Tag: vegan

Snap peas and onion risotto

We are slowly going towards the rainy season and it’s getting towards the end of the season for spring vegetables in Tokyo area, soon we will have melon, zucchini, okras… But before it ends really let’s enjoy some more spring greens!!! Snap peas are very easy to cook, they just need to be blanched, and extremely easy to accomodate with other seasonal vegetables: new potatoes, other greens, tomatoes… Today I opted for an other risotto recipe (yes, I know, we eat a lot of rice and risottos!!!). A large onion cut thinely and slightly cooked in olive oil, then I added the riso, a bit of water (no bouillon to keep the taste mild), then in the very last minute of cooking I add the snap peas cut in big chunks. I add some fresh chopped basil leaves, salt and pepper, a last touch of olive oil. 

Have a nice weekend! 

Quinoa salad

Nothing too fancy here but just a very simple fresh recipe that is very rapid to prepare, colorful and tasty. Perfect when the weather is warm and nice as it was yesterday. I just boil quinoa, rince it in cold water and drain it well, add the fresh vegetables I have available, here a cucumber and two tomatoes, really nothing new… And cover the whole thing with fresh herbs: mint, coriander, or what pleases you and suits the vegetables. Finish with a little of olive oil, salt and pepper. 

Brown rice 💛💛💛 玄米

With a mother nutritionist, Prunellia and I have been raised in an environment where food was always important, both in gustative quality and in nutritional quality. I remember as a child playing a game called “manger juste” (eat right) where one has to built up well balanced menu with the food on the cards, depending on their nutritional value and quality. And brown rice was on the menu every week for sure. A kind of ritual every Monday’s lunch. Now brown rice is on my menu more often, in particular recently because I’ve managed to find delicious organic brown rice, and more recently, the lovely person who has adopted two of our orphan cats gave me a huge bag of brown rice from Kyushu. I find that brown rice goes very well with konbu and I love to prepare it simply in one bowl or one plate versions. Here just with 1/2 avocado, sprout, sesame seeds and konbu. A perfect lunch or dinner. One can add a bit of cucumber from crispy fresh texture.

Quick dinner fix

I left work earlier than usual on Friday to have time to boil some potatoes and prepare our bags for the weekend because I knew that once we would arrive in Ohara we will be more busy with the kittens than actually thinking of having dinner!! And it was so true!!! First I had to do a bit of cleaning, then we played until quite late in the night with our four fur balls. Only to have dinner around midnight, when my boiled potatoes just needed to be peeled and cut in quarters, add an avocado diced, a handful of baby leaves salad, onr of fresh coriander. Seasonned with olive oil, salt and curry powder. So dinner could be ready very quick!

Red miso – 赤味噌

When the weather gets warmer the delicious little cucumbers are back and they are the perfect food to snack while waiting for dinner. I usually just wash them and cut them in sticks, but when I want a little extra I like to prepare a miso paste. There are different types of miso of course and all of them with different taste and features: granulous vs smooth, white vs red etc… Depending on what they are made from and how long they have fermented. At the cha kaiseki class I learned that white miso is used in winter and red in summer, because red miso has fermented longer, it is stronger in taste and saltier, which accomodates perfectly with summer veggies and fishes. So for my little snack paste I use 1 tbsp of red miso that I stir with 1tsp of vegetal (neutral) oil and 1 or 2tsp of water (depending on the consitency you expect: sticky or creamy). I stir until homogenous and serve with my little cucumber sticks. It actually is also delicious with carrots sticks and daikon sticks!

Spring energy

With super fresh green beans and broad beans it is really easy to prepare anything. They just need to be blanched and can be eaten with everything: risotto, pasta, quinoa… I prepared some quinoa the other day, so today it is whole wheat penne. A bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and you have the perfect dinner ready in 10min!!! Full of energy and good things to survive this week!!!

Fresh salad

One day is really warm, the next is chilly… One day I want simple veggies salad, the next something hot and full of energy. This time was warm and I was fancying a fresh salad with simple vegetables to go with some simple pasta. With a wide variety of small radishes, small tomatoes, fresh cucumbers, baby carrots it was really simple to prepare something. For the dressing simply olive oil and black sesame seeds.

Simmered bamboo shoots

There are plenty of manners to eat bamboo shoots in Japanese traditional cuisine and that one is a real classic. It always starts after you have cooked the bamboo shoots in rice water. This simmered recipe is really simple and as a strong Japanese accent with the sweet soya sauce arranngement, that can actually also be used for any other vegetables: pumpkin, carrot, potato…

Cut the bamboo shoot in half in the height, then cut 2cm thick slices. Arrange them in a pan and add water to just cover them. Heat until it boils. Then add 1tbs of brown sgar and 2 tbs of soya sauce, and a 1tsp of rice vinegar. Cook under cover for 10min at low heat, turn softly from time to time. When all the pieces of bamboo our brownish remove the cover and increase the heat. Wait until all the water as disappeared. It’s ready!

Semolina bread

When we were in Sicily I bought different types of flour and in particular a delicious semolina. I used it often for making pasta but I suddenly remembered a bread recipe using it and decided to try it for our breakfast this morning. The process is basically the same as making bread with plain flour except that 1/3 of the flour is replaced by semolina. I gives a very white bread with a soft and tender heart and a very thin and crusty shell. I shaped it as a regular bread but I assume it can be shaped differently too. Extremely delicious for breakfast with jam. 

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