Zu zu zu lemon tartelette : yuzu, kuzu, anzu

A delicious fresh dessert for all the lovers of sour sweetness.

Why zu zu zu ?

Zu or su, is sourness. Many acidic ingredients have this sound in Japanese. Today :
Anzu : Apricot.
Yuzu : yuzu citrus.
Kuzu : kudzu is a root resembling arrow-root and similarly used as a jelly starch.

About 1 volume of dry apricot for two of oat meal in the blender, then just a little water. Put in the mold, dried in the oven.

Yuzu. I’ve really discovered something here : yuzu and apricot are one of those rare matches made in even. Paired they become something else, a richer fruit flavor.

Kudzu as it is sold. It is 本葛 Honkuzu, pure kuzu. There exist others (explanation here).

For more : kudzu recipes.

I mixed the kuzu powder with the juice and zest of a yuzu, a little yellow cane sugar, enough water (as suggested on the package of kuzu) and cooked while stirring, till it became transparent.

Filled the crust. Let cool a few hours. Garnished with whipped coconut cream, toasted sesame seeds and yellow cane sugar.

Creamy quiche, sautéed taro, fiery miso

It’s a leftover recycling meal. I don’t know why but often when you try to finish up ingredients not meant to be served together, you obtain a better meal than if you had got the produce on purpose.

I used a lot of orange flesh of kabocha in other recipes, I had kept the skins. I’ve cut them, added a cut onion, a few leaves of laurel, covered with water. Cooked till onion is done. Add miso.

A good kabocha miso soup.

I am still eating this beast of oyaimo (satoimo/taro). I’ve peeled a bit, cut in cubes and cooked till tender in a pan with a little olive oil.

Added a few green peas to reheat.

Served with a spicy tomato sauce and parsley. Let’s find a name :
Jardinière folle au taro.

You don’t make simpler : mix 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1 tbs of potato starch, salt, pepper. Add water. Put in a mold.

The crust is pre-baked 10 minutes, then garnished.
The topping : diced onion, diced romanesco stalk, cooked in a little oil. Then I’ve added 2 tbs of sakekasu (sake lees) diluted in a cup of water with 1 ts of potato starch. Simmer till it thickens. Add salt, a little nutmeg, a drizzle of olive oil.

Creamy quiche. It’s plant-based and gluten-free.

A filling lunch, very tasty.

Salmon Summer tacos (home-made masa tortilla)

A fresh Mexican style lunch today…

The market’s findings…

Yeah ! Cilantro, coriander.

Masa tortillas. Well, it’s work in progress for the shape, but they taste great. It’s too simple, just add water, mix, knead, wait, spread… Just train. But I can’t buy masa harina easily, so I won’t have many opportunities for training.

If you don’t have masa harina , you can make :
wheat tortilla
corn tortilla (with grits, polenta, they are not gluten free)

Salmon and green peppers are grilled…

Before filling the shells…

… on top of the veggies. I’ve added some minced hot chili that does not appear on photos (it’s red), and a few drops of Jalapeno Tabasco sauce.

Now let’s devour that…

Not your usual vodka sauce pasta (veg’, fun and GF revamping)

Well, I was thinking about finishing old bottles I’ve add since forever in a closet and I thought that was vodka in the dark corner there, so the plan was to do that famous creamy vodka sauce. But, that was tequila. So why not ? I had tokk, the Korean rice cake-pasta-mochi and coconut cream. At the end there is nothing left of the original recipe, but miraculously I got that luscious sauce effect… Finger-licking good !

That starts with flavors of three fresh herbs in a tomato sauce with onion, garlic and olive oil. Plus a cup of vo.. er, tequila.

Then pas… er, Korean tokk are added. Then, when they become soft coconut cream.

The tok’ in sauce.

A crown of steamed romanesco.

Spicy kinako bread with creamed edamame

Triple power snack : edamame (green soy beans), kinako and sesame.
That’s an interesting very bread-like quick bread, and it happens to be gluten-free.

Kinako is made by roasting dry soy beans, then making them into a flour. It’s a common ingredient of Japanese sweets.

Mix : 1/2 cup kinako, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 2 tbs yellow and black sesame (half ground, half whole), 1/2 cup onion (half ground, half thinly cut), 1 dry chili pepper (without seeds, thinly cut), black pepper, salt, 1/4 ts of baking powder. Wet with water
Spread and level between 2 sheets of baking paper. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
Bake 15 minutes at 120 degrees Celsius, then cut and bake 15 more minutes at 180 degrees.

Warning : the chili pepper’s hotness will develop, so skip it if you are sensitive to it.

The result is a soft and compact dark bread. Let it cool overnight so flavors can develop fully.

For the cream, pass in the blender freshly boiled edamame, a little cold water, lemon juice, a small piece of fresh onion, salt. Let cool in the fridge at least 2 hours.