An other dinner at home

What to cook for your friends visiting Japan when you are back from work past 21:00 and everyone is starving? A soba salad with spring veggies of course!!! Spring veggies: asparagus, snap peas, green peas, are very easy to prepare and require very little cooking, just blanching them for 2min. Soba are also quick to cook, so in 15min I can have a dinner plate ready for 4 people. To the spring veggies I’ve added some cucumbers and a bit of brocoli sprout, as for the dressing, I mixed a bit of soy sauce with vegetal oil and just add a bit to prevent the soba for getting too sticky. You can also top the plate with some Japanese salmon, shredded nori…

April 7, 2016

Improvised dinner for friends

Our friends visiting from Germany spent the weekend with us in Tokyo with daytime busy visiting the city, museums, flea markets, and kabuki, trying some nice cafes too, and evening at home, I’ve cooked for them Japanese as much as possible but not only, in particular for an improvised late dinner at home after a long day out and a fridge almost empty. So I opted for a potatoes and baby spinach salad with tofu and poached egg and topped with sunflower seds and flax seeds. Simple, ready in 10min and delicious!!

April 4, 2016

Asparagus risotto

Yes! Spring is here for sure and aspargus start to be seen on the market stands. Nothing simpler and more classic then an asparagus risotto, and still so delicious, I never miss to make one. I used a new onion for the base, for sweetness and melty texture, that I chopped roughly and slightly cook in olive oil. Then I added the rice, and rolled it in the oil until almost golden. Finally added water or vegetables bouillon if you have one. Once almost all the water has been absorbed by the rice, I added the asparagus chopped. And cooked until bright and shiny green to keep then perfectly crunchy. Served right away.

April 1, 2016

Baking!

We have friends from Germany visiting us and they’ve bring some nice cheese, so I’ve baked quite a lot and bigger breads than usual. This one is a big loaf of half campagne with poppy and flax seeds, perfect for breakfast with cheese.

March 28, 2016

Choux

Instead of the traditional strawberry tart for A.’s birthday, I decided to make choux. It’s not something I’m very found of because ot often goes with cream or filling Idon’t like too much, but A. likes them very much. It’s actually very simple to make and with just an ice-sugar frosting it’s really delicious. It was my first time making some so they were a bit too big to my taste but taste-wise it was perfect! Recipe soon to come!

March 27, 2016

Tex-Mex quiche

I know that sounds a bit odd but the recipe of this quiche uses influences from western tex-mex cuisine. I first used corn flour for the dough, mixed with half white flour. Then for the base I used 3 eggs and a block of firm tofu, 1 capiscum (paprika) diced and 1 tomato; and some texmex mix of spices. I prepare a sable dough, roll it to 1mm and prepare a pie dish. In a bowl I mix the tofu (drained of course) the eggs and the spices, add the diced capiscum and set in the dough, slice the tomato and add on top. Bake 40min at 160deg.

March 26, 2016

Tribute to our grand mother’s mironton

Our grand mother was doing magic with left overs of meat, in particular porc filet. It would be used in the filling for stuffed vegetables, in cannelloni, or hachis parmentier for exemple. But she would also use them for “mironton”. Her mironton was just simple: onion, potatoes and chuncks of pork meat fried in oil and butter. It was definitely something I loved very much!!! Now her version may have been a little too rich for us now, so I kept the idea but slightly changed the recipe, but the main attributes remain. I replaced the onion by some Japanese mushrooms, and used only a little of olive oil. I cut in rough pieces the left over of the filet mignon and the potatoes (with the skin), and then simply cook them in a heated and olive oil greased pan until golden. The key is to cook until it’s almost burned, and then stir and repeat. It should for kind of blocks, golden and crispy, but soft inside. Add a bit of salt and pepper when serving.

March 25, 2016

Cocotte

I always buy pork from Isumi when possible, for it is really tender and soft. My preference: pork belly (豚バラ – butabara) for the taste (but I only eat it when it’s ultra cooked and the fat has melted, and it’s all crispy) and pork filet (ヒレ – hire) because there is no fat and it’s really tasty. With the cold weather lasting a bit too long, I’ve opted for a nice cocotte of veggies with pork filet and pork belly for two meals in one preparation. In my Staub cocotte I first put a little of olive oil, then line the slice of pork belly, then I’ve cut 8 little carrots in halves and added them, 6 big shiitake sliced thickly, a piece of lotus root sliced thinly, one yellow paprika sliced. Plenty of thyme and fresh rosemary, salt pepper and the pirk filet. I cooked under cover for 45min and stirred every 15min. I served only the veggies and the pork belly for lunch, and kept the filet for an other meal. I kept the whole cocotte as such because I wanted to keep the juice for some pasta also (I just boiled some anneli siciliani that I rolled in the juice and keep to serve with the filet).

March 24, 2016

Apple, vanilla and cinnamon cookies

I love to eat freshly baked and still warm bread, pancakes, brioche or whatever for breakfast, but it is unfortunately not possible every morning. So sometimes I bake in the evening so that we have something ready in the morning. And for that tarts, cakes and cookies are the best. I love the classic mix apple-vanilla-cinnamon, so i made some kind of thick cookies with fresh apples on top for our breakfast. The trick is to have them not too sweet for breakfast, so I mixed the flour with oat bran and just a little of sugar and a little of butter, I added one egg and a little of baking powder, plenty of cinnamon powder and vanilla beans. I then roll the dough to 3mm thick and cut the shapes of the cookies. I peeled the apples and cut the shape too a little smaller and topped the cookies with it. Baked them at 170deg for 20min. And added a little of vanilla on top. Simple and perfect anytime of the day actually!

March 23, 2016