And here is the second recipe with bamboo shoots, the one that I really wanted to try. It is inspired from a dish we had at Daigo in February and since then I’ve been thinking/dreaming of it. It’s a very Japanese dish with taste of spring. It requires some fresh bamboo shoot boiled and cooled down, a table spoon of olive oil and 10 branches of kinome (the small leaves of the sansho tree, we have one in the garden so I just had to go and pick some!). I cut the bamboo shoot in dice, chopped the kinome leaves and add then to the bamboo, then add the oil and stir well. Ready to serve ready to eat.
Spring means greens, but also fresh bamboo shoots. Fresh bamboo is so delicious that I never miss the season and always prepare some. This year I have several ideas of recipe I wanted to try with bamboo shoots, so there might be a dew posts using bamboo shoots. The first one is a red miso soup with simply boiled bamboo shoot sliced and mitsuba. For the dashi I used only katsuobushi. It’s a very simple delicious dish that accomadtes perfectly rice and grilled chicken or grilled fish.
Simple to prepare, all served at once, colorful and super delicious, I wonder why I don’t prepare some more often! With fresh green peas and snap peas, a bit of pork from Isumi and some Koshiikari from Isumi too, nothing much simple than preparing a delicious spring donburi. For the seasonning just a few drops of soya sauce and some golden sesame seeds. In order to keep the greens soft and tender, yet crunchy at the same time I only washed them and then cook them with a really little bit of water in the same pan with the pork. No additional fat, no salt nothing. For the pork I just cut slices in little bites and cook in a pan until golden and crispy. I serve the rice cooked alone, top with the pork and veggies, add a spoon of golden sesame and only 5 drops of soya sauce just to enhance the taste but not spoil it. One must be careful in using soya sauce because it has a tendency to cover all other tastes,
What to cook for your friends visiting Japan when you are back from work past 21:00 and everyone is starving? A soba salad with spring veggies of course!!! Spring veggies: asparagus, snap peas, green peas, are very easy to prepare and require very little cooking, just blanching them for 2min. Soba are also quick to cook, so in 15min I can have a dinner plate ready for 4 people. To the spring veggies I’ve added some cucumbers and a bit of brocoli sprout, as for the dressing, I mixed a bit of soy sauce with vegetal oil and just add a bit to prevent the soba for getting too sticky. You can also top the plate with some Japanese salmon, shredded nori…
Yes! Spring is here for sure and aspargus start to be seen on the market stands. Nothing simpler and more classic then an asparagus risotto, and still so delicious, I never miss to make one. I used a new onion for the base, for sweetness and melty texture, that I chopped roughly and slightly cook in olive oil. Then I added the rice, and rolled it in the oil until almost golden. Finally added water or vegetables bouillon if you have one. Once almost all the water has been absorbed by the rice, I added the asparagus chopped. And cooked until bright and shiny green to keep then perfectly crunchy. Served right away.
What if suddenly the temperature drops again and it feels like winter again? Nothing as simple as a making a quinoa soup! I’ve spotted the recipe the very first time I was browsing my vegetarian cookbook received for Xmas, and didn’t had a chance to make it before: no quinoa, not the proper veggies, to warm… But last night was perfect. The recipe is extremely simple, and it takes very little time to prepare because quinoa cooks really quick, so that makes a perfect option for days at work. Of course I slightly changed the original recipe because I didn’t have potatoes and i found anyway that potatoes+quinoa was a little to much, so I replaced the potatoes by lotus root. For this quinoa soup for a full dinner for 2 you need: 90g of quinoa; 1 tomato; 1 little leek or half onion; a handful of fresh spinach; 2 potatoes or the equivalent of lotus root; salt, pepper. In a pan heat a bit of oil, chop the onion or the leek and throw them in the pan, add the tomato diced, then the spinach washed and roughly cut and finally the potato or lotus root, cut in big chunks. Finish with the quinoa. add water to cover the whole ingredients and add an other 2cm. Add a bit of salt and pepper, and cook for 20min under cover. Serve while hot. I thought about adding an egg at the end of the cooking, but then realized that it was already well enough energetic, so finally didn’t.
After a gloomy week of rain and cold weather, now the sun is back for a few days and the temperature gently increases during the day, spring veggies and wild sprouts are more and more present on the market, while classic veggies like mushrooms and spring cabbages are also taking a large part of the show. I wanted to cook some risotto primavera but couldn’t find all the proper ingredients so I decided to change it to a green peas-eringi-bacon version. Simply delicious with the softness of the rice, the chewiness of the eringi and the sweetness and crispiness of the peas. I didn’t use any broth because I use the bacon as a base. Then add the eringi, finish just one minute before serving with the peas to keep them just a little hard.
Spring is really here and with it all the delicious greens. This week-end I packed up in fresh greens and couldn’t wait too cook them!
Horse beans and two kinds of snap peas
Days are getting warmer but nights are still cool, so with the horse beans I decided to make a little soup with roasted hazelnuts. The snap peas I just steamed them. And I served that with a cheese and oat bran muffins.
Oat bran muffins, snap peas and horse bean soup with grilled hazelnuts
For the soup (vegan) it’s a little of work because first you need to shell the horse beans, boil them a few minutes, then remove the thick and hard skin. The benefit for doing that is quite simple: you obtain a very creamy soup that doesn’t need to go through the blender. After that I added just a little of salt snd pepper and finished with a little of corn starch. I opted for no consommé or what so ever to keep the subtle taste if the beans. Served topped with some chopped and riasted hazelnuts.
For the oat bran muffins (vegetarian), it really simple, I mixed together some flour, oat bran, baking powder, salt, an egg and prepared in individual paper cups. I added the cheese in between two layers of dought to obtain a melting heart, and baked until golden.
A few years ago while I was trying new recipes I was taking notes of any good finding for future use. Of course, after changing job and apartment, I stop making notes, and forgot about it. Recently, I was browsing trough this note book, and it reminded me receipe trials with bamboo shoots and when I came out with this funny mix: Bamboo shoot salad with smoked salmon, capers, and a yogurt sauce.
Salty sakura flowers and capers
Now is just the season for bamboo shoots, and I got a few in Ohara. So while preparing them I was wondering which variation I would opt for (with what is available in Ohara: forget about wild or organic smoked salmon, so forget about it!) and I found that just served with capers and salty sakura flowers that would be a perfect seasonal match. Indeed! Salty sakura flowers are a typical ingredient in spring and are used to decorate mochi, to season chazuke, or to make sakura tea. It’s just just fresh flowers preserved in salt. A bit like small roses preserved in sugar. With a very specific taste of sakura. It may be surprising at first, but it’s really delicious!
