Tag: Japanese food

Bonito

Not far away from our house is Katsuura 勝浦, a city on the ocean with a fishing harbor, a fish market, a few nice street to browse and a sea front further south where we paddle surf (or least try to!!).

Katsuura is quite famous as a bonito fishing harbor in the area and they indeed have delicious fresh bonito in season, which is basically from spring to mid summer. We’ve eating quite a bit of bonito, and one of my classic way of preparing it is either pan grilled or in a sort of ragù with vegetables. But after a few times eating it that way always, I wanted a new recipe.

Inspired by the pies and other yummy pictures I saw on IG, I decided to try making a bonito pie. The shape of the filet is perfect to fit in a cake dish and with the season of bell peppers starting, I had a perfect combination. The pie cooking is quite interesting as all the juices and flavors are trapped in the pie and reveals when you cut it, guaranteeing a very interesting tasting experience. Though I could have worked a bit more on how to shape and plate it (as usual), the taste was amazing. Definitely a recipe that will go to my favorite recipes of the moment.

Bonito pie (2-3 servings)

For the pie crust

– 200g of flour (I used whole wheat)

– 4tbs of olive oil

– water

– a pinch of salt

For the filling

– 1 bonito filet (for sashimi)

– 2-3 bell peppers red, yellow, orange… you name it

– 2 leaves of laurel

– olive oil, salt and pepper

Prepared the pue crust. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt and olive oil. Add water little by little and knead until you have a smooth dough. Roll it in a rectangular shape to fit your cake dish, yet twice bigger.

Set it in the cake dish. Add the laurel leaves in the bottom of the pie, then add the bonito on top. Wash and slice the bell peppers. Arrange them around and on top of the bonito. Add salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil. Close the pie with the dough. Make a small hole on the top and make a small chimney with baking paper. Bake at 180deg for 40min. Or until golden.

Potatoes Japanese style

Day 2 for this week of freshly harvested potatoes. Today it’s a Japanese simple recipe that can be made everywhere, every time. Of course it is much tastier with new potatoes but it can work with old ones too. It has all the distinguishable flavors of Japanese cuisine: the cooked sake, the soya sauce, the sweetness, and the katsuobushi, well the umami as it’s called and as it’s all over cooking and gourmet magazines.

Simmered potatoes Japanese style

– a few (new) potatoes. Pick 3 midsize (billiard ball size) new potatoes per person for a main dish, 2 for a side.

– 3tbs of soya sauce

– 3tbs of sake

– 2tbs of brown sugar

– some katsuobushi, optimally ultra-thin cut (see below)

Wash the potatoes and cut them in four. In a pan, set the potatoes and cover with water. Start boiling under cover. When the potatoes are almost done, add the soya sauce, the sake and the brown sugar. Simmer a little and turn the pan so that all the sauce will pass over all the potatoes. Do not stir!! You may break the potatoes and end up with a purée!!

Cook at high heat will turning the pan once in a while. When the sauce is almost gone move in serving plates or a bowl. Top with ultra thin cut katsuobushi (itogiri katsuobushi – 糸切り鰹節). Eat right away or after it has cooled down. Enjoy!!!

Potatoes week

In March we planted potatoes in our new kitchen garden. We went for two species: some melty white potatoes and some purple ratte potatoes. It was our first time ever growing potatoes on our own, so I guess we made some mistakes: soil too rich and too compact, lack of leaves clearing… but I still harvested a few plants and we got a decent amount of potatoes. Enough for the two of us, to eat fresh and new (I am not good with preserving food for long). So I’ve decided this week will be a potato week! And I’ll share with you some of my favorite recipes. Stay tuned for the first recipe!!!

Plum plum plum…

June is the time for the rainy season, and every day the weather reminds us that, but it is also the season for plum harvesting and plum pickling.

Even though I trimmed many of our plum trees this winter, the amount of fruits they produce it still enormous and it’s also time for giveaways. 1Kg here, 3Kg there… yet the harvesting is tedious and with one rainy day following the previous one, it doesn’t make things easy.

Once harvested I pickled quite a bit of our plums. I usually make plum wine and plum syrup with the green plums and umeboshi with the yellow ones (which is about 7 to 15 days after harvesting the green plums).

But because only our visitors drink umeshu and I still have plenty from last year, and we drink little syrup and again last year I made plenty, I decided to try new recipes. One new syrup recipe and one of savory plums in soya sauce. Because the preparation has to sit for three months I have no idea what it would taste like but just wanted to share that recipe because it looks really nice.

Soya sauce pickled plums

– 1kg of green Japanese plums

– 1/2L of soya sauce

– 4tbs of brown sugar

– 2 pieces of dry konbu (4x4cm)

– a handful of katsuobushi flakes.

Wash the plums and remove the stems. Dry them well. Pick them to make a few small holes in. In a clean and sterile bin, set the plums, add the sugar, the konbu pieces cut in four, the katsuobushi flakes. Cover with the soya sauce. Set to rest for 3 months. Turn the bin every week. We’ll see in the results together in 3 months!!

Have a good week!

Fava beans gyoza

I could have started a “fava beans week” and write everyday a new recipe using them, whether Japanese, Italian or French… but I was alone these days, A. traveling again for work, and my work is kind of busy… a lot of things have suddenly started to move forward since February, after months if not years waiting for that… yet everything decided to move at the same time so my hands are more than full… but I cannot complain too much, can I? So the fave beans week ended up being nothing… sorry for that, but you can check my past recipes here and here.

But while work keeps me busy, it doesn’t prevent for my mind to wander and invent new recipes. And this recipe is something that I have thought about for quite a bit now. I first thought about ravioli, but guessed it would be too common, and reminding myself (1) how much we love gyoza; (2) how delicious the butternut gyoza I made were; (3) how easy it is to make, I could only try.

Let me share with you this delicious recipe!

Fava beans gyoza (makes about 16 pieces)

For the gyoza dough:

– 50g of bread flour

– 50g of pastry flour

– a pinch of salt

– 50cl of tepid water

For the filling:

– 20 pods of large fava beans

– salt and pepper

For the dressing:

– 20 sansho leaves (kinome) or a small piece of fresh ginger

– 2tsp of soya sauce

– 3tsp of olive oil

Prepare the dough by mixing the ingredients. Make a ball and leave to rest for 30min.

In the meantime boil the fava beans and peel them. Crush them and add salt and pepper.

Chop finely the kinome leaves (or the ginger if you use ginger). In a small bowl mix with the soya sauce and the olive oil.

Now 30min should have passed. Make a stick with the dough and cut in 16 equal parts. Make 16 small balls, and roll them in a 1mm thick round of dough.

I each round set a tsp of the crushed fava beans and close the gyoza with a bit of water on each side of the dough.

In a large greased frypan, add about 5mm of water and cook at high heat the gyoza. When the water is gone reduce a bit the heat and then flip the gyoza.

Serve with the dressing in a side bowl to dip them in. Enjoy!!

Urui

In the series of spring greens now is the time to talk about urui – うるい or hosta in English is not really a wild plant but rather something that grows freely in gardens. Their beautiful leaves and flowers are a nice ornament but what is most interesting is the leaves right after sprouting as they are edible and particularly delicious.

In Kanto area the season is much past for that and I don’t recall seeing any at the farmers market, and we don’t have any (yet) in our garden, however our friend K. in the Niigata mountains has plenty in her garden, so we left her with a huge bundle of freshly cut leaves.

After removing corollas and washing the leaves carefully they are ready to be prepared.

My favorite way of eating them to enjoy their fresh and crispy texture is to simply cut them in 4cm parts and cook them first in a little of olive oil while stirring, then add a bit of water and a few pink peppercorn and stop cooking when they are a vibrant green. Served as a side dish they are perfect.

Wild mountain plants

More than 10 years ago our friends K. and S. invited us to their home in the Niigata mountains to go picking wild plants – 山菜 – sansai with them, and to cook and eat them together. Of course we couldn’t say no, and we had an amazing time with them walking deep in the forest, picking all the different kinds of wild plants, seeing wild animals and then learning how to prepare them…

With the super long golden week, we decided to go and visit K. for a short trip to Tsunan and to go wild plants picking again. Since S. has past, we didn’t go as deep in the woods as we did before but we went for a long walk in the woods and picked enough wild plants for a nice lunch. The winter has stretched rather late in April with huge snowfalls and there was still quite a bit of snow, so we were a week or so too early. Here is an illustrated list of what we found though:

– つくし – tsukushi – horsetail

This little white flower can be easily found everywhere. Always take those that have no pollen. For preparation see my post here.

– こごみ – kogomi – fern sprouts

They are easy to spot, easy to pick and super easy to cook. I find them as easy to prepare than wild asparagus: in omelets, with pasta… they are really the simplest of the sansai and the more accessible in terms of flavor and texture.

– タラノメ – taranome – angelica buds

They grow at the head of wood sticks. The one in the picture is a little young and they need to have a few leaves out. These ones are really delicious in tempura and require little handling.

– 木の芽 – kinome – chocolate vine

This little green sprout that grows in the midst of other trees sprouting is the hardest to find, but once you’ve spotted a tree, easily recognized by its leaves, it is easy to find the sprouts. Washed and eaten raw, or cook, it is fresh and crunchy.

– 蕗の薹 – fukinoto

In the mountain fukinoto grow right after a patch of snow has melted. So spot a patch of snow, and look at the edges. They are best when just sprouting. They can be as big as a ping pong ball. There taste is very strong and specific. Probably the most difficult to accommodate and cook of all. See my posts on fukinoto here.

There are many others wild plants such as zenmai – 薇 – osmunda japonica (with me on the below picture), yama udo – 山ウド, tori ashi shouma – 鶏足升麻… we also harvested a bit of some, so some others… we also found morels. we had taranome, fukinoto and kogomi tempura, kinome salad and tsukushi just heated in soya sauce and dashi.

Now the golden week is getting to its end… time to go back to work soon!

Green plate

The golden week continues with friends visiting and a lot of cooking for our guests. So when things get quieter I cook some very simple things with one of the seasonal product: yama udo. The first time we ate yama udo was in Tsunan with our friends when we went to pick some. Compared to normal udo, yama udo is thinner and the leaves are very tasty and particularly when cooked quickly. Tempura are a very good option for that. Yet I rarely cook tempura as I don’t deep fry. But I use an alternative that is good enough for small or flat things: I use a thin layer of oil in a pan.

As the tempura mix it is simply half corn starch half flour and water mixed together to obtain a rather liquid dough. I deep the washed vegetables and toss in the heated pan with 5mm of oil. I turn 2 or 3 times until crispy. I used a mix of macha and salt for seasoning in equal proportions.

Golden week is just half way… now we’re heading to Tsunan to see our friend and maybe go to pick more yama udo!

Shoyu pasta

There are recipe stories that are longer than others and that reflect how “agile” I manage my cooking!!! Last week I was telling you how much I love new onions and that you will see more recipes with them because I had in mind to prepare some ravioli filled with new onion. Everything was clear in my head and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Sunday late afternoon taking a break from work I went to my kitchen to prepare the pasta dough. Not the classic one, my ravioli would be infused with Japanese flavors. So I made a soya sauce pasta base. Then I started thinking of the filling and boiled a potato to smooth the filling that would consist in chopped new onion slightly cooked in a pan with katsuobushi flakes. And while the potato was boiling I went back to work and worked worked worked, with our new stray cat all cuddled on my laps… and I forgot the potato, time and preparing dinner. At almost 21:00 A. reminded me that we should actually go back to Tokyo… oups… nothing was ready and it was too late to start making ravioli. So we ate the potato, I packed my pasta dough, my new onions and we drove back to the city.

Monday night I came back home around 22:00 and it was really not a descent hour to make ravioli… I knew it… so I decided to roll my pasta manually and make tagliatelle and use the onion just as a topping. The result was so awesome that I am now thinking of making it a new entry to the Soya sauce contest…

Here is what I did:

Soya sauce pasta

– 1egg

– 120g of flour

– 3tbs of soya sauce

– 1 new onion

– 2-3 shiitake

In a bowl knead the flour, soya sauce and egg together to make the pasta dough. Keep for 1h.

Roll the pasta, and make tagliatelle.

Wash the vegetables and slice them. In a pan greased with a bit of oil, throw the vegetables and cook at low heat. Boil the pasta and drain them. Add to the vegetables, stir well, serve and eat immediately. You can add a bit of grilled pork to the vegetables…

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