The weekend is so short that two days are not enough to do all we want to do… first there is the mandatory refill of fresh local products, there is no way we can miss that, it’s a must, I couldn’t imagine buying all my vegetables and fruits in Tokyo (I don’t know how I was doing before!!!). Then there is the surf, and last weekend was an amazing one, beautiful weather, great waves! (picture from Y. Kamo), the tennis, the trees trimming, the lawn mowing, the harvesting and the cooking and baking…
So I often forget when the weather is warm and beautiful that we are in the pick time for typhoons. It is so easy to forget them… We had one two weeks ago, and there is one coming now. And that typhoons can be really damaging for a harvest, particularly when it comes to flower harvests… and last weekend I knew I should have harvested the perilla flowers and the osmanthus fragrans flowers, but it was dusk when we finished the trees trimming, too late for a task that takes a lot of time, and requires time after to prepare the flowers… How many times have I carefully and patiently harvested staples from the garden and they ended in the trash because I couldn’t have the proper time to prepare them? Gingko nuts, ripe loquats, fukinoto, strawberry tree fruits etc… I always tell myself “no more”…
So by trying to avoid that, I end up missing the harvest time, feeding the birds (which I am fine with, we share the resources), or risking the harvest to the weather… and that’s what I just did this time… and with the rain and the wind I can already predict that the beautiful orange flowers will be covering the ground in a mushy soup… so no preparation that I was having in mind, no recipe that I wanted to test (osmanthus fragrans jam, coconut and osmanthus fragrans jelly etc…), or the classic syrup I wanted to make, and likely as well, no perilla flower miso this year… well that’s the way it is when you don’t live everyday in the same place and when you are too busy after the slowness of the summer, to shape up your garden among other things…
I learn by my (repetitive) mistakes that harvesting is something that doesn’t wait…
In the meantime, there are some small successes: my sourdough starter Lois has decided to be good! After a hectic first week, the past two weeks have been great and produced a lot of sourdough breads and pancakes and crepes… in the end it was not that hard (I hope it will go on steadily) and I even manage to control its hunger and therefore growth by using approprietly the fridge. Below are a few examples of Lois at work. I still struggle with the oven heat and the cooking time…
As the summer fades away, autumn days are slowly settling in. Autumn in Japan does not mean yet fallen leaves, cold mornings etc… we’ll have to wait at least another month for that! October is usually a fair month with warm days and just chilly enough evening and mornings to enjoy a walk or a bicycle ride. The food stalls start changing in colors and products too. The new rice harvested in August, the pumpkins and kabocha, the lotus roots… of course some of the summer food will still be around for a while: the super ripe tomatoes, the last crunchy cucumbers…
Combined together late summer and early fool ingredients are perfect such as in this pasta recipe below: tomatoes, butternut, lotus root… simple but delicious.
With the more chilly evenings, it is nice to curl under a little blanket and eat a warming dish, warming by its color and flavors. So I prepared a slightly spicy soup with fresh vegetables and chicken meat-balls, in a bouillon of spices and fresh lemongrass. Here is my recipe, it’s super simple!! Hope you’ll like it!
Spicy soup (2 servings)
1 carrot
1 2cm slice of butternut squash
A handful of green beans
100-150g of chicken breast grounded
1 tsp of potato starch
1 pinch of turmeric
1 pinch of chilly pepper
1 pinch of coriander
1 pinch of salt and pepper
1 leave of fresh lemongrass
100g of vermicelli or thin noodles (optional)
Actually you can adjust the vegetables to what you have around… I sliced the carrot with the peeler to obtain very thin slices, but you can also do a julienne or small stick… it’s up to you…
So in in a large pan I heat 1L if water, add the vegetables and the spices. Then in a bowl I mix the meat and the starch. Make small balls (1.5-2cm diameter) and toss them in the boiling bouillon. After 10min all is ready. 5min before eating I add the noodles. They cook very quickly and you don’t want them to become thick and too soft. Serve immediately. Yes… that’s it!!!
Well… while this week has been crazy busy with work, I also was very excited with my sourdough experiment… and things turned out almost as I expected they would… with utter fun when Lois grew and foamed and in utter disappointment when it stopped, finishing in a nauseous mess that stunk like I couldn’t imagine it would. Sourdough is not for me, I knew it…
Lois on the 2nd day, gently bubbling
I read books, blogs, websites about sourdough before starting (it took me 5 years to get ready for the commitment!!!!) and while I was observing it growing. I wanted to do right, not to waste precious time and resources. Then I was almost desperate when it started to stink, read even more about all the possible tricks, tested them all: sugar, malt, fridge, not fridge, more food, more mixing, rest, splitting it and starting afresh… nothing seemed to have worked truly. Almost 1kg of mixture went down the drain in a terrible smell. The rest is sitting in the kitchen in a desperate hope I can still save it. The smell is gone but no foaming and bubbling as I thought it would… part of the passive mixture was used for pancakes this morning…
But before things went south I had on the third day just enough to make a tiny bread to test it when it was still good! And damned! Even if I rushed it a bit ( temperature went down with the rain so the rising was too slow for the impatient me!) the crust was perfectly crusty, the crumbs were moist and soft, and the taste of whole wheat and sourdough was amazing. Enough to keep me trying to save what is left of Lois… so now I am in this terrible situation where I want to stop hoping I can grew a stable relationship with my sourdough, but I can’t take the final decision to trash it all, as the taste of sourdough bread was so perfect…
Whether on weekdays, when we have little time to have lunch or on the weekends when we are busy with surfing/bodyboarding, playing tennis or gardening, having a good lunch easily ready is important. Moreover, if that can be prepared in advance it is even better! Fresh pasta have been quite a good candidate as they can be accommodated easily, be eaten warm or cold… and since it it is the end of the summer we want to continue enjoying the summer vegetables a little longer, in particular, enjoy the last edamame of the season. I know that we will have eggplants and tomatoes for quite a few weeks or even months but they add a real summer touch to a dish. So I came up with a recipe of edamame pasta with eggplant that is all creamy and divine and I couldn’t wait sharing that recipe with you, as if you want to try you’ll have to hurry!
Edamame, fava beans, and similar are a good match with eggplants and are traditionally used together in Japanese cuisine. I revisited this classic combination in a more western style.
Edamame and eggplant creamy pasta (2 servings)
a handful of edamame
2 eggplants
fresh pasta
olive oil
salt and pepper
grated Parmigiano (optional)
Boil the edamame, grill the eggplants to be able to peel them. Once the edamame have cooled down peel them completely and in a mortar puree them. Add a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Peel the eggplant and add to the mix and pure roughly. Boil the fresh pasta, once drained add the mix, stir well ad serve. Add grated Parmigiano if you like.
Yes! that’s it! Isn’t that simple? And you’ll see it is truly delicious!
While we are celebrating the 8th anniversary of the purchase of our country house, I thought it was time to reflect a bit on how this purchase has modified our lives, probably more deeply than we could have expected or maybe realized and in many ways how this house and its surroundings have changed my shopping and cooking habits, and play now a central role.
Here’s the quick story on how we bought a house in Isumi. After a few years living in Tokyo, we realized that with earthquakes, and the real estate in the city it wouldn’t be reasonable to buy a house there… yet… owning a Japanese style house was something we fancied, and we spent hours day dreaming on the catalogue of country houses and properties of furusato.com, a website that sells all kind of properties in remote Japan. The seed was there. Our friends’ house and their life style in Tsunan probably helped a lot in making the idea grow, and one day, out of the blue in June 2012 we went to visit one house in Yokosuka… ocean view, pool, but not quite it… the next Friday, A. sends me a link, I call the real estate agent. Appointment to visit the next morning. It rains as usual in June, the hydrangeas are blooming, the garden is a mess of lush greens, the house needs serious refurbishing and reform but no serious work. This is it! For the sake of pleasing the agent and being sure of our choice we go to visit another one, but our minds are all set. This is the one! And in a snap the deal is done.
The day we bought our house in Isumi
We often work like this. We mature something for a loooong time, but when we’re set we’re set, and never regret. It took us 3 years to decide to buy our first car, 1 test drive to settle, it took 7 years to decide to buy a country house in Japan, 5min to settle.
So now that’s when things get even better than we could have ever imagined… Every year has its reforming and embellishments. Of course we were not totally stupid on our choice. We decided to pick a house in a not too touristic place (avoiding the big weekend crowds of Hakone, Karuizawa, Hayama…), quite rural, and nearby the ocean. And 100km away from Tokyo, so that the driving wouldn’t get too long. While our plan was to go every once in a while, we quickly got addicted to being there, the space, the light, the green, the quietness. Keeping yourself busy with something in the garden or in the house is something that is priceless. Being outside, in the open air, surrounded by greens or the ocean made me stronger, and more confident. It also has given me a lot of time to think, while the hands are at work trimming and pruning, about the career moves I wanted to do or not do, to understand where and when I was in perfect equilibrium. It also constantly makes me question what I do and why. This country house and the life we live there show me the absurdity of our societies and help me understand its profound problems. Of course it doesn’t give any answer, there is no magic here… just learning to observe more, be more patient in the kitchen garden, manage frustration when a parasite destroy your crop…
All these changes happened slowly, when we discovered little by little the communities living there, the amazing resources, the many enthusiastic and passionate people we meet. We learn about Japanese wood craft, we learn earthware craft, we learn about farming. We now live on food that is produced right there (some people challenge themselves to live on food that comes from less than 100miles, we could say that most of ours comes from less than 10miles, and we don’t even need preserves as each season has its harvest!!!). Isumi is rich in all kind of food from vegetables to fruits, sea products and cattle farming. The dairy, the eggs, the seaweed, the fishes, the pork, the rice are incredible… there is a community of permaculture farmers and organic farmers… Living in Tokyo had given me such a limited choice of food and quality, even when I was shopping at local farmers near work, they didn’t have the choice we can have here. Living in Isumi, I discover new greens every season!!!
Having a lot of variety in food is nice, learning how to prepare it is just even better. Thanks to new friends and neighbors I have shared so much. My 89 year old neighbor teach me not only to sew, but also to garden and to cook or prepare local products such as umeboshi. Our other neighbors and friends too. We make umeshu together, miso, we exchange seeds…
Yet one thing was missing from the city: the good bread shops from Tokyo for our breakfast. And that’s when I took on baking bread. At first it was just a once in a while thing. It was tedious, not always very successful but I didn’t give up. I studied, and tried over and over. I enjoy the kneading, the shaping, the eating! I also teach friends about some local French breads making…
The other thing I learnt to deal with was the uncontrollable humidity/dryness and heat/cold in the house that prevent you from being able to keep any non Japanese staple longer than 6 months. Forget about having a bag of almonds or cookies in your pantry, they turn bad in no time. Who cares I’d say… I realized that making pancakes, crepes or scones takes only a few minutes and they are much more healthy and delicious!! Making cookies also is just that simple too!
So this little house with its green surroundings has been the source of a constant amazement and bliss, every single second I think about it, even when I am worried about it when a typhoon passes or the earth shakes, I feel it was a very good decision and we got lucky. Japan (but not only) countryside is full of surprises and being able to discover and experience it in deep is now an essential part of our lives.
Now why didn’t we make a bold move to the country is another question I’ll answer later…
Every week, I am hoping for a more quieter week and every week day is getting busier and I end up with very very little time to cook… for example today my lunch was some raw carrots, a piece of Comte cheese and some nuts… as I rushed between meetings and things to do. It is also often a bowl of rice topped with something rapidly cooked (more coming about that soon). So when I manage to have just a little more time to cook I jump on the occasion and I cook some more fancy things. “Fancy” being almost exaggerated!! The season for edamame is starting now and I got some from the farmers market, which I was thinking I would just boil for a quick use in salad or with rice but then I had this little window of time for cooking and I was all set for making edamame gyoza, but then thought that as delicious it seems, it would be almost too conventional in traditional Japanese flavors, so I decided to opt for the Italian version: ravioli!!!
While making ravioli takes a little bit more time, it is so rewarding and we love them so much that it is always worth eating a bit late!!! For this edamame ravioli, I mixed in the filling the edamame and some pork meat and I dressed them simply with olive oil, salt and pepper. Here is my recipe.
Edamame ravioli
100g of flour (I used whole wheat here)
1 egg
a bit of water
100g of ground pork meat
200g of edamame
Salt, pepper olive oil
Prepare the pasta by mixing, as usual, the flour, the egg and a bit of water. Knead well and keep for 30min.
Boil the edamame. Once cooled down, shell them and remove the skin as much as possible. In a mortar puree them roughly (as on the above picture). In a frypan cook the pork meat then mix with the edamame. Add salt and pepper. Keep the frypan as it is.
Roll the pasta. Fill the ravioli and close them. Boil a large pan of water and boil the ravioli. When they float move them to the frypan with half a ladle of cooking water. Add olive oil a bit and cook 2min before serving and enjoying immediately.
I am always amazed by all you can do with just flour and water… and recently I’m getting addicted to flat breads… Remember when I first tried here? Well… the same person that makes the dried chickpeas that triggered my wish for flat bread to eat with falafels, well, also makes chickpeas flour… I use a lot chickpeas flour for socca, but I wanted a change so I decided to explore possibilities with flat breads.
First, I made a trial by replacing 3/4 of the flour by chickpeas flour and that worked perfectly… served with zucchini and basil.
Then, another possibility I thought of was to replace half of the flour by whole wheat flour… and that’s all the same delicious.
Finally, I decided to add seeds to the dough. Caraway or cumin seeds are perfect.
As for cooking I tried two options. One is in the dry thick frypan. To obtain a soft bread, flexible and light. The other way, I added vegetal oil in the pan and fried them. It gives a crispy golden bread. Both were equally delicious but I have a preference for the dry soft ones, in particular when used to eat vegetables such as eggplants or zucchinis…
One thing is sure is that making flat breads is super simple, fast and requires no complex ingredients. They are delicious and fit super well summer vegetables or curry. They will be on our table often!!
I’m a big fan of cooked eggs and always have been. I recall the soft boiled eggs with bread and butter of my childhood, the omelettes, with cheese, potatoes or wild asparagus or wild mushrooms… going to the chicken farm near my grand parents home to get fresh eggs… this love for eggs hasn’t changed a bit over time, now I still love eggs. Poached, sunny side, scrambled… every mean is great. But recently I rediscovered home made hard boiled eggs. In Japan they can easily be bought in convenience store and I’ve been eating one, once in a while, as an afternoon snack for a long day, but I rarely if not never boiled my eggs… I don’t know why… hard boiled eggs are super convenient: they keep easily, transport easily and are delicious… but the recipes now I love the most with hard boiled eggs is in a dressing for vegetables or pasta.
Chopped thinly, mixed with olive oil and mustard this a must to dress a potato salad for example. Or like in today’s recipe, with basil and olive oil, to dress some pasta and green beans. The variations are infinite as eggs accommodate well with so many things: parsley, basil, olive oil, mustard, mayonnaise, curry…
Count one egg for 2 servings, and have a good week!!!
We are moving in our new apartment tomorrow, but getting everything ready and working doesn’t mean not cooking, we have to eat 😉 Luckily we are only moving vertically so it’s quite easy to go and meet with the workers in between two online meetings, and anyway we decided not to do a lot of renovations first rather wait to see how we live in that new place. Our main idea was that since we spend most of our week days at work and most of our weekends in the countryside, our Tokyo apartment was oversized, so we wanted a downsizing. Few people want to move to a smaller place but we did. So we found a smaller version without a guest room we decided to move… well that was before Corona and simultaneous telework, so maybe not the most judicious timing… but one has to take opportunities when they come!
What does moving has to do with bamboo shoots??? Nothing… it’s spring, the soft pink of the sakura season is over and made way to the bright pink and fuchsia azaleas, and bamboos are growing growing growing. I even saw some in Kitanomaru park during one of my daily walks. But as I said before, the season is very short, so it’s better to enjoy them without delay.
I presented in the past some bamboo shoot recipes but this week I came with a few more ideas and wanted to share them with you. Both recipe today are mixing Mediterranean and Japanese cuisine, and the key is a fragrant olive oil. The first one is a chickpeas and tomatoes ragu, the second is more of a leftover type of recipe. Indeed, because we’re moving I decided to empty the fridge and the pantry as much as I could. And because we’re moving also and our view won’t be as dramatic as the actual one I shoot a few more times my lunch plate with a view…
Chickpeas and bamboo shoots ragu
– 1/2 bamboo shoot
– 2 cups of boiled chickpeas
– 1 large ripe tomato
– a few capers
– fragrant olive oil
– salt and pepper
Prepare the bamboo shoot as usual by boiling it in rice water fir as long as it needs to be soft (a tooth pick should easily enter.
Boil the chickpeas.
Wash the tomato. In a large pan generously oiled with a good olive oil add the tomato roughly cut. Cook until you obtain a smooth tomato sauce. Add salt and pepper and the capers, the chickpeas, and the sliced bamboo shoots. Stir and add a bit if olive oil, serve and eat warm or cold. That’s it!!!
Leftover bamboo salad
– 1/4 of bamboo shoot boiled
– a handful of boiled chickpeas
– 2 large boiled potatoes
– 1/2 new onion blanched
– a handful of boiled green beans
– fragrant olive oil
– 1tbs of soya sauce
Cut the bamboo, the potatoes, the onion and the green beans, dress in a bowl. Add the chickpeas, the soya sauce, sone olive oil, stir gently and eat!!!
