I cook a lot of vegetarian dishes, but recently I realized I’m cooking a lot more vegan dishes. I come with new ideas all the time and this past few days I really enjoy cooking with thick fried tofu. Usually it is prepared in large pieces of 10cm by 10cm, 2cm high, this time I found this nice 一口 one byte squares of tofu that are just great to add to a salad. I prefer eating them hot so I heat them in a fry pan. It also take off a bit of the oil. This time I served them with a baby leaves salad, red quinoa, mashed avocado and green peas sprouts. As usual, super easy to fix rapidly after a long day at work, delicious and colorful!!
I love simple vegetable soup in particular after traveling I need a dose of fresh fruits and vegetables to compensate for airport and plane food, and my favorite inspiration is definitely the Minestrone. My basic recipe uses vegetable consommé, tomatoes and celery, then I add whatever is available. This time was really limited: leek. But usually I add a lot of beans of different sorts, and I always season it with olive oil and pepper. When I have, I add some freshly gratted parmegiano, and sometimes some little pasta. Always delicious!
With Easter around and the unsual amount of chocolates at home, I needed a basic simple vegan dish. I opted for oven grilled vegetables, to change for the steamed vegetables I often cook. Grilling takes slightly more time than steaming, but if you plan ahead it is really not complicated and delicious!
Here in the oven dish for two, new carrots, new lotus root, ring onions, asparagus and and one paprika. A leaf of laurel, a bit of thyme, salt, pepper and olive oil. Bake at medium heat as long as you want depending on how you like your vegetables.
When in a hurry, pasta are quite handy to fix a dinner. But pasta without sauce… So This time I made a rapid topping with one new onion, half paprika and a piece of thick fried tofu (aburage). All cut in small pieces, cooked brieftly in olive oil and seasoned with oregano and laurel, salt and pepper. Delicious with pasta, but also gnocchi and risotto.
Every one knows wasabi, this green paste very hot eaten usually with sushi. Actually wasabi is a plant and the green paste is obtained from the stem, peeled and grated. In spring, the leaves of wasabi can be eaten. It’s a delicate vibrant green leaf that is better slightly steamed or boiled and that accomodates very well rice and Japanese dishes.
I cooked it in a vegan version of a Japanese meal, with miso and sesame eggplants, pickled vegetables, rice with cereals and the wasabi leaves just steamed and served with ponzu.
A few years ago we went to visit Hachijojima, an island down south of Tokyo in the Pacific that belongs to Tokyo actually. Besides being a lovely place, famous for their handwoven beautiful fabric used to make kimonos, their is one typical product from there: angelica, or ashitaba (明日葉).
Ashitaba is a green leaf that doesn’t smell much but once cooked as a very typical taste. Something that once you have tried you want to eat again! In France it is use to make sweets (the green slighly discusting sticks Of candied fruit on gateau des rois for example). While we were in Hachijojima we had ashitaba tempura, ashitaba sherbet and a few other variations. Completly enfatuated with this taste I bought a cooking book of ashitaba there, which presents a great variety of recipes, from rice with ashitaba to green smoothies, so not just typically Japanese recipes. They grow some ashitaba in Chiba prefecture, so when spring comes I easily can buy some in Ohara. In Tokyo, department stores and Yoshiike definitely have some. I tried a few recipes from the book at home to get used to processing ashitaba and came out with a few simple recipes on my own now. My super favorite is ashitaba-mashed potatoes. It makes a perfect combination, and it is really a great match with scrambled eggs, grilled pork…
Ashitaba mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs
An other nice combiniation is to use ashitaba as a substitute for basil. With tomatoes and olive oil, perfect to top with some pasta.
Ashitaba tomato sauce
I’m still trying new recipes while the season of ashitaba goes on, so you may from it again!
As I was telling you earlier, spring means a lot of fresh wild vegetables. After the fukinoto the bamboo shoot is probably the next to be found in Isumi area. In particular, the area close to Ohtaki is particularly great for delicious takenoko (bamboo shoot in Japanese). It’s also a great fun to go and pick them. This variety of bamboo shoot is the large one (8 to 15cm diameter), there exists a small one (1 to 3cm) that arrives later and that is even much more fun to pick.
Freshly cut bamboo shoot
Preparing fresh bamboo shoot is really easy, though a bit time consuming. First of all you need to peel the hard and hairy skin. It peels like a artichoke, so it’s really easy.
Peeled bamboo shoot
Then you need to boil it in something that would remove the bitterness of the wild shoot. In supermarket they often sells nuka (what is used for the pickles) and I was using that until I learn from an old lady at the local farmers cooperative that the first wash of rice was perfectly efficient. Since then I’ve usjng that, and believe me it’s much easier to clean than nuka. You need to boil for 30 to 60min, until soft (you can pick a toothpick easily in). Once cold you can cut and then boil in dashi for 15min. I used katsuo dashi. You can eat now, or add to rice for a “takenoko gohan”. For this I start cooking the rice as usual, then at mid cookjng time I add the bamboo shoot sliced vertically and a little of soya sauce. Delicious to accompany red snapper or bonito.
Takenoko gohan
Ideally you would serve takenokoto with leaves of “ki no me” the leaves of the mountain pepper tree (sansho), mine in the garden is not yet ready…
I love vegetable sauté and all the possible combinations.
I tried a new one, with sticks instead of slices. I cut the carrots, sweet potatoe with a mandolin, cook them in a bit of olive oil under cover, then added na-no-hana, and served with scrambled eggs.
Perfect brunch plate for a Saturday!
