I haven’t posted any bread recipe recently but that doesn’t mean I haven’t baked any! I have baked a lit of fougasses this summer for our visiting friends. Of course for breakfast I have cooked more pancakes than ever, but bread is still one of my favorite. All warm, just out of the oven, the smells that mixes with A. freshly ground coffee is that of perfect Sunday mornings. After almost 3 years of making bread regularly now I rarely use my recipe book anymore, unless I am doing something fancy, and I just mix my various flours and seeds… in different combinations that all end up being perfectly delicious. Recently I bought a lot of organic whole wheat flour and some local spelt, buckwheat… flours so I’m enjoying making some mixes, to obtain a rich dark bread that suits very well jam, honey, butter, cheese and ham. Adding seeds: flax, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame; nuts or bran: oat or wheat add a lot of texture to the bread and is also very nice. This time I made a very simple 80% whole wheat-20% spelt and it was really delicious. For the rest of the recipe details please check that post, or look for “bread” in the search tool. You can also click on “bread” in the list of tags just below.
Butternut squash…
Since last autumn there has been a lot of butternut squash on the shelves at the farmers market, really a lot! I love to cook it because the taste is more subtle than that of kabocha. So since we came back from the summer holidays I have cooked plenty: in lasagna, in cold soup, in risotto, there is also ravioli… Since the summer seems to be completely finished: no very hot days anymore and the nights are almost chilly, it is a perfect ingredient to make the transition to autumn cooking. Last night I prepared it in a new variation. Instead of steaming it I cut it and cooked it in a bit of butter in frypan with fresh sage from the garden. I used it to accomodate some simple tagliatelle. Of course you can replace butter by olive oil, but sometimes it feels like cooking with butter. Add some fresh sage of top and some black pepper.
I wish you a happy September and a great week!
Tofu cheese cake
About 10 years ago, my parents came to spend some time with us and my mother absolutely wanted to cook some Japanese dessert. I didn’t have much Japanese cooking books that were not in Japanese, so the best I could offer was this book I already introduced some time ago.
There are very few recipes of desserts but one that pleased everyone: tofu cheese cake. Of course we didn’t really follow the recipe, and add different flavoring. But the basic recipe was simple and the result never disappointing. Last night I was looking for a dessert recipe, and when I saw some tofu in the fridge, I remembered that recipe and decided to try it again. And this time was not different. A simple tasty and healthy dessert!!!
Tofu cheese cake (for 4-6 people)
– one block of tofu drained, recipe said momendofu (hard), but I used kinudofu (silky tofu)
– 5tbs of flour or cornstarch
– 3 eggs
– 6tbs of sugar
– flavoring: vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest or macha or spices of your choice (I tried with cardamom)
Preheat the oven to 180deg. In a bowl, mix the tofu with the flour, the egg yolks, and 3tbs of sugar, the flavoring. In an other bowl beat the whites until stiff and the sugar and continue beating until silky. Add this mix to the previous one delicately.
Line a pie dish or an oven dish with cooking paper, and then pour the preparation in. Cook in the oven about 30min or until golden.
Butternut squash lasagna
With a tight schedule: in Nagoya yesterday, a rehearsal for the show next Tuesday where our robot appears, a few lectures and talks to prepare and the preparation for moving in less than a month, days are pretty short! But I am always happy to prepare a dinner for friends and never cancel an invitation! And with a bit of planning and organization and waking up 30min earlier to have the time to prepare the vegetables and start cooking nothing is impossible. Of course for week days dinner I usually cook simpler recipes, and to celebrate A. new job and our new life I prepared an Italian inspired dinner. In that case, lasagna are a very good option (though they are hard to plate!!!). This time, I had a beautiful butternut squash and used it as the base. I only added a bit of chicken breast and rosemary and topped with gratted mozzarella. Everybody loved it!!!
Butternut squash lasagna
– 1 butternut squash
– 2 skinned chicken breast
– 1 or 2 branches of fresh or dried rosemary
– lasagna pasta ( homemade, fresh or dry)
– some cream
– some olive oil
– salt and pepper
– mozzarella to grat
First cut the butternut squash and steam it with the rosemary. Once it has cooled down, peel it and remove the seeds. In a pan greased with olive oil cook the chicken breast until golden. In a blender mix the chicken and the butternut squash, add a few leaves of rosemary, and a little of cream. It must not be liquid but rather a purée. If you use dry lasagna pasta poached them. In a large oven dish greased with olive oil lay a layer of pasta, cover with a layer of the chicken-butternut mix, add a bit of cream, add a layer of pasta, then of mix then a bit of cream… up to where you want. Finish with a layer of pasta, and cover with gratted mozzarella. Bake in the oven at 150 deg until the mozzarella is golden!
Enjoy!
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!
Green beans salad
For very hot and humid days like it was today, I like to prepare extremely simple, fresh meals with mainly vegetables. A green beans salad is a classic for me, but instead of preparing it with potatoes like I would usually do I prepared it with hard boiled eggs and fresh ginger and myoga thinely chopped. It gives a very interesting twist to the whole recipe. I guess adding potatoes is still possible.
Cold soup
How is your summer? In Tokyo these days summer looks like the rainy season… and it’s even not too hot! Which is perfect for this first week back to work, except that I was expecting having dinner on the terrace (maybe for the last season since we might move to a new place without a terrace) with our guests but rain didn’t stop for the last week more than just a few minutes. Anyway, this doesn’t affect much my cooking! And after eating out in so many cafes I really enjoyed having a little soup to start with and a cold one for the summer. So for our guests last night (one allergic to lactose) I prepared a potato-leek soup. You know this all-time classic that is so warming in winter… but in a cold version. The only problem with cold soup os that you need to prepare them at least 6h before eating so that they really are really cold when eating.
Vegan cold leek-potato soup: (4 servings)
– 1 leek
– 2-5 potatoes depending on the size
– olive oil, salt, pepper
Wash and chop the leek. In a pan, heat some olive oil and add the leek. Peel the potatoes and cut them. Add to the pan and cook at medium heat until slightly golden, stir every once in a while. Cover with 1L of water and cook until the potatoes are really soft. Blend to obtain a creamy soup (add first the vegetables and then the water little by little in the blender to be sure to have the right consistency. It must slightly more liquid than desired since the cooling will densify the mixture). Add olive oil, salt, pepper. Cool in the fridge for a few hours. Stir the mix before serving to make it homogeneous. Enjoy!
Kumquat-shiitake-pork pasta
A new video testing with the preparation of a a singular recipe: pasta with a sauce made with shiitake, kumquats and thin slices of pork. A very nice and surprising combination that puts a bit of warmth and colors in a gloomy rainy day. Tell me how you like the video or what you would like to see. I’m testing several options.
Ricotta-basil-prosciutto ravioli
I can’t help making ravioli. And even more when I have fresh ricotta. But because A. doesn’t like cheese too much I added prosciutto to the basic ricotta-basil filling. And I prepared a tomato-basil-prosciutto sauce to go with it. It was a very simple dinner to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary enjoyed in our country house after a very intense week.
For the ravioli pasta, same recipe as usual (100g of flour, 1egg, a bit of salt and olive oil), for the filling I used a pack of fresh ricotta, 3 branches of fresh basil, a few slices of prosciutto. In a bowl mix the ricotta, the basil washed and cut, salt and pepper. After making the pasta and setting one layer in the ravioli shapes, I put a few pieces of prosciutto in each ravioli then cover with the ricotta mix. Add the second layer of pasta and finish the ravioli. Boil in a large amount of water. Fresh pasta takes only a few minutes to be ready, once they float remove and drain. Serve immediately.
For the sauce I used 2 tomatoes, 2 branches of fresh basil, a few slices of prosciutto. Wash and cut the tomatoes and the basil. In a heated frypan or a pan, add some olive oil, the tomatoes, salt and pepper, stir until most of the juice is gone. Then the basil. In the very last minute of cooking add the prosciutto, you don’t want to cook to much. Use to top the ravioli.
