After a recent trip to Japan I came back with tons of recipes, ideas, inspirations, and a fascination for this wonderful country. Needless to say that for someone like me who spends most of her time cooking, and who loves to cook, Japan is the place to go. Everything is perfection, to the quality of the products, to the gorgeous presentations, to the meticulous creations, Japanese strive for perfection and they do it better than any other country. Everything is an art, and people take pride in whatever they do. Many countries should take example on Japan.

Since I took pictures and notes on everything I ate, in order not to forget it, I have the goal to reproduce most of the delightful dishes I ate to the best of my abilities. So within the next month or two, the dishes will be Japan-inspired.

The amazing things about Japanese cuisine is that it seems simple, with simple ingredients, but it’s not that simple. It all depends of the cut of the ingredients (the types of knifes they have is incredible, almost one knife for one ingredient, definitely one knife for one particular type of fish). The herbs are cut very finely which gives a subtle and distinct flavor to the dish.

I ate this daikon dish in a small Izakaya (pub serving small dishes and sake, wine, beer and other types of alcohol) in Kyoto. I had no idea what to expect, but the owner told me that this would be good for me, so I let her decide.  Basically daikon is a big radish, some are smaller, some are bigger. Western supermarkets in San Francisco like Whole Foods carry them, but for this steak, you need a large one (about 10 cm diameter), available in Japan town at Nijiya supermarket.

The original dish in Kyoto was served without any herbs. I took the liberty to add herbs at the end. Adding them or not adding them would be your choice. I got this recipe from my Japanese neighbor, Rui. it tasted identical to the one I ate in Kyoto.

This dish is very simple to make yet delicious.

Ingredients for 4

• 1 large daikon, peeled and cut in 2 cm slices
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs butter
• 2 tbs soy sauce (I used the reduced salt one)
• salt
• 2 scallions, cut very finely
• 2 tbs mitsuba, cut very finely (Japanese parsley)

Preparation

In a large pot of salted water, cook daikon  for about 30 minutes, until soft (a knife should be able to go through the slice) but still firm. Drain. In a pan, heat olive oil, and brown daikon on both sides at high temperature (about 3-4 minutes). Add a little salt.

Add butter and soy sauce, stir well coating the daikon and serve. Sprinkle with herbs.

I get more and more requests for gluten free and vegan dishes, and yes sometimes I like to feature recipes like this one that are unusual still with a little Mediterranean flair. This taboule salad is both gluten free and vegan, light and flavorful. I have to admit that I have not extensively used millet, but will do so form now on, since it’s a versatile and nutritious little grain. There are a few recipes with millet on my blog, and these ones are my all times favorite, goat cheese, mushrooms and millet galettes on leek effilochéée and Quinoa galettes, with bell peppers, mushrooms and mint

Of course millet is known to be a bird’s favorite, so some people feel weird to eat something birds do, but it’s nonetheless delicious on our human table as well, mixed with vegetables, in galettes or in soups. I like its firm texture and unusual flavor. You can substitute millet with quinoa, Israeli couscous, couscous, or any other grain you like in this recipe, if millet is not among your favorite, but i also want to make people more familiar with this grain that has a lot of nutritional benefits.

I usually steam millet in my rice cooker like I would steam rice, or you can boil it as well.

Ingredients for 4 people

• 280 g millet
• 3 zucchini, sliced crosswise
• 1 cup cooked chick peas
• 1 tbs mint, chopped
• 1 tbs cilantro chopped

For the dressing

• 3 tbs fruity olive oil
• juice of 1 Meyer lemon
• 1/2 tsp hot curry powder
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Steam millet in rice cooker or boil in salted water until millet is cooked, about 30 minutes. Grill zucchini slices in a skillet, then cut in half and set aside. When millet is cooked, place in a mixing container and let cool until it gets lukewarm. Mix chickpeas and zucchini with millet. In a small bowl, mix dressing ingredients, pour on millet and toss well. Add chopped mint and cilantro, mix well, adjust salt if needed, add fresh cracked pepper and serve as a side dish or a salad as an appetizer.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2012/12/like-birdie-spicy-millet-taboule-with-chick-peas-and-grilled-zucchini/feed/ 0 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/06/why-not-spaghetti-squash-with-artichoke-pesto/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-not-spaghetti-squash-with-artichoke-pesto http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/06/why-not-spaghetti-squash-with-artichoke-pesto/#comments Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:12:06 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=13170 Perchè no? – Zucca spaghetti con pesto ai carciofini

Crushing these gorgeous baby artichokes into a pesto broke my heart. I have always wanted to make artichoke pesto but never really managed to turn the artichokes into a paste. They’re so cute and delicious as hearts that really putting them through a mixer, is something I hate to do. Today, I got the courage to do it. Here, we got something different and quite delicious. Honestly, I am not sure I will have the courage to to this again. I simply love to bite into an artichoke heart, I love the crunchy bite, it’s that simple. You could use this pesto on pasta of course, or as a sauce for grilled meats…or even to spread it on some country bread.

When you’re eating spaghetti squash prepared this way, you almost forgot, it’s not pasta. I undercooked the squash to get a crunchy bite, to get the “al dente” feeling. I loved this pesto. Now for the vegan crowd, you can omit the parmesan and add more walnuts. I use very little parmesan to enhance this pesto a tiny bit. You don’t want to add too much cheese either and overpower the natural delicious flavor of the artichokes.

This pesto tends to be lighter than regular basil/pine nuts pesto, its texture is more dense too, so I added a few tablespoons of water to make it creamier.

I am flying tomorrow for France, to go see my father who had a stroke last December, so I will try to post a few local recipes, in the meantime, have a nice and colorful June.

Ingredients for 2 as a main course

• 1 large spaghetti squash
• 1 lb artichokes, trimmed and cleaned
• 1/2 cup parsley
• 1/2 cup basil
• 2 tbs raw unsalted walnuts
• 1 garlic clove, crushed + 1 chopped
• 2 tbs parmesan (optional)
• 3 tbs olive oil
• water
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut the squash lengthwise, wrap in parchment paper and cook in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Remove seeds first, then the spaghetti pulp. Set aside and keep warm. Save eight artichokes quarters for decoration

Heat up a pan, add the crushed garlic, stir and add baby artichokes cut in quarters. Adjust with salt and pepper, add 2 tbs white wine, and cover, decrease heat and let cook until tender. Let it cool.

For the pesto, mix  artichokes with all other ingredients a mixer. Adjust with water if the pesto is too thick.

Add pesto to the spaghetti squash and mix well using your hands, to coat the squash with the pesto. Serve with an extra tablespoon of pesto on top and four artichokes quarters on each plate.

Originally I wanted to keep this vegan, then I could not resist to use that beautiful Greek yogurt I had in the refrigerator. Kale is quite THE popular vegetable these days, at least in California, and everyone talks about its health benefits, and how everyone should use it in its diet. It’s even used in juices along with other fruits and vegetables when doing a detox, I tried it in a “Green juice” and I have to admit that I tasted it and really liked it. It seems like juicing is quite in fashion too in California but its real health benefits have been questioned among experts.

I often ate kale growing up, it was regularly found on our table, since my grandfather grew it in the garden. I consider myself lucky enough that my parents always made me eat what they were eating, and there was no special “meal” for the kids. People might criticize this upbringing, and think it’s a little strict, but in retrospective, I think it helped me to develop a palate and tastes opened to so many different flavors and textures.

Kale and chick peas are a wonderful combination, their respective textures complement each other quite well. Tempeh is also a great alternative to chick peas in this dish.

Tzatziki is always a delicious appetizer dish (or meze), I like to serve it as a side dish sometimes like here, it’s always refreshing. Tzatziki is mainly a Greek specialty but often found in Turkey too. It’s made with goat milk yogurt, thinly sliced cucumbers, olive oil, mint, garlic. I would think that everyone has its own specific recipe. I do not consider myself to be an expert in Greek cuisine, and only been to Greece once, but this version of tzatziki is more than delicious. I will have to go and check at my Greek grocer if he has a family recipe to share with me…but I guess if it’s a family recipe, he won’t.

Ingredients for 2 as a side dish

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 cup cooked chick peas
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 1 tsp ginger, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 red chili, seeded and sliced
• 1 tbs olive oil
  

For the tzatziki

• 1 cup Greek sheep yogurt
• 2 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1tbs mint
  
• olive oil
• salt

Preparation

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, cook kale for 2 minutes, drain and squeeze excess water.

Warm olive oil in a pan, add onions, stir for a few minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients except for the kale and chick peas. Stir well. Add vegetables and cook until fragrant.

Serve in small plates with tzatziki on the side.

For the tzatziki

Squeeze extra water using your hands from the cucumber. Add to the yogurt, then add remaining ingredients and let it rest for about 15-30 minutes.

Tian is a traditional dish from Provence, and should be made in a clay dish…since I just broke mine, I had to use a Pyrex one. The vegetables are sliced thinly, placed upright and cooked in the oven for a long time. You can add goat cheese as well, but I wanted to keep it vegan and light, so to get additional Mediterranean flavors, I served it with a tapenade tartine. This is a very simple dish to make yet delicious due to the slow cooking of the vegetables and all the herbs that have infused in it.

Of course, there are various recipes for tian, some people don’t add onions, but fennel, or potatoes, but tomatoes, zucchini and eggplants should always be around. You can play around with herbs, cheese, etc…but I wanted to keep it simple. Sometimes I like simple flavors and don’t want to add too many intricate and complex flavors into a dish. The slow cooking turned the vegetable almost “confits” in the herbs and own juices.

Usually tians are served with grilled meats or fishes, they add wonderful aromas to a dish. I have to admit that I ate the whole tian by myself and was still hungry. Usually this would be sufficient for four, if you serve it with a fish or meat, or also rice in case you want to keep it vegetarian. It really depends on how much vegetables your guests can eat. Quand on aime, on ne compte pas, that’s what the French say, when you love, you don’t count…which is true for many things. The tapenade tartine is a nice element if you want to keep your meal vegan, that olive spread is simply divine with this tian.

Ingredients for 3-4

• 3 large tomatoes, sliced crosswise
• 3 zucchini, sliced crosswise
• 2 medium eggplants, sliced crosswise
• 1 onion,
• lavender salt
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
• 1 tsp basil, chopped finely
• 2 tbs olive oil
• pepper

For the tapenade, see recipe here

Preparation

Spread some olive oil, all over the dish, preferably a clay dish.

Place all vegetables upright in the dish, alternating between a slice of tomato, two slices of zucchini (since the zucchini tend to be smaller), one slice of eggplant, and onion. The vegetables need to be tightly arranged so they stand still.

Add herbs and garlic, sprinkle with lavender salt and pepper. Add olive oil all over the vegetables.

Cover with aluminium foil and cook in a pre heated oven at 365-370 for about 40-45 minutes. Remove the foil and let the vegetables get golden brown.

I forgot how DMV can be a nightmare, waiting for your number 389 when the current number is 210 can be the story of an afternoon. So people bring balls to play with, and all kinds of entertainment to spend three to four hours.  I somehow like to observe people, it’s certainly more interesting to observe people sur la terrasse d’un café, in a cafe terrace with a coffee in your hands, so when your hands are holding nothing more than a number, patience becomes a virtue and people looking becomes one too.

I had prepared this gratin in advance so it just needed to be gratiné when I got home and that’s the beauty of gratins, you can prepare them in advance and throw them in the oven when ready to be served.

I have used goat milk in soufflés and in the béchamel when preparing gratins that turned out lighter with a more delicate touch than with cow milk, and partly due to the fact that goat milk is lighter to digest than regular milk. You can slightly taste to goat milk which is not as strong as in cheeses. Basically you can replace goat milk in many dishes using cow milk. Gratins are very common in France and can be made with any vegetable.

Gratin can be considered a plat unique (a one meal dish), and universally appreciated, it’s certainly a meal in itself with a side salad. If you feel like something hot with a golden crust, stop thinking, this is it. Some people are fighting to eat the crispy crust while others are fighting to get to the soft melting middle. What type of gratin eater are you? I am definitely a crust lover, but would not mistreat the middle either. No matter how you eat it, gratins always evoke a comforting and warm cuisine that everyone loves.

I would use premium gruyère cheese that melts well and leaves a nice golden crust the quality of the cheese is important and will make a great difference in the texture of your gratin. Also, you could add a little goat cheese as well instead of adding gruyère in the mixture but gruyère on top is a must if you want a golden and melting crust.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 1 medium cauliflower, broken into florets
• 1 leek, cut in 1 inch chunks
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3 tbs butter
• 1.5 tbs flour
• 1.5 cup goat milk
• 5 tbs imported Gruyère cheese
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and brown them. Add leeks, adjust with salt and pepper and cover with lid until leeks are tender.

Cook cauliflower in salted boiling water until cooked but still firm. Drain and set aside.

Start preparing the béchamel by melting butter, then adding flour. Stir well. Add milk, salt and pepper and reduce temperature to medium heat. Keep stirring until the mixture starts thickening. Cook for a few minutes until it has reached a nice consistency, but should not be too thick.

Using individual ramequins or one larger dish, add one layer of leeks, then add one layer of cauliflower and end with another layer of leeks. Sprinkle with 1 tbs gruyère cheese (or goat cheese for each ramequin) and pour béchamel. Try to coat your vegetables with cheese and bechamel by mixing the vegetables carefully. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, grind fresh pepper and cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 30 minutes or until the gratin has reached a golden brown color.

Aren’t those irresistible? Turnips tend to be forgotten as a vegetable, even though often used in soups. In France we eat turnips in so many ways, and we even use their leaves in soups. I love turnips, they have a peppery taste and are equally delicious, roasted with lavender salt, braised, or even steamed. They always make great presentations and combine tons of wonderful flavors. Stuffed turnips like any other root vegetable are delicious, I rarely make them, once in a while I get that particular urge, but it’s rare.

Navet in French means of course turnip, but also can be used in a more familiar language to refer to a bad movie, quel navet! meaning, what a lousy movie!

One block down the street, we have a “fruit and vegetable barn” a great little grocery store filled with fresh fruits and vegetables of all kinds, owned by a very funny Greek guy, who sometimes works at the cash register making jokes with its clients. This morning he started singing La Marseillaise (the French anthem) as soon as he saw me, then gave me a bunch of gossips about the French president Sarkozy. Since I am not following the teledrama, I had no idea of what was going on, but he seemed to be well au courant! I told him I came to get some turnips and one was going to be for him because I was very impressed by his “knowledge”…no matter what, it is still knowledge!

Ingredients for 6 turnips

• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 6 medium sized turnips, peeled
• 6-7 medium size mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 cup cooked spinach, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 tbs Roquefort cheese or Stilton, crumbled
• 2 tbs walnuts, finely chopped
• butter
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

After peeling the turnips cut the top and start removing the inside with a small scoop or melon baller. Chop finely and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a pan, brown the onions, then add mushrooms and chopped turnips. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, then add spinach. Add garlic, stir well and cook for a few minutes. Adjust with salt and pepper

In the meantime, cook turnips for about 5-10 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain and remove excess water.

In a mixing bowl, combine mushroom mixture with walnuts, and Roquefort.

Fill in the turnips with mixture. Cook in a 370F pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes add a small piece of butter on top of each turnip and let it melt and brown for another 10 minutes.

Serve hot with a salad, as a side dish, or any way you want to enjoy them!

It’s time for some rice…rice and potatoes are two ingredients I rarely use, French people eat a LOT of potatoes, at my parents my mom rarely made them, Italians are more pasta eaters than potato eaters. A while ago, I started buying all the different kinds of rices I ran into, from black rice, to bamboo rice, any shape and color rice I saw. It seems like the excitement faded away, but I don’t want to leave rice aside, because I love it. It’s nutritious, healthy and can make wonderful side dishes.

The world of food has so many items to explore than sometimes, you get caught trying out new ingredients, and leaving aside the ones you know too well.

This rice has a rich and deep yellow color you get with combining saffron and paprika or pimenton as they say in Spain but I found Spanish pimenton to have a more smokey flavor.

Basically the rice is steamed in a vegetable broth with saffron and paprika, so it comes out almost orange. Such a vibrant color to have in ones plate.

Plain white rice is great with spicy dishes, it enables to decrease the powerful and strong flavors of the spices and balances everything perfectly. Sometimes I enjoy some more intricate rice dishes like this one, you can just eat it as a main dish and as is, because it’s a whole meal in itself and full of fragrant flavors. I certainly don’t want to call this vegetarian paella, which would be so wrong, but it has some similarities in some of the spices and cooking method, even though I did not use a paella tray, nor used Spanish rice.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 5.29 0z (or 150 g) brown rice
• one dose saffron
• 1/4 tsp Spanish pimenton
• vegetable broth (rice x 2)
• 1 shallot
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbs mixed oregano, very finely chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut in very small cubes (1/4 inch)
• 1 cup fresh peas (or frozen)
• 1/2 bunch asparagus, cut in small chunks (1/2 inch)
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a rice cooker or regular pot, mix broth, rice, saffron, pimenton and salt. Let it sit for a few minutes until the saffron has dissolved.  For broth quantities, I use about twice the amount of rice, in this case, since it’s brown rice, which takes harder to cook, I use about 3 times its quantity. If using rice cooker, broth needs to be at 2 cm above the level of the rice.

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and let them soften. Add all the mixed vegetables and stir well. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked but still firm, add garlic and oregano and cook for a few additional minutes to get the flavors out.

Mix in the rice, stir well until all the vegetables are well incorporated into the rice.

There is the traditional gratin Dauphinois (from the Dauphiné region) where the potatoes are cooked in milk, then placed in the oven with butter (NO cheese) the real gratin Dauphinois has no cheese! Even though most people add cheese, the purists will scream and pull their hair when hearing a gratin Dauphinois recipe with cheese, then you have to remove the “dauphinois” in front of the “gratin” to be accurate. I tend to be lenient as far as cuisine is concerned but I really don’t like to give a inaccurate name to a recipe. It’s like people calling me Cynthia instead of Silvia (which they often do).

Then you have less traditional gratins like this one, very delicious but with Roquefort cheese and other additions of vegetables such as mushrooms, etc… This is a one meal dish and perfect with a green salad but I would not call it a light dish due to the potato-cheese content. It should probably be listed on the category “comfort food” to use the American terminology, even though I don’t like the idea that food can be comforting, I would prefer to use the word “simple” instead. I would call a friend “comforting” but not food. Eating too much heavy food, does not leave me comforted, rather the opposite.

You need to slice the potatoes very thin with a mandoline otherwise it takes a little too long to cook them especially if you are using a large dish instead of small individual ramequins. You could also avoid the pre-cooking process of the potatoes, then the cooking time needs to be increased at low temperature. When pre-cooking the potatoes in milk, make sure not to overcook them, and you need a kind that will remain firm, otherwise the potatoes will break and become mushy.

Ingredients for 4

• 2 large potatoes OR 14.10 oz (400 g) of potatoes, sliced thin
• 2 zucchini, sliced thin
• 4 tbs Roquefort cheese, crumbled
• 2 tbs crème fraîche
• 2 tbs Greek yogurt
• about 2 cups milk
• thyme
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Add potatoes in a pot and pour enough milk to cover the potatoes, let cook for about 5 minutes but still need to be firm. Add zucchini and cook for another 3 minutes. Remove from stove and drain. Place potatoes/zucchini in a deep dish and add salt and pepper.

In a bowl combine Roquefort cheese, yogurt and cream, thyme. Adjust with salt and pepper. Roquefort is somehow salty, taste the mixture before add extra salt.

In ramequins place some potatoes/zucchini, then add 1 tbs of Roquefort/cream mixture, proceed with another layer of potatoes and top with Roquefort mixture.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and potatoes cooked all the way through.

I discovered this type of couscous in the US. I had never seen it before, so I started experimenting with it when I had some Israeli clients. I was so happy I found something “Israeli” to cook for them, but when they told me it was not Israeli, I was somehow confused and disappointed. I had no idea about what Israeli cuisine tasted like, I thought due to their geographical location it would have some Middle Eastern flair. In Paris, in the Marais quarter, the historic Jewish area has one of the most popular Felafel joint, called “L’As du Felafel”, so I my mind Felafel and spicy food was common in Israel and I figured that something called “Israeli” should at least be coming from Israel. Apparently not. It’s like the French manicure of French cleaner, not sure why they call it French but we are no specialists in nails nor cleaning!

So Israeli or not Israeli, I like this couscous variety, it’s fun to prepare and great to eat. Couscous is consumed in all Middle East, so I guess it must be coming from that side of the continent. In France it’s called Matfoul which I think is its original Arabic name. I am not Jewish and obviously not kosher but maybe in my previous life I was. I started cooking by not mixing dairy and meat and I have to say that I like it.

This is a great side dish that can be an alternative to rice, or some other carbohydrate dishes. I like to spice it up a little with curry and spices and add vegetables to it, to make it a little more exciting. I have a few cookbooks about Jewish cuisine and I like the simplicity of the recipes and influences coming from so many different countries.

I certainly know that this blog lacks meat recipes but I think the most important thing is to enjoy and take pleasure in whatever you do, cook or eat, no matter what it is. Otherwise there is no point in posting something just for the sake of posting it. I usually serve this couscous with sumac chicken tenders, that has been one of my most requested dish in the “Middle Eastern” category.

Ingredients for 3-4 as a side dish

• 4.2 oz (or 120 g) Israeli couscous
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 small eggplant, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 3 tbs cherry tomatoes, cut in quarters
• 1 shallot, diced
• 1/2 cup cooked chick peas
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
• 1 tbs mint, chopped

Preparation

First start cooking couscous. Heat olive oil in a pot, add couscous and let it brown and get coated by olive oil like you would proceed for a risotto. Add broth and cook until couscous is tender but not too soft. Drain and set aside.

In a pan, brown shallots, then add the rest of the vegetables except for the chick peas. Add salt and pepper and let it cook until vegetables tender. Add chick peas. Add curry powder. Stir well and cook for about 5 minutes, then add tomatoes. Add couscous and mix well all ingredients together. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add mint and cilantro and serve hot.