Tag: kabocha

The last kabocha

While spring is definitely in the air, and I am craving for spring greens which are not yet quite there (the one available come from the far away south of Japan), I was thinking that before entering that green season, eating a last kabocha would be great. Indeed since December I cooked cauliflowers, romanescos, broccolis, and many carrots and sweet potatoes and shiitake as well, but no kabocha. So before the season ends I decided to take that last opportunity to eat some. I use kabocha in many places: pot of vegetables, curry rice…

Grilled kabocha with curry-rice

There are two things I really love, at least, and I wanted to prepare with kabocha. One was kabocha pasta, the other is sui gyoza with kabocha. But I made a variation of the recipe I proposed in December, a vegan version. And it was so delicious that I can’t wait to share this new ultra simple recipe!!!

Super easy kabocha pasta (1 serving)

– 60g of dry penne

– 100g of kabocha (a 3cm thick slice)

– a little handful of nuts (I use a mix of almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, pecan) so it’s basically 2-3 of each

– a flavorful olive oil

– salt and pepper

Start boiling the pasta, in the meantime wash and cut the kabocha. 4min before the pasta are ready add the kabocha. When pasta are cooked drain well. In the pan used to boil the pasta start roasting the nuts and crush them roughly.

Add olive oil generously and put back the drained pasta and kabocha. Stir well to have an homogeneous mix and add salt and pepper. Serve immediately and eat. Delicious also prepared in advance and re-heat in the pan until the nuts and kabocha caramelize a bit…

That’s it!!!

Almost there

While I’m hoping that the doctor will tell me I’m good to go tomorrow I’m still taking it easy, resting a lot and trying to sleep a lot. But the one thing that makes me confident that I am recovering is that now my appetite is gigantic. Indeed in the first few days when I was sick I had very little appetite and I couldn’t eat much but now I’m feeling hungry all the time. Like really all the time!!! And I have a craving for energetic food, in particular super high carb. So, I eat Christmas breads and pasta all the time. And I came up with a few new recipes that I’d like to share with you today.

One is a vegan recipe very simple and perfect if you have a very fragrant olive oil. The second one is an adaptation of the classic Japanese kabocha salad and pasta salad. A vegetarian, warm version that is becoming a new favorite.

Cabbage pasta: (2 servings)

– 1/4 of a cabbage

– 125g of pasta of you choice

– olive oil

– thyme

– salt and pepper

Steam the cabbage for a few minutes, it should stay in shape but become just a bit translucide. Boil the pasta al dente, drain.

Cut the cabbage in large slices. In a pan greased with a bit of olive oil add the cabbage, the pasta, the thyme, salt and pepper and stir well at low heat. When well stirred add a bit of olive oil and serve to eat immigration.

Kabocha pasta warm salad (2 servings as starter or side, 1serving as main)

– 60g of pasta

– 2 kiri (equivalent to 2 tbs of cream cheese)

– 1/6 of kabocha

– salt, pepper, paprika

– 3-4 hazelnuts and 3-4 cashew nuts

Boil the pasta and the kabocha separately. Drain. In a bowl mash the kabocha with a spatula or a fork, add the cream cheese, salt, pepper and paprika. A pinch of each. Stir until creamy, add the pasta and stir well again. Top with a few hazelnuts and cashew nuts chopped. Enjoy!

Cooking with A.

When I was supposed to rest, I still cooked a bit for myself. One has to eat anyway. But during the weekend, A. wanted to help a bit with the cooking. So his main responsibility was to make apples or pears compote, one thing I invariably love, sick or not. He varied all the possible cuts: thin slices, big chunks, very tiny cuts… and all were so much better than when I was making it for myself. But then on Sunday evening, I was a little bit tired and I asked him to help me prepare some steamed gyoza. For a reason that probably no one can understand, since Sunday noon I was craving for Chinese dumpling or any other steamed dumplings. And the easiest to prepare when you’re living in Tokyo are definitely steamed gyoza – 水餃子.

Of course I wasn’t interested in any of the meat filling, I was interested in the vegan version, the one where there is on the inside some mashed vegetables. And that was perfect because I had a piece of kabocha and a few sweet potatoes that our neighbor gave me. So A. helped me making these delicious dumplings. I roughly prepared the vegetables, then he steamed them, mashed them with a few drops of soya sauce and I only had to do very simple task of filling and closing the gyoza.

Steaming user is actually very simple, if you have a bamboo steamer or if you have a steel steamer like I do just late sheet of cooking paper at the bottom of the steamer put the dumplings in top of it and cover steam for about like 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is translucent and moisten. Eat right away with soya sauce. That’s how simple it is! Thank you A. for your constant support, for helping me cooking this delicious dish and let us watch a few episodes of a stupid series!

PS: For those worried about my health condition, apparently I should survive is pneumonia. ;)

I’m just a utterly bored to have to do so little and with so much to catch up with… Being sick sucks, recovery is too slow!!

Kabocha pie

Halloween doesn’t inspire me much for cooking. Too much colors, disgusting appearance… I am not a fan at all and I must say that looking at my IG feed these days was not very attractive. Hopefully it’s passed now… None the less the orange pumpkins and the sweetness of their taste is something that I love, though in Japan we don’t really have the giant pumpkins of North America, we have our little Japanese kabocha all the same delicious, while different in texture.

A Japanese kabocha though rather small is usually something that is big enough to be used for 3 or 4 meals… so when I ended with 1/3 of kabocha that needed to be eaten, I decided to make a pumpkin pie. But since we don’t eat much sweets… except when I flip crepes!! I made a savory and spicy pie. I knew it would be good, but what I didn’t expect is that it would be scrumptiously addictive!!! So… here is my recipe and let me know how you liked it!!

Savory kabocha pie

– 1/3 kabocha

– 25cl of milk

– 2 eggs

– cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, salt, pepper

– 50g of whole wheat flour

– 80g of white hard flour

– 4tbs of rice oil

– water

Wash the kabocha, remove the seeds, and a bit of the skin if you find hard spots. Cut in large cube and boil until very soft. Drain.

In the meantime in a bowl mix the flours, the oil and add water little by little while kneading until the dough is soft and smooth. Roll to the size or your pie dish and set.

Turn on the oven to 180deg.

Go back to your kabocha. With a fork mash it, add the milk and the eggs, stir then add the spices to your liking. Stir again. Pour in the pie crust and bake for 45min. Enjoy!!!

Call it cooking… or not

But damn… this was a super delicious combination…

You remember me cooking in apron over my suit right after work? Well I was preparing dinner with the leftover veggies: kabocha and tomatoes. I also picked some fresh parsley in the garden and was thinking about what to do with them when the crave for soba noodles just came. All was decided… And that’s how this recipe of kabocha soba was born. It was so delicious that I really need to share it with you! Moreover because it’s been a while I haven’t shared a proper recipe!!

Kabocha-soba (for two regular servings)

– 125-150g of dry soba noodles (I use 100% buckwheat flour noodles)

– 1/4 kabocha

– 1 large very ripe tomato (if not the season anymore where you are use a tomato preserve without any seasoning)

– a few sprigs of fresh parsley

– 1tsp of soya sauce

– a bit of olive oil

While the water to cook the soba is heated, wash and cut in small cubes (5-10mm) the kabocha. Wash the tomato and dice. In a pan grease with a bit of olive oil, start cooking the vegetables. Add 1/4 cup of water if the tomato is not juicy enough. Cook under cover until the kabocha is soft but not too much. Add the chopped parsley and stop cooking but keep warm. The sauce shouldn’t be liquid or juicy. Just moistened a bit.

Cook the soba as detailed on the package. Serve in bowls. Top with the vegetables, add the soya sauce. Eat immediately and enjoy the perfect balance between the rustic soba flavor, the freshness of the parsley, the sweetness of the tomato and the creaminess of the kabocha, enhanced by the salty taste of the soya sauce!

Pumpkin

At last… the beautiful autumn days have arrived and with them the most typical autumn vegetables (with mushrooms): the pumpkins!!!

While in Tokyo supermarkets you may find only Japanese kabocha, the one with the soft dark green skin and the vibrant orange flesh, that is also found all year round… In the countryside, in farmers markets and local cooperatives you can find many more varieties. Of course the butternut squash is now a classic, but not only. And last week one of our friend gave us a beautiful little pumpkin. It was so cute that I was sad to cut it open, but there are a few recipes I really enjoy and at some point I decided it was time to eat it.

One of my favorite Japanese style to cook kabocha of all kind is to boil them in dashi, add a bit of soya sauce… serve that with rice and I am more than happy. I shared that recipe before but just to make sure, I share it again. It is so simple.

Simmered kabocha in dashi

– a piece of kabocha/pumpkin (200-300g)

– 2 tbs of soya sauce

– a handful of katsuobushi flakes

Wash the pumpkin/kabocha. If it is a Japanese kabocha you don’t need to peel it. Otherwise peel it. Cut in bite size. In a pan put the cut kabocha, cover with water. Add the katsuobushi flakes. Bring to a boil and boil for 5min. When the kabocha is almost soft (use a bamboo toothpick), if there is a lot of water remaining drain. Otherwise just increase the heat for 20sec to make the liquid evaporate.

Add the soya sauce and roll the kabocha in by gently shaking and turning the pan. Don’t be violent or you’ll end with a purée!! Serve warm or cold.

The point in this recipe is that I don’t remove the katsuobushi flakes after using them in the dashi, on the contrary. Mixed with the soya sauce they are delicious.

Lemongrass

With the terrible summer the garden hasn’t produced much since August. My eggplants are having a hard time growing, same for the celeriac, and the ukon. The beets have disappeared… only the peanuts, the celery branch, and the herbs are doing fine. Regarding the fruits… the jujube are few and very tiny, the persimmons are very small too, I have no lemons and a dozen of yuzu that are not yet mature so will see how this ends up. But little is not nothing so let’s enjoy what we got! And among the harvested products I kind of enjoyed a lot the lemongrass. It was my first year planting some and it easily picked up and produce quite a bit. Well for a plant that loves water must have been satisfied this summer!!!!

I have not a lot of experience cooking with lemongrass and my favorite preparation it definitely herb tea. I found it simple to harvest and dry lemongrass naturally. I just cut in 3cm long the leaves and they dried in 2 days. I use a pinch for a large mug of drink.

In food, I remembered using quite a lot lemongrass back then when we lived in Paris and also getting tired with the too strong flavor. But a few things I remember loving it for was in clear soups and in vegetables preparations. Remembering that last one I prepared us a very simple meal with simmered chickpeas, carrots, kabocha and I using lemongrass to give a nice fresh flavor to eat. Served with a fresh leaves salad, and a bit of olive oil… it was very nice!

Enjoy the autumn, it’s official now!

Simmered kabocha

All a sudden it has become very cold and warm food, rich and tasty is more than necessary. During the autumn I have used a lot of butternut squash, leaving the little Japanese kabocha on the side for a while, knowing that they would be right there when needed in the winter, as the season for kabocha is much longer (though you may find it year round when grown in green houses). And now the time has come to use it. kabocha, like most squashes and pumpkin is versatile and easy to cook. The great part with kabocha is that it actually doesn’t need to be peeled and cooking time is rather short. One of my favorite traditional Japanese recipe is to prepare it with dashi and soya sauce. It can be eaten hot, cold or reused after in other recipes. It is very simple to make and often found in bento boxes. Here is my recipe for the simmered kabocha.

Simmered kabocha (4 servings)

– 1/2 kabocha

– 40g of katsuobushi in flakes

– 2tbs of soya sauce

Wash the skin of the kabocha, remove the seeds (you can keep them to grill them to make snacks… or plant them)

Cut the kabocha in large bites with the skin on (only remove parts of the skin that is brownish or hard, usually the part that was in contact with the ground).

Put the kabocha in a pan and cover with water. Add the katsuobushi flakes in a tea bag, and cook at low heat until the kabocha is just soft (test with a bamboo toothpick). Do not over cook, you’ll end up with purée. Remove all liquid and the bag of katsuobushi. Add the soya sauce. Eat right away, or when cold.

I used the leftovers in a sautéed vegetable dish. With a bit if oil, the kabocha becomes golden and even more delicious.

Shojin cuisine

As I was questioning myself about Buddhist cuisine in China regarding these Chinese beancurd noodles, I decided to do a bit of search and reopen my Shojin cuisine book. I was right, until the 18th century in China buddhist and taoist temples would only serve vegetables soup and tea to pilgrims, the same thing monks were eating. Only it started to be a more elaborated and widespread cuisine during the Qing dynasty (late 17th to 20th century). In japan shojin cuisine was of course imported from China together with Zen by Dogen during the Kamakura period in the 12th-13th century. All the basic about Shojin cuisine were actually written in the 典座教訓 (Tenzo Kyokun) itself inspired by Chinese writings. It has evolved regularly from the early 17th century during Edo period to become shat it is now. Next time I go to China I’ll try to eat in a temple and try local buddhist or taoist cuisine for sure!

But back to my kitchen I decided as I said to reopen my Shojin cuisine book from the Sanko-in past abbess. I always have a lot of pleasure opening a cookbook I haven’t opened for a while and this one is no exception. One thing I love with that book is that it actually tell not only how to cook but also how and how long you can keep the food you have prepared, something that I find extremely useful. Browsing the book, I found plenty of autumn recipes I wanted to try and luckily I had all the ingredients needed to proceed. I tried two recipes one of kabocha and one of burdock. Both extremely simple. And I was very happy with the result, being back in my kitchen and preparing delicious locally grown vegetables. Here are the two recipes, not the way they were in the book but the way I actually cooked.

Burdock:

– 1/2 burdock

– 3tbs of sake

– 3tbs of soya sauce

Wash and cut the burdock in 4cm long sticks. Cut each piece in the length in 4 to 10 depending on the diameter.

Place in a small pan with water and boil 10min. Drain and the in a little pan add the sake and soya sauce and simmer for 20min at low very heat under cover. Eat warm or cold. Keeps one month refrigerated according to the book but it was so good we ate everything at once!!!!

Kabocha with black sesame and yuzu:

– 1/4 of kabocha

– 4tbs of black sesame

– 1/2cup of sake

– 3tbs of brown sugar

– grated yuzu peel

– pinch of salt

Cut the kabocha in bites keeping the skin of course. In a pan put the kabocha and cover with water. Add the sake, and sugar and bring to a boil, cook until kabocha is soft but not mushy. Grill the sesame in a pan and grind finely in a suri bowl. Add 2tbs of the cooking broth of the kabocha, add the salt. Remove the kabocha from the broth, set in a plate, add the sesame mix and finish with grated yuzu peel.

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