alternative! Because there is no meal if there is no carb in our house!

The plating was made in a rush and the picture taking in a rush too, but the recipe ended up being perfectly balanced and taking advantage of the end of summer vegetables that are bell peppers and the nalta jute. So let me share my recipe with you, in case you are in a rush and have soba noodles nearby.

End of summer sautéed soba (2 servings)

  • 2 portions of soba noodles (dry, fresh, semi dry…)
  • 1 bell pepper (color of your choice)
  • 2 big handful of nalta jute
  • 1tsp of olive oil
  • 2tbs of soya sauce

Boil the soba as indicated. Rinse well after they are cooked and keep in water.

While the soba are boiling, wash and chop very thinly the bell pepper. In a large heated pan, add the oil, the bell pepper and cook at medium heat until it soften. Wash the nalta jute and add to the pan. Continue cooking at medium heat until soft too. Drain the soba and add to the pan. Stir well. Add the soya sauce and stop heating. stir again well and serve immediately.

If you manage well you should have your meal ready in 15min!

Salsola

This little herb okahijiki オカヒジキthat I discovered only 2 years ago is definitely one of my summer favorite. I was surprised to see on IG that it is also an Italian classic, though salsola is much of a spring herb there than in Japan where it rather a summer plant. Anyway, one more way to link my love for both Italian and Japanese cooking in one recipe! Though this one is definitely on the western side! Salsola have a very distinctive texture and bring to dishes a beautiful English green color. Yet the flavor is extremely subtle. So I decided to mix them with another vegetable that has a distinctive flavor but less texture, and that would bring in some new color, while keeping the tone. I used yellow bell pepper. But to be sure that they won’t overrule the salsola I cut them quite thinly. The result, with or without parmigiano was really delicious. So here is my recipe.

Salsola and bell pepper pasta

– 1 yellow bell pepper

– 1 large handful of salsola

– 125g of whole wheat spaghetti

– olive oil

– salt and pepper

Boil the pasta. In the meantime wash the vegetables. Cut thinly the bell pepper, cut in 5cm long pieces the salsola. In a pan with olive oil heated low, add the bell pepper, and stir once in a while until they soften. Add the salsola and stir once in a while too for about 5min. Add the cooked pasta, stir. Add salt and pepper, and serve. You can top with grated parmegiano or not…

Bonito

Not far away from our house is Katsuura 勝浦, a city on the ocean with a fishing harbor, a fish market, a few nice street to browse and a sea front further south where we paddle surf (or least try to!!).

Katsuura is quite famous as a bonito fishing harbor in the area and they indeed have delicious fresh bonito in season, which is basically from spring to mid summer. We’ve eating quite a bit of bonito, and one of my classic way of preparing it is either pan grilled or in a sort of ragù with vegetables. But after a few times eating it that way always, I wanted a new recipe.

Inspired by the pies and other yummy pictures I saw on IG, I decided to try making a bonito pie. The shape of the filet is perfect to fit in a cake dish and with the season of bell peppers starting, I had a perfect combination. The pie cooking is quite interesting as all the juices and flavors are trapped in the pie and reveals when you cut it, guaranteeing a very interesting tasting experience. Though I could have worked a bit more on how to shape and plate it (as usual), the taste was amazing. Definitely a recipe that will go to my favorite recipes of the moment.

Bonito pie (2-3 servings)

For the pie crust

– 200g of flour (I used whole wheat)

– 4tbs of olive oil

– water

– a pinch of salt

For the filling

– 1 bonito filet (for sashimi)

– 2-3 bell peppers red, yellow, orange… you name it

– 2 leaves of laurel

– olive oil, salt and pepper

Prepared the pue crust. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt and olive oil. Add water little by little and knead until you have a smooth dough. Roll it in a rectangular shape to fit your cake dish, yet twice bigger.

Set it in the cake dish. Add the laurel leaves in the bottom of the pie, then add the bonito on top. Wash and slice the bell peppers. Arrange them around and on top of the bonito. Add salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil. Close the pie with the dough. Make a small hole on the top and make a small chimney with baking paper. Bake at 180deg for 40min. Or until golden.

Red quinoa

I’m on a mission to finish every single pack of rice, pasta, cereals and legumes that is opened and sitting on a shelf or in the fridge half empty. Yes! I keep pretty much everything in the fridge: flour, cereals, rice… to keep them longer (it prevents damages from high humidity and high temperatures in the summer, and low temperatures in the winter) and it allows to avoid pests since they are all organic or natural products and I am tired of food with bugs (more generally in the food that I buy in France…). I’m trying to empty my shelves as much as possible before we move to our new apartment in Tokyo, and same in the country house, just to clean my cupborads and fridge.

So I had a half pack of red quinoa to use. One thing I love to do with quinoa is some kind of croquettes. I cook the quinoa and then mix it with 2 eggs, some chopped vegetables: spinach, bell pepper, zucchini… and whatever else. This time it was some yellow bell pepper and a piece of Hokkaido salmon that was leftover from the previous day. I added some curry powder and some nutmeg, salt and pepper and cooked on both side in a greased frypan until crispy. I served them with some blanched okra, but any green is great. A light yogurt sauce with herbs can also be great.

And I was still having some extra quinoa, so for the next meal I prepared a vegan soup. Simply quinoa, sweet potato, butternut squash and shiitake, and again a bit of curry powder.  Finished with two shishito.

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