Tag: flounder

Ravioli piccolini

Ravioli… oh! It’s been really a while I didn’t make ravioli… it was high time to fix that… but with all we got from the local shops I wasn’t sure about what use for s filling: korinki and cream cheese, asparagus, eggplant, or flounder… after a certain thinking I had in mind flounder in a sort of bouillon and served with rouille… I was thinking of my own special way of making bouillabaisse… but then something came up at work, upset me and I was working instead of cooking… the dough was ready, the flounder grilled, but neither the bouillon nor rouille were to be done anytime soon… and the clock was ticking and A. was hungry… and past 21:00 I had to go back to the kitchen. Except that now it was too late for a fancy dish… So I ran in the kitchen garden, chopped some fresh parsley, add it to the fish and decided that would be it. Rolled the ravioli dough, filled them in tiny size, and while I was poaching them I felt it was missing something, so I added some asparagus, a fragrant olive oil and that was it.

And you know what: flounder x parsley was a killer filling and I will do again!!! A creamy sauce could have worked fine as well I reckon…

Parsley and flounder filling

Flounder – ヒラメ

One of the great advantages of living near the ocean is to have access to nice fresh, local fish. One may think options are limited as they depend on the weather and the season, but freshness of locally fished wild fishes is incomparable and price often too. So yes there are times when the only fish you find is bonito or tuna, sometimes snapper, and at the moment it’s flounder. But I must say that I have always loved flounder. My grandmother would make delicious ones. My mother too. So it’s a kind of “full of memories” flavor and texture. So every year when the flounder season comes I am always pleased with it. My favorite way of eating it, as for most fish we eat, is simply grilled in a pan without any fat.

Last night I decided to upgrade the recipe a bit by adding a large amount of chiseled parsley and a bit of panko grilled in a pan. It looks like a classic combination you would use for an oven grilled fish recipe, but my oven is way to big to grill only a tiny piece of fish so I created a pan roast version. It works amazingly well, and allows for better control of the fish cooking time and the parsley mix. Which in the end may actually be better. I served the whole with some leftover parpadelle with a thick tomato sauce. Here is my recipe.

Parsley crust flounder

  • A piece of flounder. I use a piece for sashimi from a big fish to have a thick piece
  • A handful of parsley
  • 1 tbs of panko (I served with pasta so went easy on panko, but you can use up to double if you want for maximum crunchiness)
  • A drizzle of olive oil

Wash and chisel the parsley. Put in a pan, and turn on the gas to medium. Heat for a few minutes while stirring to remove all the moisture. Add the panko. Continue heating and stirring once in a while until the panko starts being golden.

In the meantime cut the piece of fish into portion of the size you want and grill them in a pan at high heat. Flip once.

When perfectly cooked serve the parsley and top with the wish, or the otherway around. Enjoy!

Surimi – すり身

What the heck?! you may think…

When you hear the word “surimi” you probably think about this disgusting white or orange industrial thing they sell in supermarket, I would definitely at first. I have never eaten any so I don’t know how it tastes like or feels like but my surimi looks quite different… it is made of ultra fresh fish flesh and based on cha-kaiseki classic recipe.

Indeed! That’s what surimi was before it turns into a super processed food: a classic Japanese recipe, made of local products and seasonal: cooked seasonal white fish flesh, without bones, egg white, and tororo (grated yam). It is used in cha-kaiseki cuisine to make fish cakes, fish balls, kamaboko 蒲鉾, satsuma age さつま揚げ, chikuwa 竹輪… I remember making surimi at my first cha-kaiseki class, with my mother. That’s shen I realized the meaning of “surimi” when seeing written in Japanese for the first time: すり身, which is literally squeezed body. Just like the sesame powder: surigoma すりごま, or the mortar used to make surigoma and surimi: a suribachi 擂鉢. The preparation is ultra simple and the result quite versatile. So here is one adaptation of the classic recipe to make some fish balls.

Surimi (2 servings)

  • 100g of white fish (I used flounder)
  • 1 egg white
  • 2tbs of grated yam (optional)
  • 1/4 leek

Cooked the fish as you like: poached, grilled… everything is fine. Remove bones, skin… In a mortar, squeeze the fish, add the egg white and continue stirring and squeezing to obtain a paste. Add the tororo (grated yam) if you use some and continue until the paste is homogeneous. That’s the raw surimi!

Wash and cut the leek in small pieces. Add to the mix. Make balls and cook them in a greased pan, I put them on skewers but it’s not mandatory. That’s it!!! Anc have a good

Nimono – 煮物

There are things that I love but never cook. I only have them in restaurants or cooked by someone else. One in particular is nimono – 煮物 a simmered Japanese preparation, often used for vegetables and fishes, or at least for those I eat. The base for the simmering is almost always the same: sake, mirin, sugar, soya sauce. As I don’t use mirin I replace it by a mix of rice vinegar and rice oil. This preparation is a classic in most fish restaurants and more particularly on the sea side. Kakui – かくい, near Katsuura was a very good place for that, but there are plenty everywhere they have fresh local fish. The simmered preparation suits many fishes, best when they have skin and bones. You can make a whole fish or large cuts. So when A. told me to buy this beautiful cut olive flounder (ヒラメ) and we ended with it in the fridge as I was at first a bit annoyed with the cutting and how to prepare it… To be frank, I don’t like cutting and preparing fish too much or rather I don’t mind doing it but then I don’t like eating it anymore so I didn’t want to touch the raw fish too much. A. was suggesting to cook it with soya sauce, so I thought grill… but then we both agreed on simmering. I think that’s what A. had in mind from the beginning but he just didn’t know the term… and I never do it because I thought I took much time than it actually does, so it didn’t come to my mind. So here I am preparing my flounder. And because simmered fish goes well with greens, I added some summer vegetables: okahijiki and green bell peppers. Served with or without rice, but honestly the sauce with rice is just divine, and I’ll do it again and again!

So here is my recipe. Ginger is optional but I highly recommend it.

Simmered fish and greens (for 2 servings)

– a fish or a large piece. I used olive flounder.

– some greens: I used okajiki (salsola), green bell pepper, but okra are also a common pairing

For the sauce

– 3tbs of soya sauce

– 3tbs of sake

– 1tsp of rice vinegar

– 1tsp of rice oil

– 1tsp of sugar (optional)

– finely cut fresh ginger (optional)

In a fry pan mix all the ingredients for the sauce, add the fish and cook at low heat under tight cover. After 8min add the vegetables washed and adequately cut. Cook under cover for 5min. Remove the cover and cook at high heat if there is too much liquid until a bit only is left. Serve with a bowl of rice.

Getting old…

Tomorrow I’ll turn one year up… now I know that I didn’t achieve my main goal for this year, despite trying hard for the past few years, but I realized I actually don’t care much because it doesn’t depend on me actually but on appreciation of others, and being alien in a conservative country doesn’t make things easy. Discrimination, racism, are things I face every day but I live with it because I chose to live in Japan. And finally I prefer that than living in a sad country where I could fit in. Our trip to France last weekend was quite eye opening again. The city was so sad and gloomy that I didn’t enjoy it much. Our hotel was right in the middle of two main riots spots, police cars everywhere, shops closing instantly to avoid being savagely deteriorated, security staff in front of the hotel, with main doors closed and all trying to keep a low profile… There is no way I can regret one second having left that sick self-destructing country.

I ate the idea of getting old… but the good thing with my birthday is that in Japan it is often holiday, as it is the first day of the long new year break. This year is particularly long since we will have 6 days!!! So I decided to go packing on flours, fresh yeast and other baking staples to be sure I am fully equipped to bake everyday. In particular because in my birthday presents bundle (in the gigantic amount of presents I brung back from Paris) I know there is a baking book and I can’t wait to open it!!! Since I went shopping at Cuoca in Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi I also bought a few vegetables and some fresh fish from Chiba, and cooked simple pasta too. Here is my recipe.

Flounder with Brussels sprouts and spinach (2 servings)

– 1 piece of flounder

– 10 Brussels sprouts

– 1 bundle of fresh spinach

– 125g of pasta of your choice

– olive oil, salt and pepper

Boil water and cook the pasta. Wash the vegetables. Chop the spinach, and halve the Brussels sprouts. In a large pan greased with olive oil and heated start by cooking the Brussels sprouts, then add the spinach and the fish. Stir the vegetables, be careful not to break the fish. Remove fish when cooked, add a little bit more olive oil, the pasta, salt and pepper, and stir while cooking at high heat. When all is well mixed, serve in the plates, top with the fish and enjoy right away!

Have a great day today, last working day before next Friday!!!!!

A French basic

One things that is a bit my Proust’s madeleine as we say in French is a cery simple skillet if spinach with cream ir béchamel, poached eggs and bread croutons. A large part if the good memories about are the croutons. For some reason (probably because we have very little bread leftover) I very rarely make fried croutons, but these are so delicious with a cauliflower soup, a pumpkin soup or with spinach. Now I almost bever cook with cream or béchamel but spinach and croutons are always a good combination. I served them with pan grilled flounder and shiitake. 

Fried croutons: 

– a piece of bread, it doesn’t have to be fresh, but you still need to br sbke to cug it!  It can be white, whole or whatever, it’s slways good!

– 2tbs of vegetal oil

Cut the bread in 5mm to 1cm dices. In a frypan hest the oil. Add the bread and turn regurlarly at medium heat, until each side of the bread is golden. Simple and delicious! 

Pickled cabbage

This week, our nice little grandma neighbor gave us some salt pickled chinese cabbage. She has offered to teach me how to make it if we like it. Of course we liked it! So next weekend I’m looking forward to learn how to make it. In particular because I like Chinese cabbage but they are too big, and if I buy one we have to eat some for 3 consecutive days of more and I get tired of it. So pickling a part of it seems a very good option to keep it a little longer. And I find actually quite easy to use when pickled, even more than raw. 

Last night I used it in an improved recipe where I found it brings the perfect salty-crunchy taste and texture to a very simple saffron pasta soup. I used 1 cup of small soup pasta, 1 dose of saffron, a little piece of butternut squash peeled, a puece of pickled cabbage thinly cut, a piece of flounder, optional, black pepper.

In a pan I boil 0.75l of water, add the saffron and the butternut squash cut in small cubes, the pasta. Separately I grill the flounder in a fry pan. A minute before the pasta are ready I add the cabbage. Stir well. Serve the pasta/veggies then the fish, add black pepper. That’s it! 

Flounder and spinach

Most of our diet is made of simply delicious fresh organic products and mainly local. My recipes are usually trying to take the best of these ingredients while being everyday cooking recipes, so something that can be prepared in less than 15min and ready to eat in less than 30min. The other thing is that I almost never cook twice the very exact same thing.  So when I found this beautiful flounder prepared for sashimi, and this big bag of little spinach I immediately thought of a slightly fried fish with just steamed and buttered spinach, for a simple and delicious dinner. I just cut the piece of fish in two, floured it and fried it in a little oil. To enjoy the taste and texture I decided to add nothing: no salt, no pepper, no yuzu, no nothing! 

Flounder and veggies sauteed with basil

There was again nice fresh flounder for sashimi at the market, so I decided to pick one piece for our weekly big animal proteine source. Indeed, most of the time I only shop meat and fish at our local farmers in Ohara and none in Tokyo, where we eat mainly vegetarian or vegan except for some San Daniele prosciuto or some pancetta and bacon. With such a beautiful filet of flounder I only wanted to have it sauted in a bit of olive oil and served with fresh vegetables sauted too. Just a few new potatoes, green peas, purple asparagus, mini tomatoes seasonned with a few fresh basil leaves chopped. And finished with salt and olive oil. A table!

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