Grilled miso onigiri – 味噌焼きおにぎり

The other day while browsing my IG feed, I saw the beautiful picture of grilled onigiri (rice balls) from my IG friend Junko @junkikat. And instantly I wanted to eat some. I love grilled miso onigiri, but for some obscure reason I never make some… Junko nicely gave me her recipe and I slightly adapted it to what I had in my fridge and my pantry. So here is what I did: first cook some Japanese rice. While it was cooking I prepare a mix of miso, I had only rustic granulous miso, so I used that one, 2 tsp. Then instead of the mirin I used a little bit of rice oil and vinegar, just a few drops. Vinegar can be replaced by a few drops of sake. And then added 1/2 tsp of sugar. Stir well to obtain a homogeneous mixture. Make the rice balls by taking 1/2 of rice in wet hand and shape them as you like with one flat surface for the miso. Spread the miso on the flat surface and then grill them in the oven or in a fry pan. I used the pan because I have a huge oven and I found that silly to turn it on just for that. So I flipped the onigiri miso side on the heated pan (grease it a bit if it is not anti-adhesive) and wait a few minutes until the miso starts to golden. Serve with what you like. For this time it was scrambled eggs and a simple salad with tomato, carrot and ice plant.

January 22, 2017

Mini corn crepes

In a constant search for better quality and better taste I have almost completely stopped buying processed food. Only when we are in a rush/have forgotten do I buy bread at the combini, otherwise I prepare something: pancakes, scones, crepes, bread, or A. stops at the nearby bread artisan to buy some sordough bread. Of course it requires organization and a bit of effort in the morning but it is also very gratifying to eat freshly made food. And getting used to prepare quickly the routine gets easier and faster, mire accurate too. And it helps for fixing anything not only for breakfast but also lunch, dinner… so when my mum sent me some vegan spread (some kind of salty porridge, I’ll try to make someday) and we are waiting for dinner to be ready, it took me only 5min to prepare a corn flour dough and make some mini thick crepes to try the spread. I used 100g of corn flour, works as well with chickpea flour or whatever you like, 1 egg and s bit of water. The dough must be thick but not too much. Then in a heated pan greased with olive oil I made small crepes (3-4cm diameter) with one tbs of dough each. Flip when almost dry on top. Serve with the topping of your choice.

January 18, 2017

Matcha meringues- 抹茶メレンゲ

Because the recipe for the panettone (which was a total failure) was using only egg yolks I decided to make meringues with the whites. In the country house I opted for non electrical appliances in the kitchen, except for the blender, I knead manually and I beat my egg whites manually too. So I added a pinch of salt to 3 egg whites a beat them until firm. Then I added 70g of icing sugar, and 2 large tea spoons of matcha powder. It gives this shiny green mix. Then I preheat the oven to 110deg and on s cooking paper sheet I made small mounts of the mix. The shape and size won’t change much, so you can decide easily for the size and shape you want. And I cooked until dry and a little hard, because I like my meringues soft inside, if you like them hard and dry keep them longer. It took about 15min for 4cm meringues. If you notice the edge getting brown is that the oven is too hot, lower the temperature to 100deg.

Have a nice week!

January 16, 2017

Kabocha-mushroom risotto

This is the perfect winter dish for a busy evening! Super simple to prepare in a short time and you can prepare it before and reheat it just before eating.
For two people I use 1/6 of kabocha, 5 mushrooms, risotto rice of your choice, olive oil, salt and pepper and I finished my plate with freshly grated parmigiano, but it is optional. I sliced thinly the kabocha and the mushrooms. In a fry pan I heated a bit of olive oil and through the vegetables and roasted them until golden and crispy. Then I add the rice and grilled it a bit before adding water and salt. Let cook at low heat until the water is almost gone. Remove from heat and keep until you want to eat.
Before eating add a bit of olive oil, re-heat in the pan and stir softly if needed. Serve, add pepper, et voila!

January 13, 2017

Butternut squash ravioli again

Last winter I made some butternut squash ravioli with a very simple filling and in small size, with the ravioli plate I bought in Roma last year. This time I decided to add some nutmeg to the filling and to make large ones, where there is plenty of filling. And since I had plenty of sage in the garden seeved them with olive oil and sage. Simple and soooooooo delicious! How do you prefer your ravioli?

December 12, 2016

Some more Japanese bowls

Rice, rice more rice, white, brown, red, black, wild, arborio, carnaroli, koshihikari, camargues. Whatever, we love rice!!! This time it’s a mix of koshihikari white and brown rice, served with enoki, these long, thin and white mushrooms so easy to find st that the time of the year, and lotus roots, cooked in a bit of oil until golden then glazed in soya sauce, and the all thing is topped by a poached egg for the creaminess. So simply delicious!

December 1, 2016

Quenelles sequel

So once you have made some oven grilled quenelles, the next thing you can do is a green soup. for that green soup, as I mentioned yesterday it is very simple, green leaves of any kind work perfectly: spinach, radish tops, turnip tops, salad… and since I found beautiful radishes with perfect green and yound tops, I simply used that. After washing thoroughly the leaves to remove soil I boil them in a 3/4L of salted water. Once well boiled I blend them thinely and add some cream (vegetal or not), some pepper. I slice the quenelles add them to the soup and cook for 10min. Then serve. The dish, because of the quenelles is quite rich and is a full dinner for me if you count one quenelle per person.

November 21, 2016

Quenelles

Quenelles are a French traditional recipe that comes from Lyon. Though I am not usually a big fan or connaisseur of the cuisine from that area (usually too meaty for me). Quenelles are one of the rare preparations from that region I love. It’s usually vegetarian, except for chicken or fish quenelles, it’s versatile and super easy to prepare. In France most peole would buy already prepared quenelles in supermarkets, but it’s really simple to make them at home. You only need 150 flour, 2 eggs, 50g of butter, a bit of water, a bit of milk, salt and nutmeg. You can add mushroom, white fish, chicken breast etc… but personally I like them plain. In a pan set the water and the butter. Heat until the butter has melted. Add the milk and then the flour, and cook at low heat for 8min. Cool down a bit and add the eggs, the salt, the nutmeg, and stir well. You should obtain a smooth dought that doesn’t stick. If it sticks add a little more flour. Cut the dough in 8 pieces and form the quenelles as shown in the picture bel ow. Boil a large amount of water and poach the quenelles until they float. Now they are ready for any preparation you want! My favorite are the following: (1) oven grilled with vegetables: mushroom and cream, tomato sauce, this time I tried super moisted butternut squash slightly spicy purée… for the oven grill you need some moisture.

(2) slice and grilled in a frypan with a bit of kosher salt.

(3) in a soup of green leaves vegetables: lettuce, spinach, radish tops… more details in my next post!!!

Oven grilled quenelles covered in butternut squash purée

November 20, 2016

Yuzu scones

As you know, I bake scones quite often. I love them for breakfast and for tea-time, I love the sweet or salty, and they are so easy to prepare and so quickly baked that I can improvise easily. Now it’s a good season for yuzu, they are easy to find locally, so It’s the good season for using them in many places: yuzu tea, yuzu spinach, yuzu in miso soup and of course yuzu scones! In the classix scones recipe their is a bit of lemon juice, which I usually skip because I find it hard to get my hands on organic local lemons. But because finding yuzu is so much easier for the yuzu scones I used both the zest and the juice. In my basic recipe I added the zest of half a yuzu (I actually like it roughly gratted rather than thinly) and the juice of a full fruit. Then I used yuzu perl for the finish (I don’t use egg batter for a golden finish, I prefer to use no egg). That’s it! Enjoy with butter, honey or nothing!

November 17, 2016