Poisson éthiopien

I moved out of Japan, so there won't be any updates for a while, until I settle into a new kitchen. In the same year, I will have moved from Germany to France, from France to Japan, from Japan to France and from France to Canada..!
This dish I made a while ago, before I started this blog. I had only one african dish in my repertoire, and I was looking for a new one. The is where I invented the african ratatouille that I previously posted.

How do you like the fish-that-looks-at-you-when-you-eat ? I like the 'raw' feeling of the dish, that reminds us that the fish we eat is really a fish :-)
Season the inside of the fish with dekus ethiopian spice mix and bake in the oven. Cut small pieces of igname/manioc or japanese ko-imo and grill in a pan until golden. For the african ratatouille part, refer to the previous post.

Okinawan-style Clams

I haven't made a post in a while... with 紅葉 time going on (colored autumn leaves), the city is crowded and I've been working 7 days a week for a short while, so no time to cook at home. I've been to Okinawa recently, and at the last Ryokan I stayed at, there were two other guests that were there for fishing. The evening, they gave the day's catch to the owner and she cooked it for our dinner! She cooked the fish with okinawan herbs I had never seen before, that tastes similar to dill. See the picture below. I've forgot the name, so if you happen to know what it is, please tell me! I've also bought pineapple wine, I though that's probably the only chance to try this so why not. Not so good it turns out, though. But I thought it might be ok for cooking something like clams. So I used it together with the herbs I got from the Ryokan owner (she insisted that I take some home!)

 I call the dish 'okinawan-style', but it's really my definition of it :-)

Preparation is the same as with my other clams post. The result is not bad at all!

Asian-style Wok

A somewhat classical dish, I kind of forgot about this one, even though it's quite appropriate while I'm here in Japan. Too healthy for my current caloric needs, thus the portion size :-)

Fry thin beef slices in sesame oil, then set aside. Then onions and shiitake, set aside. Then shortly fry carrots, broccoli and snow peas under high heat, set aside. Shortly fry wok noodles, add everything that was set aside, as well as some water, soy sauce and sesame oil. Let cook for just a few minutes.

Clams in Wine Sauce

After I made the scallops I had white wine left. The day before I saw how my chef made clams in white wine  sauce that smelled incredible, so I did the same.

In a saucepan, cook unopened clams in white wine, fresh thyme, sliced garlic and either sliced shalots or a mix of sliced white & red onions. As the clams open, take them out and separate them from the shells. When they're all out, put them back in and cook further for 1-2mn.

Bananes flambées

Quick and not difficult to make, but always impressive!

The fire will lightly caramelize the sugar

Cut bananas in half in the middle and lengthwise. Then fry in butter under high heat, both sides. When they start to turn brown, sprinkle with brown sugar, remove from fire, add half a shot-glass of rum and set on fire!

The Mythical Duo

Wine & computers ? Close, but no. According to the bottle on the picture, Syrah & Grenache grape types. My opinion ? Maybe Cabernet - Syrah or Cabernet - Merlot.

Curry-pasta

Yesterday I couldn't decide between rice-curry or pasta with tomato-sauce, so I made curry-pasta, using autumn-vegetables.

Conclusion ? Good, but classical dishes are classical for a reason...curry is still better with rice!

Hokke

When I made a post about amadai, I mentioned was favorite japanese fish was still Hokke. Here's what it looks like. It's not really available outside Japan as it mostly comes from the sea of Okhotsk.

The rosemary on top I got after my visit to Ibuki hot-spring. Rosemary is quite expansive in Japan but there were huge bushes of it growing right between the hot-spring and the parking lot, so I helped myself :-)

The Canadian Farmer's Rice

Another rice variation, using 3 typical canadian ingredients: pork, onions and green peas (thinking of soupe aux pois ?). I came up with this idea after I discovered that green peas match with rice pretty well.

Looks inviting, doesn't it ?

In the pan: the 3 ingredients above, plus a bit of soy sauce and the cooking juice from the green peas. Here there's a bay leaf too because in came with the pork when I bought it.
With the rice: nothing, just cook as-is and add to the pan, letting cook a bit further while in the pan, mixing well.

Baked Potatoes

As for the main dish, another thing I didn't eat in a while: german-style baked potatoes (Offenkartofeln), at least something that ressembles it.

Bake potatoes in the oven until very soft. Just before the potatoes are done, prepare the filling: in a pan, fry mushrooms (here  shiitake) and square-cut onions, in olive oil. When done, add fresh cream and cook until it thickens. Remove from fire, add chopped chive. Cut a huge dent on top of the potatoes and place the filling inside.

In order not to lose the cooking juice of the scallops, I decided to reuse it to cook udon. I guess you could also cook rice in it for a nice flavor.

Add a bit of soy sauce, too

Coquilles st-jacques au vin blanc

Tonight for starters, I decided to make this one seafood commonly available in Japan and so expansive in Europe: scallops. I think the last time I had this was when I last lived in Japan, so about 2 years ago. Tonight I remembered I much I like these!

Fry one side in olive oil until it turns golden. Then turn over, add white wine and fresh thyme. Cook until the exterior turns completely white.

Mushroom-cream Bread, enhanced

I previously made a post about this great starter. Lately I tried with just eggplant cubes instead of mushrooms and it was great. Now I tried a mix of eggplant & mushrooms (hatake shimeji), and it's the best combination of all three. This time with the sprinckled chive, too!

I don't mean to brag, but this was really good :-)

Green-peas Rice

Another rice variation. This time I thought of using green peas, I wasn't sure how well it would match with the rice, but it turned out to be very flavorful, mostly because of the green peas.

With the rice: grean-peas.
In the pan: green peppers, shiitake mushrooms, soya sauce.
Preparation same as usual.

Ratatouille, the real deal

It's been a while I didn't do a real, classical Ratatouille. This remains one of  my favorite dishes, even though it used to be my worst nightmare as a kid.

Recipe available on demand :-)

Eggplant-Shiitake Rice

Another rice variation.

Start by quickly grilling eggplant cubes in a pan. Then cook rice together with those. Reuse the pan to fry shallots and cut Shiitake mushrooms in a mix of butter & olive oil, with pepper & salt. Finish the frying in a bit of soya sauce. When the rice is done, add to the pan and mix well under low heat.

甘だい

After trying famous japanese beef, I decided to try famous japanese fish. Not fugu, but amadai, supposedly one of the best fish here. My Chef uses it all the time, apparently it's a speciality of the Kyoto prefecture.

Now that was a large piece of fish!

How is it ? Definitely a fine taste, but the texture is a bit weird I find, somehow spongy. In any case, I still prefer the much cheaper hokke.

Mushroom-cream Bread

I thought it was over, but here they are again: hatake-shimeji (or tanba-shimeji), my favorite japanese mushroom. I jumped on the occasion and did my favorite starter (actually tied with tomato-mozzarella). Of course those mushrooms are not always available especially ouside Japan, so use any other that has strong flavor (cèpe/porcini, chanterelle, etc).

The bread:
on rather thin slices of baguette, spread olive oil and very thinly sliced garlic. Grill until the bread just starts to get brown.
The topping:
in a pan fry the mushroom cut small, in a mix of butter & olive oil, with salt & pepper. When done, add fresh cream and let cook for 2mn.

It looks & tastes better with sprinkled chive, but I didn't have any at hand.

Wagyū

I wanted to try this japanese beef for some time. Wikipedia states "Highly prized for their rich flavor, these cattle produce arguably the finest beef in the world." Of course, that ain't come cheap. I recently found a shop that sells it at a "reasonable" 5000¥ / Kg (50€ / 65$), so I bought 100g. Now this is some of the best beef I've had. Maybe only matched by black-forest beef filets straight from the farm, back in rural Germany. And even then.
So my starter was 黒毛和牛 with fried eggplants from Kyoto. The finer the ingredients, the simpler the presentation. The beef with just salt & pepper, the eggplants in olive oil & salt.

Boy, this was good... :-)

I'm always puzzled by food prices in Japan. Most of the time, the bill is way more than you thought. But sometimes it's way less than you'd expect... not sure why. This time, the great started above, together with the dish below, only cost 1000¥ worth of ingredients. Go figure.

Udon with season-vegetables

In the same pan where you grilled the beef, add with time interval eggplant slices in olive oil, finely-chopped garlic, sliced green & red tōgarashī (japanese long peppers), enoki mushrooms. Finish frying in a bit of soya sauce, then add water and let cook for a few minutes. Then add udon noodles and let cook for 3mn, mixing well.

Shimeji-Tagliatelle

Yesterday I was going home via the Shijo-bridge, and that same old lady that sells vegetables from the Kamigamo shrine was just arriving. I helped her push her vegetable carriage the last meters. When I asked how she was getting here from the shrine, she said by foot! That 70+ years old lady is pushing that huge carriage 7 Km through the city (one-way) to come sell these vegetables downtown! When I think that most people use escalators & elevators whenever they can...  She made me a deal on a huge bag of shimeji mushrooms, so the same evening I made a french-style mushroom cream soup. Then I went back there and offered some of it to her. Now japanese people often hide their true feelings, but I think she really appreciated. She also gave me some Tōgarashī to thank me (japanese long green peppers).
So, today, with the remaining mushrooms and the Tōgarashī, I made shimeji-tagliatelle, with home-made tomato sauce. This turned out to be really good!

Ahh... for once, taste turned out even better than I expected (that's not often the case!)

Start by making the tomato sauce. In a saucepan over low heat, cook tomatoes with seeds removed, garlic, and a bit of herbes de provence. Later add a bit of olive oil and salt. Cook until tomatoes are melted. In a pan, fry the mushrooms and green peppers in a mix of butter and olive oil, with salt & pepper. End by adding some fond de veau, cook a 2mn. Then add the tomato sauce and cook for 5-10mn. Add tagliatelle cooked beforehand, and simmer for a few minutes, mixing well. At the end, add a bit more olive oil (off the heat).

Carrots Rice

Another rice variation. This one is inspired from one of the dishes I saw at Takashimaya, a department store whose basement is food galore.

Cook rice together with carrot cut in small cubes, and a bit of soya sauce. In a pan, fry cut red onions and flavorfull mushrooms (here eringi) in sesame oil. Finish by adding some soya sauce. Frying in soya sauce will add intense flavor. When the rice is done, add to the pan and mix well.

Shiitake Heads With Tapenade

Every now and then the Omiya-Randen train terminus near my place hosts a small vegetable market in a train waggon! Local farmers from the surroundings come sell their vegetables there. The people are always very nice. Today I bought Eda-mame and sweet potatoes, and was offered a mini-lunch consisting of a cup of Miso soup and a rice ball, with a topping I've never tasted before. It turned out to be marinated japanese mountain pepper (sanshō). Very strong, very tasty. I bought some and thought of this new starter dish.

Fry shiitake heads in a mix of butter & olive oil, both sides. Then top with sanshō-tapenade:
smash together black olives, sanshō, very finely chopped garlic, and olive oil.
It would probably look better with chopped herbs on top, like parsley. Might taste even better too.
Or what about thyme or rosemary ?! I've got to try that...

Hokkaido Beef with Local Vegetables

Try to buy local when you choose your ingredients, even if it means paying a bit more. How did we end up in a world where buying local lamb costs more than lamb imported from New-zealand, half-way around the world..?!
This dish is -almost- as local as it can be (for me!) Beef from the country, long beans and eggplants from Kyoto. I could buy beef from Kameoka, just outside of Kyoto, but at 5 times the price, principles are confronted with the reality of the wallet...

The beans, though, I got from this nice old lady that sells a few vegetables on the Shijo-bridge. They are (organically!) grown at the Kamigamo temple, in the northern part of Kyoto.

Kamigamo-jinja

Grill slices of eggplant in olive oil, season with herbes de provence. For the rest, the pictures says it all, except the name of the wine: 'Sirocco' from Tunisia. And the laptop ? IBM Thinkpad! :-)
Don't forget to deglaze the pan the maximize the use of the beef flavor! Use the resulting sauce to pour over the vegetables.

Beef Rice

Another rice variation.

Shortly grill cubes of eggplants in a pan, then cook together with rice. In the same pan, grill thin slices of beef, then set aside. Still in the same pan, grill pieces of green pepper. At the end, add everything together in the pan and mix well, under low fire, so that flavors mix. Serve with sprinkled pepper.

Mushroom-cream Pasta

A wide variety of mushrooms is available in Japan at reasonable price, so I use them a lot.

While cooking pasta, fry stripes of pork in a pan. Remove from pan and fry mushrooms of your choice in a mix of butter and olive oil. Then add the pork again, along with fresh cream, and cook a some minutes. Add the pasta to the pan and cook 2mn more, mixing well. Serve with chopped chive if available. Ah, and a dish like dish demands to be served with wine :-)

Salade Niçoise, express-edition

This is another very well-established dish of mine. Along the same lines as the Avocado Salad previously posted, this modified Salade-Nicoise recipe was designed to be quick to make, no more than 15mn. Actually, it only takes as long as it takes to cook the pasta. Most notably, the anchovies have been removed and the potatoes replaced with pasta.
Also very healthy, I like to alternate lunches with one or the other of these two salads.

 

For 1 person (big portion, as shown in the picture above):
start by cooking 1½ eggs (= 1 or 2, your choice... actually it's 3 eggs for two), until the yolks are still a bit liquid, but just about to turn hard. At the same time, cook green beans and Barilla Girandole pasta in the same pot, so that the flavor of the beans partially enters the pasta. In a bowl, mix 1 medium-tomato cut in halved-quarters, sliced black olives, half a small red onion, cut very thinly, the (quartered) eggs, the pasta and the green beans. 
The sauce is the same as for the Avocado Salad (french-style vinaigrette).

Autumn Salmon with Mushroom Sauce

Autumn being just around the corner, 'Autumn Salmon' from Hokkaido starts to be available. A nice healthy lunch, pretty affordable too (at least in Japan.... with everything being over-expansive, fish is comparably very cheap). At about 400¥ for the whole dish, it's the same price as this one zucchini I used for my last Ratatouille!

Boil small potatoes (with the skin for preserved nutriments), and green beans. In a pan, grill the salmon skin-side first, with salt & pepper on top. When turning over, the salt & pepper will be exposed directly to the pan, creating a slight 'crust' that is pretty good. Once the salmon is done, remove from pan and fry finely-chopped mushrooms (maitake in the picture). Deglaze with a bit of red wine vinegar, then add some fresh cream, water and old-style Dijon mustard. Cook for a few minutes until a smooth consistency. Serve the sauce over the potatoes, cut in half. Last, the way ketchup matches french fries, Dijon mustard matches green beans!

Avocado Salad

This is a very well-established dish of mine. It has been refined over many years, with the initial goal of having a good & quick-to-prepare meal for lunches at work. The idea first came more than 10 years ago, while I was riding the TGV from Marseille to CDG airport, the couple in front of me had a lunchbox with a tomato-corn-tuna salad. I later reused this idea, and enhanced it together my cooking partner at work, with many tries over more than 5 years, into its current form, where the various flavors mix almost perfectly. Tuna was eventually dropped because of environemental concerns of my cooking partner. By now, I do believe it can't be made any better :-)
It also turns out to be a very healthy dish, with antioxidants & vitamin C from the tomatoes, fibers & proteins from the kidney beans, good fats (unsaturated) & vitamin E from the avocado, vitamin B from the corn, carbohydrates from the pasta and calcium from the cheese.

I usually only give broad instructions for the dishes of this blog, because the purpose is more to give ideas than actual recipies. But for this particular dish, the proportion of ingredients is quite important to obtain the right flavor balance, for I'll give a detailed description.
Ingredients for 1 person (big portion, the same as shown on the picture):
- 1 medium tomato, cut into half-quarters
- half an avocado
- half a can of corn (or one mini-can)
- half a can of kidney beans (or one mini-can)
- 10-15 cm² of some kind of hard cheese, cut in small cubes (we often used Comté, but it might be expansive in some countries)
- 2/3 cup of Barilla Girandole pasta, or anything similar than has this smooth inner-curved twisted spiral (avoid similar-looking fusilli, they are too rough in the mouth)
The sauce: french-style vinaigrette:
- two tbsp of olive oil
- one tbsp of red wine vinegar
- half a tsp of Dijon mustard (regular or old-style)
- salt & pepper to taste
-> add in a cup in that order and mix until a smooth consistancy is obtained
True to its initial goal, this dish can be made in 15mn!

Weedrats, rotisserie-style

Just joking :-) This comes from Shrek.

Broccoli-Tofu

This is an old recipe that my mother used to do a lot. With good tofu abundant & cheap in Japan, I revived this receipe.

Mixing with rice is optional, you can also serve as-is.

In a pan, fry white onions (I used red ones because I'm out of whites), broccoli and tofu squares in sesame oil. Start with onions, shorty followed by broccoli, shorty followed by tofu. Use high heat and overall not so long frying time, so that broccoli stays a bit crunchy. Add soya sauce for the last 1mn of frying time. Sparkle with grated ginger at the end. Optionally, mix everything with rice.

African Ratatouille with Okra

I'm not working this week so lots of updates!
In search for a new african dish to add to my repertoire, I recently came up with this african-style ratatouille. The serving (together with tagliatelle) has nothing african however!

The ratatouille part is not predominant in the picture because I used more pasta than usual.
My body weight is getting critically low and I have to do something :)

Cook 4-5 okras in 1cm water for 1-2mn. Keep cooking water and set okras aside. Cook tagliatelle and at the same time, shortly fry red onion slices over high heat in a pan with olive oil. Add sliced tomatoes, the okras and the okra cooking water. Use the variety of tomato that is a bit faded (not as bright red) and a bit less sweet - I don't know the variety name. Cook under medium-low heat until the tomatoes melt. Half-way through, add a tiny spoon of north-african "Berbere" spice mix. Near the end, add a small handful of peanuts that you first ground with a fork. 1mn before the pasta is done, drain and add to the pan, cooking the last minute in the ratatouille.

Eggplant Rice

Another rice-variation.

Cook rice together with half an eggplant, cut in cubes. At the same time, grill a piece of white-meat fish of your choice (here perch) in a pan. When done take out the fish, break down with a fork and set aside. Grill square-cut green pepper and the other half of the eggplant (still cut in cubes), in the same pan. When the rice is done, drain water and add to the pan, along with the fish. Mix everything well. 

Ratatouille-Lasagna

Among summer dishes, ratatouille is a top contender. Accompanied by Côtes du Rhône red wine, it almost makes you feel like you're in south France on the Mediterranean. A classical dish, I usually serve it together with tagliatelle. But this time I'm trying something new: as lasagna. I was wondering if I should mix it with béchamel sauce like I usually do when I make lasaga, but coming back from a hike hungry, I decided to skip it. How is it ? Very good. But compared to the original ? Maybe tagliatelle fits better.

With zucchinis currently going for 400¥ apiece in Japan (4$), you've got to really want it.

First make the ratatouille. Grill finely chopped onion squares in olive oil. Quickly add 1 zucchini, cut in quarter-crescent slices, 1cm thick. Cook for 5mn. Add one eggplant, cut the same way but 2cm thick, as well as a bit more olive oil. Cook for 5-10mn. Add a bunch of halved cherry-tomatoes, 1-2 cups of water, herbes de provence, mild paprika powder, salt & pepper. Cook until the tomatoes are completely dissolved.
To make it into a lasagna, just stack up layers and sprinkle the top with grated cheese.

Shiitake-Udon

Okay, third dish of the day. While I'm in Japan I have to enjoy Udon. These thick soft rice nuddles are pretty good and hard to find outside Japan.

Fry cut shiitake mushrooms in olive oil, until well-colored. Add small slices of beef and grill until the surface turns brown. Add water, salt & pepper, a bit of soya sauce, and simmer for 1/2h or so. Add udon noodles, let cook for just a few minutes. Sprinkle with chive when serving.

Aubergines gratinées aux herbes de provence

Eggplants, together with lamb and olive oil, are some of my favorite ingredients. With a huge leftover bag of grated cheese, I have to come up with grated dishes! Let's have a break from japanese food and go back to sun-inspired south-France dishes, I thought. Now this turned out to be really good! If you like eggplant, try this.

Fry 1cm-thick eggplant slices in a pan with olive oil. Stop when they get soft and golden. At the same time, cook cut tomatoes in a saucepan, together with a bit of olive oil, sal & pepper and herbes de provence, over low heat, until juice from the tomatoes has mostly evaporated. Spread tomatoes over the eggplant slices and cover with grated cheese. Bake until the cheese turns golden brown.

Salmon Rice

Another rice-variation.

Cook rice together with tomatoes. This colors the rice and adds a nice flavor to it. At the same time, grill a piece of salmon in a pan, with pepper. When done take out the salmon, break down with a fork and set aside. Grill square-cut green pepper in the same pan, re-using the salmon fat as frying oil. When the rice is done, drain water and add to the pan, along with the salmon. Mix everything well.

Colorful Pasta

With the thermometer in the kitchen showing 31°C, summer is not over in September in Kyoto. For some reason people associate summer with colorful dishes. Here's one that fits the picture.

 

Cook pasta together with thinly slicedkabocha (japanese pumpkin). At the same time, grill red onions and square-cut tōgarashī (japanese long green peppers) in olive oil. When done add fond de veau, glace de viande, or something similar and let cook for a bit. When Pasta is just about done, drain water and finish cooking in the pan. Remove from fire and add fresh cut mini-tomatoes. Serve with chopped chive on top.

Good-old Potato Salad

I tend to forget this simple yet good recipe exists. A perfect summer lunch, especially in Kyoto's daily 30+°C.

This one is with red onions, chive, red tōgarash (japanese long green peppers turned red) and green beans.

Update

How could I forget how well pickles match potatoes..?!
Another variation: red peppers, pickles, chive, red onions, black olives, olive oil.

Maitake Rice

Rice is predominantly available in Japan, and that's where I realized it offers countless possibilities, based on this simple approach: cook rice in water together with something, fry in the pan something else, and combine both at the end. These two 'something' translate into a lot of possible combinations! This time I used flavorful maitake mushrooms. I was surprised myself how much flavor they contributed to the whole dish.
Many more variations to come.

Cook rice in water together with small pieces of red tōgarashī (japanese long red peppers), for flavor & color. At the same time, pan-fry the cut maitake mushrooms in a mix of butter and olive oil, with salt and pepper. When done add a bit of water and let cook for some minutes. When the rice is cooked, drain water, put in the pan and mix well, so that flavors mix. Serve with a simple salad to balance the lack of green.

Enoki morning bread

Today I realized I ran out of both jam and peanut butter, so left with nothing to put on my morning bread. With leftovers of enoki mushrooms and grated cheese, it came to the idea of a grated enoki bread, somehow inspired by american grill-cheese and french croque-monsieur. Very tasty!

Grill mushrooms in a mix of butter and olive oil, with salt. On partly-toasted slice-bread, spread the mushrooms and cover with grated cheese. Put in the oven at high temprature, until the cheese turns golden brown.

Tōgarashī Pasta

Coming back from a diffcult mountain path cleaning operation, I was starving and needed something quick. On the way there, I happened to buy a bunch of Tōgarashī (japanese long green peppers) from a nice old lady, in a small street shop the size of a bathroom. The lady even offered me tea on the way back! Anyway, back home, I had some mini-Shiitake remaining from a previous dish. The strong flavor of green peppers matches perfectly the strong flavor of mushrooms, so I decided to make Tōgarashī Pasta. At 15mn start-to-finish preperation time, that's exactly what I needed.

Start by cooking the pasta. Everything else is done while the pasta is cooking, and the whole preparation time is pretty much equal to the cooking time of the pasta. In a pan, grill the cut shiitake & tōgarashī in a mix of butter and olive oil. Add salt & pepper. When done, add fond de veau or fond de boeuf, along with just a bit of soya sauce. Let it cook for a few minutes, not too strong. Just a bit before the pasta is cooked, drain the water and finish cooking in the pan, so that the pasta absorbs all the juice, transferring its flavor to the pasta.