Tag: cream

Korinky creamy summer pasta

Creamy and summer don’t necessarily get along well together I reckon, but it’s not like we’re in Europe and temperatures are very high for the moment in Japan. It’s still the rainy season and the “real” summer will only start in 2 weeks (hopefully not later!!). While in the meantime the summer vegetables and fruits are not to be seen everywhere: tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, melons, peaches, apricots… So how resisting in preparing some summer dishes?

Two years ago I felt in love with malabar spinach and really starting preparing many last year. So when I started seeing some at the farmers market I was really happy. This year, at the Blind Donkey, I discovered korinky コリンキー, this summer pumpkin also called サラダカボチャ which can be eaten raw. I tested it in the potatoes and cucumber salad I served to my guests last Friday. But with still quite a bit to eat I decided to cook it and mash it roughly, to eat with pasta. And because once in a while I like to eat light creamy pasta, I added cream and malabar spinach to obtain a delicious topping. Below follows my recipe.

Enjoy the rainy season if your in Japan!

Raw korinky in salad

Korinky creamy pasta (for 2 servings)

– 1/2 korinky

– 4 branches of malabar spinach

– 150ml of cream 45

– salt and pepper

– 125g of pasta of your preference or gnocchi

While boiling pasta. Peel the korinky and remove the seeds. Steam. When sift enough mash roughly in a pan with a fork or a wooden spoon. Add cream, salt and pepper and mash again. Cook at low heat for five minutes. Wash the malabar spinach and chop roughly. Add to the mixture. Cook an other 5 minutes. The cream should reduce by half. Add the pasta drained to the mixture and stir well. Serve and eat immediately or wait until it has cooled down and eat at room temperature.

Kabocha soup

Autumn seems to have arrived. Mornings and evenings are much chillier and days are getting really shorter already. So it’s time to prepare some warm simple soups. After eating so many butternut squash, now I have started to cook kabocha. This little Japanese pumpkin with very green skin that can be eaten too. And making soup with it is really simple and it always make a good starter or a whole meal if accomodated a bit with crouton or grilled bacon. Here is my basic recipe. 

Kabocha soup for 2 or 3 people. 

– 1/2 kabocha

– 1L of water

– 1 little pack of fresh cream

– 1tbs of soya sauce

If you want your soup orange remove the skin, if greenish is ok for you wash the kabocha and keep the skin. Remove the seeds and cut in pieces. Boil in 1L of water under cover. Check the cooking with a toothpick. When very soft stop. With a wood pestle work directly in the pan and purée the kabocha (you can use a blender also if you want!). Add the cream, the soya sauce. Heat before eating. Add black pepper, bacon, parmegiano or whatever you like!!!

Weekend cooking

Beautiful weekend with our normal activities… it seems like it hasn’t happened in such a long time… probably two months or even more with all the traveling in March and April and the visitors in May, plus some bad weather…  it means playing tennis, gardening, going to the seaside, and it also means some nice cooking, bread making and pasta. I made two breads: a large muesli and rye bread for breakfast, with a little addition of sugar to obtain a very savory bread, and a classic focaccia, always a success. With the temperatures rising it is so much easier to prepare bread. The risong is do much easier than in the winter. This time for the pasta, instead of making ravioli I made lasagna with my classic pasta recipe, rolled with my pasta machine, some salmon (it’s not often that there is some nice Hokkaido salmon! But recently I found some) and some fresh baby spinach, just add a bit of cream, bake and it’s ready. Really simpler than making the ravioli because you don’t have to dry the filling and wait for it to cool down and it is super delicious.

I wish you a great week ahead! 

Muesli bread
Muesli bread

Last day of GW

Here it is… the golden week is going to end soon… it’s going to be hard to leave our stray cat, the garden and the big kitchen. I have baked a dozen of breads, tarts, quiches, I have made ravioli and all sort of things. DIYed with A. and gardened quite a lot. We’ve had 10 friends visiting, went for walks in the woods, meet snakes we didn’t know about… In short, country life.

So to conclude this golden week, I would like to introduce a new recipe, inspired loosely from Pierre in Osaka: a cold new onion soup.  My recipe is probably much simpler than that at Pierre, but the result was amazing. New onions are in season and I can only recommend you try!

Cold new onion soup, for 4 people as a starter

– 3 large new onion

– 15cl of fresh cream

– salt and pepper  

Peel off the first skin of the onion, cut them in four, set in a pan and cover with water, add a bit of salt. Boil them until soft. Blend them with the remaining water (if not too much), add the cream. Keep at room temperature or refrigerate before serving. When serving add black pepper.

 

Our stray cat Holly and sleepy I enjoying some early morning quiet time
Our stray cat Holly and sleepy I enjoying some early morning quiet time

White asparagus with parmigiano cream

One ingredient again that is not that easily found in Japan and that you can find everywhere at farmers markets in France at this time of the year: white asparagus! Indeed, in Japan green asparagus are quite common but white are rather rare and most of the time imported, so I never buy some. But in France in spring it is really common.

One recipe I love that I tried when eating at Thoumieux (not the Brasserie, the Hotel Thoumieux restaurant) and prepared by chef Jean-Francois Piege, was white asparagus with just melted comte cheese. The dish was normally served with black truffle (a common pairing with white asparagus), which I don’t like so mine didn’t have it. And the balance between the creamy asparagus and the salty cheese was perfect. I really loved it. But white asparagus also go very well with creamy sauce. I had a delicious combination at Piere in Osaka the other day. But my mother had her own recipe that she taught me. Very simple, and a good combination: parmegiano cream! For that she first clean the asparagus and peel them, removing the hardest parts. Then simply steam them. In a little pan she warm some cream and add gratted parmegiano, about 1tbs per person. Once the parmegiano has melted she serves on the hot asparagus. Add a little bit of black pepper for the color if you want.

Now I am back to Paris, and hotel life so no more cooking in the next days.. 

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