Fresh home-made food every day
The weather forecast is not making me too happy: rain, rain, rain for the next 3 days. No tennis, no gardening, no walking out. Being indoor is kind of making me sad… So to cheer up the rainy mood a good vegan soup with fresh veggies and plenty of lentils, barley and beans is just perfect!!!
This weekend I tried quite a few new recipes, mainly for breakfast and teatime and we spent quite some time outside in the garden preparing for spring: there’s still loads of fallen leaves, and trees to trim… So when it comes to a meal, something warm and energetic was really important. I had a piece of cabbage that I really wanted to use, and some beautiful winter red carrots. The leftovers of whole rice, and fresh rice cakes (mochi) that I bought at the local farmers market (I love rice cakes but my husband don’t like them to much so I don’t buy fresh ones too often). So I decided to prepare a two way dinner, one a vegan chahan (sautéed rice) and the other a kind of o-zoni (the soup for new year with rice cake in). In a wok I cooked the chopped piece of cabbage and one carrot sliced with a bit of oil and then a bit of water. In the mean time I prepared some konbu dashi by boiling two pieces of konbu in 0.5L of water. I then moved roughthly half of the veggies in the soup and cooked a little longer, while in the wok I added the whole rice already cooked, a bit of sesame oil, and some sesame seeds. I grilled the rice cake to soften it, and added a large spoon of miso in the soup (ideally white miso, but I didn’t have any).
I served both, added the rice cake in the soup, and ready to eat!
Too happy with the mix cauliflower and katsuobushi in the tart the other day that I decided to try it in an other version: a warm soup for a cold evening. And the magic worked again!
It’s crazily simple and delicious: boil a cauliflower (I just removed the green leaves, washed it and boiled it all in one piece in 3cm of water under cover. Once soft I roughly crush it with a wooden spoon and mix it with the remaining water in my blender, add black pepper and the soup is ready. When I serve I add some thinly cut katsuobushi (usukiri), that’s it!
Still enjoying some local Sicilian products, the fennels are, just like the cauliflowers a must of the season. Fennels are also found everywhere and are beautiful. For me in particular it’s a feast because in Japan it’s not easy to find fennels and they are usually small and not too good eaten raw. So I’m really enjoying eating plenty, raw, cooked, braised… And since soups are a big favorite for dinner in our family, the fennel soup we prepared with our mother was a big success. For 8 people we used 2 onions, 2 little tomatoes, 2 big fennels, olive oil, salt and pepper. First we cut the onions, the tomatoes, and the fennels and slightly cook them in olive oil (no need to say, Sicilian olive oil is amazing) . Then cover with water and cook for 40min. Blend and add some olive oil and serve. Simple and so delicious, perfect before the Christmas feast!
With all these beautiful green cauliflowers everywhere in town, sold at every shop, seen at every street corner, and in the fields, they seem to be one of Sicilian winter must eat! So it was impossible not to buy some and prepare something with. Our mother is really good with preparing soup and we prepared a cauliflower soup. The cauliflower is just boiled in little water, then blended with a little cream, salt and pepper. Served with some freshly made croutons: just old bread cut in chunks and slightly pan fried in oil. Thanks Mum for this homy-yummy soup.
This week is the last one before flying to Italy, so there’s quite a number of things I want to finish to be sure that I’m leaving with everything sorted out. Days at the lab have been extremely long and busy juggling with meeting, students, lectures and administrative work. So when back home I want to prepare aome light and comforting food. These little tortellini are just perfect. But rather than simply boiling them and serving them with olive oil, this time I opted for a fresh veggies broth made with leek, carrots and carrot leaves. After boiling the veggies in water for 3min I added the tortellini and boiled them for about 10min (you don’t want to over-cook them). I served it as a soup and for those who like it I served with some gratted Parmegiano.
Having all these beautiful cabbages in the fridge, I’m always wondering which one to chose and to cook, so tonight I opted for a duet: cauliflower and broccoli.
Again this time, the recipe was not decided when I started to cook and I changed my mind ten times in the process. So first I steamed half a cauliflower and a broccoli, because I wasn’t sure of what I was to prepare I kept them separately all the time. Then with the cauliflower I prepared a roux with quite a lot of flour to obtain a thick dough, seasonned with nutmegs, salt and pepper, and decided to make pancakes with that. For the broccoli I decided to make a soup, so I also prepared a roux but with very little flower, then I blended the steamed broccoli and added enough water for two servings, salt, and a little of sesame seeds.
I baked the pancakes in a greased pan, and served. An other seeving option is with some prosciutto and Parmegiano with the pancakes.
Last week end at the local farmers market they had tones of super nice veggies so we came back to Tokyo with the trunk full of veggies (our car has a fairly small trunk though!). And now any time I open the fridge to cook I have plenty of ideas to prepare all these beautiful veggies. I experimented quite a bit with juices and smoothies but my equipment in Tokyo is not appropriate for that. And then I came up with the idea of having a good soup for dinner made with this huge celery I bought. Since I like the simple taste of one ingredient I didn’t mix it with any thing. I simply boiled 3 branches of celery in some veggie consommé, then blend the whole thing, add a little of cream (vegetal cream is perfect) and serve hot. For those who like you can add a slice of grilled bacon or some croutons.
I talk about summer vegetables and fruits a lot, and use many in my cooking every day (I love summer fruits for breakfast) but to tell you the truth though we are in July, the weather is quite tricky these days and summer may be in my plates but not outside. So after a whole week of rainy days and quite cool evenings, I wanted to eat a warm soup. So I went for a simple combination: leek, celery and zucchini in a vegetable consommé that I cooked 10min to keep the celery and the zucchini firm enough. I added a few little pasta at the same time (for the energy after a tough day) and a bit of olive oil. A delicious mix for dinner perfectly balanced in taste and texture. You can also add some gratted Parmegianno.
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