Tag: recipe

Ravioli again!

After this busy week at work and several dinners out, a little bit of slow cooking was more than welcome! But it was so cold that I didn’t even dare trying to make bread. Indeed, when we arrived Saturday morning it was 2-3 degrees in the house, it slowly went up to 15-17 by the time it was bed time, and again it was 3 degrees when we woke up the next morning. These old Japanese houses are really not meant to be warmed, they are wind breakers, just to live in wearing many warm layers of clothes. And it totally works. But to make bread in such conditions is really hard (oh! Maybe that’s one reason why bread and alike are not traditional to Japan!). The bread takes forever to rise and it’s never long enough! Instead, I simply kneaded some pasta dough to make ravioli. There was some beautiful salmon from Miyagi, some baby komatsuna, and I had some dill on the verge of drying. The recipe was all set. I put the dill chopped directly in the pasta. I made filling by first grilling the salmon and blanching the komatsuna, then put the two in the blender to obtain an almost creamy texture. Rolled the dough in my pasta machine (with the dill I found it hard to roll it to extra thin) and made the ravioli. I served with some more blanched komatsuna, butter for me, olive oil for A. and it was simply delicious!

I wish a good very week, it might snow again in Tokyo!

Whaou!

Quite a week, and it’s only Thursday!!!  So let’s get back to when I left you last Saturday… Sunday evening we had 4 guests (mix of French and Japanese) for dinner at home in Tokyo so I cooked some of my half new recipes: creamy cauliflower soup with curried croutons (recipe below), pork cutlet with roasted roots: lotus, taro, sweet potatoes, turnips, deglazed in soya sauce, and for dessert hasaku with spices syrup (ginger, cinnamon and cardamom) served with sesame and kinako biscuits. A. picked many Japanese and French wines to accompany my food. Oh… and I also made some plain and olive fougasse, with the olives from the garden in Aix that my mother prepared! But that was Sunday and it seems ages already!!!

And then Monday it had snowed, quite a lot actually, so I came back home earlier than usual to avoid being stucked with train problems. And I was happy to work from home eating left over sesame-kinako cookies with a hot chaï late. And having nothing to prepare or so for dinner since I hade made too many roasted vegetables! I like to recycle leftovers and do new things with them. So I added fukinoto and topped with sprouts for a perfectly balanced dinner. It was a great flavor experience! Fukinoto bring so much!! They are also the taste of coming spring with plum blossoms! And then there was this workshop I co-organized at the French Embassy. Everything went great, I met amazing people, now I can think about what’s next (and there’s plenty) and go back to the work routine for a short while!!

How is your week doing? 

Cauliflower soup with curried croutons (6 servings as starter)

– 1 cauliflower

– 1 potato

– 150ml of cream

– 4 slices of bread (I used half rye bread I made) 

– 2tsp of curry

– oil for the frying the croutons

– salt, pepper  

In a large pan I boil the cauliflower washed and chopped and the potato, peeled and chopped too. When they are very soft I blend everything. Add water if it’s too thick. Then add the cream.

In a fry pan add oil and the curry, cut the bread in cubes and fry them while turning them regularly. When golden take them out and keep them on cooking paper. When serving heat the soup, add salt and pepper if you lile, serve and top with the croutons. I added a sprinkle of tumeric for adding a bit of color.

Late night dinner

There are days (quite many recently) like that… when I start cooking past 23:00 for our dinner. We’re obviously starving after a long day at work, but nonetheless we want something fresh and tasty. I found that’s often when I get the most creative, in particular when the ingredients are limited as in winter (in summer tomato-eggplant-zucchini would just work fine…), I focus on herbs and flavors. Pasta would often be the base, while they boil I would of course prepare the topping. Last night I add a great inspiration and the result was sooooo great that I really want to share my recipe with you!

Celery pasta  (for 2 people)

– 125g of pasta (I used whole wheat penne)

– 3 branches of celery

– 1 or 2 mizuna bundles

– 3 branches of fresh dill

– olive oil, salt and pepper  

Boil water for the pasta and boil them while you prepare the vegetables. Wash and chop the celery, up to the leaves. Wash and chop the mizuna, same for the dill. In a heated pan add some olive oil, toss the celery, and stir  a bit. Then add the dill and finally the mizuna, salt and pepper. The vegetables don’t actually need to be cooked, so the time they spend in the pan shouldn’t exceed 7-8 minutes. They need to be just warm and rolled over in olive oil. Drain the pasta when cooked and serve. Top with the vegetables. Add a final olive oil touch, and ground pepper. Actually you can add some gratted Parmigiano, it is the perfect final touch!

How do you like your pasta?? I’ll be happy to try new ideas and recipes!

Crazy week(s)

I knew January would be a tough and busy month and it is exactly what it is. It is the season for student graduation thesis and I have a pile of them to read before the end of the month. It is also the moment to think about final exams for the course I teach. But also national exam weekend, with some duty, and on top of that, conferences deadline, experiments, lab visits… At this point of the year it is also often that the weather is unstable, and temperatures are on day as low as 0 deg, and the next day are 15 or more… it is hard to adjust… but it is for sure not yet the end of winter, February and March are usually colder than January in my opinion, or may be it’s just because I’m getting tired of the cold, seeing the plum trees and peach trees blooming…

For these kind of times, a comforting food is always welcome. Some simple flavors and colorful meals. Orange in the plate is great when served with white: perfect mixing carrots, lotus roots and salmon. And this time I don’t let myself get disappointed by the color change due to oxydation of the lotus root. Once peeled, washed and sliced I bathed it in a bit of vinegard. Actually it added a little flavor to the final dish that I really enjoyed and countered balance the sweetness of the carrots and the salmon. Here is my recipe.

Roasted vegetables and salmon (2 people) 

– 1 leek

– 1 piece of lotus root

– 1 carrot

– 2 sliced of salted salmon (unsalted is also ok) 

– 2 tbs of sesame oil

– 1 tbs of white vinegar

Peel, wash and slice the lotus root. Put the slices in a plate and add the vinegar. Turn them so that each side has been in contact with the vinegar. This is too keep the beautiful white color of the lotus root when cooking. Cut the leek in chuncks, same for the carrot (if organic just wash, don’t peel) . In a heated pan, add the sesame oil, the leek, cook 2min at medium heat while stirring once in a while. Add the carrot. Drain the lotus roots and add them. Remove the bones and cut also the samon in bite size. Add to the pan. Cook at low heat under cover for 5-8 min. It’s now ready! Serve with a bowl of rice snd enjoy!

 

Half risotto

In Japan people born from one Japanese parent and one foreign parent are called “half” (ハーフ) by Japanese people. Using the same idea I use like to use this word for my cooking recipes. Some would use different words such as ethnic food, fusion food or any other that means nothing to me. But “half” really captures my way of cooking. Whether it is French-Japanese or Italian-Japanese, it’s cooking “half” to me. When I make a Japanese quiche, or foie-gras suigyoza… This time, it’s a risotto I prepared, that is perfectly half, in ingredients and inspiration. Half Japanese and half Italian. The rice: 1/2 brown Koshihikari 1/2 Carnaroli; the vegetables: 2 small leeks for the base, then fresh shiitake and some olive oil preserved Italian purple artichokes (you can use fresh one if you can find some… but really in Tokyo it’s not easy…). I topped my risotto with some freshly gratted Parmigiano but it’s optional, A. prefers his risotto straight!

Half risotto (for 2 servings) :

– 60g of Carnaroli rice (or any risotto rice of your choice)

– 60g of brown Japanese rice  (I use Koshihikari from Isumi, but it’s up to you to use the brown rice you like)

– 1 or 2 leeks depending on size

– 4-10 shiitake depending on size (I prefer smaller ones)

– 10 small purple artichokes  (I used olive oil preserved ones)

– olive oil, salt, pepper, Parmigiano…

First chop the leek and cook in a large pan at low heat in a bit of olive oil, stir regularly so that they don’t change color. Wash and cut the shiitake. Prepare the artichokes if fresh and cut in halves unless very small and tender, if in olive oil drain them. Add the rices in the pan and a bit of olive oil. Increase the heat and stir often. When the rice becomes translucent add about 600ml of water (I don’t use broth because the leeks and mushrooms are alrrady bringing enough flavor), salt, pepper, the mushrooms and the fresh artichokes (if in olive oil, wait until the end). Cook under cover at medium-low heat until the liquid has almost disappeared. Add now the artichokes if they were in olive oil. Stir and serve rapidly. Add gratted Parmigiano if you like!

Quick pasta!

What’s worst than being super hungry at past 23:00 after a busy day at work? At the moment the business from work goes down and I’m on my way home, my stomach is crying for something to eat, quick!!!! And A. is in a no different mood! In that case dry pasta are a great help. Boiling them while preparing something to eat them with takes not much than 15min, that’s one of the fastest and simplest meal I can cook! Of course, I always have some fresh vegetables in the fridge, whether it’s mushrooms, spinach, squash in winter, or zucchini, tomatoes, eggplants in summer…

For this time I had broccoli and spinach. Perfectly simple, green and tasty! And I have a beautiful piece of Parmigiano Reggiano that I bought in Rome, to make the final touch. 

Broccoli and spinach pasta (for 2): 

– 125g of dry pasta of your choice

– a large handful of broccoli  

– 1 bundle of spinach

– olive oil

– salt and pepper 

Boil the water for the pasta, in the meantime wash the spinach and broccoli and chop them. In an olive oil greased pan start cooking them, add just a bit of water and cover. By then the pasta should be boiled, drain them and add them to the vegetables, add some more olive oil, salt and pepper, stir and serve. Top if you like with gratted Parmigiano. Serve and eat immediately!!!

Be careful not to overcook the veggies, the broccoli must stay slightly crispy. 

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!!!!

Life in Florence

So, it’s been four days we’ve been in Florence, except for Sunday that we spent walking around the city as described here, it’s been a rather studious time. A. leaves early in the morning while it’s all dark and comes back late at night, and this gives me more than plenty of time to work, write and spend a little hour or two outside walking around the city in the cold and shopping for lunches and dinners.

I’ve now explored both the San’Ambroggio market and the San Lorenzo market, got to see everything twice or thrice to decide what to buy choosing between all the delicious cheeses, fresh pasta and all the fruits and vegetables that are alien to Japan. I must say that I passed on fish, not being fully satisfied with the stands and on meat as there was too many options and I am not good with meat too much… but I guess that I will have to try some for A.. For the moment I’m sticking to speck and San Daniele and it’s been perfect. I also got my tea from La Via del Te as recommended by Giula from the beautiful Juls’ kitchen. And really I am more than happy with my little kitchen and the simple cooking I can do!

So far the things I have really been enjoying are the greens: I packed on lamb’s lettuce, rucola, zucchini, fennel and artichokes and I have been using them in many various preparation. My best being this delicious dish of pasta with olive oil roasted fennels and zucchini and topped with rucola. It is so simple and so fresh, and so easy to make, that here is my recipe:

Pasta with zucchini, fennel and rucola (for 2)

– 125g of pasta

– 1 zucchini

– 1/2 fennel

-1 handful of rucola

– olive oil, salt and pepper

– additionally some fresh parmigiano or some other cheese

Boil the water for the pasta and the pasta. In the mean time, wash and cut the fennel and the zucchini, and in an olive oil greased frypan cook them, but not overcook them! Add the drained pasta, salt, pepper, and olive oil, top with rucola and stir, serve immediately. Add cheese if you like!

And have a great Wednesday! 

Friday already!

The week has been incredibly busy with many various things going on at work: the book I was mentioning, the organization of a workshop in January, classes, experiments… drinks with friends, party and MarioKarting with the lab, skipping lunch for tennis… and without even noticing it is the last night before the departure, it’s getting winter cold and days are at their shortest! So now I need to shop for some presents to bring to family and friends and pack everything!!! And I also need to cook!!! These days, as often before traveling, I have cooked a lot of very simple and light meals, with pasta, tortellini or risotto, but for the last night it can only be Japanese of course! So I’m thinking of rice, umeboshi, and some colorful vegetables (broccoli?) and may be some half dried salmon. Which reminded me of that excellent simple dinner I cooked last weekend with some roasted vegetables, pork cutlet from Isumi, plenty of pickles and rice. It was colorful with the fancy pink pickled daikon, the roasted carrots and the pure white of the rice. It was tasty with the sour salty umeboshi, the sweetness of the sweet potato and the carrots, and the caramelized pork… It was one perfect dinner for a cold evening!

Next time I’ll write I will be in Florence, hopefully with some Italian surprises! Have a beautiful weekend!

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