Tag: rice

A long week ahead…

After this nice weekend in the country, cooking and baking simple yet delicious food, we’re now back in Tokyo, but A. is leaving for a business trip for the whole week and I’m staying in Tokyo, with quite a work agenda, starting lectures for the new term and having some important deadline tomorrow. This means that this week cooking is going to be slightly different than usual. I don’t mind cooking for myself but most vegetables when combined together are too big for one person and I don’t really like eating twice the same things. I will have to find some new ideas of recipes to accomodate. Donburi are a real good option and I love them. I may eat donburi for the whole week! Or soup since it has become much chillier than it was last week and now it feels like autumn.

This donburi on the picture is one I cooked this weekend and I love it’s simplicity: new rice from Isumi topped with grilled lotus roots and shiitake. Finished with a little of soy sauce. The perfect dish as a side or a whole for an easy quick meal, tasty and full of different textures.

Leftovers dinner

Spending the weekend in the country after three weeks is just so nice! Even if the weather is not up to my expectations, I enjoy cooking some really nice fresh vegetables and fruits for A. and our friend D. who is staying with us for the weekend. Hopefully we manage to play tennis and to go for a small hike in Yorokeikoku in between the rain. In terms of cooking I chose to prepare very simple dishes that take advantage of the quality of the food we find in Ohara. Mostly now it’s kabocha, it’s sweet potatoes, it’s persimmons of course that are central. Since I’ve cooked slightly more rice than usual, I’ve had leftovers and decided to use them for some cha-han with vegetables. I ised 1 carrot, 1 sweet potato, 1 piece of lotus root, 1 small leek and kabocha, added the rice, and in the very end added a tsp of soya sauce. Have a good “sports’ day”!

Home sweet home

I’m so happy to be back home!!! This week in Germany has been really intense and productive for work, but being away from A., a kitchen and some oudoor activity for so long is really hard for me. As you can guess from my last post, the first thing I wanted to eat was some simple Japanese rice, and since I add some sweet potato remaining in my empty fridge I pan grilled it in a little of oil and added it to the rice (rather than cooking together. And topped with some salty konbu. Eaten together with a little cucumber (that was also remaining in the fridge) , I was the happiest girl!!!

The curse of intensive meetings

I work in a field where people loves to gather for a few days, sit and discuss all day what is the future of our field. Usually these meetings take place in close environment and from morning to night we are presence is mandatory. It gives very little opportunity for physical activity (choices are quite limited this time since I’m in a remote village in Germany) or only at the cost of sleep deprivation, and food options are also limited. Though they make efforts to have fresh local food, after 3 days there my body is now fighting for going back to normal. And by normal I mean sleeping more, being ourdoor more and eating homemade prepared food. 

I anticipated that, so our very last dinner in Tokyo I cooked some simple Japanese food with all my favorite ingredients: plain rice, salty konbu with fresh tomatoes and uneboshi salad, and okara, shiitake and carrot croquettes. Now I am craving for something like this!!!! 

Sweet potato and aburage rice

I know, this not a recipe for laye August usually but this year, it definitely is!!! And this recipe of 炊き込み御飯 (takikomi gohan) is so simple and delicious that it could be eaten anytime actually! Prepare 1cup of rice (wash and add cooking water) , cut one sweet potato in pieces, slice finely half a sheet of aburage (thin fried tofu), finish with a table spoon of soya sauce and cook. Serve while hot and enjoy the melting potato with the rice and the subtle taste and consistency of aburage! All vegan! Perfect with a clear soup with fresh vegetables such as okra.

Rehabilitation cooking

Since we came back from Canada I’ve this impression that I have forgotten how to cook and that I am in a transitional phase of rehabilitation. After such a long time not really cooking much and seeing so many ingredients that I can’t find easily in Japan and that gave me so msny ideas it’s tough for me. Though I’m very happy with the Japanese cooking I wish I had a little more time to prepare our dinner. I’ve came back exhausted and starved from work every evening because of the effects of the jetlag. Maybe also it’s the pressure of the approaching cooking contest… Yes, it’s tomorrow… I wonder if I will still be able to cook that quiche!!! So everything I have cooked this week was pure simplicity and it’s so simple I ask myself if that is actually cooking!!!!

Tofu and ginger, shishito, rice
Tofu and ginger, shishito, rice

Typhoon night

The season for typhoon has arrived. It marks the beginning of the end of summer when days are still hot and the light turns different. I have the impression that the “real” summer was really short mainly because we were away from Japan. Leaving Japan is always difficult because I love every single season and sub-season, but all are quite short. With the end of summer coming slowly summer vegetables will disappear at the farmers market and we will move on towards mushrooms, kabocha and other autumnal vegetables and fruits. So let’s enjoy the summer a little longer while the typhoon is raging outside with what I call a Japanese ratatouille made of capsicum and eggplants (white and purple) and deglazed in soya sauce, to top a simple bowl of rice. I wish you a happy Thursday!

Japanese food addict

When we are in Japan I don’t think about it, I naturally cook Japanese at least once a week sometimes more. When I say Japanese I mean rice (white or brown) and something with dashi and/or miso and/or umeboshi. These tastes have been part of our daily life now almost as much as good olive oil and basil. And when traveling I miss them, after a short while and the excitement of tasting new thing. They are simple, plain and fine at the same time, they are the promise also of fresh and simply delicious ingredients (for me) just as olive oil is too. Yet it is easier to find good olive oil and cook with olive oil (and with cooking with our friends and eating at their place several times I was really lucky!) than it is with miso, dashi, umeboshi and rice. I mean real delicious ones are still hard to find. So during this two-week trip I’ve craved for the simplicity of a bowl of Koshihikari with umeboshi, and that’s the first thing I cooked when I arrived home. I also prepared some dashi to cook some eggplants and used it for flavoring scrambled eggs. It is that simple and delicious. Is that the taste of home in Japan? Or does that make a Japanese food addict? What do you crave for when away from home?

Simple Japanese one-plate

Well, Japanese is may be a little to much but at least it’s Japanese taste and local products! I don’t like fatty meat but I must say that pork belly is always perfect to flavor simple vegetables. It’s very easy to find thin slices of pork belly in Japan, they ressemble a lot bacon slices. They are perfect for cocotte cooking for the bottom layer. Once they are cooked and the fat has melted it is a perfect base for cooking vegetables. It goves an incredible taste. Most of the time I use it mainly as flavoring and don’t eat the meat myself (A. does) but when the fat has completely disappeared and the meat gets crunchy then I don’t mind eating it! I actually find it quite good!!! It’s nice also because it’s perfect any time with seasonal vegetables. This time I cooked capsicums and in the end of the cooking added green beans cut in 3cm bites and finally deglazed in soya sauce. Delicious with plain white rice!

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