Plum - 梅 - Prune

In February the first trees to bloom in Japan are the plum trees. They're not as famous as the Japanese cherry tree, but I like them much more for the vibrant colors of their flowers from white to dark pink and for their beautiful round petals and because people are much less silly than when the cherry trees start blossoming.

Plum tree blooming in our garden

In Japan plums are used in many ways. The most two famous are probably umeshu (plum wine) and umeboshi (kind of pickled plum) made out of the fruits harvested in June. But they are also used to make some sweets, mainly jelly that I love!

Sweet plum and red shiso jelly

The plum flower is also largely used for decoration for Hina-matsuri, the dolls festival literally, or festival for the girls on March 3d.

Hina-matsuri sweets decorated with plum flowers

Let's talk umeboshi! The season for making some is far ahead, but since it is a preserve method they are eaten all year round, and known to be good against fatigue among other virtues. For many non Japanese people it's an infamous sour thing that is often found in lunch boxes: small and hard, or in onigiri (rice balls 🍙): soft and juicy. I personally find it extremely delicious when home-made or of very good quality, but I wouldn't recommend any of the cheap things from conbini. My favourite are the large and soft ones with a lot of juicy meat. It is often prepared with red shiso and is delicious eaten with plain white rice, with grilled chicken breast or with canned tuna (my lunch plate today).
Oh! And Prunellia arrives tonight in Tokyo!!!

My umeboshi favorite lunch plate

Even faster fix for dinner: tomato-carrot-chick pea raggu

This is the end of the year at the university and it is a busy time for both professor and students. Recently, I'm coming back home later and later in particular because this no excuse not to go to the gym. Last night after my pilates class I needed a very quick fix for dinner so that it allowed me to have some time to prepare the apartment for my sister's visit later this week (yes! Prunellia is flying to Tokyo very soon!).

Chick peas are really handy when it comes to prepare something in 5 minutes! Dinner menu tonight: tomato & chick peas raggu with carrots.

I first roughly cut tomatoes and cooked them in olive oil, add laurel, ginger, carvi seeds, salt and pepper and small carrots halved. 

I left it on low heat, time to do the other tasks I had to do. Then once ready to eat I added a can of drained chick peas and served with baby leaf salad, olive oil and linen seeds. Delicious, warm and slightly spicy!

Sweet potato crust tart

Probably the last time I talk about purple sweet poratoes this year! There seems to be no more at the cooperative shop.

The other day I spotted on Instagram a really nice idea: instead of making the dough of the tart with flour, @acvb3 used thin slices of sweet potato.

I wanted to try badly but needed my mandolin that is in the country house. So finally, yesterday I could try.

I sliced finely one large purple sweet potato, olive-oiled them and lined them in a pie dish. I pre-baked them a little and then added a mixture of egg, silky tofu, sliced shiitake, na-no-hana. It's better for the mixture not to be too liquid because the potato crust might leak here and there so the tofu is really helping a lot here. Then I just baked it normally. It was really delicious!

Saturday lunch: potato cakes

I needed some energy before going to play tennis in the cold so I made these potatoes cakes served with leek and shiitake. The leek and the shiitake are thinly sliced and cooked slowly in a bit of olive oil. For the potato cakes, I gratted roughly 2 potatoes, mixed well with 2 battered eggs, added salt and pepper, and cooked both sides in a circle in a frypan greased with olive oil.

My seed closet

I've re-organized my closet for all the seeds and herbs I used for cooking. With simple stackable plastic boxes, I can see what I have and find what I need very quickly. I like to have this organization, it helps a lot to create new recipes!

Curry-rice

One of the easiest Japanese dish to cook is curry-rice (pronunce "karey-rayiss"). I like because it is quick to prepare, and it's a warm dish you can make with whatever you have in the fridge: perfect for a Sunday lunch after spending hours in the cold treaming trees in the garden. You can use only vegetables, meat, fish or mix vegetables with meat or fish. The variety of ingredients has only the limit of your imagination! So once decided what to put inside it is super easy. I always start with an onion or a leek that I cook with a bit of oil (olive or not) or butter. Once almost brown I add carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, meat if any... And half cook them. Then I add a spoon of curry spice, the quantity depends on how strong you like your curry, I like mine tasty but not hot.

Then add some grinded black pepper, a bit of Japanese 7 spices (shichimi). Now it's time to prepare the roux. For that add flour and stir well the vegetables. Finally add water. In Japan there are all kinds of curry-rice, some very liquid, some quite compact. This just depends how you like it and how long you cook the roux, anyway, you can add water anytime if you find yours too thick.

In the last few minutes of cooking I sometimes add a few other veggetables tgat need short cooking time: brocoli, cauliflower, green peas... 

Ready to serve with some white Japanese rice (for some reason I find it much better than with briwn rice). Japanese eat that dish with a spoon!

Ratatouille on pancake seeds

Toady I used my famous pancakes seeds (see recipe on a previous post), and I spread a small layer of cashew nut paste (found in biocorner), then 2 spoons of french ratatouille (tomato, onion, eggplant with thyme and olive oil). But it's delicious too with fresh ceps, or pumpkin puree.

Seeds pancake

An easy recipe to make seed pancakes (to eat with vegetables or mash).
I used to make these simple seed pancakes mixing seeds of linen and sunflower (50g of each), add a big onion gilded with 2 spoons of olive oil, and add 2 spoons of soya sauce.
Then make the pancakes (10cm round and 0,5cm thickness), bake for 5-10 minutes. And now you can keep then for few days.

The seeds

The onions

Seeds, onion and soya sauce ready to be bake.

Tada!

Hot veggie and bean soup for cold evening

Japanese winters are very sunny and dry in Tokyo area. If there is not too much wind day time sun is fairly warm, but as soon as it gets dark the temperature drops and it becomes freezing cold. A hot veggie soup is perfect to warm and rehydrate at the same time.

My classic is a base with 1 leek, 2 big carrots, 2 small potatoes. I diced them and cook them in water with 1 leaf of laurel and a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.

Then if I want something a little bit more nourishing I add this marvelous Italian mix of lentils, beans and barley that I buy at one of the NYC Eataly shops in Tokyo.

And once all well cooked I serve it with a bit of finely grated parmigiano. Et voila!

  

Happy new year 2015!!!

Starting the year in veggie mood!
Our local shops were closed when we arrived in our country house and they will remain closed until the end of the week fir the traditional Japanese new year holidays.
Since shopping possibilities were limited I starting the year with a number of veggie receipes.
Starting with a spinach and tofu whole-wheat and soya flours tart for 2015!!