Colorful plate

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!

Coconut-strawberry tart

Coconut ad strawberry tart with a bit of coconut and ice sugar for the decor

I love strawberry tart and I love to make some! Usually the best time starts end of March in Japan, but this year we've started to have delicious strawberry for a few weeks already, so I couldn't wait!

I love to make variations with the dough, with the custard. This year I added some grated coconut in the dough and made the custard with soya milk and a lot of vanilla. I also wanted to try making the dough in circles and just top it with custard and strawberries. I need a little more practice but the result was not bad at all!

For the dough I used flour, brown sugar, one egg, butter, and added some coconut (I always make the dough without measuring anything, I like to "feel" it).

For the custard I used 2 egg yolks, a little can of soya milk, vanilla, a spoon of flour and brown sugar.

Sticky millet croquettes

I discovered just recently while on a trip to Nagano prefecture that in Japan they grow some sticky millet. It looks very much like millet but once cooked it is much stickier.

I found this consistency perfect for vegan croquettes. So I mixed some boiled sticky millet with some vegetables sautéed I had in the fridge: a leek, half new onion, 2 small carrots gratted, one egg and a few linen seeds, and made croquettes that I cooked in olive oil in a frypan.

I also made a version with cheese but taste-wise without was really delicious and if the cheese makes the croquettes creamy and more golden, I don't think it is a must.

Sunday morning's English scones

Yesterday I've been busy cooking for dinner so I didn't have time to prepare some bread for this morning. Usually when this happens I either cook crepes, pancake or English scones in the morning and in 30min we have a ready to eat breakfast.

This morning it was plain English scones. The recipe for a dozen 4cm scones is simple (based on recipe from BBC of course!!): 175g of flour, 1/2 tsp of baking powder, a bit of salt, 40g of soft butter, 80ml of milk or equivalent, 2tbsp of brown sugar, vanilla (I use exclusively fresh one, no extract, much tastier and love the black dots!!). After mixing all the ingredients and obtaining a nice dough I roll it in sticks of 4 cm diameter and cut thick slices of 1cm or more and line them on cooking paper. Bake in the oven for about 15min  (depending on thickness) at 180deg. And ready to eat!! With butter, jam, marmalade... 

This morning I served an apple-strawberry salad to complete the breakfast.

Chick peas and spinach soup "my way"

After 2 days of cold rain, which is not so common, I needed a sunny and warm dish. Since I just bought Koganei-grown spinach I come up with the idea of chick peas and spinach soup. And the idea went very well for a ready-in-ten-minutes dinner!

I cut roughly the spinach and boiled them in water where I've added a few carvi seeds and veggie consommé. In the mean time I've cooked some couscous with a few sultanas and pine nuts, and a bit of olive oil. When the spinach were soft I've added drained tinned chick peas (yes! Sometimes canned ingredients can be of tremendous help!!). And it's ready!!! The slightly spicy soup goes very well with the slightly sweet semolina, a perfect match!

Classic ravioli

I love ravioli and in Japan it is not easy to find good ones. So the best option I've found is to make my own.

Using my pasta machine things have become much easier.

For the filling, since my husband doesn't eat cheese I use a traditional filling with porc meat. And for the accompanying sauce a fresh tomato, olive oil and oregano. 

The result was very nice, though I think I still can improve it a little.

My version of vegetable soup

In winter soup is the best diner. My version of vegetable soup is quite similar as Gentiane's one. But I used the juice of a chicken to brown the leeks, then I add some vegetable of the market: carrot, zucchini, mushroom, Chinese cabbage and some crumbled chicken. And this time bulgur too.
You can sprinkle with a bit of parmigiano cheese.
You'll never be cold.

Another quick dinner fix

An other evening when I needed a quick fix for dinner (to be honest it's almost every day!!), thus a "one plate" and a happy husband!

In these situation quinoa is particularly adequate because you can cook it very quickly, it's full of proteines, so perfect for my almost veggan diet.

I quickly cooked red quinoa, and added a bit of raw avocado, a slice of wild smoke salmon (not mandatory, it can go veggan), some sprout and young leafs, and a few brocoli that were just 2min in steam (you can steam them on top of the quinoa). For seasoning a bit of lemon juice, olive oil (olives from Provence), salt and pepper. Always simple, always delicious. Plates ready to eat in less then 10 min for 2 (the quinoa os basically what takes the longest but you're free handed in the mean time!).

 

Special fish dinner

Last night I was invited at one of the university senior professor's place for dinner. It was mainly for business purposes, but it's not so often that Japenese invite you home. After 10 years there, hundreds of dinners at home, I can still count on the fingers the number of houses we've visited as guests!! Most people prefer to invite you at the restaurant.

Last night host's hobby is fishing and he offered us a selection of unique fishes he fished on Tuesday for dinner. Something really delicious and fresh!

The first one was slowly oven grilled sabre fish served with a little of soya sauce and rice. This fish has a very fine white flesh, juicy and it's shape and color make an simple beautiful plate.

The other one, more exceptional is scorpion fish. A quite rare and difficult to catch fish. This very muscly fish has a very firm flesh very similar to the monkfish was served in a shabu-shabu style. Something like a hot-pot where you dip the slices of fish to cook it. 

Everything was home-made and delicious! Thanks for letting me discover these fishes!

Saturday market

Every Saturday we spend in Ohara, the first thing we do is to go to the local JA cooperative to shop for vegetables, fruits, eggs... Every thing is locally grown in very little farms or by old folks, using no chemical, it's super fresh, super tasty and super cheap. We're lucky because Chiba prefecture is famous for growing a lot of things and our area is known for strawberries, nashi, tangerines in particular. There is also an amazing variety of tomatoes and cabbages. Nearby, they also produce eggs, pork and milk, and Ohara fishing port has great fresh fishes and spiny lobsters (and s fish market on Sunday once a month). It's just fresh food heaven.

Lunch time

I've always hated cafetaria for lunch. The single idea of taking food on a tray disgusts me. I don't have much time to go out for lunch, or I could take it but most of the time after lunch outthen I feel sleepy the whole afternoon. So I've always turned around the problem by either bringing my lunch from home,buying  something on the way, and since in Japan I've always had access at work to a fridge and a sink, so I often prepare my own luch on the spot. Always something very simple.

Recently I really like to use bagels or fresh bred I can buy on my way in the morning. When it's tome to est, I fill it with a bit of cream cheese, avocado slices, baby leaf salad, cherry tomatoes... And in less then 5 minutes it's ready!!!

Bon appetit!