Tag: cod

Brandade

Probably the last recipe of this potatoes week. I could have talked about gnocchi (but I have so many times done already), about hachis parmentier, or oven grilled potatoes, and I may some other times. But it’s true that with new potatoes I love simple recipes when they are steam or pan fried. Yet there was one recipe I had never tried before and I wanted to for quite a bit now: brandade. It’s a traditional recipe from Provence and Occitanie and I grew up eating some quite often. Like many traditional dishes it is rather simple to prepare, and it requires very few ingredients: salted cod, potatoes, milk, olive oil. It just requires to prepare in advance the salted cod that needs to bath in water for 12-24h or so. I made a very light version on brandade, and we ate it as a dip for steam vegetables. It can be used further in a few recipes too: with bread toasts, potatoes, tomatoes… But without further delay here is the recipe. I hope you’ll enjoy it!!

Brandade

– a piece of salted cod

– one mid size potato

– olive oil

– milk

– pepper

12 to 24h before eating bath the cod in water. Change the water once in a while. If you use Japanese salted cod, the quantity of salt is much less than in Europe so I only had mine bathing for 6h.

Now that the cod is soft and almost unsalted, boil it in a large pan and boil the potato to without peeling it. When cooked, remove the bones of the cod and peel the potato.

I used my blender but you can do it in a bowl too and do it manually. Put the cod and the potato and purée the mixture, add a tablespoon of milk and one of olive oil each time it’s needed to smoothen the mixture. Repeat until you have a creamy dry texture. It should not be liquid so be careful when adding the liquid, not to add to many. Add pepper and your brandade is ready!!

Bacalau – すきみ鱈

Bacalau, salted cod, is something I have been eating for ever. It is part of the traditional aïoli from Provence and also from the French Caribbean islands the Antilles, acra and in féroce d’avocat, a delicious avocado base recipe. Seeing how much cod is a popular fish in Japan, and sun-dried fishes himono-干物, are also very popular, I wasn’t surprised that they also have bacalau. In Japan it is called sukimitara すきみ鱈, and though it is also salted cod, fishes used for that preparation are much smaller than in France, but it is all the same delicious. The best place usually to find some from Hokkaido is Yoshihike-吉池 in Ueno. I wonder how Japanese eat it as so far I have seen no recipe using some and a rapid browsing was rather common ways: grilled, meunière… nothing that had a Japanese flair, but I myself have a few recipes I like to prepare in addition to the above mentioned ones, these recipes are largely inspired by my mother’s cooking and re-crafted a bit. The only “issue” with salted cod is that except is some rare cases like in feroce where the cod is used as it, you need a few hours or more to remove the salt thus recipes cannot be improvised.

Today I made a simple potatoes ragout with fresh tomatoes, the last of the leeks from my neighbor’s garden, new carrots (or not), slightly desalinated cod and plenty of anis seeds. I peeled and cut all the vegetables, in a bit of olive I first reduce the leek, add the potatoes. Stir at high heat a bit, then add the tomato (a large one is enough for two), cover with water, add the cod chopped, some black pepper, and a table spoon full of anis seeds. I cook until the water has reduced and it’s ready to serve!

I love the balance of flavor and texture. The creamy vegetables, the chewy cod, and the crunchy seeds.

You can change the leeks for a new onion, all the same creamy and soft.

Have a good end of the week!

Butternut squash week day 2

For this second day of the butternut squash week, I have chosen a new recipe that I had in mind for a while but never tried. I am a big fan of coconut milk but I use very few in fact because I don’t use much packed food from places I don’t go… As you may have noticed I used local products of the places I am and those I take back with me as much as possible. Anyway once in a while experimenting with other products is fun! This recipe is again very simple and perfect for the fall using not only butternut squash but also sweet potatoes and an autumn fresh fish: cod from Miyagi, a little north of Chiba.

Coconut milk ragout

– 125g of butternut squash peeled

– 125g of sweet potatoes (a large one)

– 2 portions of fresh cod (I like the tail part)

– 200ml coconut milk (I use Kara classic coconut milk because I like the creaminess but not sur it’s a sustainable choice)

– salt, pepper, a spoon of oil, 1/2 cup of water

I simply cut in bites the butternut squash and wash and cut also the sweet potatoes in bites, and the cod. In a large pan I heat the oil a bit and trough all the vegetables at once and cook at high heat for a few minutes, then I add the fish on top and finish with the coconut milk, the salt and the pepper. Compared to other recipes I add slightly more salt to enhance the coconut taste while taking some of the sweetness. I then add the water (adjust eventually depending on the coconut milk texture, some are very creamy, some very liquid) and cook without stirring for 10min, or until it is just right creamy and the ingredients are well cooked. You may need to add a bit more water, but you don’t want it to be too liquid when done, or overcooked to reduce the liquid. Then serve and enjoy!

Plating such ragout was not super easy for me but the taste was amazing!!!

Butternut squash week!

I know… last week I was already writing about butternut squash and as said, I bought a new one again this weekend in the countryside. One butternut squash a week when in season is a good pace for us. Combined with other vegetables it last the whole week. This time, after some classics, I am experimenting a little bit more with new ideas of recipes or preparations. After browsing my past post on butternut squash I realized it deserved a proper “week” as shiitake, zucchini , eggplant… had. So I have decided to go for a butternut squash week this week with 4 of 5 recipes using butternut squash that are new to me. For the past published recipes please look here (many of the pictures have disappeared during our migration, I am slowly working on fixing that).

First recipe coming tomorrow!!!!

Canola flowers – 菜の花

In a flash we went from cabbages and sweet potatoes to fukinoto and canola flowers. It’s almost spring already, and the vegetables at the farmers market let you know that! Of course it’s only the beginning, and it is nice and interesting to mix winter and early spring ingredients. Canola flowers are versatile and I am very found of them. They start at the same time plum trees start to bloom and they both are markers of our wedding anniversary. Indeed, we got married under beautiful plum trees in full bloom at Gojoten jinja on a cold and perfectly sunny day of February 2007. And for the celebration lunch Kikuya’s chef prepared among the many dishes some canola flowers that we discovered at that time.

I cook canola flowers, or rather I like to call them the Japanese way: na no hana, quite often when the season comes. They are a good alternative to broccoli and more local. I have tried a lot of different combinations and developed many recipes with na no hana, and I still continue. This time with some beautiful cod fish from Hokkaido I prepared a kind of rice bowl. Simple, healthy, tasty and colorful. Try it please!

Na no hana and cod rice (for 2 people)

– 1 cup of Japanese rice (as always Koshihikari from chiba for me)

– 200g or a small bundle of na no hana

– 200g of fresh cod

– 2cups of katsuobushi dashi

– sesame oil, sesame seeds, salt

First start to cook the rice. While it cooks prepare the rest of the ingredients. In a fry pan start grilling the cod on the skin side at medium heat. In a pan prepare the dashi then add the washed na no hana. Boil them until soft. Drain once cooked and chop. Once the rice and the fish are cooked, in a fry pan add some sesame oil, the rice, the fish in crumbles without the skin, and the na no hana. Stir well and cook at high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add salt and sesame seeds and serve. Enjoy!

Soba salad

I’ve been so busy at work running from one place to an other and with some tension when our robot was making its debut on stage, and with the moving that I barely cooked and even barely thought about writing a post to share with you a delicious recipe. .. for which I must apologize!

But as little as I cooked I still found some very nice combinations for a simple Japanese meal that can be prepared everywhere else than Japan since the ingredients are easy to find. What you need is a pack of dry soba noodles (I use only 100% buckwheat flour noodles, but it’s up to you), some green beans, a few fresh okras, some spinaches or mulukhiyah, a piece of fresh cod fish, soya sauce, 1 kabosu or 1 lime. That’s it! Blanche the spinach, the okra, the green beans and bath them in very cold water. Grill the cod in a slightly greased frypan. Boil the soba and bath them in cold water. Squeeze the kabosu or lime, add the same volume of soya sauce. In a bowl add the soba well drained, dry with a cooking cloth the vegetables, cut them and add to the soba. Top with the cod that should crumble. Finish with some dressing. Enjoy! 

Stuffed zucchini

Summer = zucchini plenty! Of course there are many ways to prepare them (see the zucchini recipe week from 2 years ago!). One of my favorite is stuffed zucchini. Classic meat stuffing would be my grand mother recipe, cheese stuffing would be my mother recipe. But yesterday night I invented a new recipe with some fresh local ingredients plus a bit of quinoq for texture. So here is my new recipe, and I loved it!!!

Cod and quinoa stuffed zucchini

– 2 large zucchini  

– a piece of cod filet

– a block of tofu (silk or hard, both work) 

– 2/3 of quinoa (I had tricolor one)

– 2-3 eggs

– salt, pepper olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 200deg.  Drain the tofu. In a pan grill the cod briefly then add the quinoa and cover with water. Add salt and pepper. When the quinoa is cooked and it’s dry stir well to mix the fish with the quinoa. Add the tofu and stir again well to obtain a rather creamy paste. Add the eggs. Wash the zucchini and cut them in 3-4cm trunks. Carve them to remove a bit of the center part to add the filling. Fill them. Set in an oven proof dish add some olive oil and bake until golden (30min or so). That’s it!!!

 

Two way meal

Or two recipes with the same ingredients. One the original version and the second a leftover version. Both delicious and easy to prepare.  The original recipe is a Japanese one: rice with green peas and red miso grilled cod. This recipe is made with simple and easy to find fresh ingredients. You need fresh cod filet, red miso (work with other miso if you can’t find red one), Japanese rice, a handful of green peas. Additionally I served also horse beans and green beans just blanched, but optional. Cook the rice in a rice cooker or in a regular pan. Add the green peas about 7min before the end of cooking. With a flexible knife spread 1tbsp of miso evenly on the fish (opposite to skin side). In a heated pan or in the oven grill the miso side of the fish. Serve when cooked to your liking. I served the fish on top of the horse beans and the green beans on the side.

With the leftovers of rice and fish I decided to make some rice croquettes, something between arancini and accras. I mixed the rice with green peas with the fish, added one egg, a little of flour and pan fry them until golden. Served with a fresh lettuce and tomatoes salad.

Have a great weekend! 

7 herbs – 七草

Every year in Japan, on January 7th it is a custom to eat 7 herbs rice porridge おかゆ. Since I am not a huge fan of rice porridge I develop a new recipe every year (other recipes). Last year I prepared a 7 herbs rice omelet. This year I prepared it with grilled cod. I cooked some plain white rice. I grilled some fresh Hokkaido cod cut in pieces, and the turnip, then I simply washed the herbs and chopped them roughly and add both the cod and the herbs to the rice. Simple, tasty and delicious! How do you eat your 7 herbs???

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