And here is the final recipe for this week of butternut squash!
I have opted for a last Japanese style item after the gyoza and the ae. A Japanese classic: croquettes or コロッケ kolokke. Because it should involve deep fry I don’t do much of it, and mine are actually pan fried. I like the contrast between the creamy melting purée inside and the crispy outside of the panko. I served them with ginger and shallots chicken mini meat balls on skewers and a large pickled plum I made last July.
Butternut squash croquettes
For the filling I actually used the same as the gyoza (to be honest, the leftover)
– 100-150g of butternut squash boiled and puréed
– green shallot 小ねぎ
– fresh ginger grated or diced
– panko
– oil for frying
I mix the boiled and puréed butternut squash with the ginger and the green shallot to obtain a thick rather dry homogeneous mixture. In a plate I put the panko and with a spoon I take some purée, make a cylinder, roll in the panko. The number of croquettes you can make and panko you need will depend on the size of the pieces of purée and the moisture in the purée. Heat a fry pan with a few mm of oil in it or a deep fryer. Then put the pieces in one by one. Cook until golden every where. Turn gently if pan frying. Serve and enjoy while hot!
Ok… the weekend is here and I’m still cooking butternut squash!!!
Using it again today in a recipe that is the pure product of my imagination: vegan gyoza. I don’t know why The other day, on my way to the station I had this vision of simple gyoza, filled with a butternut and green shallots and served hot with soya sauce and ra-yu (you know the slightly vinegared and spicy oil that you mix with soya sauce when eating gyoza). So on my way back from work I stopped to buy the shallots, the ra-yu, and gyoza dough because it was already 21:00 I didn’t have boiled my butternut squash yet and making the dough meant eating too late. Making the dough is very simple, just water and flour, but you need to wait 30 to 60min before making small balls and rolling them. So it was out of the question. Luckily it is rather easy to find fresh prepared gyoza “skin” in Japan that has only the basic ingredients. All good supermarkets have some. Here is my recipe below the picture.
Butternut squash gyoza for 20 pieces
– 100g of butternut squash pealed and boiled
– a pack of gyoza skin
– shallots greens 小ねぎ
– soya sauce and ra-yu
– optional: fresh ginger grated
If your butternut squash is not yet pealed and boiled like it was the case for me, start with that. You don’t want to have a filling that is too hot because it makes the forming of the gyoza more difficult: the skin breaks more easily, in particular when hand made.
Drain the butter well and purée it. Wash and chop the shallots green, grat the ginger if you want to use some. Add to the butternut squash purée and stir well. Take a round gyoza skin in the left hand, deep your right index in water and moist the outskirt of the skin. With a spoon set a bit of filling in the middle. Fold in two and start making small pleats to close the gyoza (see the movie below). Then once they are all ready, in a heated pan with a bit of oil and water cook at medium to high heat and flip once until golden on both sides. Serve with greens (I served simple boiled komatsuna) and the soya sauce and ra-yu.
Most of the butternut squash recipe I make are not really Japanese style. Indeed, butternut squash is not really a traditional food in Japan, it’s little cousin the kabocha is more common, with a green skin and a typical taste it is used in many places from traditional cuisine to more contemporary recipes. But butternut squash could also replace kabocha in some more traditional recipes. One recipe idea I like with kabocha is kabocha salad, but it often contains too much mayonnaise. Taking inspiration from a classic Japanese recipe based on tofu I prepared a new butternut squash salad that could also be called butternut squash ae. This recipe uses only 3 ingredients and is very simple while having a great Japanese flair. It is perfect as a side or as a starter, eaten in one plate meal too. Here is my recipe:
Butternut squash ae:
– 125g of butternut squash peeled and boiled
– 3 fresh shiitake
– 100g of spinach
it’s so simple you’ll be impressed!!!
Wash and slice the shiitake, wash and chop the spinach. In a pan cook the spinach and the shiitake until they are soft and just a little moisture remains. Stop heating. Add the butternut squash and purée it while stirring with the other vegetables to obtain an homogeneous texture. Serve and enjoy!!!
Since the very first I saw this season I have bought butternut squash every week and I am not yet tired of it. Whether it is with Japanese rice, risotto, faro, pasta or quinoa, it is always great. In jumbo ravioli also it is perfect. I love the taste and the texture and I love it because it cooks super quickly, it keeps quite long even after cut open. It is the perfect ingredient for me this week since A. is away on business and I cook only for myself. Oh! And I was forgetting that it suits very well melty cheese be it cheddar, Parmigiano or gruyère.
So I’ve tried faro risotto style pure and simple. Topped with plenty of grated red cheddar. For that I first boiled the faro a bit before cooking the butternut squash in olive oil and added the faro.
I did tagliatelle with butternut squash, when it was really late and needed to eat quickly. For that I added the butternut squash cut in bites to the boiling water of the pasta 5min before they were supposed to be done. Topped with grated Parmigiano and a bit of olive oil.
And finally I added it to some quinoa soup, a recipe that over the years has been a classic of the chilly season. I just tossed the quinoa with a carrot, a piece of lotus root, chunks of butternut squash and winged beans in gently boiling water, in order of cooking time. Added some curcuma, salt and pepper and ate all warm.
There are still a few more recipes I want to try with butternut squash, but it will be next week until I buy a new one…
The other day we went for lunch at cafe Boba and while we were waiting for our food to arrive I browsed an American cookbook on pies. Something that was perfect for the season. And with my basket full of autumn vegetables, I was very much inspired by the recipes with pumpkin, carrots… and one really attracted me. It was a sweet and spicy carrot pie. But of course I didn’t do what the recipe said, I just get the inspiration and made a savory carrot pie with spices. It was super simple and really delicious. I like the idea of a carrot pudding in a pie crust, it makes the pudding easier to serve and gives a good boost with healthy carbs.
Here is my recipe, I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Spicy carrot pie (makes 6 individual pies)
For the pie crust:
– 100g of flour of your choice (I used a mix of white and whole wheat flour)
– 80g of butter
– a bit of water
– cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt
For the filling:
– 3 large carrots
– 3 eggs
– same spices as above
You can add cream and fresh grated ginger, but I had none.
Prepare the pie crust by stirring all the ingredients and kneading until soft. Roll and set in your pie dish(es)
Peel and boil the carrot, when soft, put them in a blender with the eggs and the spices and purée the mix. Pour the mix in the pie crust. Bake for 30min at 190deg. Enjoy!!
And because I had a bit of leftover pie crust, I made chai apple tarts too!!!
Sometimes the weather feels like eating something warm and with vibrant colors… this weather is just now! Rainy, getting chilly and tired… a bright orange risotto was just what I needed!!!
Carrots for the crunch, butternut for the soft, salmon for the salt and kabosu for the fresh and acid taste. That’s as simple as this! I cut the vegetables in rather small pieces to obtain a good mix and balance of texture in the mouth. I used olive oil as a base and a little of pepper. Nothing else. No broth, no salt. And just the time to have a call meeting and it’s ready to eat.
When the season for swordfish starts I am always pleased to start eating some, in particular because it often arrives after several typhoons and fish options have been more than scarce in Isumi. After the long months of bonito, it is time for a change. And if I love sanma, which also marks the beginning of the autumn, I rarely cook some because of the smell. But swordfish is perfect for me. I like the consistency of the meat even better than that of snapper and sea bass, and it has not shape at all (I gave trouble eating fishes that have fish shapes in the plate… maybe another reason why I don’t eat sanma much!).
So, the swordfish (メカジキ mekajiki) season is starting and I found some beautiful pieces of Kesennuma swordfish. Kesennuma is a fishing port up north in Miyagi famous for tunas and swordfishes, and that was badly hut in 2011. They kind of made a brand of it, and the swordfish is actually really delicious.
I like to grill or pan grill my pieces of swordfish, with or with marinating it. Now sudachi, the small green citrus fruits ate in season, and swordfish marinated with the juice of 2 and some soya sauce and then grilled was a great and simple recipe!!!
Well… I’m just back to Tokyo after spending one week in Tuscany, one beautiful week.
It was A. 5th trip and my third in the span of 9months and now is time to share a few addresses and places I really loved.
One of my strong requirement during our trips was to have a kitchen, and for all our trips except that one we stayed in Florence downtown in a very nicely furnished and large enough appartement at the Domux home Ricasoli. The location is ideal to visit the city, go shopping at Sant’Ambrogio market, San Lorenzo market as all detailed in post on Florence. It is also close to the station and to the Duomo.
This time we wanted to avoid crowd and heat so we decided to rent a house in the countryside, something a little typical of Tuscany: a farmhouse on top of a hill. The villa I picked: villa Monterosoli (top picture) didn’t disappoint us. Remote location but still less than 1h drive from all good places and my work places, very quiet and a nice view. A pool for the morning swims, and a cat visiting, some vineyards and olive groves around.
Pip, the cat of the house
As for visiting options they are endless. I usually work in Florence and in Pisa, but there are so many options a short drive away to go for a visit for a few hours. From this summer visits I would say that San Gimignano was a great discovery, Siena’s duomo with the full pavement visible this time was amazing, and Lucca a beautiful small and lively town.
Lucca on top of its historical and classic attractions has a nice vibrant downtown with many shopping options, nice cafes, a cinema in the old villa Bottini with a broad movie selection (old and new), a contemporary art biennale which exhibited large paper sculptures in the street. It felt more crowded than the other places we visited.
Lucca contemporary art biennale: paper-art-designA small bike repair shop in LuccaSan Gimignano from afarView from San Gimignano’s fortified path
San Gimignano was a really great discovery, the scenic going there, the beautiful towers in the city, the churches with beautiful paintings, the paved streets, the view from the fortified path. Everything there was Tuscany at its top. And curiously it was not crowded!
And of course Siena was as beautiful as it was in February when we first visited. The Duomo this time had the full marble mosaics visible (only from mid-August to mid-September) and that was s great surprise. The modernity in the drawings and the beautiful scenes depicted with only white, ocre and black were really stunning.
And of course there are many other small villages to stop by on the way, to discover, to take a short walk, drink a coffee or a freshly squeezed orange juice (my favorite drink in Italy), such as Palaia, Monteriggioni, Greve in Chianti to only cite a few.
There are also the many farmers markets in the morning to go grocery shopping and discover some of the local products. Talk about that in my next post!!!
Sienna’s duomo pavement colorsSienna’s duomo sculptureWalking in Sienna
Going to Paris in August is always a feast! The city is empty of angry Parisian and everything is smooth and nice. Of course there is no theatre show nor opera to see, little exhibitions and some shops and restaurants are closed for the summer holiday, but who cares? It’s the best time to visit Paris to me. The parks are beautifully refreshing and quiet, no little brats to disturb the quietness, the terraces of cafe are less busy, and everything seems to move at a slower pace or in a foggy heat.
I particularly love to walk in the Luxembourg Gardens, stop here and there and look at people, those playing chess, those playing tennis, those seating and lazying, those running frantically… it was perfect because I was working at ENS and we stayed at the newly reopened Lutecia, and the best way to travel back and forth is by crossing the garden!
So one word about the Lutecia… it has always been for me a landmark on the left bank and a place I wanted to stay at. After years of renovation, it finally reopened in July and I was happy A. booked there for this trip. The renovation is in fact not fully finished and it feels like it will be better in a year or so once they will really have finished it.
One thing that I love when traveling is to do a kitchen take over if I don’t have my own kitchen, and after 3 days in Paris I was longing for cooking and took over my best friend’s kitchen for one evening. She picked a recipe she wanted me to prepare and I picked the dessert.
We ended with some gnocchi with jus d’herbe as proposed in Passedat’s book, snd a mirabelles tart. Two simple and delicious recipes.
Mirabelle tart:
– 1.5 kg of mirabelle
– flour and butter for the dough
– a little bit of sugar to sprinkle on top
Prepare the sablé dough with the flour and butter. Roll it, not too thin (mine was and couldn’t absorb all the juice) to the size of your pie dish. Wash the mirabelle and pit them. Set a thick layer of mirabelle in the dough (they will reduce, so really pack them). Sprinkle a bit of sugar. Cook in the oven for 40min at 180deg.
