Tag: Japanese food

Cabbage and sticky potato salad

12 years ago we arrived in Tokyo and moved in our first Tokyoite apartment in Nezu. At that time I was working at the university of Tokyo, a 5min walk from there. Settling in Tokyo without speaking Japanese was a lot of fun but not always easy. A. was not working at that time yet and he’s missions most of the days was to go and investigate for what we needed and then buy it and install it: washing machine, telephone, desktop computer, internet… We were very lucky to have friends to help us. The thing that took us the most time everyday was grocery shopping if you remember my post there. Thanks not only to my Japanese cooking book for beginners but also to our friend Shotaro, who is a very good cook and was living in Tokyo at that time. He came at home and we cooked together. For a reason very unclear, while I was grocery shopping yesterday I saw some nice sticky potato or yamaimo 山芋, and suddenly remembered about that salad we cooked together: cabbage, yamaimo and sesame dressing. And because before starting Tokyo Paris Sisters with Prunellia, I already had a site to share French recipes with our Japanese friends and Japanese recipes with our French friends, I just dug in to find that recipe back!!!! It was even simpler than I thought! At that time we used industrial sesame dressing but last night I came with a vegan homemade version that was really nice! So here is the recipe for 4 servings as starter:

For the dressing: a piece of yamaimo of about 1-2cm; 2tbs of sesame powder, known as surigoma-擂り胡麻 ; 1tbsp of soya sauce; water; salt.

Fir the salad: 1/2 cabbage; a large piece of yamaimo, or half one yamaimo.

Cut the cabbage in bite size chunks, if you like it crunchy use it raw, if you like softer, blanched it and cool it. Cut the yamaimo in 5-8mm x 4cm sticks. I a serving bowl put both ingredients. Now prepare the dressing. Grat the yamaimo to obtain what is called tororo-トロロ, a kind of slime that will give a creamy consistency to the dressing, add the surigoma, add the soya sauce, then mix well. The mix is quite dense and now you need to add water little by little still mixing (optimally with chop sticks) to obtain the consistency you want, it as to be creamy without being too much liquid. Top the vegetables and enjoy!!!

Some more Japanese bowls

Rice, rice more rice, white, brown, red, black, wild, arborio, carnaroli, koshihikari, camargues. Whatever, we love rice!!!  This time it’s a mix of koshihikari white and brown rice, served with enoki, these long, thin and white mushrooms so easy to find st that the time of the year, and lotus roots, cooked in a bit of oil until golden then glazed in soya sauce, and the all thing is topped by a poached egg for the creaminess. So simply delicious!

Back home!!!

I was in Toulouse for two days and it was not 2h since I landed back in Tokyo to be in my kitchen and prepare some simple meal for A. and me. I miss very quickly cooking, and preparing a nice little dinner is perfect to recover from the jet lag. In particular when the fridge is still well filled with some fresh vegetables. And after being away, I wanted to eat Japanese, so I opted for rice, and a dish of leek, sato imo and purple sweet potatoes, cooked in soya sauce and served with a large pickled plum. Colorful, tasty and light!!!

Dinner in a rush

Working Saturday on campus, coming back home and deciding to head to the country to enjoy the beautiful weather, I had to prepare dinner in a bit of a rush once we arrived, with an empty fridge and very few ingredients. Hopefully A. is always ok with simple vegab food, and I prepared steamed leek with miso, steamed spinaches with yuzu and miso, served with a bowl of white and green rice, and a few umeboshi. I actually was impressed by the spinach, and want to share my improvised recipe. I steam the spinach until bright green and then cool them and drained them to stop the process and keep their beautiful color. Then I cut them into 3-4cm, add 2tsp of miso (mild granulous miso in my case, white could work fine too), and mix the miso and the spinach with the fingers. I cut a slice of peel of fresh yuzu and thinly cut it (you can grat it if you prefer) and mix it too, keep a few for the decoration. Shape the spinach as a little mound, top with some yuzu peel. Eat with rice, white fish…

Barter

Takenoko imo - たけのこ芋 
Takenoko imo – たけのこ芋 

It’s been a year now I’ve started some barter process with our neighbors in the country. Some gingko nuts here, some citrus fruits, some plums, some bread etc… in exchange one would sew a kimono, teach me how to make umeboshi, give us a few pickled vegetables, and more often they would give us fresh vegetables from their gardens. Last weekend we’ve found on our door step a bag full of turnips, sato imo and a very strange vegetable that looked like a root that has grown and that I have never seen before. Since a few weeks ago I gave gingko nuts to several people, I couldn’t identify where the veggies came from and ask directly what was this strange vegetable. I couldn’t find it either in any cooking book. So I decided to use my resourceful Instagram friends to help me in that task and in less than 5min I had an answer that confirmed my guess. It was a sort of sato imo, but instead of the round gingle bell like, it’s a specie called bamboo shoot imo (takenoko imo – たけのこ芋) because of its bamboo shoot shape. 

I cooked it in dashi with the skin (washed), together with turnips and peeled the root once boiled. The skin peels very easily. I seeved it with barley miso and grilled salmon from Iwate, and a bowl of plain rice. I really like the creamy texture of sato imo and this takenoko imo was really delicious.  For the miso I hesitated between white miso and barley miso, but I found that the granulous texture of the barley miso a much better fit with the takeneko imo, and I was not disappointed. Fresh simple ingredients soeak for themselves, that’s it!

Okonomiyaki

“Grill what you like” could be a direct translation for okonomiyaki, this very popular Japanese dish from Kansai as I explained in a previous post. And it is one of the first Japanese dish I’ve ever prepared after we first travel to Japan. Indeed, okonomiyaki is easily found as stall food for festival and is always high impact with the bonito flakes that seems to dance feverishly on top, the white and black stripes of the mayonnaise and the bulldog sauce, and the base so easy to eat! And it is very easy to make at home and always impresses foreign visitors! For one okonomiyaki for 4 people here is my recipe again: you need half a cabbage or chinese cabbage shredded, some pork meat, ground and seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper, 4 eggs, 1/2 to 1 cup of flour depending how thick you want the base, mayonnaise, bulldog sauce, and two handful of bonito flakes. In a hot and greased pan cook the cabbage until soft; add the meat, stir well. In a bowl mix the eggs snd the flour. Add the mixture in the pan and even the surface. Cook at low heat under cover, flip when the surface is almost done. Cook a few more minutes, serve in a dish, add crisscross mayonnaise and bulldog sauce, finish with bonito flakes topping. Enjoy the motion of the flakes while it’s still hot.

Back to “normal”

After one full week of reunited Tokyo Paris sisters, it is time to part again, not for too long, since we’ll reunite with our whole family for another Christmas in Sicily, which I am very much looking forward too!!!

Shibamata
Shibamata

One week with guests at home and usual work is always quite intense. Dining out, waking up earlier to spend sometime together in the morning, and using our days off to travel the city. Yesterday was Culture day 文化の日 and we had quite a full day to enjoy the beautiful autumnal weather: we went to Shibamata to see some old shopping street and beautiful temple, then head to the new Otani hotel for a teppanyaki lunch and stroll in the Japanese garden. Spent part of the early afternoon at Dailanyama T-site, stopped on the way back at the Aman hotel, and finish shopper in Asakusa for some order-made paper lantern P. wanted for a very long time. Back home just in time for sunset and mount Fuji!!! (Don’t think of this kind of schedule if you are not motorized!)

And then by dinner our guests were gone, going back to Paris. And a sudden emptiness and quietness st home! Time for us to catch-up with our regular habits and in particular with our veggie-based dinner! So I prepared a very simple soup with butternut squash, potatoes, burdock, lotus root, cabbage, a large piece of konbu for the broth and finished with a little of soya sauce and sesame seeds. So simple and very Japanese in flavors.

TPS Paris is in Tokyo

It’s not too often it happens but my sister is visiting Tokyo this week. It means a lot of eating out and some cooking too, mainly Japanese for lunch and dinner. It also means a lot of going here and there. We spent the Saturday in the countryside, blessed with an amazing weather on Saturday morning that allowed us to go swimming in the ocean, just before the temperature dropped and felt like it’s winter. So to warm ourselves in the evening I first prepared a simple miso soup with tofu for me and clams for the others, seasoned with a bit of yuzu peels, some simply grilled bonito and a few nuka pickles.  

And while dinner is getting ready, what’s better than some little slices of lotus root slightly fried in a heated and greased pan? May be cucumbers and miso… well I’m just cooking all my favorite ingredients for her!!!

Butternut squash + shiitake = perfect combo

There are ingredients like these that are a perfect match and a perfect seasonal signature. Butternut squash and shiitake are one of these pairs.  Funnily in Japanese butternut squash is called nippon kabocha ニホンカボチャ, which means basically Japanese kabocha. Yet until very recently it was impossible to find something else than regular kabocha, the small pumpkin with a green skin. But recently I have found butternut squash at the farmers market and I love it. Shiitake is very easy to find too, but this time I have found tiny ones, really cute and delicious. So I have used them quite intensively. Using the same pair of veggies I have prepared two different variations one Japanese one more western. The first one is takikomi rice. Which is a preparation where vegetables and rice are cooked together, at the same time. And the cooking base can be either dashi, warer or a seasoned one. I love simple water seasoned with soya sauce. So I cut a piece of butternut squash in cubes, use the shiitake as whole or cut in halves, put them on top of the rice and water, season with a large table spoon of soya sauce. And cook as usual.

 

The second version is as simple. It’s with pasta. In a pan I cook the butternut squash and the shiitake in olice oil, add some pork slices, season with pepper and a bit of salt. Boil some pasta of your choice. And serve. That’s it!!! Really simple!! 

How do you like your autumn veggies? 

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