Back to “normal”

After one full week of reunited Tokyo Paris sisters, it is time to part again, not for too long, since we’ll reunite with our whole family for another Christmas in Sicily, which I am very much looking forward too!!!

One week with guests at home and usual work is always quite intense. Dining out, waking up earlier to spend sometime together in the morning, and using our days off to travel the city. Yesterday was Culture day 文化の日 and we had quite a full day to enjoy the beautiful autumnal weather: we went to Shibamata to see some old shopping street and beautiful temple, then head to the new Otani hotel for a teppanyaki lunch and stroll in the Japanese garden. Spent part of the early afternoon at Dailanyama T-site, stopped on the way back at the Aman hotel, and finish shopper in Asakusa for some order-made paper lantern P. wanted for a very long time. Back home just in time for sunset and mount Fuji!!! (Don’t think of this kind of schedule if you are not motorized!)

And then by dinner our guests were gone, going back to Paris. And a sudden emptiness and quietness st home! Time for us to catch-up with our regular habits and in particular with our veggie-based dinner! So I prepared a very simple soup with butternut squash, potatoes, burdock, lotus root, cabbage, a large piece of konbu for the broth and finished with a little of soya sauce and sesame seeds. So simple and very Japanese in flavors.

November 4, 2016

Want a Japanese twist for your pasta salad?

Since I have bought some different types of miso at the miso shop in Kichijoji (see Saturday’s post), I am using quite extensively. Mainly with raw veggies as a dip but finally last night I decided to try an original mix: a pasta salad with a white miso dressing. And it was a real nice experience! And super simple to prepare. I boiled some farfalle, then cut some okra, tomato and cucumber in small dices and add them to the pasta. And for the dressing I used 2 tsp of white miso, 2 tsp of olive oil and 1 tsp of sesame seeds, stir well and add it on top of the salad, add a little more sesame seeds for the decoration. The white miso mixed with olive oil is perfectly creamy and almost cheesy and suits perfectly the vegetables in the salad and the farfalle! A very good wa-yo taste and texture!

October 18, 2016

An all-time favorite

This simple dish with little variations is one of my favorite quickly ready Japanese dish. I cook it from autumn to early spring in a series of variations while the seasons change. Starting with plenty of mushrooms towards green peas. Sweet potatoes, burdock, kabocha are so beautiful now that I have decided to start cooking these seasonal veggies. And with some new rice, it’s a perfect match. For the pictured dish, which is about 2-3 servings, I used 2 carrots, 1 little burdock, 5 shiitake, 1 medium sweet potato, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Heat the oiled pan, wash-peel and cut the veggies, add them to the high heated pan in order of longer cooking time, stir a bit. Once golden cover and cook at low heat until the sweet potatoes are soft, add some sesame seeds and soy sauce and serve.

October 5, 2016

Brown rice 💛💛💛 玄米

With a mother nutritionist, Prunellia and I have been raised in an environment where food was always important, both in gustative quality and in nutritional quality. I remember as a child playing a game called “manger juste” (eat right) where one has to built up well balanced menu with the food on the cards, depending on their nutritional value and quality. And brown rice was on the menu every week for sure. A kind of ritual every Monday’s lunch. Now brown rice is on my menu more often, in particular recently because I’ve managed to find delicious organic brown rice, and more recently, the lovely person who has adopted two of our orphan cats gave me a huge bag of brown rice from Kyushu. I find that brown rice goes very well with konbu and I love to prepare it simply in one bowl or one plate versions. Here just with 1/2 avocado, sprout, sesame seeds and konbu. A perfect lunch or dinner. One can add a bit of cucumber from crispy fresh texture.

May 19, 2016

Little dinner before going on holidays

Et voila! We’re on our way to Sicily, now in transit in Rome, and before we start to cook some Italian anazing food, here’s a last little winter salad recipe with red cabbage, carrots on top of rice. Additional kabocha seeds, sesame seeds and smoked red snapper. A bit of olive oil as dressing. A colorful and tasty crunchy one plate.

December 19, 2015

Sesame fougasse

Oil base breads are probably what I am best at and what I enjoy the most to knead. After I’ve through the classis foccacia, fougasses etc, I wanted to invent my own recipes. My first one is a sesame fougasse. I used 250g of flour, 120g of water, 14g of sordough, 3g of dry natural yeast, 50g of sesame (grilled and soaked in water), 5g of salt, 10g of sesame oil, 10g of olive oil. I proceed exctly as for regular fougasse. And once baked I applied sesame oil instead of olive oil. Delicious with pretty much anything, sesame suits well cheese like brie, and salads.

November 23, 2015

Persimmmon and turnip salad

We harvested some more persimmons today and I really have a lot!! So I’m trying a few recipes with persimmons, after the not too conclusive jam experiment. Back when I was going to cha-kaiseki classes there was a really nice autumn recipe of persimmon in salad. Later I found other recipes that inspired me, and today I would like to present you my original recipe of persimmon, turnip and tofu.

The recipe is ultra simple. For 4 servings, 1 still hard persimmon, 2 turnips or a piece of daikon, 1/2 block of hard tofu, sesame seeds, a few walnuts, salt. Start by draining the tofu, since it takes some time. Then peel the turnips and cut them in small sticks (thin slices can also work); set them in a bit of salt to remove the water. Peel the persimmon, and cut similarly to the turnips. In a bowl, roughly squeeze a tea spoon of sesame seeds and the walnuts. Once the tofu is drained, press it in a clean clothe to remove the additional water and once quite dry mix it with the sesame and the walnuts. Drain the turnips and add ghem to the tofu, add the persimmon. And serve.

October 31, 2015

Sunny Japanese autumn – 秋晴れ

I love these autumn days when the skies are so blue and the light is so bright, these “akibare” days. This is an invitation to wake up early and be outside all day long . So I spend little time cooking during the day and we need some quick fix for lunch, yet full of energy to enjoy a few more other hours out gardening, hiking, playing tennis or whatever. Pasta provide a perfect base, and since temperature are still warm if not hot at this time of the day, acold salad is perfect: penne with avocado, radish, cucumber, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, olive oil and ready!

Enjoy the autumn! It’s so beautiful outside!

October 25, 2015

Okara galette

I like okara very much but we don’t eat some too often. For this recipeI wanted to prepare a 100% vegan meal and I come with the idea of a sort of galette. I mixed okara with finely cut tomatoes, fresh green beans slightly boiled, flax and sesame seeds, and salt. I shaped them in round and grilled them in the oven until the top it slightly roasted. I was very much pleased with the sweetness and juiciness of the tomato contrasting with the crunchy beans and flax seeds. It was hard to fell the sesame taste. I regretted not to have used tahine or suri-goma (crunched sesame seeds) for more flavor instead of just the seeds. But I’m fairly happy with this use of okara.

October 1, 2015