Tag: soup

Simply simpler

No time to fix dinner? Don’t worry, I’ve just found a new preparation for sweet potatoes, and it’s so simple and delicious that it surprised myself. This is a sweet potato soup. But usually sweet potato soup means, that first you cook the potatoes, then blend them, add some cream or whatever and then eat. Last night I didn’t want a soupy soup, but rather something with a mix of textures. So here is what I did and turned superb! 

Sweet potato rough soup   2 servings

– 2 sweet potatoes

– black pepper

– parmegiano (optional) 

I washed 2 sweet potatoes and sliced them. Then in a pan I started to cook them, with just a bit of water to cover. I cooked them at high heat under cover without touching them once until all the water had disappeared and the potatoes started caramelizing in their own juice. Only then I stirred well and started to break them with a wooden spoon. Finally added water again to cover them, and bring to a boil. Add some black pepper, and served. Topped with parmigiano slices.

Kabocha soup

Autumn seems to have arrived. Mornings and evenings are much chillier and days are getting really shorter already. So it’s time to prepare some warm simple soups. After eating so many butternut squash, now I have started to cook kabocha. This little Japanese pumpkin with very green skin that can be eaten too. And making soup with it is really simple and it always make a good starter or a whole meal if accomodated a bit with crouton or grilled bacon. Here is my basic recipe. 

Kabocha soup for 2 or 3 people. 

– 1/2 kabocha

– 1L of water

– 1 little pack of fresh cream

– 1tbs of soya sauce

If you want your soup orange remove the skin, if greenish is ok for you wash the kabocha and keep the skin. Remove the seeds and cut in pieces. Boil in 1L of water under cover. Check the cooking with a toothpick. When very soft stop. With a wood pestle work directly in the pan and purée the kabocha (you can use a blender also if you want!). Add the cream, the soya sauce. Heat before eating. Add black pepper, bacon, parmegiano or whatever you like!!!

Chilly!

Autumn weather is finally coming to Tokyo, which means some beautiful weather mainly and also some rain when there is a typhoon. The temperature is also changing a lot and tonight is quite chilly and rainy, so a warm dinner was naturally my only option. This is the season for delicious Hokkaido autumn salmon 秋鮭, when the fishes come back to their original rivers. They sell it in quite large filet pieces, so I usually use it for two or three different recipes. This time I decided to prepare it in a kind of soup, very likely inspired by my nordic cooking book but with common Japanese ingredients.

Autumn salmon soup 

 – a piece of fresh autumn salmon

– 1/2 sweet potato  

– a large handful of mulukhiyah  – salt and pepper. 

First grill the salmon, in the pan in which you want to make the soup, on both sides. Then remove the skin and cut in pieces and pit back in the pan. Actually rather than cutting I simply used a spoon and broke the salmon. Cut the sweet potato in dice and in a pan. Add salt and pepper. Start cooking while stirring. Add 1/2L pf water. Cook under cover until the sweet potato is soft. Add the washed and cut mulukhiyah. Cook a few more minutes. Serve while hot.

Red quinoa

I’m on a mission to finish every single pack of rice, pasta, cereals and legumes that is opened and sitting on a shelf or in the fridge half empty. Yes! I keep pretty much everything in the fridge: flour, cereals, rice… to keep them longer (it prevents damages from high humidity and high temperatures in the summer, and low temperatures in the winter) and it allows to avoid pests since they are all organic or natural products and I am tired of food with bugs (more generally in the food that I buy in France…). I’m trying to empty my shelves as much as possible before we move to our new apartment in Tokyo, and same in the country house, just to clean my cupborads and fridge.

So I had a half pack of red quinoa to use. One thing I love to do with quinoa is some kind of croquettes. I cook the quinoa and then mix it with 2 eggs, some chopped vegetables: spinach, bell pepper, zucchini… and whatever else. This time it was some yellow bell pepper and a piece of Hokkaido salmon that was leftover from the previous day. I added some curry powder and some nutmeg, salt and pepper and cooked on both side in a greased frypan until crispy. I served them with some blanched okra, but any green is great. A light yogurt sauce with herbs can also be great.

And I was still having some extra quinoa, so for the next meal I prepared a vegan soup. Simply quinoa, sweet potato, butternut squash and shiitake, and again a bit of curry powder.  Finished with two shishito.

Cold corn soup

As I was mentioning in my earlier post, I didn’t grow in a family where eating corn or cooking corn is a tradition.  I am still quite unable to cook it in many ways, and I usually limit myself to boiled corn, rice & corn, or corn soup. Since the weather is very hot and humid these days in Tokyo I really like to prepare cold soups. And since the corn season is going to end soon, I bought a few more corn and prepared some cold soup. Similarly to the hot one it is simple and very nice as a starter. The only “problem” with cold soups made from ingredients that must be cooked (contrarily to gaspacho) is that you have to plan a bit ahead (2-3h) to have time to cool it.

Cold corn soup (for 2 bowls)

– 2 corns

– soya milk

– salt and pepper  

First remove the leaves and hairs from the corn and boil until soft. Wash under running cold water to cool them. Take all the grains out and blend until smooth (adding no other liquid help obtaining a really smooth texture), add salt and pepper. Add soya milk to obtain the desired texture. Again, when cooled the texture will be slightly thicker, so think about it to obtain the texture you really want. Blend a little longer. Cool in the fridge or the freezer before serving.

Have a nice week! 

Summer butternut squash

If two or three years ago it was not so easy to find butternut squash (see my previous post about it), now it is almost on possible to find it all year round at the farmers market… and since it is so easy to cut and peel and so quick to cook I’ve thought that it would be perfect even in summer. Of course no pumpkin spice or warm and rich preparation in summer, but rather a very simple one: cold soup.

Butter cold soup:

– 1 butternut squash  

– water

– salt

– pepper black and pink

– curcuma  

Simply peel and cut the butternut and remove the seeds. Boil it in water until very soft. Remove the water to have the butternut just covered. Smash and stir with a spoon or a fork until almost smooth (or blend). Add salt and curcuma. Cool in the fridge before serving. When dressing the plates add some black and pink pepper. 

Horse beans cold soup

Spring vegetables are getting close to the end of the season and we’re moving towards summer vegetables: zucchini, tomatoes, eggplants, melons… but before it ends, I wanted to eat a little bit more of these greens! I love so much green peas and horse beans. With the horse beans I prepared a cold soup with some croutons. It is a very simple recipe, but really delicious. Of course peeling the horse beans can be a bit of time consuming but personally I love this kind of tasks. Once it is peeled simply blend with a bit of water, add salt and pepper, if you like a spoon of yogurt, and top with freshly made fried croutons (recipe is available here). Isn’t that simple?

Have a beautiful week! 

D-9 before the opening!

As many of you may know, I’m a roboticist, cooking is just a hobby. I am the head of 20 people research lab in a national university in Tokyo. Just google me to check!! My days are pretty full with my job but I can’t help doing more than my shre and taking opportunities to do new things, to learn new things. This time, as I mentioned before, I am leading the preparation of an exhibition at our science museum where some colleagues and me will exhibit some of our research work. This keeps me even more busy: preparing the website, thinking about the layout, the exhibits… I’m hoping to make something where people entertain themselves while they learn about human and robots. And the opening is only in 9 days, or almost 8 now, and there is so much left to do!!! Obviously my cooking time has decreased significantly and it is rather simple comfy food that I prepare. I use a lot of legumes these days, because they are versatile, nourishing and easy to accommodate with vegetables. I prepared a simple warm soup with peas, lentils and barley, added a big tomato, a carrot, and finished with some fava beans. Topped with or without cheese. Dimply delicious, and ready to continue working!!!

Last day of GW

Here it is… the golden week is going to end soon… it’s going to be hard to leave our stray cat, the garden and the big kitchen. I have baked a dozen of breads, tarts, quiches, I have made ravioli and all sort of things. DIYed with A. and gardened quite a lot. We’ve had 10 friends visiting, went for walks in the woods, meet snakes we didn’t know about… In short, country life.

So to conclude this golden week, I would like to introduce a new recipe, inspired loosely from Pierre in Osaka: a cold new onion soup.  My recipe is probably much simpler than that at Pierre, but the result was amazing. New onions are in season and I can only recommend you try!

Cold new onion soup, for 4 people as a starter

– 3 large new onion

– 15cl of fresh cream

– salt and pepper  

Peel off the first skin of the onion, cut them in four, set in a pan and cover with water, add a bit of salt. Boil them until soft. Blend them with the remaining water (if not too much), add the cream. Keep at room temperature or refrigerate before serving. When serving add black pepper.

 

Our stray cat Holly and sleepy I enjoying some early morning quiet time
Our stray cat Holly and sleepy I enjoying some early morning quiet time

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