Now that I understand a bit better how to use the salted sakura, I decided to prepare a new version of sakura rice (the fridge being almost empty before our departure to Europe today). I decided to prepare it not with greens as I did last time but with sweet potatoes. So I basically prepared a sweet potato rice in which I added salted sakura flowers from the beginning of cooking. I didn’t washed them this time because I wanted to keep the salty flavor. What happened and was amazingly surprising is that the flavor of the sakura transferred a lot to the sweet potatoes and gave them a very flowery taste very close to rose. It was really delicious. A combination that has given me new ideas of recipes! Coming soon probably! In the meantime enjoy spring and blossoms every where!
Soya milk curry rice
Curry-rice is always good to eat whether it is warm or cold, I love the creamy sauce with the veggies and the rice. All the textures, the colors and the flavors… yet I often find curry is too spicy for me. One way to soften it is to use soya milk instead of water to prepare the sauce. The soya milk add a good balance in the mouth without damaging the spice taste, but simply by softening the hot part of the spices. It also gives a beautiful pale shade to the sauce.
I used potatoes, sweet potatoes, lotus roots and carrots for the vegetables. 2tsp of curry powder, 3 cloves, 1tsp of cardamom, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. A 20cl pack of soya milk. In a greased heated pan I first roast the vegetables before adding the spices, salt and pepper and 1/3 glass of water and 2tbs of flour. Stir well. Then I add the soya milk and cook under cover for 5-10min, then remove the cover and continue until it has exactly the creamy texture I want. I serve immediately with rice.
Sakura rice
The other day I was so happy with cherry blossom rice in my bento that I couldn’t help trying to make some. It’s just the right season for it, cherry trees start to bloom, though it seems they are rather late this year. Making sakura rice is very simple. You need only four ingredients: white Japanese rice, soya sauce, some fresh greens: spinach or canola, and some salt preserved sakura flowers. In Japan it is very easy to find them in little bins in supermarkets, in small boxes or packs at the farmers market. Wash the greens, and blanche them. Slightly and delicately rinse of the sakura flowers. In a pan or rice cooker add the rice and about 5 to 10 flowers. Add a tbs of soya sauce. Cook your rice as usual. Cut the greens in 1.5 cm pieces. Add to the rice when cooked and stir. Add a salted flower for decoration. That’s it!
Continuing with Japanese one-plates
For weekend lunches I love to prepare one-plate or one-bowl lunches. They are simple to prepare, well balanced and fun to eat. Since we spend most of our weekend outdoors they are a perfect break. I usually use Japanese rice as the starting point and decline with two or free more items. For this plate I prepared rice served with umeboshi, a tomato-avocado-sesame salad, and kabocha croquettes. I served it with grilled sausages for A. who likes meat.
Kabocha and wheat bran croquettes:
– 1/3 of kabocha, steamed
– 3tbs of wheat bran
– 3tbs of vegetal oil for cooking
Once the kabocha is steamed, mash it to a thick purée. Split the quantity in four and make balls or oblong shapes. Roll them in the wheat bran. Heat the oil in a fry pan and cook the croquettes at high heat, turn them regularly until golden everywhere. Have a beautiful Sunday!
Plum trees start to bloom
It’s been a few weeks that the red plum trees in the garden were boiling to bloom, now it’s official plum flower season has started. Even some if the white plum trees have started to bloom too. It is one of my favorite moment in the year. It is still cold but spring is already showing up. I like the beautiful little flowers against the crisp blue sky. So using the plum as a base I prepared a one-plate lunch with pink small radishes for the color, plain white rice shaped in plum flower (I made 5 little balls that I then compacted together using a piece of cooking wrap), an umeboshi on top. Then scrambled eggs with nori and grilled shiitake with sesame and a drop of sesame oil and soya sauce. And everything ready in 20min (when in a rush cooking rice in a pan is much faster than the rice cooker). And shaping the rice took me the most time because I had no clue how to do it, but I’m quite proud I managed! Happy Setsubun!!!
Canola with miso
It is nice to change shopping place once in a while because different markets have different products and it opens up to new opportunity for trying new recipes or new combinations. So this weekend instead of shopping in Ohara I shopped in Kuniyoshi, a small village 10km away. I love their coop shop because they have many different products in particular for fish and meat. So I got a beautiful sashimi of sabre fish and prepared it very simply with white rice, canola boiled in dashi and served with miso (one classic use of canola in Japanese cuisine), and I pan fried some tiny lotus roots and the fish. That’s it!
Canola with miso – 味噌和え菜の花
– 1 bundle of canola
– 1 small handful of katsuobushi
– 1 tbsp of miso of your choice
Wash quickly the canola under running water, remove the hardest parts if any. In a pan boil 1/3L of water, add the katsuobushi in a dashi bag. Bring to a boil. Add the canola and cook for 5min. Drain and rince with cold water. Squeeze them gently to remove all the water. Cut in 3 or 4 the whole bundle. Serve woth miso on top. (You can also mix the miso with it but it might break the leaves and flowers, so I prefer not to)
Fresh lunch
After our tennis game turned short because of a sudden snow fall, we went grocery shopping (beautiful radishes, carrots, spinach, cauliflowers and the first of spring veggies: na no hana (colza flowers) and fuki no to) and then back home for lunch. I was frozen and was about to prepare a warm curry or soup. But then the sun came out and the sky cleared again, so I changed my mind and went for a light radish, carrot and spinach salad, served with bonito sautéed in a crispy chickpeas flour crust. I just sliced the radish and carrot with a mandolin, washed and drained the spinach and removed the hardest parts. For the bonito I used a puece of a filet for sashimi and sliced it. I dipped the slices in chickpea flour, and then cooked them on both sides in vegetal oil. Dressed the plates and serve with a bowl of rice. Have a nice weekend!
My Japanese style vegan soup
Largely inspired by the quinoa soups (winter and autumn) I made, I wanted something more Japanese. So I cooked in a pan: one sweet potato, one large sato imo, a piece of kabocha and a leek in a bit of olive oil, and in an other pan I cooked a mix of seeds and beans together with brown rice, I cooked them as you would cook regular Japanese rice. I didn’t cook the veggies and the rice together to avoid over cooking the veggies, to keep their beautiful colors (black rice has a tendency to color a lot) and limit the stickiness of the rice and seeds. Just before serving I added a bit of boiling water to the rice mix to make it soupy, and I deglazed the veggies with a large table spoon of soy sauce. I served the rice mix, the vegetables and topped with golden sesame seeds. A rich and tasty soup for a winter evening.
7 herbs – 七草
Every year in Japan, on January 7th it is a custom to eat 7 herbs rice porridge おかゆ. Since I am not a huge fan of rice porridge I develop a new recipe every year (other recipes). Last year I prepared a 7 herbs rice omelet. This year I prepared it with grilled cod. I cooked some plain white rice. I grilled some fresh Hokkaido cod cut in pieces, and the turnip, then I simply washed the herbs and chopped them roughly and add both the cod and the herbs to the rice. Simple, tasty and delicious! How do you eat your 7 herbs???
