Tag: freshfood

Butternut squash…

…what would I do without you? So easy to peel and cut compared to kabocha and most pumpkin, so quick to cook, and so many recipes possible. I can’t help buying one every time I see some at the farmers market. It suits so very well all types of dishes, Italian, Japanese etc… So what did I do with last time? Some autumn spread! Enough of eggplants, chickpeas or yogurt speads summer spreads but Yes! for a butternut squash autumn version.

Butternut squash spread

– 1 butternut squash

– salt, pepper, pumpkin spices (cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, clove)

Simply peel the butternut squash and remove the seeds, cut it into large chunks and steam or boil it. Once it is soft, with a fork just mash it. Add a bit of butter if you like. Add salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and clove. Stir well to obtain a purée. That’s it!!!! Eat with freshly baked bread or crackers for a killer experience!

Brown rice

When we are in Isumi I like to go to Rice Terrace restaurant for a macrobiotic lunch outdoor, but I don’t like to go when it rains because the whole place is designed to enjoy being outside and there are usually too many families and it can become very noisy. Luckily we found an other macrobiotic cafe, opened not far away, by a young guy that use to work at Rice Terrace. His cafe is a small simple and usually quiet place and he makes a wonderful colorful soup curry that I love when it rains. What I love with Japanese macrobiotic cooking is the brown rice, the herbs and spices on top of the fresh seasonal ingredients (that I cook all the time). I try sometimes to cook macrobiotic at home: ie. replace the white rice or pasta… by brown rice, and add a few more spices and herbs. This time I made a leftover preparation with the vegetables that were left on the fridge: spinach, ripe tomato, sweet potato. I just added some anis seeds and cooked everything in a pan with a very little bit of oil. Added to the cooked brown rice, that’s it… my version of macrobiotic super simple meal!!!

Cold corn soup

As I was mentioning in my earlier post, I didn’t grow in a family where eating corn or cooking corn is a tradition.  I am still quite unable to cook it in many ways, and I usually limit myself to boiled corn, rice & corn, or corn soup. Since the weather is very hot and humid these days in Tokyo I really like to prepare cold soups. And since the corn season is going to end soon, I bought a few more corn and prepared some cold soup. Similarly to the hot one it is simple and very nice as a starter. The only “problem” with cold soups made from ingredients that must be cooked (contrarily to gaspacho) is that you have to plan a bit ahead (2-3h) to have time to cool it.

Cold corn soup (for 2 bowls)

– 2 corns

– soya milk

– salt and pepper  

First remove the leaves and hairs from the corn and boil until soft. Wash under running cold water to cool them. Take all the grains out and blend until smooth (adding no other liquid help obtaining a really smooth texture), add salt and pepper. Add soya milk to obtain the desired texture. Again, when cooled the texture will be slightly thicker, so think about it to obtain the texture you really want. Blend a little longer. Cool in the fridge or the freezer before serving.

Have a nice week! 

Summer butternut squash

If two or three years ago it was not so easy to find butternut squash (see my previous post about it), now it is almost on possible to find it all year round at the farmers market… and since it is so easy to cut and peel and so quick to cook I’ve thought that it would be perfect even in summer. Of course no pumpkin spice or warm and rich preparation in summer, but rather a very simple one: cold soup.

Butter cold soup:

– 1 butternut squash  

– water

– salt

– pepper black and pink

– curcuma  

Simply peel and cut the butternut and remove the seeds. Boil it in water until very soft. Remove the water to have the butternut just covered. Smash and stir with a spoon or a fork until almost smooth (or blend). Add salt and curcuma. Cool in the fridge before serving. When dressing the plates add some black and pink pepper. 

Veggies and grain

This week A. is very busy with work, with visitors from his headquarters, meaning dining out for him and dinner alone for me, and also taking care of the house chores. When it’s the case I usually come back late from work too and cook some rather simple meals that while it cooks give me free hands for the laundry… With the fridge full of fresh summer vegetables, it was even easier: grains and vegetables every day!!!! Brown rice, barley… with bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini, green beans… and topped with some gratted cheese, or some fresh mozzarella, or nothing…

It is always the same base: first in a pan I heat some olive oil, add the vegetables that need a bit of roasting or are longer to cook (eggplant, carrot…), then the main grain, the herbs (mainly rosemary from the garden this week)… then I cover with water, cook under cover, add the vegetables that need less cooking (green beans, zucchini…) and remove the cover for the last minutes of cooking. That’s it! And the weekend is almost there, with a hot Sunday apparently! Take care

brown rice, zucchini, eggplant and rosemary
brown rice, zucchini, eggplant and rosemary

Rainy season!

Just as planned, this week is pretty busy, I have many duties overlapping, committees I am in charge of, official events to attend and adding up to my lectures, students supervision and research projects and writing. The exhibition preparation is taking most of my (rather short) remaining available time.

So this week no tennis at lunch break, very little cooking, no house chores (thanks A.), up early in the morning and until fairly late, and very little posts because I used all my commuting time to work. At last, today I have decided to take a bit of time for TPS and to update you with some very simple and quick recipes that have saved our dinners this week. Nothing fancy at all but still fresh and tasty. Though, I was hoping the exhibition will be all set and ready by the beginning of the week and we will only have to work details by now, I also knew that working with other people is never that simple, except with some with whom I’m totally in synch, and those I am working with this time hardly meet deadlines, or rather like to work in last minute rush. Everyone finds its way to doing things in the end, last minute rush is definitely not mine, so I had to let go a real lot of things. Learning to let go was an interesting experience though. Back to cooking… so, knowing that my schedule will definitely be affected by last minute changed, last weekend in Ohara I packed on long lasting fresh veggies that will be easy to combine together and rapidly cooked: asparagus, peeled horse beans, red bell pepper, tomatoes, broad beans, celery… and this week I prepared them one way or another, Japanese, Italian, whatever… when I don’t have much time to cook we usually eat vegan adding tofu, cucumber with miso while dinner gets ready… My top favorite from this week are: the orecchiette with tofu asparagus and horse beans; broad beans, asparagus and tomatoes with soya sauce and Japanese koshihikari rice; celery, tomatoes and black pepper risotto. All of these recipes  require very little preparation time (the longest is peeling the broad beans after blanching them) and no specific caring while cooking, perfect to catch up with A. or work a little longer. 

Happy rainy season!!!

D-9 before the opening!

As many of you may know, I’m a roboticist, cooking is just a hobby. I am the head of 20 people research lab in a national university in Tokyo. Just google me to check!! My days are pretty full with my job but I can’t help doing more than my shre and taking opportunities to do new things, to learn new things. This time, as I mentioned before, I am leading the preparation of an exhibition at our science museum where some colleagues and me will exhibit some of our research work. This keeps me even more busy: preparing the website, thinking about the layout, the exhibits… I’m hoping to make something where people entertain themselves while they learn about human and robots. And the opening is only in 9 days, or almost 8 now, and there is so much left to do!!! Obviously my cooking time has decreased significantly and it is rather simple comfy food that I prepare. I use a lot of legumes these days, because they are versatile, nourishing and easy to accommodate with vegetables. I prepared a simple warm soup with peas, lentils and barley, added a big tomato, a carrot, and finished with some fava beans. Topped with or without cheese. Dimply delicious, and ready to continue working!!!

Barley risotto

I’m a big fan of all kind of cereals and leguminous plants. I like to use them in many recipes. In Japan there exists many, such as adlay and millet and of course all the beans (豆) families: edamame, azuki, black beans… I also like the European or Asian ones too, barley, lentil, chickpea… that are less common. In particular barley is really nice to cook as a substitute of rice. I use it to make risotto (here is a winter recipe). It is more crunchy than rice and the texture goes very well with all kind of vegetables. This time I used in in a risotto primavera, with fresh green peas, fresh new onions, fresh green beans and fresh basil. I added some bacon for A. It is very simple to prepare. First in a. It olive oil cook the baconand the new onion. Then add the barley and rost it. Finally add water, and the vegetables. It cooks under cover for 20min and then it’s ready to eat! Don’t forget to add the vegetables in order of longer cooking time to avoid over cooking them.

Double luck!

I was thinking that these days I don’t cook much and in particular I haven’t created new recipes as often as I usually do. Indeed, I am busy with work, handling a lot of things at the same time, and the beginning of the new term at the university, with new students in the lab, teaching and budgeting is always a period with a lot of pressure. On top of which, because more is better, I have taken the lead for an exhibition at the science museum of the university and the opening is in just one month, so there is a lot to do and prepare. Of course I have an amazing group, with great people that are always ready to challenge themselves. But in the end of the day I have little energy left to think about creating a new recipe, as I also concentrate on this recipe/cooking contest entry. So last night when I stepped in the kitchen at 21:00 past the first great news was a package from Poland from our friend who knows how much I love the Polish traditional potteries which I find suits very well Japanese food, and every once in a while sends us one. I now have a pretty collection!!!

Then I started to cook some vegetables sautéed for our dinner, and I was thinking that it was really not enough as a meal and A. would complain I don’t feed him enough!!! 😉 And just at this perfect moment (timing couldn’t be better), the doorbell rang and after a short time A. came back to the kitchen with a warm dish of bamboos shoot rice prepared by our neighbor who has been to the country to pick bamboo shoots. Isn’t that lovely! And here the perfect dinner was ready! Thanks a lot I. and Mrs W.!!!!!

My collection of Polish crafted potteries
My collection of Polish crafted potteries

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