Empty fridge cooking

Or what to do with 3 old branches of celery… because when the weekend comes I usually start to run out of fresh vegetables, waiting for the weekend in the countryside to refill. So last night my fridge was looking really sad with a few old branches of celery, a piece or parmigiano and a pack of gnocchi. But that was just enough and perfect for a late dinner. Boiling the celery and blending it to a thick cream, adding olive oil, salt and pepper. And serving with gnocchi and gratted parmegiano. Have a beautiful weekend!

January 28, 2017

Some more green & pasta!

When I look at my food pictures these days it’s a lot of green that I see! Most of my recent preparations included leek, canola, spinach, celery, ice plant, sprouts, lettuce… Even though it’s winter we don’t get bored eating only cabbage and potatoes! Luckily Chiba has a mild weather and many different veggies grow all year round. I remember cooking a lot of pink/purple food last year at this time of the year because I could find red cabbages, but this winter I haven’t found any yet. Anyway, green is delicious, and I prepared a kind of dry veggies and pasta soup with 1 leek, 3 branches of celery, and some little spinach. As usual, I start by cooking the leek and celery in a bit of olive oil, then cover with water and pasta for soup, once all the water has disappeared I add the spinach for one or two minutes and serve. I added some freshly gratted parmegiano. An other way to cook and eat pasta!

January 27, 2017

Sicilian inspired pasta

After browsing my Sicilian cuisine cookbook I had a lot of new inspirations and ideas, and a crave for pasta. I love so much pasta and Italian cuisine that sometimes I wish I could live in Italy or travel there more than once a year! So for the inspiration it was on using pistachios, something I really barely use, may because I prefer them salted and usually they would be used in sweet or dessert recipes. And since I bought a big bundle of fresh celery at the farmers market, I made a very simple vegan spaghetti dish. I boiled spaghetti. In a small pan I hested olive oil, chopped 2-3 tbs of pistachios (I did it with a knife but you can use an electric chopper). Add them to the pan and stir regularly. Chopped 3 celery branches with a bit of the leaves but not too many, add to the pistachios and continue stirring. Drained the pasta, and served, top with the celery-pistachios mix. And have a nice week!

January 23, 2017

Pasta plate with smoked ham from Karuizawa

As I was mentioning, Karuizawa is a nice place to by cured meat and ham. We bought to types of smoked ham and both are really delicious. Since these are blocks it is not easy to make slices of it, and I found it a good opportunity to use dices, which in my opinion considerably changes the texture and taste, and suits very well to be mixed with other ingredients such as vegetables and pasta. So for this recipe I just boil big pasta, qanything you like is ok. And in a pan with a little of olive oil I heated eringi mushrooms cut in small pieces, then celery, diced ham and just one minute before serving dices tomatoes. I drained the pasta and add them to the pan so that they sunk in the veggies juice, and served immediately.

February 15, 2016

Short but intense week

Yup!! Today is the last of the week for me!! But squeezing in a whole week of work in 3 days is quite a challenge. Plus this is the end of the year for students in Japan and that means a lot of thesis reading, preparation for presentations and grading. So from 8:00 to 22:00 it’s all busy. Adding a few round-the-world meetings late at night and the cup is full. So we’ve decided to retreat for a few days in the mountains, probably snowboarding, ice skating and hiking. Being so busy is ok for me, it’s kind of normal, but having to break my sleep habits is really the worst for me. My body stops to regulate its temperature and I feel cold often. So last night I wanted a warm and fresh, soft and crispy, colorful, and ready in 10min. It turned out in a one-plate with steamed spinach, sautéed shiitake, raw celery, chickpeas and creamy boiled eggs.

February 10, 2016

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

The useless ingredients tart

I usually shop everyday for diners and breakfasts when in Tokyo execpt for the fruits and vegetables I bring back from the country, but a few rare times I have an idea, shop for it and by the time I arrive home I have a new and better idea, or I remember there’s something that needs to be eaten first, or I just run out of time to prepare according to my original plan. So a few times I end up with a piece of tofu, herbs, a few vegetables that I need to prepare rather than having them in the fridge for ever.

This time I had a big piece of tofu, the left over celery from the ravioli, and a few cherry tomatoes. What best then preparing a tart with these ingredients. A simple sable dough with olive oil, a mixture of egg and tofu, a strict lining of tomatoes and a rough scattering of celery cut in pieces. In the oven for 30min, and a delicious dinner ready to enjoy!

July 31, 2015

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.

July 30, 2015

Summer?

I talk about summer vegetables and fruits a lot, and use many in my cooking every day (I love summer fruits for breakfast) but to tell you the truth though we are in July, the weather is quite tricky these days and summer may be in my plates but not outside. So after a whole week of rainy days and quite cool evenings, I wanted to eat a warm soup. So I went for a simple combination: leek, celery and zucchini in a vegetable consommé that I cooked 10min to keep the celery and the zucchini firm enough. I added a few little pasta at the same time (for the energy after a tough day) and a bit of olive oil. A delicious mix for dinner perfectly balanced in taste and texture. You can also add some gratted Parmegianno.

July 10, 2015