Shiitake week! Day 1!

After weeks trying to get this new rythm, I think we’ve almost got it… and a weekend in the country with tennis, gardening and cooking, plus the cat and a bit of work was the perfect way to completely get it right. My muscles hacking from the tennis and the gardening: trimming a Japanese pine is quite a demanding task, and I didn’t even manage to get it done… For the cooking I have been enjoying a lot the autumn vegetables, in particular most of my recipes included shiitake lately, I put them every where. So this week is a shiitake recipe week! But if you don’t have shiitake you can replace them by porcini or simple mushrooms.

Let’s start with this very nice marcrobiotic French Japanese style recipe of Persillade. Traditional persillade is made with garlic, parsley, oil etc… except that I don’t like garlic (one reason why I never use it, despite all the health benefits it may have), so I have invented this new recipe that ressembles persillade but is much more fun and goes perfectly with shiitake! Here is my recipe!

My ginger persillade (for 2)

– 1 cup of brown rice

– 2 carrot

– 6 shiitake

– 1/2 burdock root

– parsley

– fresh ginger

Cook the rice in a pot, Japanese style, or in a rice cooker. Brown rice requires a little bit more water than white rice.

Peel the burdock, cut in bites and wash abundantly, same with the carrots. Wash the shiitake and slice them thinly. In a heated pan add a bit of olive oil, then the burdock, later the carrots and finish with the shiitake. Stir once in a while.

Peel the ginger, cut in thin slices and then dice in 1mm side. Wash the parsley and chop it. Add the ginger and the parsley in the pan, stir regularly. Add a bit of olive oil if necessary. That’s it!

Serve the rice, the vegetables and enjoy your meal!!!

November 13, 2017

Colorful salad

Sometimes a very simple meal is welcome, but something different than usual. And for no specific reason I don’t cook potato salad very often, even though it’s super easy and delicious. I don’t mean mayonnaise base potato salad that is very common here in Japan, but rather olive oil base. Something with plenty of fresh vegetables. This time I had red cabbage and celery, so I simple shredded the cabbage, cut the celery, boiled and peeled the potatoes. Added some black sesame, a dressing with olive oil and white miso. And here was my vegan salad. For those who like, you can add pan grilled bonito to it. Super delicious. Have a great week!!!

June 11, 2017

Vegan pasta

What better than a pasta plate for dinner when in a rush? And to accomodate it: spinach and tofu simply cooked in olive oil. So simply delicious now with the pick of the spinach season, they are so soft and sweet.

Boil the pasta of your choice and drain them.

In the meantime, start draining a puece of tofu (hard or soft, both are good), wash the spinach and cut them in 4-5cm long pieces. In a large heated pan, add olive oil and the spinach, then the tofu in crumbles. Stir well. Add the boiled pasta, stir and add a bit more olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve and eat immediately.

January 21, 2017

Fresh salad

One day is really warm, the next is chilly… One day I want simple veggies salad, the next something hot and full of energy. This time was warm and I was fancying a fresh salad with simple vegetables to go with some simple pasta. With a wide variety of small radishes, small tomatoes, fresh cucumbers, baby carrots it was really simple to prepare something. For the dressing simply olive oil and black sesame seeds.

May 7, 2016

The TPS in Menfi, Sicily

On Saturday the Tokyo-Paris sisters flew to Roma and then straight to Palermo where they are spending some time with their families in a big villa in the south of Sicily, in Menfi. The weather is amazing, the landscape is just as expected, and so are the people. The Mediterranean sea is beautiful and swimming in December is really nice without going to a tropical destination! A lot of time spent outside, walking and visiting. The food is also amazing: cauliflowers, artichokes, fennels, oranges, tangerines, olives… So far it’s perfect.

So let’s start with a perfect “Sicilian” salad with fresh fennels, tomatoes, lettuce, artichokes in vinegar and oil, and a bit of olive oil, served with Italian sesame bread, and eventually speck, and topped with fresh parmegiano.

December 17, 2015

Another veggie tart!

With endless variations and always the best seasonnal veggies, a tart is always a perfect meal.

My veggie tart today contains the last green beans and the last broad beans of the season, a handful of edamame, one yellow sweet pepper and one tomato. I prepared the dough with a mix of buckwheat and spelt flour, and olive oil. Except the edamame that I boiled a few minutes, if not they are hard to peel, I just use raw ingredients. Simple and delicious.

September 27, 2015

Saturday bowl lunch

Back to our routine, lot of work and week end in the country. Saturday morning tennis and one-bowl lunch.

Today the market was really good, edamame, green beans, lots of fruits… So the lunch bowl was really simple: chick peas, edamame, green beans, cucumber, sesame seeds, with lemon juice and olive oil; and for the proteines chicken and black pepper balls. Simple, delicious.

September 19, 2015

Ultimate simplicity

There are evenings when I don’t really have time to cook because I’m late from work or workout and I’m starving. Inicidently these evenings would coincide with a rather empty fridge (for some standards my fridge is always empty!). When this happens I need to fix dinner in less then 10min and I need carbs (no carb diet is definitely not for me). 10min is just the time it takes to boil some trofie, dice two large, super rippen fresh tomatoes, go outside to cut some fresh basil, seat back and snack a little cucumber.

This ultimate simplicity seasonned with a delicious olive oil, for instance from my hometown in France, Camargue salt and grind pepper is just the perfect dinner!

Pasta is just wonderful!

August 19, 2015

Black olive fougasse

What’s better than a delicious fougasse to go with local cheese from Takahide farm? I’ve already talked about classic fougasse, this time I just added a little of black olives in the preparation. It gives a nice aspect to the bread and a subtle additional taste and texture. So delicious that my fougasses at home don’t last long.

July 26, 2015