What’s up?

Sorry, I’ve been a little down these past days. Nothing bad, just annoyed. After the jetlag which is always pretty bad for me between USA and Japan (at 19:00pm I start to be really badly sleepy without even willing to eat dinner), I started to sleep bad which was mainly due to the terrible weather: several typhoons hit Tokyo in the past 7 days, so I couldn’t do any of my usual workout outdoor and my body was feeling weird being stucked inside with the AC. I hate that. Finally, now it’s getting better and nothing more than a big bowl of brown rice with fresh veggies can help get my body back on tracks! I found some beautiful little beets at Takashimaya Shinjuku, perfect for eating raw, and had some okra from the country, add a bit of katsuobushi, a few sesame seeds and here is the perfect lunch before going out for a walk, enjoying the summer heat!

August 24, 2016

Chocolate cheesecake

For once I tried a new recipe of chocolate cheesecake but I turn it into something mine.

For the base, you need 100g of speculos and 40-50g of salted butter. You crush the biscuit and mix with the melted butter, then put in your mold.

For the chocolate cream, you need:

– one pack of cream cheese

– 3 big spoons of white cheese or yogurt

– 3 big spoons of brown sugar

– 1 big spoon of flour

– 180g of dark chocolate

– 25-30cl of liquid cream

– 1 egg

Put the cream and the chocolate in a pan to melt them. At the same time mix all the other ingredients together. Add the chocolate. Stir well.

Put this mix in the mold on top of the biscuits and then into a hot oven (130) for 30-40 minutes.

Finally keep refrigerated for 4 hours. And add some cocoa on the top before serving.

August 18, 2016

Typhoon night

The season for typhoon has arrived. It marks the beginning of the end of summer when days are still hot and the light turns different. I have the impression that the “real” summer was really short mainly because we were away from Japan. Leaving Japan is always difficult because I love every single season and sub-season, but all are quite short. With the end of summer coming slowly summer vegetables will disappear at the farmers market and we will move on towards mushrooms, kabocha and other autumnal vegetables and fruits. So let’s enjoy the summer a little longer while the typhoon is raging outside with what I call a Japanese ratatouille made of capsicum and eggplants (white and purple) and deglazed in soya sauce, to top a simple bowl of rice. I wish you a happy Thursday!

August 17, 2016

Japanese food addict

When we are in Japan I don’t think about it, I naturally cook Japanese at least once a week sometimes more. When I say Japanese I mean rice (white or brown) and something with dashi and/or miso and/or umeboshi. These tastes have been part of our daily life now almost as much as good olive oil and basil. And when traveling I miss them, after a short while and the excitement of tasting new thing. They are simple, plain and fine at the same time, they are the promise also of fresh and simply delicious ingredients (for me) just as olive oil is too. Yet it is easier to find good olive oil and cook with olive oil (and with cooking with our friends and eating at their place several times I was really lucky!) than it is with miso, dashi, umeboshi and rice. I mean real delicious ones are still hard to find. So during this two-week trip I’ve craved for the simplicity of a bowl of Koshihikari with umeboshi, and that’s the first thing I cooked when I arrived home. I also prepared some dashi to cook some eggplants and used it for flavoring scrambled eggs. It is that simple and delicious. Is that the taste of home in Japan? Or does that make a Japanese food addict? What do you crave for when away from home?

August 16, 2016

Back to the kitchen

The perk of jetlag is to be hungry all the time and to wake up early in the morning giving plenty of time to see the sun rise and prepare breakfast!!! And if Canada is known as the mapple syrup country, it’s definitely not somethings they serve often or basically never. So I was craving for mapple syrup on pancakes, and finally prepared crumpets to have an even thicker pancake to soak with mapple syrup. It’s really easy to prepare and so delicious. I served them with fresh nashi since now it’s the best season. Have a nice week, mine is busy with work and Saturday the cooking contest finale!

August 15, 2016

Getting ready!

On August 20th I will cook for the final of a cooking contest. It’s my first cooking contest and I have clue how it works. For me cooking is quite an intimate experience, I usually cook alone and enjoy it very much, so cooking in front of people is going to be a fun challenge!!! For the contest I needed to write down the recipe of the dish I will cook and more difficult the quantities required. Since I cook by feeling, on the spot, with the ingredients I have I don’t keep track of what I put in exactly, hence I started this cooking diary to keep track of my ideas, but not the recipe in detail as you may have noticed. So I wrote down some numbers in my recipe but I needed to check if they were actually ok. For example with 100g of buckwheat flour and a bit of rice flour can I roll a dough big enough for a 20cm pie dish etc… I guess I could, but I needed to be sure before the contest. And since tomorrow I leaving Japan for more than 2 weeks (going to the US and Canada) and I won’t have much time when I come back, I finally did it last night. And everything seems to work well!!! I didn’t put to much effirt on the shape, but the taste was amazing!!! I have a winner I’m sure, hope to convince!!!!

July 28, 2016

Coconut milk and spices scones

Once the coconut can is opened, better use it! It’s really rare I use canned food but for coconut milk it is really nice (and for chick peas). The milk is really rich and creamy. So after I used a few for the curry I’ve been cooking with it a little bit. And first thing I dud was to prepare some scones for breakfast. I replaced the milk in the recipe with coconut milk. I added vanilla, cardamom seeds and some fresh gratted ginger. Baked and serve with some kind of homemade kaya: coconut milk cooked with sugar until creamy. It was delicious but it seems that the coconut milk loses a lot of taste when baked., so the spices gave most of the flavor to yhe scones.

July 24, 2016

Vegan coconut milk curry

Yes I know, the picture is not the most pleasant, but really taking pictures of risotto and curry is not an easy task! But both are super delicious! Since yesterday I had this recipe in mind and just tried it: perfect for our palates that don’t like spicy-hot food. It starts with simple brown rice, cooked as you like. Then I used 1 yellow zucchini, a handfull of shelled cooked edamame, fresh coriander plenty, a small bulb of fresh ginger, 4tbs of coconut milk, 1tsp of curry powder, salt, a bit of oil. In a pan I heat the oil and add the zucchini cut in chuncks (suze and shape you like), cook at high heat, when it starts to golden on one size I stir and reduce the heat. Add the coconut milk, the ginger gratted, the salt and the curry powder. Stir well, add the edamame. If the mixture is getting to liquid (water in the zucchini) add a table spoon of flour or starch and cook a little longer while stirring. Remove from heat and add the fresh coriander chopped, serve with the rice. Have a nice weekend!

July 23, 2016

Summer?

The last days have been so chilly and rainy that it looks like the end of summer already, but not in Tokyo in Paris… And it calls for some nice warm dinner. I found some beautiful pieces of Spanish mackerel and I simply grilled them skin side without any additional and finished with 1min clean side for a golden touch. So simple and delicious. I served the fish with an edamame mashed potato. I boiled fresh edamame and one large potato. With a fork I mashed the potato adding a little of olive oil , add some peeled edamame in and stir before serving. Extra decoration with a few more edamame. Where is the summer? I want it back!

July 22, 2016