Tag: homemade

Japanese spring

Here I am! Back to warm and blossoming Tokyo! What a difference from Canada! Not only it is warm and all the cherry trees are blossoming, people are out to enjoy the weather and the flowers, there is this very special euphoria in March in Japan. The season for graduation, for endings and soon new departures. And we are no exception to that. April is going to be busy, full of novelty and surprises.

When I left Tokyo almost two weeks ago we were only having a few spring veggies: new potatoes mainly and a few greens from the south of Japan, by the time I’m back new carrots, onions, green peas, all the wild vegetables are displayed at the fresh food corner. Bamboos shoots also will be there soon! Since both A. and I are coming back from long separated trips and we are both suffering from jetlag from different time zones, the first things we did was to go grocery shopping to indulge ourselves with a nice dinner that will make us feel the season and prepare our mind and bodies to the Japanese time. It is quite rare I shop for food in Tokyo recently, but I have a few favorite places: Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, Seijo ishi Tokyo Dome or Isetan Shinjuku. This time we stopped at Mitsukoshi and got some fresh new vegetables and a piece of fresh red sea-bream. It’s not always easy to find wild fish but at least I know each of these three places usually have some. And the dinner then was just simply decided with a classical preparation of sautéed vegetables slightly deglazed in soya sauce and pan grilled fish. And I am so happy to be back.

Muesli pancakes

Since A. is away, I was thinking of having muesli and fruits for breakfast, so I stopped by the supermarket last night to buy some nuts muesli and some soya milk. But then this morning I was up at 6:15 and decided that after a bit of workout I would rather eat pancakes. So basically I prepared my muesli in a large bowl, covered it with soya milk, added a mix powder of black sesame, almond and kinako (grilled soya beans), add 2tbs of flour, a bit of baking powder and stirred well. Then cooked on both sides in a frypan. Finished with my uncle’s honey, added a kiwi sliced and I got a delicious breakfast, or rather two! Because I prepared a bit too much… I so much used to cook for two people… it’s hard to be alone!

Persimmons harvest

Together with the gingko nuts, the season for persimmons has also started, and our two trees in the garden are literally covered with fruits this year. Since this is way to much to eat them all, that pretty much everyone has a persimmon tree in their garden, contrarily to gingko nuts, they are difficult to give away. I tried jam but it was not a huge success, and I run out of ideas on how to preserve them. These are not really persimmons you would dry, like shibui kaki… So I harvest a few, give a few to friends who don’t have a garden, and usually offer the rest to the birds, bees and butterflies who seems to be loving their sweetness and juiciness. 

One of my favorite recipe with persimmons is in salad with cucumber, turnip, sesame and tofu. This time I had no turnip so it was just persimmon and cucumber. 

Persimmon, cucumber and tofu salad: 

– 1 persimmon still a bit hard

– 1 Japanese cucumber  

– 1 small block of drained hard tofu

– 1tbs of sesame seeds, or sesame powder

– a bit of salt

Peel and dice the persimmon, sluce the cucumber. Grind the sesame seeds, mix with the tofu and the salt. Add the persimmon and the cucumber. Stir well and it is ready to serve.

persimmons on the tree, with giant bee and tiny frog!
persimmons on the tree, with giant bee and tiny frog!

Gingko nuts – 銀杏

So, we have a gingko tree in our garden. The first few years it didn’t give fruits and we thought we won’t have the pleasure to eat fresh gingko nuts but also not the nuisance of the horrible smell. But then… it started to bear fruits and we started to harvest them, or sometimes it was more just to clean and limit the smell in the garden!!!! So the season has arrived again to collect fallen gingko nuts (about a bucket every day!), and to give away many (most) of them to our neighbors, but this year we also prepared some for ourselves with an enhanced technique! I remember having the nauseous smell in my nose for days after preparing them last time. So we came better equipped: masks with a drop of tea-tree essential oil. Then to remove the small bits of skins we used stones in a bucket and water and it was really easy. And dried them in the sun rather than the oven. Finally it was a bit long but not at all as terrible as I remember it was!!! Next is the cooking, but for that I know for sure we’ll have rice with gingko nuts, grilled gingko nuts, and probably vegetables stew!

Gingko nuts drying in the sun
Gingko nuts drying in the sun
The gingko tree in the garden, covered with fruits yet to harvest  
The gingko tree in the garden, covered with fruits yet to harvest  

All mixed inspirations

Sometimes that’s what happens… you have a fresh piece of sashimi red snapper, fresh baby leaf salad, homemade umeboshi and you want to eat them altogether. Now what would be the simplest carb to go with would be obviously Japanese rice. But when it’s late and hungry mouths are begging for food… rice is not such a good option: too long to cook. Pasta wouldn’t really fit, but quinoa would definitely! And yes it was a perfect match despite the very various inspirations. Here is what I did:

I simply cooked (boil/steam) a 3-color quinoa mix; I pan grilled the snapper; dressed the salad with olive oil; added an umeboshi on top. That’s it! That’s really not cooking actually but it’s a good way for me to get familiar with my new kitchen!!! 

New kitchen!

We moved in our new apartment this weekend and we have just finished emptying the last boxes. Now it starts to like home! I’m still not used to it and in particular to the kitchen. It was very difficult to find a place that checked all the boxes of our list of “must”  given the very long list and the very short time we had: the moving was motivated by A.  new job starting next week and by the fact that there is a highrise under construction right in front of our former place which would have blocked seriously our beautiful view of Mount Fuji and Nihombashi skyline. Anyway… it was time to move… after 8 years in the same place, the longuest we’ve ever been. So, I had to give away my precious terraces, the large window in the kitchen, the all white and bright interior, the 3 sides orientation and natural lighting, the no neighbors around… but we kept the view, or got even better! I got a kind of boudoir/dressing room, and a slightly larger kitchen, a new oven, but not much larger… I also kept the gaz cooking range, which is a must!!! And finding mansions where they have gaz cooking range is getting much more difficult. So I am ver very pleased with that! Would you imagine cooking on an electric range???? 

The thing I didn’t expect was a much better lighting in the kitchen to take pictures at night with much less reflections!!! So, while I’m slowly getting used to this new place, I prepared some very simple food, because when I come back to work we worked on boxes, hanging frames etc… And I prepared this a bit weird combination but really delicious dish with chickpeas, bunashimeji, butternut squash and tofu. Seasoned with papeika, salt and pepper. Each ingredient is diced (but the chickpeas) and all are pan cooked in a little of olive oil. I had the spices in the end and served right away.

oh! Yes... there's also a dishwasher... A. is so excited about it!!! 
oh! Yes… there’s also a dishwasher… A. is so excited about it!!! 

Where is “home”?

It’s a bit of a weird week, with travel, changes, so I’m getting a bit lost!

We went to Shanghai for two days, where A. was working, abd I took this opportunity as a writing retreat when I was not disturbed abd could focus on my work. It was very productive, the weather very helpful to forced me inside with almost constant pouring rain. Just 30min of swimming in the morning and a rapid tour of the food corner of the nearby department store where it was funny to see so many Japanese products as luxury ones! We came back to Tokyo last night, this morning we received the keys of our new apartment and we are moving tomorrow within Tokyo and Sunday to Ohara. I also have quite some work to do at the lab with the students preparing some key presentations for their graduation. But, nothing’s better than a home cooked meal to get plenty of good energy and I prepared some very simple Japanese things: multigrain mixed with rice, eggplant and miso, scrambled eggs, and jumbo umeboshi. A good reason to take a little break!

staple food of grains and beans at Shanghai department store's food corner
staple food of grains and beans at Shanghai department store’s food corner

Harvest it – eat it!

It was a while since I haven’t seen my little neighbor so I decided to pay her a visit, and as such we usually exchange products from our respective gardens. I had nothing to offer, so I promised her plenty of gingko nuts in a few weeks, since our tree is literally covered with nuts. And in exchange she took me to her garden to show me her giant taro plants (mine are so tiny…) and then she gave me a huge shiso plant covered with buds and flowers, and we picked together some shishito. We also checked the damages of the typhoon, actually not much luckily and of course we chatted for an hour!

Once back home it was past time to prepare lunch but I wanted to try a recipe she recommended me with the shiso flowers: tempura. Of course I am not equipped for deep frying, so real tempura was out of the question, but still, I tried something. I prepared a light batter with just flour and water, I washed the shishito, a few shiso leaves and many of the flowers and buds. In a wok I heated some rice oil. I dipped the greens into the batter and then fry them on one side, than dipped it again and fry it on the other side. And with the flowers, I simply threw them in a bit of batter and cooked it like a crepe. No way without deep frying that it would stay in one puece otherwise. I also cooked some white rice, crumbled a piece of grilled salmon that was left over, and some more shiso flower buds. And I served all together, after sprinkling a bit of salt, in a kind of ten-don. 

Butternut squash…

…what would I do without you? So easy to peel and cut compared to kabocha and most pumpkin, so quick to cook, and so many recipes possible. I can’t help buying one every time I see some at the farmers market. It suits so very well all types of dishes, Italian, Japanese etc… So what did I do with last time? Some autumn spread! Enough of eggplants, chickpeas or yogurt speads summer spreads but Yes! for a butternut squash autumn version.

Butternut squash spread

– 1 butternut squash

– salt, pepper, pumpkin spices (cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, clove)

Simply peel the butternut squash and remove the seeds, cut it into large chunks and steam or boil it. Once it is soft, with a fork just mash it. Add a bit of butter if you like. Add salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and clove. Stir well to obtain a purée. That’s it!!!! Eat with freshly baked bread or crackers for a killer experience!

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