I need to go outside of my comfort zone in the cuisine… but I don’t know how…
Making ravioli, pancakes, scones, quiches, breads etc… has become such a routine and is so effortless that I miss the challenge. Because, yes indeed, I am a challenger. Whether it’s at work, on the court, in the ocean, or in front of my sewing machine I like challenges. That’s how I ended up registering to a bodyboard school last year and I still enjoy learning to ride waves better and to spin on my board! That’s why I enjoy sewing (and here the challenge is massive!!!) . But recently cooking has been more functional than challenging. Even the steam buns, the bread in a pan etc… are now basically classics and I rush them between two meetings!!
Since my main source of inspiration : experience and local sourcing during our trips has dried up in the past 18months, I have decided to use my imagination and my recollections of some our trips. First stop: Firenze of course! I remembered these gigantic sandwiches they would sell in something resembling focaccia (scaccia in Florence) and I never tried because it is just too gigantic and there was too much fat left on the ham (I have always hated meat fat) and since I just bought some prosciutto it was the perfect timing. So I baked a plain focaccia, and decided that we would have a savory breakfast.
Trying a new type of breakfast: focaccia, prosciutto and fresh tomatoes and peach…
And then because I made a rather giant focaccia we went for it again for lunch, this time in a real panino version with grilled vegetables. (Top picture)…
It wasn’t much but it was a change. Not yet far away from the comfort zone, but new enough!!!
In Japan okara is a very easy to find and very cheap product. Indeed, as it is a by-product of soya milk and tofu, there’s quite a lot of it. Up-cycling it in your cooking is also very easy. Apparently it has a good nutritional balance, but what I like with it is the little something different it brings. Added to an omelette for example it makes it extra fluffy and slightly pancake like. In a batter it adds some texture and firmness. Okara flavor is usually very mild and it is really the texture it adds that is interesting .
Okara: soya pulp after pressing to make tofu or milk
Okara is used in traditional recipes such as u no hana, or often in croquettes. I had times when I bought some often, but it was months if not years I didn’t. Probably because I liked one specific brand that was sold near the university but the shop selling it has closed and Has been replaced by another one that don’t have it. So when we went grocery shopping the other day at the local store and with the tofu there was fresh okara from the tofu maker I jumped on the occasion. I made some of the usual recipes aforementioned, but I really wanted to test okara in sweet preparations. I opted for chocolate muffins. I simply added okara instead of part of the flour. Added chocolate chips for the tiny ones and made a melty chocolate heat for the larger ones. And bet what…??? A. just loved them!!! And so did I!!!
On a rainy Sunday like today we met with what would be our little hideaway and resting place. (More about how we ended up here here)
Hydrangeas in our garden
The few things that I found charming as soon as we arrived was the hydrangeas, in full bloom under the rain, with their vibrant gradation of blues and purples. The abundant plum trees covered with fruits, and the lush green of the Japanese maple trees, the gingko, the pine and the azaleas. Everything that makes a Japanese garden, Japanese. I obviously didn’t see many thing that were also there: the loquat tree, the strawberry tree… After 8 years I now know pretty much all, even if I am uncertain about the 3 or 4 different types of plums we have, and every year I harvest more fruits than we can process! In particular the plums and the strawberry tree fruits. So I give away a lot. This year 15kg of plums went to my secretaries at the university!!! And used 5kg for syrup and 3kg for umeboshi. The rest is for the birds, the worms and the ants ;).
June garden harvest: plum, loquat, potato, strawberry tree fruits
After years of struggle making umeboshi and failing, I realized umeboshi are not so difficult to make if you have the proper instruments. I use to make them with whatever I had, before investing in a proper pickle box, that is wide enough and has a lid with a spring where you can apply sufficient pressure and get rid of the heavy stone, the overflowing ume juice and the failure… largely due also to the fact that I cannot check them every day. So if you plan to make umeboshi I highly recommend you invest in the proper recipient. I use a pickle box called Picre.
Umeboshi
2kg of Japanese plums (yellowish rather than greenish)
360g of salt
If your plums are really hard or toi greenish, dip them in water a few hours before starting.
Wash them and pat them dry carefully. Remove the stems.
Sterilize your recipient. It should be 3-4 times the volume of your plums to avoid overflowing accidents. Set half of the salt in and create an even layer. Organize the plums on the layer in order to remove space between the fruits as much as possible. Sprinkle a bit of salt. Create a new layer on top remove space as much as possible between all fruits. Sprinkle salt and repeat until all plums are well organized in a compact manner. Sprinkle the remaining salt on top.
Sterilize the lid and set on top to gently squeeze the plums. Set a heavy weight or pressure on top. After a few days the liquid from the plum will start to be released and a brine will be created. This is umezu. A precious liquid to use for pickling, energy drinks etc… after a week, the liquid should be about the height of the plums. It will continue rising and can be 2-3 times the height of your original plums height hence why choosing a recipient big enough.
Leave that way until the end of July. And see you then for the next step!!!
Plum work: after overnight in the water, day 0, day 7
Ravioli… oh! It’s been really a while I didn’t make ravioli… it was high time to fix that… but with all we got from the local shops I wasn’t sure about what use for s filling: korinki and cream cheese, asparagus, eggplant, or flounder… after a certain thinking I had in mind flounder in a sort of bouillon and served with rouille… I was thinking of my own special way of making bouillabaisse… but then something came up at work, upset me and I was working instead of cooking… the dough was ready, the flounder grilled, but neither the bouillon nor rouille were to be done anytime soon… and the clock was ticking and A. was hungry… and past 21:00 I had to go back to the kitchen. Except that now it was too late for a fancy dish… So I ran in the kitchen garden, chopped some fresh parsley, add it to the fish and decided that would be it. Rolled the ravioli dough, filled them in tiny size, and while I was poaching them I felt it was missing something, so I added some asparagus, a fragrant olive oil and that was it.
And you know what: flounder x parsley was a killer filling and I will do again!!! A creamy sauce could have worked fine as well I reckon…
I call summer vegetables the ones I have grown up with: tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, melons… while here they are for most of them early summer vegetables as they are not endemic. For instance the zucchini season is at its peak now and will end very soon normally. Except that this year the rainy season is rather dry so may be we will have zucchini for longer… that would be good!!! Maybe I won’t have to struggle finding zucchini in the middle of summer to make a good pesto soup!!!
Anyway, at the moment I enjoy cooking them in various ways as long as I can find them. I cook them with my “traditional” or classic recipes but I am also investigating new ways of cooking them. I found that zucchini and green beans go very well together and I came up with a few new nice recipes, super simple and easy to make as I am quite busy these days with several projects on the run… Let me share two recipes here today: a simple savory tart and a vegetable curry-rice. I hope you’ll like them!
Savory tart
For the pie crust: 150g of flour, a pinch of salt, 3tbs of olive oil, water
2-3 zucchini depending of the size
A handful of green beans
150g of ricotta or cottage cheese
Fresh basil
Prepare the dough as usual, and roll it for your pie dish.
Wash the vegetables. Slice thinly the zucchini (with a mandolin if you have one) and set on the dough. Cut the green beans to 2-3cm long pieces and add on top. Crumble the ricotta or the cottage cheese, chop the basil and sprinkle on top. Bake 40min at 180deg or until golden. Enjoy hot or cold.
Veggie curry-rice
1 large zucchini or 3 small (better)
1 large ripe tomato
1/2 onion
10 green beans
Japanese white rice cooked
1tsp of curry powder
1/2tsp of cumin powder
A pinch of salt
Wash the vegetables. Cut them in bite size. In a pan greased with a bit of oil add the vegetables. Cook for 5 min at high heat then lower to medium. Add the spices. Cook another 5-10 min until you obtain the level of moisture you want. Personally I like rather soupy so that the rice can suck it in. Serve with the Japanese white rice and enjoy while hot. (Top picture)
If you have ever eaten curry-rice in a restaurant you surely have eaten the little white pickle served with it and then you have eaten pickled rakkyō 薤. A little vegetable that looks like a shallot a bit and is often called Chinese onion. I love the crisp and fresh taste it has and it’s hard to stop eating! A little like French cornichon, but less sour and salty!!!
The season for fresh rakkyō harvest is right now and it is fairly easy to find in coop and farmers markets. Pickling them is rather simple though washing and pealing is a bit tedious and you have recipe several options.
The easiest one is to use a prepared ready to use “rakkyō su” which is a mix of vinegar, sugar, dashi that is chiefly used for pickling rakkyō but can also be used for other preparations such as curry onion pickles. Though I am not necessarily a fan of ready to use products, they are a good way to start when you are unsure of the result and what you do and want to maximize success.
Other methods are to prepare your own brine for pickling the rakkyō. One recipe I have in an old Japanese cookbook is quite lengthy and probably the most genuine one, yet I couldn’t find a similar one anywhere, so I tempted to share it with you. My rakkyō are still in their first week of picking so I don’t yet the result… we’ll see!!!
So first the recipe for a quick sure outcome, and then the lengthy one. Choose the one you prefer!
Easy-peasy pickled rakkyō
1kg of fresh rakkyō
1 bottle of rakkyō su らっきょ酢
Start by washing the rakkyō and removing the first layer of skin to obtain a smooth and shiny surface. Remove the hard base and top too. Bring a large pan filled with water to a boil and throw the rakkyō in for one minute. Drain and pat dry the rakkyō.
In a sterilized bin put the dry rakkyō and cover with the rakkyō su. Close the bin with a lid. Leave to rest for 14 days. Shake the bin 2 times per day on the first 3 days. After 14 days enjoy!
Classic recipe of pickled rakkyō
Brine for pickling (used 14 days later)
2 cups of rice vinegar or other white mild vinegar
300g of sugar
1 cup of white umezu (brine of the umeboshi unflavored with shiso), can be replaced by 1 cup of vinegar + 1tsp of salt
1/2 cup of mirin or konbu dashi
5 dried red pepper (optional)
Pickling step 1
1kg of fresh rakkyō
30g of salt
4tbs of vinegar
1l of water
Start by washing the rakkyō and removing the first layer of skin to obtain a smooth and shiny surface. Remove the base and top too.
In a pan, set the water, salt and vinegar and the prepared rakkyō. Bring to a boil and stop right away. Drain and pat dry and put in a bin or a pickle-pot. Cover with the brine you made or of commercial brine. If you can set a heavy lid, otherwise everyday shake the bin. Wait for two weeks.
Pickling step 2
After two weeks drain the rakkyō and set them in salted water for 3-4h. Renew 2-3 time the water. Then set to dry in the air for half a day. Ideally in the sun, but any well ventilated place will do.
Finally prepare the brine by mixing all the brine ingredients together (but the red pepper) and bring to a boil. In a sterilized bin put the rakkyō and cover with the brine. Add the red pepper if you plan to use some.
Now it’s ready. Rakkyō in brine should keep a year or so., so enjoy!
The end of May in Ohara is a beautiful season. The greens on the hills change from fresh greens to rich ones and the paddies from the typical yellow green if very young rice plants to a beautiful shamrock green. It is also the beginning of the rainy season, of hydrangeas blooming and warmer days. At bight it is possible for a few weeks to see fireflies.
Japanese have something for fireflies 蛍 hotaru. I didn’t recall seeing fireflies often as a child, a rare few times in Lozere, but not much. And since we moved to Japan and went to see fireflies at Chizanso in Tokyo with our friend I. who always had the best info about things to do, I kind of understand the sweet magic and the kind of nostalgia they bring. Seeing fireflies at Chizanso was great, but it is an orchestrated event when they release fireflies in the garden. While the magic is there, the artificiality of it is hard to neglect. It’s like seeing lions in a zoo…
In Ohara we are blessed with rather clean streams of water and great nature (I can’t say it is everywhere when I see the palettes of glyphosate at the garden center…) and we can see fireflies in their ecosystem. We first saw some in our garden one Sunday night, and since then every year we go for a walk when the season comes. And for sure with a bit of patience and the habituation to darkness you can spot a little green light blinking. If we want to be lazy, we walk to the nearest stream in the paddies, and there we can see plenty.
A firefly in our garden
The fireflies season is the perfect transition between the end of spring and the beginning of the summer. It brings many greens in the plate broad beans and zucchini. Tomatoes from the green house that are ripe, sweet and juicy. It inspired me for the recipe of the simple plate on the top picture: soba, fava beans and zucchini in soya sauce and a peeled tomato, also with soya sauce. I love when the juice of the tomato mix in the soya sauce, eaten together with the cold soba it is divine.
Just as I was talking very proudly of my sourdough in my last post, it has decided to scare me like crazy by almost dying…
Indeed, I used it over the weekend to make some delicious giant campagne bread, and I found it Monday morning inert and unresponsive. Probably the lack of food and warmer temperatures it’s not been used to but the diagnosis is still unclear. It was smelling perfectly fine and I feed it as I should except that bubbles didn’t come out and texture was rather unusual. So I started to worry and panic. I devised a rescue plan of the rather large amount of sourdough starter I had. First, I split it in two, one in a dough the rest in intensive care: food every 1.5 hours for 12 hours, lots of love and mixing.
It was breaking my heart to imagine I’ve let it die, but after 9h of intensive care, the starter showed a few bubbles… it was going to be ok!
The dough… well it stayed doing nothing for 12h and then after 24h it finally was doing something. Except that in the meantime we left the country and were back to Tokyo, where I still don’t have an oven. So there were a few options: flat breads in a pan, bread in a skillet, or steamed bread. I opted for the latter and was planning to make stuffed steamed breads, except that work was too busy and I didn’t have time to prepare the filling. So I simply prepared 8 balls of dough, and after work I steamed them to obtain round little breads that we enjoyed with a mix of peas, asparagus, chopped pork filet and onions from the garden and soya sauce, that would have been the perfect seasonal filling, but it ended up outside as a side. When cooking while working one needs to be flexible…
The filling that ended up a side…
So not only did I rescued my sourdough, but we had delicious little buns to eat!!!
When I started making bread I was so unsure of the results that I was making bread for a single breakfast, basically with 160-180g of flour. After I became more confident I increased slightly and went to double, but baking with yeast, the bread had a hard time keeping fresh in the Japanese weather: too dry in winter and too humid almost all the rest of the time. So my basic flour amount stayed around 300g for a loaf most of the time, unless we had guests and the bread would go in no time. But I felt it was such a waste of time and energy. Kneading 300g or 500g of flour is not much different, and heating the oven once is so much more energy efficient.
Since I’ve baked with my sourdough Lois, as I was experimenting I went down to smaller loafs again for a bit, and increasing their size little by little, I also got rid of the scale. I do everything using my feeling, learning to understand how the dough is rather than trusting the scale always. Indeed, I feed my sourdough also without a scale, more than often I keep rather hard but when I want to wash its home I then liquify it to move it before making it hard again when moving in again. And with the weather changing really quickly, the scale was no good to tell me how much hydrated should be the dough, but my hands are rather good. It also helps when working with different kind of flours, like I do.
What I am targeting is a large loaf that can make 3 breakfasts and eventually a few extra slices for tea-time, for this I use the equivalent of 500g or slightly more of flour, which happens to be perfect to use a large part of my sourdough before it becomes too voluminous!!!
My all-time favorite is definitely campagne bread using about 20% of whole wheat flour or of buckwheat flour. The others that I love baking are the boxed whole wheat bread with nuts, seeds and dry fruits, I love the shape of its slices and the patterns the fruits etc… create in it. or the naturally very sweet whole wheat and chestnut flour bread. While chestnut flour contains no gluten you obtain a denser crumb but all the same delicious.
