Fresh home-made food every day
With chillier days we try to play tennis not in the morning anymore but in the afternoon, so before we go we need a good lunch full of energy. Inspired by the book of macrobiotic recipes, I came up with a nice one-bowl recipe using a base of brown rice, some seasonal sautéed veggies: kabocha, purple sweet potato, turnip in sesame oil, and a piece of Koya-dofu diced in the veggies. I topped the whole with fresh purple mizuna.
Simple, light and full of good energy before our game!
There are days like that… When from morning to evening I have not even a minute break (literally), I swallow my lunch in one bite between two meetings and I finish the day my head spinning with things I still have to do and I may forget… So when finally home we take off to the country I’m still completely hyper!
There’s nothing better then once arrived to ho for a midnight stroll in the garden, pick some fresh basil and prepare for a peaceful (at last) yet late dinner with energizing gnocchi and fresh veggies (tomato, broccoli), basil and a delicious olive oil. Simple but really efficient!
Have a nice week end!
The okonomiyaki is a preparation from the Kansai area. A straightforward translation of the work means “grill what you like”, and it is well rendered with the profusion of recipes and variations. In the Kanto area the equivalent would be Monja-yaki, but what I prefer with okonomiyaki is the consistence of the crepe rather then a kind of weird porridge! Okonomiyaki includes a base of Chinese cabbage (hakusai 白菜), some grinded pork meat, a preparation of flour, water and egg like a crepe, then a toping of mayonnaise and Bulldog sauce, finished with katsuobushi. Any addition of veggies, meat, seafood etc is possible, just as you like it!!!
Mine is the simplest. Chop on small Chinese cabbage or 1/4 of a large one. In a frypan put a little of oil and the cabbage, stir often untill soft; add some grinded pork meat (150g), and continue to stir. In a batter prepare a mix with flour and 2 eggs to obtain a thick dough, add a bit of water to liquefy (it should be slightly more liquid than pancake dough). Add in the fry pan, cover and cook at low heat, then flip and cook again a lityle more. Serve and top with what you like: usually bulldog sauce, mayonnaise, and katsuobushi but I removed the mayonnaise and bulldog sauce topping, just the katsuobushi remained in my version (I reckon that the white mayo and the dark bulldog sauce make a much prettier finish). You can make individual cute okonomiyaki or large one that you cut to serve. Tonight I was a bit running out if time so I went for the second option.
There is one extraordinary strange thing I love with katsuobushi toping on hot food, it’s when it’s moving like if it were alive, though of course it’s just dry flakes!!!
As I told you, I back on baking breads and I am verry happy with the results I am obtaining, so I just don’t follow any tecipe anymore and use my experience from all the bread I baked to create my own recipes, and I have plenty in mind!!! This time it’s more a classic since it is a wholewheat bread with a mix of seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, barley… And this time I did it properly with grilled the seeds and then rehydrate them in water. A simple and delicious bread, easy to use anytime.
It’s been a long time I haven’t made cake or tart. With all the nice pears in the grocery store, I wanted to make one for tea time.
You need a puff pastry, 4-5 nice pears. spread out the pastry, and put the pears cut in small dices.
Mix 3 eggs with 3 spoon of brown sugar, 10cl of cream and 20cl of vanilla soy milk. You can add a drop of vanilla. And add 150g of almond powder. Pour this mix on the pears.
Then 35-40 minutes in hot oven.
You can add a pinch of slender almond on the top before the end of baking.
Wait 1h before eating
I love Italy and Italian food and I’m very excited that we will spend xmas in Sicily and my birthday in Roma!!! So to get ready I working on my classics and some different variations, one I love particularly is gnocchi! So I made pumpkin gnocchi, or rather kabocha gnocchi! And because the skin of kabocha is very soft I kept it, adding a nice greenish color. I also added a potato to make the orange less vivid and more subtle and it gave something really nice, perfect with just a little of olive oil and pepper.
For 2 portions of gnocchi as main dish I used 1/2 kabocha, 2 small potatoes, as little flour as possible, 1 egg (so you’d rather make a huge amount of gnocchi so that the egg don’t moisten to much the preparation). I steamed both potatoes and kabocha, but I recommend to grill the kabocha to avoid also large quantities of moist. Then you just mix sll the ingredients and shape the gnocchi. Finally boil them in salted water, or fry them in a bit of olive oil!
For a rainy morning there is nothing better than a hot sweet bread just out of the oven. It’s been some time since I haven’t baked, but this rainy weekend was just the perfect moment to start again and go with some new originsl recipes. I also bought some new sourdough and natural yeast and I’m really happy with the result.
So for this first bread I wanted something sweet and fruity for breakfast so I used candied orange peels (recipe tomorrow!) and dark chocolate chips. For one bread I used 170g of whole wheat flour, 110g of water, 3g of natural yeast, 8g of dry sordough, 4g of salt, 40g of brown caster sugar, half a cup of candied orange peel and one table spoon of dark chocolate chips. I kneaded well until soft and smooth, then let it prove for 5hours (temperature is not really high in the house now). I then made two long sticks that I rolled together, I wanted to make breeds with it but reslized that 3 sticks wouldn’t be good. Then it prove the rest of the night and I baked it jn the morning, 10min at 230deg, then 20min at 210deg. I like to eat bread right out from the oven, so we had our breakfast right away.
And you know what?! The Parisian sister is back on tracks! Yeah!
Rainy and gloomy Saturday calls for a comforting tart for lunch: 100% buckwheat dough for the base, leek, oyster mushrooms, tofu for the garnish. Simple, tasty and warm, just what we needed!
I discovered corn pasta some time ago and I really like them very much, this taste of polenta, the nice texture, and easy to accomodate with plenty of things. The yellow color also is really pretty. I buy some often, and the easiest to find in Japan are penne.
I served them this time with fresh veggies and added a bit of bacon. I used 3 little leeks, 1/2 kabocha, 1 large tomato, cooked them in olive oil, and served with the boiled pasta for dinner. Simple, quick and perfect when again coming home late.
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.
