Butternut squash + shiitake = perfect combo

There are ingredients like these that are a perfect match and a perfect seasonal signature. Butternut squash and shiitake are one of these pairs. Funnily in Japanese butternut squash is called nippon kabocha ニホンカボチャ, which means basically Japanese kabocha. Yet until very recently it was impossible to find something else than regular kabocha, the small pumpkin with a green skin. But recently I have found butternut squash at the farmers market and I love it. Shiitake is very easy to find too, but this time I have found tiny ones, really cute and delicious. So I have used them quite intensively. Using the same pair of veggies I have prepared two different variations one Japanese one more western. The first one is takikomi rice. Which is a preparation where vegetables and rice are cooked together, at the same time. And the cooking base can be either dashi, warer or a seasoned one. I love simple water seasoned with soya sauce. So I cut a piece of butternut squash in cubes, use the shiitake as whole or cut in halves, put them on top of the rice and water, season with a large table spoon of soya sauce. And cook as usual.

The second version is as simple. It’s with pasta. In a pan I cook the butternut squash and the shiitake in olice oil, add some pork slices, season with pepper and a bit of salt. Boil some pasta of your choice. And serve. That’s it!!! Really simple!!

How do you like your autumn veggies?

October 24, 2016

Kabocha here, kabocha there!

Autumnal weather with cool evenings and beautiful days calls for some autumnal ingredients. Kabocha is one I love. As you can have seen from my previous posts, it is in almost all my recipes these days: soup, sauteed… and it goes perfectly well with Japanese food, western food… And bonus it cooks very quickly which for me is a must.

Today’s recipe is just so simple: kabocha and eggplant grilled at high heat and then seasoned with some soya sauce, served with plain white rice and dry konbu. Dinner can be ready really quick!

October 21, 2016

Autumn quinoa soup

Last Christmas my parents offered me a giant book on vegetarian cooking. I’ve tried several recipes from that book and a lot of inspiration. I also learned a lot about some basic preparations. But if there were only one recipe to remember about it, the one that I would have not thought of, it’s the quinoa soup. I love that recipe and how it can easily be adjusted to the seasonal ingredients. This time I prepared it with half of a little kabocha, 2 little potatoes, 1 large very ripe tomato and one Japanese eggplant. First, I cut all the veggies but the tomato in dice then in a pan on high heat, greased with olive oil I roast them a bit. Add water for 2.5 soup servings, 1/2 to 2/3 cup of quinoa (I used black quinoa, but red and white work perfectly too). Add the tomato diced or in 1/8. Add a bit of black pepper and nutmeg (salt is not necessary with the nutmeg I find). Cook under cover at medium heat for 10 to 15min. Serve hot!

October 20, 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

Miso, miso, miso

Miso is usually sold in large containers in Japan (it is with rice one of the rare ingredients that comes in large packaging compared to Western countries). It is a real pity because I love different types of miso depending on what I am cooking and I usually don’t keep several sorts because I don’t use it every day. In summer I like red miso, in winter white miso, but I also love miso with grains inside, and miso made of barley or of soy beans… So you can imagine how much happy I was when last night with D. we found a little place in Kichijoji that is both a restaurant and a miso shop where you can by miso by 100g units. Let’s first talk about miso, then about the restaurant.
The shop is ran by a single person (土平哲生さん), the elder son and 4th generation of miso makers, that does everything. His shop has a collection of miso coming from different places in Japan and made of the different ingredients, is has also some spicy miso and other fancy ones. It covers all the possible different tastes: very salty to very sweet, creamy to crumbly. And of course you can try all of them before deciding which ones you want to buy. I decided to go with miso made of 100% barley with a crumbly texture, and for a creamy but not too sweet white miso. I am now looking forward to cooking with these new miso.
The restaurant is a bare 10 seats place, with a little kitchen. Since D. is alergic to dairies and doesn’t eat meat at all we asked him if he could prepare something for us that would accommodate us, and he just prepared on the spot some dishes for us. I really like the idea that he could basically cook whatever we wanted with the ingredients he had, it reminded me of “深夜食堂”, a Japanese TV drama where “master” cooks whatever people want in is tiny restaurant. So we first asked for raw cabbage with different types of miso to try some of the different options, then he prepared for us some simmered eggplant with white miso, onigiri with vegetables pickled in miso (I found that not only his miso is delicious, his rice was also amazing!), and we finished with a salad of tofu, fried eggplant, tomato, green beans, with a miso dressing of course! Everything was simple and delicious and so simply prepared that it tasted like home!

Soy Bean Fram – ソイビーンファーム
Open everyday from 11:30 to 22:00
5min walk from Kichijoji JR station, north exit
Tokyo Musashino-shi Kichijoji Honmachi 2-15-2
東京都武蔵野市吉祥寺本町2-15-2

October 14, 2016

Vegan light curry

Nature has not plan for us to eat alone! Most of the fruits and vegetables are so large that if you want to it several sorts you need to be more than one person or you need to eat the same food over and over! I don’t even mention how we humans have even forced that tendency with packaging by almost only offering the option to buy food in buddles. Luckily, in Japan this bundle sale is less common and it is possible to buy one apple, one carrot, one kiwi or 3 slices of bread! Yet cooking when you are alone snd want to eat several types of veggies is not simple, and A. is not back before tomorrow night…

Last night I was really tired after the intense time at work, so I prepared myself some vegan curry with a can of chickpeas , carrots, eggplants, sweetpotatoes and anise seeds. Of course to keep a good bslance with the amount of chickpeas I had to add 2 carrots, 1 sweet potato and 5 tiny eggplants all cooked in coconut oil. And so I made a lot more than I could eat… And it’s goung to be lunch for two today for me and my friend D. who is still visiting my lab.

October 13, 2016

Leftovers dinner

Spending the weekend in the country after three weeks is just so nice! Even if the weather is not up to my expectations, I enjoy cooking some really nice fresh vegetables and fruits for A. and our friend D. who is staying with us for the weekend. Hopefully we manage to play tennis and to go for a small hike in Yorokeikoku in between the rain. In terms of cooking I chose to prepare very simple dishes that take advantage of the quality of the food we find in Ohara. Mostly now it’s kabocha, it’s sweet potatoes, it’s persimmons of course that are central. Since I’ve cooked slightly more rice than usual, I’ve had leftovers and decided to use them for some cha-han with vegetables. I ised 1 carrot, 1 sweet potato, 1 piece of lotus root, 1 small leek and kabocha, added the rice, and in the very end added a tsp of soya sauce. Have a good “sports’ day”!

October 9, 2016

Home cooking again at last!

I made it through! I was organizing with some colleagues and friends a conference in Tokyo and it was quite an intense week to be sure that everything would work right and attendees will be pleased. Of course this kind of work is not my main work and it’s just on the side of regular work, so my days have been pretty busy and on top of that I’ve had plenty of lunch/dinners out and some official events to attend on the side. So when it was over yesterday afternoon I passed out in the train back home and it took me a good hour to be able to do something again! But most of all I was impatient of eating some homemade food. Not that eating out in Tokyo is bad, it is usually easy to find healthy food, but I always find that it lacks vegetables or fruits. But of course I was facing an empty fridge and had no strength to go out too far for shopping, so my only option was the small supermarket down the house. They have very little choice of decent quality products (couldn’t find any domestic tofu, it had to be American or Canadian…) so I passed on that one, and so the only things that were good enough were some mushrooms and some leeks. Good enough to make a meal for two with enough options. Then tart? pasta? or risotto? It ended being a risotto. And I was the happiest in my kitchen cooking for A.. Now one more day at work before we can head to the country with our friend D. visiting. Expecting a lot of good work done, good chat and good cooking!!!!
Have a nice end of the week!

October 7, 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