Fresh home-made food every day
“Yahhari” as we say in Japanese, I made some ravioli again! We love ravioli so much I could have some every day! This time spinach ricotta with some spinach in the pasta for a green finish. I just over-steamed some spinach and add some off the green leaves in the dough. For the filling chopped steamed spinaches with 1 large spoon of fresh ricotta, salt and pepper. Boiled and served with olive oil, salt and pepper, as simple can be!
Ashitaba are in season and this little green is delicious with grilled pork, and nothing easier then puttibg the mix on top of rice and add some sesame. I just cut in little pieces thin slices of pork cutlet from which I remove all the fat. Then add the ashitaba chopped. Cook everything in a pan under cover and serve on top of freshly cooked rice. Simple & delicious as usual!!
When we were in Karuizawa, they would serve delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast, so this morning when I asked A. What he wanted to eat he asked for creamy scrambled eggs to accompany the dried tomatoes fougasse I was making. Perfect since I just bought fresh eggs. For the fougasse I used my classic recipe, just add Sicilian dried tomatoes. For the eggs, simple, pre-heat a small pan and grease it a bit, keep a low heat during the whole process, add 2 eggs per personne in the pan, and with cooking chopstick start to mix gently, to obtain an homogenous batter. Then anytime the bottom and the edges start to harden mix again and again until the eggs have the consistency you like. Serve immediately, add a bit of salt and pepper on top. Have a good Sunday!!!
One day warm, one day cold, it’s hard to know which season we are, already spring or still winter? So for the food it’s the same, I crave for new veggies one day, the other I dream of hot soup and hot veggies pot. To solve this problem I prepared a salad with hot boiled potatoes and thick fried tofu, and finely chopped raw red cabbage, radishes, mini tomatoes, ice plant and walnuts, with just olive oil. A perfect winter & spring option!
I love Japanese food but because it always requires several preparation steps: preparing a good dashi, marinating ingredients, multiple cooking… It is rare I prepare a genuine Japanese dinner, unless it is some donburi, like veggies on rice etc… But I really like cooking Japanese and with a bit of organization in 30min it is possible to have someting ready.
First, start with preparing dashi by boiling katsuobushi in water. I put the flakes in a net so that it is simple to use the dashi. Then prepare the rice and start to cook it. Finally start marinating what ever needs too, here for me fish in soya sauce. While everything above is set, prepare the veggies or other ingredients: here wash the spinach, cut the mitsuba, prepare the miso… Once the dashi is ready you can cook the veggies. I picked spinaches because they don’t need much time to cook. I just boiled them in a little dashi and drained them well. Then grill the fish, some fresh cod from Aomori, add the miso to the soup, set the mitsuba in the bowls, and when the rice is ready, serve the miso soup, prepare the spinaches balls, add some delicious yuzu-miso bought in Karuizawa (the whole purpose of this dinner was to try this miso!), served the rice and finish with the fish. Ready!!!
And the miso from Karuizawa was just awesome, sweet tasty and with the perfect yuzu taste. When it possible to buy some of these delicious products locally I see really no reason to try to make some!
Because sometime all you want is plain sautéed fresh veggies, and it’s so simple and so delicious that you wonder why it’s not what is on the menu everyday!!!!
Yup!! Today is the last of the week for me!! But squeezing in a whole week of work in 3 days is quite a challenge. Plus this is the end of the year for students in Japan and that means a lot of thesis reading, preparation for presentations and grading. So from 8:00 to 22:00 it’s all busy. Adding a few round-the-world meetings late at night and the cup is full. So we’ve decided to retreat for a few days in the mountains, probably snowboarding, ice skating and hiking. Being so busy is ok for me, it’s kind of normal, but having to break my sleep habits is really the worst for me. My body stops to regulate its temperature and I feel cold often. So last night I wanted a warm and fresh, soft and crispy, colorful, and ready in 10min. It turned out in a one-plate with steamed spinach, sautéed shiitake, raw celery, chickpeas and creamy boiled eggs.
Saturday ravioli, Sunday ravioli, this week end I’ve been cooking quite a lot of things but never so many ravioli. I must say that now I’m really well equipped to prepare some and it’s so much easier that’s a real pleasure!!! And since our little neighbor gave us a bag of shiitake, for a bag of natsumikan the filling was all decided! So I made jumbo ravioli with a dough 2/3 semolina 1/3 chesnut flour. Chopped the shiitake and cooked them in oil, I use fat pieces of pork, until golden, then prepared the ravioli. Served as usual with just olive oil. I prepared 6 per person of these giant things (about 4cmx4cm) and that was perfect for dinner!!
This butternut squash was definitely a good source of inspiration for making new recipes, and the last thing I tried with it was ravioli, I really have a thing for ravioli. And that was awesome! For the pasta I used the same recipe as last time, and rolled it with my pasta machine. For the filling I just steamed a peeled piece of butternut squash, smash it and add salt and pepper, that’s it. I served it with just olive oil and gratted Parmegiano. The butternut squash sweetness add a perfect touch to the taste of the olive oil, and the simplicity of the preparation is just perfect to enjoy the taste of the butternut squash. It really surprised me how simple it was to make too!!
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