An old recipe

Making a quiche requires quite many ingredients. First flour and butter for the dough, then eggs and milk or cream fir the egg base and finally something to put in: vegetables, bacon, fish, cheese… then it takes 30-40min to bake it to perfection. It’s not something you prepare and serve 20min after you’ve started cooking.

But one day, when I was rather young and staying at my best friend’s house, her mother made a quiche, or rather what in French we call a savory tart with minimum ingredients and cooking time: the mustard tart. Back in France many people buy ready-to-use rolled pie crust so this makes it even simpler, but here what is stunning is the baking time. Because there is no egg base, it is really short.

Unfortunately the original recipe is all about cheese, and this doesn’t work for A. so I barely cook mustard tarts, until the other day when I decided to replace his share of cheese by thinly sliced local sausages. He had his meat, I had my cheese and everyone was happy to have lunch ready in no time!!!

So if you want to try, here is the original recipe and my recipe:

Mustard tart (classic)

  • flour, butter, water for one pie crust
  • 2 large and ripe tomatoes
  • 2tbs of mustard
  • 1-2 handful of grated emmental or gruyere cheese

Prepare the dough and roll for a 30cm low pie dish. Spread the mustard. Wash and thinly slice the tomatoes, sprinkle the cheese. Bake at 200deg until the cheese os melted and slightly golden. That’s it!!!

Mustard tart (meaty version half/half)

  • flour, butter, water for one pie crust
  • 2 large and ripe tomatoes
  • 2tbs of whole grain mustard (makes the whole milder)
  • 1 handful of grated emmental or gruyere cheese
  • 2-4 little sausages

Proceed exactly as above but just slice the sausages, sprinkle them on one half, and the cheese on the other. It is really that simple!!!

Potato salad

For those that have been to Japan they know that potato salad ポテトサラダ is a quite important dish in Japanese cuisine. It is probably one of this japanized version of western food that is so popular it looks like genuine Japanese food!! You can find potato salad on the table at every party and it is so common that it can be found in combini as well. While the idea of a potatoes base salad with vegetables all creamy and mushy is very nice, just like the kabocha salad. But the problem with most potato salad is the abundance of mayonnaise that just makes it fatty and taste like mayonnaise, nothing else. I do like fresh homemade mayonnaise once in a while but I am not such a fan to bother making some in particular if I have no plan for the egg white. But I love homemade potato salad, so I just replace the mayonnaise with a simple soft boiled egg with olive oil. That’s it! It’s faster, more digest and none the less tasty! Because fast is an important condition for preparing lunch when we are back from the ocean.

So here is my potato salad recipe with all ingredients from Isumi except the olive oil from Tuscany and the salt and pepper.

Potato salad (2 servings)

  • 3 mid size potatoes that becomes mushy when boiled
  • 1 Japanese cucumber
  • 5 Japanese sausages
  • 1 egg
  • 1tbs of olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

In a pan boil some water. In the meantime peel and cut the potatoes. Add to the boiling water, add the sausages, and later the egg. Boil until the potatoes are soft. The egg shouldn’t be boiled longer than 5min to keep the yolk creamy. Cut the cucumber in thin slices. Drain the potatoes and the sausages. In a bowl, set the cucumber, the potatoes. Cut the sausages in 1cm long pieces, add to the bowl, stir. The potatoes should start mushing and mix well with all the other ingredients. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper. Finally, add the egg cut roughly. Stir well again. Eat right away or later!

Have a good day!

Kohlrabi

I didn’t remember seeing kohlrabi too often in Japan and I couldn’t remember having actually prepared some anytime in my life. I vaguely remember it was something we would eat in the 80’s when I was little and didn’t eat anything… So kohlrabi (chou rave as I remembered it) was just a name with no associated taste or memory. When I saw it at the local farmers market I found them so cute that I couldn’t resist buying this lonely pack of three kohlrabi. And I didn’t regret it at all!!! Quite the opposite!!

I browsed the net to get a few do’s and don’t, and my first recipe was a simple olive vegetables sautéed with a bit of sausage and potatoes and red cabbage. Really simple but a great way to cook kohlrabi quickly. It adds some crispness and a fresh cabbage taste but more subtle and sweeter than I expected. Really perfect with olive oil too, so I knew we would be good friends!

More recipes with kohlrabi coming soon!!!

Shopping spree!

With our new work schedule, we finish work quite late on Friday evening and leaving for the country at 23:00, in the cold evening, empty stomachs and drained from the week is not too tempting, so we prefer to wake early on Saturday morning and leave quickly. In the winter fewer people go surfing and golfing that early so it’s not jammed. It is great to drive by day to enjoy the scenery, and we also can stop on the way at local shops we usually don’t go too often. Saturday we stopped at Wakuwaku in Otaki, a shop selling a lot of local products and fresh veggies and fruits, as well as some fish and local pork. Actually we haven’t been for the whole summer, and since we last went they had a total refurbishment and new branding with more organic products too. And it was just crazy! On top of the regular fresh fruits and vegetables I regularly buy, I also bought different types of miso, dry fish, block ham, sausages and locally made rice pasta. They also had tones of preparations such as small fish or shrimp cooked in soya sauce, with walnuts… pickles, tofu… and they had a lottery where I won an other bag full of dried sweet potatoes, rice crackers…

The thing I was the most tempted to try right away was the rice pasta from Isumi. I decided to cook them in a wok of vegetables, with chrysanthemum and sausages. So I boiled and drained the pasta, and kept in cold water. In a wok slightly greased I added 4 little sausages chopped, one red carrot cut in rectangles, a handful of brocoli, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and the petals of two yellow chrysanthemum flowers. Once the sausage were ready, I added one table spoon of soya sauce, then added the drained pasta and stirred well. Served immediately with an other chrysanthemum flower for decor. Simple and delicious!

Have a great week! 

No cooking or so little

This week I ‘ve had only one dinner home, all the other nights I’ve had business related dinners, and when it’s the case I always try to prepare something for A.. Something he likes and that can prepared in advance. A. likes sausages which are not really a favorite of mine, so I cooked some new onion, shiitake and new potatoes stew with sausages for him. It super quick to prepare, it cooks while I get myself ready to work, and A. is happy when he comes back alone to have a nice dinner ready!!! 

Risotto with radichio and Italian sausage

Continuing our Sicilan food exploration, we bought in Castelvetrano some beautiful round radichio and decided to use it for a risotto. Cooking 6 hands now with the TPS and their mother, this recipe is really simple and delicious, always taking advantage of the quality of the ingredients. So, for that recipe for 8 people we used 2 onions, 1 round radichio, 6 cup of riso for risotto, 1 Italian sausage (chicken and parsley sausage), a good amount of olive oil, salt, pepper and some freshly gratted Parmegiano for those who like.

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

Up ↑

Verified by MonsterInsights