Tag: new onion

Japanese spring

Here I am! Back to warm and blossoming Tokyo! What a difference from Canada! Not only it is warm and all the cherry trees are blossoming, people are out to enjoy the weather and the flowers, there is this very special euphoria in March in Japan. The season for graduation, for endings and soon new departures. And we are no exception to that. April is going to be busy, full of novelty and surprises.

When I left Tokyo almost two weeks ago we were only having a few spring veggies: new potatoes mainly and a few greens from the south of Japan, by the time I’m back new carrots, onions, green peas, all the wild vegetables are displayed at the fresh food corner. Bamboos shoots also will be there soon! Since both A. and I are coming back from long separated trips and we are both suffering from jetlag from different time zones, the first things we did was to go grocery shopping to indulge ourselves with a nice dinner that will make us feel the season and prepare our mind and bodies to the Japanese time. It is quite rare I shop for food in Tokyo recently, but I have a few favorite places: Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, Seijo ishi Tokyo Dome or Isetan Shinjuku. This time we stopped at Mitsukoshi and got some fresh new vegetables and a piece of fresh red sea-bream. It’s not always easy to find wild fish but at least I know each of these three places usually have some. And the dinner then was just simply decided with a classical preparation of sautéed vegetables slightly deglazed in soya sauce and pan grilled fish. And I am so happy to be back.

Miso spring quiche

The last weekend had a real taste of spring, beautiful weather, warm air, flowers in the garden, pollen allergy e tutti quanti! And at the farmers market na no hana of course but also new potatoes and new onions with green, something in between leek and new onions somehow, and grown in Kujukuri, a few kilometers north of Isumi. To test this newly arrived vegetables, as soon as I saw them I decided to bake a quiche, with miso, tofu and na no hana. The recipe is quite aimple and straight forward. First prepare some dough for the pie crust. I used some whole wheat flour and olive oil. Roll and set in a pie dish. Then in a bowl beat 3 eggs, 3 table spoon of miso and add a piece of momendofu (hard tofu). Beat well, and pour in the pie crust. Wash the vegetables and add more or less elegantly in the mixture. Bake at 180deg for 40min. Et voilà!

Simple Japanese meal

With friends at home for the whole weekend I ended up not cooking Japanese at all, and since Friday I was still craving for some simple Japanese taste. Finally last night I got it done! A. is good at preparing Japanese rice, which saves a bit of time when I am finishing work rather late, and I had some perfect fresh Japanese vegetables for a simple meal: onion for Shirako, white carrots and new lotus roots. I simply wash/peel and cut all the vegetables, heat a bit if oil in a pan and cook them under cover until almost done (the onion being probably the most critical) then I remive the cover, add some soya sauce and cook at high heat for 2 minutes, and serve with the rice. It’s not very elaborated but it tastes perfectly Japanese!

Barley risotto

I’m a big fan of all kind of cereals and leguminous plants. I like to use them in many recipes. In Japan there exists many, such as adlay and millet and of course all the beans (豆) families: edamame, azuki, black beans… I also like the European or Asian ones too, barley, lentil, chickpea… that are less common. In particular barley is really nice to cook as a substitute of rice. I use it to make risotto (here is a winter recipe). It is more crunchy than rice and the texture goes very well with all kind of vegetables. This time I used in in a risotto primavera, with fresh green peas, fresh new onions, fresh green beans and fresh basil. I added some bacon for A. It is very simple to prepare. First in a. It olive oil cook the baconand the new onion. Then add the barley and rost it. Finally add water, and the vegetables. It cooks under cover for 20min and then it’s ready to eat! Don’t forget to add the vegetables in order of longer cooking time to avoid over cooking them.

Last day of GW

Here it is… the golden week is going to end soon… it’s going to be hard to leave our stray cat, the garden and the big kitchen. I have baked a dozen of breads, tarts, quiches, I have made ravioli and all sort of things. DIYed with A. and gardened quite a lot. We’ve had 10 friends visiting, went for walks in the woods, meet snakes we didn’t know about… In short, country life.

So to conclude this golden week, I would like to introduce a new recipe, inspired loosely from Pierre in Osaka: a cold new onion soup.  My recipe is probably much simpler than that at Pierre, but the result was amazing. New onions are in season and I can only recommend you try!

Cold new onion soup, for 4 people as a starter

– 3 large new onion

– 15cl of fresh cream

– salt and pepper  

Peel off the first skin of the onion, cut them in four, set in a pan and cover with water, add a bit of salt. Boil them until soft. Blend them with the remaining water (if not too much), add the cream. Keep at room temperature or refrigerate before serving. When serving add black pepper.

 

Our stray cat Holly and sleepy I enjoying some early morning quiet time
Our stray cat Holly and sleepy I enjoying some early morning quiet time

Quick pizza

Finding some fresh rucolla at the farmers market suddenly triggered my craving for a vegan fresh pizza. Nothing more simple, with the delicious little new onions and the small very ripe tomatoes I had already. Making pizza dough for the crust is really simple, and with the warm weather the rising time and proving time are really short. This time I almost didn’t let if proof and the crust was thin and crusty, delicious.

Pizza dough

 – 170g of flour

– 6g of fresh yeast  

– 80g of water

– 15g of olive oil

– 5g of salt

– 1tbs of sugar

As for any regular dough, mix all the ingredients and knead until smooth. Let rise for 1h in a warm place. Work the dough on a flat surface and roll it to the size and shape you want.  

Now you can top it with whatever you want and preheat the oven at 200deg. For the topping I used small tomatoes halves and small new onion first, with a few drops of olive oil. I baked for 15min. Then rose the temperature to 230deg and baked an other 5-8min. Stopped the oven, add the washed rucolla and keep 2min in the hot oven before serving.

Have a beautiful weekend  

Golden week(end)

The golden week in Japan is this blessed moment in spring when there are several bank holidays and when usually the weather is perfectly warm but not hot and the nature is full of dpring greens, flowers and days are getting longer with a beautiful light. This is a time when we usually have msny friends coming to our country house and I can cook a lot of different things for them. This weekend was the beginning of the golden week. Ot was just a normal weekend for us since we are working Mondayand  Tuesday, but it was a wonderful lively weekend with friends.

For our friends visiting on Sunday I prepared a mix of Japanese food and French food with all the seasonal and local ingredients. I prepared my classic bamboo shoot and capers salad, some spelt bulgur salad, some olive fougasse with olives my mother has made, and a big cocotte of new onion with zucchini and rosemary. The new onions are so sweet and soft that I cook them as whole, with just olive oil, salt and pepper, then later I had the zucchini which required much less cooking. For the meat eaters, some porc slices are nice to add. And after a long lunch in the garden, what best than going to the empty beach at sunset watch some surfers and play with our friends dog?

I wish you an excellent week!

Soya sauce recipe contest

So… apparently the Parisian sister has again let us down once again, and despite her promise to contribute every week steadily, she didn’t keep it more than 2months…  Sorry, no sweets and cake recipes because I myself rarely cook or bake some. I am more interested in meals and breads! Recently with the spring coming I’ve been using a lot of greens, and in particular I am working on a new recipe for the soya sauce recipe contest, which deadline is approaching rapidly. I thought I was almost ready with a receipe inspired from my mother spring glazed vegetables and it would definitely includes some spring greens, most certainly some extra thin green beans, because I found some lovely ones at the farmers market Saturday and prepare this delicious dish which was not very picturesque. And likely features also some new onions… I love their sweet taste and the texture they bring to a dish! So many options now… The problem, now that I know how the contest works, is that the finale is in August and these vegetables are not going to be found easily then… but I have a hard time thinking of an all season recipe… with what? Mushrooms, potatoes, cucumber, carrots, leek… hum… nothing too fancy here… so I still need to work on it a bit and I’ll let you know what will be my entry to the contest soon!

In the meantime here is my killing soya sauce recipe from yesterday dinner: sea bass with soya sauce glazed new vegetables  

– a sea bass filet

– a handful of green beans

– a handful of snappeas

– 1 large new potatoes

– 1 new onion

– 2 tbs of oil

– 1 tbs of soya sauce  

Wash the vegetables, don’t peel the potatoes, just brush them. Cut the fish filet into cubes or slices as you like. Remove the stem of the greens. Remove the first skin of the new onion, cut in 4 or 8. In a pan, heat the oil, add the onion, then the potatoes. Stir and lower the heat when it starts to be golden. Then add green beans. Cook at low heat under cover for 2-3min. Stir well. Add the fish, the soya sauce and cook under cover for 3min (abit more if your fish cubes are large). Finally add the snap peas. Cook under cover one minute. Serve and eat immediately!

Have a good week! 

Japanese style pasta

And here we are with a new recipe of Japanese pasta. Honestly I didn’t think I would like this combination so much but in the end I prepare some more than often after the one with pickled cabbage. So this time I prepared a vegan  base with new onion, canola, snap peas, fried tofu, to which you can add some bonito flakes. Served with spaghetti or liguine, and a few drops of soya sauce. Simple and delicious! Have a nice weekend!

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