Rye baguette

It’s been some time I haven’t posted a simple bread recipe. Not that I haven’t made any, on the contrary! But I made a lot of my classical breads: whole grains… Now that it’s becoming chilly it’s going to be difficult to control accurately the proving time. For this rye baguette for example the recommended proving time was 1h, but the house is now about 18-19deg so I had it prove for 5h. The result was perfect.

The basic ingredients are: 175g of rye flour, 75g of flour, 13g of dry sordough, 180g of water, 5g of salt, 2g of yeast. The process is just as usual. I shaped my bread as a baguette, but any shape can do. For the baking, 30min at 225deg.

October 14, 2015

Gingko nuts rice

There are several ways to use gingko nuts in cuisine. The simplest is probably to grill them, for that you just beed to break the hard shell roughly, grilled them in a pan and serve with salt. It’s the easiest because no need to remove the hard shell, everyone does while eating. Perfect as a snack. But definitely not the most elegant way. So first if all renoving the shell without breaking the nuts is important. It’s not too difficult. Then there is a brownish skin that you don’t want to serve. To remove it it’s easy, boil a dew minutes the nuts then roll them in a metal net or drainer. The peel will go away with the friction. Now you have the perfect yellow nuts that you can use for any recipe. One of my favorite use issimply with white rice, to accompany a Japanese dinner. Jusr add the nuts in the rice after it is cooked. Count 3 to 7 nuts per person. Finish with a bit of salt when serving to enhance the taste of the nuts.

October 13, 2015

Pink veggies in cocotte

With the autumn settling down and the rainy day, It was high time to get the cocotte back on the cooking range! At the market there was a lot of pink and white veggies: sweet potatoes, little pink turnips, lotus roots, red onions… So I just guessed they would make a perfect and beautiful combination for a light vegan meal.

I sliced the red onion to make a thin layer at the bottom with a bit of olive oil. Then added a layer of leek finely sliced, then I just washed and halved the sweet potatoes, washed the little turnips and just removed the leaves, finally peeled the lotus root and cut it in large pieces. I cooked in the cocotte for 30 minutes at low heat and just served with a bit of salt. Super delicious!

October 10, 2015

Autumn is here!

Perfectly sunny days, chilly wind in the morning and in the evening, warm temperature during the day, beautiful colors and beautiful light,

Yes! Autumn is here and it’s beautiful in Japan! Before the leaves turn red there is yet so much to enjoy! While Europe is turning gloomy, rainy and cold, Japan is bright, quiet and perfectly warm. Probably the best season to visit the country.

And with autumn coming fruits and veggies are slightly changing, fish too. Sanma, green yuzu, matsutake, lotus roots, sweet potato, kabocha, kaki… are now the most available seasonal ingredients and I love to cook them!

I love to prepare autumn veggies sautéed in a wok for lazy lunch or dinner. So simple, so colorful and so yummy. The one on the picture is just made out one sweet potato, one carrot, a quarter of kabocha, and a handful of shimeji, a bit of oil and salt. Served alone or to accompany something, all option are possible!

October 7, 2015

So what did I get for dinner this week?

Refraining myself from cooking and letting my husband take over I feared that my dinners would invariably be pasta-steak. Hum… Not really my cup of tea… But hopefully with a fridge full of delicious veggies I got plenty of nice things and he cheated once by taking me out. Probably the most elaborated dinner was this soba one-plate with sautéed zucchini and sweet pepper, green beans and tomato, just seasonned with soy sauce. Thanks darling for this week!

October 3, 2015

Okara galette

I like okara very much but we don’t eat some too often. For this recipeI wanted to prepare a 100% vegan meal and I come with the idea of a sort of galette. I mixed okara with finely cut tomatoes, fresh green beans slightly boiled, flax and sesame seeds, and salt. I shaped them in round and grilled them in the oven until the top it slightly roasted. I was very much pleased with the sweetness and juiciness of the tomato contrasting with the crunchy beans and flax seeds. It was hard to fell the sesame taste. I regretted not to have used tahine or suri-goma (crunched sesame seeds) for more flavor instead of just the seeds. But I’m fairly happy with this use of okara.

October 1, 2015

Mushrooms

With autumn slowly making its way, and a typhoon winds rattling outside, mushrooms start to be a must of the season. Not that there are so many wild mushroom on the markets in Japan, but still autumn is for me a great season to enjoy mushrooms. After my 100% Japanese dish with mushrooms 2 weeks ago, now it’s a more international recipe, yet as simple. First replace the Japanese rice by quinoa. Second mix different types of mushrooms: shimeji, maitake and nameko, and instead of adding soy sauce just add salt once grilled.

October 1, 2015

Quinoa bowl

A pure bowl of yumminess! With quinoa simply boiled, baby leaf salad, diced avocado and dried salted konbu (shio konbu – 塩昆布), and the juice of a local lime for a late Friday evening dinner in the country. I love shio konbu, it accomodates very well with Japanese and non Japanese dishes. It tastes slightly like salted licorice, and I am still imagining ways to use it in my recipes.

September 24, 2015

Buckwheat bread

A new variation of a classic bread: buckwheat and plain flour bread. It is really simple it consists in replacing half of the flour by buckwheat flour and add a little more yeast. It has a subtle taste perfect for breakfast.

September 23, 2015