Better love eggplants!!!

While the summer plays hide and seek, the summer vegetables are still around and should be for a few more weeks.

The great star of the summer in my kitchen this year is eggplant 🍆. We always eat a lot of eggplants in the summer, but this year it looks really like we are eating even more. Last week recipe was a great example but there is much more to do. And today I share with you another Japanese eggplant recipe, vegan this time, as simple as the previous one but with a different set of flavors.

Sautéed eggplants Japanese style

2 Japanese eggplants
1 aburage pad (thin fried tofu sheets)
1 tsp of sesame seeds
1tsp of soya sauce
1tsp of cooking oil, I usually use olive oil no matter what but sunflower or rice oil are OK too

Wash the eggplants and dice them. In a pan set the cooking oil snd heat. When hot add the eggplant and cook at high heat while stirring often. Slice thinly the aburage. Add to the eggplants. Cook and stir until the eggplants are creamy. Add the sesame and soya sauce, stir and serve.

While the base is the same as the perfect eggplant recipe, the flavors are very different. I actually recommend to cook both and compare. It’s perfect to understand umami.

August 19, 2021

Donburi

It’s a fact rare enough to be mentioned: I’ve cooked shrimps!!! Indeed it is awfully rare that I cook shrimps: 1. Because it’s not so easy to find wild shrimps; 2. Because I prefer them without head, don’t you think too these giant eyes are kind of weird? 3. It smells quite strong after… Anyway, I found some wild shrimps prepared for sashimi: head removed. They were not giant prawns like I like best but still a lot of conditions were there to give it a try. And I decided then to prepare them with what might already the last zucchini of the season (extremely short season in Chiba) with ginger and rice. So I gratted fresh ginger and marinated the shrimps in. Then I grilled them on a hot pan. I just steamed the zucchini and added small pieces of ginger and soya sauce. Served on top of Japanese rice, decorated with black sesame seeds. That’s all!!

June 27, 2016

Vegan donburi

When we have friends from Europe visiting I cook a lot more Japanese and every time we realize how much it is delicious, so for the two of us I’ve been cooking Japanese more often, in particular a lot of rice and donburi. This one is a very simple recipe that takes only a few minutes to prepare, and can be ready as soon as the rice is ready. I used half brown rice half white rice but all brown, all white can work as well of course. I just sliced a piece of lotus root and cut in big chunks a large ripe tomato, cook them in a pan with a tea spoon of oil. I top the rice with the mixture and for the fresh taste I added a myoga chopped thinely. The sweet and melty tomato goes perfectly fine with the crisp lotus, and the myoga adds a perfect touch.

April 20, 2016

Spring donburi

Simple to prepare, all served at once, colorful and super delicious, I wonder why I don’t prepare some more often! With fresh green peas and snap peas, a bit of pork from Isumi and some Koshiikari from Isumi too, nothing much simple than preparing a delicious spring donburi. For the seasonning just a few drops of soya sauce and some golden sesame seeds. In order to keep the greens soft and tender, yet crunchy at the same time I only washed them and then cook them with a really little bit of water in the same pan with the pork. No additional fat, no salt nothing. For the pork I just cut slices in little bites and cook in a pan until golden and crispy. I serve the rice cooked alone, top with the pork and veggies, add a spoon of golden sesame and only 5 drops of soya sauce just to enhance the taste but not spoil it. One must be careful in using soya sauce because it has a tendency to cover all other tastes,

April 14, 2016

Donburi

Ashitaba are in season and this little green is delicious with grilled pork, and nothing easier then puttibg the mix on top of rice and add some sesame. I just cut in little pieces thin slices of pork cutlet from which I remove all the fat. Then add the ashitaba chopped. Cook everything in a pan under cover and serve on top of freshly cooked rice. Simple & delicious as usual!!

February 23, 2016

Donburi

The donburi or one rice bowl is a very convenient alternative to one-plate, and I like the rice base lunch because it provides tons of good energy necessary to stay outside all day long, now that it’s gotten colder.

For this donburi I cooked plain white Japanese rice that I topped with sautéed purple sweet potato, carrot brocoli, and finished with some proteins croquettes: I mixed rice flour with a mix of seeds, an egg and dome chicken meat. The egg and meat can be replaced by tofu for a vegan option.

November 28, 2015

Back to my kitchen!!!

After being away from home for more than 10 days I’m really happy to be back to my kitchen. After eating out a lot (even though recently it’s been easier to find simple food in restaurants in France) I really need to get back to my basic diet. As soon as we were done with unpacking, I went down for grocery shopping, grabbed some fresh Japanese mushrooms: shimeji and maitake (kind of oyster mushroom), and some sprouts. I cooked some plain rice, grilled the mushroom in a pan with a bit of butter, add just before serving some sesame seeds and a drop of soya sauce, and served the whole as a vegan donburi.

In the following weeks you’ll see that while in France I packed a few ingredients I love and still can’t find easily in Tokyo, some herbs from my parents’ garden in Aix, some flour for baking bread, tones of quinoa… and I’m really looking forward to using them!

September 17, 2015

Vegan donburi

A donburi in Japan is basically a rice bowl topped with something, anything. I really like the concept and you’ve seen a few of my original recipes yet. With each time changing in what I top it with depending on the market and time available.

This time it’s a 100% green topping with avocado, cucumber, cresson and lettuce. A bit of sesame oil and sesame seeds and lunch is ready in just the time to cook the rice!

May 8, 2015