Tag: recipe

Cherry clafoutis 🍒

We unusually spent the weekend in Tokyo because A. promised his shamisen group to play with them at a volunteer concert in an old folks day care. And I had to go and sing too!!! I like these concerts because giving a bit of our time for these people, it’s always a nice. Though it can be a really depressing moment (I really don’t want to grow old). And this weekend was also the first giving a real taste of summer. I’ve craved for outdoor swimming but outdoor pools will only open in June… I’ve craved for summer fruits and summer recipes. So for once I bought some non-local products: American cherries and prepared a traditional cherry clafoutis for our breakfast. Clafoutis can never go wrong and are always perfect for breakfast with tones of fresh juicy fruits and a simple base of flour-sugar-egg-milk. I use brown sugar only and soy milk, but one can use whatever is available. Now the question of pitting the fruits arises and of Prunellia always pit them, I never pit the cherries. When pitted they have a tendency to shrink and melt in the dough and dry, while not pitted they just bake in their own juice under the skin, ready to deliver it when in the mouth. How do you like yours?

Snap peas and onion risotto

We are slowly going towards the rainy season and it’s getting towards the end of the season for spring vegetables in Tokyo area, soon we will have melon, zucchini, okras… But before it ends really let’s enjoy some more spring greens!!! Snap peas are very easy to cook, they just need to be blanched, and extremely easy to accomodate with other seasonal vegetables: new potatoes, other greens, tomatoes… Today I opted for an other risotto recipe (yes, I know, we eat a lot of rice and risottos!!!). A large onion cut thinely and slightly cooked in olive oil, then I added the riso, a bit of water (no bouillon to keep the taste mild), then in the very last minute of cooking I add the snap peas cut in big chunks. I add some fresh chopped basil leaves, salt and pepper, a last touch of olive oil. 

Have a nice weekend! 

Having fun with broad beans

I had a few broad beans left and had this idea of making soup with them, so I boiled them, peeled them and blend them and instead of water I used some cream. What happened is that it became a broad bean whipped cream! Oh oh! What a nice thing! So I really made broad beans whipped cream, adding a little more cream and a little salt. And decided to serve it with an asparagus and an asparagus risotto with Parmegiano. This was probably the simplest and funniest dis to prepare, and taste wise it was awesome. The very subtle taste of broad beans in the cream goes perfectly with both the rice and the just blanched jumbo green asparagus. I’m not very good at plating because I don’t like to waste food, but the cream thing, I must admit helped a lot to give texture, color and fixation.

One plate

Gloomy, rainy chilly day… What best then a warming plate in front of you? With little turnips, pork fillet and quinoa, simply cooked in a pot, here is a very healthy and nourishing meal. In a little bit of olive oil I simply put the pork filet in a cocotte and cooked under cover. When almost done I added the little turnips simply washed, and cooked under cover until all golden. Don’t forget to turn them time to time to roll them in the juice. I prepared the quinoa separately but when dressing the plates I added the quinoa in the juice of the cocotte. I served without any addition. Enjoy!

Tomato and broad beans in broth

In Isumi they grow tomatoes that are super delicious and can easily compete with Mediterranean tomatoes. They just start to be in season and they are perfect for any kind of preparations, raw, cooked, grilled because they are well ripen, sweet and juicy. 

One thing I love to do with this tomatoes is to peel them and serve them in a broth made with dashi and a bit of soya sauce, sugar and vinegar. And because it is still spring, I added a few blanched and peeled broad beans. Served with delicious brown rice.

Comfort food: cacao madeleines

Our 4 kittens just before the split  
Our 4 kittens just before the split  

I consider most of what I cook as comfort food because I only cook what we love and we indulge in some delicious breakfast everyday. But today I needed something special for tea, something sweet and warm, because the weather was chilly, because we had a short night and a long day, because I was sad we split our 4 kittens into 2 groups to deliver to their new homes and one group has left already. So I decided to prepare madeleines. I used the recipe I presented before, but slightly changed it: I added plenty of cacao powder, refrigerated 90min and cooked all the time at 200. I managed to obtain pretty bumps ans the taste of cacao was well present which is not often the case with cacao taste sweets.
Now it’s time we go deliver our last two kittens. En route to Hayama! It’s gonna be a long trip for them!

Quick dinner fix

I left work earlier than usual on Friday to have time to boil some potatoes and prepare our bags for the weekend because I knew that once we would arrive in Ohara we will be more busy with the kittens than actually thinking of having dinner!! And it was so true!!! First I had to do a bit of cleaning, then we played until quite late in the night with our four fur balls. Only to have dinner around midnight, when my boiled potatoes just needed to be peeled and cut in quarters, add an avocado diced, a handful of baby leaves salad, onr of fresh coriander. Seasonned with olive oil, salt and curry powder. So dinner could be ready very quick!

Coconut pancakes

Yes, I was worried sick about Pablo, then about her kittens, now about how will we handle the situation, and slept bad and no appetite but A. was still hungry (even the very one time he had high fever he was hungry!!!).

So I had to cook anyway, and when I made the oat bran cinnamon pancakes, the recipe that inspired me was actually oat bran, coconut, cinnamon pancakes. Except that I didn’t like the idea of mixing cinnamon that is more a warm taste to me (perfect when chilly outside), and coconut that is more a fresh taste that I enjoy better when it’s warm. So I slpit the recipe in two, and made coconut pancakes that are perfect eaten with nothing more and when lottle appetite. In the pancake base, made with whole wheat flour, I added the same amount of gratted coconut. Then cook until golden, as usual. 

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.

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.

Up ↑

Verified by MonsterInsights