Tag: local product

The magic of the little red beans

One thing I have very rarely talked about here is adzuki – 小豆 literally small bean. They are present in many Japanese recipes and in most of the Japanese sweets. In fact beans are an important staple in Japanese cuisine: to name only a few the soya beans or daizu 大豆 literally big beans, the traditional jumbo black beans or kuromame 黒豆 for new year and of course the tiny adzuki!

raw adzuki beans

These little beans are usually cooked with sugar and salt to make tsubuan 粒あん when the beans are kept almost whole, or anko あんこ when the beans are puréed into an homogenous paste. The paste of tsubuan and anko is then used in many preparations: yokan, dorayaki, daifuku, ohagi, kintsuba, oshiruko…

Today let me introduce the basic recipe for anko and tsubuan and of oshiruko お汁粉, one of the traditional new year “soup”. Even though adzuki are dried beans they cook in 1h only so they are surprisingly easy to use.

Anko and tsubuan (makes 500g which is a lot!)

  • 200g of dry adzuki
  • 200g of brown sugar
  • Water
  • A pinch of salt

Rince the beans and put them in a pan, cover with water, bring to a boil, then decrease the heat to keep a steady boiling for 5min. Then drain the beans and throw the water. Return the beans to the pan and cover with ample water and bring to a boil again. Cook at medium heat for 40min, until the beans are almost soft. Drain the beans, throw the water, return the beans to the pan, add the sugar and cook at low heat and stir gently until the remaining moisture is gone. Add a pinch of salt. For the tsubuan that’s it. For anko you need to purée to obtain a paste.

Oshiruko (1 serving)

  • 50g of anko or tsubuan
  • 15cl of water
  • A small piece of semi-dry mochi to grill

In a pan heat the bean paste and the water to obtain a kind of thick soup. In the meantime grill the mochi. Serve the soup, add the mochi and enjoy!!! Beware that the soup, because of the sugar can be really hot.

Christmas crazy, no more…

The frenzy of Christmas leaves me more and more perplexed and this year, having the opportunity (if one can says so) to spend it at home, just like a normal day off was actually more than welcome. Since we’ve been in Japan, rare are the years we haven’t spent Christmas with our families in Europe. While a family reunion is nice, Christmas is a time I dislike being in Paris, it’s dark, gloomy and cold. We are always suffering from jetlag, waking up at 5:00am when it’s pitch black outside and it will stay so for another 3 hours… better yet when we spend Christmas in the south of France, or even better in Italy. I love so much better the Italian spirit… But jetlag and dark mornings are not the only reason why I dislike so much this period, what I fear the most about Christmas are the long dinner and lunch that go with it, the sudden abundance in food like it were the only day we can eat and we have to eat them all from the appetizers to the mignardises… in magazines, instagram and wherever else… giant turkeys, creamy cakes, chocolate overdosed buches…

This is millions miles away from my conception of good food and good eating. Why shall you wait for Christmas or new year eve for champagne, caviar, foie gras and truffle and presents??? For fine chocolates and treats??? Why on earth would you get them all on one day??? For me, everyday is a cooking feast and every day is worth a present, I love the concept of unbirthday we should have an unchristmas too! I can’t wait 365 days and then just have to take it all in a snap! This is too ridiculous. Maybe also because my birthday is so closed from Christmas. Also, for me, a festive good meal doesn’t need to have fancy ingredients (actually I dislike most of them…), it just needs love in the kitchen and at the table and a few basic products. So the very best part of a European Christmas is undeniably the breakfast, really early, in the kitchen overlooking the garden still in the darkness: pieces of pompe a l’huile or slices of panettone dipped in a cup of hot black tea and tangerines peeled carefully and eaten slowly🍊 is what makes me the happiest. When all is still quiet.

Pompe a l’huile and tangerines

This year, no travel, no jetlag, no dark morning , no family reunion, and no Christmas party with friends, it was just the two of us in our country house. Perfect. I prepared rustic potatoes and smoked ham ravioli for Christmas eve, and pompe a l’huile for the morning breakfast, which wasn’t dark as in Japan the sun sets early, and early enough to catch up with family still on Christmas eve. Luckily Isumi is well stocked in tangerines groves, so it’s really easy to find some good ones… ours from our tree are long eaten! And that was a perfect Christmas.

I wish you all a happy holiday season!

Christmas ravioli, just the usual ravioli filled with smoked ham and potatoes, dressed with onion and shiitake

New local cheeses 🧀

On rainy days when we can be outside in the garden, in the ocean or elsewhere there are a few things we like to do. One of them is to look at real estate agencies websites (that’s actually how we found our house), and simultaneously look at google map satellite view and see the properties, the local terrain… and usually find new things around, hiking spots or roads to explore by bicycle. That’s exactly what happened the other day. While we were searching for woods to acquire (without success) we found the cheese factory called Ikagawa that is just 8km away from home on a nice small road, so a perfect short ride by bicycle. Not that Ikagawa farm is new. They’ve been around for at least 10 years. Just we never found out before…

As soon as the weather got better we took out bicycles, went up and down the hills inland and found the place. From the website it seemed tiny, but it looked like the cows were there. They weren’t, they are in the farm 10min ride away, and as it was late and getting dark we didn’t go. We only saw a very friendly dog and a goat. And the tiniest “shop” that is barely a counter. We were nicely welcomed and presented with the cheeses. A few varieties, but the ones I came for were the hard cheeses 🧀. They have two varieties of hard cheese. I got both.

I baked a sourdough bread back home. Oh! Yes! Sourdough… you read well. I cook everything sourdough now and I am very pleased with it. I start to get things well now!!! And breakfast for the next day was all set! Both cheese were delicious and we’ll be back for sure! We are so lucky that Isumi has such delicious cheeses factories and it is really great to see that there are many farms doing different cheeses. If you come around Isumi, I recommend you get a cheese factory tour!!!

Wafu pasta 和風パスタ

If you’ve been following me for a bit you are no stranger to the fact that I LOVE pasta. All kind!!!

Wafu pasta are a common thing on our table, even if for Italian people I reckon this is a terrible thing. But honestly… it is delicious, and since it mainly involves spaghetti or capellini, one could almost consider them as noodles… sorry if I make a big leap here!!!

Wafu pasta to me are a mix of Japanese vegetables, soya sauce, sesame oil, sesame or nori topping etc… this time my recipe is super simple and really tasty: leek, mizuna, sesame oil, sesame seeds and a good doze of soya sauce, with half whole wheat spaghetti. That’s how much simple lunch can be!!

How do you like your wafu pasta???

Lotus root burgers

I often talk of recipes with lotus roots. It’s a Japanese staple easy to find when in season and super very versatile to cook and delicious. I love it in Japanese classic preparations such as stuffed or with vinegar, but also in more western style like on pizza or in quiche… lotus root is reaching the end of the season but there are still a few more weeks to enjoy it luckily!!!

Lotus root in pizza and quiche

In Japanese supermarkets, you pack your shopping goods after the cashier on dedicated tables that have small bags, tapes and usually a few advertisements for local things or recipe cards. I like to look at these recipe cards, they sometimes remind me of a recipe long forgotten, an ingredient cooked last too long ago or just an idea for a new recipe. That’s how the lotus root burgers came to my mind. The recipe is rather simple and very tasty, it is made with chicken meat but it can easily be replaced by hard tofu for a vegan version. So let me share it with you.

Lotus root burgers (2 servings)

  • 10-15cm of lotus root, about 4-5cm diameter
  • 100g of ground chicken breast or drained hard tofu
  • 2tbs of miso
  • 50g of panko
  • 1 egg
  • A bit if oil for frying

In a bowl mix the meat or the tofu, the miso, the panko, the egg. Stir well.

Peel the lotus root and cut 12 regular slices of 4-6mm. Chop the rest of the lotus root and add to the mix.

Pick one slice in your hand. With a spoon cover with the mix to obtain about a 10mm layer, sandwich with another slice.

In a non sticky pan slightly greased with oil, fry the 6 burgers in both sides. Serve with rice, and add the juice of a yuzu for an even tastier experience. Et voilà!!!

Soup and bread…

What is more comforting than a warm soup when you have spent the whole day outside and the temperature have suddenly dropped? Every year I am shocked by the sudden change of the temperatures in Japan in autumn. There is always one day in November when you start the day wearing tea shirts and short pants, and go swimming in the morning and then turn on the heater and cashmere sweat pants and sweater in the evening are more than necessary. When this time comes, I crave for warm vegetables soups. A. always complains as he prefers them to be velouté. I love any style, but rarely bother using the blender, and prefer listen to A.’s complaint… 😉

One thing that I love with soup is when they come with croutons, but I also have amazing memories of rural vegetables soup with fresh sourdough bread eaten at Mme Fages’s place in Mas Saint Chely. Something that I would be so happy to have, warming up near the fireplace after a mushroom hunt in the cold. That and her chocolate mousse!

Now that I have Lois and make only sourdough bread, it was perfect for this kind of very simple dinner: a piece of bread remaining from breakfast, many vegetables waiting too long their turn to be prepared, a pan with the juice of a long cooked piece of pork. That’s what this soup is made of, and here is the recipe.

Vegetables soup and bread (2 servings)

  • 1/2 sweet potato
  • A piece of kabocha (3cm slice)
  • 1 little turnip
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 bundles of komatsuna or spinach
  • Water, salt and pepper
  • Bouillon of your choice, mine comes from the pan in which I slowly cooked a piece of pork
  • 2 generous slices of sourdough bread

In the pan I cooked the pork I add about 600ml of water and heat. I wash, peel and chop the vegetables and add them to the bouillon in order: carrot, turnip, sweet potato, kabocha, greens. I cook at medium heat until the vegetables are soft or mushy. Add salt and pepper. Blend and serve. Top with the bread roughly cut, and eat right away.

No need for butter, olive oil, no nothing.

Omurice – オムライス

I am lucky to work with one of my students on the development of a system that proposes variations to things someone do depending on preferences… for developing such a system we decided to chose a concrete example, and the first idea that came to our mind was a system that could help you in making new recipes by trying adding popular ingredients. And to do a first real life experiment we needed something easy enough to prepare and with many possible variations. We picked omurice. The whole time we were meeting and discussing it reminded me how much I live omurice, and how little I cook it.

I also remembered that a long long time ago I promised to post the recipe of this popular wa-yo 和洋 recipe. But for some reason it seems I never did… so let’s fix this right now!!!

First of all let’s talk wa-yo food a bit. While Japan opened to the west for many things in the 19th century, it had continually had this very specific way of not copying but adapting to its own taste or resources the cultural elements of another civilization, such that in the end it creates a genuine Japanese part of culture. Food has many examples: curry-rice, castella, dorayaki, and omurice. It seems to be born in a cafe in Ginza in the early 20th century.

The first time I heard about omurice was when reading one of Murakami Ryu‘s novel: “coin lockers babies”. The translation and the way it was presented was that of a rice omelette. In my mind I imagined a batter of eggs with cooked rice in it, cooked in a frypan. How far from the truth I was!!! Omurice is a simple preparation for sure but with many variations. Each place that serves om-rice has its own recipe. It consists in three parts: the rice, the omelette and the sauce.

The rice: usually plain white rice, but can be also sautéed with green peas (my favorite) and small bit of pork… tomato sauce or tomato ketchup can also be added to the rice to give it a nice pink color. Mushrooms, chicken are also other options.

The omelette: it can be a rather straightforward omelette, or a more runny one, or something like very runny scrambled eggs. Usually plain. It is nice to have it a bit runny in any case as it mixes well with the rice.

The sauce: that’s where most of the creativity is, and often too much for me. One popular sauce in fancy om-rice recipe is the demiglass sauce デミグラスソース, made from red wine, beef consommé etc… but my ultimate favorite is just a splash of tomato ketchup. The simplest the better.

This time, I made omurice with brown rice and that was super delicious. A runny omelette on one side with 2eggs, a splash of tomato ketchup, and a side of blanched komatsuna.

Burdock – 牛蒡

With the fall, burdock 牛蒡 gobou is back in season. This long root that looks like a salsifis but is firm and ressembles in texture artichokes, and a bit in taste too… is a classic flavor in Japanese cuisine. Probably because of a rather country style strong flavor and its fibrous texture, it often appears in simple recipes with other strongly flavored ingredients: chilly pepper in kinpira for example, or in very small quantities. Given that a burdock root is quite big, and one can keep for rather long, it is a very handy vegetable!!!

I love to cook it in different preparations. Creamy soup is one of my favorite but it takes quite some time and requires a blender. Last night I came up with a simple recipe that mixes daigaku imo recipe inspiration with gobou in a light version. I’ll talk about daigaku imo later… The recipe with burdock is really simple and super tasty. It is perfect with a bowl of rice or whatever you like.

Burdock & sweet potato (2 servings)

  • 1/2 burdock
  • 1 sweet potato not too big (fits in the palm)
  • 2tbs of sesame seeds
  • 1tbs of sesame oil
  • 2tbs of soya sauce
  • 1tsp of sugar

Wash and peel the burdock. With a peeler make kind of gobou flakes. Boil in water until it softens. About 15min probably. Drain. Wash the sweet potato and cut in sticks not too big.

In a pan greased with the sesame oil, start cooking the sweet potato. Add the burdock drained. Stir well. When the sweet potato changes to darker yellow or golden, add the sugar the soya sauce, and the sesame seeds, stir well again. Cook another 2 minutes while stirring. And serve. Eat warm or chilled.

Completely in love with my sourdough 🤍🤍🤍

After the slightly difficult beginnings with my sourdough starter Lois, it’s been almost 2months and we have reached a nice cruising speed, I use it all the time now. I’m still a bit surprised that my starter hasn’t done any crazy bubbling so far, on the contrary, it’s been behaving very very well, doing regular foaming but to a reasonable volume, and when in need for food it smells a nice apple flavour.

Cooking bread with my sourdough starter at first was quite tedious, with the impression of starting from the scratch, in particular, I had to relearn how the proving and rising worked, cooking at higher temperatures, with many of my first breads that just imploded when baking, ending up with big cracks on the bottom rather than on the top, or being too dense. I also needed a bit of adjustment with the flour I was using. I am still searching for a steady supply of organic local flour (and I will make a post as soon as I find something that is worth mentioning). The ones I have used during the summer are now out of stock and it seems unsure when they will have stock again. Together with searching for supply, I steadily continued and learned from my mistakes, and now they are all fixed or so, and I have started to obtain a regular shape and beautiful crusts with fluffy crumble on a regular basis. I started playing again with whole wheat, wheat bran,nuts etc… In the end, it seems that lower room temperature and longer times work very well for my sourdough starter. That to say that the sourdough adventure is a beautiful one and the flavour of the breads are uncomparable with those made with yeast (dry or fresh), so even if it took me so long to make up my mind, that it is a hassle to travel with my sourdough back and force between Tokyo and Ohara, it is just a new habit. And if while in Tokyo I use little of the sourdough for baking (until I get my kitchen redone with an oven…), but the one thing that I find really amazing is to use the extra sourdough I have for flat breads and for pancakes. It brings the flavour to a new level, something quite addictive.

  • Flat breads
  • Hazelnut and walnut bread
  • Plain white bread

So if you have a sourdough starter that you don’t use much for bread baking like me, I highly recommend you continue feeding it every day and use it for anything that needs flour and water. If you have other tricks to use your sourdough please let me know I am curious about other uses. Indeed Lois is quite gluttonous and in 4 days it gets quite voluminous!
Actually I have already starting giving parts of it away to friends so if you are interested in a stable sourdough starter, please let me know!

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