Cauliflower

How do you like your cauliflower? For me it’s raw, steamed, boiled, grilled, in gratin, in soup, in purée, with olive oil, with butter, with lemon juice, with just a pinch of salt… yes, you’ve got it. We love cauliflower at home, as well as his friends broccoli and romanesco and it is just the pick season for these versatile and easy to cook vegetables in Chiba. So I’ve got some beautiful ones at the farmers market, youpi!!! The question was what will I do with them, how could I cook them? Because I came back from work very late and it was very cold I wanted a very quick solution so I decided to cook (steam and grill) them with spices.

Spicy romanesco and cauliflower:

I wash and cut the romanesco and the cauliflower and put them in a pan and I grilled them at high heat then I add 1mm of water. Add a tsp of curcuma powder, 1tsp of curry powder, 1tsp of cardamom powder, salt and black pepper. Serve and eat while hot!

February 23, 2017

A French basic

One things that is a bit my Proust’s madeleine as we say in French is a cery simple skillet if spinach with cream ir béchamel, poached eggs and bread croutons. A large part if the good memories about are the croutons. For some reason (probably because we have very little bread leftover) I very rarely make fried croutons, but these are so delicious with a cauliflower soup, a pumpkin soup or with spinach. Now I almost bever cook with cream or béchamel but spinach and croutons are always a good combination. I served them with pan grilled flounder and shiitake.

Fried croutons:

– a piece of bread, it doesn’t have to be fresh, but you still need to br sbke to cug it! It can be white, whole or whatever, it’s slways good!

– 2tbs of vegetal oil

Cut the bread in 5mm to 1cm dices. In a frypan hest the oil. Add the bread and turn regurlarly at medium heat, until each side of the bread is golden. Simple and delicious!

February 22, 2017

One-plate lunch from the country

I love to prepare one-plate for lunch, in particular when we have friends visiting. It is easy to prepare and to serveat anytime because the vegetables can be cooked very quickly and the rice, the meat etc… can be kept warm or re-heated very easily. So when the time comes to eat I just need a few minutes to prepare the plates. So simple with some seasonal vegetables grilled and deglazed in soya sauce, a piece of pork filet for the meat eaters, rice, and of course some umeboshi, some pickled Chinese cabbage…

February 19, 2017

Petits sablés- プチサブレ

Nothing simpler and tastier than little homemade sablés to go with fresh strawberries and help you combat a cold and gloomy Saturday! I made three variations: plain, black sesame and macha. It takes only a few minutes to make them a few more to bake them and they make everyone happy!!!

Petits sablés:

– 180g of flour

– 50g of brown caster sugar

– 40-60g of butter depending on the size of the egg

– 1 egg

– 1tsp of matcha powder

– 1tbs of black sesame seeds

In a bowl mix the flour, the sugar, the egg. Add little by little the butter until obtaining a dough that is dense but doesn’t stick. If it sticks too much add a little more flour. Pre-heat the oven to 170deg. Split the dough in 3. In one of the 1/3 add the matcha powder and stir well, in a second 1/3 add the sesame and stir well, in the last 1/3 do nothing. Roll each of the dough until 3-4mm high on cooking paper and cut with the size and shape you like. Bake until it just dtarts to golden (usually about 10min depending on your oven).

February 18, 2017

Back to the kitchen!!!

After a break away from my kitchen and obviously from Tokyo-Paris sisters, I’m pleased to be back and cook for A. and me. I hope you have enjoyed Prunellia’s posts while I was away and the website renewal just before I left (we’re still open to hear what you think!). I’m starting back in the kitchen with a very simple classic leek and Japanese mushrooms quiche. Nothing difficult, a classic I could say, just added a twist of fresh lemon juice with the mushrooms, and thought afterwards that I should have added a lemon zest in the piecrust sablé dough. So I’m going to give you this recipe without having tried it for resl myself but I’m sure it is delicious since the lemon would fit perfectly the sablé dough and the olive oil. I wish you a happy continuation for this week!

Leek and Japanese quiche with a lemon twist:

a recipe for 2 as a single main dish or for 4 as a starter

– 200g of flour of your choice

– 4 eggs

– 3tbs of olive oil

– 1/2 lemon

– salt, pepper

– 3 leeks

– oyster mushrooms, shimeji…

Pie crust: in a bowl mix the flour, 1 egg, the olive olive oil, salt pepper, and the zest of the 1/2 lemon. Knead until smooth, with the olive oil it shouldn’t take long. Roll to the size or your pie dish. It’s nice to have it a bit thick and that the pie dish is a bit high.

Filling: wash and cut the leeks in little half or quarter trunks and set in the dough an homogeneous layer. Beat the 3 eggs with salt, pepper and the juice of the 1/2 lemon. Add on top of the leeks. Wash and cut the mushrooms and set on top. Bake for 25min at 180deg, or until just golden. Serve and eat write away!

Tip: it is never easy to cut leeks cleanly so think of how many pieces you’re going to cut and arrnage them to avoid cuts as much as possible.

February 15, 2017

Some more green & pasta!

When I look at my food pictures these days it’s a lot of green that I see! Most of my recent preparations included leek, canola, spinach, celery, ice plant, sprouts, lettuce… Even though it’s winter we don’t get bored eating only cabbage and potatoes! Luckily Chiba has a mild weather and many different veggies grow all year round. I remember cooking a lot of pink/purple food last year at this time of the year because I could find red cabbages, but this winter I haven’t found any yet. Anyway, green is delicious, and I prepared a kind of dry veggies and pasta soup with 1 leek, 3 branches of celery, and some little spinach. As usual, I start by cooking the leek and celery in a bit of olive oil, then cover with water and pasta for soup, once all the water has disappeared I add the spinach for one or two minutes and serve. I added some freshly gratted parmegiano. An other way to cook and eat pasta!

January 27, 2017

Regressive pasta

There’s been a lot of pasta here these days. That goes together with a busy agenda, a need for energy to combat winter cold weather and because it is just too good!!! After the vegan spinach-tofu pasta, that was quite simple, here is an even more regressive version with spinach and ham, served with Sicilian ring pasta. Delicious on the spot, cold or reheated in a pan, topped with cheese or not, with olive oil or butter. Choose your own version, all is needed is pasta of your choice (I find spinach suits better short pasta), fresh spinach and delicious ham. Cut the ham and the spinach, boil the pasta. In a fry pan greased with olive oil or butter cook the spinach (the water from washing them should be just enough), add the ham, the drained pasta, salt and pepper, stir and serve. Simply perfect when in a rush!

January 26, 2017

Barley risotto style

I love barley but I don’t cook some too often. An other curiosity of what happens in a kitchen! May be it’s because I have the impression it is only good for soup or that it takes too much time too cook. But actually it is not and in risotto style with veggies, or in salad it it really delicious and changes from classic recipes. And in the middle of winter, with winter veggies it is a delicious meal.

Barley risotto style with fresh veggies: 100g of barley, 1 leek, 1/3 cauliflower, 1 hand full of little spinach, olive oil, salt and pepper. In a pan heat the olive oil; cut the leek and add it to the oil, strir at low heat until soft. Add the barley and cover to twice the height with water. Cook under cover 15min at medium heat or until almost all the water is gone. Add salt pepper, the cauliflower washed and cut, the spinach washed and cut. Cook 3min and serve immediately.

January 24, 2017

Sicilian inspired pasta

After browsing my Sicilian cuisine cookbook I had a lot of new inspirations and ideas, and a crave for pasta. I love so much pasta and Italian cuisine that sometimes I wish I could live in Italy or travel there more than once a year! So for the inspiration it was on using pistachios, something I really barely use, may because I prefer them salted and usually they would be used in sweet or dessert recipes. And since I bought a big bundle of fresh celery at the farmers market, I made a very simple vegan spaghetti dish. I boiled spaghetti. In a small pan I hested olive oil, chopped 2-3 tbs of pistachios (I did it with a knife but you can use an electric chopper). Add them to the pan and stir regularly. Chopped 3 celery branches with a bit of the leaves but not too many, add to the pistachios and continue stirring. Drained the pasta, and served, top with the celery-pistachios mix. And have a nice week!

January 23, 2017