My husband and I usually play tennis together every Saturday morning for aboug 2h, and sometimes the stakes are really high: we play for the color of our new car, its model, the options, and sometimes even what we’ll have for lunch. That’s how my husband win his piece of meat ;). After our game we usually head to the beach for a refreshing swim, so once we’re back home we’re literally starving so I need to fix something quick and nourishing. Japanese rice is always a good option because it can be cooked unsupervised and gives me enough time to drop by the shower! Cucumbers, tomatoes and all other vegetables that can be eaten raw, Japanese pickles, scrambled eggs… are also very handy. Finally, leftover and tofu make our lunch look like something awesome.
This time it’s a mixture of all that. Plain white rice topped with some sesame seeds, sesame-tofu from Mount Koya, miso green beans, and raw cucumber.
It’s summer, it’s hot and still a bit humid, the farmers market is full of beautiful and ripped tomatoes, the last asparagus and green beans. And I was craving for a thin tart with a thin and crispy dough. So I prepared a brisee dough with 2/3 of chick pea flour and 1/3 of wheat flour, olive oil and water. In a large tart dish I set the dough and add raw asparagus, green beans and diced tomatoes, and finish with eggs mixed with a little of water, salt and a lot of grinded black pepper. Then bake for 20min in the oven at 210deg. Simply delicious!
Myoga, also named Japanese ginger is a little plant that is often used in Japanese cuisine. It looks a bit like shallots, but with a fresh and strong taste. The most classic use is in miso soup, with a simple dashi base, miso and finely cut myoga. Other option will be with silky fresh tofu and soya sauce. At home we love the taste of myoga and I often use it. One recipe I came with is to top some simply steamed green beans. Just like for the miso soup I finely slice the myoga, steam the green beans, or better boil them in some dashi, and last season with soya sauce. A simple dish that goes perfectly with rice and other small Japanese dishes.
Recently there’s been a lot of green beans and broad beans, it is just the pick season here in Japan and I can’t resist buying some several times a week, so our dinner have been based on these greens quite often. Recently I also found okra from Okinawa (usually they come from the Philippines), but not yet local okra. I find the one from Okinawa particularly delicious. It’s funny because I never ate okra before coming to Japan, at first I found it was a strange vegetable, but little by little I started to really enjoy them. When eaten raw they are a bit slimy which might be discussing for some people, but as soon as you boil them for a few seconds they’re not slimy anymore and they keep this beautiful intense green color. This time I prepared for dinner a farro penne salada. I boiled the pasta al-dente, and boil the broad beans and green beans together, in the last 30seconds I just added the okra. I served that with olive oil, salt and pepper, as usual, and added some wild smoked salmon (I don’t why I mention “wild”, because I only eat wild fish from specific areas, like all the vegetables I use are either organic or locally grown without chemicals). And dinner was ready in less than 15min! Perfect after a long day at work!
My mother does this very simple classic salad as a starter: green beans or broad beans, potatoes, new onion, olive oil and mustard. I love when the potatoes have marinated in the oil and when the green beans water is mixing in an indiscriptibly delicious juice. This time I mimicked her recipe but made it even simpler: remove the mustard and replaced the onion by some momendofu (hard tofu) crumbles and served it as a main dish for dinner. To enjoy the delicious juice I recommend to prepare the salad one hour before serving and with new potatoes I don’t peel them, just brush them under water.
This recipe with zucchini was invented on the spot. I wanted to eat my yellow zucchini with some green beans and purple asparagus, but didn’t want to eat pasta or risotto, so I prepared a batter with buckwheat flour, baking powder, salt, 2 eggs and water (makes two large pancake). In a pan I sauteed in olive oil the green beans, the yellow zucchini cut in small pieces, and the purple asparagus, then I baked it in a small greased pan at low eat the batter and topped it right away with the vegetables and baked only on one side under cover. The vegetables sink a bit in the dough and it resembles something in between a crepe, a pizza and an omelet. I topped it when done with a bit of salt and olive oil. Simply delicious!
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!
“La soupe au pistou”, pronounce ” la souuuupopiiiiistuu” (or pesto soup) is a traditional summer preparation in Provence. Like any traditional food each family has her secret recipe and variations are quite Infinite. Shall it include small pasta or king of cut spaghetti, or none; shall it be served with grated Parmigiano or grated Gruyere; how many types of bean should be used etc… Honestly I would say that each version tastes different but cannot be bad. For me this soup is synonymous of summer, holidays, family gatherings… I can’t even recall when I first it it, probably at an age whe it is not possible to recall. The recipe comes from my grand mother that probably came from her mother and so on, my mother is using the recipe. For us the pesto is made of fresh basil leaves, pine nuts, gratted garlic, grated Parmigiano and ollive oil, a lot of olive oil. The soup consists in tomatoes (big, red ripe summer tomatoes), green beans, broad beans, zucchini, white beans and marbled beans. The beans are inserted by cooking time and it’s cooked during a long time at low eat, and it is served with grated gruyere. No pasta… Though I recall some argument about that!
Reinvention of the soupe au pistou in the making
I’ve been preparing a lot of this soup even in Japan, though I can’t find fresh marble beans and white beans, it is easy to have some dry, and broad beans are really easy to find, fresh and delicious. I adapt the recipe to circumstances and when I serve it as a single dish I usually add a few little pasta. I never use garlic, fresh or dry, so I took it off the recipe, and my husband doesn’t like pine nuts nor cheese so usually I take them off as well… hum… well my pesto is just basil and olive oil and just as good! This time I was about to prepare one when I realized I had no white beans nor marble beans and I was not really in the mood to eat soup on my own, since my husband was out for dinner for work. So I decided to treat myself with a recipe that I just invented on the spot (missing ingredients are the best inspiration!) and went for a dry soupe au pistou. In a pan I diced a tomato and cooked it with olive oil, then added the green beans and the braod beans, finally I added the chopped basil leaves, salt pepper and olive oil and cooked under cover 15min. The served it with pine nuts, and finally topped with Parmigiano (which is totally optional). Perfectly delicious though a bit far from the original recipe but that is evolution!
And ready to eat (I spare you the Parmigiano topping!)
I’ve always loved oat bran, may be because I’m a horse girl and it reminds me when we were feeding the horses at the club, and sometimes trying the horse food (though I never tried hay!); or may be just because I love this kind of dry, little taste food. Anyway, I’ve been using oat bran often, and even more since I bake breads and even even more since I know that it is a good source of proteins and fiber. One of my favorite use of oat bran is in tarts dough. I gives a granulous consistency that fits perfectly with the sable of the dough and the softness of the vegetables and the egg custard.
Perfect with a rye or whole wheat dough, but even with plain white flour. Here is a butter based dough with oat bran, and the tart is garnished with green beans, brocoli and cherry tomatoes. I apply the dough in the pie dish directly with the fingers, so that explains the rough edges. A simple and delicious recipe for a late diner.
What is your favorite recipe with oat bran? I’d love to test it!
