Tag: zucchini

Zucchini season!

It’s been a long time since I last wrote here. I’ve been cooking as usual of course, but nothing that deserved a special entry. Until today. Inspired by a giant zucchini I bought for 100JPY at the farmers market, I decided to use it for a soup. I love mint and zucchini soup, and the mint is spreading at a very fast pace in the kitchen garden, so I was all set, until I realized that “just” a zucchini soup won’t make the trick for an active day, and we needed a little more.

But what…

I just had pork meat and opted for pork mint croquettes, and with a piece of bread left over a couple of croutons. Something that could be largely inspired by Italian meatball soup, but my way.

And it was damn delicious, so much that I really want to keep the recipe and do it again and again!!!

Zucchini meatball soup (2 servings)

  • 1 extra large zucchini or 2 normal size
  • Fresh mint (10 leaves)
  • 100g of ground pork
  • 23bs of panko
  • 1 egg
  • More fresh mint (10 leaves)
  • A piece of left over bread
  • A bit of oil for cooking
  • Salt and pepper

Wash and cut the zucchini, steam it until soft. In a blender, put the steamed zucchini, and 10 leaves of fresh mint rinsed. Blend until liquid. The soup is ready. Keep at room temperature.

In a bowl, chop 10 leaves of fresh mint, add salt and pepper, the ground meat, the egg, the panko. Stir well.

Heat a pan, add some oil for cooking, make bite size patties and cook them on both sides until golden.

Cut the bread in small bite size and toss them in the pan, turn until golden.

Serve the soup, add the meat balls and croutons and enjoy!

Making the meat balls.

Summer vegetables

I call summer vegetables the ones I have grown up with: tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, melons… while here they are for most of them early summer vegetables as they are not endemic. For instance the zucchini season is at its peak now and will end very soon normally. Except that this year the rainy season is rather dry so may be we will have zucchini for longer… that would be good!!! Maybe I won’t have to struggle finding zucchini in the middle of summer to make a good pesto soup!!!

Anyway, at the moment I enjoy cooking them in various ways as long as I can find them. I cook them with my “traditional” or classic recipes but I am also investigating new ways of cooking them. I found that zucchini and green beans go very well together and I came up with a few new nice recipes, super simple and easy to make as I am quite busy these days with several projects on the run… Let me share two recipes here today: a simple savory tart and a vegetable curry-rice. I hope you’ll like them!

Savory tart

  • For the pie crust: 150g of flour, a pinch of salt, 3tbs of olive oil, water
  • 2-3 zucchini depending of the size
  • A handful of green beans
  • 150g of ricotta or cottage cheese
  • Fresh basil

Prepare the dough as usual, and roll it for your pie dish.

Wash the vegetables. Slice thinly the zucchini (with a mandolin if you have one) and set on the dough. Cut the green beans to 2-3cm long pieces and add on top. Crumble the ricotta or the cottage cheese, chop the basil and sprinkle on top. Bake 40min at 180deg or until golden. Enjoy hot or cold.

Veggie curry-rice

  • 1 large zucchini or 3 small (better)
  • 1 large ripe tomato
  • 1/2 onion
  • 10 green beans
  • Japanese white rice cooked
  • 1tsp of curry powder
  • 1/2tsp of cumin powder
  • A pinch of salt

Wash the vegetables. Cut them in bite size. In a pan greased with a bit of oil add the vegetables. Cook for 5 min at high heat then lower to medium. Add the spices. Cook another 5-10 min until you obtain the level of moisture you want. Personally I like rather soupy so that the rice can suck it in. Serve with the Japanese white rice and enjoy while hot. (Top picture)

Chickpea pasta

When we traveled to Australia last May, I’ve totally fallen in love with lentil pasta and chickpea pasta found in an organic vegan shop. I’m not particularly interested in gluten-free food but taste wise it was really very interesting. So I decided to try to make my own ones from chickpea flour. I knew it wouldn’t have the consistency of regular wheat pasta because it is gluten-free, so I was expecting something hard to roll, but in fact it wasn’t as bad as I imagined. I was first thinking of making farfalle, but I ran out of time, so I just rolled it manually and made some short tagliatelle. Again I new that long pasta wouldn’t hold together and that the pasta machine wouldn’t help here. The result was amazingly delicious. Probably even better with a stronger olive oil and cold. I served them with bacon, zucchini and mallow jute.

Definitely a recommendation and much easier to make than I thought!

Chickpea pasta

– 150g of chickpea flour, plus some for rolling

– water

In a bowl ready with the chickpea flour, a water little by little to obtain a nice mix, not too sticky. Set for rest for 1h.

Then knead a bit shain and on a floured top rolle the dough, cut the pasta.

Boil them and enjoy!!!

More zucchini!!!

I could have totally go with an other zucchini week worth of new or modified recipes in the last 7 days… to add to the existing collection of zucchini recipes! I’ve been preparing most of our meals using zucchini because it’s just the season and now they grow plenty of zucchini in Isumi! So again last Saturday I got plenty… yellow, green, small and big… later there will so round ones… And with the typhoon coming and the sudden drop in temperatures, a warm soup was very welcome, so I prepared a … zucchini soup of course!!!

Zucchini naked soup

– 2 large zucchini

– olive oil

– salt and pepper

– optional: 2tbs of cream cheese

– optional: bread croutons

In a large pan filled with 1l of water boil the zucchini washed and cut in rough pieces. When tender blend and add olive oil, salt and pepper. That’s it!!! Serve warm and eat right away!

You can add the cream cheese directly in the plate. Stir a bit when it has melted. Add the bread croutons if you want a richer experience.

Zucchini cake

Somehow this week has been a lot about cooking zucchini. There was a few classic things such as “soupe au pistou” for friends coming for dinner. But also a few new recipes such the salsola quiche. And after seeing a few cakes on IG, I thought it was time to make one with zucchini and rucola. The recipe is very simple and the zucchini bring the moisture often missing in savory cakes. I added rucola for a bit of fresh taste, and served it with a simple herb salad. A perfect dinner, all in one plate.

Zucchini cake:

– 1 zucchini

– a handful of rucola

– 150g of flour

– 1tsp of baking powder

– 3 eggs

– 1/2 cup of olive oil

– salt and pepper

In a bowl mix all the ingredients for the dough. Wash the rucola and the zucchini. Cut them. Add to the mix. In a greased cake dish pour the mix and bake at 160deg for 30min, rise the temperature to 190 for the final 5-10 minutes. Check with a knife if ready.

That’s it!! And it’s Friday, so have a good end of the week!

Another quiche…

There’s nothing like a good quiche for dinner! I was missing not preparing some for a while, so I had to fix that. With the summer vegetables starting I bought plenty of zucchini at the farmers market because we love them and ones need to enjoy them when they are in season (the season in Japan is rather short and starts early). Zucchini are perfect for summer style quiche. I prepared them with okahijiki (salsola), this little plant I discovered last year. And I used miso in the egg mix to add a bit of texture and flavor. The result was a great one. Oh… and for the dough I went with a bit different recipe, something close to pasta dough, thin and crispy… Indeed while I was kneading the flour with an egg I realized it was the same start as making pasta dough (it crossed my mind to do lasagna for a second then…) but I finally added olive oil little by little to obtain a smooth dough but slightly oily compared to pasta. Something I’ll do again for sure!

Salsola and zucchini quiche

For the filling:

– 1 or 2 zucchini

– a handful of salsola

– 2tbs of miso

– 2 eggs

– some milk (or soya milk)

For the dough:

– 100g of flour

– 1egg

– olive oil

Mix the flour and the egg, add olive oil little by little and knead well. The dough must be smooth, shiny and feel a little greasy but not perspire oil!

Roll the dough into a thin circle and set on the pie dish (I used a low and large one).

Wash the vegetables, slice the zucchini and set them in the dough. In a bowl bit the eggs with the miso and the milk, add the salsola. Pour onto the zucchini.

Bake at 180deg for 30min or until golden.

I served it with some yogurt with herbs in.

Attention: miso is usually very salty so do not add salt in any of the mixes.

More seaweed

Wakame is one of the multitude of seaweed used in Japanese cuisine. The two other very much used are konbu and nori. They all come in different shapes and level of preparation. Konbu is probably most famous for making broth and nori for maki sushi, but there are a multitude of other way to use them in their different variations. Today I’ve used some nori in my quiche. Not exactly the nori for maki sushi though. Something a little less processed 素焼のり or “unglazed nori”. And I made a quiche with it, spinach and zucchini. Something simple and fresh. Here is my recipe.

Nori quiche

– flour, olive oil and water for the pie crust dough

– 1 block of tofu

– 3 eggs

– a bundle of fresh spinach

– 2 handful of unglazed nori (you can try with regular maki nori cut in bites)

– 1/2 zucchini

In a pan cook the washed spinach in their water, add the chopped zucchini and finish with the nori. Cook at medium heat until the mix is not too much moistened anymore. Prepare the dough and roll. In a pie dish set the dough. Add the eggs and the drained tofu to the mix vegetables. Pour in the dough. Cook at 180deg for 30min. Enjoy as a main or a side with some grilled fish for example.

Life in Florence

So, it’s been four days we’ve been in Florence, except for Sunday that we spent walking around the city as described here, it’s been a rather studious time. A. leaves early in the morning while it’s all dark and comes back late at night, and this gives me more than plenty of time to work, write and spend a little hour or two outside walking around the city in the cold and shopping for lunches and dinners.

I’ve now explored both the San’Ambroggio market and the San Lorenzo market, got to see everything twice or thrice to decide what to buy choosing between all the delicious cheeses, fresh pasta and all the fruits and vegetables that are alien to Japan. I must say that I passed on fish, not being fully satisfied with the stands and on meat as there was too many options and I am not good with meat too much… but I guess that I will have to try some for A.. For the moment I’m sticking to speck and San Daniele and it’s been perfect. I also got my tea from La Via del Te as recommended by Giula from the beautiful Juls’ kitchen. And really I am more than happy with my little kitchen and the simple cooking I can do!

So far the things I have really been enjoying are the greens: I packed on lamb’s lettuce, rucola, zucchini, fennel and artichokes and I have been using them in many various preparation. My best being this delicious dish of pasta with olive oil roasted fennels and zucchini and topped with rucola. It is so simple and so fresh, and so easy to make, that here is my recipe:

Pasta with zucchini, fennel and rucola (for 2)

– 125g of pasta

– 1 zucchini

– 1/2 fennel

-1 handful of rucola

– olive oil, salt and pepper

– additionally some fresh parmigiano or some other cheese

Boil the water for the pasta and the pasta. In the mean time, wash and cut the fennel and the zucchini, and in an olive oil greased frypan cook them, but not overcook them! Add the drained pasta, salt, pepper, and olive oil, top with rucola and stir, serve immediately. Add cheese if you like!

And have a great Wednesday! 

Stuffed zucchini

Summer = zucchini plenty! Of course there are many ways to prepare them (see the zucchini recipe week from 2 years ago!). One of my favorite is stuffed zucchini. Classic meat stuffing would be my grand mother recipe, cheese stuffing would be my mother recipe. But yesterday night I invented a new recipe with some fresh local ingredients plus a bit of quinoq for texture. So here is my new recipe, and I loved it!!!

Cod and quinoa stuffed zucchini

– 2 large zucchini  

– a piece of cod filet

– a block of tofu (silk or hard, both work) 

– 2/3 of quinoa (I had tricolor one)

– 2-3 eggs

– salt, pepper olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 200deg.  Drain the tofu. In a pan grill the cod briefly then add the quinoa and cover with water. Add salt and pepper. When the quinoa is cooked and it’s dry stir well to mix the fish with the quinoa. Add the tofu and stir again well to obtain a rather creamy paste. Add the eggs. Wash the zucchini and cut them in 3-4cm trunks. Carve them to remove a bit of the center part to add the filling. Fill them. Set in an oven proof dish add some olive oil and bake until golden (30min or so). That’s it!!!

 

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