Tag: cucumber

Sunny Japanese autumn – 秋晴れ

I love these autumn days when the skies are so blue and the light is so bright, these “akibare” days. This is an invitation to wake up early and be outside all day long . So I spend little time cooking during the day and we need some quick fix for lunch, yet full of energy to enjoy a few more other hours out gardening, hiking, playing tennis or whatever. Pasta provide a perfect base, and since temperature are still warm if not hot at this time of the day, acold salad is perfect: penne with avocado, radish, cucumber, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, olive oil and ready!

Enjoy the autumn! It’s so beautiful outside! 

Saturday bowl lunch

Back to our routine, lot of work and week end in the country. Saturday morning tennis and one-bowl lunch. 

Today the market was really good, edamame, green beans, lots of fruits…  So the lunch bowl was really simple: chick peas, edamame, green beans, cucumber, sesame seeds, with lemon juice and olive oil; and for the proteines chicken and black pepper balls. Simple, delicious.

Japanese cucumber with miso

Japanese cucumber are really tiny compared to the huge one in Europe or America. Their diameter is usually between 1 and 2 centimeters and they are 12 to 20 centimeters long. There are few seeds and the the skin is not too thick so you just need to wash the and can eat them.

In summer we eat cucumbers every day and I realized I should have started a cucumber week! I buy them either in Koganei or in Isumi at the local farmers, and this week I have a load of cucumbers from K. And S. From Tsunan. 

I love cucumbers in cold soup and salad, I also love them as pickles. I will soon present you my delicious pickles made in the 2-5-8 but so far I’ve been too busy with work to prepare any. 

But my favorite way to eat them is as a snack while dinner gets ready because it takes 3s to be ready: wash, dry in a cloth and cut in 4 sticks and cut the sticks in 4. And when I have an extra 2min I prepare a dip of miso paste. I use fresh organic mild miso but it works with red miso too, to which I add a little of vegetal oil and stir until creamy.

Cucumber cold soup

With all the nice cucumber I got from K. I imagine I should try to use as many as possible quickly. We usually eat a lot of cucumbers just raw cut in stick as snack while I cook dinner. This time to use a little more cucumber I prepared a cold soup by just blending 3 cucumbers with a bit of cold water, olive oil, salt and pepper. I finish it with a line a paprika.

Spelt and mozarella salad

OK! I promise this might be the last post about summer salads!!! But this past days I’ve really tried a lot of new things and each was a great match. This spelt and mozarella salad is an other example. 

Simply boiled spelt, cucumber, ocra, boiled edamame and fresh mozarella diced, a lot of pepper, and always delicious olive oil.  

And an other salad/donburi/one-plate

I’m in a constant quest for new food combinations and freshness, while at the same time I keep things simple and try again and again. That’s what I love about cooking: nothing exactly the same but yet not completly different. Always delicious because I cook what we love. And so many chances to try since we need to eat a little every day, right?

After loving my bulgur donburi, I decided to try a Japanese rice one-plate. I love the combination of the crispy chirimen and the creamy avocado, so I used that base, added some sesame seeds for the taste. Since rice is drier than bulgur and I don’t like to use any dressing with it (it makes it slippery abd impossible to eat with chopsticks) I just added some juicy tomatoes and fresh cucumber. An other delicious and refreshing combination!

More salad

One evening I was preparing a salad with a base of rice and I suddenly felt very nostalgic for the taste of the rice salad my mother was preparing when we were kids and that was often our picnic lunch. Something I can clearly picture tastewise but can’t remember the exact contents: of course rice, then cubes of ham, gruyere, tomatoes may be, corn, a sauce based on light mayonnaise or mustard may be… Well I reinterpretated it for a summer,  cheese-free version, though it was not the raste of my childhood it was really simple and delicious. 

Here is my recipe: American rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, ham cut in cubes, hard boiled eggs, olive oil, salt and a lot of pepper. 

Salad, salad & salad

With the heat in Tokyo it’s hard to spend to much time in the kitchen in front of the stove or with the oven on. So recently I’ve just been preparing a lot of fresh vegetables salads with all sorts of accomodation. I usually bake some rice, bulgur, pasta, cheak peas for two meals to reduce the heat up of the kitchen, and then accomodate in a different manner each time. I will introduce a few this week.

Today is a simple chick peas and bulgur base with tomatoes, cucumbers and ocras, all with a bit of olive oil and a mix of north african spices. 

Simple summer lunch

When the temperature exceeds 30deg day and night I only can eat very simple food. Japanese rice is really delicious when it’s hot, and it suits very well simple preparations, without any fat nor dressing. Donburi is always a good and simple way to prepare a rice based perfect meal. This time you can’t imagine something simpler: plain white Japanese rice, fresh cucumber, grilled chicken breast chopped, and a lot of shiso leaves finelly cut, a few sesame seeds for perfection. Served with a glass of cold green tea. How do you cook when it’s hot?

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