Tag: home-cooking

Cauliflower risotto

Though I love risotto and I cook some often, I don’t post recipes as often as I would like just because I really fond it hard to photograph. I already mentioned that before, I’ve tried several techniques but I am not often satisfied with the results. In particular because I cook chiefly for dinner and don’t use professional equipment, lighting is hell. Plating is not always easy too. Anyway, I managed to get my hands on a lovely little cauliflower, probably the last for this year, and with chilly evenings a warm dish was much needed. I prepare a simple risotto with nothing extra. I roasted the cauliflower cut in little bouquets in olive oil, the added the rice, some vegetables bouillon and cook without cover until the bouillon was all gone. And serve with grinded pepper. Nothing more.

Vegan donburi

When we have friends from Europe visiting I cook a lot more Japanese and every time we realize how much it is delicious, so for the two of us I’ve been cooking Japanese more often, in particular a lot of rice and donburi. This one is a very simple recipe that takes only a few minutes to prepare, and can be ready as soon as the rice is ready. I used half brown rice half white rice but all brown, all white can work as well of course. I just sliced a piece   of lotus root and cut in big chunks a large ripe tomato, cook them in a pan with a tea spoon of oil. I top the rice with the mixture and for the fresh taste I added a myoga chopped thinely. The sweet and melty tomato goes perfectly fine with the crisp lotus, and the myoga adds a perfect touch.

Greens part 2

Cold  version of the greens with raw zucchini, almost raw asparagus and snap peas, little radish, avocado and purple cabbage sprouts, a bit of Sicilian olive oil, and additional on the side grilled bonito. Fresh and delicious recipe perfect both for lunch or dinner.

Greens part 1

The farmers market was full of greens, of all sorts, leafy, flowery, sprouty… And we couldn’t resist… So now the fridge is full of fresh greens to be eaten, and it’s good because I working next Saturday and won’t be able to refill, plus we have guests for dinner Friday evening. 

I particularly was happy with the asparagus and the little zucchini, all so fresh that they don’t need to be cooked or barely. That with some spring brocoli, lotus roots and snap peas, I have the perfect balance to accompany a nice Isumi pork cutlet. The veggies are blanched in very little water then slightly rolled on olive oil. The pork just pan grilled.

Bamboo shoot in red miso soup

Spring means greens, but also fresh bamboo shoots. Fresh bamboo is so delicious that I never miss the season and always prepare some. This year I have several ideas of recipe I wanted to try with bamboo shoots, so there might be a dew posts using bamboo shoots. The first one is a red miso soup with simply boiled bamboo shoot sliced and mitsuba. For the dashi I used only katsuobushi. It’s a very simple delicious dish that accomadtes perfectly rice and grilled chicken or grilled fish. 

Vegan patties and cumin baby spinach

I got a nice bunch of fresh baby spinach at the farmers market and wasn’t sure about what to do about it. A salad of course, but lately evenings have been chilly and I wanted to eat something warm. Yet not completly ruined them: like in a tart or in an omelet. So I just washed them and steam them for a few minutes, add some cumin piwder and cumin seeds, that’s it!  I served it with some ripe and sweet tomatoes diced and some grilled cereals patties. Here I use a vegan burger mix. I usually don’t use these kind of products and I should work on my own mix but really this vegan burger mix, slightly spicy is really good, I just don’t look at what are the ingredients inside for once!!

I didn’t use any seasoning with the tomatoes because they are ripe, juicy and swwet, just on the side a bit of curcuma powder and salt and pepper.

Vegan pizza

Rucola instaneously makes feel like eating a pizza, so I prepared a dough and a vegan pizza with just one fresh new onion, 3 fresh tomatoes and plenty of fresh little rucola. A slightly different version of last year vegan, the new onions bringing some creamy texture, perfect with the crisp of the fough. (http://www.tokyoparissisters.com/4hands/2015/4/27/yudgf7c5merf96p9hv0l2f4ajirwid), nonetheless delicious.

Isumi pork 🐷 → Isumi ham

The city of Isumi has a special pork meat called Isumi pork (いすみ豚), what is special about it I can’t really say now but it is for sure delicious, very tender and juicy. But since they grow pork in the area, we were thinking it’s really a pity they don’t make ham (it’s really hard to find good ham in Japan in particular in supermarket in Ohara), until our friend S. visited us yesterday and arrived with some fresh ham, from Isumi!!! Super nice ham!!! So we decided to go and check out the place where to get some, a small meat shop near the railway and Ohara station. They have smoked ham and pepper ham. We tried both and both are amazing! Apparently the pork farm is apparently in Otaki. We will probably go and check what they have soon. In the mean time, we are really happy to have found some really nice ham and had some for breakfast with eggs and buckwheat crepes!!

Saturday in the country

Back to our country house after two weeks, back to our cats and our garden and my kitchen!!! This morning I boiled some lentil to accomodate with whatever I would find at the market. And it was ice-plant and brocoli sprouts for a big salad, together with fresh snapper just grilled and a bit of greens. Perfect lunch after our tennis game and for friends visiting from Tokyo. 

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