Tag: seasonalfood

Aibika – 花オクラ🌸

Do you know this flower named aibika or hana okra 花オクラ?

I didn’t until yesterday, when I found it at our local vegetables shop. First time ever I saw it, it’s grown locally, so I bought it. No idea how to prepare it nor how it would taste., but my IG feed was full of zucchini flowers earlier this summer, and more recently of pumpkin flowers, that the idea of having a chance to eat some flowers too was really too tempting!

A quick reading of the most popular recipes on the Japanese cookpad website didn’t not tempt me, so I decided to go for something I barely do, but believe would be great, and a substitute for my mother’s zucchini flowers fritters: super light tempura. And it worked really fine. So if you see this pale yellow flowers at a farmer’s market (I doubt you can find them at a supermarket…) just get them.

I guess the name of hana okra or flower okra in direct translation, comes from the fact that they are, like okra, a bit slimy. So if you don’t like slimy food pass on that one.

Aibiki tempura

  • A few flowers of aibiki, and some other vegetables if you want. I did shishito and red bell pepper
  • 3tbs of flour
  • 1cup of water
  • 1/2 tsp of vinegar
  • A pinch of salt
  • Cooking oil

Wash and pat dry the vegetables.

In a frypan heat a bit of oil (I don’t deep fry, but if you do heat your oil). In a bowl, mix the flour, the water and the vinegar. Stir well. Dip in the vegetables and put in the pan right away. Cook a few minutes before flipping. Serve with a pinch of salt and eat immediately. That’s it!

Oh no! The pantry is empty!!!

Welcome September!!! Honestly, I don’t remember there was a month of August this year… and September starts in quite a gloomy mood… bye bye summer vegetables and welcome autumn!!! With the first butternut squash in and no more korinki… rain and chilly wind.

But while when I open my fridge it is, somehow, always easy to think about something to cook… my pantry recently has been rather empty. I was so much waiting for the new rice to arrive, and for my favorite flour too, that I completely forgot that we were running out of everything: no more pasta, no more regular flour, very little olive oil… 🤭

Our bread are now whole wheat bread as this is the only flour I have left. And so our our pancakes and crepes! Not that I dislike it, but A. sometimes prefers a mix of flours.

And last night when it was time to cook dinner, after another long day of work, you know, when you are starving and you want something quickly ready so that you can sit back and have a nice break… the very last thing I had was a pack of dried soba… I was dreaming of pasta, but soba would be a good alternative, well the only alternative! Because there is no meal if there is no carb in our house!

The plating was made in a rush and the picture taking in a rush too, but the recipe ended up being perfectly balanced and taking advantage of the end of summer vegetables that are bell peppers and the nalta jute. So let me share my recipe with you, in case you are in a rush and have soba noodles nearby.

End of summer sautéed soba (2 servings)

  • 2 portions of soba noodles (dry, fresh, semi dry…)
  • 1 bell pepper (color of your choice)
  • 2 big handful of nalta jute
  • 1tsp of olive oil
  • 2tbs of soya sauce

Boil the soba as indicated. Rinse well after they are cooked and keep in water.

While the soba are boiling, wash and chop very thinly the bell pepper. In a large heated pan, add the oil, the bell pepper and cook at medium heat until it soften. Wash the nalta jute and add to the pan. Continue cooking at medium heat until soft too. Drain the soba and add to the pan. Stir well. Add the soya sauce and stop heating. stir again well and serve immediately.

If you manage well you should have your meal ready in 15min!

Barley risotto

I’m a big fan of all kind of cereals and leguminous plants. I like to use them in many recipes. In Japan there exists many, such as adlay and millet and of course all the beans (豆) families: edamame, azuki, black beans… I also like the European or Asian ones too, barley, lentil, chickpea… that are less common. In particular barley is really nice to cook as a substitute of rice. I use it to make risotto (here is a winter recipe). It is more crunchy than rice and the texture goes very well with all kind of vegetables. This time I used in in a risotto primavera, with fresh green peas, fresh new onions, fresh green beans and fresh basil. I added some bacon for A. It is very simple to prepare. First in a. It olive oil cook the baconand the new onion. Then add the barley and rost it. Finally add water, and the vegetables. It cooks under cover for 20min and then it’s ready to eat! Don’t forget to add the vegetables in order of longer cooking time to avoid over cooking them.

Double luck!

I was thinking that these days I don’t cook much and in particular I haven’t created new recipes as often as I usually do. Indeed, I am busy with work, handling a lot of things at the same time, and the beginning of the new term at the university, with new students in the lab, teaching and budgeting is always a period with a lot of pressure. On top of which, because more is better, I have taken the lead for an exhibition at the science museum of the university and the opening is in just one month, so there is a lot to do and prepare. Of course I have an amazing group, with great people that are always ready to challenge themselves. But in the end of the day I have little energy left to think about creating a new recipe, as I also concentrate on this recipe/cooking contest entry. So last night when I stepped in the kitchen at 21:00 past the first great news was a package from Poland from our friend who knows how much I love the Polish traditional potteries which I find suits very well Japanese food, and every once in a while sends us one. I now have a pretty collection!!!

Then I started to cook some vegetables sautéed for our dinner, and I was thinking that it was really not enough as a meal and A. would complain I don’t feed him enough!!! 😉 And just at this perfect moment (timing couldn’t be better), the doorbell rang and after a short time A. came back to the kitchen with a warm dish of bamboos shoot rice prepared by our neighbor who has been to the country to pick bamboo shoots. Isn’t that lovely! And here the perfect dinner was ready! Thanks a lot I. and Mrs W.!!!!!

My collection of Polish crafted potteries
My collection of Polish crafted potteries

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.

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

Up ↑

Verified by MonsterInsights