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Spring!

I surprise myself with this title actually! Yes all the young leaves start to sprout and the cherry trees are blossoming, but the blossom are lasting for a rather long time just because the sunny weather keeps going on but it is actually freezing cold these days! The city has turned pink and green and with my parents visiting I couldn’t help going for a walk with them to the nearby park to see the cherry blossoms. It turns out that the closest park to our place is Chidorigafuchi 千鳥ヶ淵, one of the most famous spot to see cherry blossoms and stroll under a pink tunnel of flowers. Blossoms are going to last a few more days in Tokyo so enjoy them!

Cooking wise, things have been a little more quiet since they arrived with some of their favorite classics: buta shoga yaki, gyoza… and mum who can’t help wanting to cook for dinner while I’m at work!!!

But I wanted to go back to that recipe of somen 素麺 with vegetables I prepared because it was so simple and delicious that it is worth sharing. Somen are thin wheat noodles eaten often in the summer in Japan, but I see no reason why not to eat them in other preparations all year round. They are something just in between spaghettini and vermicelli. In the summer they are eaten with cold broth deep and cucumber etc.. but I prepare them in many different ways. This time for the beginning of spring I decided to prepare them with sautéed carrots and spinach and plenty of fresh coriander, dressed with a bit of white soya sauce. Oh!? Can you guess what is the pink thing in the plate?

Burdock – 牛蒡

There are a few vegetables that are hard to find in Japan and I really love: fennels, artichokes, salsify…

When I first ate burdock (gobo ゴボウ 牛蒡) I was quite surprised with the very peculiar taste, and I realized it was a good alternative for both salsify and artichoke at the same time. This long root looks a lot like salsify, with a lot more fiber and this plus the flavor make them close to artichokes in a sense. I love to cook them, though strangely enough I don’t very often… One of my favorite recipe is in soup, but many recipes are more accessible such as in risotto, or these two very simple recipes today: a mixed sautéed vegetables one and a vegetables soup. Both are ultra simple.

Burdock sautéed

– 1/2 burdock

– 3 shiitake

– 1 turnip top

– olive oil

Wash and peel the burdock, cut in 5cm long and keep in a mix of water and vinegar. Wash and chop the shiitake and the turnip top. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the burdock and cook at high to medium heat until slightly golden. Then add the shiitake and a few minutes later the turnip top. Stir until the turnip top are soft.

Burdock and vegetables soup

– 1/2 burdock

– 1 carrot

– 1/4 cabbage

– 1/2 cup of short pasta (optional). I used stelline.

– a bit of olive oil

Heat a pan of water. Wash, peel and slice the burdock, add immediately to the water. Cut the carrot (I don’t peel my organic carrots), add also. Chop the cabbage and add it, finish with the pasta. When they are cooked serve and enjoy!

Spring is here!

After the fukinoto and the canola which both announce the arrival of spring and the cold unstable weather that usually accompany the plum blossom end, the next step is the real arrival of spring in late March or early April with the famous cherry blossoms of course, Mole’s quince and the jonquils putting beautiful colors in the garden but also the bamboo shoots (takenoko 筍)and the other wild vegetables: fern (kogomi こごみ), horsetail (tsukushi つくし), angelica tree buds (tara no me タラの芽)…

We don’t have kogomi and tara no me in our garden, or not that I know of yet (I discover new things each year!), I found a few tsukushi in the past but never enough or at the right time to harvest them. This year I found really plenty, enough to consider cooking some. Tsukushi are a bit of a delicate plant and their pollen is not very good so it’s better to harvest them early. The one on the picture below is for example a bit too old, this can be seen by the dark color of the head: the pollen is already about to go out! The pollen of tsukushi is blue to black, and looks like mold!!! I have never seen tsukushi in supermarkets, I assume they are too delicate for transport and shelf time. Their flavor is very subtle so I like simple preparations: quickly sautéed, or simply blanched in dashi. To prepare them, simply wash them and remove the corollas parts using your thumb by simply rolling the stem with the corolla on top of your nail. Then cook them in a pan with a bit of butter or as said above blanched them in a regular dashi. Serve them right away with rice, scrambled eggs… nothing too strong.

I my case I made a simple fried takenoko rice with sesame oil, scrambled eggs season with a few drops of soya sauce. That’s it!

Canola

Every year one of the first vegetable that shows the arrival of warmer days and real spring (meaning up and downs in temperatures and unstable weather) is canola.

Not only canola is delicious, it is also beautiful in the nature, with its tall vibrant green leaves and yellow flowers. Isumi and Otaki are quite famous for its sight as they grow along the Isumi line train tracks and make very picturesque pictures for which a lot of people come. Not to say when the cherry trees start blooming, the pink trees bring some more pictural scenes and views, and gather even more people!

I enjoy very much when we ride in the country side at that time, but as you know, I love cooking canola too a lot.

This time, I used it for a very quick recipe, with soba and scrambled eggs. I simply blanched the canola washed and cut with a handful of katsuobushi. I boiled the soba, prepare the eggs, served all in a bowl, added olive oil and soya sauce, that’s it!!!

I’m now flying to Australia for a few days… bye-bye!

Lemon curd

When I find beautiful, naturally grown local lemons I want to make many different things with them. The first lemons I harvested in our garden on are newly planted lemon tree were a little small. But when I can find large and juicy, one thing I love is lemon curd, and lemon tarts. Using up all the juice and the zest, lemon curd is quite easy to make. When it comes to British recipes I like to use the BBC website as they always have good recipes for the British basics. I started with this recipe and slightly changed it to adjust to my habit of not using half of an ingredient, in particular an egg, and because I didn’t to make meringues to top the tarts.

So here is my recipe of lemon curd. I love how the lemon flavor is not overly compensated by the sweetness and the perfect creamy texture it has.

Lemon curd (makes about 500g, good for 2 medium size tarts)

– 4 lemons, untreated, nor waxed or whatsoever

– 100g of salted butter

– 3 eggs

– 200g of brown natural cane sugar

Take the zests and juice of the lemon. Put in a pan with the sugar and butter and heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the fire and add the eggs. Stir well and put back on a very low fire and stir regularly. Keep cooking and steering once in a while for 15-20min, until very creamy. That’s it.

You can now use directly in your tarts, in cakes or put in glass jars and use as jam…

If you to make a tart, prepare a sablé dough, bake it and then add the lemon curd. Keep refrigerated.

Lemon curd keeps a few days if not jarred. But in both cases in the fridge.

Tofu

I am a big fan of tofu… most of you may say that tofu is an insipid, watery, white thing, but it is actually much more than that. I was convinced very quickly when we went to a tofu restaurant near Nezu (we used to live in Nezu) the very first months we lived in Tokyo. There was tofu in every single dish of the kaiseki course menu and it was amazing to discover all you can do with tofu. After that of course we’ve been to many other tofu restaurants, and for the scenery (though they serve not so much tofu actually) Ukai, at the foot of the Tokyo tower is without mistake a great pick. And regarding the preparation of tofu I learned a lot thanks to my cha-kaiseki classes. On thing that is always important is to drain hard tofu (momen tofu – 木綿豆腐) well. But what I realized recently is that a very well drained tofu, when heated in a pan for a short time ressembles ricotta in texture, without the milky taste. Perfect for A. who doesn’t like the taste of cheese and for me who live cheese. We have a compromise!

That’s how I’ve stared using very well drained tofu in many preparation where I may have used cheese. So, how does that work?

Drained tofu, rucola, shiitake for ravioli filling

You need to cutting boards, and a clean cloth. First start draining the tofu by pressing it between the two boards. Slightly incline the bottom one towards the sink, put the second on on top with a non breakable weight… anything you can find in the kitchen… I use miso packs or flour packs. Leave for an hour or so. Gravity will do the work.

Then put the tofu in the clean cloth and gently knead while squeezing to take the water of. Don’t be scared of squeezing hard. Once done you should obtain a rather dry to creamy texture. That’s it! Now you can use it in traditional Japanese recipes such as tofu balls with vegetables (I’ll post a recipe about that when the edamame season will arrive), or as I do, in replacement of ricotta, in quiches, in ravioli, or in pasta sauce, in salad…

Filled ravioli

Last night I used the same drained tofu for a simple pasta recipe. I had fresh and tender radish tops, and beautiful fresh anchovies and prepared penne. After draining the tofu and washing the greens I cooked them in a pan at low heat. I boiled the pasta and drained. Add to the greens and tofu, add salt, pepper and olive oil. In a small pan I grill the anchovies, add a few drops of olive oil. Served in the plates and enjoyed. That’s it, simple right?

The only issue is that draining tofu is a bit tedious, and takes time, so if you don’t have much cooking time, I recommend starting draining in the morning, by using a tea pot and a tea filter and leave in the fridge, by night it should be almost perfect.

Cheeses from Chiba

When we first settled in Isumi, and I found a cheese factory right down our valley I was really happy! Soon after that At Ohara harbor market I found Takahide farm and another Yojuemon cheese factory. This was more than enough in a country that doesn’t have a strong milk and cheese culture and I was fully satisfied. To be honest the closest cheese factory: Komagata, was good enough when I knew only that one, but as soon as I found Takahide, I stopped buying cheese there, as Takahide cheeses are so much better. Takahide has three delicious original cheeses: a reblochon style, a small creamy one that recently comes in different maturity (the more matured one on the picture below is just perfect) and a blue cheese, that is so perfectly made that even I who don’t really like blue cheese I love! The plus with Takahide is that they have also mozzarella and fromage blanc, and for those who like ice creams, and what for me is really important, they have their own milk farm. So when going to the cheese shop you can see the cows and how well treated they are. Takahide cheeses won several international awards and have attracted a lot of media attention a few years ago and the shop, which use to be a small counter inside the cheese factory is now a little cafe space where you can drink a delicious coffee and eat a pizza made with fresh mozzarella while looking at the cows.

Yojuemon makes ricotta mainly, or at least that’s what I always buy from them. And it’s a really good one. I usually buy at Ohara harbor market on Sunday morning.

But the whole point of this post is not to review what I already more or less said before… it’s to introduce a new cheese factory. This one is not in Isumi, but in Otaki, on the way to Yorokeikoku. It is called Sen 千. I discovered it thanks to some people I follow on IG. Sen is open only the first Sunday of the month, but luckily we had no plan but to go to Katsuura to see the Hina matsuri last Sunday, and with the terrible rain we thought that a drive in the country to see plum trees blossoming and early sakura would be great. So we headed up to Sen. The place is really cute, old houses, polish garden on top of a hill. Picturesque.

We were warmly welcome, and the cheese shop offer several varieties of cheese, even raclette cheese!!! I bought one small cheese but when the owner realized we were French we start chatting (in French) about her stay in France to study French cheeses, and the cheese she makes, and she offered me one of her award winning hash cheese. We also took a tour of the old buildings.

Once back home I prepared breads: fougasse with walnuts, and campagne bread and couldn’t wait to try them. Well to be honest, you don’t need bread. They were delicious just like that. It is very interesting because they are very different than Takahide cheeses, with probably stronger milk and cheeses flavors (probably due from her training in France!). The maturity also was great, with a creamy side below the crust. It was a great discovery!!

Now I have one favorite cheese farm and one favorite cheese factory!!!!

Vegan bagels

I love bagels a lot, but for some obscure reason I almost never make and bake any, hence my last posta about bagels is almost a year old…

So when I saw a recipe in my bread in 5 book, I just wanted to try it. What’s different from the previous one? Basically that it starts like regular bread, in which a little of oil is added to the dough, so it is vegan, the rest is pretty much the same. I kept my way of shaping them rather than the one in the book and same for cooking them. Bread in 5 boiling time was too short for my bagels, I kept with my previous cooking time.

The result was really bluffing. A little less sweet and buttery than with my old recipe, but with the same base I can also make focaccia and fougasse, because I used olive oil. So it makes the preparation very versatile. Of course the boiling and baking of bagels is a little extra effort, but so much worth it… with Isumi smoked ham and the new cheese factory (I’ll talk about this later) cheese I tested this weekend… perfect!

Vegan bagels (makes 6)

– 250g of flour

– 125g of tepid water

– 5g of yeast

– 7g of salt

– 15g of olive oil

Mix all the ingredients, and leave for the first rise for 2-3h at room temperature. When almost double in volume make a ball and cut in 6 pieces. Make 6 balls. Plant your finger in the middle and roll around your finger like a hula hoop until the hole is about 3cm. Leave to rest for another 30-60min. Prepare a pot of boiling water. Roll around your finger before plunging them in the boiling water. Don’t boil more than two or three at the same time. It’s better they don’t touch each other. Cook 90sec on each side and drain. Then roll them in what you want: sesame or any seeds, sugar, spices… bake for 15min at 200deg.

I don’t use egg batter but you can…

Enjoy!

Yacon

In a couple of days this fruit/vegetables I didn’t know about is everywhere around me… it all first started when I stopped at Tsukuba station to buy something for lunch at the station store selling local products. I wanted their super delicious 100% carrot juice but they didn’t have it anymore… so I had to improvise and chose a yogurt made of Ibaraki milk and seasoned with yakon. I really like the soft, sweet and subtle flavor. I then discovered that apparently, though yakon is originally from South America, it grows very well in Ibaraki apparently since the 1980’s. But not only, just the next day I found yakon at our local farmers market in Isumi. Enough to convince me to try cooking them. To be honest I have not been very extravagant with this new fruit/vegetable and I mainly used it with other vegetables, in soup or sautéed, as a replacement of potatoes. I did a bit of reading and found that it can actually be used raw or cooked, for sweet or savory recipes… too much at once for me. I first need to get used to the taste before I can accommodate it in complex and fancy recipes. In particular because yakon doesn’t have a strong flavor. Yet the texture is very interesting and it’s French name “poire de terre” suits it very well for the fresh and crispy texture it keeps even cooked.

My first trial was on a simple vegetables soup, with carrots and leeks. I didn’t bother peeling them, just washing thoroughly. As I said, it keeps it crispy texture which was great, even better than potatoes that become too creamy and soft sometimes. This took me then to another trial…

For the second recipe, you’ve already saw the picture in the last post, as yacon was part of the plate I prepared with the tatsoi, and the duck. I simply peel and cut in sticks, and panfry in a bit of oil them until golden like French fries. Again, it was great. Really crispy both from the frying and the texture of the yacon. Loved it!! what I learned in preparing them is that they oxyde very quickly and turn brownish. So better cook them quick after peeling and cutting.

Now I need to find some again and continue exploring how to use it!

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