Tag: breakfast

Bagels!

Last weekend. I thought it was a real long time I haven’t cook bagel and it’s been a while I wanted to come some… then I checked out my recipe online and realized it was actually 3 years since I cooked any… so it was indeed a really long long time!!! I used the same recipe, and since I was preparing them for breakfast I used very simple toppings: plain, brown sugar, sesame seeds, and mixed seeds. Actually I used half of the ingredients of the recipe and since I didn’t have sourdough I used 7g of yeast; and made 7 bagels, so I guess the recipe makes more 14 than 10 bagels, unless you like giant bagels!!!

Again I was surprised how simple it is and it seems quite impossible not to succeed. I poached them on the evening and baked them in the morning because there’s nothing like eating freshly baked bread in the morning!

It was the perfect start for a Sunday before spending time in the garden cleaning and taking weeds.

Recurring failure

I’m usually pretty confident in what I do, and in cooking more than anything else. I can try new recipes or invent new ones on the fly with quite some easiness and usually I obtain very very good results (it was one if the motivations for me to start this culinary journal, to keep track of my inventions).

That said (a little bit of self flattering never hurts!!!), I am not super human and there are things that I can never manage to master. Croissants are a great fancy for me and I love the idea of freshly baked croissants, buttery and fluffy, with a perfect puff to start a great Sunday. Despite having tried 4 or 5 times, having checked different recipes, watch videos and read books… I failed poorly in reaching my goal every single time. The taste is always great but the result is never a puff pastry croissants, it is a bread-ish, brioche-ish, milk bread-ish thing but never puffed. I don’t know what’s wrong with what I do or use. I’m incriminating the floor, the yeast, the kneading, the rolling and the folding… tried to improve each but didn’t succeed. If you are a successful croissants maker I’ll be more than happy to receive first hand feedbacks and hints to succeed next time. I’m also considering finding a class, if you know any I’ll be happy to learn about it…

Please help me make puffy croissants for Sunday morning breakfast !!!

Toronto

Until today I couldn’t really say “I’ve been in Toronto”. When I was a teenager I spent a few hours there on a trip to Niagara with my American family, I remembered the CN tower and around but that was all. So when D. and C. proposed to spend the weekend in Toronto while I was visiting Waterloo for work, I thought it was a great opportunity. A. could join for the weekend from Florence and we would enjoy what the city has to offer in the end of winter: good food, nice walks, theater shows…

We walked all over the city, from the Old Toronto to the East Bayfront, and the Distillery district, through China town to Kensington market and back to the Waterfront… stopping for a bite, a show, or design stores (on King street)…

Here are a few recommendations for enjoying you stay in Toronto.

– stay: I would recommend the Old Toronto where you can find all the big 5 stars hotels. It’s convenient to walk everywhere or so. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton. Nothing exceptional about it but great efficient service.

– coffee/breakfast: Hot Black Coffee on Queens street is a nice tiny coffee shop open early in the morning. Nice Chai latte, and a wide selection of items for breakfast: muffins, toasts…

– lunch: El Catrin is a Mexican restaurant in the distillery district, their vegetarian tacos were amazing, inventive and refreshing.

– dinner: Actinolite is THE place to eat. A restaurant with a chef that uses exclusively local and oc course seasonal products and makes an inventive, perfectly balanced menu, with the right textures and flavors, and the perfect size. Plating was also great. There is no Michelin guide of Toronto but if there was, it would surely be in with 2 stars at least.

Picture from Actinolite website

French toast

Could you imagine that! I have never eaten French toast!!! Not even once! And never made any either! So today I decided to try to make some with some bread leftover… Everyone knows how to make French toast, even me, I knew!!! It is ultimately easy and rapid: some milk (I used almond milk), an egg, a bit of brown sugar, spices (cinnamon and cardamom, my favorite). Bit the egg with the milk, the sugar and the spices. Soak the bread in it, the cook in butter greased frypan until golden… that’s it. And well I must admit that the taste of spices was good but really, French toast are not in my top list… I prefer to use leftover bread for croutons or give it to the birds… I probably won’t make any a second time… I think the idea of soaking old bread is actually quite not something I like, a main reason why I was never tempted by French toast before (neither English pudding). Now I can say I tried, and won’t again!!! But there’s always a good thing in tring recipes, it’s that it gives some new ideas or chances to test new combinations. And with the milk and egg batter left, I added a bit of flour, some more milk and obtained a spicy crepe mix. And I made a few crepes, served just with butter or sugar, and they were super delicious. The spices added a little teist that was simply perfect! That I will definitely do again!!!

Pancakes best-of

10 years ago I was baking pancakes twice a year or so… I would often use pancake mix and was never fully happy by the taste and usually had to eat them completely soaked with maple syrup. That was until we travelled to Boston in 2009 and I found a great organic pancake mix at a fancy grocery store. I remember coming back to Tokyo, and waking up very early with the jetlag, the sun was already shining and I decided to take the time to treat us with pancakes made with this newly brought pancake mix before going to work. And it was a revelation, pancakes can actually be really delicious, and they don’t need to be soaked in maple syrup!!! Of course I could never find the pancake mix again, but I didn’t care. What was in the mix taught me that it was really easy to make pancakes from the scratch: any kind flour, baking powder, a bit of sugar or salt, milk (of any kind, or water) and an egg or not (actually now I prefer without, I found the pancakes more fluffy). Since then I have declined all possible ideas: changing the flour: plain, whole, soya, buckwheat, spelt… the milk: cow, almond, soya, coconut, water (when I have nothing in the fridge!), adding muesli, oatmeal, coconut, almond powder, spices, fresh fruits, grated lemon (picture)… making them for breakfast or dinner.., and they are always delicious, different and reslly easy to make. So I roughly cook pancakes once or teice a week when there is nothing else. But here is my ultimate top 3 for the moment:

1. Coconut pancakes: plain flour-coconut milk-grated coconut for a tropical breakfast, perfect with passion fruit jam;

2. Chai pancakes: plain or whole flour-cardamom-cinnamon-ginger for a cold winter morning, great with honey;

3. Muesli pancakes: whatever pancake base with muesli (nuts, cereals and dried fruits) added, anytime an extra energy is needed, I love these ones with butter.

But I must say that the lemon pancakes I cooked recently were amazing and could be in the top 3 together with muesli . Unfortunately I find it hard to get organic or non-chemical/wax lemons so it is not a recipe I can often prepare. Though last weekend I bought about 20lemons at a local organic market in Isumi, so I will use more lemon in the next weeks (after I’m back from Italy and France).

Lemon pancakes 

– 150g of flour

– 1tsp of baking powder, a pinch of salt

– 1tbs of brown sugar

– the zest of 1 lemon

– 200ml of soya milk

– a bit of water

– a bit of vanilla  

Mix all the ingredients to obtain a creamy dough not too liquid. 

Heat a large fry pan (anti-adhesive) pour 3 or 4 rounds of dough (depending on the size of the frypan and of the pancakes) cook at medium Heat until the top is almost dry, flip and cook on the other side. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Serve with honey or yuzu jam!

 

 

 

Winter rolls

In winter, when it’s cold in the morning and we want to have something rich and hot to eat, I like to prepare cinnamon rolls or cinnamon buns. I find them super delicious when made with the recipe from the Nordic cookbook that I’ve slightly modified, but so rich that I actually don’t cook them too often, maybe once or twice a year when it’s really cold. I This time I found that I actually had a very good kneading, the dough was really shiny, smooth and elastic and the rises were really great despite the cold temperatures of the house, the dough actually almost doubled twice, and the result was a very fluffy yet rich cinnamon roll. I didn’t do the egg wash nor the sugar frosting, but they were golden all the same, sweet enough and perfect for a cold Sunday morning breakfast before spending time outdoor gardening. One thing I love in that recipe, is the cardamom. Indeed, in the dough Magnus Nilsson recommend to add some cardamom, and I find it adds some lightness to the preparation. How do you like your buns?

First bread of 2018

While in my parents’ place I baked many pompes a l’huile for Christmas, but I didn’t bake any bread. There are a few nice organic bread shops and bakeries around. But now that we are back to Isumi, it was mandatory to bake some bread. I started this year with a very simple bread: rye and whole wheat, with a handful of flaxseeds. And since the house is rather cold, I kept the bread all night in the room with us for it to rise, and only baked it much later. It has risen very slowly but the result was a very soft yet dense bread. With jam, honey, butter, or whatever, it’s delicious for breakfast. And it goes together with the book I am reading about Roland Feuillas, a guy who has been working for the last 12 years in making bread with traditional wheats grown traditionaly too. This reading has revived in me this idea that I should grow my own sourdough, but I still don’t know how to manage the trips between Isumi and Tokyo every weekends, and the longer one abroad  and to keep it alive properly… If you have some experience in raising sourdough I’ll be happy to learn from you!!!

Last bread of the year?

The last week in Japan for this year is just starting. As usual before traveling, the last week is a marathon: squeeze in all the appointments, meetings that require me to be physically here, prepare for packing, and here on top, prepare for Xmas presents, since we’ll follow directly with a visit to our family and friends in France. I’m quite excited to go to Florence, first because I’ve never been there yet, and A. will show me around, there will be cooking opportunities with sone local products; second because these five days there are meant for me to work on a book (not an scientific one, neither a cookbook…). A very new activity, something I don’t know where to start and how to organize myself, it is very challenging for me… I write this book with a philosopher who is used to that so that will probably help a bit… we’ll see. That said, it means that I have less time in the morning to prepare pancakes… so yesterday I baked a big black bread that would be our breakfast for the next three days. I used 1/3 of black wheat flour and 2/3 of whole wheat flour for it. It is very nutritious and tasty. And to slice it more easily and evenly, I baked it in a rectangular bread mold, something that makes it resemble pumpernickel. Simple and delicious. Have a great week!!

Double almond pancakes

The last weekend we spend in the country before traveling for a few weeks in Europe: Italy and France, and it is perfectly cold and sunny, just how like the mornings it this season. To warm us up before going outside play tennis and garden, a rich breakfast is now needed and this morning I chose to make rich pancakes, but not muesli pancakes, since A. is not a big fan of muesli. But almond in cakes he likes very much. The recipe is really simple, they are fluffy, warm and nourishing.  The recipe is vegan, but you can add eggs if you want them even richer. So here is my recipe with proportions that are about, adjust slighty if needed! Enjoy the weekend!

Double almond pancakes  

– 200g of flour

– 1 glass of almond milk

– 80g of almond powder

– 1tsp of baking powder, and a pinch of salt

– 2tbs of sugar (optional) 

– 1/2 vanilla bean

In a large bowl, add the flour, the baking powder, the salt the sugar. Stir and add the almond milk. Then the almond powder and the vanilla. The dough must be creamy thick. If it is too hard add a bit of almond milk or water, if it is too wet add a little bit more almond powder or flour.

Heat a anti-adhesive fry pan, don’t grease it. Cook the pancakes on both sides for a few minutes. Eat warm!

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