A savory pie with Japanese flavors

There’s no secret here, I love all sorts of stuffed food: dumplings, ravioli, gyoza, pies and all the others. And I cook some almost every week. Last week I was set to cook an okonomiyaki, I had the Chinese cabbage, the pork meat and dinner was all set. But then, A. reminded me that we had scrambled eggs for breakfast and then an okonomiyaki would mean eggs again (since when does he care???) so I just acknowledged and said, well then, let’s remove the eggs from it and that’s gonna be a pie!!! (I am not the only big fan of pies and dumplings, A. is always OK!)

So here I am now thinking about how to make it happen. And it turned out to be fairly simple and simply delicious. Here is my original recipe.

Okonomiyaki style pie (2 servings as main)

For the pie crust
- 200g of flour
- 20cl of vegetal oil
- 10cl of soya sauce
- Water
For the filling
- 1/2 Chinese cabbage
- 100g of ground pork or chop filet
- a handful of katsuobushi flakes

Mix all ingredients for the dough. Add water little by little to obtain a smooth and non sticky dough. Let is rest a bit.

In the meantime, chop the Chinese cabbage and put it in a pan with the meat and cover. Cook at medium heat for 5-10 min, then remove the cover, add the katsuobushi and cook until all the water from the cabbage is gone.

Roll the dough for your pie dish, with amply enough to be able to make the cover by folding it it. Set in your pie dish and fill with the filling, fold the dough to close the pie. Bake at 200 degrees until dough is golden.

That’s it!

January 14, 2023

Quick! Quick! A little pie!

This is the time of the year when work gets busy with graduation thesis to read, budget to close, new contracts to search for, and plans for the new term to make. Every year it comes inevitably, together with the excitement of new things in preparation and the sadness of seeing students wrapping up their research before leaving the lab. It also coincides with the short season in Japan when seasonal food variety is at its lowest level (while we can’t complain much because even at its lowest it’s plenty!!): chinese cabbage, leeks, sweet potatoes, burdock, turnips and spinach are the main staple and it has been such for quite a bit now… of course there has been occasionally mizuna, shiitake and a few others but they are scarce and it is a few more weeks before we start having some spring greens. Hopefully on the fruit side, citrus fruits of all kinds, yuzu, lemon… come to light up savory recipes, and hassaku 八朔 from our tree make our breakfasts and desserts bright! Strawberries are also slowly getting towards their pick season.

After having prepared all kind of recipes with spinaches, I was wondering if dinner would be another quiche, another ravioli, when I was reminding myself my last travel, that is now more than a year old… travel Malta, the country of the delicious pastizzi tal pizzeli. Green peas are far from being in season but why not trying something with spinach and a bit of pork meat??? The idea was immediately approved by A. and I started cooking. Time was shirt and puff pastry is not a recipe I master well, so I opted for a rough puff. The overall preparation was quick, cooking not too long and the result was delicious tasty savory pies. I am so pleased with recipe that I can’t help sharing it!!!

Savory spinach pies (6 individual pies)

For the rough puff pastry

120g of flour
100g of butter
A bit of water

For the filling

5 bundles of spinach
1 large onion
1tsp of ground cinnamon
1 pinch of ground cloves
Salt and pepper
100g of ground pork meat (optional)

Start with the preparation of the filling. Peel and cut the onion, wash and cut the spinach. In a slightly greased pan cook them at low heat. If you use the meat add it also. Cook while stirring once in a while until the vegetables are soft but not golden. Add salt, pepper and the cinnamon and clove. Stir well.

Then make the pastry. Cut the butter in small blocks. Knead very roughly the butter and the flower without incorporating the flour in the butter. The butter should stay in small blocks. Fold and turn 4 times like for puff pastry, but without waiting. Roll to a 2mm layer.

Cut 12 squares in the dough of aout 12cm -15cm. In 6 of them put 1/6 of the filling each. Cut or not the remaining 6 pieces of pastry. And cover the 6 filled parts, seal with a bit of water. Bake at 200deg until golden. Eat right out of the oven!!!

January 27, 2021

Kabocha pie

Halloween doesn’t inspire me much for cooking. Too much colors, disgusting appearance… I am not a fan at all and I must say that looking at my IG feed these days was not very attractive. Hopefully it’s passed now… None the less the orange pumpkins and the sweetness of their taste is something that I love, though in Japan we don’t really have the giant pumpkins of North America, we have our little Japanese kabocha all the same delicious, while different in texture.

A Japanese kabocha though rather small is usually something that is big enough to be used for 3 or 4 meals… so when I ended with 1/3 of kabocha that needed to be eaten, I decided to make a pumpkin pie. But since we don’t eat much sweets… except when I flip crepes!! I made a savory and spicy pie. I knew it would be good, but what I didn’t expect is that it would be scrumptiously addictive!!! So… here is my recipe and let me know how you liked it!!

Savory kabocha pie

– 1/3 kabocha

– 25cl of milk

– 2 eggs

– cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, salt, pepper

– 50g of whole wheat flour

– 80g of white hard flour

– 4tbs of rice oil

– water

Wash the kabocha, remove the seeds, and a bit of the skin if you find hard spots. Cut in large cube and boil until very soft. Drain.

In the meantime in a bowl mix the flours, the oil and add water little by little while kneading until the dough is soft and smooth. Roll to the size or your pie dish and set.

Turn on the oven to 180deg.

Go back to your kabocha. With a fork mash it, add the milk and the eggs, stir then add the spices to your liking. Stir again. Pour in the pie crust and bake for 45min. Enjoy!!!

November 1, 2019

Bonito

Not far away from our house is Katsuura 勝浦, a city on the ocean with a fishing harbor, a fish market, a few nice street to browse and a sea front further south where we paddle surf (or least try to!!).

Katsuura is quite famous as a bonito fishing harbor in the area and they indeed have delicious fresh bonito in season, which is basically from spring to mid summer. We’ve eating quite a bit of bonito, and one of my classic way of preparing it is either pan grilled or in a sort of ragù with vegetables. But after a few times eating it that way always, I wanted a new recipe.

Inspired by the pies and other yummy pictures I saw on IG, I decided to try making a bonito pie. The shape of the filet is perfect to fit in a cake dish and with the season of bell peppers starting, I had a perfect combination. The pie cooking is quite interesting as all the juices and flavors are trapped in the pie and reveals when you cut it, guaranteeing a very interesting tasting experience. Though I could have worked a bit more on how to shape and plate it (as usual), the taste was amazing. Definitely a recipe that will go to my favorite recipes of the moment.

Bonito pie (2-3 servings)

For the pie crust

– 200g of flour (I used whole wheat)

– 4tbs of olive oil

– water

– a pinch of salt

For the filling

– 1 bonito filet (for sashimi)

– 2-3 bell peppers red, yellow, orange… you name it

– 2 leaves of laurel

– olive oil, salt and pepper

Prepared the pue crust. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt and olive oil. Add water little by little and knead until you have a smooth dough. Roll it in a rectangular shape to fit your cake dish, yet twice bigger.

Set it in the cake dish. Add the laurel leaves in the bottom of the pie, then add the bonito on top. Wash and slice the bell peppers. Arrange them around and on top of the bonito. Add salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil. Close the pie with the dough. Make a small hole on the top and make a small chimney with baking paper. Bake at 180deg for 40min. Or until golden.

July 10, 2019

Spicy carrot pie

The other day we went for lunch at cafe Boba and while we were waiting for our food to arrive I browsed an American cookbook on pies. Something that was perfect for the season. And with my basket full of autumn vegetables, I was very much inspired by the recipes with pumpkin, carrots… and one really attracted me. It was a sweet and spicy carrot pie. But of course I didn’t do what the recipe said, I just get the inspiration and made a savory carrot pie with spices. It was super simple and really delicious. I like the idea of a carrot pudding in a pie crust, it makes the pudding easier to serve and gives a good boost with healthy carbs.

Here is my recipe, I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Spicy carrot pie (makes 6 individual pies)

For the pie crust:

– 100g of flour of your choice (I used a mix of white and whole wheat flour)

– 80g of butter

– a bit of water

– cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt

For the filling:

– 3 large carrots

– 3 eggs

– same spices as above

You can add cream and fresh grated ginger, but I had none.

Prepare the pie crust by stirring all the ingredients and kneading until soft. Roll and set in your pie dish(es)

Peel and boil the carrot, when soft, put them in a blender with the eggs and the spices and purée the mix. Pour the mix in the pie crust. Bake for 30min at 190deg. Enjoy!!

And because I had a bit of leftover pie crust, I made chai apple tarts too!!!

October 2, 2018

Vegan pie

You know how much I love to make quiches and tarts, there are so many examples already posted, and there will be this year many more. But when like me you love making dough, kneading and having flour on your hands, better than quiches and tarts, there are pies, for which you need twice more pie crust and I won’t complain about that!!! Pies are also great when you don’t want to use an egg base, and simply use vegetables and some tofu or some miso etc… I also love them in winter because they seems to be much warming, keeping the vegetables in their heat and steam and preventing them fir getting dry. I plan to make more pies this year and to try new recipes, I have already ideas flowing in my head, so maybe something like a pie a week or will be a good rythm, let’s try what I can do!!!

This first pie is a pure vegan delight with an olive oil base pie crust, with half flour half oat bran, and a filling of spinach, radish tops blanched and silky tofu. Everything is said! Bake for 30-40min and enjoy!!!!

January 9, 2018

Pie

This something that I never cook but that I actually love a lot. Pies are so delicious and so easy to make. And just like tarts there are so many variations that everything works! What I like very much with pies compared to tarts is that 1. You don’t need the egg base, 2. The filling is kind of steamed in the pie so it doesn’t dry, 3. The double layer of dough!! When I started this recipe I was thinking of a tart first but I changed my mind on the way and decided to make a kind of coca or calzone, and finally it turned out being a pie! That’s why the shape is not very pretty because I was rolling the dough in a different shape at first.

For the filling I used hard tofu, drained, shiitake cut in cubes, and chicory leaves (well I am not perfectly sure about what it is actually, but it something like chard). For the dough I used spelt flour, water and butter (which can be replaced by vegetal oil). I split the dough in two and rolled quite thin, but not too thin. I set one in a pie dish, add the veggies and the tofu (as on the picture) then cover with the second one, close tightly the edges together, made a small hole in the middle and added a little cheminey in cooking paper. I baked in the oven for 40min at 170 deg. Serve while it’s still hot. Bon appetite!

November 3, 2015

Spinach and tomato tart with chick pea dough

Chick pea flour is really easy to use. Mixed with some water and fried, you make soca, a little bit thicker you can make panisse. I love pies because they can prepared in advance and are handy when work is really busy. Today I wanted to try a pie dough with chick pea flour. I mixed chick pea flour, water, olive oil, salt and pepper to obtain a soft dough. I roughly shape it to my pie dish with ghe fingers. Then I’ve cut tomatoes and lined them on the bottom, cover with finely cut spinach, snd a batter of tofu and eggs season with cumin, and finish with a few tomato slices. Bake for 30 minutes and it smells so good… can’t wait to try it!!!

March 2, 2015