Tag: buckwheat

Local products from Tsunan

So, as I was mentioning before, I packed a lot of local products from Niigata prefecture and more particularly from Tsunan machi. The area is famous for its rice, a little of buckwheat and since they grow a lot of vegetables there is also delicious pickles, and to make them the 2-5-8, a preparation much easier to use then nuka, and that gives delicious salty pickles. I’ll tell you more about soon.

Rice flour, buckwheat flour and 2-5-8
Rice flour, buckwheat flour and 2-5-8

I also like very much the pollen and chestnut tree honey made in Akiyamago by a local producer. And while visiting some artwork we found some nice “sarunashi” (berry kiwi), a sort of wild tiny kiwi, with a taste close to rhubarb, homemade jam. 

Pollen, honey and berry kiwi jam
Pollen, honey and berry kiwi jam

Jumbo ravioli

I’ve been craving for ravioli recently but I wanted something different than the ravioli al raggu, and I can’t make cheese ravioli (remember, my husband don’t eat cheese). Hopefully I’m very resourceful (no kidding!) when it comes to inventing some new recipes and I thought that some fish ravioli would be great. Unfortunately, there has been a few typhoon coming and going, a lot of wind too, so the choice in fish was quite limited, and I ended up with a beautiful piece of salmon. I didn’t want to serve it wigh spinach (too winter-like) so I picked some fresh celery. And here’s what I did:

I prepared a dough with half white flour half buckwheat flour, pass it in the pasta machine a few times, then diced quite finely the fish and the celery (both leaves and stick), add some salt and pepper snd prepared the ravioli. I cut the dough in 5cmx5cm to be able to put a lot of filling in. Then I boiled some water with some of the remaining celery leaves and boiled my ravioli. I just served with olive oil and lemon juice.

Buckwheat pancake and vegetables

This recipe with zucchini was invented on the spot. I wanted to eat my yellow zucchini with some green beans and purple asparagus, but didn’t want to eat pasta or risotto, so I prepared a batter with buckwheat flour, baking powder, salt, 2 eggs and water (makes two large pancake). In a pan I sauteed in olive oil the green beans, the yellow zucchini cut in small pieces, and the purple asparagus, then I baked it in a small greased pan at low eat the batter and topped it right away with the vegetables and baked only on one side under cover. The vegetables sink a bit in the dough and it resembles something in between a crepe, a pizza and an omelet. I topped it when done with a bit of salt and olive oil. Simply delicious!

Cold buckwheat noodles salad

Soba is the Japanese word for buckwheat and by extension buckwheat noodles. You can find soba-ya: restaurants serving soba pretty much everywhere and there are several places accross the country famous for the production of soba that it makes them something really common. I wanted badly to mske my own noodles but on that day I realized I had no buckwheat flour, and couldn’t find some around. So I bought dried soba noodles, which are basically like dried pasta. And I prepared a cold buckwheat noodles salad with seasonal vegetables: snap peas, green peas and cucumber and served with some pork meat balls. 

I just boiled the noodles, quickly boiled the peas, sliced the cucumber. 

For the additional balls it can be made out of tofu or okara for a vegan dish. This time I promised some meaty dish to my husband, so I mixed some pork meat with and egg and bread crust, salt pepper and then cooked them in a frying pan under cover until golden.

For the overall seasoning I mixed a little of ponzu and sunflower oil.

Mini buckwheat pancakes with spinach and shimeji

This year I’m making a lot of pancakes and crepes. I find it really easy to prepare, quick to cook, good with everything, and infinite variations. This time I prepared mini buckwheat pancakes. A simple mix of buckwheat flour, baking soda, salt, eggs and water. Baked in mini size in a frypan. I prepared with that a juicy mix of spinach and shimeji, with olive oil. Super yummy!

Mushroom and tofu tart

Since spring has decided to go away and winter is back, I wanted to eat a warm and thick mushrooms tart. I made the dough with buckwheat flour and olive oil (not an easy one to shape) and for the rest a mix of fresh shiitake, fresh sort of shimeji, a big block of silky tofu, 2 eggs and thyme. I put everything in a deep pie dish to obtain a thick tart, about 3cm high. All in the oven for 30min and ready to eat just out from the oven. Nothing too innovative but always a warming choice. 

Buckwheat spinash cheese thick galette

A quick recipe for a power lunch: buckwheat flour, 2 eggs, some cheese, a few spinach. Mixed altogether and cooked as a thick galette. Prepared in 1 min, cooked in 7 min, perfectly delicious and full of energy for busy afternoon.  

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