Tag: green peas

Sushi rice and spring vegetables, the perfect combo!

Harvest from the kitchen garden: plenty of green peas, fava beans and herbs.

Late spring brings in so many vegetables! Our modest kitchen garden produced a beautiful crop of green peas. Not over a long period of time like last year, but a few kilos in a very short time. I also harvested a lot of sansho pods, and while looking at the recipe to prepare them in my book of Shojin cuisine, I just found a recipe that so far curiously never attracted me before but was perfect with what I had in the fridge: bamboo shoot and green peas sushi rice. It took just one second to verify I had all the ingredients I needed and my mind was all set. I don’t eat fish and seafood sushi, but I love sushi rice, slightly vinegary and sweet. It is very easy to prepare but somehow never make any…

It was time to change this!

Here is the recipe I prepared, slightly modified from the original.

Bamboo shoot and green peas sushi (4 servings, side dish)

  • 2 go of rice (or 2 cups but that would be more)
  • A handful of fresh green peas
  • 1 fresh bamboo shoot
  • A pinch of salt
  • 2tbs of rice vinegar
  • 3tbs of sugar
  • 1tbs of soya sauce
  • A few sansho leaves

Cook the rice. In the meantime, peel the bamboo, cut it in 3mm thick slices, and the cut the the slices in 2cm strips and boil it for 15min. Drain. In a pan set the bamboo and the green peas, add 2tbs of water, 1tbs of sugar, 1tbs of soya sauce. Cook at medium heat until almost all the liquid is gone. Mix the vinegar and the 2tbs of sugar with the rice. Stir well, add the vegetables and stir gently. Add the sansho leaves and enjoy!

Do not refrigerate, the rice would become hard and flavors would vanish.

Pastizzi tal pizzeli

It is really interesting how much Maltese food has left a strong impression on me. I’ve already shared some of my favorite recipes from Malta, but one is still missing: that of pastizzi tal pizzeli, one of the three types of pastizzi, that with spicy peas. Why did it take me so long? Because I was waiting for the season of green peas to make them with fresh green peas. And now the season has come and I have gotten plenty of green peas so I tried making pastizzi. But for the genuine recipe you’ll have to wait longer, my attempt, though delicious, is a disgrace to the true Maltese pastizzi such that in the picture below.

If you look on the internet you’ll find several different recipes for pastizzi, one of the main difference is those that use spilt peas, and those that use green peas, but they all have in common that they are prepared with puff pastry and the inly spice they use is curry, hence they are often called curried peas pastries, but in my memory the taste was more complex than that, or the Maltese curry is different than that we have here… hum… anyway, the challenge was to start with the puff pastry, not something I am confortable making (I need a serious training for that!), in particular when I remembered how thin and delicious it was in Malta, almost like filo (something I should also try to make!), so I decided to go with a rough puff to save some time, and spare me the disappointment of a poorly done puff pastry. As for the filling, I used half of a new onion, two handfuls of green peas, curry, a bit of clove (after all this is the Maltese spice by excellence), salt and pepper. I boiled the peas, I chopped the onion thinly and cook it in a pan with olive oil at low heat until just golden and soft. In a mortar I puréed the peas, add the spices and the onion. Stir well. Then roll and cut the dough in 8 squares of 12cm and filled them. I used an egg batter and baked at 200deg until golden. Well that was it. It was tasty, delicious but it was not a pastizzi!!!

I’ll try again! 😉

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!!

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!

Garden greens

After one week cooking potatoes in many different ways, we started missing pasta. So it was time for a change to cook some. I love all sort of pasta and often forget how delicious spaghetti are, in particular when well dressed. So with the garden producing a little more than potatoes, though I must admit we had quite a bit of failures… I harvested more peas, celery, and basil, and decided to prepare some pesto with a touch of celery and serve it with blanched peas to top my spaghetti. And it was damn good!

Well now the week is not yet over and it’s been a bit crazy with some traveling for the upcoming days, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to post as often as I would like… we’ll see!

Spring greens

My kitchen garden seems to be doing ok! Every week I harvest something, and recently it’s been focused on snap peas and herbs. Two plants of peas actually have been producing a handful of snap peas every week, which is just the perfect amount for us so far, as I used them mixed with other vegetables. The mint and coriander are doing good and I’ve harvesting quite some too for daily use, same with some kind of salads my neighbor gave me (we exchange crops). I like the idea to just walk down in the garden and pick what is needed for preparing a meal. I’ve also checked that potatoes are coming, though I am worried the soil may be too rich… we’ll see… it’s not easy to be a beginner gardener and not to be able to check every day!!! I’ll learn from my mistakes and successes I guess and do better next year!

With all this greens, not only from my kitchen garden but also from the farmers market I was thinking of new recipes and inspired by Giula’s zucchini and saffron pasta recipe (that was super delicious) I prepared a fava beans and greens pasta sauce. The kind that is so delicious that you want more!!! Here’s my recipe.

Fava beans pasta (for two servings)

– 125g of dry penne or macaroni or some similar pasta

– a handful of fresh fave beans shelled

– a handful of fresh snap peas

– a handful of green beans

– a handful of shelled greens peas if you have some (I couldn’t wait and already had eaten up all mine!!)

– 5-10 leaves of fresh mint

– olive oil, salt and pepper

Boil the pasta. When al dente drain and keep.

In the meantime, blanche the fava beans and peel them. Blanche the green beans, the green beans and the snap peas. Puree the fava beans, add olive oil generously, salt and pepper. In a large pan at low heat, heat the fava beans purée and then add the pasta, and the other vegetables, stir well, add the mint washed and chopped. Serve and eat immediately!!

Have a great week!!

Fava beans and wakame

I’m a great great fam of greens such as asparagus, green peas, green beans, snap peas eda mame and fava beans. I could eat them all the time! Unfortunately the season for each is rather short but luckily they follow each other and overlap a bit so from March to August there are always some nice greens to eat!!!

Now is the season for fava beans and green peas and I cook them quite often. A classic Japanese preparation of fava beans in Shojin cuisine is with wakame, and I really like the association of the melting soft bean with the more slimy and crunchy seaweed. In the books normal recipe the fava beans and the wakame are simmered with soya sauce and sake. I chose a lighter version in taste and I prepared them as a sauce for soba noodles and added also some green peas. It’s almost a classic for me since I often cook something similar at that season! Here is my recipe:

Fava bean and wakame soba

– a handful of fava beans

– a handful of green peas

– a bit of wakame (I used new wakame)

– soba noodles

– olive oil and salt (or soya sauce)

Shell the peas and the beans. Peel the beans (I realized recently that it is no need to blanch the beans to peel them, raw they are easy to peel too). Boil water in a small pan to blanch them. Add the wakame cut in small pieces and then drain and reserve. In a large pan boil water for the soba. Cook as instructed. Then rinse in fresh water and drain very well. In a bowl put the soba, pour some olive oil, add salt or soya sauce, then the vegetables. Stir gently and serve.

New wakame

There’s a season for everything and now is the season of new wakame apparently. This dried seaweed that is most often used in miso soup and in salad can be used in a variety of recipes I assumed and so I tried something half French half Japanese for this recipe. It all started with the finding of wild (should I mention) splendid alfonsino (kin me dai 金目鯛) that really attracted me, and some green peas (I’m a big big fan of green peas), that could complement the snap peas and new onion I had already. For the fish I simply grilled it on the skin side in a pan without any thing added, and flipped it when almost done to obtain a crispy outside. For the vegetables, that’s where the new wakame goes, I simply blanched the peas for 2min then drained them and in a pan with a bit of olive oil I grilled the onion and the added the wakame cut with scissors in small bits, and finished with the peas. Wakame, new or not is a dried seaweed, it needs a bit of moisture to return to its normal condition. The oil and the moisture from the onion and the peas is the perfect amount to keep it a little crunchy, too much moisture makes it quite chewy I find. Stir a bit and serve. No need to add salt, it’s already salty from the wakame.

Oh! I forgot! It’s the beginning of golden week in Japan! So happy golden week!!!

Poached eggs and spring vegetables

When I have guests at home for dinner I usually serve fish, and if I cannot find fish that pleases me, I would serve pork or chicken. I love eggs, and cook them often for breakfast or when we are just the two of us, but I often forget that eggs are amazing and that they can actually be quite impressive when perfectly cooked and dressed. The “Cuisine and vins de France” issue for Easter has reminded me that, and I remembered that back then in Paris I was serving our guests some delicious spinaches and sprouts salad with poached eggs. For our guests last night I decided to make poached eggs back on the menu! This time for a spring version. Eggs are great to eat with some carbs, the make a great combo, and when cooked perfectly creamy, with some dry ones: bread, pasta, potatoes, rice… I opted for a mix of Italian faro perlato and black Tuscan rice. And the vegetables, simple: radishes, carrots, snap peas and green peas sautéed in a bit of olive oil.

Poaching eggs is ultra simple and impossible to mess. Simply take the eggs out of the fridge a little ahead of cooking them. Boil some water, add a tablespoon of white vinegar in the water. Break the eggs in the water, one by one. Wait 3-4min and drain. Serve.

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