June berry ジューンベリー

When I thought I had tried most berries that exist in Japan, our friends challenged me with a new sort!! The other day Y.-san arrived with a cup full of small dark red berries that looked a lot like dark red currant… so when he said in Japanese “we just harvested june berries, so here are some for you” I took a brain short cut and assumed that june berries in Japanese was the name for red currant. And since my oven was turned on to bake some bread and a quiche, I decided to make a tart with the berries. I prepared a thin crust with olive oil and rye flour, rolled it in a small pie dish, added a spoon of sugar (red currant would be sour…), and wash the berries and while admiring their dark red color, I was telling to myself how dark they are for red currant… well I baked until perfectly done and we ate the tart while still warm. You cannot imagine my surprise when we tasted it. Expecting the tart taste of the currants, slightly blurred by the heat and the sugar, I had in mouth a new flavor… sweet as the sweetest cherry but more floral and berry-like. It was the most delicate surprise!!!

So if you are as stupid as me and didn’t know about june berries, ジューンベリー, here is what a quick search told me about them. Apparently they seem to have been widely popular in the middle age in Europe, but they probably come to a disgrace, as I’ve never seen or heard about amelanchier (the proper name) until a few days ago. Too bad because not only the fruit is delicious, the flowers seem to be very pretty. They also seem to be rather popular in north America, and introduced to Japan for quite some time now. I’ve never seems them on market stalls of any kind, so I’m guessing that those who grow them keep them for themselves. And it is so delicious that I don’t blame them! Now I dream of an amelanchier for our garden! And if you know anything about the june berries I’ll be happy to hear more about them. What to do with them expect pies and jam… and thanks S. And Y.-san!!!

June 7, 2020

One week…

This week was just like another, but it felt looooong and painful, busy with work (I’ve started a new online robotics course that keeps me busy, among the many other things I work on)… It was also our first week of telework for the both of us together in our new apartment with schedules not necessarily matching very well to have lunch together or go for a walk together. And the first week of really warm weather, summer warm, and of air conditioning. I always have a hard time adjusting to it and I felt little appetite for a few days, rare enough, and even more rare no appetite at all for chocolate. Instead I craved simple food and simple ingredients and in these situations rice, more particularly ochazuke, has been one of my best answer. Since ochazuke with vegetables is seasonal, ochazuke in May is different than ochazuke in December and the recipes I have posted so far, even if the base dashi could be similar. For a spring ochazuke I used a plain dashi of katsuobushi, but ichiban dashi would work as well, and if your vegan or vegetarian you can opt for konbu dashi only or shiitake dashi, in which I cooked some green peas (there will be more green peas recipe coming soon!!!) and some snap peas. I added after serving a bit of sesame seeds.

This dish is perfect eaten not too warm, it provides energy while having greens and liquid with strictly no fat. And it is tasty without being overwhelming.

And in a flash the week was almost over, passing with me not sharing any new recipe as I have cooked a little less or rather very simple food… I promise to do better next week!!

May 16, 2020

Yama udo

One of the wild spring green I like to cook is udo or rather yama udo ヤマウドウ. It is a kind of long stick that likes to grow on steep road sides and is very easy to prepare, with a distinctive taste but not strong such that of fukinoto. One preparation that is really easy is with miso in miso ae. Usually I would blanched it to soften it a bit and remove its bitterness or tartness, but I realized while doing a bit of reading, that vinegar water would work as well, which for the lemon-miso ae I wanted to make was more than perfect. Indeed, while I am waiting for my lemon tree to bear fruits (I lost all last year in early strong winds and heavy rains), I found some delicious lemons at the local market. Hence, recently there has been a lot of lemon in my recipe, the lemon cake, lemon pancakes, lemon pasta… The vinegar miso ae is taken to a new level of rich flavors with the addition of the lemon. It works the same way as yuzu miso. That said my recipe today is really super simple, and if you can’t go to pick yama udo yourself or find some, you can try with regular udo. Its taste is much milder but that works very nicely too. And if there is no udo where you live, try with wild asparagus or green asparagus, that will work fine as well.

Yama udo with lemon miso ae (2 servings as side)

1 udo
2tsp of miso (I used my homemade miso)
3tsp of vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
1tsp of sugar
a little bit of lemon zest
a little of lemon juice (about 1tsp)

Peel the udo and cut in 3cm long pieces. Then slice vertically with about 2-3mm thick, then make sticks. Set in a bowl with water and 2tbs of vinegar for 15min.

In the meantime, in a bowl, mix the miso, 1tbs of vinegar and the rest of the ingredients. Stir well.

Drain well the udo and add to the miso mix. Stir well and serve. That’s it, really simple isn’t it?

I served it with grilled sawara (Japanese Spanish mackerel) and plain white rice.

May 10, 2020

Green peas

I love spring greens and new vegetables, but among them I love green peas more than the others probably. I love the taste and texture, the color and the versatility, but I also love to shell them, I’ve always had. I remember as a child how many times I helped my mother or my grand mother doing it… it’s the season when days become longer and warmer, the approaching end of the school year…

In Japan green peas are not sold by the kilo, rather in tiny amount, and used as a small green touch in rice or here and there. You don’t eat a plate of green peas… so it has always got me a little frustrated to only have a handful of green peas. Japanese prefer them snap peas, which I love too… but it’s not the same.

So when our British friend came to enjoy tea in our garden and arrives with 3 kilos of green peas he just harvested in his garden, I was as happy as could be!!! First because I wanted to eat green peas so badly, may be because the Maltese pastizzi were too good, and I haven’t found any yet at the local farmers, and because now I could play with peas for real!!!

Despite the classic recipes I love to make with green peas, I wanted to test new things… May be pastizzi themself if I manage to make a good puff pastry… but also I had some cornmeal sitting in my fridge (remember I keep most things in my fridge to avoid pest) and I wanted to cook something with it… a bit of digging in recipes with cornmeal made me lean towards croquettes, and adding peas and spices was the next thing that I found would be nice… or here is what I did plus a few recommendations to make them even better…

Cornmeal and green peas spicy croquettes
– 100g of green peas, shelled
– 150g of cornmeal
– water
– ground cumin
– a pinch of ground clove
– salt and pepper
– a bit of oil to cook the croquettes

In a bowl add the cornmeal and a bit of water and let rest while you shell the peas. This will soften the cornmeal and avoid the croquettes to be too dry. Then add the peas and add water a bit to obtain a paste rather sticky and hard. Add the spices, stir well and heat the greased pan. With two tea spoons set the dough in small mounts in the pan and cook until golden, then flip and repeat. You can either eat like this or make a tomato sauce or a yogurt sauce to dip them…

Have a good day!

May 9, 2020

New kitchen

Last weekend we moved in our new apartment in Tokyo so the past days have been pretty busy juggling with work and getting used to our new place. While we got familiar with it quickly, the kitchen may have been the biggest change. It’s a tiny apartment so the kitchen is also tiny but it is opened on the dining/living room with a direct view through the window. It means it’s a lot more enjoyable than my previous one that, though larger, was really dark and felt isolated from the rest of the apartment. It’s been only a few days I’ve cooked in there, but already I love the late afternoon light that bathes it (the perks of working from home). I’m now getting used to the gears, and I had to give up my oven until we do proper renovations. Hopefully both our previous and new apartment are in the same building, and we still have our former apartment for 2 more weeks, so A. uses it as an office during the day, we both use it as a pilates studio in the evening, and I still go to bake there!!! Honestly, I don’t know how I will survive without an oven… I need to start thinking about pot baking and steam breads… though I usually have a lit less time in Tokyo than in Isumi to make tests. But I see it as a great opportunity to learn and test new techniques, so if you have any experience I’ll be happy to learn from you!

You may not have noticed yet, but one thing that is new also is my setup for taking pictures of the food I prepare. I used to have a straightforward cooking-plating-picturing stream… now it has gotten a little bit more complex, but I kind of like the new setup. You tell me if you do to…

Regarding food… well I must say that the past days, I have been preparing very simple things: often Japanese rice, or pasta, because every minute I had available was used to unpack something, to hang artworks, and I am happy to say that we’re almost done!! A. has worked really hard to make it happen! And cooking has been a bit rushed these days!!

But I’m happy that spring is now coming fully with it’s collection of greens, new something and the freshness that goes with it. I’ve cooked new onion a lot these days, new potatoes and snap peas too. For example altogether in a pan fried version, separately with rice, in chahan, or in a quiche version.., and they are always delicious… the pictures speak for themselves, and I assume no recipe is needed!

April 30, 2020

Bamboo shoot again!

We are moving in our new apartment tomorrow, but getting everything ready and working doesn’t mean not cooking, we have to eat 😉 Luckily we are only moving vertically so it’s quite easy to go and meet with the workers in between two online meetings, and anyway we decided not to do a lot of renovations first rather wait to see how we live in that new place. Our main idea was that since we spend most of our week days at work and most of our weekends in the countryside, our Tokyo apartment was oversized, so we wanted a downsizing. Few people want to move to a smaller place but we did. So we found a smaller version without a guest room we decided to move… well that was before Corona and simultaneous telework, so maybe not the most judicious timing… but one has to take opportunities when they come!

What does moving has to do with bamboo shoots??? Nothing… it’s spring, the soft pink of the sakura season is over and made way to the bright pink and fuchsia azaleas, and bamboos are growing growing growing. I even saw some in Kitanomaru park during one of my daily walks. But as I said before, the season is very short, so it’s better to enjoy them without delay.

I presented in the past some bamboo shoot recipes but this week I came with a few more ideas and wanted to share them with you. Both recipe today are mixing Mediterranean and Japanese cuisine, and the key is a fragrant olive oil. The first one is a chickpeas and tomatoes ragu, the second is more of a leftover type of recipe. Indeed, because we’re moving I decided to empty the fridge and the pantry as much as I could. And because we’re moving also and our view won’t be as dramatic as the actual one I shoot a few more times my lunch plate with a view…

Chickpeas and bamboo shoots ragu

– 1/2 bamboo shoot

– 2 cups of boiled chickpeas

– 1 large ripe tomato

– a few capers

– fragrant olive oil

– salt and pepper

Prepare the bamboo shoot as usual by boiling it in rice water fir as long as it needs to be soft (a tooth pick should easily enter.

Boil the chickpeas.

Wash the tomato. In a large pan generously oiled with a good olive oil add the tomato roughly cut. Cook until you obtain a smooth tomato sauce. Add salt and pepper and the capers, the chickpeas, and the sliced bamboo shoots. Stir and add a bit if olive oil, serve and eat warm or cold. That’s it!!!

Leftover bamboo salad

– 1/4 of bamboo shoot boiled

– a handful of boiled chickpeas

– 2 large boiled potatoes

– 1/2 new onion blanched

– a handful of boiled green beans

– fragrant olive oil

– 1tbs of soya sauce

Cut the bamboo, the potatoes, the onion and the green beans, dress in a bowl. Add the chickpeas, the soya sauce, sone olive oil, stir gently and eat!!!

Isn’t that super easy???

April 22, 2020

Gynura bicolor – 金時草

Riding our bicycles has given us a new perspective on the neighborhood. Circling a 15km radius from home we have discovered a few new things and stopped at new places that we may have driven through many times bit didn’t really stopped by. When you cycle it’s easy to take a small street or a narrow passageway, to stop, turn back and get a bit lost… every detour is a discovery, and a surprise.

The new beach walk & ride path between Ohara beach and Misakichoizumi park

Riding we discovered a nice swamp, a reclining Buddha in a tiny temple, a new ride along the beach, a busy surfing spot, an old house with a beautiful park enclosed by walls… we also stopped for shopping in a few places: cheeses and fromage blanc at fromagerie Haru, fish at Onjuku, and vegetables at local organic place. That’s where I found these beautiful purple and dark green leaves I didn’t know about. And as usual a locally grown green I don’t know must go in my basket! So here I am with this gynusa bicolor (which name I didn’t know until a few minutes ago). Of course I always ask the local people what they do with a vegetable I don’t know and try it that way first. She said with soya sauce and okaka… which I understood as blanched and then seasoned with soya sauce and katsuobushi. And so that’s what I tried. And that was really very very delicious. So I bought some again today and I will test it again ;)!!!

Have a good weekend!

April 18, 2020

Bamboo shoot

The short season of this delicious and subtle vegetable has started and it’s time to enjoy it now!!! Usually I would only cook it on the weekend because it requires a very long boiling, but thanks to telework this is something I can cook any day now! That’s the one good thing of working from home! Though with my new rythme since January I was already able to prepare recipes that require a longer cooking time, now I can take it to the next level: bread, Japanese brown rice, slow cooking, and bamboo shoots!!!

To celebrate that I came up with a new recipe: sautéed bamboo shoots and potatoes with olive oil and sansho. Sansho and bamboo shoot are a Japanese classic assortment, olive oil and potatoes more of a south-east French one. I mixed the two ideas. After boiling your bamboo shoot until tender, slice it. Boil a few potatoes, cut them and toss them in a pan with olive oil. Add the bamboo shoot slices and cook at high heat while stirring gently once in a while. Add a bit of salt, serve and top with fresh sansho leaves. Enjoy spring in your plate!!!
If you don’t have sansho you can use katsuobushi flakes… that’s also a great match to both potatoes and bamboo shoots!
Have a great day!

April 8, 2020

Croissants!!!

I use to hunt down the best croissants in Tokyo, I found some, but best shops making the best croissants change over time… Recently we went nearby our place at the factory, and they have probably close to the best pain au chocolat but definitely not the best croissants… and a space that maybe perfect for a gloomy morning but not for a bright sunny day, I preferred the park nearby.

Knowing that finding delicious croissants in Tokyo, you can imagine that in Isumi it is a bit of challenge. Grain makes delicious croissants and pains au chocolat but they open too late to have freshly baked croissants in the morning. The only option was that I tried making some again. Indeed after three or four miserable attempts in the past years, I decided that an ugly weekend would be the perfect timing for another attempt. And that’s just what we got: pouring rain for almost 2 days and strong winds, notwithstanding a drop in temperature back to a modest 5.

Instead of testing again a recipe I had in my books and didn’t work for me, I chose to go online and pick a video tutorial. After watching a few I picked the video by Domi patiss, because it was neither too short, nor too long, because her croissants look really fluffy and delicious, and she had a few hints that made sense to me. I followed her recipe almost to the letter except for quantities and I must say that for the first time I managed to make croissants that both have the taste and appearance of croissants from a boulanger… They were delicious!!!

So here is what I did… there is a lot of waiting/resting time, so it took 24h to make the croissants, but the actual “action” time is always very short. The video by Domi patiss is in French but quite visual to understand the folding and rolling tips she gives.

Croissants (make 6-8 pieces)

– 250g of flour

– 70g of water

– 60g of milk

– 6g of fresh yeast

– 7g of salt

– 20g of brown sugar

– 10g + 110g of butter

In a large bowl I mix the flour, the sugar, the salt, add the water, the milk, the yeast and 10g of butter. I knead until smooth, roll into a 25 by 15cm rectangle, wrap not too tight and set in the fridge for 12h at least. The dough should raise during that time.

http://gentianeetantoine.com/igk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/video-1.mov

Then I roll it onto a rectangle of about 25cm by 50cm. Cut the 110g of butter (cold) in thin slices and cover half of the dough. Flip the other half on top and roll again to obtain the same size again. Fold in four, wrap and refrigerate for 1h.

Roll again to the same size or larger and fold in three this time. Refrigerate for another hour.

Finally roll again to the same size. Cut the edges to make apparent the feuilletage. Cut 6-8 triangles, roll them into croissant, set for another hour to rest at room temperature.

Apply an egg batter on the croissants and bake at 210deg for 15min or until perfectly golden. Enjoy!!!

March 29, 2020