A savory pie with Japanese flavors

There’s no secret here, I love all sorts of stuffed food: dumplings, ravioli, gyoza, pies and all the others. And I cook some almost every week. Last week I was set to cook an okonomiyaki, I had the Chinese cabbage, the pork meat and dinner was all set. But then, A. reminded me that we had scrambled eggs for breakfast and then an okonomiyaki would mean eggs again (since when does he care???) so I just acknowledged and said, well then, let’s remove the eggs from it and that’s gonna be a pie!!! (I am not the only big fan of pies and dumplings, A. is always OK!)

So here I am now thinking about how to make it happen. And it turned out to be fairly simple and simply delicious. Here is my original recipe.

Okonomiyaki style pie (2 servings as main)

For the pie crust
- 200g of flour
- 20cl of vegetal oil
- 10cl of soya sauce
- Water
For the filling
- 1/2 Chinese cabbage
- 100g of ground pork or chop filet
- a handful of katsuobushi flakes

Mix all ingredients for the dough. Add water little by little to obtain a smooth and non sticky dough. Let is rest a bit.

In the meantime, chop the Chinese cabbage and put it in a pan with the meat and cover. Cook at medium heat for 5-10 min, then remove the cover, add the katsuobushi and cook until all the water from the cabbage is gone.

Roll the dough for your pie dish, with amply enough to be able to make the cover by folding it it. Set in your pie dish and fill with the filling, fold the dough to close the pie. Bake at 200 degrees until dough is golden.

That’s it!

January 14, 2023

Chandeleur VS Setsubun

In France, on February 2nd, it’s Chandeleur. A quick search on the internet told me that it’s Candlemas, a Christian celebration, 40 days after Christmas, the presentation of Jesus to the temple (thanks Wikipedia for enlightening my ignorance), but for me Chandeleur was just the day we ate crepes. A most awaited time as for some obscure reason my mum wouldn’t flip crepes often and we would for sure have some on February 2nd!!! One of my mother traditional savory filling was béchamel and ham, while I did like it then, I now barely prepare béchamel. A. doesn’t like it and I find it a bit heavy unless it is to eat with leeks or mushrooms only. My crepes filling is usually very simple: spinach, mushrooms, ham or prosciutto, eggs, cheese. Usually no more than two at the time, we are eating crepes not a kind of “put it all”… and it’s s good excuse to have a few crepes with different filling combinations!!!

To be honest, I care a lot less now of Chandeleur, because, as you may know if you follow me on Instagram, I flip crepes more often then I don’t! Crepes are my quick fix for a snack treat and A. loves them. And once in a while we also have savory crepes, or more precisely galettes, because I cannot help but love buckwheat crepes. I like them simple, with some vegetables and eggs, or ham and melted cheese. So over time I realize I have been skipping Chandeleur quite often, but who cares? As soon as you have a good crepe basic recipe you can make them anytime and realize how easy it is! You can easily change the wheat flour by 2/3 of buckwheat in my recipe to make galettes, you can even increase more the percentage of buckwheat, but don’t forget that with wheat comes gluten and with gluten comes consistency and firmness, so going gluten free means more cooking time before flipping and extreme carefulness in handling.

I don’t have a shallow crepes pan so I simply flip them in a large non sticky frypan slightly greased with butter, and it works perfectly well, no need to clutter the kitchen with this kind of goodies!

Have a good crepes flipping if you are planning to make some! I made some last week so I’ll pass today! Oh! And this year Setsubun 節分 is on February 2nd (it usually is on 3rd or 4th)… a celebration to welcome the new season (spring) that I love very much. I prefer by far traditions that are linked to seasons cycles or natural events rather than religions, so let’s throw beans to chase the evil out and hope for a quiet and peaceful home and year for everyone.

February 1, 2021

Lemon cake

For my birthday for the past 6 or 7 years, when possible, A. bakes me a birthday cake of my choice. The season is such that it involves often lemon or apple. This year the tradition went on and he prepared on my request a lemon cake. With the lemon just harvested in the garden. These lemons I have seen slowly growing and are totally free of pesticides, wax and other things that make you think twice before using the zest. The cake he made was super delicious, on of the best I have had! I wonder why he doesn’t bake more often!! And because he used the recipe he found online and didn’t want to halve the quantities, we obtained 2 cakes of perfect size for tea and breakfast for two. I slightly ask him to modify the recipe to be less buttery, so here is the actual recipe he used:

Lemon cake

– 200g of flour

– 120g of brown sugar

– 80g of butter

– 4eggs

– 1tbs of baking powder

– 1 lemon (free of chemical)

Melt the butter. Wash the lemon and extract both the zests and the juice.

In a bowl, mix the flour, the baking powder, the sugar, add the eggs, the butter and end with the lemon juice and the zest. Pour in a cake dish (one 30cm or two 20 or less).

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180deg for 35min to 45min

When ready eat right away or once is has cooled down.

Have a beautiful end of 2018!!

December 31, 2018

Getting old…

Tomorrow I’ll turn one year up… now I know that I didn’t achieve my main goal for this year, despite trying hard for the past few years, but I realized I actually don’t care much because it doesn’t depend on me actually but on appreciation of others, and being alien in a conservative country doesn’t make things easy. Discrimination, racism, are things I face every day but I live with it because I chose to live in Japan. And finally I prefer that than living in a sad country where I could fit in. Our trip to France last weekend was quite eye opening again. The city was so sad and gloomy that I didn’t enjoy it much. Our hotel was right in the middle of two main riots spots, police cars everywhere, shops closing instantly to avoid being savagely deteriorated, security staff in front of the hotel, with main doors closed and all trying to keep a low profile… There is no way I can regret one second having left that sick self-destructing country.

I ate the idea of getting old… but the good thing with my birthday is that in Japan it is often holiday, as it is the first day of the long new year break. This year is particularly long since we will have 6 days!!! So I decided to go packing on flours, fresh yeast and other baking staples to be sure I am fully equipped to bake everyday. In particular because in my birthday presents bundle (in the gigantic amount of presents I brung back from Paris) I know there is a baking book and I can’t wait to open it!!! Since I went shopping at Cuoca in Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi I also bought a few vegetables and some fresh fish from Chiba, and cooked simple pasta too. Here is my recipe.

Flounder with Brussels sprouts and spinach (2 servings)

– 1 piece of flounder

– 10 Brussels sprouts

– 1 bundle of fresh spinach

– 125g of pasta of your choice

– olive oil, salt and pepper

Boil water and cook the pasta. Wash the vegetables. Chop the spinach, and halve the Brussels sprouts. In a large pan greased with olive oil and heated start by cooking the Brussels sprouts, then add the spinach and the fish. Stir the vegetables, be careful not to break the fish. Remove fish when cooked, add a little bit more olive oil, the pasta, salt and pepper, and stir while cooking at high heat. When all is well mixed, serve in the plates, top with the fish and enjoy right away!

Have a great day today, last working day before next Friday!!!!!

December 28, 2018

Harbor market

Every Sunday morning from 8 to 12 there is a “harbor market” at Ohara fishing harbor. We don’t go very often because the main attractions there are fresh shellfish grilled on the spot, and there are more stalls that have ready to eat food than truly food to buy to take home and prepare. But once in a while, in particular in winter when it is much less crowded we like to go and check it out.

This time I had in mind to buy some ricotta from a local cheese farm, not Takahide, because they don’t make ricotta (and they don’t come to the market anymore) to make ravioli for lunch… a simple picture on IG had the instant effect of me wanting ravioli for lunch… craving… and because there is not much to do in the garden right now I can spend more time in my kitchen!

Not only did I find the ricotta I wanted but also some nice konbu and katsuobushi. I will write later about these two once I will start using them. So back to the ravioli: spinach-pork for A. and spinach-pork-ricotta for me. Prepared with whole wheat flour, and served only with olive oil, salt and pepper. We were so hungry and happy to have ravioli that I just forgot to take a decent shot of them. A. took a rapid one when I was about to through the last one in the water…

For the recipe, as usual for the pasta: 1egg, 100g of whole wheat flour, a bit of water. For the filling, I cooked 100g of ground pork meat with chopped spinach, added salt and pepper for A. and for mine added 2tbs of ricotta. That’s it! I rolled the dough manually and made half-moon ravioli for A. and flowers for me so that we knew which is what when serving.

December 18, 2018

Simmered kabocha

All a sudden it has become very cold and warm food, rich and tasty is more than necessary. During the autumn I have used a lot of butternut squash, leaving the little Japanese kabocha on the side for a while, knowing that they would be right there when needed in the winter, as the season for kabocha is much longer (though you may find it year round when grown in green houses). And now the time has come to use it. kabocha, like most squashes and pumpkin is versatile and easy to cook. The great part with kabocha is that it actually doesn’t need to be peeled and cooking time is rather short. One of my favorite traditional Japanese recipe is to prepare it with dashi and soya sauce. It can be eaten hot, cold or reused after in other recipes. It is very simple to make and often found in bento boxes. Here is my recipe for the simmered kabocha.

Simmered kabocha (4 servings)

– 1/2 kabocha

– 40g of katsuobushi in flakes

– 2tbs of soya sauce

Wash the skin of the kabocha, remove the seeds (you can keep them to grill them to make snacks… or plant them)

Cut the kabocha in large bites with the skin on (only remove parts of the skin that is brownish or hard, usually the part that was in contact with the ground).

Put the kabocha in a pan and cover with water. Add the katsuobushi flakes in a tea bag, and cook at low heat until the kabocha is just soft (test with a bamboo toothpick). Do not over cook, you’ll end up with purée. Remove all liquid and the bag of katsuobushi. Add the soya sauce. Eat right away, or when cold.

I used the leftovers in a sautéed vegetable dish. With a bit if oil, the kabocha becomes golden and even more delicious.

December 11, 2018

Soup or so

After the snow last week, the snow again this week. The weather in Tokyo was gloomy all of Thursday and Friday and I wanted some simple warm food. One thing I really love in winter is Japanese cabbages. They are perfect steamed with olive oil, thyme and salt, raw with miso, but not only. With carrots, sweet potatoes (or potatoes) they make a perfect rich soup. Soups are an alternative for one plate in winter. And since A. was complaining about the little animal protein we had recently I just added chicken to the basic vegetables soup. Here is my super simple recipe, and very very healthy.

Cabbage soup (for 2 people)

– 1/2 cabbage

– 2 carrots

– 1 leek

– 1 sweet potato

– mizuna

– alfalfa

– 1 chicken breast (optional)

I just wash and chop the vegetables, and put them in a large pan full of water. I cook at high heat until it boils, then lower the heat to low. Chop the chicken breast, add it. Cook for 15min. In the mean time wash some mizuna and cut in 4cm long.

Serve with not too much bouillon, top with the mizuna, and top again with alfalfa. Add a bit of salt, pepper and turmeric if you like.

February 3, 2018

Whaou!

Quite a week, and it’s only Thursday!!! So let’s get back to when I left you last Saturday… Sunday evening we had 4 guests (mix of French and Japanese) for dinner at home in Tokyo so I cooked some of my half new recipes: creamy cauliflower soup with curried croutons (recipe below), pork cutlet with roasted roots: lotus, taro, sweet potatoes, turnips, deglazed in soya sauce, and for dessert hasaku with spices syrup (ginger, cinnamon and cardamom) served with sesame and kinako biscuits. A. picked many Japanese and French wines to accompany my food. Oh… and I also made some plain and olive fougasse, with the olives from the garden in Aix that my mother prepared! But that was Sunday and it seems ages already!!!

And then Monday it had snowed, quite a lot actually, so I came back home earlier than usual to avoid being stucked with train problems. And I was happy to work from home eating left over sesame-kinako cookies with a hot chaï late. And having nothing to prepare or so for dinner since I hade made too many roasted vegetables! I like to recycle leftovers and do new things with them. So I added fukinoto and topped with sprouts for a perfectly balanced dinner. It was a great flavor experience! Fukinoto bring so much!! They are also the taste of coming spring with plum blossoms! And then there was this workshop I co-organized at the French Embassy. Everything went great, I met amazing people, now I can think about what’s next (and there’s plenty) and go back to the work routine for a short while!!

How is your week doing?

Cauliflower soup with curried croutons (6 servings as starter)

– 1 cauliflower

– 1 potato

– 150ml of cream

– 4 slices of bread (I used half rye bread I made)

– 2tsp of curry

– oil for the frying the croutons

– salt, pepper

In a large pan I boil the cauliflower washed and chopped and the potato, peeled and chopped too. When they are very soft I blend everything. Add water if it’s too thick. Then add the cream.

In a fry pan add oil and the curry, cut the bread in cubes and fry them while turning them regularly. When golden take them out and keep them on cooking paper. When serving heat the soup, add salt and pepper if you lile, serve and top with the croutons. I added a sprinkle of tumeric for adding a bit of color.

January 25, 2018

Late night dinner

There are days (quite many recently) like that… when I start cooking past 23:00 for our dinner. We’re obviously starving after a long day at work, but nonetheless we want something fresh and tasty. I found that’s often when I get the most creative, in particular when the ingredients are limited as in winter (in summer tomato-eggplant-zucchini would just work fine…), I focus on herbs and flavors. Pasta would often be the base, while they boil I would of course prepare the topping. Last night I add a great inspiration and the result was sooooo great that I really want to share my recipe with you!

Celery pasta (for 2 people)

– 125g of pasta (I used whole wheat penne)

– 3 branches of celery

– 1 or 2 mizuna bundles

– 3 branches of fresh dill

– olive oil, salt and pepper

Boil water for the pasta and boil them while you prepare the vegetables. Wash and chop the celery, up to the leaves. Wash and chop the mizuna, same for the dill. In a heated pan add some olive oil, toss the celery, and stir a bit. Then add the dill and finally the mizuna, salt and pepper. The vegetables don’t actually need to be cooked, so the time they spend in the pan shouldn’t exceed 7-8 minutes. They need to be just warm and rolled over in olive oil. Drain the pasta when cooked and serve. Top with the vegetables. Add a final olive oil touch, and ground pepper. Actually you can add some gratted Parmigiano, it is the perfect final touch!

How do you like your pasta?? I’ll be happy to try new ideas and recipes!

January 20, 2018