Tag: vegetarian

Cresson pasta

To continue my frenzy with watercress…

This week is the beginning of the new term, I’m back to teaching which I enjoy really and very excited with the students new research projects. Work is quite busy, but I really stocked a lot of watercress last weekend and I use it little by little. It is very easy and rapid to prepare, much faster than spinach I find, so perfect for late dinners and rapid cooking. This time I want to share my recipe to prepare the sauce for some simple fresh linguine.

Linguine with watercress

– a bundle of watercress

– olive oil

– pepper

– long pasta of your choice, I used fresh linguine

– Parmigiano (optional)

I simply washed and cut a bundle of watercress, then while still wet I through then in a pan and cook under cover at medium heat. Once soft I add olive oil and stop cooking. Then I boil the pasta, drain them and add them to the pan with the watercress, cook for 2min at high heat while stirring. Add pepper and serve. For those who like, add grated Parmigiano.

Cresson soup

Cresson, or watercress is this little green that is harvested in spring or in autumn, and is delicious in many various preparations. It is for some unclear reasons not so easy to find watercress easily at the market so when I find some I just buy plenty and use it in many various recipes. You’ll find in the next days the recipes I have tries this time. Some classic one and some more exploratory. I hope you’ll enjoy them and it will convince you to try this little plant in your next recipe!!

To start with, a simple watercress soup, light and green, with only 3 ingredients: watercress, milk and water. I added a bit of pink pepper for the picture. No salt, nothing added, I found it was tasteful enough. Of course you can add salt of spices, but the simple preparation reveals the real nature of the watercress.

Watercress soup

– a bundle of watercress

– 1/2L of water

– 1/3L of milk at room temperature

Wash the watercress and remove the bottom hard part if any. Boil in the water until soft. Blend, add the milk, serve. That’s it.

Rucola lasagna and farewell TPS

You may have realized that for quite a while Tokyo Paris sisters was a lot of Tokyo and nothing from Paris. Well indeed… it seems that after a few years it is now time to move on and for the sisters to split. So after waiting for more than 6 months I have decided that it is now time to end this joint work. Of course, I will still be cooking and posting personally on IG and I am thinking about restarting my original food diary, but it will be only me. I will keep you updated about the new link and place where you will find me, with a revamped website and new format. 

Thank you for following us. I hope you’ll be following me and continue enjoy French-Japan-Italian fresh and healthy cooking with me!

goob bye 

The last recipe is really simple but very very delicious, light and fresh, perfect for a spring day, unlike today.

Rucola and mozzarella lasagna

Make some pasta, or use dry one that you need to boil first. Wash and chop some fresh rucola, slice a mozzarella. In an oven dish pour some olive oil, add a layer of pasta, a layer of rucola, a few slices of mozzarella, repeat 3 or 4 times, finish with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake at 200deg for 15min. Enjoy! 

French toast

Could you imagine that! I have never eaten French toast!!! Not even once! And never made any either! So today I decided to try to make some with some bread leftover… Everyone knows how to make French toast, even me, I knew!!! It is ultimately easy and rapid: some milk (I used almond milk), an egg, a bit of brown sugar, spices (cinnamon and cardamom, my favorite). Bit the egg with the milk, the sugar and the spices. Soak the bread in it, the cook in butter greased frypan until golden… that’s it. And well I must admit that the taste of spices was good but really, French toast are not in my top list… I prefer to use leftover bread for croutons or give it to the birds… I probably won’t make any a second time… I think the idea of soaking old bread is actually quite not something I like, a main reason why I was never tempted by French toast before (neither English pudding). Now I can say I tried, and won’t again!!! But there’s always a good thing in tring recipes, it’s that it gives some new ideas or chances to test new combinations. And with the milk and egg batter left, I added a bit of flour, some more milk and obtained a spicy crepe mix. And I made a few crepes, served just with butter or sugar, and they were super delicious. The spices added a little teist that was simply perfect! That I will definitely do again!!!

Quiche…

I could never emphasize enough how much quiches are delicious and always different. Just playing with the thickness of the pie crust and the filling changes everything, changing the filling and the ingredients of the dough make it also completely different. It’s a giant playground that adjusts for all seasons, and provides a perfect meal all at once. Contrarily to most may believe it is actually very simple to cook a quiche, and it can be done quite rapidly. The cooking time (compared to pasta, risotto…) is probably the most critical since it can take up to 40min. But This gives hands free to catch up with the news, do another chores, read a bit, or chat about the day with A.. And the result is always worth the wait!

This time I prepared a simple whole wheat dough with olive oil, rolled it very thin. For the filling, I steamed some leek and canola flowers (and drained well to avoid having a too wet mixture), added a few slices of lotus root, plenty of tofu in the egg base. That’s it!!!

Keep warm!  It’s cold and gloomy in Tokyo.

Fresh pasta

You know how much we love fresh pasta and more than any stuffed pasta. While in Florence this time I didn’t have much free time to cook, traveling here and there (Pisa, Paris…) for work so we tried a few places where to buy some fresh pasta and so far in central Florence the best we’ve had were the spinach and ricotta ravioli from mercato centrale’s Raimondo Mendolia stand. You can eat there or buy the ravioli raw and cook them yourself at home. That’s what we always do. Because We have tried a few ravioli in different restaurants, they are always good, but what I love with bringing them back home is that I simply boil them and serve them with olive oil, salt and pepper and grated Parmigiano for me nothing else. The reason why we love these ravioli more than any it’s because they are large with a lot of filling. And, the filling has plenty of spinach which taste is really remarkable. Contrarily to many stuffed ravioli which stuffing is to dense and heavy (use of too much potato or starch or flour), this one is light. So if you’re in Florence and looked for stuffed pasta, head to mercato centrale!!!

Romanesco

 

Every one knows this fractal cabbage that is as beautiful as delicious: the romanesco! It is now not too difficult to find it in Japan too, and they even grow some in Isumi. Since I want to keep it simple and to be able to admire its beautiful shapes that usually I use it simply steamed, or roasted. And sometimes in quiche (all the romanesco recipes are here). I find that the oven slow roast and the quiche overall suit very well this cabbage, and its flavor suits the flavor of buckwheat and shiitake very nicely, so I made a quiche half flour half buckwheat flour, and in the egg base I added plenty of turmeric and pepper and slices of fresh raw shiitake and raw romanesco. And it gave a very subtle combination that was very pleasing.

Have a great week! 

Home-made tagliatelle

As planned there will be a lot of pasta in 2018, and it has already started! For Xmas I received a motor for my pasta machine!!! Not that I am a big fan of going mechanical, I prefer to knead manually, to chop manually, to ground coffee manually… but I must admit that with the pasta machine three hands rather than two were neededto hold the pasta in, hold the pasta out and manipulate the handle, so it was really tricky and to get things done by myself I was flouring generously the whole top and I was making a real mess actually! The motor makes things much cleaner, and the pasta is great: thin and not too floury. I’m starting to be really good at making pasta!

For a change I didn’t make ravioli though I was quite tempted to, instead I made tagliatelle, and simply prepared them with buttered leek and shiitake.  I used the same preparation steps that for the ravioli. I prepared the leek and shiitake in a large pan with a bit of butter and at low heat and used the boiling water to keep the mix moisten, and when the pasta were ready I just drained them and added them to the vegetables, added a little of olive oil and pepper and stirred well just before serving. So simple and delicious, invigorating before going back to work!!!

Mezzelune

For those who’ve been following us, they know that I love to make fresh pasta, and even more stuffed pasta like ravioli (all my recipes are here!). I’ve been testing many options and yet I was satisfied but never fully satisfied by the result, in particular the pasta itself, but not only, though the taste was always really delicious. So while in Florence and A. too busy with work, I decided it would be a great opportunity for me to learn from a real Italian “Mama” or a real chef. My first idea was to go to Giula’s cooking classes at Juls’ kitchen, but it’s too far away from the city for this time, I’ll go later in the spring… I wanted something that wouldn’t take more than 2h. So when I found the cooking classes at the mercato centrale (again mercato centrale… which in the end I’ve been visiting every day!), and that they just had a vegetarian mezzelune class at the perfect timing for me, I had to go!
And I didn’t regret it, I made some of the best pasta ever I think, because thanks to the chefs I’ve finally learned the tricks that where missing to me:
1. it’s OK to knead a lot the pasta and really use the palm of the hand to squeeze it;
2. let the pasta dough rest before rolling it so that the glutinous structure has time to develop;
3. roll and fold once first before rolling for real;
4. and that’s the most crucial, get the sauce moisten (with some of the boiling water for the pasta) and after boiling the pasta add them to the sauce pan at medium-high heat, shaking regularly, so that they roll over in the sauce and it becomes just creamy, neither to watery nor too dry. Serve and it right away!
So now I feel really equipped to prepare more stuffed pasta!!! And I can’t wait to have my new motor for my pasta machine!!!

And because this something I would have never prepared, but it was really delicious, here is the recipe of the mezzelune I made.

Potato and chestnut mezzelune (for 2, makes 8-10 mezzelune)

For the pasta:

same recipe as usual: 100g of flour, 1 egg, olive oil (or not)

For the filling:

– 2 small potatoes

– 1 handful of boiled chestnuts

– a bit of parsley

– 10g of butter

– 20g of grated parmigiano

For the sauce:

– 5 mushrooms

– 1 little handful of dried porcini

– olive oil

– 15 g of butter

– 4-6 leaves of sage

– 30g of grated parmegiano

Start boiling the whole potatoes with the skin, simply washed and add the chestnut to soften them.
Re-hydrate the porcini.
Prepare the dough for the pasta , wrap it and keep it on the side.
Clean and peel the mushrooms, chop them, chop  the sage. Drain the porcini and chop them. In a pan heated, add half of the butter for the sauce,  a splash of olive oil, then the mushrooms, the porcini, the sage, cook at high heat until it start to golden, then lower the heat, add some hot water and keep cooking all along, while keeping it moisten.
By now the potatoes should be ready, so peel them and chopped them roughly. Mash them with the chestnut (a blender may be welcome here), add the parsley, the parmigiano and stir well to obtain a creamy-dry paste. Roll the pasta, cut out circles and start filling with the filling. close well.
Boil the pasta for about 4-5 minutes, then drain and add them to the sauce pan directly, add the rest of the butter and shake in the pan at high heat, until the pasta has rolled over in the sauce and the sauce has reduced to a creamy texture (look at the top picture at it looks like!). Serve, top with a bit of parmigiano, and enjoy!

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