Tag: cucumber

Cooking and recipe contests

No, I haven’t quit writing for TPS, it’s just that sometimes work is taking really all my time, even the one in the train, one of the moments I prefer to write. so this week, no workout (but with the muscle pain I had from the surfing and paddle boating Saturday, and the stairs climbing at Kai, stretching and abs were more than enough), very little cooking and more disappointing I missed the deadline for several recipe and cooking contests. Because Yes! I really enjoyed it and I want more!!! So after some search I found a few with submission deadline September 15th, but September 15th was also the deadline for too many things at work and I didn’t have time to do my homework and prepare and adequate recipe for each contest (I’ve learn my lessons). Too bad… But I’m sure there’s gonna be new ones soon! 

Below is one of my new recipe for a simple healthy dinner with quinoa, myoga, cucumber, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and soya sauce. I wish you a good weekend! 

The simplest Japanese dinner!

Sometimes ingredients just come perfectly together at the farmers market and there is nothing else to do than prepare them in the simplest manner. The summer is soon to ginish but not quite yet and fresh little cucumbers are excellent, crispy, juicy and refreshing. The new rice has just been harvested in Isumi and perfectly cooked it’s crazily delicious, slightly softer and more white and transparent than normal rice. Myoga has started to grow here and there in the woods (our neighbor K. San went to pick some just in the hill back our house and you can find plenty at the farmers market) and the taste of fresh myoga just sliced in a simple miso soup is a little astringent. And to finish a piece of fresh wild snapper filet, simply grilled and topping the rice that goes perfectly with K. San’s fresh umeboshi. I’m starving writing this post and dying for an other meal like that!!!!

Saturday lunch

Baguettes, farcis and pissaladiere in the oven
Baguettes, farcis and pissaladiere in the oven

Tonight we had the I. For dinner. It was a dinner to thank them for all they are doing to help us with the house, and in particular with the cats and the kittens. I wanted to cook for them French familial food, things that they wouldn’t have in restaurants. And the market was perfectly in sync with what I had in mind. So I spent a large part of the afternoon cooking: baguettes of course, a pissaladiere, stuffed vegetables my grandmother’s way, capsicum and tume my mother’s way, and neroli sable to accompany some fresh fruits. So the lunch was rather simple: chicken balls, cucumber and radish with miso and rice.

And a last one!

Yup! I’m done with this grant application and with many other things that were bothering me and keeping me too busy at work. So here is the last one-plate of this series, the last just before finishing the grant things. From tomorrow I will be back to some more elaborate cooking and trsting new products that I have on the shelf for a while but wasn’t decided to try yet. 

So on the plate today: raw radish and cucumber, bamboo shoots, fried tofu, rice with sesame and grilled carrots. 

Quinoa salad

Nothing too fancy here but just a very simple fresh recipe that is very rapid to prepare, colorful and tasty. Perfect when the weather is warm and nice as it was yesterday. I just boil quinoa, rince it in cold water and drain it well, add the fresh vegetables I have available, here a cucumber and two tomatoes, really nothing new… And cover the whole thing with fresh herbs: mint, coriander, or what pleases you and suits the vegetables. Finish with a little of olive oil, salt and pepper. 

Red miso – 赤味噌

When the weather gets warmer the delicious little cucumbers are back and they are the perfect food to snack while waiting for dinner. I usually just wash them and cut them in sticks, but when I want a little extra I like to prepare a miso paste. There are different types of miso of course and all of them with different taste and features: granulous vs smooth, white vs red etc… Depending on what they are made from and how long they have fermented. At the cha kaiseki class I learned that white miso is used in winter and red in summer, because red miso has fermented longer, it is stronger in taste and saltier, which accomodates perfectly with summer veggies and fishes. So for my little snack paste I use 1 tbsp of red miso that I stir with 1tsp of vegetal (neutral) oil and 1 or 2tsp of water (depending on the consitency you expect: sticky or creamy). I stir until homogenous and serve with my little cucumber sticks. It actually is also delicious with carrots sticks and daikon sticks!

Fresh salad

One day is really warm, the next is chilly… One day I want simple veggies salad, the next something hot and full of energy. This time was warm and I was fancying a fresh salad with simple vegetables to go with some simple pasta. With a wide variety of small radishes, small tomatoes, fresh cucumbers, baby carrots it was really simple to prepare something. For the dressing simply olive oil and black sesame seeds.

An other dinner at home

What to cook for your friends visiting Japan when you are back from work past 21:00 and everyone is starving? A soba salad with spring veggies of course!!! Spring veggies: asparagus, snap peas, green peas, are very easy to prepare and require very little cooking, just blanching them for 2min. Soba are also quick to cook, so in 15min I can have a dinner plate ready for 4 people. To the spring veggies I’ve added some cucumbers and a bit of brocoli sprout, as for the dressing, I mixed a bit of soy sauce with vegetal oil and just add a bit to prevent the soba for getting too sticky. You can also top the plate with some Japanese salmon, shredded nori…

A dinner with guests

The other night we had some guests at home, and when we do I need to be super-well organized to squeeze one hour to prepare dinner in my schedule, this usually my target time. So I need to think carefully the menu, the ingredients and once I enter the kitchen I know exactly what I’m doing. Usually I have some extra time or a few ideas on the fly, so that it turns I always improvise something. This time was no exception!

For the dinner it was simple: grilled delicious wild snapper with a little of sesame oil, rice with katsuobushi, white and pink turnip tofu salad with pumpkin seeds (similar recipe with the persimmon salad, but I replaced the persimmon with a little cucumber and the walnuts by kabocha seeds) and some pickled sweet ginger.

Then I realized that we didn’t have too much to snack while drinking so I decided to make a little extra, because it’s nice when you have dinner after work with friends to hang out and chat, to release the oressure of a long day at work. Well, with what I had in the fridge the best option was to make some kabocha chips, so I thinly sliced half a kobocha and cooked it in a bit of oil. Add some salt and served. That was a hit! Everyone loved it! 

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