Tag: vegan

Nakasendo, Magome juku – 中山道・馬籠宿

Terraced rice fields along the hike to Magome
Terraced rice fields along the hike to Magome
Magome juku
Magome juku
Yakimochi
Yakimochi

We are still on the road both by car and by foot with A. And after Tsunan, Hakuba, Azumino, Matsumoto, Kamikochi, Takayama, Gero, Ena we are now in the Kiso valley, or rather on the old road Nakasendo, in a very nice little inn where we are the only guests and very well taken care of. Our hike today, shortened by the heat has taken us to Magome juku, an old post town on the Nakasendo, one of the roads widely employed to travel between Kyoto and Tokyo in the past, a still very well preserved place with very picturesque views and old houses. Back at our inn: Shinchaya, our host had prepared a huge dinner as could be expected in every minshuku and ryokan. What is great with minshuku compared to ryokan is that it is more homemade-like food and easy to get recipes directly from the cook! For addresses and tips about traveling in the Kiso valley, please leave a comment!

This time the nice surprise was what is called yakimochi – 焼き餅 but it is not made of rice! The recipe is quite simple and the results quite delicious!

 Yakimochi – 焼き餅 from Shinchaya

– a few taro – 里芋

– buckwheat flour

– salt

– soya sauce

– fresh ginger

Boil the taro, and peel them. Mash them with a fork, add some salt and the buckwheat flour to obtain a smooth mix. Make paddies with the mix and grill them (oven, pan…). Peel and grat the fresh ginger. Serve the grilled paddies with soya sauce and the ginger.

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. 

Simple Japanese meal

With friends at home for the whole weekend I ended up not cooking Japanese at all, and since Friday I was still craving for some simple Japanese taste. Finally last night I got it done! A. is good at preparing Japanese rice, which saves a bit of time when I am finishing work rather late, and I had some perfect fresh Japanese vegetables for a simple meal: onion for Shirako, white carrots and new lotus roots. I simply wash/peel and cut all the vegetables, heat a bit if oil in a pan and cook them under cover until almost done (the onion being probably the most critical) then I remive the cover, add some soya sauce and cook at high heat for 2 minutes, and serve with the rice. It’s not very elaborated but it tastes perfectly Japanese!

Plum syrup

When I harvested the plums this year I used them mainly for umeshu for my family and plum syrup for me. Indeed, I love to prepare myself some fancy drinks using homemade syrups. They are so much better than anything that can be found of the shelf. Last year I made some strawberry tree (bay berry) syrup and it worked very well. And our neighbor gave us some plum syrup last year and I totally loved it, so it was not an option not to try making some. Since we harvested a real lot of plums this year (30 or 40kg may be… and I didn’t harvest 2 trees because we had too many already!!) I made plenty of syrup and I could try it finally. It’s funny with the syrup making how the plum shriveled which does not happen with the umeshu making. The taste is perfectly sweet and sour. Perfect with sparkling water and ice for a chill out drink, and with just tap water for a light energy drink after workout.

Fruits syrup: 

– 1kg of fruits

– 1kg of candy sugar  

Wash thoroughly the fruits and dry them well with a clothe. For fruits with stem, remove the stems. For fruits that may have tiny bugs, dip them in salted water for 2h before preparing the syrup. In a large bin that is much bigger than the volume of fruits+sugar, lay the washed fruits, add a layer of sugar than fruits, sugar, and finish with a thick layer of sugar. Close the bin tight and wait for a few weeks. That’s all!

Veggies and grain

This week A. is very busy with work, with visitors from his headquarters, meaning dining out for him and dinner alone for me, and also taking care of the house chores. When it’s the case I usually come back late from work too and cook some rather simple meals that while it cooks give me free hands for the laundry… With the fridge full of fresh summer vegetables, it was even easier: grains and vegetables every day!!!! Brown rice, barley… with bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini, green beans… and topped with some gratted cheese, or some fresh mozzarella, or nothing…

It is always the same base: first in a pan I heat some olive oil, add the vegetables that need a bit of roasting or are longer to cook (eggplant, carrot…), then the main grain, the herbs (mainly rosemary from the garden this week)… then I cover with water, cook under cover, add the vegetables that need less cooking (green beans, zucchini…) and remove the cover for the last minutes of cooking. That’s it! And the weekend is almost there, with a hot Sunday apparently! Take care

brown rice, zucchini, eggplant and rosemary
brown rice, zucchini, eggplant and rosemary

Curry soup

A few weeks ago, one day when the weather was awfully rainy, we went out for lunch in a new place we haven’t tried before: Green +. It’s a small cafe a bit remote with a chef that cooks vegan local food using tones of herbs and mild spices. The lunch menu is rather simple: curry soup, or a choice of 3 little dishes. All served with fresh salad, miso soup, brown rice and homemade pickles. Everything is delicious, but the curry soup was a real discovery. I like tasty soup but not too spicy. With the summer settling in, I thought that I won’t make any curry soup anytime soon, but last Sunday the weather was again very rainy and windy and chilly, and I was also sad and worried because our cat didn’t show up for the whole weekend. A warm spicy tasty vegetables soup was perfect for a warming dinner.

I used vegetables I just bought at the farmers market: a few baby corns, a handful of green beans, three little potatoes. one carrot, and one big ripe tomato. All in a big pot, covered woth water. I then added a tea spoon of curry powder, sprinkled a bit od cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg, added just a bit of black pepper. Cooked under cover for 30min, and served right away.

A nice custom

In Japan when you go to a bice restaurant there a nice custom of leaving the restaurant with a present, generally food present. Many of the Japanese restaurants we jave been practice this custom, but I don’t know where it comes from. I need to investigate more!!!! 

I remember some delicious pound cake from Robuchon, sometimes so breads or some cookies or chocolates in French restaurants. In Japanese restaurant it is often some pickles or some rice and this time we had again dinner at Itosho, a Shojin cuisine restaurant, it was some nice green peas rice. To which I added a scrambled egg to make a perfect quick dinner the next day! A very nice way to prolong the experience!

Have a beautiful Sunday! 

Colorful salad

Sometimes a very simple meal is welcome, but something different than usual. And for no specific reason I don’t cook potato salad very often, even though it’s super easy and delicious. I don’t mean mayonnaise base potato salad that is very common here in Japan, but rather olive oil base. Something with plenty of fresh vegetables. This time I had red cabbage and celery, so I simple shredded the cabbage, cut the celery, boiled and peeled the potatoes. Added some black sesame, a dressing with olive oil and white miso. And here was my vegan salad. For those who like, you can add pan grilled bonito to it. Super delicious. Have a great week!!!

Minestrone inspiration

A plate of pasta with vegetables is always good and easy to prepare. But rather than pasta with sauce or vegetables I wanted vegetables with pasta. I took the inspiration from the minestrone recipe but at the time of adding the tomatoes I found that the all green dish was a perfect match with the green outside in the garden now that most of the azaleas flowers have fallen and left only the green leaves. So it gave a beautiful plate with Sicilian ring pasta, celery, zucchini, green beans and basil, olive oil and that’s it. I boiled the pasta. And in a wok I simply cooked (briefly) the vegetables in olive oil, added the pasta, stirred well and served. So simple so delicious!

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

Up ↑

Verified by MonsterInsights