Two way meal

Or two recipes with the same ingredients. One the original version and the second a leftover version. Both delicious and easy to prepare.  The original recipe is a Japanese one: rice with green peas and red miso grilled cod. This recipe is made with simple and easy to find fresh ingredients. You need fresh cod filet, red miso (work with other miso if you can’t find red one), Japanese rice, a handful of green peas. Additionally I served also horse beans and green beans just blanched, but optional. Cook the rice in a rice cooker or in a regular pan. Add the green peas about 7min before the end of cooking. With a flexible knife spread 1tbsp of miso evenly on the fish (opposite to skin side). In a heated pan or in the oven grill the miso side of the fish. Serve when cooked to your liking. I served the fish on top of the horse beans and the green beans on the side.

With the leftovers of rice and fish I decided to make some rice croquettes, something between arancini and accras. I mixed the rice with green peas with the fish, added one egg, a little of flour and pan fry them until golden. Served with a fresh lettuce and tomatoes salad.

Have a great weekend! 

Miso-lemon dressing

Recently it has been quite difficult to find gnocchi in our usual grocery stores, and gnocchi were our staples for late Friday dinners when we arrived in the country. So I have had to find a replacement. Today I tried soba (buckwheat noodles) that I prepared with plenty of greens and I decided to serve them not with some regular sauce made from soya sauce such as tsuyu, but rather a white miso base. And since I had some fresh lemon I also used it. The redult was even better than I expected. The sweet white miso and the lemon are a super match. The lemon taste is very present, cancelling the sweetness of the miso and the miso softening the bitterness of the lemon. So here is my recipe for 2 people.

– 200g of soba noodles, I use 100% buckwheat flour noodles

– 4 tsp of white miso

– 1/4 of lemon  

– 1 tsp of soya sauce

– brocoli, brocoli sprouts, green beans, baby spinach… asparagus, green peas, horse beans… are all good too

Boil a large amount of water to cook the soba. In the meantime in a heated pan slightly oiled cook the washed vegetables. The much remsin crispy, so don’t over cook them. In a bowl mix together the miso, the lemon juice, the soya sauce.  Serve ghe noodles in a large bowl, add the miso dressing and stir well, add the vegetables. Eat right away and have a beautiful weekend. Isumi is under the rain, and work for the museum exhibition is what I have to do today!

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.

Soya sauce recipe contest

So… apparently the Parisian sister has again let us down once again, and despite her promise to contribute every week steadily, she didn’t keep it more than 2months…  Sorry, no sweets and cake recipes because I myself rarely cook or bake some. I am more interested in meals and breads! Recently with the spring coming I’ve been using a lot of greens, and in particular I am working on a new recipe for the soya sauce recipe contest, which deadline is approaching rapidly. I thought I was almost ready with a receipe inspired from my mother spring glazed vegetables and it would definitely includes some spring greens, most certainly some extra thin green beans, because I found some lovely ones at the farmers market Saturday and prepare this delicious dish which was not very picturesque. And likely features also some new onions… I love their sweet taste and the texture they bring to a dish! So many options now… The problem, now that I know how the contest works, is that the finale is in August and these vegetables are not going to be found easily then… but I have a hard time thinking of an all season recipe… with what? Mushrooms, potatoes, cucumber, carrots, leek… hum… nothing too fancy here… so I still need to work on it a bit and I’ll let you know what will be my entry to the contest soon!

In the meantime here is my killing soya sauce recipe from yesterday dinner: sea bass with soya sauce glazed new vegetables  

– a sea bass filet

– a handful of green beans

– a handful of snappeas

– 1 large new potatoes

– 1 new onion

– 2 tbs of oil

– 1 tbs of soya sauce  

Wash the vegetables, don’t peel the potatoes, just brush them. Cut the fish filet into cubes or slices as you like. Remove the stem of the greens. Remove the first skin of the new onion, cut in 4 or 8. In a pan, heat the oil, add the onion, then the potatoes. Stir and lower the heat when it starts to be golden. Then add green beans. Cook at low heat under cover for 2-3min. Stir well. Add the fish, the soya sauce and cook under cover for 3min (abit more if your fish cubes are large). Finally add the snap peas. Cook under cover one minute. Serve and eat immediately!

Have a good week! 

Spicy stew

In the series of new preparations I really wanted to try fennel seeds together with north african style spices in a stew with plenty of veggies and a little bit of chicken. Something close to a tajine indeed, but served with a little of couscous for the full blast of energy. So I put one potato, ine carrot, a few green beans, one large tomato and some chickpeas and a few pieces of chicken breast together in a pan and cooked them in a bit of oil before ading some water, North African spice mix and plenty of fennel seeds. In the last minute of cooking I added a few okras. Served with steamed couscous. Enjoy!

Trying new ideas

As I was telling last week, recently I’m trying new cooking combination and new tastes. In particular I’m trying using spices and fennel seeds. The first attempt was some vegan stew with corn, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans and okra, with some paprika, red pepper, fennel seeds. All cooked together until the potatoes are just done. An utmost simple recipe but very tasty and a nice mixture of texture with the crunchy and sweet fresh corn.

Summer vegetable soup

The summer is chilly so far and the rainy season is surprisingly not yet finished. It is very nice to eat a warm dinner at night and summer vegetables soup is always a good pick. Ready in less than 15min, full of delicious vegetables, warm and tasty with infinite variety, it is really easy to prepare. For the bouillon I use a veggie bouillon base when I don’t cook leek or onion. As for the veggies: whatever I find at the farmers market. This time green beans, flat beans and tomatoes. While the bouillon is heating up I wash and prepare the beans, cut them in small pieces and add them to the bouillon. I also add the tomato (peeled) cut in two halves. When it is boiling I add some optional little pasta (here Sicilian little soup pasta) and cook until the pasta are ready: about 11min. Serve directly and add for those who like, some gratted parmegiano. That’s it!

Simple Japanese one-plate

Well, Japanese is may be a little to much but at least it’s Japanese taste and local products! I don’t like fatty meat but I must say that pork belly is always perfect to flavor simple vegetables. It’s very easy to find thin slices of pork belly in Japan, they ressemble a lot bacon slices. They are perfect for cocotte cooking for the bottom layer. Once they are cooked and the fat has melted it is a perfect base for cooking vegetables. It goves an incredible taste. Most of the time I use it mainly as flavoring and don’t eat the meat myself (A. does) but when the fat has completely disappeared and the meat gets crunchy then I don’t mind eating it! I actually find it quite good!!! It’s nice also because it’s perfect any time with seasonal vegetables. This time I cooked capsicums and in the end of the cooking added green beans cut in 3cm bites and finally deglazed in soya sauce. Delicious with plain white rice!

Rice salad Japanese style

Japanese purists would hang me for that recipe!!! In the edamame gohan I’ve added boiled chick peas, and served this “mame gohan” with blanched green beans, cherry tomatoes and hard boiled egg. A sort of “salade de riz” as we call it in France, (so 70’s tupperware cooking!!!) but with a Japanese touch. Of course for the dressing it’s just a little of soya sauce if the green beans and tomatoes, the sacrilege doesn’t go that far!

Speaking of soya sauce, I’ve been selected as a finalist for a cooking contest organized by the soya sauce association! The finale is on August 20th… Let’s see what I can do. It’s my first cooking contest. I have no idea how it is gonna look like… 

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