New onion vegetable sauté and seeds

Spring is in the air!!! Sunny days are getting a little warmer, in a week daffodils have sprouted everywhere in the garden and new vegetables start slowly to appear. It starts first with onions. They are so sweet and with a taste that is so much the annunciation of warmer days that I love them!!!

This morning there were plenty of new onions at the coop and I bought several and decided to prepare some vegetables sauté with some seeds.

In a wok I put a little of olive oil, peeled and cut in big chucks one new onion, add one carrot cut in sticks, later I added brocoli, small tomatoes cut in halves, sunflower seeds, salt and pepper. Separately I boiled a mix made of some lentils, barley etc…

Once cooked I mix everything in the wok with a little more olive oil, just before serving.

March 6, 2015

Hazelnut cake for weekday's breakfast

Cakes are great for weekday’s breakfast because they last 2 or 3 days, are much more delicious than industrial breads and you can make any variation that pleases you depending on ingredients and season!
I bake a hazelnut simple cake this week. It’s a simple recipe base on yogurt cake but without yogurt. I use almond milk instead.
I mixed some flour, a little brown caster sugar, baking powder, salt, hazelnut powder, 2 eggs, a little of almond milk and a little of oil (sunflower).I mix the whole thing and put in a cake pan for 30minutes at 160deg in the oven. Can’t wait for tomorrow morning!!!

March 4, 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

Sunday morning's English scones

Yesterday I’ve been busy cooking for dinner so I didn’t have time to prepare some bread for this morning. Usually when this happens I either cook crepes, pancake or English scones in the morning and in 30min we have a ready to eat breakfast.

This morning it was plain English scones. The recipe for a dozen 4cm scones is simple (based on recipe from BBC of course!!): 175g of flour, 1/2 tsp of baking powder, a bit of salt, 40g of soft butter, 80ml of milk or equivalent, 2tbsp of brown sugar, vanilla (I use exclusively fresh one, no extract, much tastier and love the black dots!!). After mixing all the ingredients and obtaining a nice dough I roll it in sticks of 4 cm diameter and cut thick slices of 1cm or more and line them on cooking paper. Bake in the oven for about 15min (depending on thickness) at 180deg. And ready to eat!! With butter, jam, marmalade…

This morning I served an apple-strawberry salad to complete the breakfast.

March 1, 2015

Burdock soup, grilled mochi and na no hana scrambled eggs

Though it is slowly getting warmer it’s still not yet spring. A warm soup for dinner is still very much welcome!

This time I made for the first time gobo (burdock) soup with some grilled mochi (rice cake) and accompanied it with a little na no hana scrambled eggs.

Gobo are long thin roots with a taste close to artichokes but slightly more bitter and are supposed to be rich in potassium.

For the soup after peeling the burdocks I let them dip into fresh water for 15min, then boiled them 30 min after changing the water (it removes the bitterness). I then remove the water and add fresh water again. Blend well until liquid. Finally when eating the soup I added some vegetable consommé, and pepper. Grilled a rice cake in the oven and serve together.

For the scrambled eggs I just put a little of olive oil in a frypan, added washed and cut na no hana, then eggs, and finally soya sauce.

February 26, 2015

Nabe four hands

After a cold day walking accross rice paddies, nothing better than a good nabe, home made of course.

Nabe is a traditional Japanese soup with vegetables (Chinese cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, leeks…), tofu (here we have yuzu tofu), shitaki (white Japanese konyaku pasta) and fish cut in small peaces (or meat, as you like).

In a big pot, on a fire in the center of the table, add the vegetables to the konbu and katsuo dashi bouillon.

Then, add tofu, pasta and fish (and if you like small shells). You can also go for a 100% vegan version, delicious too.

When it’s cooked, everyone can help himself directly in the big pot. Add a drop of ponzu sauce, if you like you can add grilled mochi, rice to put inside and Bon appetite!
Made together by Prunellia and Gentiane!

February 25, 2015

Stamped butter cookies

For my birthday, my best friend offered me a very nice present: a customizable cookie stamp. I’ve used it a few time already for tea and we ate the cookies right of the oven so didn’t had a chance to take a pic!!! This time I made some for dessert and I could keep them long enough to take a picture!! These are plain butter cookies, a bit like Britany’s specialty.

The recipe is really simple: 100g of butter, 150g of flour, 40g of sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla. Of course you can make any variation of your choice!

After baking the cookies until golden at 180 degrees I kept them in a cool dry place before eating them.

February 24, 2015

Lunch at home

With Prunellia at home it means a lot of going out for dinner, little sleep, and busier than usual so for lunch I need my dose of cereals, fresh vegetables and home cooking. Today I prepare a mixture of cereals, with one egg and cheese that I bake in a frypan in circles, accompanied by grilled leek, shiitake and tomatoes, a little of olive oil and laurel. A power balanced lunch to get a lot of work done this afternoon!

February 21, 2015

Plum – 梅 – Prune

In February the first trees to bloom in Japan are the plum trees. They’re not as famous as the Japanese cherry tree, but I like them much more for the vibrant colors of their flowers from white to dark pink and for their beautiful round petals and because people are much less silly than when the cherry trees start blossoming.

Plum tree blooming in our garden

In Japan plums are used in many ways. The most two famous are probably umeshu (plum wine) and umeboshi (kind of pickled plum) made out of the fruits harvested in June. But they are also used to make some sweets, mainly jelly that I love!

Sweet plum and red shiso jelly

The plum flower is also largely used for decoration for Hina-matsuri, the dolls festival literally, or festival for the girls on March 3d.

Hina-matsuri sweets decorated with plum flowers

Let’s talk umeboshi! The season for making some is far ahead, but since it is a preserve method they are eaten all year round, and known to be good against fatigue among other virtues. For many non Japanese people it’s an infamous sour thing that is often found in lunch boxes: small and hard, or in onigiri (rice balls 🍙): soft and juicy. I personally find it extremely delicious when home-made or of very good quality, but I wouldn’t recommend any of the cheap things from conbini. My favourite are the large and soft ones with a lot of juicy meat. It is often prepared with red shiso and is delicious eaten with plain white rice, with grilled chicken breast or with canned tuna (my lunch plate today).
Oh! And Prunellia arrives tonight in Tokyo!!!

My umeboshi favorite lunch plate

February 19, 2015