Tag: eggplant

Chilled miso soup

You may be very much used to miso soup as a warm bouillon served either with just a few things in: a slice of shiitake, a peel of yuzu, a few leaves of mitsuba, or with rather plenty of small mushrooms, daikon…

But with the summer heat, a chilled soup is very much welcome and a chilled miso soup version is also possible and it’s delicious!

It just requires to prepare a little ahead so that the bouillon can cool down. This recipe is inspired by a soup we were served for lunch at a small vegan cafe we went for lunch to on our way back from Hoki Museum (by the way, well worth the visit).

My recipe features somen, the Japanese vermicelli, but you do without.

Chilled miso soup (2 servings)

  • 1 dry shiitake
  • 1 small eggplant
  • 2 tsp of miso
  • 1 small cucumber
  • 4-6 leaves of fresh green shiso
  • Optional: 100g of somen
  • Optional: 1 fresh myoga

In a pan boil 1l of water, add the dry shiitake to make a shiitake dashi. Let it boil for a few minutes, when the color goes brownish, turn off the heat and leave it to rest.

Cut the eggplant in bites and bake it or cook it in a frypan until soft.

Wash and slice very thinly the cucumber and the shiso, and the myoga of you use any.

Boil the somen and keep them in cool water.

In the serving bowls, serve one spoon of miso each, top with the drained somen, add the eggplant, the cucumber and eventually myoga, finish with bouillon that covers almost everything, and add the shiso.

For extra chill effect, add a few ice cubes and enjoy!

Myoga!!!

This little wild flower bud is really too delicious and its distinctive flavor quite unique. As you know, from all previous posts, I love it!!!

We are lucky to have some growing wildly in the garden, and it’s quite easy to find some when going for a walk in the woods. Apparently there are two seasons for it, one in spring and one right now in the early fall. Our garden has more of the latter and for me myoga is a fall flavor!

There are many many ways of preparing it and eating it (again, check my previous posts on the topic!). Raw or pickled would be the most common and my favorite. Raw particularly. It is so simple and it goes well with so many things!

Today two super simple recipes with myoga, one is a classic, the second is more one of my classic.

Eggplant with myoga

  • 2 myoga
  • 2 eggplants
  • 1/3 tsp of salt
  • 1tsp of sesame seeds or a handful of katsuobushi

Normally for this you could do it with raw eggplants like I suggested here. But to male it faster, instead of waiting for the salt to slightly pickle the eggplants, I cook them.

Wash and cut the eggplants in their length, then in 4-5mm slices. In a tiny pan start cooking the eggplants, add the salt and stir often. I do not add water nor oil. When the eggplants have softened add the myoga washed and thinly sliced. Stir well. Add the sesame or the katsuobushi. Stir again. Serve and eat now or chilled.

Myoga potato salad

  • 2-3 myoga
  • 1 Japanese cucumber
  • 8 small potatoes
  • 2 eggs
  • 1tsp of mustard
  • 2tbs of olive oil
  • pepper

Boil the potatoes with the skin and the eggs. When done let them cool down. Wash the myoga and cucumber. Slice them thinly. Peel the potatoes and the eggs.

In a bowl, cut roughly the potatoes and the eggs, add the cucumber and myoga, the mustard and oil. Stir well and serve.

That’s really as simple as that!

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.

The perfect eggplants

Eggplants in Japan are really something, not just a vegetable but also a mean of transportation, together with cucumbers, for spirits that come to visit during the Obon period.

In Japanese traditional cooking they are often present and prepared in many ways with the other local and seasonal staples. I have introduced several recipe already, yet I surprise myself with new recipes every time I cook some. Recently I have been really into grilling them in the oven without any further complications, and dress them either western style with olive oil… or Japanese style with soya sauce and katsuobushi. I really love the simplicity of a dish that highlights the goodness of a few ingredients. So here is my recipe of the perfect eggplants Japanese style.

Perfect eggplants Japanese style

  • 2 Japanese eggplants per person
  • 1tsp of soya sauce per person
  • 1 large pinch of katsuobushi per person

Wash the eggplants, and cut them in half in the length. Grill them in the oven until they are soft and a bit golden on top. Take them out and let them cool down a bit. Cut each in 5-6 pieces (bite size), just before eating dress them in a plate, top with soya sauce and katsuobushi. Eat immediately.

Coral lentils spicy stew

I love lentils of all sorts, but when I see coral lentils on a shelf, I can’t help being attracted by their beautiful color. And every time I forget that the color will somehow fade away when cooked (contrarily to some fancy pictures you see on the internet… or they have a well kept secret…)

So I usually get excited starting cooking them and thinking about the beautifully colored dish… and 20 minutes later… damned! It’s yellowish brownish… Nonetheless the recipe I came with yesterday was really delicious, and worth remembering. So let me share it with you.

Coral lentils spicy stew (2 servings as whole meal)

  • 100g of coral lentils
  • 5 little potatoes
  • 1 onion
  • 1 eggplant
  • 1tsp of curry powder
  • 1tsp of turmeric
  • Ground black pepper
  • Salt

In a large pan put the lentils and cover generously with water. Cook at low heat for 15min or until the water is gone.

Peel the potatoes, cut them in 4. Cut the onion in bites, and the eggplant. Add to the lentils. Almost cover with water, add the spices, salt and pepper and cook at medium to low heat for 10min, or until the water is almost gone. Serve and enjoy!!

Japanese simplicity

Who said that cooking Japanese cuisine was complex???

I have the simplest and most delicious recipe of miso soup for you today and an ultra easy ochazuke recipe. Of course both require basic Japanese ingredients: dashi, and miso for the first one, and Japanese rice, dashi and umeboshi for the second one. Indeed now is the time rice harvesting in Isumi is just finished new rice of this year harvest is now available. Delicious brown rice, slowly cooked to be just perfectly soft goes perfectly well in ochazuke recipes I find, almost better than plain white rice.

For the dashi of both recipes you can choose from katsuobushi, ichiban dashi, konbu dashi or shiitake dashi. Personally I love ichiban dashi. Ichiban dashi 一番だし is a basic in Japanese cuisine and particularly in cha-kaiseki 茶懐石, so I mostly make ichiban dashi, so let’s start with its recipe.

Ichiban dashi – 一番だし

  • 1L of water
  • 15g of katsuobushi blakes (not too thin)
  • 15g of konbu

In a pan set 1cm of water, add the konbu and bring to a boil at low heat for 10min. Add the bonito and the rest of the water. Keep boiling at low heat for 5 minutes. Let rest and filter. Your ichiban dashi is ready, you can use it as a base for soup, cooking vegetables, fish, tofu, rice etc…

With the dashi made, we can then move to the other recipes. First the eggplant miso soup. Then below the ochazuke.

Eggplant miso soup (for two servings)

  • 2 little Japanese eggplants
  • 1 tbs of miso
  • 600ml of dashi
  • a bit of neutral frying oil

Wash and cut the eggplants (see top picture fir cut). In a frypan greased with the frying oil, cook the eggplants until just golden and soft, serve then evenly in two large miso soup bowls.

Heat your dashi if it was prepared ahead, or use the one you just prepared. Top the eggplants with the dashi. Set half a tbs of miso in each and stir gently. That’s it!!!

Simple ochazuke (2 servings)

  • 1 cup of Japanese brown rice or white rice cooked
  • 400ml of dashi
  • 2 pickled plums
  • 1 bundle of komatsuna or other green (water spinach, spinach…)

Serve the rice in a large bowl. Heat the dashi. In the meantime wash the green vegetable, cut in 5cm long and blanche. Drain well.

Top the rice with the vegetables, then serve the dashi, add the pickled plum. That’s it!

Have a good day!!!

Edamame and eggplant

Whether on weekdays, when we have little time to have lunch or on the weekends when we are busy with surfing/bodyboarding, playing tennis or gardening, having a good lunch easily ready is important. Moreover, if that can be prepared in advance it is even better! Fresh pasta have been quite a good candidate as they can be accommodated easily, be eaten warm or cold… and since it it is the end of the summer we want to continue enjoying the summer vegetables a little longer, in particular, enjoy the last edamame of the season. I know that we will have eggplants and tomatoes for quite a few weeks or even months but they add a real summer touch to a dish. So I came up with a recipe of edamame pasta with eggplant that is all creamy and divine and I couldn’t wait sharing that recipe with you, as if you want to try you’ll have to hurry!

Edamame, fava beans, and similar are a good match with eggplants and are traditionally used together in Japanese cuisine. I revisited this classic combination in a more western style.

Edamame and eggplant creamy pasta (2 servings)

  • a handful of edamame
  • 2 eggplants
  • fresh pasta
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • grated Parmigiano (optional)

Boil the edamame, grill the eggplants to be able to peel them. Once the edamame have cooled down peel them completely and in a mortar puree them. Add a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Peel the eggplant and add to the mix and pure roughly. Boil the fresh pasta, once drained add the mix, stir well ad serve. Add grated Parmigiano if you like.

Yes! that’s it! Isn’t that simple? And you’ll see it is truly delicious!

Caponata

When you are super pleased to invent a new recipe that looks like delicious… and talk about it over the phone with your mom and she tells you that your brilliant idea not only already exists but is actually a classic Sicilian recipe!!! I must have Italian blood at some point!!!!

Anyway, this brilliant and delicious summer recipe is caponata! Serve with giant pasta and a bit of salad on the side. Here is my recipe.

Caponata (for 2 people)

– 3 Japanese eggplants

– 1 branch of celery

– 1tsp of capers

– olive oil

– 1tsp of vinegar

Dice in small cubes the eggplants. In a pan heated with olive oil cooked them at medium to high heat until golden. Stir often. Wash and dice the celery, up to the leaves. Add to the eggplants. Cook for 5-10 min at medium heat. Add the capers, and finish with the vinegar. Eat like that or with pasta as presented in the picture. Also good with grated Parmigiano.

Where is “home”?

It’s a bit of a weird week, with travel, changes, so I’m getting a bit lost!

We went to Shanghai for two days, where A. was working, abd I took this opportunity as a writing retreat when I was not disturbed abd could focus on my work. It was very productive, the weather very helpful to forced me inside with almost constant pouring rain. Just 30min of swimming in the morning and a rapid tour of the food corner of the nearby department store where it was funny to see so many Japanese products as luxury ones! We came back to Tokyo last night, this morning we received the keys of our new apartment and we are moving tomorrow within Tokyo and Sunday to Ohara. I also have quite some work to do at the lab with the students preparing some key presentations for their graduation. But, nothing’s better than a home cooked meal to get plenty of good energy and I prepared some very simple Japanese things: multigrain mixed with rice, eggplant and miso, scrambled eggs, and jumbo umeboshi. A good reason to take a little break!

staple food of grains and beans at Shanghai department store's food corner
staple food of grains and beans at Shanghai department store’s food corner

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