Soya fallafel

While in Capetown last year, thanks to our hosts at the Manolo we managed to have a table at the very demanded Test Kitchen. One of Capetown best restaurants, and sometimes ranked in the top 10 xorld’s best restaurants. The experience was great abd what I apprfciated a lot is their flexibility to propose vegetarian full course and vegan full course menus that have nothing less than the regular full course menu. I picked the vegetarian one and was delighted, in particular there was some mini fried tofu balls presented as tofu fallafels. With a crispy deep fried outter shell and a melty inside. Since then I’ve been thinking about it and finally I’ve finally come up with my own idea of a soya fallafel. What I like in the fallafel is the mixture of texture with roughly cut peas and the pureed ones. So my recipe is really simple: I used dry soya beans (daizu-大豆) that I rehydrated and boiled, then roughly blended them and add some firm tofu, stirred well and then made balls and fried in a pan (probably deep frying is ideal).

Though different than the fallafel from the Test kitchen in Capetown it was really delicious!

May 21, 2015

A good start!

Of all meals breakfast is my favorite and I like all of its variations. I also like that my breakfast changes everyday, even if there are some common ingredients. Bread or similar and fresh fruits in salad, smoothy, or just plain are on the menu everyday.

I baked this wholewheat soft bread that accomodates perfectly with jam, honey, butter or cheese. It’s very similar to wholewheat pain de mie but because my covered pie dish was too big the bread occupied only half of it and the result was really delicious with a thin crispy layer covering the soft and tender center.

For the bread it’s really simple. I used 250g of T150 flour, 180g of water, 13g of sordough, 1g of yeast, 5g of salt.

May 18, 2015

Vegetables and tofu wok

As spring fades away and summer approaches (and with it the rainy season) I’ve started to prepare a lot more dishes that look like ratatouille or at least that use the vegetables of the ratatouille.

I prepared a sauted dish in olive oil of new onion, paprika, zucchini and tomatoes, added some dices tofu and topped it with some fresh cresson and a mix of linen, poppy, sesame seeds. Very fresh, the vegetables don’t need to be cooked long, so this can be ready in no time.

May 16, 2015

One-plate dinner

Super busy with work, finishing late every day and trying to still watch one movie every night, the one-plate dinner is really handy. I am also finishing the last spring vegetables as we’re moving towards summer, so I had a few new carrots and new onions to use. I like to prepare carrots with cumin and find it suits also very well chick peas. I was about to add some chick peas to the carrots and onions that I cooked rapidly in olive oil and finished them in their own steam, to prepare some kind of raggu when I remember having a pack of vegan fallafel mix waiting on the shelf for months. Yes, I sometime buy vegan burger mix and vegan fallafel mix but if I don’t use them right away, I usually forget them prefering fresh food or making my own mix. So I decided to use that poor mix, but instead of making real fallafel I used the mix to make some kind of grilled chick pea croquettes to serve with the vegetables. Nothing too fancy but delicious!

May 15, 2015

Spring salad

With all the new vegetables and the sunny days I’m preparing more and more cold salads this year. This one is really taking advantage of spring green peas, little radish, lettuce, cucumber, tofu and spelt, all with a little of olive oil, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. Fresh, colorful, tasty, perfect!

May 11, 2015

Boule bread Recipe

A few days ago you may have seen a picture of a boule bread that I prepared for our breakfast. Actually this bread itokyos one of the simplest bread to prepare.

Here is the recipe for a 20cm diameter bread: mix 250g of flour (T60), 125g of water, 12g of dry sourdough, 1g of yeast, 5g of salt. Mix all the ingredients together and malax until the dough is smooth and soft. Then keep under a humid cloth for 90 minutes. Then make a ball of the dough after flatening it and folding it. The folding marks on top. Wait an other 90 minutes. Pre-heat the oven at 230 degrees celsius. Return the dough (folding marks below) and incise the dough with the square pattern. Put in the oven, and bake for about 40 minutes. (If necessary you may need to add water to moist the air in the oven)

May 10, 2015

Vegan donburi

A donburi in Japan is basically a rice bowl topped with something, anything. I really like the concept and you’ve seen a few of my original recipes yet. With each time changing in what I top it with depending on the market and time available.

This time it’s a 100% green topping with avocado, cucumber, cresson and lettuce. A bit of sesame oil and sesame seeds and lunch is ready in just the time to cook the rice!

May 8, 2015

One-plate dinner

Days around Tokyo are getting warmer and the golden week (a few days of bank holidays in a row) is really beautiful this year! A lot of fresh fruits and vegetables just bought at the local farmers market. With this beautiful weather we spend a lot of time outside and crave for fresh tasty meals, so I concocted this one plate for dinner: a bit of cucumber with fresh mint and fromage blanc; a fake ratatouille: just tomatoes, onion, zucchini stewed in olive oil with a bouquet garni; and to accompany the whole thing some chick pea flour and linen seeds pancakes.

For the vegan chickpes pancake it’s really easy: just mixing chick pea flour with water, linen seeds and a bit of salt and olive oil to obtain a thick mixture that can be shaped in small pancakes with the hands. And then grill them or fry them in okive oil.

Bon appetite!

May 4, 2015

Vegan pizza

After the super delicious trial of a classic homemade pizza, this time I decided to use the base of the pizza for a vegan pizza. Instagram inspired me a lot with tones of super delicious-looking vegan pizza. So here is mine: olive oil, fresh tomatoes and zucchini, rucolla for the finish, nothing too fancy, bug you know how I like to keep things simple. It was really delicious, not really a pizza for me, rather something in between a tart and a pizza, but really yummy!! And so easy to prepare in advance.

May 1, 2015